A heart felt message from LA Times Homicide Blog.
I’ve noticed Jill Levoy’s name is no longer on the Homicide Blog and I also noticed some interestingly
Continue reading "LA Times message for victims of tragedies: Can we have your money?" »
While many rounded up their summer by going to Sunset Junction, F*** Yeah Fest (I always plan to go to that and never get around to it) or Burning Man, some members of the Bus Bench ended their summer by going to the African Cultural Marketplace Faire.
California African American Museum Booth
As a radical feminist and politically black woman I’ve always had a problem.
How do you talk about oppression without:
1. Going into a long rambling of why it’s not all white people, but just some white people who are bad. Just like there are some of "everyone’s" who are bad.
2. Going into a long rambling of why it’s not all men, but just some men who are bad. Just like some women are bad.
3. Alienating people outside of the black/white paradigm of race. You know how it is you start talking about patriarchy, you start talking about oppression, you start talking about America, then slavery and then your white woman friend says “What about us, we couldn‘t vote?” and then your black woman friend says “Haven’t we talked about you enough?.”
And after you get through mopping up the blood there is no time left to talk about Native Americans, Asian-Americans, Latinos and a host of other people.
Freakin’ unproductive and very 90s.
The boots of oppression, in his and her sizes!!!
Continue reading "The boot of oppressor can fit any person who can kick." »
There are plenty of posts on Obama and acknowledgment of the King's "I Have a Dream" speech, but I have a dream too. Here it is:
Entitled-I Have a Public Transit Dream aka Wake me up from this public transit nightmare!!!!
(MORE AFTER THE TRANSFER)
On Sunday The Bus Bench took the DASH F to the California African American History Museum.
We took photos of some transportation related items in regards to the African-American experience.
Continue reading "Take the DASH (line F) to the California African American Museum" »
While at the Sustainable LA event on Sunday I was a bit disturbed during the green space, pocket park talk with Mike Woo and Vaughn Davies (both who had great points in regards to solutions to our ever growing cement problem) with the cars driving by.
I understand that in order to get large items to events you sometimes need a car, but it would have been nice had the cars been parked elsewhere by the time the event started. At the very least people shouldn’t have been driving by in cars while people were speaking.
(MORE AFTER THE TRANSFER)
In Los Angeles when poor blacks moved here from the South on busses and trains, they were forced to get off at Central Avenue. South Central does not designate an area south of downtown it designates an area south of Central Avenue. The reason why I will not call South Central, South LA is because I want to remember why it’s called South Central. An area that for a long time was the only section of LA that blacks moving in to the “promise” land of LA could move to.
Those actions were a catalyst as to why LA public transportation is designed the way it is and still shapes how transit is designed.
MORE AFTER THE TRANSFER
Continue reading "“Why does The Bus Bench bring up race? Isn’t this a transportation blog?”" »
I like to give kudos when publishers of blogs I admire get positive press. Carmen from Racialicious the blog I check daily, was on CNN talking about the infamous photo the Spanish basketball team that has been circulating the people of color blogosphere for about a week.
This is going to be about it in regards to the Olympics for my posts, because I seriously am confused as to what's the big deal. I hate sports. Hey isn't one of the guys on that team a Laker? Don't they have some kind of multicultural class when you join the Lakers? After that Shaq incident they must have put forth some kind of training.
We at the Bus Bench thought it was interesting that once a shooting occurred on the Orange Line it went from being a "rail" to a bus rather quickly. We wrote this podcast imagining what the Orange Line might have thought upon founding out, he was just a bus.
Can you make fun of race? Sure you can. There is an educated smart way of doing it.
There's nothing more irritating that a person of color comedian just catering to easy themes.
Russell Peters is an Indian-Canadian comedian that gets as a person of color there is more in the world than just your relationship to the white mainstream.
Margaret Cho and Chris Rock (yeah you were good for a second Chris, but later you went WAY too into what some white people think is funny in regards to black people...and Margaret you were awesome for a second, but you never went deeper than you thought your parent's accents were funny, sad...) take note. No one thinks you are funny anymore other than that white guy who has one black guy friend and that black guy is a cop.
At the Bus Bench we bring race, because to us it's connected to public transportation, government and the economy. The reason that public transportation in LA is in the shambles it is in is owing partially to race in addition to other factors.
--The Bus Bench
A merci goes out to Racialicious looking at TV and girly magazines so we don't have to.
The Bus Bench’s roots are in Social Ecology.
The Bus Bench takes a satirical and editorial approach to dealing with the issue of mobility in Los Angeles. The emphasis of The Bus Bench is public transportation, but we also discuss class, race, gender and Downtown Los Angeles.
In commenting on The Bus Bench we do not mind if your opinion differs than that of an opinion of a writer on a particular post. We welcome discourse. We only ask that you be respectful. Do not be violent with your words.
Contact us at: browne@shametrainla.com
The Bus Bench is doing an art project on January 10th in collaboration with The Loft Gallery's Post-Post Apocalypse exhibit in San Pedro and we need a car to murder.
Are you ready to release yourself from the chain of car ownership? Do you want it documented?
(LA Bus) Metro Trip Planner. This would include directions on how to get anywhere using any bus or rail line in LA Country.
Big Blue BusWestside!!
Montebello Bus Eastside!!
Gardena Muni Southside!!
Foothills Transit The SGV!!
Did you know there was an official where to go and how to do fun stuff in L.A.? Well now you do: Experience L.A.
L.A. is a special place, so we have lots of events. Your public transit ride could be impacted check here. Special Events Street Closures.
RANDALL (BusTard) FLEMING has spent two decades working in most every facet of publishing. A former magazine publisher (Angry Thoreauan, 1987-2001), he has also contributed to a great many books, periodicals and newspapers in Los Angeles and New York: New York Post, Brooklyn Spectator, Discover Hollywood!, Ben Is Dead, Flipside, Los Feliz Ledger, Sabotage in The American Workplace (Pressure Drop Press), Notes From the Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture (Verso), and several of the Unreinforced Masonry Studio books about Los Angeles.
Art Gonzo was raised in Los Angeles. He is a visual artist. He has seen a bus. When not at The Bus Bench he is a contributor at LA Eastside.
A Valley-born Los Angeleno, Simon Ganz only recently returned from the liberal enclaves of Northern California where he, to his surprise, found himself more than happy living without a car. Now back in his hometown with only a political science major to show for his journey, he is of course constantly unemployed and hoping to join/start/follow a movement to create better transit for everyone in Los Angeles.
Rogelio Gomez is a public transit rider and an avid cyclist. He blogs at My Daily Ride when he's not sharing his adventures on The Bus Bench.
Sirinya Tritipeskul is a graduate student studying to become a transportation planner at UCLA. She writes on The Bus Bench about living car-free on the Westside. Her own blog, The Valley Girl Planner (in training), is a tribute to her Valley Girl roots and her travels around the Los Angeles area.
Recent Comments