To consolidate, disseminate, and gather information concerning the 710 expansion into our San Rafael neighborhood and into our surrounding neighborhoods. If you have an item that you would like posted on this blog, please e-mail the item to Peggy Drouet at pdrouet@earthlink.net
The driver of a truck that brought Sydney traffic to a standstill after
it got stuck in the M5 East tunnel has told police the incident occurred
when he dropped his glasses.
In reaching for them, he said, he hit a button or lever that lifted the back of the truck into the tunnel ceiling.
The accident, which closed the tunnel, was one of two overheight truck incidents to disrupt traffic on Thursday morning.
Just
before 10am, the Sydney Harbour Tunnel was closed southbound to allow a
truck that had approached the tunnel to reverse into a breakdown lane.
The tunnel was subsequently reopened with no damage to the tunnel.
Meanwhile,
the motorway approach to the city from the south-west - the M5 East
tunnel - remains closed after the damage done to the tunnel ceiling
shortly after 8am.
A spokeswoman for the Transport Management
Centre said the truck was not overheight when it entered the tunnel, but
its trailer had lifted up.
"Somehow the trailer has hydraulically
lifted up. Something has happened that has caused the trailer to rise
up," the spokeswoman said.
"Technically the truck itself wasn't actually overheight but when it raised up it became overheight."
NSW Police are investigating the incident.
There
is no forecast on when the M5 East tunnel would be repaired, according
to the Transport Management Centre, and buses through the area are also
delayed as traffic spills out onto alternative routes.
The
spokeswoman said there appeared to be a lot of glass on the ground in
the tunnel, with substantial damage to the ceiling infrastructure. The
truck remains in the tunnel.
All westbound lanes of the M5 tunnel were open but the citybound tunnel was closed.
Buses are delayed across Sydney.
Traffic
on the M5 motorway is returning to normal. But on alternative routes
through the south-west of the city, there remains substantial
congestion.
The Transport Management Centre says buses are delayed through Kingsgrove and nearby suburbs by up to 100 minutes.
Because
buses that move through Kingsgrove then run on other routes, there are
knock-on delays for services as far as Drummoyne, Parramatta, Bondi
Junction, Blakehurst, East Hills and Liverpool.
The
incidents are just the latest in a steady string of overheight trucks
that have been stuck in tunnels, worsening Sydney's already crippling
peak hour traffic.
This is despite Roads Minister Duncan Gay introducing new fines and suspensions for trucks damaging tunnels.
Penalties
of $2200 and the loss of six demerit points apply for driving
overheight trucks into tunnels. But from June it became easier for the
government to pursue the companies that own the trucks for the cost of
repairing the damage.
In addition, trucks that get stuck will have their registration suspended for three months.
Mr Gay will hold a press conference at 1pm to talk about the incident in the M5 East tunnel.
The worldwide leader of the Catholic
Church, none other than the ... pope himself, has come out in
opposition to the worldwide scourge of hydraulic fracturing.
OK, so Pope Francis didn’t exactly make a policy statement or a speech
denouncing fracking. But hints have emerged that he might do so soon.
And Twitter is afire with pictures of His Holiness holding up
anti-fracking T-shirts. The pictures were taken Monday following
meetings with Argentinians dealing with environmental issues:
Environmental filmmaker Fernando ‘Pino’ Solanas told elEconomista
that the pope had indicated during a Monday meeting that he was working
on a papal memo, known as an encyclical, that will address
environmental issues.
Posted by Councilperson Steve Madison on Facebook, Nov. 13, 2013
The
public is invited to participate in a community meeting regarding the
proposed changes to the City's Zoning Code and the transit oriented
development. The meeting is taking place tomorrow, November 14 starting
at 6:30PM at Pasadena Presbyterian Church's Gamble Lounge, located at
585 E. Colorado Blvd.
When it comes to surface transportation, Florida is a road-first state.
Rail is such a distant second that it's hardly fair to call it second
at all. The trip between Orlando and Miami takes almost 6 hours on
Amtrak's Silver Meteor and 7.5 hours on its Silver Star, both of which
cut across the state and back again to reach Tampa mid-route (below, in
red). The car trip, by contrast, is 3 hours on a single interstate.
But lately Florida's road-rail gap has started to close. A passenger rail service called All Aboard Florida, is trying to become America's first private carrier in decades. It recently finished the last deal needed
to secure the route between Orlando and Miami. The service is scheduled
to begin carrying travelers in 2015 — connecting the two cities in a
car-competitive 3 hours.
