‘Indirect bribes’ went to family members of officials in City Hall corruption case, feds say "Experts say indirect bribes can be more difficult to uncover than a typical quid pro quo in which someone gives money directly to a government official. Prosecutors also may face greater difficulties in court in proving that such circuitous financial arrangements violate the law, said former federal prosecutor Brian T. Kelly." (LA Times)
Proposed tower complex at 1020 S Figueroa StreetCity of Los Angeles
Eyes on the Street: Short New Bike Path in Boyle Heights "The two paths are part of the Sixth Street Viaduct Mission/Myers Roundabout Project; they will connect to the planned 12-acre Sixth Street PARC (Park, Arts, River and Connectivity Improvements) Project to be located below the under-construction replacement viaduct." (Streetsblog LA)
Spring Street in East Long Beach may lose lanes, add bike path "The lane reduction, on a 1.4 mile stretch of Spring Street, from the 605 Freeway to Studebaker Road, has been a longtime coming, with the city completing a traffic study and hosting five community outreach events since April 2017. That strip of Spring, Mungo said, has had four fatal car crashes since 2014, when she was first elected to represent Council District 5, which includes the area." (Long Beach Press-Telegram)
Why is LA traffic so bad? "LA's proposed expressways all looked a lot like the Arroyo Seco Parkway, with speed limits of 45 miles per hour and alignments that followed natural features or made sense with existing land use. The State eliminated all plans for mass transit and designed the freeways to be the same as rural freeways - wide, fast, straight, and without consideration for adjacent uses." (City Beatiful - YouTube)
View of Downtown Los Angeles and the US-110 Freeway from Elysian ParkWikimedia Commons
LA Metro Is Restoring Service To Pre-Pandemic Levels And Wants To Hire 800 New Bus Drivers To Get There "The agency has a goal to hire 800 new part-time bus operators by September, in line with its goal for full service restoration by that time. Metro’s current bus ridership is sitting at about 55% of normal." (LAist)
Environmental Protection Agency Nixes Metro and Caltrans’ Current Plan for Expanding Lower 710 Freeway "The EPA is insisting that Metro further study air quality impacts and the steps Metro would need to take to mitigate them." (Streetsblog LA)
Foothill Transit to cut fares for passes in half for three months starting July 2021 "The discount will lower the prices of day passes to $3 and 31-day passes for local travel, the Silver Streak, Express to $30, $55 and $90 respectively. Passes for students, seniors and people with disabilities will also have their pass prices decreased by half." (Streetsblog LA)
Historic Blue Line car set to be centerpiece of $5.8 million overhaul of First Street "The Blue Line’s 'Long Beach 100' car was the first train car to operate on the city’s section of the Blue Line, now called the A Line. Now the car is set to serve as the centerpiece of an overhaul of First Street." (Long Beach Post)
A Nippon Sharyo P865 vehicle in service on the E Line - similar to the Blue Line's 'Long Beach 100' carWikimedia Commons
You know their names: Palos Verdes, La Brea, Sepulveda. But what were the ranchos? "You recognize the names of some of the vast, vanished ranchos that have marked the maps of Southern California for a couple of centuries. The word 'rancho' got snipped off along the way, but you know them as Palos Verdes, San Pedro, La Brea and Centinela, San Vicente and Santa Anita. The men who were granted these lands you know, too — names like Verdugo, Sepulveda, Dominguez....What is astounding is that down to this day, the footprints of these ranchos are still often the same footprints of our modern cities and streets and landmarks." (LA Times)
ArcLight and Cinerama Dome: Potential Suitors Line Up "On Wednesday, Marcus Theatres CEO Greg Marcus told investors that some of the sites, such as ArcLight Hollywood and the Pacific Grove Theatre, are too productive to stay dark." (Hollywood Reporter)
Could a San Francisco experiment be an answer to L.A.’s sprawling street encampments? "Cities up and down the West Coast, including Seattle, Sacramento and San Francisco, confronted by the high cost and slow progress of building housing for homeless people, have turned to these permitted tent encampments. They offer services such as toilets, meals and help finding a permanent place to stay. These efforts, once anathema among some homeless service providers, are becoming more widely accepted as unsheltered homelessness has grown and government officials reckon with a pandemic that has made placing people in large shelters dangerous." (LA Times)
