Judge rules gang injunctions violate due process, Fullerton Titans take the court in NCAA tournament, Tom Bergin's rings in St. Patrick's Day.
Anyway, here's border wall: Trump comes to CA
This week on State of Affairs:
If you were playing Trump-in-California bingo, you could mark "blast Governor Brown" on your card.
https://youtu.be/7bDg2Q8ojBI?t=2m36s
The President perused border wall prototypes and even took a few swipes at California's high taxes.
In other news:
Conor Lamb chops his way through a close election in Pittsburgh, PA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxnrcJ3ORQg&t=19s
But did he do it by distancing himself from Nancy Pelosi?
Grab a coat...
...for all this shade. Amanda Renteria is calling on Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom to step down over a decade-old dalliance.
Today, I am calling on Gavin Newsom to step down from his position as Lieutenant Governor. Someone with a history of sexual misconduct in the workplace doesn’t deserve to hold elected office in California. /1 pic.twitter.com/k1s6YRmkfK
— Amanda Renteria (@AmandaRenteria) March 15, 2018
Will the move pay off?
Jack Pitney, Roy P Crocker professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College doubts it:
She's hoping so, but without money, without a lot of name recognition, she has to do something really dramatic. Whether bringing up a story that's been public knowledge for more than a decade will do the trick — that's another issue.
Guests:
- Marisa Lagos, political reporter for KQED
- Jack Pitney, Roy P Crocker professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College
LA traffic is so bad this man wants to solve it with a boat
It's a question Angelenos have considered for at least a quarter-century: Can our waterways help deliver us from the soul-sucking gridlock of Southern California's freeway?
Watching his former colleagues make the daily trek from the South Bay to Santa Monica, USC alum David Bailey thought there had to be a better way. Last March, he sat down and drew up a plan of his own.
"I was just thinking, maybe we could use the old piers that we had: Redondo Beach, Santa Monica, Manhattan Beach, [Malibu] and provide some sort of ferry service so it would be a strong alternative to the road system that we have," Bailey says.
Bailey estimates that a ferry from Santa Monica to Manhattan Beach would have to travel about ten miles by sea and would take between 17 and 21 minutes. A quick Google-mapping of the same route on the 405 reveals that 17-mile drive would take more than 30 minutes.
Bailey's estimates are attractive enough to make us ask: "Yeah, why can't we have a ferry?" We've broken that quandary down into three separate questions.
Is it feasible?
USC civil engineering professor Jim Moore says a ferry would have a unique advantage:
One of the things that's appealing about this is that docks are about as expensive as stations, and there's no right of way to be maintained here. So a service like this could be put in place fairly quickly, and it could have a fairly high capacity because you don't have to separate ships by a great deal of time... You could turn around ferry-sized ships quickly.
Is it faster?
"Under ideal circumstances, an open road would probably get you there faster, but how often is the 405 an open road?" Moore says.
While David Bailey's estimates show a hypothetical ferry providing a faster route, KPCC transportation reporter Meghan McCarty-Carino says that any time saved on the ferry would likely be lost upon docking. Those disembarking would still have to get to their desired destinations:
So say you take the ferry, then you gotta take another bus, another train... Those are the kinds of things that really deter people from using transit in general and would probably deter people from using a ferry as a form of transit: the fact that it's not going to be as convenient as just taking your car, even though it might be more fun.
Who would back it financially?
USC civil engineering professor Jim Moore says a ferry system could be an interesting prospect for private investors:
This is something that would be useful, by definition, to anybody who chose to use it because it would be an option for them: they're not required to use it. If they elected, it means they're happier with it than the alternative, and if they're paying for it then the people who are providing it are also benefiting.
Another possible benefit...
Moore adds that a ferry could help with disaster relief efforts on the Westside in the event of a natural disaster.
The day will come that we will have a major earthquake in Los Angeles. I'm not taking any statistical risks by saying that. It's gonna happen. I hope it doesn't happen on my watch, but it could happen tomorrow. If we're thinking about making public investments in transportation, one of the attributes we ought to consider is redundancy and resiliency. It would be fairly useful to have a fleet of ferries in place if we have a 7.0 earthquake anywhere, say, Newport, Inglewood. We're gonna lose a lot of transportation capacity if that happens and we're gonna be desperate for alternatives. This looks to me like it's an interesting enough idea we should investigate it as an alternative.
Also worth noting...
David Bailey acknowledges that there are other concerns that will likely need to be addressed to push a project like this forward. They include questions about public subsidies, inequality, dock condition, and pollution.
(Answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.)
March Madness: Watch Cal State Fullerton square off against Purdue
Update: Cal State Fullerton lost to Purdue, 74-48.
At 9:40 a.m., the Cal State Fullerton Titans will take the court against Purdue for March Madness.
It’s been a Cinderella tale for the Orange County commuter school, so all eyes will be on the team to see if they can continue their stunning ascension in the tournament.
Local watering hole Big's is hosting an NCAA tournament watch party in a showing of hometown pride.
"We have a very full house, with fans excited to watch the Titans win and come back Sunday," Big's owner Terry Schwichtenberg told Take Two.
In addition to Big's, the university listed several other establishments where you can catch the game:
Brian’s Beer & Billiards - Opens at 9:00AM
Kelly’s Korner Tavern - Opens at 9:30AM
The Bench - Opens at 9:00AM
Yard House Brea - Opens at 8:30AM
You can also watch on truTV.
Take Two's A Martinez gets a live report from Big's as the game kicks off in Detroit.
What happens to the trail of trash left by LA marathon runners?
This Sunday, more than 25,000 people will subject themselves to the LA Marathon, plodding mile after grueling mile from Dodger Stadium to the Pacific.
