Take the Census so we'll know how many buses we need

3/26/2010: A Census advertising billboard near USC: If we don't know how many people we have, how do we know how many buses we need?

--Sirinya MA '09

Pictures from today's LA Marathon...a ped planner's dream and a traffic engineer's biggest nightmare

Juan and I walked over to Mile 26 to cheer on the first group of runners to finish the 25th annual Los Angeles Marathon, which ended about a mile from our apartment at the Santa Monica Pier.

The event was remarkable for several reasons.

This was truly an event for people, who had to walk their bikes through the finish line area.

Dispatch from LA Street Summit

Pictures!

Alexis Lantz MA '10 arrived by bike, in a dress and high heels. I want to be just like her.

Sirinya's Live Blog "Changing Lanes: Bold Ideas to Solve LA's Traffic Problems", part of The Rosenfield Forums

Program for today's event; Picture is thanks to Juan's Nexus One.

Sirinya here live-blogging from "Changing Lanes", the second Rosenfield Forum (a UCLA event), which has brought together transportation scholars and policy leaders to talk about solutions to Los Angeles's transportation problems.


NOTE: This will be fully updated by Monday. For now, these are my notes. Enjoy!!!

Leaders in Sustainability

Perhaps you're still thinking about what classes to take next quarter... 

While this is a reminder to many Bruin Planners, the Leaders in Sustainability (LIS) certificate program provides a practical way to connect planning theory and methodology to broader topics related to sustainability.  The program also provides a forum for graduate students from various academic disciplines to study issues related to sustainability and derive solutions together.  It’s a great way to meet students interested in environmental, social and/or economic sustainability.  The core course for the class is primarily an interactive lecture series where UCLA professors discuss their research/work related to sustainability and students dissect the issues from varying viewpoints.  The core class will be offered again in Winter 2011.

Aside from the core course, you need to take three classes related to sustainability to earn the LIS certificate.  Two of those courses must be from a class outside of your home department.   The Institute of the Environment site lists some LIS-eligible courses, but here’s a sample of a few highly recommended courses next quarter:

 Dr. Jackson’s Public Health & the Built Environment class highlights the connection between Planning and Public Health.  Walker Wells & Ted Bardacke are teaching Green Building which provides an overview of LEED and other green rating systems.  Professor Allen is teaching Industrial Ecology through Anderson (management) and the class will cover closed loop systems and life cycle analysis.

The requirements for the LIS program changed slightly since last academic year.  You can find them here.

2^nd year students – if you’ve already taken the LIS core course, the Spring 2010 quarter is your last chance to fulfill the requirement to take sustainability-related courses. Then, stay tuned for announcements in the Spring quarter that announce the LIS culmination.

1^st year students – you still have time to take the core course next year, but you should start taking electives related to sustainability when you have free space in your schedule. 

CD2 releases neat Google Map mashup of repaved streets

View Streets Resurfaced in CD2 - FY 2009-10 in a larger map
Check out Councilmember Paul Krekorian's latest "Gov 2.0" deliverable, thanks to Zach Behrens at LAist: a custom Google Map which shows allll of the streets which have been repaved during FY09-10 and their funding sources (Map of the Day: What Streets Have Been Repaved So Far This Year? - LAist).

The map is embeddable (see above) and you can download the KML file to fiddle with in Google Earth or in ArcView GIS.

A little motivation with demotivation.

Good luck with finals!

Poll: Suspend environmental protection laws to reduce unemployment?

This poll takes less than a minute to complete.

From Green LA Coalition:

"Please take a moment to vote! Thanks in advance for responding, and also for circulating the link to your contacts.

Help us WIN this informal poll on LA Times website about AB32. 
http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2010/03/poll-suspend-environmental-protection-laws-to-reduce-unemployment.html

Please circulate this LA Times poll to AB 32 supporters (the poll is framed subjectively, it seems).
Today appears to be the last day, so if you could take a quick minute to respond, it'll help.
Our side is losing in terms of number of responses at this point, with a strong message being circulated from AB 32 opposition.

Green LA Coalition"

Google adds bike directions!

Here's some good stuff coming from Google. You can now get directions via bicycle. It will route you to avoid hills and clearly shows you how bike friendly the path is. One bad piece of news, it's not available on a mobile phone yet, only the web.

Check out the demonstration video for more info: video

Water Use @ Home

LA Weekly - Black Lung Lofts

The LA Weekly just wrote a feature on housing developments within 500 feet of freeways and the health risks associated with those houses.

Read it HERE.

Vote for @cicLAvia

cicLAvia is a pilot project which would convert 7 miles of streets to park space on Sunday mornings in LA. You can vote for them everyday until March 31. (http://www.refresheverything.com/ciclavia). Their deliverables include the following list, and make sure to follow them on twitter.

• 7.5 miles of Car-Free Los Angeles city streets on 3 Sundays during the Summer of 2010
• Ten national press mentions (already mentioned in LA Times and many other news sources including local ABC news)
• $50,000 in grants
• $50,000 in corporate sponsorship and donations

Old modes of public transportation made New: Cable Car

Maybe it's because I'm from San Francisco and have a nostalgic and generous view of the cable car, or maybe it's because I now live in Los Angeles, which is slowly attempting to expand lines of public transportation, but this article in NewGeography has convinced me that maybe there is something to it.