Greek Theatre memorial for P-22, Free transit for New Year's Eve, and more

Beverly Hills may have said "no" to peak-hour bus lanes on Wilshire Boulevard, but the city still has ambitions for street-level transit.

Through January 13, Beverly Hills is soliciting feedback on its proposed Transit Circulator Pilot Program, which would introduce a fixed bi-directional service running every 15 minutes. A route depicted on the project website shows a circular route which would run along segments of Santa Monica Boulevard, Robertson Boulevard, Wilshire Boulevard, La Cienega Boulevard, Gregory Way, Olympic Boulevard, and Beverly Drive. That route includes connections to the city's two stops on Metro's D Line subway extension, which will be located near Wilshire's intersections with La Cienega and Rodeo Drive.

Here's what we're reading this week:

Op-Ed: How do we keep L.A.'s housing costs affordable? Build more homes "People often cast subsidized and market-rate housing against each other, but they are complementary. Allowing more and faster production of market-rate housing can slow the pace at which rent rises and make our housing subsidy dollars go further. Unfortunately, what many residents know best about the supportive housing built or in production through Proposition HHH is that it costs more than $500,000 per unit to build. The cost to the city and its taxpayers is approximately $120,000 per unit, because HHH funds represent only one layer in a complicated financing stack. But our restrictive zoning and land use policies reduce the available parcels where housing can be built with HHH funds or other subsidies, and makes land acquisition costs extremely high. Neighborhood opposition also makes it hard to build even on publicly owned land." (LA Times)

Go Metro with free bus and rail rides on New Year’s Eve from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. "If you’re headed to Grand Park for the annual New Year’s Eve celebration, the B/D Line subway’s Civic Center Station is adjacent to the park." (The Source)

Watch Nimesh Rajakumar’s Video: How Los Angeles Makes Biking in Paradise a Nightmare "Rajakumar, who hosts YouTube videos at Nimesh in L.A., is a physician and a cyclist. In a well-paced 17-minute explainer he touches on bicycling’s benefits, dangerous driving behavior, traffic deaths, kids’ independence, bikes on transit, CicLAvia, and the frustrating differences between how Los Angeles and Santa Monica (and, in a brief cameo, Beverly Hills) implement plans for safer cycling." (Streetsblog LA)

The new buildings set to shape the world in 2023 "When a new portion of the LA Metro's K Line threatened to cut Crenshaw Boulevard in two, locals in the historically Black neighborhood saw an opportunity to push for new infrastructure in an area that has long suffered from under-investment. The resulting $100 million public-private initiative, Destination Crenshaw, hopes to do precisely what its name suggests: to make the Crenshaw district a destination in its own right, not just a thoroughfare." (CNN)

The Future of Prefab Housing in Los Angeles "It’s unlikely that any one trend or innovation on its own will solve big-picture problems like Los Angeles’ housing crisis. Still, signs point to prefabricated housing as one potential way forward to make new construction more affordable and efficient, as well as make housing generally more accessible to thousands of Angelenos." (dot LA)

Greek Theatre memorial event planned for famed mountain lion P-22 "The free event is scheduled for noon on Feb. 4, according to the theater's website. Tickets will be required, but details about their distribution have not yet been announced." (Spectrum)