Los Angeles

twincitizen
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Re: Los Angeles

Postby twincitizen » January 4th, 2017, 1:36 pm

Election recap: Measure M, the LA County referendum to increase Metro's sales tax from 0.5% to 1.0% and extend it indefinitely, passed. Even more impressive is that it had to reach a ridiculously high threshold of a 2/3 majority. It got nearly 70% of the vote!

Curbed: http://la.curbed.com/2016/11/9/13573924 ... it-results
LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-la-t ... story.html

And today, the FTA announced that funding for the Purple Line subway extension, phase 2 to Century City, has been awarded and will begin construction in 2018. Purple Line extension phase 1 is currently under construction. Measure M's passage means this line is only the beginning of even more transit in the LA area. Measure M is projected to bring in $860M annually, so LA's transit future is secure even if federal funding starts to dry up in the future.

http://thesource.metro.net/2017/01/04/1 ... ond-phase/

John21
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Re: Los Angeles

Postby John21 » February 17th, 2017, 9:19 am


Qhaberl
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Los Angeles transit system

Postby Qhaberl » February 24th, 2017, 9:21 am

Have seen in recent years that the Los Angeles transit system continues to lose riders. Even though they have recently open a few extensions on their train lines.

My thoughts on this are: The city is not currently billed for transit. They are adding more transit, but the land-use and development patterns don't support it.

What do others think?


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twincitizen
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Re: Los Angeles

Postby twincitizen » March 7th, 2017, 9:22 am

LA City elections are today. Eric Garcetti is certain to win a 2nd term with no serious challengers. He's a probable CA Governor candidate next year.

The big scary item on the ballot is the anti-development ballot initiative "Measure S": http://www.latimes.com/opinion/la-ol-ev ... llery.html Read up on it...pretty wild stuff. Lets hope it fails with a comfortable margin, so the anti-development backers are discouraged from trying again.

Also, this will be the last odd-year, March election in Los Angeles, since a ballot measure passed in 2015 synching things up to the regular even-year November elections, starting in 2022. This means that the Mayor and City Councilors elected today will serve for ~5.5 years instead of the usual 4 years.

And in transit-ish news, Downtown LA's funicular "Angels Flight" is slated to re-open by Labor Day: http://www.dailynews.com/general-news/2 ... storiesrot

EDIT: Also, I'm going to LA again on the 22nd. Spending 3 days in LA then heading to San Diego for a day and a half and flying home from there. I'm planning to stay somewhere along the new-ish Expo line so I can easily get out to Santa Monica and into downtown, though I will have a rental car too, starting on the 2nd day. Also hoping to try AirBnB for the first time, maybe in Venice or something. I'll take any recommendations for cool neighborhoods, good coffee & donuts, near-city hikes, etc. I've done all the basic touristy stuff on past trips and am ready to explore a little deeper. Still never been to the valley or to LB/Orange County (though I'm not sure I'm missing much.)

Anyone have development/transit photo requests? I'll be sure to check out Wilshire Grand, CA's new tallest skyscraper, which opens tomorrow, as well as the downtown "regional connector" transit tunnel they're building.

twincitizen
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Re: Los Angeles

Postby twincitizen » October 3rd, 2017, 7:57 am

CURBED: 7 transit projects that could transform LA https://la.curbed.com/2017/9/22/1634651 ... t-projects

ULI: Remaking Greater LA as a transit oriented region
https://urbanland.uli.org/development-b ... n=magazine

talindsay
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Re: Los Angeles

Postby talindsay » October 5th, 2017, 10:02 am

So does anybody know LA reasonably well? I'm thinking of running the LA Marathon. Could I stay in Santa Monica and expect to be able to get into downtown via transit reasonably well? The Expo Line looks promising but the city has a reputation for being hard to get around without a car.

twincitizen
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Re: Los Angeles

Postby twincitizen » October 5th, 2017, 2:36 pm

You could do that. Santa Monica to DTLA is end-to-end on the Expo Line though...without looking at a schedule, I assume that takes anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour+. It really depends where you plan to spend the most time. If you stay downtown near where all of the transit lines intersect, you can get nearly anywhere on transit (but obviously plan on hourlong trips if going all the way to Santa Monica / Venice). The Red/Purple lines can get you out to Koreatown or East Hollywood very quickly.

LA is weird. Most of the individual neighborhoods are quite dense/urban/walkable, but the problem is that those various areas are spread across this vastly huge city with horrible traffic. Most of the places of interest are generally found between downtown and the ocean, north of I-10 (the greater westside), with the exception of some cool areas NE of downtown like Highland Park and Pasadena. Don't skip downtown LA either...there's a lot of ground to cover, but definitely worth walking around the core.

If you're looking up transit options, in addition to the Metro system of trains and buses, there's also the city run "DASH" bus routes that connect various in-city points of interest, and the fares are only ~$1

bubzki2
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Re: Los Angeles

Postby bubzki2 » March 6th, 2018, 11:40 am

"California's Love of Cars Is Fueling Its Housing Crisis--New apartments must come with new parking. That has to change."

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles ... ing-crisis

Seems salient locally as well.

DanPatchToget
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Re: Los Angeles

Postby DanPatchToget » March 9th, 2018, 10:19 pm

I visited LA last year. From the hills in Hollywood I could see how massive LA truly is. More surprising is that their transit system, even the local buses, seem to be better than ours. The Metro Rapid is similar to the A Line in terms of stop spacing along arterial routes, but the rest of its characteristics (paying the fare, frequency, bus stops) are like a regular bus.

