Smaller Flyaway Bus

The Really reputable USA Today is reporting that the Flyaway departing from Van Nuys, Union Station and Westwood will begin being serviced by smaller "21 Passenger Buses"

I'm not sure why USA today is the only mention i've heard of this but this should be big (and negative news) for public transit in Los Angeles. The worst news is that they plan to begin using the smaller buses in December. Everytime i'm on a flyaway bus from or to Van Nuys duing december every seat is full and people are standing in line - often times the bus is full by the time it gets to terminal 5 or 6. That's with using the full size 55 seat coach buses - i shudder to think what the flyaway service is going to be like in and out of van nuys over christmas this year if they do in fact plan to use the shorter buses. This is the quickest way to kill this system - make it inconvenient for everyone to use over a major holiday season. I hope someone over at LAWA has thought about this and possibly actually rides the flyaway.

As a side note - one of the reasons i liked the flyaway so much is that they were huge comfortable coach buses. I usually got my own seat and could relax. I think 21 person buses are pushing the limits of a normal route and not looking for future growth.

Hollywood Dell Music Park - in the plans?

Some of you may remember my post from a few weeks ago about the vacant lot at Cahuenga/Franklin being a possible target for a pocket park

It turns out a similar project may already be in the works for the area. While i was casually browsing old minutes from the Hollywood United Neighborhood Council archives I happened upon a few mentions of a rather odd lot that now sits empty and looks like it is part of the freeway system.

I've included the text I'm talking about below but the gist of it from what i can gather is that the lot at Franklin and Ivar next to the freeway is up for sale from CalTrans for $897,000. One person wants to buy the land and make it a parking lot, someone wants to buy it and put up condos (freeway adjacent!), and Robyn Whitney thinks it would be a good idea to put a Music Park (with underground parking and an on-site caretaker?). I would really like to see the PowerPoint presentation she used to describe this project.

The project sounds awesomely ambitious and I'm all about it. Not sure if i can get behind 39 underground parking spaces (i read somewhere to construct underground parking it's $20,000 per spot - I'd provide a link if i could but i have no idea where i read it) but right now that lot is vacant with a few trees and a chain link fence. If someone could figure out a way to utilize this space and minimize the effect the freeway has on this stretch of Franklin lets go for it. I don't see those Quimby funds being used for anything else (Curbed and Downtown News have both reported on Downtown's lack of ability to spend Quimby fees)

Below is the information from the HUNC Meeting minutes I'm getting all my information from.

HUNC Board Meetings: Third Monday of the Month at 6:30pm at First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood

The lot being discussed is on the right, just north of Franklin. The 101 is adjacent to the lot.

From the August 20th Meeting Minutes:

"The lot will be up for auction on Sept. 1st. Eric Garcetti will contribute $400,000 in Quimby Act funds. The money is not in hand, it’s coming later. So it can’t be given to CalTrans. The price for the lot is $897,000.00 with 10% down."

From the Sept. 17th Meeting Minutes

D. PS&T –
2. Update on the status of the lot on Franklin at Ivar,
a. Presentation by Robyn Whitney for a proposed use of the lot.
Robyn Whitney presented the concept of a Hollywood Dell Music Park for this site.
How this land might be used--some options:

• Leave as empty land
• Parking
• Park
• Condominiums –(26 units)

An innovative use would be a Music Park. H. B. Barnum, the benefactor, would like to leave a park on this site. This will be a private / public park partnership. Quimby funds could be used to purchase the lot. Developers contribute to Quimby Funds to help acquire green space. A caretaker will live on the premises. The site would have buildings and 39 parking spaces below ground. Robyn made a power-point presentation with diagrams and renderings showing the envisioned project.

She also noted that keeping it as a park would benefit Hollywood because State Law states that: “Once land is designated as a park it remains a park forever.” There is a need to form a Parks Advisory Board.
Robyn Whitney requested a support letter from HUNC to Tom LaBonge for the Hollywood Dell Music Park.

Motion: Gary Slossberg, “To support the Hollywood Dell Music Park and to write a letter of support to Tom LaBonge and the appropriate LA City and State officials.”
Second: Andrew Ettinger
Vote: Yes---11 No---0 Abs---1

Letter Drafted During Sept. 17th Meeting
Hollywood Music Park letter

Dear ______,

The Hollywood United Neighborhood Council would like to extend its enthusiastic support of the proposed Hollywood Dell Music Park to be built on the Caltrans empty lot at the intersection of Ivar Street, Franklin Blvd and the 101 Freeway. The park is an innovative and cost-effective way to create more green space in Hollywood and to celebrate the accomplishments of musicians and (_____________) in the Hollywood area.
We strongly encourage the City and State to make all efforts to provide the adequate funding to make the Hollywood Dell Music Park a reality.

