no one walks in la . . .

3rd Street promenade in Santa Monica, California. 5 blocks of car free consumerism. 

asphalt nation

          Asphalt Nation is a powerful examination of how the automobile has ravaged America's cities and landscape over the past 100 years together with a compelling strategy for reversing our automobile dependency. Jane Holtz Kay provides a history of the rapid spread of the automobile and documents the huge subsidies commanded by the highway lobby, to the detriment of once-efficient forms of mass transportation. Demonstrating that there are economic, political, architectural, and personal solutions to the problem, she shows that radical change is entirely possible. This book is essential reading for everyone interested in the history of our relationship with the car, and in the prospect of returning to a world of human mobility. (publisher's synopsis)

little history lesson

          Transportation corridors used today in California and its cities were routes used by native americans, and adopted by the Spanish as the mission roads. As the combustion engine emerged over animal power, the dirt paths were laid in concrete and molded into the megalithic interstate highways that still rely on ancient observation and knowledge of geography. Spanish place-names like La Cienega (the swamp) and La Brea (the tar) still adorn busy street names.

          In the 1870s the transcontinental railroad was completed with the labor of thousands of Chinese immigrants working for 31 dollars per month, minus food supplies. Waves of midwestern settlers flocked to Southern California, mostly from articles in the Los Angeles Times, which was more or less a advertisement pamphlet for real estate speculators such as the times owner, Harrison Gray Otis, a retired Army General. When the train rates from Kansas and Oklahoma to Los Angeles fell to one dollar, thousands poured into downtown Los Angeles, creating a short term economic boom, and never-ending housing, water, employment and transportation shortage.

           A street car system was developed around 1900 and soon became the largest and most advanced system in the world at the time. Reaching up into the mountains, down to the valleys and out to the sea, faster than most car trips across the same distance today. Billions have been invested into congested megalithic freeway systems. It operated smoothly for almost 50 years until it was bought and dismantled by Goodyear, General Motors and Union Oil. These companies were convicted of conspiracy in a court of law to dismantle street car systems in more that 50 cities across the US and were required to pay a nominal fine, less than $5,000.

riding for vietnam

 I had the pleasure of meeting a fellow in Malibu, CA who was riding a horse from Oregon, (where he lived) to Mexico. He was doing this to raise awareness of women's rights issues in Cambodia and Vietnam, where he had served in the war and met his wife.