The Bus Bench

Wattsup

So a couple of days ago I read a neighborhood breakdown about Watts at LAist, which rightfully recieved a lot of flack. Personally I give the author "anti" some props, I welcome the cross cultural transactions that may occur when white (or non watts locals) intermingle in a community ostracized from general society and secured as a concentration of poverty for decades. As a muralist and community worker in South LA I have spent too much time simply explaining to kids that white or middle class people are not green skinned aliens filled with hatred towards them, a bit of positive interaction, in my personal experience, seems to undermine this prevailing sentiment (which is played out in reverse in enclaves of wealth as well). So good for "anti", he gets an offering of my personal hood pass (a joint of some good kush and my street cred) if he's ever willing to take it up and I have the time.  One thing that bothered me, during the response to angry comments was this:  but i dont see any other blog going to Watts even to just take ONE picture

If this is so then the blogging world is fucken lame and I must change this. Like many other aspects of proffessional american society, it seems as if the folks actually living the experience are left out of the picture:  barrio planning is the new big thing but god forbid any consulting firms hire too many planners from the barrio, movies and music from the ghetto are cool but 95% of any film crew are hipster whiteboys from orinda with coifish tattoo sleeves, and the bulk of blogs about the barrio are from white kids riding their bikes through the hood as if they deserve a medal of honor for doing so. Fucken bullshit.  The truth is these ghetto people/minorities are still seen as threatening to whatever pathetic establishment mentality folks still assume holds the earth under their feet together, but in reality these mud people ARE the goddamned ground from which they stand on and hold their balance. A lot of folks make up excuses about "technical training or capacity" , but if you set up a world class studio or planning program (or whatever) in Compton or El Sereno that shit would churn out products beyond the whiteboy asslicking junk that spews from our institutions to this day. The entire rich and generally blue blood anglo movie/music/art/hipster scene is now based on these priveleged proffessionally trained brats trying to be "kitschy" by living the poor hard ass life that millions of people exist in any day. But I digress....

So anyways, I work a lot in Watts and my family has a deep history in the area. I am not from there, I am from Boyle Heights and Eastlos, but I understand the shared struggle of having to hop fences when a house party gets shot up, or the humiliation of gangsters putting their hand in your pockets and there is not a damn thing you can do about it because no one is around or the bus driver is acting as if it aint happening. Those kind of insider perspectives are needed now, so I will give it.

Both of my grandparents first came to Watts during the 1930s, as the life of indian-mexicans in the southwest US did not provide much beyond being an outdoor maid to gabachos. From what I heard, Watts back then was pretty ethnically mixed, and many of the areas that abut rivers or are now housing projects used to be dilapidated shantytowns that were purposely razed in the 1940s/50s as part of urban slum clearance programs (the same happened to my old hood called the "flats" in Boyle Hts.). Sometime around the 1950s both sides of my mom's family "moved on up to the eastlos side" to the flatas, where many of them still live today.

One thing I love about Watts is it's layered history and artistic depth. When I drive through the area I either hear my abuela's old Mingus albums (which she used to see in jazz clubs on central, back when cops would set up road blocks to stop whites from entering, luckily she was brown) or that west coast beat origin anthem whose name I forgot ever since my Thump Old Skool Volume 8 cassette died years ago. You know the one, with the beat and chorus remade by Zapp years late in "more bounce to the ounce" and whose beat is the background to about 1/5th or all gangster rap songs ever made, it goes: "Califonia knows how to party, Califonia knows how to parrtay. In the citeeee of LA, in the citeee of good ol Watts, In the citeee, city of Compton, they pop lockin.....So rough, so tough, out heeeere baby, so rough, so tough, out heeere baby". Okay, so I'll stop being cheesy, I feel like one of the annoying mecko parque hipsters that I abhor now, but if anyone knows the song name or can send it to me I'd be thankful for days