Sincerely,
HUNC

The Vine Theater: Gone Again?

This is an unconfirmed report but the Vine Theater - that old porn theater on hollywood that shows two movies for seven dollars - may have quietly shut it's doors this weekend. The marquee had been displaying both the Transformers and The Simpsons Movie for seven bucks for the past four weeks or so - now it only lists a church service they host on sunday mornings.

Confirming this theory is the movie listing at losangelesmovietimes.com which says they aren't showing any films. Could just be an error - will follow up and report back sometime soon.

Film Shoot on Ivar Hill

Saturday afternoon residents were greeted with Tow-Away No Parking signs and film permits taped to front doors. Our little stretch of Ivar (between Yucca and Franklin) will be completely shut down to both parking and driving on tuesday and wednesday. The permit shows the location of the shoot will primarly be the Alto Nido apartments and possibly involve some sort of stunt - then again the permit also shows the street will be shut down from 7am-10pm and the sign above has a posted no parking from 7am-10am. A minor difference

Parking is sure to be worse in the next few days as residents hunt for a spot.

What i'm anxious for is to see these temporary No-Parking signs remain up for weeks. The place i used to live at in Van Nuys had these same signs posted one day for a shoot and remained up for at least 4 months and might still be posted to the tree's. Whoever is responsible for putting these signs up should also be responsible for taking them down.

Metro Westside Expansion Meeting

I attended one of the five community meetings that are being held to gauge public opinion of what (if any) additional metro service should be planned for the west side. I did not stand up and voice my opinion but i plan to craft a letter that I will be sending that will voice my opinions.

Overall the meeting seemed productive - this is the first Metro meeting i've been able to attend and they seemed legitimately interested in getting public opinion about transit options in the area. The presentation was fairly straightforward and reinforced all the signs they had posted around the room. They addressed what exact phase this project is in, possible outcomes, possible alignments a project would have and what the next steps would be. They stressed many times that Nov. 1st is the cut off date for public opinion in order to look into what the "locally preferred alternative" is. I urge everyone to let Metro know what you think about LA Transit and the traffic on the west side here

The first thing that caught my attention was the potential alignments poster. They showed the obvious alignment down wilshire but also an alignment that goes from Hollywood/Highland down Santa Monica and continues down Wilshire to the Ocean.

I think both of these alignments would add value to Los Angeles but I think the Wilshire branch would be the most beneficial. A few people from neighborhood councils expressed concern with building a subway through their "historical" neighborhoods. One commenter was very against building a station at Wilshire/Crenshaw because of the ridiculous Park Mile designation that has kept any retail out of the area - it hasn't kept large office buildings out of the area though and multiple 6-8 story office buildings line wilshire that could be served by that station - not to mention connecting to Crenshaw transit options.

The comment that got to me the most was by a gentleman who claimed Los Angeles is a horizontal city and doesn't have any need for a subway - he ranted about how much a subway costs compared to other options. It's that kind of narrow thinking that keeps Los Angeles stuck in traffic all day. Los Angeles may have been a horizontal city in the past but look at any major artery in the city and all you see is 10+ story buildings going up.

There were lots and lots of interesting stats about the west side including job growth and population growth. It made it hard to imagine any alternative other than building a subway to help with the problem.

If i was planning this route I would look at a combo subway/light rail project. Build a tunnel under Wilshire from Wilshire/Western to the UCLA/405 area. At that point the trains emerge from a tunnel and run along a surface alignment through the residential and less dense areas around Santa Monica. I don't know enough to know if it would save that much money to make the train above ground for that last portion through Santa Monica but it seems like a good solution that has been achieved in many other transit systems (MBTA in Boston and MUNI in San Francisco to name a few)

After the Wilshire line is created - or at least approved - then we can start talking about a major north/south alignment. I had no idea why no one is talking about a line down Sepulveda along the 405. And how about extending the crenshaw line up to hollywood to connect at hollywood/vine or hollywood/highland.

• Additional coverage of this meeting can be found on Metro Rider - more in depth analysis of the comments and attendance.

• Also of note is that the LA Times had a reporter there writing down lots of notes. I'm sure we can expect to see a piece in the paper this week.