The development has Scott Gunnerson of Florida Today wondering if the state is about to enter a "golden age of rail travel."
Ananth Prasad, the state's transportation secretary, told Gunnerson
that All Aboard Florida "will be the genesis for continued expansion of
passenger rail." The sea change is attributed in large part to a belief
that there's no other way around the state's awful highway congestion:
"We know the roadway network is not going to increase at the rate
population will, so areas that are constrained today will be highly
constrained in the future," said Kim DeLaney, strategic development
coordinator for Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council.
Gunnerson's piece focuses on the rail service next-in-line after All
Aboard Florida: an improved Amtrak route along the state's east coast. A
preliminary study from 2011 found that reviving a dormant line between
Jacksonville and Miami was the "most promising initiative for expansion"
among Amtrak's long-distance services. Such a line could attract
100,000 riders and generate $7.9 million a year [PDF].
Amtrak's latest ridership figures suggest those estimates aren't far
off. Last year about 94,000 people boarded the train in Jacksonville and
another 84,000 boarded in Miami [PDF].
Considering the marathon that is current rail service through the state
— Jacksonville to Miami is 9 hours on the Silver Meteor and longer on
the Silver Star — one can reasonably assume those figures would rise
with a quicker train.
There are lots of barriers. Among them, Amtrak's 2011 report noted the
need for infrastructure upgrades, local investments, and changes to
Florida's liability laws. Before any of that occurs, All Aboard Florida
would have to make a promising start. That service still faces some challenges, too, including public noise complaints. Last but not least, a cultural shift would have to occur among Floridians.
Gunnerson writes:
The FDOT secretary believes the real challenge is getting society to
accept trains as a primary mode of transportation again, but a
transformation to a European-style dependence on rail travel is too
lofty a goal.
That process of acceptance does seem to be underway. In announcing his
campaign for governor earlier this month, former-Governor Charlie Crist twice made reference to current-Governor Rick Scott's* decision to cancel a proposed high-speed rail line between Tampa and Orlando. He also mentioned how unbearable the traffic has become on one of the state's major interstates:
"It's hard to have empathy if you haven't suffered like that and been on I-4. I'm on it once a week, man."
After a 30-odd-year delay, the Governor’s Office of Planning &
Research has released a working draft of the Environmental Goals &
Policies Report – a document that OPR is supposed to produce every four
years.
Titled, “California’s Climate Future,”
the draft is a high-level document laying out overall policy goals,
focusing especially on climate change and greenhouse gas emissions
reductions. It’s the first time an EGPR draft has been released in 35
years – since the last time Jerry Brown was governor, when OPR released
the “Urban Strategy for California”. The new document focuses on the
prospect of California with a population of 50 million as well as the
stresses of climate change.
But the draft shows how difficult it is to set hard metrics in the
world of land use and transportation compared to the world of energy
conservation.
The EGPR also sets an ambitious goal for greenhouse gas emissions
reduction: 80% by 2050, the same figure that was included in Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s 2005 Executive Order. There is no state statute
containing that goal – the only statutory goal is a reduction to 1990
levels by 2020, contained in AB 32 – although litigation against the
sustainable communities strategy in San Diego has successfully used the
Executive Order’s target as a de-facto state goal.
The EGPR contains specific sub-goals for energy conservation, but
only general descriptions of desirable goals and metrics regarding land
use.
The proposed EGPR is organized around six high-level goals:
A strong economy Thriving urban areas Prosperous rural regions A clean environment Clean and efficient energy system Efficient and sound infrastructure
This is fine rhetoric – and not surprising – but the EGPR also seeks
to set up a series of metrics that would measure the state’s progress
toward the goal. The metrics call into five categories:
1. Decarbonize the State’s Energy and Transportation Systems 2. Preserve and Steward the State’s Lands and Natural Resources 3. Build Sustainable Regions that Support Healthy, Livable Communities 4. Build Climate Resilience into All Policies 5. Improve Coordination Between Agencies and Improve Data Availability
Each of these five areas of measurement contain a set of more
specific targets. For example, the “decarbonize” goal calls for a 33%
renewable energy generation by 2020 (already a state law) and 1.5
zero-emission vehicles by 2025.
Targets #2 and #3 above – natural land and sustainable communities –
have a direct impact on the planning and development world in
California. But the metrics in these areas contained in the EGPR are not
as quantitative as those for the energy sector.
In the case of natural and agricultural lands, the proposed metrics are:
1. Land conversion 2. Land protection status 3. Water consumption 4. Use of recycled and reclaimed water 5. Bioenergy development and use
Though the draft EGPR includes some information about the state’s
measurement of conversation of agricultural and natural land for
development, it does not include or propose specific metrics.
