The Bus Bench

Detroit Stands to Get Bailed Out, But Has Metro Been Rogered?

Having attended Metro's Executive Management and Audit Committee meeting on the morning of 20 November, I came away with an earful about the AIG fiasco, budget problems and strange way that Metro works when it thinks folks are not listening. With the car companies preparing for their xmas gifts, one wonders if Metro and its transit brethren will get anything as well. . .

Over the next several days I will be posting excerpts from the minutes (which are not yet available on-line, but when they are can be found here).

Lessons From Being Arrested Last Friday

BusTard made some acquaintances in the slammer.

Lessons, like badges, are best appreciated thusly.

But enough of the silly shit.

Here are two shots I took Friday night, once again released from jail owing to some constabulary cretin's emotional interpretation of homeland security. I promised I would post these shots—before the weekend ended—of some new acquaintances (courtesy of two dim L.A. sheriffs' inability to exhibit professionalism).
 
(I have intentionally omitted mention of any names.
However, if you are one of the guys in the photo, feel free to write me or post a comment.)

-Randall BusTard

"We'll arrest them all." Los Angeles Sheriff Deputy Ware on L.A. bloggers that photograph Metro stations

As reported last Friday, 07 November 2008, an L.A. County Sheriff's deputy, C. Ware (badge #413772), made clear his desire to make Los Angeles safe from domestic terrorism—starting with a campaign to round up and arrest any and every blogger that dares who has taken photos of Metro Red, Blue, Gold and Green Lines. He stated that he will be on-line soon, starting with Metro's Transportation Library, to seek out such lawbreakers and bringers of domestic doom.

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.

Sheriff Surveillance Cameras Help Rob Kid Twice in 12 Minutes on Bus

For all the Soviet-flavoured propaganda that Metro pastes on the bussess, trains and stations, I can assure you that the protection implied is nearly non-existent. (One can pop by the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf on 7th and Flower in the mornings to see the same balloon-shaped sheriff taking his time doing nothing there before he heads to Pershing Square to loll about with his brown-shirted pals, coffee in hand, do the same: nothing. The below photo remains available for viewing on the push-pin board at said Coffee Bean. In the near future there will be another post or two on The Bus Bench regarding this particular sheriff's highly questionable behaviour at Pershing Square.)

And in the case that there remains doubt about the effectiveness of the expensively contracted security services of southern CA's sheriffs on public transit, have a look at what the cameras caught on an OCTA bus (Metro's soCal sister OCTA) two weeks ago.

More after the transfer. . .

Bus Bench Service Alerts. 08-11.

 
Black children on busses get a police escort to school. 1974. Boston.

 

Bus Bench Service Alerts for August 11, 2008. News in late aughts format.

Car Buster has a radio station. Contribute, we are.
Car Busters. August.

A highway designed to make a more pricey to drive, it’s called “congestion pricing.” How about designing public transit to make it easier to use and how about designing the streets to make it easier and safer to walk, well being an asshole is easier.
Biz Journal Florida/ 08-11

The government (Massachusetts Transit Authority) says no to learning, cancels Subway Hack presentation by MIT students.
Bit Tech/08-11

The rails running after 3am? It could happen this Xmas folks, you just have to believe. Every time a rail crossing dings an angel gets her wings.
Blogdowntown/ 08-08

You want to look cute while riding a bike. Shelly will show you how. I’m ordering that helmet!!!!
Riding Pretty Blog

Is Citibank going down? I don’t know, but it seems like they have some big problems. The Olympics is cool, but the existence of my checking account means more to me right now.
WSJ/ 8-06

Approval for the first corporate (Blue Fire) ethanol plant has been granted in Lancaster.
AP/ July

Remember Nekedia Cato she was riding her bike and a guy tried to run her down, because his wife had just cheated on him with a black guy, well that guy Thomas Cosby is being charged with a hate crime.  In true hippie black girl form Cato said to tell Cosby she forgives him.
Orlando Sentinel/ 08-01

Compiled by Browne Molyneux

BusBench called "Detractor" by Metro

We here at the Bus Bench have been implicitly told that we are bad for observing the lies, damn lies and statistics that tend to be Metro's MO. Whether talking about Metro's promotion of motor vehicles on TransitTV, the corruption and publicly funded lies told by Metro CEO Roger Snoble's about the reason for fare gates (fare evasion being the reason Metro touted and which were soundly trounced as lies by former executive director of Metrolink Richard Stanger) or too many other of Metro's backward policies and upside-down machinations, it appears that if we just close our eyes and pretend it is not happening while we ride the broken down buses and late trains, we might aspire to be placed farther up in the "Transit Advocates."   

L.A. Times Fireworks. Burning down the fourth estate.

4th of July, 2008—Walking east along East 6th, I happened upon a man on his back. He was grinding at the undercarriage of a newspaper stand. He appeared to be adamant about getting the damn job done.

 

Sparks flew, buses passed and the heat was hot. I waited only until he took a quick break. He answered questions like a barely-paid laborer (one of the few left at the LA Times)  wishing to get out of the heat of the sun.

-BusTard

Los Angeles Meter Maids Appropriate Newspaper Stands

One has to wonder how it is that a public agency hell-bent on aggravating its denizens, then pushing for punitive measures that imply that its revenue collectors are better than the people from which the agency robs (which even L.A. councilmember Tony Cardenas clearly acknowledged in a tax-payer-funded party: "We certainly do appreciate you as our revenue enhancers in this great city," said Councilman Tony Cardenas, who addressed the group over a lunch of sandwiches and potato salad."), and then is suddenly slow in observing a case that is filmed of one of its own officers attempting to assault a downtown resident (case pending, but soon to explode publicly), deems it necessary to padlock one of its little red bags to a newspaper kiosk.

Were one to decide to employ a metermaid-mobile for some private use, what would be the retribution? I ask because when one is even implied to have made aggravated moves toward a meter maid, one is immediately arrested. But if a metermaid attempts to run down a pedestrian with a car, then exits the car to finish the job, then head metermaid Jimmy Price is slow—to state the least—with having his boys pursue an investigation. To be sure, the hubris associated with the meter maid agency is one that needs to be checked.

What do you have to state about that, Jimmy? No, wait—save it for the judge.

-BusTard

LA Eastside. Codewords in LA

Check out my post on LA EASTSIDE to read about the new phenomenon of MICROLOFTS and what the hell that means exactly.

Browne