The bulk of these photos were taken by me for an urban planning project I did on public housing, so they are kind of crappy. But my limited experiences with this area or the past decade has manifested several good stories.  The first time I went to a party in this area my homie monk was shot (RIP) by guys from Florencia while pissing in an alley behind the party, it wasnt their hood but they were looking for a victim.  In the ensuing chaos, no police showed up and a consortium of black and brown local gangsters got him to killa king hospital just in time to die. But I dont want to stereotype the area, we were shaved headed teens at a cholo houseparty thrown by gangsters, and my homeboy got caught by their enemies. Life sucks sometimes. On the flip side, I used to drop off one of one of the kids helping us with some murals in the Imperial Courts PJs, and I met many locals in the parking lots. I always had between $2-500 and never got robbed or even tripped on because they were all cool with me, even though the bullshit media claims blacks and mexicans hate each other round here. Totally false, this area is ground zero (beyond Duarte and Compton) for black-brown mixed race families, I even have some mixed cousins who lived nearby on Homes Avenue, that was the greatest barbecue EVER!

This area is also home to several interracial (or once) neighborhoods that defy the whole black/brown hateration stereotype, Namely Grape Street (13 and crips). It is also home to a vibrant music scene that has existed since the jazz era and now comes alive in rappers like glasses malone and jrocc. You can also find old folks playing checkers and dominoes at nearby watkins county park (of whom I made several friends and all about the community history and "sons of watts" genre, props to lewis from defiance street), little girls selling homemade perfume, and about 10,000 kids playing in front yard or communal sprinklers on any day when it gets above 84 degrees. Watts is a great place to live if you dont enthrall yourself in all the negatives, and is truly the exemplification of close knit community of folks who are truly proud of their neighborhhod. I remember being seriously inspired with the "no one will fix it unless we do from within" doctrine of reverand Rodney down by 103rd, which resonates in my head to this day.

And yeah, my camera sucks and some of the shots are from within my carucha. Call me a poser to my face and see how quick I drop you, I'm still a project kid leva (Aliso Village, y que?). This is just a taste of my trove of pics of the area.

You can find out more on Watts by getting off the blue line at Rosa Parks station and walking north along Wilmington, Comtpon or Mona your damn self. Hope you enjoyed!

by Art

I care about tacos, but I'm not a fucking moron.

Have you ever heard of the Mount Rushmore Tactic?

It’s when people propose some real outrageous insanity so that they can screw you in another way and you won’t say anything.

“If everyone in America doesn’t pay one thousand dollars we’re going to cover up Mount Rushmore and no one will ever see it again,” sneaky mount rushmore tactician.

“That’s outrageous, you can’t do that. That’s Un-American. We’re going to go out in the streets and protest this INSANITY. WE WON’T STAND FOR THIS!!!!!!” gullible American public.

“Oh well how about you all just pay ten dollar more tax, for me to have a pool,” sneaky mount rushmore tactician.

“Well ok, as long as we still get to see Mount Rushmore,” gullible American who only goes outside to get inside their car.

Lots of people fall for this. I’m not lots of people.

You know the whole taco truck tragedy, I’m so not buying that crap.

How to ride the bus to South Central.

Every time people bring up South LA or as I call South Central it’s always some miserable slice of life that’s brought up.

I was just reading in the LA Times how kids in South LA are depressed. In the homicide blog I read how people get shot on a regular basis. On LAist on the neighborhood project the editors couldn’t even be bothered to get out of their moving vehicles to take pictures of the graffiti.

But South Central isn’t actually horrible. There are some horrible aspects, but South Central isn’t horrible 24/7 or even 12/4.

South Central is quite entertaining.

A press release from Damien Goodmon of Fix Expo

From Damien Goodmon of FixExpo.org

SOUTH LA LEFT OUT ONCE AGAIN AS MTA INCREASES EXPO LINE BUDGET $54 MILLION

On the same day the MTA increased the Expo Line budget $54 million for an overpass in Culver City, a South LA community group announced they're going to court represented by Sonnenschein, Nath and Rosenthal.

Los Angeles, CA – On Thursday April 24th, the MTA Board voted to increase the Expo Line budget by $54 million for a Culver City overpass, increasing the project budget to $862 million dollars for the 8.5-mile light rail line from Downtown LA to Culver City.  $4 million of the $54 million came from the City of Culver City, while the remaining $50 million came from State Proposition 1B, the $19 billion transportation bond that was passed by voters in November of 2006.  $218 million of the bond has gone towards the increase in the Expo Line budget, which was just $640 million six months ago.

