Posted by Pasadena City Councilperson Steve Madison on Facebook, September 19, 2013
PASADENA - The Pasadena Police Department will be conducting a Red Light
Enforcement Program on Friday, September 20, 2013. This enforcement
detail will be deployed throughout the City of Pasadena. The hours of
operation will be from 06:00 A.M to 1:00 P.M.
The Pasadena Police Department is committed to reducing the number
of traffic collisions resulting from drivers running red lights or
driving aggressively. The ultimate goal is to enforce and educate the
driving public at the same time reducing serious injuries and fatal
collisions.
A RED LIGHT means stop at the stop line, crosswalk or before the
intersection. Unless you are making a right turn, you must wait for the
green light before you proceed. After making a complete stop, you may
turn right on a red light if the intersection/crosswalk is clear of
pedestrians and traffic. However, if the intersection is posted with a
“No Right Turn on Red” sign, you must wait for a green light before any
turning movement.
Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California
Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration.
Purpose
Thursday, September 19, 2013
How the Hollywood Fault Made Millennium's Future Uncertain, and L.A. a Laughingstock
http://www.laweekly.com/2013-09-19/news/hollywood-fault-millennium/full/
By Gracie Zheng, September 19, 2013
Note: An unedited version of this story was inadvertently published online on Sept. 18. This is the edited version. See factual correction at end.
The Los Angeles City Council rushed through its approval of the Millennium skyscrapers in Hollywood amidst fiery opposition, ignoring an unusual warning from California’s top geologist that a major earthquake fault study had to be undertaken before permits could legally be issued.
Now, other killer fault–riddled California cities are marveling at the blunder that has prompted Hollywood residents to sue the city of L.A. and Millennium Hollywood LLC for knowingly planning 35- and 39-story towers atop a suspected “rupture fault” capable of opening the Earth, splitting buildings in half — and causing massive death.
The Hayward Fault runs 50 miles through the East Bay, near the Oakland Hills and through the Oakland Zoo and Mills College. Like the Hollywood Fault, it’s a rupture fault that can rip open the Earth — not just violently shake it like typical dangerous faults in L.A. It’s a “known killer” that produced a 7-magnitude quake in 1868.
“If a project like [Millennium] were proposed in Oakland, before a decision could be made on the project, we would require geological study to pinpoint exactly where the active fault is within this larger fault zone,” says Ed Manasse, Oakland’s strategic planning manager.
In fact, under the state’s Alquist-Priolo Act, to avoid catastrophic deaths from rupture quakes, no new buildings intended for human use can be built atop, or within 50 feet of, a rupture fault.
In the city of Hayward, Gary Lepori of the Development Services Department draws a parallel between the behavior by L.A. leaders in not abiding by the Alquist-Priolo Act and the bizarre hubbub in Benidorm, Spain, when news broke in August about a 47-story skyscraper built without elevators. Reports of that civic screwup later turned out to be untrue.
Still, Lepori ventured, “Do those kinds of mistakes happen to a degree in Hollywood? They let things get too far before they looked at stuff. Make sure it’s safe.”
It’s not yet clear who let the Millennium get too far, or why.
In July, Gov. Jerry Brown’s appointee, powerful State Geologist John Parrish, alerted L.A. City Council president Herb Wesson that the Millennium Towers might fall directly within Hollywood’s “rupture fault” zone — a geologically treacherous area known to geologists but not the public. It is bounded, roughly, by Las Palmas Avenue, Gower Street, Franklin Avenue and Carlos Street just north of Hollywood Boulevard.
Like the Hayward Fault, it is capable of a killer, 7-magnitude quake. Yet its existence has remained a virtual secret among civic boosters and city leaders bent on remaking the aging area — and luring thousands of new residents and office workers.
One $200 million residential-retail complex, Blvd 6200, is half-finished. It may well rest — illegally and precariously — within 50 feet of the fault along Carlos Street.
Experts don’t know what to make of the antics at City Hall. “If a building sits on top of a fault that breaks the surface,” Parrish says, “it’s very dangerous … because the ground is splitting in two.”