**thanks to Elissa for the use of her camera for the above photos**

Why we put up with Los Angeles

Read an awesome post this morning about living in Los Angeles. I highly suggest everyone check out the link below.

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/greater-los-angeles.html

"I love Boston; I even love Denver; I like Miami; I think Washington DC is habitable; but Los Angeles is Los Angeles. You can't compare it to Paris, or to London, or to Rome, or to Shanghai. You can interestingly contrast it to those cities, sure, and Los Angeles even comes out lacking; but Los Angeles is still Los Angeles."
-bldgblog

I often find myself trying to explain to people what i find interesting or funny about los angeles and i'm often lost for words. It's hard to say ... There was this time on Crenshaw where this guy had a tree limb sticking out of his shirt, or this time a crane fell over the 405/101 interchange in the middle or rush hour, or some house that stayed on the 101 for two weeks (fully furnished, tagged, and possibly rented). For some reason i can never convey how i feel about LA.

The post i linked to above seems to sum it all up - you need to feel the vibe of the city to understand it. No one is going to be there to make you feel better - you have to do it yourself.

What i've been realizing as I adjust to living here (over 2 years now) and still adjusting to moving from Boston is that you can't compare LA to any other city. It is Los Angeles - it is dirty, it is unpleasant, it is full of weirdos, it just doesn't care that much - it doesn't try to be New York or San Francisco. The city revels in itself - it spreads out and takes everything we can give it - from water and electricity to all the motivation we have to try to make something unique and interesting. But if you are lucky and stick with it you might just get more than you expect out of this city that refuses to be classified.

"Here in Van Nuys" had a post a few months ago about a couple of people from Italy who dreamed of visiting Los Angeles for the same reason so many of us despise it. There are lots of things Los Angeles can't do and lots of things it can't be - but the same can be said for other cities. Los Angeles, like everyplace I may end up, is what i make of it. Some places just allow you to make things a little easier and Los Angeles is one of them.

(dockweiler state beach)

Subway to the sea - your voice can be heard!

(emerging from a red line stop)

Metro Event: Westside Expansion Meetings

There are three community input meetings scheduled for this week - each meeting takes place from 6-8pm.

Tuesday, Oct. 16th - Wilshire United Methodist Church
Wednesday Oct. 17th - Beverly Hills Public Library
Thursday, Oct. 18th - Santa Monica Public Library

You can find more information through the full press release at the metro site.

Two of these meetings have already happened but you still have an opportunity. I will personally be attending the one tomorrow night and i'll be sure to write about anything of interest.

While not directly related to the Hollywood neighborhood these meetings and the recommendations that will come from them are very important to the future of Los Angeles mass transit.

In my view Hollywood has turned into one of the best examples of how transit can change a neighborhood. As it becomes more and more difficult to drive the surrounding streets and more and more parking lots are developed into buildings. The ability to get to the west side efficiently via public transit will be a great bonus for everyone who lives in LA

So if you have time - or an interest/opinion - consider stopping by one of these meetings and participating.

Is Beso ever hapening?

A few days ago i caught myself trying to remember what was going on with this building. The construction scaffolding does make a nice waiting area for all the kids to line up in before they get into Cinespace but i haven't been seeing any progress on this building. The Hollywood 411 blog had a mention about it being the location of the new Eva Longoria invested in Beso

and Eater LA insists it's real (they even have a photo of the interior) but I won't be convinced til i see some real action.

I must say, i wouldn't hate having Eva Longoria hanging aorund the neighborhood more often so lets get this thing going already. I'll keep my watchful eye on it.

Pali House Construction

I mentioned a few weeks ago that the construction crane was going up at the Pali House in hollywood - was able to swing by and take a few construction pics and things seem to be progressing nicely. I wonder when they start putting up the red walls. (Photos taken from East side of Vine)

Pali House (official site)
Scheurer Architects (renderings)

6363 (6355?) Yucca

6363 Yucca (or possibly 6355 according to the work permit) has sprouted some fresh plywood in recent days. The storefront located between Ivar and Cahuenga is sandwiched between a hair salon and a run down apartment building/tv rapair shop. The posting that you can see closer below states they are converting the storefront to a take-out only restaurant. Most likely another pizza place but maybe we might see something a little more interesting. I'll try to follow up to see if i can dig anything up.

Around Hollywood and Vine

Katsuya in the Broadway Hollywood Building is now officially open. I could tell by the line of Valet's standing in front of the building waiting to take my car away (i wouldn't let them). The opening party last night looked like it was quite happening when i drove by and judging by eater's review it's sure to be a pretty hot spot.