"Prop 1B is the same resource we've been requesting MTA go after for grade separations in South LA since the day the bond was passed, yet they keep telling us there's no money," said Damien Goodmon, the Coordinator of the South LA community group the Citizens' Campaign to Fix the Expo Rail Line.

"They found the money for the Figueroa underpass at USC and they found the money for overpasses in Culver City," said Carol Tucker of the Baldwin Neighborhood Homeowners.  "They find the money for everything and everywhere except South LA.  Have they no shame?"

Do you not have a car? I want to interview you.

I'm moving AGAIN!!! I get annoyed and have to be somewhere else. I don't know what that is.

I think I'm a nomadic person.

I'm probably only saying that owing to a recent article I read in my favorite magazine the Economist. There was the article on people who just wandered around working from Blackberries, not developing personal relatinships, but having more time.

I don't know if this is good or bad, but I never was a team player, so this works for me.

I keep my life simple by not owning anything, except a retirement plan, because one of things I fear is having to eat dog food when I get old. I tasted it, it's very salty.

I saw the movie Heat in high school and unfortunately this movie had a big impact on me, probably because I moved all over the place as a kid and lived with all various types of relatives in various countries.

I lived in Canada, the UK, India, and of course here, anyways in this movie Robert Deniro's character said this:

""Don't let yourself get attached to anything you are not willing to walk out on in 30 seconds flat if you feel the heat around the corner."

For some reason I thought that was a great way to live life. To me having to upkeep a car would seem to keep you more trapped. A car seems to give you freedom, but actually it doesn't.

If you had to move across state you'd have to get it registred and get a new license.

If I move I don't have to do anything.

Anyways...I'm not into putting up just whatever, so did this post have a point???

Yes!!!

I want to link and interview everyone in LA who has a blog, but doesn't own a car. I don't care what political slant you are or if we got into online, if you don't own a car email me and I'll link you and we'll talk.

There's going to be a little special section for you on this blog.

But you can't own a car. You can't have access to a car by a significant other. You have to be carfree, like X-rated car free, which means completely naked of a car. No, "but I eat fish" car people.

browne@shametrainla.com

You can survive in LA without a car. Seriously.

Grosses bises,

Browne Molyneux

Scenes from A Daily Dash to Downtown. The Bus Bench is victorious against Blogging.LA. The 10 wins!!!

Amidst a throng of unsuspecting commuters merely returning home after a day working in Santa Monica was a silent albeit overly melodramatic blogging bastard, whose desire to turn a regular bus ride into a remarkable event, well, was probably annoying.

In any event, it took approximately 40 minutes for the Big Blue Bus #10 to get from Yale and Santa Monica Blvd to Olive and 7th. (Starting time was 5:10 p.m. at Santa Monica and 3rd Street). The MTA 439 line took 59 minutes, most likely owing to its street travel at the outset and then the heavy Freeway congestion as it trailed the BBB #10.

Having started earlier as well as arriving first, I elected to take a victory lap on the DASH, but failed to see that I got on the wrong one. By the time I looked up from my camera several minutes later, I realised I was on First Street. It was the final DASH of the evening, and as such I had to walk all the way back to Clifton's where Will was graciously awaiting my return from the not-so-clever bit of boasting I had hoped to have recorded photographically.

Here are some hardly dramatic still photos from the somnambulistic race of the rush hour buses:
       

-BusTard 

editor edit--the gloating title was added by browne, because i'm a little bit of an asshole, a cute asshole, but still an asshole.

Next challenge if you were at Paramount Studio and you wanted to get to Pershing Square for drinks at the Biltmore Gallery Bar. Bus all of the way or a combination bike to the Red Line station. Challengers line up for your ass kicking.

Save The Date for the Big Bus Race!

This Thursday, 17 April 2008, will be the Big Bus Race that was started some months ago—inadvertently—when Julia Frey on Blogging L.A. (now MetBlogs) queried readers for advice on the best bus to get from west to downtown. Out of the advice rose a challenge, and the stage has since been set: turtle vs. turtle. (When it comes to Los Angeles public transit, there are no rabbits!)