For years, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, then–Hollywood City Councilman Eric Garcetti and city planning director Michael LoGrande — cheered on by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce — have pressed for high-rise density in Hollywood.
Then, this year, lawyers hired by residents fighting the Millennium skyscrapers obtained stunning emails showing that L.A. City Geologist Dana Prevost met with a Millennium project team in 2012 and discussed the fact that a quake fault might run right through the controversial twin skyscraper site at Vine and Yucca streets.
Prevost never went public about this knowledge. In fact, the emails showed, Prevost privately admitted to the Millennium people that he’d already “granted one modification in the past on another project that allowed them to build right adjacent to the fault line,” probably referring to Blvd 6200.
In Hayward, Oakland and 103 other California cities containing more than 5,000 miles of active fault traces, the state is responsible for mapping and zoning their suspected faults.
“All of those [cities] are very good about honoring those zones and enforcing special studies for faults within the zones,” State Geologist Parrish says.
In Oakland, officials begin by definitively determining if a project for human occupancy is within a fault zone, then making sure it’s at least 50 feet from any rupture fault.
“If we don’t know if it’s [on top of an actual] fault, then the city of Oakland wouldn’t be able to approve the project,” Manasse stresses. “Individual cities can make certain parts of the regulations more strict, but they can’t make them less strict.”
It is the state’s responsibility to map such earthquake faults and zones, as it has done meticulously statewide. Confusion reigns over why a definitive fault zone was not drawn for Hollywood — a dense, old community perched atop a potential time bomb — while rural areas facing far lesser threats were fully studied and zoned.
Years passed, and Villaraigosa, LoGrande and Councilman Garcetti arrived on the scene, pushing their density dreams for Hollywood with far taller, bigger buildings containing far more people.
Using incomplete boundaries and fault lines mapped years ago in Hollywood by state geologists, city officials started guessing where the fault did and did not go, approving projects — and failing to conduct strictly required, geological site investigations to make certain no new buildings were erected atop or within 50 feet of the fault.
Then, in July, having no idea of the precise location of the fault, the L.A. City Council blindly voted, 13-0, to approve the twin skyscrapers on a block that’s suspected to fall within or next to the earthquake zone.
The existing state geological maps show dotted instead of solid lines where the quake zone is believed to run below Franklin, Las Palmas, Carlos, Gower and other streets.
Now, Parrish and a state team have stepped in to investigate and map the Hollywood Earthquake Zone and its faults.
As the Weekly reported in July, three other big projects next to or atop the suspected rupture fault have already been granted various approvals by city officials:
—The elegant, massive Blvd 6200 complex with more than 500 luxury residential units and extensive retail between Carlos and Hollywood Boulevard near Argyle Avenue is partly built and may not be fit for habitation if the state discovers that it’s within 50 feet of the rupture fault. If that’s the case, the cost for lawsuits — which might be borne by city taxpayers — could rise into the stratosphere. Of course, the developers could be liable, too. In their environmental impact report, the Blvd 6200 developers insisted that the nearest fault zone to their project by the Pantages Theater was the Newport-Inglewood Fault -- five miles away in Culver City.
—6230 Yucca St., a 16-story mixed-use tower of apartments and retail, appears to sit illegally inside the fault zone. It has not been built but was approved by the apparently clueless, avidly pro-density, L.A. City Planning Commission.
—Argyle Hotel at 1800 N. Argyle, a 16-story hotel with 225 hotel rooms, 6,000 square feet of meeting space and 3,000 square feet of residential space, appears to sit next to the fault zone. It has not been built but was approved by the apparently equally clueless City Planning Department.
Aaron Epstein, 83, has lived in Hollywood since 1934; he owns the charming old Artisan’s Patio on Hollywood Boulevard (City Historic Landmark No. 453) and pitched in $5,000 to sue the city and developer to stop Millennium from being built. His father, Louis Epstein, owned famed Pickwick Bookshop on the boulevard, now gone.
“What upsets me is our … elected officials at City Hall,” Epstein says. “We have six neighborhood council organizations surrounding the project. Five of them have voted against the project.” He notes that just one neighborhood council wanted the skyscrapers — the Central Hollywood Neighborhood Council, dominated by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, whose vice president, Laurie Goldman, is a consultant to the Millennium developers.