Similarly, Target #3 -- Build Sustainable Regions that Support
Healthy and Livable Communities – includes some broad discussion of
possible metrics but not a whole lot of specifics in the way of metrics.
This target contains four specific goals, including environmentally
sensitive infrastructure investment; a transportation investment
strategy that focuses on walking, biking, and safe routes to school; and
better education and workforce training.
Perhaps the most interesting specific goal under Target 3 is “Build a
redevelopment program that allocates funds in alignment with
environmental goals as evidenced through some of the following
activities”. At first glance, one might think that this is pretty
earth-shattering: The Brown Administration is endorsing a new
“redevelopment program”. But because it’s a high-level document, it’s
short on specifics. As possible strategies it lays out the following
1. Alignment of local General Plan with regional sustainable communities strategy (where ?applicable).
2. Coordination with school districts on long-term planning issues.
3. Natural resource protection plans that reflect long-term environmental goals.
4. Adoption of climate change or sustainability plans that address
emission reduction as well as steps to build climate resilience.
5. Develop plans to help communities manage planned retreat from rising sea levels.
And it contains no specific proposals for metrics that would suggest how to measure progress toward these goals or targets.
The EGPR was required as a result of a law carried by
then-Assemblyman Pete Wilson in the early 1970s. Since Brown’s 1978
“Urban Strategy,” no governor has released an EGPR, though both the
administrations of Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger worked on drafts
that floated around Sacramento.
The 1978 Urban Strategy was
similarly lofty to the current draft in its goals and aspirations, but –
unlike the current draft – it did contain a detailed “action plan” of
specific steps the state should take. Among the proposed actions: A CEQA
exemption for housing in infill locations.
The Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners last
week approved a new incentive program aimed at rewarding ocean shippers
that bring new container business to the Port of Los Angeles in 2014.
Under
the program, an ocean carrier will earn $5 per 20-foot equivalent unit
(TEU) for each incremental container it ships through the port in
calendar year 2014. The rate increases to $15 per TEU if their container
volume grows by 100,000 or more units next year.
The baseline
for measuring increased volume will be the total number of containers
moved through the port in calendar year 2013. Carriers will receive
their incentive as a lump-sum payment in early 2015. Staff will evaluate
the program's effectiveness monthly and determine whether to recommend
an extension beyond 2014, port officials said in a press release.
The
incentive program helps address how shipping fundamentals are changing
and international carriers are rethinking traditional business
practices, especially with a trend toward larger vessels and increased
global shipping capacity, they said.
"Carriers are rethinking
their routes and relationships to be as competitive as possible, [and]
this incentive gives them another reason to strengthen their ties with
the Port of Los Angeles," said Geraldine Knatz, the port's executive
director.
Metro will host pop-up dessert café Thanksgivvukah Café on Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2013 during lunch at Union Station as part of Metro Presents,
Metro’s new program of arts and cultural events. The temporary cafe
celebrates the rare, once in a lifetime overlap of Thanksgiving and the
first day of Hanukkah and will serve free desserts to those who stop by.
Artist and baker Sarah Williams will serve three desserts at the
former Fred Harvey Restaurant. Offerings include a choice of Pumpkin Jam
Sufganiyot, Rugelach Pecan Pie, or Cranberry Gelt Bavarian Cream. Those
who attend also will receive a recipe card for the dessert they enjoyed
to take home with them.
The event is open to the public. Desserts are limited to one per person.
Event Details: Thanksgivvukah Café Tuesday, November 26, 2013 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. (or until supplies run out) Union Station Fred Harvey Room 800 North Alameda St. Los Angeles, CA 90012
Union Station is accessible via Metro Rail, Metro Bus and several municipal bus lines. Use the Trip Planner for routes and connections. Car and bicycle parking are also available on site.
In the United States, it’s pretty much legal to drive
into and kill a cyclist, as long as you’re sober and stay at the scene.
Writer Daniel Duane made that point last weekend in a New York Times
op-ed titled, “Is it O.K. to Kill Cyclists?“
The
image of a devil-red fixie rider with knuckle tattoos was one sign that
something was off-kilter in a recent piece about traffic justice in the
New York Times.
The question mark in the headline was the first sign that the piece
wasn’t going to take a firm stand, even though Duane sets up the essay
with some good insight:
When two cars crash, everybody agrees that one of the two
drivers may well be to blame; cops consider it their job to gather
evidence toward that determination. But when a car hits a bike, it’s
like there’s a collective cultural impulse to say, “Oh, well, accidents
happen.”