I am one of the "racers" and Will Campbell is the contender. Mr. Campbell has explained rather nicely what is soon to go down here.

-BusTard

LA Eastside and sunscreen. New blog, new post, same bad attitude.

I found a group blog that will let me play. Lots of LA blogs I can’t even comment on anymore.

Can you believe that? I’m actually banned from two major group blogs.

Blogging LA is not one of them. I’m still allowed to talk there.

I’m now writing for LAEastside a group blog that appreciates me for the obnoxious ass that I am.

I’m so clever and smart, yet I am not ad friendly (LAeastside doesn’t have ads, so that’s not a problem). I’m not kid friendly or even career ladder climbing friendly.

I hate lots of stuff, lots of stuff that other people like to pretend is ok.

I am also self-sabotaging. At one point I was suppose to write some thing for the LA Times, the art section. I was supposed to cover the art walk and I turned in a story that painted me as a voyeur who was stalking artists. It was so freakin’ funny, but the editor dude I don’t think appreciated my sexy slant.

I think things like, “Are you mad?” Were stated…oh well, everyone over there got fired anyway…

What’s the fun of writing if you have to be very dot your i’s and cross your t’s about the whole matter? I have lots of expensive degrees I can get a real job if I really want one, with benefits.

Why be boring about writing when there’s virtually no way to make money from doing it and even fewer ways to get health insurance.

Of course if you are boring, then you go ahead and write boring things. I’m not boring. Why should I fix what’s thoroughly entertaining.

So check out my blog entry on the new LAeastside about how people are really fucking stupid to pay thirty dollars to look at some bridges, so that really rich dudes can sell lofts, because come on, that’s what tours are all about. And how can any group that claims to be about the environment or conservation not at the very least have VERY OBVIOUS alternative transportation directions to an event that the are putting on.

Want to tell me I’m an ass. Go here :)

Browne Molyneux

PS want to spend 30 dollars in a smart way? Go to Caravan Books in downtown LA on 550 South Grand Avenue. This store specializes in books on LA history and California. You can buy a book about the bridges or even talk to the owner and then do your own walking tour that doesn’t have to do with gentrification.

PS this blog is still on in full force. And we're getting ready to do another art project with our art section, so be ready for that.

grosses bises

Imagine. . .

Imagine Metro's employees using the very buses their bosses tell the rest of us to ride, despite the problems regarding distance, transfers and time required for what might otherwise be a 15-minute drive.

-BusTard

Pink Slip Pity Party for Roger Snoble

Join BusTard, Browne and the BusBenchers for the Pink Slip Pity Party for Roger Snoble next Friday (18 April) at 6 p.m., at Union Bagel. (We might go over to Traxx, unless we have young 'uns among us.) Too, be sure to bring a small written piece—say, 50 words or so—about where you think Roger should be employed next. Best bit gets a Toy Bus Metro Liner and runner-up gets a Roger Snoble Mustache Mask!

Go Metro with your American Express Platinum Card

On my way to start trouble I charged a transfer. That’s right I charged it. METRO is now accepting credit cards at all of it’s train station. You can’t buy a monthly pass, but you can by a day pass, transfer, or one way fare.

Obviously there is no minimum limit, since I was able to charge 30 cents. And by the date on the following picture you can see I often can’t find cash, so me charging 30 cents is a common occurrence.

But the question I have is: Are credit cards more eco-friendly than cash?

I’m going to say no. A credit card is paperwork, an electronic impulse goes from the machine to the credit company to me, even if it’s a completely cashless transaction. The amount of energy expended to make a credit card transaction happen has to be more than a regular cash transaction.

I think convenience breeds pollution. I don’t think anything that can be done in two minutes is a good idea. I’m actually sick of the having to do the 'everything very fast type' thing that goes on in LA

I think transactions that leave the least amount of evidence that they occurred is the most ecological way to spend your money.

I’m not bashing METRO in regards to this, because this is not rooted in METRO. They actually seem to embrace the philosophy of we’re going too fast, with their super slow stellar bus service.

