The Bus Bench

Wouldn't it be nice, if cars were banned.

From the Car Free Networks YouTube Site.

A video by Heather.

If He Is Alive, Will He Vote to Renew Metro's Contract with Sheriff?

Just over a week ago, a man was beaten and left for dead on the Blue Line's Pacific platform. The downtown Long Beach platform, which is supposedly overseen by the L.A. County Sheriff, is one of many Blue Line platforms obviously neglected by the deputies.

Late Night Video Runs All Day on Metro!

Metro's social experiment—funded by many private (and at least one not so privately funded) enterprises is set to start next weekend. The Bus Bench is excited, and will be announcing a Red Line Bar-hopping party later this weekend. (No sheriffs allowed, natch!) We will be starting in Hollywood and making our way downtown to Redwood Bar & Grill with stops along the way.

This morning, we noticed that Metro appears to be equally excited—so much so as to repeatedly announce the wonderful new development in L.A. mass transit. To wit:

-BusTard

L.A. Sheriff deputy allows ADA violation (Pershing Square)

This summer, my interest in the significant presence of L.A. County Sheriff's deputies at pershing Square was piqued when I observed a terse conversation between a deputy and a frustrated, wheel-chair bound Metro patron. The deputy appeared to be annoyed that he had to answer to a person regarding the blocked passageway—the vehicle blocking it being a Metro contractor's vehicle.

Metro Sheriffs to Transit Advocate: "Your First Amendment Rights Are Not in Service"

What happens when a well-recognised transit advocate waiting to buy a newspaper is physically threatened by Metro sheriffs that gather daily at Pershing Square Red Line station? Libelous and unfounded accusations of terrorism as well as intimidation, unwarranted arrest and all manner of implicit threats to one's future liberties and life, followed by constant accusations of creating scandal for scandal's sake. My protests of being unlawfully detained were met with the phrase, "Tell it to the judge." The day's motif is sure to be best appreciated in the final video of this post's Twin Towers/County Jail misadventure, which satirically addresses a few of the very topics that the hired guns of Metro's Transit Security Bureau alleges in a fashion too serious to forget.

Obama wins. A bittersweet win for California.

Picture from yahoo.

Obama wins, so stop asking me if something bad is going to happen.

I was in downtown LA and several white people asked me if I thought something bad would happen to Obama and I say to people who don’t have faith in Americans that, no nothing bad is going to happen to Obama.

Angels Flight Finally Reopens, Um, Like—Soon?

After nearly a decade of promised openings, Angels Flight is finally ready to take flight for a third time.

Two Boots Pizza Soon to Open in L.A.

Two Boots is eventually to open a joint in L.A. What is Two Boots? Well, lemme tell ya: it ain't just pizza. In LES (on E. 2nd), the basement served as a small cinema house and there is a video rental; along with the pizza it was one of my favourite hang-outs.

In last week's LA Weekly, there was a relatively inconspicuous advert (on page 40) with a picture of Andy Kaufman (or Jim Carey as Andy Kaufman) as a fat, aging lounge singer. The copy stated only "Tony Clifton is Coming" and the Web site. Sure enough, it was my beloved pizza joint.

But where in L.A. will Two Boots land? Your guess is as good as mine. I hope it will be somewhere in downtown.

I wish I had more than the video below, but as I have long found the glass-walled bathroom fascinating, well, that is all I have on hand. (Btw, that's 2nd Street that from which the looky-loo is looking)

-BusTard

Pallet Mover on Sixth Street

These are tough times and even the LAPD knows it. At least, that is what I imagine may have prompted the cruiser in the far right lane to not see what my camera caught last week as the guy with the stack of pallets wheeled uninterrupted to one of the pallet recyclers on Alameda Street:

-BusTard

Halloween 2008

Despite the explosion of sales in sex-styled costumes and leaping liquor sales, Halloween for me this year was a relatively sedentary event. I spent several hours on busses and trains attending errands, a few hours reading and then a bit of time with Brown walking round the various areas of a curiously quiet downtown Los Angeles. But there were a number of remarkable moments throughout the day.