In related news, Pinkberry on that corner still isn't open but they are hiring!

Also, everytime i go into Iguana Vintage Clothing i get weird looks from the guy/girl at the counter - lay off hipster.

The guy at Combo's always treats me right though - keep on making that sub-par pizza until 4 in the morning - hollywood needs you.

And The Vine is still the best place to see TWO(!!!) movies for 7 bucks.

Hollywood Independence?

One of my favorite LA-centric details i moved to LA and started reading about it's history is the 2002 initiative that was to split Los Angeles into two cities with San Fernando Valley becoming it's own city. LA would remain the 3rd most populous city in the country and the new city of San Fernando would be the 6th. It should be noted that this initiative actually passed in the valley but was defeated in greater LA. If things had been a little different five years ago instead of saying "ohh, you live in the Valley?" we would be saying "ohh, you live in that really hot city Rancho San Fernando (or Mission Valley, Valley City or Camelot?). Imagine the difference that would make. (wikipedia)

I largely glossed over the similar drive for Hollywood independence - largely because i was living in the valley (Van Nuys - next to the AWESOME Lido Pizza) but when i happened upon this empty storefront on Sunset last week i took extra notice of the flyer's and old newspapers in the window. Could this really be a regional office for Hollywood Independence left over from a campaign from 5 years ago? (for more info, check out this archived article or the Wikipedia Entry)

The storefront is on Sunset sandwiched between the Sunset/Vine tower and The Bowery Bar. It appears no one found a better use for this storefront in 5 years other than to display old flyer's. Just another slice of living in Los Angeles i suppose. I'll try to track down an archived copy of this cover story below - if anyone has any leads let me know! It might take a trip to the library.

Franklin/Cahuenga Mini-Park?

So here's a crazy idea. Anyone that works in the Industry will remember that gas station that all the PA's, Utilities, and under appreciated transportation guys would stop at before returning trucks to Galpin down the street after a grueling 16 hour day - well it closed awhile ago. It's quickly been replaced by one up the street on Cahuenga but it's still missed. The word on the street is that the land got sold to a hotel developer (Curbed LA) But here's a radical idea that hit me after I had lunch at the lovely Solar De Cahuenga on that corner and I was walking back to my apartment and I passed the fencing and all the rubble on the street - wouldn't it be nice to have a green space there instead of another hotel/club/apartment building.

Now don't get me wrong - i'm all for developemt and building density in the area. However that stretch of hollywood is already very dense and many more large projects are going up very close to this corner (Broadway Hollywood, The W Hotel, Hollywood/Vine Lofts). Everyone in the area already complains about lack of green space - so much so that there is a real proposal to put a roof on the 101 and build a park on top of it (hollywood central park).

I've read a lot of talk about how a very low percentage of LA youngsters can walk to a park while the majority of people in NYC can. So, imagine what would happen if LA somehow got it's act together and claimed this corner as green space - put in a fountain and some grass. Plant some trees that will grow, put in park benches, maybe a fountain on the corner or some memorial. Imagine a sunday of walking down a friendly Franklin into that cafe on the corner and walking back across the street with a warm cup of coffee to read the LA Times next to a bubbling fountain.

Or perhaps LA teams up with a developer to create a large green space and also put in a food stand of some sort. For inspiration just turn to Madison Square Park in New York
which manged to put The Shake Shack in the middle of the park.

I know - it's a very busy intersection and probably not the best place for kids to play - perhaps not the best plot of land - it is pretty small. But maybe this is the evolution of parks in LA. Instead of putting in large massive parks focus on smaller, neighborhood parks. Isn't that what the recent park(ing) day LA was trying to prove?

Koji's at Hollywood and Highland

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON YELP

Koji's Japan
Category: Japanese [Edit]

Neighborhood: Hollywood
6801 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028

(323) 871-0200

www.kojisjapan.com

I can't speak for anything other than the (tiny) bar in this place.

It is in the dreaded H/H center which i try not to venture into for more than validated parking and the virgin megastore but we were out in hollywood and Pig N Whistle had some weird lounge thing going on in the back bar and they started doing that thing where they charge a cover so we were out of there. But what next? Someone said they knew a manager (or waiter or bartender - who can remember) at this place so we headed over. Of course only after i tried to convince everyone The Powerhouse is where it's at. After all the last thing i wanted to do was pay for overpriced drinks and have to listen to Karaoke.