If that was the high point of the article, the low points come when
Duane equivocates, suggesting that “everybody’s a little right” despite
the fact that people are capable of far more harm when they’re behind
the wheel than when they’re in the saddle.
Bike Snob (a.k.a.
Eben Weiss) called Duane out for concluding that the response to
reckless drivers who bear no consequences should be for cyclists to
“obey the letter of the law”:
We deserve respect for being human, and it ends there.
Yet we’re supposed to be good little boy scouts and girl scouts–even
when it’s more dangerous for us to do so–to prove we’re deserving of not
being killed? That’s just stupid and insulting.
Where Duane and the Times failed, the Economist nailed
it, pointing to the differences between an American justice system that
imposes little or no consequences on deadly driving, and the Dutch
system of strict liability. In the Netherlands, writes the Economist,
“if a motor vehicle hits a cyclist, the accident is always assumed to
have been the driver’s fault.” Even in cases where a cyclist is breaking
a rule, the onus is on the motorist to explain why the collision could
not have been avoided.
As a consequence, American bike fatality rates
per mile are five to nine times higher than in this famously
bike-friendly country.
And, far from being victimized, motorists in the Netherlands also reap the safety benefits from this legal system:
Does this result in rampant injustice to drivers when accidents occur? No. It results in far fewer accidents.
In the end, writes the Economist, people’s willingness to accept a
strict liability system “depends on how much one values human life, as
against the inconvenience of having to look in the rearview mirror more
often.” Will such a clear case for reforming America’s broken traffic
justice system ever appear in the Times?
New York City may have a prolific train system, but we have a
prolific bus system. Our buses cast a wide net over Los Angeles that
allows you to get from east to west or from Culver City to Pasadena in
around an hour and a half. Yes, you really can do that. People do it
every day!
How? For newbies to the system, figuring out which bus to take where
and when might seem daunting. This guide to L.A.’s V.I.B.s (very
important buses) is here to help. Read it, use it, and find an easy way
to ditch your car.
Why it’s important: This bus will take you to the
core parts of the city. You can get from downtown to Echo Park to Silver
Lake to Los Feliz to Hollywood to Beverly Hills to Westwood to
Brentwood to Pacific Palisades. One of the many through lines of Los
Angeles, it can take you from the eastside to the westside in an hour
and some change. Hop on: You can grab it at any bus stop along Sunset Blvd. But FYI: You
usually have to catch a connecting bus in Westwood in order to get all
the way to the PCH. The waiting game you play between buses can be
killer. The alternatives: The 302 is the 2's Rapid
brother. While quicker, the Rapid does have a more limited route and can
leave you with quite a walk if your destination is between stops. The 4
is also related (more on that below). There are Red Line connections,
too.
Why it’s important: Whereas the 2 takes you on a
tour of Sunset Blvd., the 4 takes you on a tour of Santa Monica Blvd.
This is important because the 4 will take you into the thick of WeHo and
through Century City, into South Westwood and North Little Osaka, and
onward into good ole' Santa Monica. Hop on: If you are on Santa Monica Blvd., you can catch this bus. But FYI: The
route gets confusing where Santa Monica Blvd. crosses Sunset Blvd. At
the juncture, the 4 assumes the 2's route. If you are headed downtown,
that’s great! Double the chances for bus taking! But if you are headed
to Santa Monica, be sure to catch the right bus. The alternatives: If you want to take the Rapid, take the 704. For obvious reasons, the 2 would work, too.
Why it’s important: This local bus takes you down
Venice Blvd. at a pretty speedy clip. It also covers a wide range of Los
Angeles, giving you views of everything from Palms to Culver City to
Mid-City. Hop on: As long as you are on Venice Blvd., you can catch the 33. But FYI: It is very easy to miss this bus. There are a lot
of buses on Venice Blvd.: don't just catch any of them, be on the
lookout for this one. This bus' schedule is also very traffic sensitive. The alternatives:The 733 is this bus' Rapid brother. Note that you will hit both the Expo and Red/Purple lines on the 33 and 733.