Epstein is fed up with City Hall, and says Hollywood’s District 13 City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell is “representing an out-of-state developer,” and if so should “resign from office. He has no business saying he is a representative when he is just voting for whoever makes the biggest contribution to his political campaign.”
Correction: An earlier online version of this story misreported that the Millennium developers produced an EIR claiming that the nearest fault zone to their project was five miles away in Culver City. In fact, that claim was made by the developers of Blvd 6200, which was misidentified as 6200 Blvd.
New Girl Paints Its Own Fake, Forbidden Crosswalk in Hollywood
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2013/09/new_girl_paints_its_own_fake_forbidden_crosswalk_in_hollywood.php
By Adrian Glick Kudler, September 19, 2013
Los Angeles recently installed 50 safer-style crosswalks and is rolling out 19,770 more. Plus now there's one totally unusable one in Hollywood, courtesy of unexpectedly enjoyable sitcom New Girl (which films frequently in the Arts District). Brad Fidler (the man who brought you the internet history museum at UCLA) spotted this weirdness, apparently near Ivar and Hollywood--the sign reads in part "This crosswalk is for set dressing purposes only for the television show "New Girl". This is not a real crosswalk and is not for use of general public." It then instructs aspiring crossers to head over to a "real" crosswalk down the street. This crosswalk is an illusion! Don't step on it or you'll pass right through and fall into a vast, terrifying negative space ruled by pure mathematics. Like in Tron. But not exactly, because Tron is not real.
California's New Car-Sharing Regulations Create A New Category For Businesses Like Lyft, Uber
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/california-car-sharing-regulations_n_3957177.html?utm_hp_ref=los-angeles
By Sudhin Thanawala, September 19, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO — Web-based ride-hailing companies will have to make sure drivers undergo training and criminal background checks and have commercial liability insurance under rules approved Thursday by California regulators.
The state Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously in favor of those rules and others for such companies as Lyft and Sidecar. Both companies rely on smartphone applications to connect riders and drivers who use their own vehicles.
Commissioners said the rules were needed to ensure public safety.
"Today, we have an opportunity to introduce groundbreaking regulation in the transportation industry," commission President Michael Peevey said before the vote.
The regulations put ride-hailing firms in a new category of business called transportation network companies, or TNCs, that are separate from taxi cabs and limousines.
In addition to training, criminal background and insurance requirements, the companies will have to implement a zero-tolerance policy on drugs and alcohol and ensure vehicles undergo a thorough inspection.
The founders of Sidecar and Lyft applauded the commission's decision.
Sidecar founder Sunil Paul said it helps make his company and others like it "mainstream" by giving them a legal permit to operate.
Lyft co-founder John Zimmer echoed those sentiments, saying the new category helps legitimize car-sharing companies.
"It provides clarity in the marketplace and in the community and authorizes the operations we've been doing for the last 14 months," Zimmer said.
The companies, additionally, said they already meet some of the new rules, including the background checks and commercial insurance requirements.
The California utilities commission's vote came amid debate over how government should regulate the rapidly growing "sharing economy."
New businesses using the Internet are trying to make it easy for people to share their property, be it cars or houses, and earn some money. But they face opposition from traditional service providers that complain about being undercut.
The San Francisco Cab Drivers Association maintained that even after the vote, TNCs are not subject to the same level of scrutiny or oversight as taxi services, which are locally regulated. The group claimed the PUC has far fewer safety investigators to enforce the new rules than local regulators who oversee taxi companies.
The group had also argued that the ability of TNC drivers to choose who can ride in their car could lead to discrimination against customers based on the drivers' profiling of the rider's background. It is illegal for cab drivers to refuse service to riders based on their ethnicity, disability or income level.
"Without proper local regulatory oversight this can only lead to abuse by TNC drivers, companies and the opportunistic element leading to the decreased quality of passenger service for the disabled, elderly and disenfranchised who rely on taxis for transportation," the group said in a statement.