Most will run. Many will walk. But all of them will experience something they’d rather not see: trash.
"It really bugs me when I see people just throw their cups down because there’s trash cans right there," says Karen Hopkins of Santa Monica. She'll be running the marathon for the fourth time this weekend.
"Most of us out there, we’re just doing this to finish, we’re not gonna win a prize. We’re not the elite runners, so if it takes you two seconds to throw it in a trash can, you should do that."
To run the L.A. Marathon is to run a gauntlet of thrown-away water bottles, gel packs, clothes and food -- a lot of which is now being picked up, donated, composted or recycled as part of the L.A. Marathon’s goal of being more sustainable. It used to be that most of this stuff was thrown away. But in 2014, the L.A. Marathon started to clean up its act.
Last year the marathon diverted 62 percent of its waste. This year it hopes to divert 75 percent.
"We’re really recycling as much of the material as we can," says Jaime Nack. She’s president of Three Squares, the environmental consulting firm in Santa Monica that designed the sustainability program for the 2018 Skechers Performance LA Marathon.
"Any of the materials that are dropped at the start line -- that could be clothes that runners dispose of before they start the race. All of the clothes are being collected and donated by the Valley Rescue Mission," she says.
It depends on the weather and how many layers runners choose to wear when the race begins, but it’s usually a couple tons worth of jackets and other clothing. With a start time of 6:30 am – in March – it can be chilly, so runners layer up, only to throw those things away once they get warm.
"Any food that can be repurposed will also be collected by Move for Hunger," Nack says. "Even materials you wouldn’t normally think could be recycled, like the heat sheets and the plastic film, we are collecting and recycling those."
Those heats sheets are disposable mylar blankets runners use to regulate their body temperature. Instead of throwing them in the trash, this year, they’ll be recycled by the company Trex, which will use the old blankets for plastic decking.
"On the compost side," Nack says, "our focus is capturing all of the food items, like the banana peels and leftover bagels that the runners discard at the start line and at the finish line."
All of that will be collected and sent to a local compost facility, she says.
The L.A. Marathon has a gold certification from something called the Council for Responsible Sport. It’s sort of like the LEED certification for architecture, except it’s for sporting events. The L.A. Marathon is the only L.A. event that participates in the program, earning points for attaining certain levels of sustainability.
"Events that start to look at this, they really have to make a commitment," says Shelley Villalobos, managing director of the Council for Responsible Sport. "How our program is structured is it’s a menu of best practices."
Like waste diversion. But also, using zero-emissions sources of energy. And saving water. In its four years with the program, the LA Marathon has already improved its rating from silver to gold. But there’s more to do to reach the council’s pinnacle of sustainability: evergreen.
For that, marathoner Karen Hopkins has a suggestion.
"I think they could go cupless," says Hopkins, who trains with the local running group, the Leggers, and who runs with a refillable water bottle strapped into to a holster that she refills at water stations so she doesn’t have to use disposable cups. "A lot of racers have and they survive."
The LA Marathon itself? Surviving that is another story.
LA's oldest Irish bar has big plans for St. Patrick's Day — and you're invited
Do you feel lucky, Los Angeles?
Tom Bergin's Irish Pub, established in 1936, will host its annual St. Patrick's Day festival tomorrow.
Bergin's has been the premier place to celebrate all things Irish since Tom Bergin opened the bar on Wilshire Boulevard at the urging of his friends, including actors Bing Crosby and Pat O'Brien.
Shortly after opening the bar at what is now the site of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Bergin decided he needed more capacity, according to Bergin's current owner, Derek Schreck.
It was immediately a smash hit, and [Bergin] wanted more space, so he selected the plot of land that we're on now, just after the war, and started construction on a building where he could move the interior of the original location into the new building and still have room for an added second floor and a dining room. And so this place has been open, at this site, since Christmas of 1949.
Schreck purchased the bar in 2012 in what can be best described as an impulse buy.
It was almost a Pavlovian response. I happened to be sitting at the bar when they announced to staff that they were going to close at the end of the week. And, maybe one toke over the line, I said, "Well, I'll take it."
But Schreck is happy he bought the bar in which he drinks.
I spend quite a lot of time here, and the people that we've put together as staff have become almost family. So, I'm usually foudnd at this spot because ... these are the people I prefer to hang out with.
Every March, Bergin's hosts a 20-hour St. Patrick's Day festival. The party begins at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning and will feature indoor and outdoor options, with a capacity of 1,000 people:
- Breakfast (6 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.): eggs, beans, bacon and toast
- Lunch and Dinner (11 a.m. - 11:30 p.m.): BBQ pulled pork, chicken and grilled cheese sandwiches and pub pretzels
- Beer, featuring guest bartender Eric Garcetti
- Ping pong
- Games
- DJ Tracer
- Outdoor seating with accommodations for rain
Capacity at the festival is about 1,000 people, but Schreck says that because turnover is high, Bergin's was able to host 12,000 people over the course of last year's event.
A few months ago, reports surfaced that Bergin's was set to close its doors, causing concern among many of its patrons. But, in fact, Bergin's was merely reducing hours and closing its kitchen for financial reasons. Schreck cited ongoing neighborhood construction as the main culprit, but he isn't worried about the bar's ability to stay open in the future.
The nice history of Bergin's is that every opportunity it had to go away, somehow the spirit of Bergin's kind of kept going, and it's always found itself in the hands of someone who loves it. So, I'm optimistic for the future.
Tom Bergin's St. Patrick's Day Festival
When: Saturday, March 17, 6 a.m. – 2 a.m.
Where: Tom Bergin's, 840 S. Fairfax Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90036