Why it’s important: Unlike other North/South buses,
this connector whisks through 'hoods like Glassell Park, downtown,
Chinatown, and Atwater Village. It can also take you to the Burbank
Airport and into the depths of Sun Valley. Hop on: The
majority of this bus’ route is along San Fernando Rd. when in the
Valley proper. It wanders down Hill St. between 15th and College while
downtown. But FYI: Catching the bus can get
confusing downtown where there are so many options. Keep your eyes
peeled when catching it! Also, airport buses are notoriously
frustrating: pad in extra travel time if you are taking this guy. The alternatives:The 222 is the 94's Hollywood cousin and can take you from Hollywood & Highland to the Burbank Airport. The downside is, it comes very infrequently
and could cause you to have to hop into an Uber so you don't miss a
flight. The 94 also hits the Red, Purple, and Gold Lines.
Why it’s important: Few North/South lines are as
invaluable as the 212. This one will dip you all the way to Hawthorn and
pull you back up to Hollywood in an hour and a half. You know how you use La Brea Ave. to speed up and down the city? This bus does that, too. Hop on: You can catch the 212 anywhere along La Brea Ave., as far north as Sunset Blvd. and as far south as Manchester Blvd. But FYI: These buses tend to show their age and, like most Hollywood buses, their schedules are easily affected by movie premieres. The alternatives: The
312 is the Rapid version of the 212. You can easily access the Red Line
(in Hollywood), the Expo Line (in Baldwin Hills), and the Green Line
(in Hawthorne). That means there are train connections at the beginning,
middle, and end of this bus’ route. That's a nice plus!
Why it’s important: This bus hits all the cool,
pretty, Mid-City parts of town and is consistently calm, cool, and
collected. The bulk of this bus' journey is along Fairfax Blvd., which
means that you’ll have easy access to hot spots like Culver City art
galleries, LACMA and other Wilshire museums, West 3rd St. stores, the
Sneaker Corridor between Melrose and Beverly, The Grove, not one but two
Whole Foods, the Melrose shopping district, a Bristol Farms, and all of
Hollywood. This is the bus celebrities should take to and from movie
premieres. Hop on: One of the very few buses that go up and down Fairfax, it's an easy target to hit. But FYI: This bus is very influenced by the goings on at Hollywood & Highland, ergo it is almost always on a detour. The alternatives: Like the 2 and the 4, the 217 and the 212 follow a similar path once they hit Hollywood. The 780 is this bus' equally-as-important Rapid sibling; it can take you from Venice Blvd. and South Fairfax to Pasadena. The 218 runs along Fairfax and can take you over Laurel Canyon into Studio City. It hits both the Red and Expo Lines, too.
Why it’s important: You would think Wilshire Blvd.
would be filled with buses, but it isn’t. This Rapid is the only bus to
take you the full haul of Wilshire, from Santa Monica to Commerce—and it
is a reliable one, too. Moreover, there are many important
neighborhoods you can drop off in, from Boyle Heights to Beverly Hills
and Koretown to Downtown. Hop on: Just wait for it at a Wilshire Blvd. stop. But FYI: Like other Rapids, this bus doesn't come as frequently as you wish it would. The alternatives: The 20 is
this bus' younger, less useful sibling. You think he'd run all of
Wilshire Blvd., too, but instead travels a much more abbreviated route,
which is maddening. It hits the Red/Purple Line.
Why it’s important: If you have a little extra time
and don't mind having a bus drop you off at the airport (which is far
less stressful than many other options, actually), you should take this
bus. Hop on: These buses are connected to transit
hubs, so they are very easy to use. The trick is, you have to get
special tickets to ride them. Those are available online. But FYI: The Flyaway is friendlier to take to the airport than from. But picking you up at the airport is what friends are for.
For reference, here's the L.A. Metro's System Map:
BoltBus
recently began operating non-stop premium bus service from Los Angeles
Union Station to San Jose and Oakland, and now it’s ready to hit San
Diego. Beginning on November 14, the bus line will operate four daily
round trips from L.A. to S.D. The curbside service in San Diego will be
located at 415 W. Harbor Dr., next to Seaport Village.
To celebrate service to the new city, BoltBus will be offering $1 fares on every seat for
travel between Nov. 14 and Nov. 17 on every California route. If you’re
looking to take a quick trip on the cheap, you might look into cashing
in on this deal. Buses stop at the following locations in Northern
California:
San Jose: Diridon Station at 75 Cahill St.
Oakland: West Oakland BART Station at 1451 7th St.
Make sure not to confuse BoltBus with Megabus.com.
Megabus.com picks up from Patsaouras Plaza, and BoltBus picks up at the
west end of Union Station near Alameda Street, right in front of The
Mozaic apartment complex.
When the auto plant here closed, this prosperous Wisconsin port city on
Lake Michigan lost more than just its largest employer. Its sense of
vitality seemed to drain away, and city leaders set out to find
something that would inject life into the brick-storefront downtown
while the economy went through a transition.
