Things to read from the past week:
- Editorial: Tenants need a rent bailout. Right now: The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board comes out in favor of a bailout for renters and small landlords (LA Times)
- Metro To Consider Left-Side Bus Boarding For Bus Rapid Transit Lines: "Left-side boarding would give Metro greater flexibility in planning for new high-profile Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lines, including Vermont Avenue, North San Fernando Valley, and North Hollywood to Pasadena. In theory these lines should emulate rail lines; in practice they are too often designed to run in curb lanes where they get bogged down in conflicts with parked cars, turning drivers, and cyclists." (Streetsblog LA)
- ‘Existential Peril’: Mass Transit Faces Huge Service Cuts Across U.S.: "In New York, overnight subway service has been suspended since May. In Los Angeles, bus service has been slashed nearly 30 percent and rail service has also been cut. And the Bay Area Rapid Transit rail system in San Francisco has ended late night service and pushed wait times for trains from 15 to 30 minutes." (New York Times)
- Santa Monica’s historic Sears store has been remade as office space, but who’s renting?: "The ambitious project is intended be a showcase for how to reuse obsolete department stores in urban areas. Its owners predict it will turn out that way, but their timing has run into a global catastrophe." (LA Times)
- Train testing on the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Project (Metro YouTube)
- Op-Ed: Why L.A. shouldn’t rename a stretch of Figueroa Street for Kobe Bryant: "Whether with a bulldozer or stroke of a pen, Los Angeles often shows little respect for its multilayered history. To most motorists, Figueroa, Pico and Alvarado may just be major and meaningless congested streets that crisscross the city, but their significance is deeply ingrained in the rich history and diverse cultural heritage of Los Angeles." (LA Times)
- SGV Transit Feasibility Study to Create Short, Long Term Roadmap for Mass Transit in Region: After the cancellation of the Eastside Gold Line extension's SR-60 alignment, Metro will study other transit options for the San Gabriel Valley, including bus rapid transit, dedicated shuttles, and rail (Streetsblog LA)
- “El Camino de Vermont,” an imaginative procession along Metro Line 204 (with bonus performance of “Tio Metro”): "What is the varied experience of a pedestrian walking 12.2 miles of Vermont Avenue? Sometimes it helps to ask an artist— especially an artist who is a dancer, social worker, urban planner and importantly, an embedded local resident with formative and lifelong experiences traversing the major intersections and sidewalks of that very street as a daily rider of Metro Line 204." (The Source)
- Los Angeles seeks to skip upcoming homeless count over pandemic concerns: "In recent years, as homelessness has grown, Los Angeles has done the count nearly every year. Over three days, thousands of volunteers fan out to count the number of tents, RVs and cars housing people throughout the region." (LA Times)
- L.A. Metro to begin implementing NextGen Bus Plan Dec. 13: "The plan aims to increase bus frequencies and modify routes to better serve riders." (Mass Transit Magazine)
- Facing a huge budget gap, L.A. takes a first step toward cutting hundreds of city jobs: "Facing a projected $675-million deficit, council members agreed to seek new employee furloughs, drain much of the city’s reserve and borrow $150 million to cover the cost of ongoing operations. But they scaled back the portion of the budget-balancing plan devoted to job cuts, identifying 843 positions — three-fourths of them at the LAPD — for possible elimination if other cost savings cannot be found." (LA Times)
- How a city-funded homeless housing project became a sink hole for public money: "According to public records, most of the more than $30 million pumped into the renovation of this rundown motel has gone to its former owners, who, right before the sale, were sued by public interest attorneys for illegally evicting tenants." (KCRW)