I rode most of their Metro system except the Gold Line, but that gives me an excuse to go back. The Orange Line was a great way to see how dedicated BRT works, and if I remember right waiting at signals for cross traffic didn't take too long. The Expo Line was great, however there seems to be a technical issues with their LRVs. Going back to downtown the train slammed to a halt three times, and one passenger fell because of how quickly it stopped. When the train stopped the lights and electronic signs went out, and a few minutes later came back on. This happened randomly, not at station platforms, so I have no idea what the problem was. The Silver Line is okay, but crowded during rush hour, you have to pay the fare onboard, and going at higher speeds on the freeway is extremely noisy. Besides those two complaints, it was a great experience using their transit.

I see the high speed rail project is coming along nicely (but not really):
http://www.latimes.com/local/california ... story.html

I don't know their intercity rail network well, but if there's a rail line like the one the Pacific Surfliner uses between LA and San Diego would it make more sense to just upgrade that than build an entirely new line? Probably wouldn't be 220 mph bullet trains (more likely similar to the Northeast Corridor where the top speed is 150 mph but only for a short length), but in theory it would be easier and cheaper to build.

Tcmetro
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Re: Los Angeles

Postby Tcmetro » March 11th, 2018, 7:02 am

LA has been experimenting with all-door boarding on some of their busiest Rapid bus lines. The Silver Line was changed to TAP card only recently as well. LA has been losing tons of bus riders - mostly because bus speeds have been falling, and service has mostly seen cuts over the past couple decades.

The rail expansion is pretty cool. It's basically the most aggressive rail system development in recent years, and supposedly frequent suburban rail is under consideration too.

The reason for going full high-speed rail is linked to the vote that brought the project into place. The proposition specified a minimum 200 mph service connecting LA and SF in 2 hours and 40 minutes. Additionally, the big expense is the tunnels connecting the Central Valley to both San Jose and Los Angeles. With all the other upgrades needed to go full high-speed (grade separation, additional tracks), there isn't much cost savings for an upgrade of the existing lines. Within the SF and LA areas the high speed trains will share tracks with commuter trains.

tmart
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Re: Los Angeles

Postby tmart » March 16th, 2018, 3:16 pm

https://www.citylab.com/transportation/ ... ion/555353

A freeway expansion actually got denied! In Los Angeles! The times, they are a-changin'

MNdible
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Re: Los Angeles

Postby MNdible » July 20th, 2018, 12:57 pm

Only news to me (ref'd from the article that ranked the neighborhood around Target Field as seventh best in MLB):

Los Angeles received an unsolicited proposal to build a gondola from Union Station to Dodgers Stadium.

Of particular note:
Although municipalities traditionally devise their own projects or hire a contractor to do so, L.A. instated a system by which private sector companies can submit unsolicited ideas for municipal improvements that the city can choose to reject or adopt. The city has taken on a handful of ideas in this way.

Tcmetro
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Re: Los Angeles

Postby Tcmetro » July 24th, 2018, 6:41 am

Here's the link to the unsolicited proposals program: https://www.metro.net/projects/oei/partnerships-ups/

Anondson
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Re: Los Angeles

Postby Anondson » August 11th, 2018, 7:39 pm

An aerial tram to the Dodgers stadium is moving forward.

http://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/gondola-proposal/

mattaudio
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Re: Los Angeles

Postby mattaudio » January 23rd, 2019, 10:28 am

The idea of a gondola seems cool, but wow $125 million for a 2 mile ride. It seems like it wouldn't be a bad walk from Union Station if they created a defined walking path through Chinatown, and then had a series of escalators ascending the hill from where you'd have to cross the 110 freeway. It's a 1.1 mile walk from Union Station to Stadium Way at the foot of the big hill.

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Re: Los Angeles

Postby Anondson » February 17th, 2020, 9:38 am

Idea to remove cars from just one street (Broadway) in downtown LA.

https://www.latimes.com/california/stor ... trian-zone

The plan would still allow fire, police, and buses. A future street car from Staple Center could use it instead of being run in car lanes.

Multimodal
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Re: Los Angeles

Postby Multimodal » April 20th, 2020, 12:59 pm

Idea to remove cars from just one street (Broadway) in downtown LA.

https://www.latimes.com/california/stor ... trian-zone

The plan would still allow fire, police, and buses. A future street car from Staple Center could use it instead of being run in car lanes.
I love how “it’s historic” or “it’ll change the character of the neighborhood” usually contrasts with reality (emphasis added):
the ban would be the biggest transportation change along Broadway since the region’s streetcars were ripped out after World War II …

“Some ideas are great and can still have unintended consequences,” said Blair Besten, the executive director of the Historic Core business improvement district, who said she was intrigued by the proposal. “We will need to reflect on how it will impact a major urban center.”

Anondson
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Re: Los Angeles

Postby Anondson » May 26th, 2022, 2:56 pm

Los Angeles County ended plans for the $6B widening and extension of I710.

https://www.latimes.com/california/stor ... lan-killed

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Nathan
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Re: Los Angeles

Postby Nathan » December 28th, 2023, 3:55 pm

I've been living in LA for 2 years now (I know boo/hiss) and I was back in MPLS this weekend, and was thinking about some of the things that have come a long way there. I thought some of you might be interested in some of the things LA is doing right(?) /some really cool large scale TOD

https://la.urbanize.city/post/new-detai ... rk-station

This project isn't in the nicest part of town but shows the commitment to providing or seeking out really good substantial uses for station areas, which will be really beneficial to the inner urban station areas

https://la.urbanize.city/post/la-city-c ... trict-noho

This project is a bit further out but shows the potential for large TOD based urban style development a bit out from the core city

LA is kind of crazy and I'm wanting for the bike infrastructure but there does seem to be a lot of change towards creating a more transit friendly and urban footprint kind of city in a lot of ways


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