4.30.2008
oh, and
I would also like to thank everyone I know for all the wonderful birthday wishes and free drinks. I am truly grateful for you all, and you will never know how much you truly mean to me.
the best thing in the world
I've posted this before in my cleverly-titled "things" section of this blog, but I would like to reiterate the awesome nature of "Stuff White People Like".
Never has a written publication been simultaneously so true to my heart and so embarrassing. It's like the writers have personally interviewed me and everyone I know, and come up with a fairly comprehensive list of all the stupid shit we find fascinating for no reason at all.
I check it every day.
Never has a written publication been simultaneously so true to my heart and so embarrassing. It's like the writers have personally interviewed me and everyone I know, and come up with a fairly comprehensive list of all the stupid shit we find fascinating for no reason at all.
I check it every day.
4.23.2008
breakin' the law
The corner of 1st and Berendo is a right-turn only. There's a big sign right next to the stop sign, and a big arrow painted on the street.
Unfortunately, I need to turn left on 1st to go to school every day. So for the past year-and-a-bit, I've simply ignored the sign and gone on my merry way. I could never figure out why it was right-turn only to begin with.
Today, all that time I saved finally caught up with me. I got pulled over. The cop walks up: license, registration, and insurance.
"You a California resident or a student?"
"Student"
"What's your address here"
"[My address]"
"Ah, local. You should know about that turn then"
"Yeah, I know"
He writes my ticket, comes back to my window.
"You really should pay attention to that sign. Giving tickets for that is really easy"
"I imagine. Why is it a right-turn only, anyway?"
"I dunno. Doesn't make any sense to me"
He hands me my ticket, then says:
"So you have to appear in court on June 9th. You can get that date extended, though, if you want to. I go on vacation in July, so you might want to extend it until then"
"... What?"
"You didn't hear that from me. Have a great day"
And he's gone.
Unfortunately, I need to turn left on 1st to go to school every day. So for the past year-and-a-bit, I've simply ignored the sign and gone on my merry way. I could never figure out why it was right-turn only to begin with.
Today, all that time I saved finally caught up with me. I got pulled over. The cop walks up: license, registration, and insurance.
"You a California resident or a student?"
"Student"
"What's your address here"
"[My address]"
"Ah, local. You should know about that turn then"
"Yeah, I know"
He writes my ticket, comes back to my window.
"You really should pay attention to that sign. Giving tickets for that is really easy"
"I imagine. Why is it a right-turn only, anyway?"
"I dunno. Doesn't make any sense to me"
He hands me my ticket, then says:
"So you have to appear in court on June 9th. You can get that date extended, though, if you want to. I go on vacation in July, so you might want to extend it until then"
"... What?"
"You didn't hear that from me. Have a great day"
And he's gone.
4.09.2008
this is a disaster
The pentagon just announced they're deploying hand-held lie detectors to soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, in an attempt to more accurately weed out terrorist activity. The detectors have three electrodes that attach to the suspect's hand, and the device displays "Red" if it believes the suspect is lying, "Green" for the truth, and "Yellow" if it can't tell.
We invaded Iraq six years ago in some misguided attempt at a "War on Terror", and now it's looking like that war has been reduced to 20 year-olds using color-coded palm pilots to protect us.
How far we've come.
We invaded Iraq six years ago in some misguided attempt at a "War on Terror", and now it's looking like that war has been reduced to 20 year-olds using color-coded palm pilots to protect us.
How far we've come.
4.03.2008
socio-economics lesson
I'm going to preface this with saying that I am not an expert on real estate, gentrification, community development, or the North University Park neighborhood. But something fascinating is happening around here, and I want to give my two cents because it's my blog and I can so deal with it.
This week, the good ol' Daily Trojan has been running a series of articles on USC's "Master Plan", which is a 30-year, $3 billion plan for USC's expansion. (The details from the DT can be found here, here, and here.)
Since you probably don't want to read all that, the basic principle of the master plan includes incorporating the land that is currently the University Village on to campus, razing it and replacing it with retail and higher-end shops catered to students, and narrowing Jefferson Blvd. from a 4-lane arterial to a 2-lane campus street.
While obviously the university is wildly enthusiastic about the plan, the non-university-affiliated residents of the community are not, and I find this fascinating.
Let's start from way back. In the 1960s, USC used a policy called "eminent domain" to seize areas surrounding the current campus to give us enough space for the campus we have today. I had to look up "eminent domain" on Wikipedia, but apparently it's a policy the U.S. has that allows private property to be seized for specific purposes, generally government or development related. Apparently "university purposes" qualifies as sufficient enough reason to seize land. So after USC's land-grabbing 50 years ago, the community is naturally distrustful of basically anything it does.
This time, however, there's a bit of a difference. Downtown is becoming livable once again. There are lofts, condos, restaurants open past 5 pm, supermarkets (well, okay, one), a mall... Droves of people are moving in, land prices are skyrocketing, and gentrification is in full bloom. One mile south, USC is also growing. Enrollment is at an all-time high, construction is going on like mad (between the new commons and the new cinema building, everywhere I go borders a construction site), and USC is facing tremendous pressure to start housing students with an out-of-state enrollment of around 50%. The Jefferson-Fig-Exposition-Vermont border is bulging at the seams.