What they came up with was obsolete: an electric streetcar. Kenosha
decided to bring back a relic that once clattered around metropolitan
areas in pre-war America but was abandoned on the march to modernity.
More than a decade later, the experiment is now popping up all over.
More than 30 cities around the country are planning to build streetcar
systems or have done so recently. Dallas, Portland and Seattle all have
new streetcar lines. Most projects involve spending millions of dollars
to put back something that used to be there — often in the same
stretches of pavement.
"It goes along with the revival of inner cities all over America," said
Steve Novick, transportation commissioner in Portland, which has spent
more than $250 million to replace the lines the city shut down in 1950.
"It's too bad that they weren't kept here all along."
Many city planners are convinced that old-timey cars tethered to
overhead electric cables or their updated descendants — futuristic and
low-slung — ignite economic development in a way that buses cannot — and
with a whiff of romance. Embedding rails in roads is part of
resurrecting entertainment districts and capitalizing on the return to
urban living by young professionals and empty-nesters bored with
suburban life. And since streetcars run with traffic rather than on
separated lines, the systems can cost as little as $50 million, a
fraction of the expense of light rail.
"It really is about creating a certain kind of neighborhood feel and
fabric," said Patrick Quinton, executive director of the Portland
Development Commission.
Since Portland's line opened, $3.5 billion in development has sprouted
within blocks of the tracks. A section of old rail yards and warehouses
is now the trendy Pearl District, home to galleries, restaurants, shops
and housing. The system has been expanded to nearly eight miles and each
weekday carries 13,000 people, who can track arriving cars on their
smartphones.
Salt Lake City, where the last streetcars vanished in 1946, is set to
open a two-mile line next month. It's part of a planned "greenway" of
parks, bike paths and trails designed to attract 4,000 new households
and 7,700 jobs by 2030.
For technology firms and "talent-driven companies, it's definitely a selling point" for business locations, said Quinton.
American companies are making streetcars again for the first time since
the 1950s. Most new systems use sleek cabins with doors that slide open
at street level.
Voters in Los Angeles and Kansas City have approved new taxes for
streetcar projects. A handful of cities, including New Orleans and
Philadelphia, are delighted they don't have to. Their streetcars
survived the mid-century purge and continue making their rounds.
Kenosha built its system in 2000 for about $6 million, mostly funded by a
federal grant, using 1950s-era cars cast off by the city of Toronto. It
revived a line that had carried passengers from 1903 to 1932.
The middle-class town of about 100,000 was once a vibrant port, and
grand civic buildings from the early 1900s line the grid of broad
boulevards and narrow lanes.
Today, the city is something of a bedroom community for nearby Milwaukee
and Chicago. A more diverse economy is bringing jobs back and the
lakefront has blossomed with condominiums, two museums, parks, a heated
boat storage facility and a harbor bristling with sailboats.
Before the two-mile streetcar loop was laid, the downtown "was very
dark," said Joe Catuara, standing outside his bustling hot dog shop —
aptly named Trolley Dogs. "Now it's lit up more, there are businesses."
A row of shops, bookstores and cafes borders one side of the line.
The annual ridership of about 50,000 isn't large, but that may not
matter, said Mayor Keith Bosman because the aim is to create atmosphere,
much like public art, more than just transportation. He said the line
helped hook the developer who put hundreds of new condos on the site of
the old demolished Chrysler plant.
The city plans to double the system beginning as early as next year with
a new leg that would help take in 85 percent of the downtown
businesses, as well as residential areas and a hospital, with the goal
of luring more offices and housing downtown.
For now, the antique cars — drifting past almost empty and with a
ghostlike whine — seem mostly an aesthetic touch, offering a burst of
color against the dazzling blue backdrop of Lake Michigan.
Some are unimpressed. It's a "trolley to nowhere," said Pat Lawler, 83,
sitting on a downtown bench. "In Kenosha, people drive their cars."
Still, the streetcars have soaked into the town's fabric. The old cars
with their rounded edges and original bulbous light fixtures appear in
street murals and in black and white photos on the walls of downtown
shops, and each year the town holds a streetcar festival.
"It makes a bigger town seem smaller," said Jenna Hass, 29, who pays $1
to ride the streetcars with her 3-year-old son, Tyler, between museums
or just for fun.
On a recent outing, streetcar mechanic Brad Preston let his red- and
cream-colored car linger so a woman leaning from a minivan could take a
photo.