Commissioners heard from numerous taxi cab drivers and owners before the vote.
"This is not real ride-sharing," said Hansu Kim, president of San Francisco-based DeSoto Cab Co. "This is a commercial business that venture capital is backing, and the rules for commercial vehicles need to apply. That is the bottom line."
Supporters of ride-sharing companies said they fill the gap left by a dearth of taxis, which are often hard to find on the streets of San Francisco.
Commissioner Michel Florio said he has found some people rely solely on taxis, while others only use companies such as Sidecar and Lyft.
"People have different preferences and different needs. This decision allows both to take place on what I think is a fair basis," he said.
___
By Sudhin Thanawala, September 19, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO — Web-based ride-hailing companies will have to make sure drivers undergo training and criminal background checks and have commercial liability insurance under rules approved Thursday by California regulators.
The state Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously in favor of those rules and others for such companies as Lyft and Sidecar. Both companies rely on smartphone applications to connect riders and drivers who use their own vehicles.
Commissioners said the rules were needed to ensure public safety.
"Today, we have an opportunity to introduce groundbreaking regulation in the transportation industry," commission President Michael Peevey said before the vote.
The regulations put ride-hailing firms in a new category of business called transportation network companies, or TNCs, that are separate from taxi cabs and limousines.
In addition to training, criminal background and insurance requirements, the companies will have to implement a zero-tolerance policy on drugs and alcohol and ensure vehicles undergo a thorough inspection.
The founders of Sidecar and Lyft applauded the commission's decision.
Sidecar founder Sunil Paul said it helps make his company and others like it "mainstream" by giving them a legal permit to operate.
Lyft co-founder John Zimmer echoed those sentiments, saying the new category helps legitimize car-sharing companies.
"It provides clarity in the marketplace and in the community and authorizes the operations we've been doing for the last 14 months," Zimmer said.
The companies, additionally, said they already meet some of the new rules, including the background checks and commercial insurance requirements.
The California utilities commission's vote came amid debate over how government should regulate the rapidly growing "sharing economy."
New businesses using the Internet are trying to make it easy for people to share their property, be it cars or houses, and earn some money. But they face opposition from traditional service providers that complain about being undercut.
The San Francisco Cab Drivers Association maintained that even after the vote, TNCs are not subject to the same level of scrutiny or oversight as taxi services, which are locally regulated. The group claimed the PUC has far fewer safety investigators to enforce the new rules than local regulators who oversee taxi companies.
The group had also argued that the ability of TNC drivers to choose who can ride in their car could lead to discrimination against customers based on the drivers' profiling of the rider's background. It is illegal for cab drivers to refuse service to riders based on their ethnicity, disability or income level.
"Without proper local regulatory oversight this can only lead to abuse by TNC drivers, companies and the opportunistic element leading to the decreased quality of passenger service for the disabled, elderly and disenfranchised who rely on taxis for transportation," the group said in a statement.
Commissioners heard from numerous taxi cab drivers and owners before the vote.
"This is not real ride-sharing," said Hansu Kim, president of San Francisco-based DeSoto Cab Co. "This is a commercial business that venture capital is backing, and the rules for commercial vehicles need to apply. That is the bottom line."
Supporters of ride-sharing companies said they fill the gap left by a dearth of taxis, which are often hard to find on the streets of San Francisco.
Commissioner Michel Florio said he has found some people rely solely on taxis, while others only use companies such as Sidecar and Lyft.
"People have different preferences and different needs. This decision allows both to take place on what I think is a fair basis," he said.
___
Two Pasadena parking spaces to become 'parklets' for a day
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-pasadena-pocket-parks-20130919,0,2689360.story
By Hailey Branson-Potts, September 19, 2013
Sunset Triangle Plaza, a pocket park in Silver Lake in 2012. The Pasadena Playhouse District Assn. will turn two parking spaces on Colorado Boulevard into "parklets" Friday during PARK(ing) Day.
In an attempt to cultivate a more pedestrian-friendly city, one Pasadena organization will turn two parking spaces into tiny, temporary parks Friday.