Well...walked in to find some horrid singing and the tiny bar had me a little put off already. Walked up to the bar and ordered a Kirin (without a wait even though i was three people away from the bar) and the bartender quickly poured me my beer and handed it to me and said "3 dollars" I asked him to repeat himself, and he said "3 dollars" - it was at this point that i just handed over my credit card because i figured there was no way this beer was 3 dollars and i didn't want to ask him to say it again. On the second drink i decided to try again - I got a Pyramid and once again, 3 dollars.

Two good beers - one imported, one a craft brew. 3 dollars a piece. That's what i call a good deal no matter where the place is located. I'm pretty sure it was a happy hour kind of deal and that those beers are $3 between 10pm and Midnight but that's ok with me. You also get to walk by two lines for massive clubs where people are going to pay 10 bucks for a watered down drink while you are going to go pay a decent price for a decent beer.

Sunset/Vine Tower Shows Some Skin

I'm a bit late on this one - Curbed's post is here but i've got photos!

Construction has finally started showing some signs of progress at the Sunset/Vine tower. This tower has had quite a report card in the past year with being covered entirely in white wrapping for awhile, then covered with both a Motorola Ad and a Transformers Ad and having that really expansive advertising stripped away by high winds - which i got a nice laugh out of.


It is undergoing quite a transformation of it's own at the moment. You can view renderings of the project at the Kanner Architects site. Once finished you can expect to find ...

"The Modern units - full-height glass, large balconies, open floor plans and high ceilings - take advantage of incredible views in all directions. The Building will offer amenities worthy of it's glamorous address, including a gymnasium, valet service and community room for social events" - (kanner architects site)

Construction seems to get going in the mornings around 6 or 7 and you can see the construction elevators going up and down all day - when i took these photos at around 6pm on Thursday the site was deserted. Also, no signs of a construction crane so if they are going to keep up with it's younger, hip and much larger brother (The W Project Two blocks north on Vine) it's going to need to pick up the pace of installing that futuristic skin.

p.s. Also - can't wait for another huge ad in the neighborhood. If you put it in the initial renderings no one can complain about it right?

W Hollywood Construction

A look over the fencing around the W Hollywood project. You can see the foundation for what i'm guessing is going to be the large tower. There are currently three cranes up and operating and the base for a fourth one along Vine (you can see it in the right corner). Construction must be going well because it was pretty much shut down by 6pm when i took this photo. I'll upload a high resolution copy of this photo soon.

Stay Tuned: Sunset/Vine tower pics are coming up.

Free Museum Day

ED NOTE (10/05/07): The list of museums has been updated - the free admission does not apply to LACMA anymore. Check the website again for the list - i'd also call the museum to confirm if you are planning on checking it out.

MetroRider tipped me off to another great way to spend a weekend day (they posted about this event here) This upcoming Saturday, October 6th 21 museums in the LA area are going to have a free admission day.

You can see the complete list at MuseumsLA event site

Sounds like a great saturday to see how many of these museum's you can hit in one day - to make it even better use public transit to get to and from them and avoid paying parking fees

My plan is ...

Take the red line to wilshire/vermont and hop on a 720 to wilshire/fairfax. There i can check out the LACMA, The Craft and Folk Museum, The LaBrea tar pits and probably the A+D museum (not on the free list but i still want to check it out)

Get back on the 720 (or the 20) and head to Wilshire/Westwood and check out the Hammer museum. While i'm in the neighborhood i'll probably take a little walk and get an ice cream sandwich at Diddy Reese or maybe an afternoon beer at Westwood Brewing Company.

Might as well take the opportunity to check out at least one of the 21 listed museums.

City Beat Takes on Traffic

City Beat has a feature story in what the claim is going to be an ongoing series about the best ways to get LA moving again. You can view the article here

More writing about the article can be found at Metro Rider LA

A lot of ideas were thrown around in the article including bringing up the battle with the expo line, henry waxman derailing the wilshire red line extension and converting those busy west side streets into one-ways. Overall the article seemed like sloppy reporting with not nearly enough questions asked. I think they are trying to do good but tackled far too many topics in a two page article to give anyone more than a glimpse at the LA transit stalemate.

As much as people don't want to hear it - LA needs to become less car friendly if a rail system is to work. It needs to be easier for people to get out of their cars and hop on the train or bus. If that means making it harder to drive in the city then someone needs to take the lead and make the hard decisions. raise the gas tax, build buildings without parking, charge for highways.