NCRI - Every week 52 persons die of air pollution in Tehran. The air
pollution in Tehran has become a danger for the lives of millions of
residents in this city, especially children, elders and sick people.
Based on figures published by official sources, every year 2700 persons die of pollution in Tehran meaning 52 a week.
The most polluted parts of Tehran
are districts 3 and 8 and Shahre Ray, which have double the amount of
pollution than other places.
Reports have also emerged that air in Isfahan Province has become unhealthy.
The weather forecast in Isfahan indicate that a stable atmosphere is
going to remain over the city for 2 days causing the density of the air
pollution in Isfahan to increase. . This contaminated and polluted air has caused lung and heart problems and cases of cancer among people.
For
the past five years, Transportation for America has worked with
advocates, allies and supporters like you to urge Congress to make
smarter investments in America's transportation system.
Next week, we're starting something new.
T4America is
building a powerful new alliance of business, elected, and civic
leaders from cities, towns and suburbs across the nation. These
community leaders know how critical it is to invest in a robust
transportation network that can support local economies. And we know
stronger local economies build a stronger America.
At a kick-off event on November 19,
these leaders will explain why Congress must not only save the sinking
transportation trust fund but also raise enough revenue so communities
can fix bottlenecks and broken bridges while building new connections to
future prosperity.
We
have traveled the country over the past year talking to mayors and
county executives, major employers, key institutions, civic groups and
many others. And we found that they get the need for an updated national
program—so much so that many are eager to be part of the new membership
network T4America is building. Our ad hoc coalition did much to defend
and win improvements in the last transportation bill, but we can be even
stronger with a more formal membership with staying power.
As part of the launch next week, we'll also unveil a new and
improved Transportation for America website, complete with new features
and ways to get involved.
The coming year will be a critical one
for transportation in the United States as Congress must act to address
the deep deficit in the transportation fund and the expiration of the
two-year MAP-21 law.
Next week's event is just the beginning. You stood with us the last
go-round, and we hope you’ll be with us in our new configuration!
Sincerely,
James Corless, Director, Transportation for America
Want to roll like a baller but with the means of a scrub? Benedetto Bufalino has got you covered, then, with this not-at-all-absurd shell that transforms your Volvo into an asphalt-scorching Ferrari.
I'm not sure why Bufalino has given the world this classy auto
accessory, handcrafted from the finest cardboard. But to judge from the
French artist's other public projects, it exists simply to get people to
whip their heads around and say, Whaaa? Among other things, he's made a picnic table so big you can't see over it, and right now is plotting to enliven the U.K. with a phone booth full of water and goldfish.
The sports-vehicle conversion kit, titled "LA FERRARI SUR VOITURE SANS
PERMIS," was recently seen zipping around the streets of Lyon, France,
for an arts exhibition. It might not have all the bells and whistles of
the real thing, like an alarm system or maybe more importantly engine or
tires, but think of the hidden benefits: Low insurance! Protection from
the elements, at least until it dissolves in the rain! A chick magnet,
for very, very nearsighted women!
It could also double as a mattress to sleep on, should your spouse kick you out for riding in this embarrassing thing:
For a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_Y_X9wNHZo
The housing crisis was, of course, primarily about housing: housing
that people couldn't afford, housing that banks helped them finance
anyway, housing that too many treated as a sure-fire investment.
But in a less noticed way, the housing crisis was also very much about
transportation. The money we spend getting around is largely dictated by
the choices we make in where to live. Buy a house 20 miles down the
highway from your job, and your costs of getting around on $4-a-gallon
gas are much steeper than they would be if you lived a short walk from
the office (or the bus stop).
Those costs – half a tank of gas here, a bus ticket there –
are much harder to track than a single monthly housing payment. They're
practically invisible. That $2,000 a month mortgage on a spacious
suburban colonial? It may also cost you $100 a week in gas money. Which
is just the kind of unanticipated financial burden that can break a
family budget.
The government's Location Affordability Index is based on data from the American Community Survey and Consumer Expenditure Surveys.
Most people in the U.S. (some small parts of the country aren't yet
covered by the data) can now look up and compare the typical combined
costs of housing and transportation for a range of different household
types, down to the block group level. Local policymakers might also use
the site to decide whether to rezone a parcel of land or where to
construct a new subway stop.
HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and his new DOT counterpart Anthony Foxx
were careful to stress Tuesday that the tool is meant as an
informational aid for these families and communities, not as a federal
policy lever. But the site itself opens the door to that possibility in
the future. Picture, for instance, the federal government using this
more sophisticated calculation of what's truly "affordable" to decide
how to direct grant money, or where to build public housing, or whether
to back mortgages that appear too costly (or not costly enough) when you
don't consider transportation.
