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There's an excellent podcast episode of 99% Invisible which discusses the analogous thing that happened to the Red Car in Los Angeles. http://99percentinvisibl

by evanb 13y ago

There's an excellent podcast episode of 99% Invisible which discusses the analogous thing that happened to the Red Car in Los Angeles. http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/episode-70-the-great-red-car-conspiracy/ http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/episode-70-the-great-r...

mixmastamyk 13y ago
This story is one of the big reasons LA (despite the weather) is not a great place to live. It has been unwalkable with a few exceptions. Though public transit is being slowly rebuilt from destruction, talk to most Angelenos and they don't even know there is a subway, much less use it. Also, there is a certain segment of the population that fights denser development that would encourage transit improvements. I don't really understand why such a person would live in Hollywood, for example.
- tzs 13y ago
  > Also, there is a certain segment of the population that fights denser development that would encourage transit improvements. I don't really understand why such a person would live in Hollywood, for example. Walkscore.com gives Hollywood a Walk Score of 97, which is described as a "Walker's Paradise" which means that daily errands do not require a car, or it gives it an 87, which means most daily errands do not require a car. (It gives different scores depending on how you search for it--I think the 97 is if it centers the map on Santa Monica Boulevard, and the 87 if it centers it farther north). So maybe you find people living in Hollywood who are not worried about transit improvements because their neighborhood is fine without transit?
  - jessaustin 13y ago
    I don't think this is really a contradiction. I took GP to be complaining about Hollywood residents who want to force everyone to drive. These creatures do exist, and they deserve our scorn, at least partially for the hypocrisy inherent in their preference. I'm not familiar with Walkscore.com, but somehow I wonder if they base any of the score on ease of commuting to work.
  - mixmastamyk 13y ago
    Hmm, there's a lot unsaid in the thread and details that cloud the discussion if we dug in. The example I was thinking of was in Hollywood, but I don't know how many of the negative commenters were actually residents. While Hollywood does have the metro and is largely walkable, other vast areas of it are used solely as surface parking lots that look like urban blight to most folks. Expanding to the rest of LA, I see the same complaints over and over, as if turning asphalt jungle into homes and businesses were a bad thing. The point of that paragraph was that if a person wants to live in suburbia they should not reside in the center of a mega-city.

by evanb 13y ago

mixmastamyk 13y ago

This story is one of the big reasons LA (despite the weather) is not a great place to live. It has been unwalkable with a few exceptions. Though public transit is being slowly rebuilt from destruction, talk to most Angelenos and they don't even know there is a subway, much less use it. Also, there is a certain segment of the population that fights denser development that would encourage transit improvements. I don't really understand why such a person would live in Hollywood, for example.

tzs 13y ago
> Also, there is a certain segment of the population that fights denser development that would encourage transit improvements. I don't really understand why such a person would live in Hollywood, for example. Walkscore.com gives Hollywood a Walk Score of 97, which is described as a "Walker's Paradise" which means that daily errands do not require a car, or it gives it an 87, which means most daily errands do not require a car. (It gives different scores depending on how you search for it--I think the 97 is if it centers the map on Santa Monica Boulevard, and the 87 if it centers it farther north). So maybe you find people living in Hollywood who are not worried about transit improvements because their neighborhood is fine without transit?
- jessaustin 13y ago
  I don't think this is really a contradiction. I took GP to be complaining about Hollywood residents who want to force everyone to drive. These creatures do exist, and they deserve our scorn, at least partially for the hypocrisy inherent in their preference. I'm not familiar with Walkscore.com, but somehow I wonder if they base any of the score on ease of commuting to work.
- mixmastamyk 13y ago
  Hmm, there's a lot unsaid in the thread and details that cloud the discussion if we dug in. The example I was thinking of was in Hollywood, but I don't know how many of the negative commenters were actually residents. While Hollywood does have the metro and is largely walkable, other vast areas of it are used solely as surface parking lots that look like urban blight to most folks. Expanding to the rest of LA, I see the same complaints over and over, as if turning asphalt jungle into homes and businesses were a bad thing. The point of that paragraph was that if a person wants to live in suburbia they should not reside in the center of a mega-city.