And it is way more convenient for me to use a credit card or a debit card (they take those too) than it would be for me to walk up the freakin’ hill to Grand go to my bank, then end up with weird dollar pieces that I even sometimes think are quarters and others more often than not sometimes think are quarters, so I end up having these awkward conversations, “That was a dollar, so you owe me some change,” or “I gave you enough, that’s a dollar.”

Sometimes I just let people think it’s a quarter. I like my life too much to care about 75 cents.

I used the word eco-friendly, what the fuck is wrong with me…

Browne

Imagine. . .

Imagine a metro system NOT more concerned with playing games. . .

-BusTard

Imagine. . .

Imagine all the Metro executives' bullshit being used to fuel natural gas buses instead of empty rhetoric and ill-conceived lies.
   

-BusTard

Roger's Rogering May Get The Shaft After Having "screwed [that] thing up."

After years of buggering the bus riders and strap hangers of L.A., Roger Snoble's end may be in sight. More on that anticipated comeuppance here and here.

-BusTard

Imagine. . .

Imagine a metro map without a glaring error. (In this case it is the omission of the "E" transfer point.) 

-BusTard

Imagine. . .

Imagine properly planned repairs being done when the metro rails are not running, rather than during rush hours leading up to weekends.

"Hollywood/Highland Station Elevator
Out of Service
Thursday & Friday, April 10-11 Only

Due to required maintenance, the elevators servicing the Metro Red Line Hollywood/Highland Station will be out of service Thursday and Friday, April 10-11 between the hours of 6:00am and midnight on both days.

Hollywood/Highland Passengers requiring elevator access to the platform or street levels should take Metro Bus Lines 163, 212, 217 or 780 to Hollywood/ Vine Station to complete their trip.

Red Line passengers requiring elevator access traveling to Hollywood/Highland Station should travel to Hollywood/Vine Station, disembark and take Metro Bus Lines 163, 212, 217 or 780 to Hollywood/Highland Station to complete their trip. Metro apologizes for any inconvenience."

 

-BusTard

Deconstructing the black/brown beef in South LA

African American Homeboys who asked for a Latino-Black heritage Mural

Lately I have been hearing more black/brown fighting stories on the news, which bothers the heck out of me. I dont know if the fact that racial tension existing between communities that I love, or the fact that the media and many law enforcement officials are exploiting it as a bigger problem than it is at a street level is what bothers me the most, it may be even.

This is why I say this:

For every skirmish or gang beef between Latinos and Blacks we hear about in the media, there are hundreds if not thousands of examples of barrio/hood folks getting along just fine and amalgamating into communities of understanding rather than hate that we never hear about.  When I go through South LA, Compton or Duarte I find a lot more black and brown kids playing with each other and families extending their traditions and cultures to each other than gangs throwing racial epitaphs at "the other side". Nothing is more beautiful than a black city worker ordering from a taco truck in Spanish with a heavy melodious African American south LA accent on Nadeau St., or a 4 foot tall paisano (Mexican immigrant) getting in on a game of basketball with his black neighbors at Wilson Park in Compton.  I love the culmination of black brown unity creating that distinct South Central blacktino accent that is synonymous with hoop earings, Dickies and Nike cortez, swap meets and low riders.  I was about 2/3rds into the book Monster (the book about the crip that had everyone shook) before I stopped visualizing him as a Mexican cholo, I was amazed at seeing blacks driving lowriders (just like we do in East LA) firsthand when I got my drivers license and went down to M&M's on crenshaw to see if their macaroni was as good as I'd heard.

Despite growing up in projects that had a serious history of police abuse and antagonism in racial animosity (which I'd later find out), I never thought about their part in the whole black brown racial problem until I heard others talking about it several times. Mind you, the people I heard note the police and media blowing this problem up were not conspiracy theorists but rather experienced policy makers, social workers and community leaders noting that fact in a very moderate hushed tone. I would say the one thing that would scare America more than black and brown kids picking each other off is them getting together and uniting, and that speaks volumes.  So the media ignores the unity and gets on the bullhorn at any hostility, and the police act as if it's always an epidemic so that more funding rolls into their coffers rather than into proactive gang prevention or youth programs.

