we love it!
Last night I was the only person in the subway station for awhile (granted it was late on a Monday night). I ended up having a nice long conversation with a (perhaps bored and lonely) MTA custodian (janitor? what's politically correct here?). We talked about the wind in the station (and what it does with trash), how some of the homeless people are nice to have around, what L.A.'s doing to downtown, new MTA project near USC, riding Metro, new MTA buildings (incl. the one at Vermont and Wilshire), and various other topics. It was very nice and unexpected.
and
also
here's what I'm sayin'
To Be Happy We Must Walk
"A good city is one where people like to be out of their homes. They want to be in the public space: walking, being with people in parks, plazas, in cafes. There are some needs that we have for happiness... We need to be with people and we need to walk; not in order to survive, as birds need to fly or fish needs to swim. We need to walk."
"Transport problems cannot be solved with money, but solved with changes in life. But the fact is that if everybody, every 16 year old and older wants to go into a car at peak hours, it would destroy a city quality, at least mathematically would probably not be able to solve the transport problem ever... Whatever the level of car use there is is because government has decided; society has decided. I mean if New York, if there was more space for cars, there would be more cars; if there was less space for cars, there would be less cars... This is a political decision on how we will solve transportation problems."
--the former mayor of Bogotá, Columbia, Enrique Peñalosa, during a visit to Los Angeles last week
and
also
here's what I'm sayin'
To Be Happy We Must Walk
"A good city is one where people like to be out of their homes. They want to be in the public space: walking, being with people in parks, plazas, in cafes. There are some needs that we have for happiness... We need to be with people and we need to walk; not in order to survive, as birds need to fly or fish needs to swim. We need to walk."
"Transport problems cannot be solved with money, but solved with changes in life. But the fact is that if everybody, every 16 year old and older wants to go into a car at peak hours, it would destroy a city quality, at least mathematically would probably not be able to solve the transport problem ever... Whatever the level of car use there is is because government has decided; society has decided. I mean if New York, if there was more space for cars, there would be more cars; if there was less space for cars, there would be less cars... This is a political decision on how we will solve transportation problems."
--the former mayor of Bogotá, Columbia, Enrique Peñalosa, during a visit to Los Angeles last week