The Pasadena Playhouse District Assn., a nonprofit organization that promotes the 32-block district, will transform two 7-by-20-feet parking spaces into pocket parks from noon to 4 p.m.
The parklets will be on the north and south sides of Colorado Boulevard between El Molino and Oak Knoll, according to the organization.
The pocket parks will be installed on PARK(ing) Day, an international event in which communities turn metered parking spaces into temporary public places.
The event was started in 2005 in San Francisco, when an art and design studio laid sod and placed a bench and potted tree on a parking spot for two hours and rolled it up when the meter expired, according to the PARK(ing) Day website.
The Pasadena parklets will feature greenery, story tellings, displays by a local artist and a pop-up shop restaurant with hay bales and fall decorations, said Erlinda Romo, executive director for the Pasadena Playhouse District Assn.
The Pasadena Playhouse District Assn. will work with Pasadena’s La Loma Landscaping and Cal Poly Pomona landscape architecture students to create the parklets. Romo said the parks will take about two hours to set up.
The parklets are being seen by the association as a “trial run” to setting up permanent parklets on Colorado Boulevard, Romo said.
The association has been talking with city officials about establishing about six pocket parks on the boulevard between Los Robles and Hudson avenues, she said.
The association plans to present ideas to the City Council, which would later vote on the parklets. They would be the first permanent parklets in Pasadena, though they would be removed each year for the Rose Parade, she said.
“Building a park is a way to enhance the pedestrian environment,” Romo said. “It’s getting a little bit of rest aspace. It’s an all-around improvement for the person who comes to shop and dine in the district.”
In March 2012, Los Angeles introduced its first pocket park, Sunset Triangle Plaza, on a swath of pavement on Griffith Park Boulevard in Silver Lake.
The pocket park, funded by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, features concrete painted lime green with yellow-green polka dots, and a stretch of grass.
By Hailey Branson-Potts, September 19, 2013
Sunset Triangle Plaza, a pocket park in Silver Lake in 2012. The Pasadena Playhouse District Assn. will turn two parking spaces on Colorado Boulevard into "parklets" Friday during PARK(ing) Day.
In an attempt to cultivate a more pedestrian-friendly city, one Pasadena organization will turn two parking spaces into tiny, temporary parks Friday.
The Pasadena Playhouse District Assn., a nonprofit organization that promotes the 32-block district, will transform two 7-by-20-feet parking spaces into pocket parks from noon to 4 p.m.
The parklets will be on the north and south sides of Colorado Boulevard between El Molino and Oak Knoll, according to the organization.
The pocket parks will be installed on PARK(ing) Day, an international event in which communities turn metered parking spaces into temporary public places.
The event was started in 2005 in San Francisco, when an art and design studio laid sod and placed a bench and potted tree on a parking spot for two hours and rolled it up when the meter expired, according to the PARK(ing) Day website.
The Pasadena parklets will feature greenery, story tellings, displays by a local artist and a pop-up shop restaurant with hay bales and fall decorations, said Erlinda Romo, executive director for the Pasadena Playhouse District Assn.
The Pasadena Playhouse District Assn. will work with Pasadena’s La Loma Landscaping and Cal Poly Pomona landscape architecture students to create the parklets. Romo said the parks will take about two hours to set up.
The parklets are being seen by the association as a “trial run” to setting up permanent parklets on Colorado Boulevard, Romo said.
The association has been talking with city officials about establishing about six pocket parks on the boulevard between Los Robles and Hudson avenues, she said.
The association plans to present ideas to the City Council, which would later vote on the parklets. They would be the first permanent parklets in Pasadena, though they would be removed each year for the Rose Parade, she said.
“Building a park is a way to enhance the pedestrian environment,” Romo said. “It’s getting a little bit of rest aspace. It’s an all-around improvement for the person who comes to shop and dine in the district.”
In March 2012, Los Angeles introduced its first pocket park, Sunset Triangle Plaza, on a swath of pavement on Griffith Park Boulevard in Silver Lake.
The pocket park, funded by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, features concrete painted lime green with yellow-green polka dots, and a stretch of grass.
September-October 2013 SRNA Newsletter
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