Meanwhile, evil corporations like Conquest Housing are taking advantage. The housing shortage around USC is jacking up prices like mad, forcing students to grab their ankles and driving long-term residents out of the area. There is a definite problem.
USC claims their master plan will ease this issue. By focusing on residences, they believe more students will move back to campus, easing local demand and decreasing traffic in and out of the area. And frankly, I agree, but only because USC's change fits in to the broader way Los Angeles is changing.
I hope it's rapidly becoming obvious that Los Angeles, in it's current form, is an unsustainable city. The population is not decreasing. Traffic is disastrously bad, and all this Caltrans improvement shit isn't having any effect that anyone can see. The freeway-based city dreamed up in the '50s does not work with the current several-million population.
Los Angeles is changing. Not quickly, but they're working on. For the past year, the MTA has been working on expanding the already-existing but barely-useful subway line to include several stops around USC's border before making it (eventually) to Santa Monica. The East-West public transportation option is the missing link, and I applaud USC for being one of the first institutions I've heard of in Los Angeles to say, "You know what? This is broken. And the only way to fix it is to actively make it more difficult for people to drive. Fuck you all, we're forcing you to take the train, or to walk, or to ride a bike".
As for the additional neighborhood impact, I'm afraid it may be a losing battle. Of course no one wants to drive anyone out. I doubt it's USC's goal to be a fungus on the community. But these wheels have been in motion for a long time. Capitalist demons like Conquest have been driving out residents for years, both directly through their price jacks or indirectly through their offensive and demeaning 15-foot billboard ads. At least USC is trying to help. It may not be the silver bullet, but it's a strategy that makes sense. Thirty years is a long time. The neighborhood will change, whether anyone likes it or not. Let's not let people like Conquest do it for us.
This week, the good ol' Daily Trojan has been running a series of articles on USC's "Master Plan", which is a 30-year, $3 billion plan for USC's expansion. (The details from the DT can be found here, here, and here.)
Since you probably don't want to read all that, the basic principle of the master plan includes incorporating the land that is currently the University Village on to campus, razing it and replacing it with retail and higher-end shops catered to students, and narrowing Jefferson Blvd. from a 4-lane arterial to a 2-lane campus street.
While obviously the university is wildly enthusiastic about the plan, the non-university-affiliated residents of the community are not, and I find this fascinating.
Let's start from way back. In the 1960s, USC used a policy called "eminent domain" to seize areas surrounding the current campus to give us enough space for the campus we have today. I had to look up "eminent domain" on Wikipedia, but apparently it's a policy the U.S. has that allows private property to be seized for specific purposes, generally government or development related. Apparently "university purposes" qualifies as sufficient enough reason to seize land. So after USC's land-grabbing 50 years ago, the community is naturally distrustful of basically anything it does.
This time, however, there's a bit of a difference. Downtown is becoming livable once again. There are lofts, condos, restaurants open past 5 pm, supermarkets (well, okay, one), a mall... Droves of people are moving in, land prices are skyrocketing, and gentrification is in full bloom. One mile south, USC is also growing. Enrollment is at an all-time high, construction is going on like mad (between the new commons and the new cinema building, everywhere I go borders a construction site), and USC is facing tremendous pressure to start housing students with an out-of-state enrollment of around 50%. The Jefferson-Fig-Exposition-Vermont border is bulging at the seams.
Meanwhile, evil corporations like Conquest Housing are taking advantage. The housing shortage around USC is jacking up prices like mad, forcing students to grab their ankles and driving long-term residents out of the area. There is a definite problem.
USC claims their master plan will ease this issue. By focusing on residences, they believe more students will move back to campus, easing local demand and decreasing traffic in and out of the area. And frankly, I agree, but only because USC's change fits in to the broader way Los Angeles is changing.
I hope it's rapidly becoming obvious that Los Angeles, in it's current form, is an unsustainable city. The population is not decreasing. Traffic is disastrously bad, and all this Caltrans improvement shit isn't having any effect that anyone can see. The freeway-based city dreamed up in the '50s does not work with the current several-million population.
Los Angeles is changing. Not quickly, but they're working on. For the past year, the MTA has been working on expanding the already-existing but barely-useful subway line to include several stops around USC's border before making it (eventually) to Santa Monica. The East-West public transportation option is the missing link, and I applaud USC for being one of the first institutions I've heard of in Los Angeles to say, "You know what? This is broken. And the only way to fix it is to actively make it more difficult for people to drive. Fuck you all, we're forcing you to take the train, or to walk, or to ride a bike".
As for the additional neighborhood impact, I'm afraid it may be a losing battle. Of course no one wants to drive anyone out. I doubt it's USC's goal to be a fungus on the community. But these wheels have been in motion for a long time. Capitalist demons like Conquest have been driving out residents for years, both directly through their price jacks or indirectly through their offensive and demeaning 15-foot billboard ads. At least USC is trying to help. It may not be the silver bullet, but it's a strategy that makes sense. Thirty years is a long time. The neighborhood will change, whether anyone likes it or not. Let's not let people like Conquest do it for us.
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