Thats not to say there aren't racist idiots who do attack folks for their race, the examples of Avenues in Highland park and 204th street killing kids is exactly that. Just the past weekend I went down to Compton and painted over 4 foot tall graffiti proclaiming "f*ck n*gg$rs" in the creek written by Latino gang members, and I had the black gangsters keep an eye on me in case the Latino bangers caught me in my act of social unity. Nowadays blacks have become the victims of Latino gangs, I remember in the late 80s/early 90s when the opposite was happening and black gangs began harassing Latinos because their numbers were dwindling and they felt threatened, the situation is horrible either way and I cannot tolerate any of it.

The problem started in our state prison, and as a result of the incarceration of generations of young black and brown men is now an aspect of hood street life. The odd thing is that interracial unity and cross cultural influence even permeates racist gang member's lives, something I love pointing out to all of them. Pachucos were inspired by Black jazz musicians, Black gangsters were inspired by Latino cholos, Latino cholos were inspired by Black gangster rap, black gangster rap was inspired by cholos, both wear the same shit from the swap meet. Anyways, in the 50s the California prison system was beginning to be inundated with Latinos. Although outnumbered by blacks, the white inmates realized their time was running with this new minority also having plenty of racial animosity towards white culture, so rather than fighting them they allied with them against the blacks. Unfortunately, the Latinos took the bait, as blacks had a precedence of abusing latino inmates during times when they were numerically smaller, and thus the racial beef was born.

Prison guards who allied with the whites helped instigate much of this racial beef in order to maintain control and keep the inmates from uniting against them, and the black and brown inmates and prison gangs sadly fell in line. During the late 70s, the prison beef got so bad that the division became permanent and spilled out onto the streets, at the same time Latino prison gangs divided between the North and the South (LA). In Northern California blacks and latinos intermingle in gangs much more and gangs are not codified by race in most cases, that does occur in LA but not as frequently. Because of the need to control inmates through division, and the social framework and tension involved with power and drugs, this prison racial beef will not be going anywhere soon. This spills out on the street and the media/police took it and ran, never looking back.

The thing is that the racial unity between blacks and latinos will not just go away. When the whole black/brown beef went down numerous interracial gangs had to divide up into race based gangs. Most notably was Grape Street in Watts which divided into Grape street 13 and Grape Street Crips, both gangs still uniting across racial barriers to fight other gangs of the same race. So both black grape st. will aid brown grape st. in fighting other latino gangs, and vice versa (such as bounty hunters). In the Pueblo Del Rio projects, the Pueblo Bishops ally with Florencia to fight other black gangs such as East Coast Crips, and Florencia does the same in their immortal war with 38th street(a latino gang). On top of all this is the fact that "black on black" and "brown on brown" crime is still much higher than any black vs. brown violence, meaning both ethnicities pick off their own at a much higher rate than anyone else. The Florencia neighborhood is the community between Florence and Slauson Blue Line stations, the Pueblo Bishops are located south of the Vernon Station. Both Grape Street gangs are located about a half mile east of the 103rd street Blue Line station.

Imperial Courts (near Jordan Downs)

These facts and a list of personal experiences with both gangs and police have validated this belief in me.  I never hear about being "careful of black gangs" by anyone other than police, oftentimes the black gangmembers coming and hanging out with me while I'm painting murals after the police warning me about them.  This has happened numerous times, in Southeast LA, in Jefferson park, in Compton and Lynwood; never once has a community worker or member ever told me about this danger, just the police over and over again oftentimes in a manner that makes me feel as if they are mad at me for even being there trying to paint a mural. In fact, I usually have a lot more trouble from latino gang members than black gangsters (of whom Ive never had trouble with), because the blacks look at me with curiosity whereas the latinos look at me as competition, which I may make another post about.

So yeah, blacks and latinos get along just find and the racial beef (although real) is totally over hyped.

Why the Bus Bench sometimes talks about things other than the bus

In the environmental movement, I’ve noticed a lack of knowledge.

People seem to have a lack of knowledge beyond the environment. I have actually noticed this in all movements. Everyone is a specialist.

Imagine. . .

Imagine busses that are put back together before they are put back in service.

     

     

-BusTard

Imagine. . .

Imagine buses being as well-maintained as police cars. (When was the last time you saw an LAPD cruiser being towed?)

         

-BusTard