For decades, the federal government has used the Interstate Highway
System and the home mortgage interest deduction to encourage Americans
to move out of inner cities and into their own suburban homes. A federal
government that values "location efficiency" might begin to do the
opposite, throwing its weight behind development that connects people to
transit and jobs instead of back yards and highways.
That is, again, in the future (if it ever happens). But look carefully at what Donovan said about our recent past:
I would argue that had we had a tool like this going into the housing
crisis and the bubble that we experienced – I certainly wouldn’t have
argued it would have solved that problem – but I think it could have
helped ameliorate some of the worst effects that we saw. Because,
frankly, too often we saw individual families buying homes they thought
they could afford without factoring in transportation costs.
That's a pretty bold statement for the head of HUD, pinning at least
some of the blame for the country's housing meltdown on what is, in
effect, one cost of sprawl.
Donovan said 75 to 85 percent of a family's living costs can be
explained by location. Behavior accounts for the rest. If that's true,
it would be a powerful insight for federal policy to leverage in trying
to expand access to affordable communities.
"But we want to make sure that that's in fact true now that the model
is out there," Donovan said. The government doesn't want to end up, he
says, "misunderstanding the power of this information."
If the NFL returns to Los Angeles, it’ll be the NFL returning to Los
Angeles. Even though it will be an NFL team that returns to Los
Angeles.
According to Daniel Kaplan of SportsBusiness Journal, the
league reiterated to all 32 teams in an October memo that the league
owns the market, and that the league will decide if/when a team can move
there.
The NFL also explained, per Kaplan, that a team buying real estate in
L.A., ostensibly for a new stadium, wouldn’t keep the league from doing
its own stadium deal. Kaplan writes that there are some concerns that a
team may try to squat on the L.A. market by purchasing the land.
Kaplan mentions that teams like the Raiders and Rams will soon see
their stadium leases expire. It’s possible, if not likely, that the
league fears that Raiders owner Mark Davis would try to swing a deal to
return to L.A. without league involvement or approval — especially since
the Raiders once believed (and possibly still believe) that they have
special rights to the market they vacated after the 1994 season.
Apart from the league’s desire to apply a coordinated negotiated
approach that maximizes the revenue and other benefits of an L.A. deal,
the NFL also will want to impose a significant relocation fee on the
team that moves. The value of the franchise that enters the Los Angeles
market will skyrocket — and the owners of the other franchises will
want to siphon off a slice of it.
There’s also a chance that the memo wasn’t really aimed at preventing
a team from going rogue, but at signaling to the powers-that-be in L.A.
that a deal can happen if/when someone is willing to do the kind of
deal the NFL likes.
In other words, the NFL makes a ton of money and the “partner” either
loses money or doesn’t make much of it in order to be in business with
the NFL.
Every state is required to file a State Hazard Mitigation Plan with
FEMA, which lays out risks for that state and its protocols for handling
catastrophe. But as a new analysis from Columbia University's Center for Climate Change Law reveals, many states' plans do not take climate change into account.
Michael Gerrard, the Center's director, said his team combed through
all 50 reports to see how accurately and comprehensively climate change
was taken into consideration, if at all, and grouped them into four
ranked categories:
No discussion of climate change or inaccurate discussion of climate change.
Minimal mention of climate change related issues.
Accurate but limited discussion of climate change and/or brief discussion with acknowledgement of need for future inclusion.
Thorough discussion of climate change impacts on hazards and climate adaptation actions.
While FEMA itself acknowledged
this summer that climate change could increase areas at risk from
flooding by 45 percent over the next century, states are not required to
discuss climate change in their mitigation plans. The Columbia analysis
didn't take into account climate planning outside the scope of the
mitigation plans, like state-level greenhouse gas limits or renewable
energy incentives.
And as Kate Sheppard reported, some government officials have avoided using climate science terminology
even in plans that implicitly address climate risks; states that didn't
use terms like "climate change" and "global warming" in their
mitigation plans were docked points in Columbia's ranking algorithm.
Gerrard said he wasn't surprised to find more attention paid to climate
change in coastal states like Alaska and New York that are closest to
the front lines. But he was surprised to find that a plurality of states
landed in the least-prepared category, suggesting a need, he said, for
better communication of non-coastal risks like drought and heat waves.
"We had hoped that more of the states would have dealt with [climate change] in a more forthright way," he says.
