Disqus - Latest Comments for jfruh

Re: District NoHo gets the go-ahead from L.A. City Planning Commission

jfruh — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 14:14:34 -0000

Yeah, that's my entire point. The second entrance was good because it was across the street from the first, and also adjacent to the G Line station, so people didn't have to cross Lankershim to transfer. But a new entrance in that location doesn't help prevent anyone from having to cross a street, so I'm not sure what the point is.

Re: District NoHo gets the go-ahead from L.A. City Planning Commission

jfruh — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 13:58:44 -0000

Ah, thanks. I guess I don't actually see the point of building a new entrance right next to the existing one? Or is the existing one stairs-only and not ADA accessible or something, I can't remember.

Re: District NoHo gets the go-ahead from L.A. City Planning Commission

jfruh — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 12:56:38 -0000

There's already an entrance to the subway on the west side of Lankershim, since the opened the tunnel under the road to better connect to the G Line terminus. Where's the new one going to be?

Re: Makeover in the works for 7th Street/Metro Center Station

jfruh — Fri, 03 Feb 2023 18:28:32 -0000

Not sure why that should sound terrible at all! In a normal subway system, you don't pay or even tap twice if you're changing lines within a station.

Re: Makeover in the works for 7th Street/Metro Center Station

jfruh — Fri, 03 Feb 2023 16:27:02 -0000

I'd like to see a rethink to how transfers from the B/D to the A/E lines work. The situation with faregates is very confusing and I'm pretty sure it's possible to be inside the faregates but then in theory be required to tap again on easy-to-miss, non-gated card reader on your way to the light rail platforms. For a big transfer station like 7MC the most logical thing would be to have one set of faregates as you come in and anything that happens inside those gets is free of charge. Metro's overall policy on when you need to tap (you don't have to switching from B to D lines, but I think do in all other cases? Do you have to pass through gates or tap coming from the A to the C at Willowbrook?) is generally incoherent, but as they system gets built out and more transfer stations are added it's only going to get more so unless they take steps to rationalize it. For the most part it doesn't matter now because these transfers are free, but it's totally possible for someone to be in theory out of compliance if they fail to tap to pay $0, and I wouldn't put it past Metro to hassle someone over it. And if Metro goes through with their plans to replace free transfers with daily fare capping, it will become an issue for sure.

Re: Draft EIR released for C Line extension to Torrance

jfruh — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 13:11:01 -0000

you could do all sorts of transit projects quicker and cheaper that people in the south bay would actually get behind, or at least not show up to public meetings to yell about. what ends up actually happening is that local electeds fight for expensive projects to get "their share" of the tax money, which Metro then has to do endless compromises on that end up making it less and less useful because of loud local NIMBYs and weak local support.

Re: Draft EIR released for C Line extension to Torrance

jfruh — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 12:50:45 -0000

hot take: cancel this project and use the money for literally anything else in denser communities that are fighting to get rail. accelerate the K Line northern extension. Grade-separate the wye south of downtown. Appease the Valley NIMBYs by putting the Sepulveda Pass line underground there too. Can't think of much dumber use of a billion dollars than building an extension that'll get 10K riders a day past psychos who are convinced that the train will primarily be used by perverts trying to peep into their backyards.

Re: Design refresh for SRO apartments at 1501 E Walnut Street in Pasadena

jfruh — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 16:16:02 -0000

If this is an SRO building, does that mean there are shared kitchen/bathroom facilities? What does "market rate" even look like for that?

Re: 176-unit development set for construction at 2225 Sunset in Echo Park

jfruh — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 13:30:09 -0000

It's also right on the 4 goes down Sunset to downtown every 7 minutes or so at peak times.

Re: Metro Board adopts plan for upgraded bus service in the northern San Fernando Valley

jfruh — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 19:14:46 -0000

this is good but why on earth is it gonna take a year to start on it and then two years to implement, jesus christ

Re: Transportation officials adopt plan for Coachella Valley rail project

jfruh — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 16:29:33 -0000

Seems crazy to invest this much money in a line that will only see two round trips a day?

Re: Glendale streetcar could break ground by 2026

jfruh — Mon, 06 Jun 2022 18:55:23 -0000

Seems crazy to have this almost but not quite overlap w/the BRT line. If the BRT is already going to have reserved lanes, why not put the streetcar in those lanes along Central?

I like in theory the idea of a connection to the Metrolink station, although the frequencies there are so low that it seems kind of pointless. But in a perfect world where they someday do a 15-min headway RER-type service on the LAUS-Burbank route, this would be a great connection to have.

Re: Metro Board Approves Bus Rapid Transit through North Hollywood, Burbank, Glendale, Eagle Rock, and Pasadena

jfruh — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 20:48:44 -0000

There were bus lanes on the Pasadena segment to PCC in the original plans but they were cut out years ago.

Re: Getting Started With Observability in 2022

jfruh — Thu, 28 Apr 2022 19:07:39 -0000

Thanks for alerting us to this, Camilla! We've now fixed it.

Re: L.A County targets nine properties for Project Homekey purchases

jfruh — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 13:26:10 -0000

I said this in the previous post, but I don't understand how the economics of this works out in regards to the new or as yet unbuilt projects? If the city/county can afford to buy in-progress projects at lower rates (some of the ones for the city came in at less than $300K/unit) then why can't they just start these projects from scratch themselves?

Re: Here's L.A.'s next bach of Project Homekey purchases

jfruh — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 12:06:55 -0000

I sincerely don't understand the economics of some of these transactions. How are the city and the developers able to make it "pencil out" to buy mostly-completed new construction for this purpose at these prices? In the Tujunga example, the what the city is paying works out to $285K/unit, which seems very low for new construction. Is the developer getting a tax break or some other revenue outside the transaction to make it worth their while?

The other question is, if it's possible to build housing at $285K/unit, why aren't the city and developers working together from the beginning of projects to do so? Hell, why aren't developers just doing it themselves?

Re: Vermont/Santa Monica development gets $69M in funding

jfruh — Thu, 27 Jan 2022 20:26:54 -0000

It's always impossible to tell from stories like these whether the project has enough money to actually start construction. We've been hearing about this project for years, is this going to put it over the finish line or not?

Re: Infill projects overcome appeals in East Hollywood and Sawtelle

jfruh — Sat, 15 Jan 2022 18:16:21 -0000

Wait, they're saying that 3-5 br places make them "co-living hotels"? Why do these people hate big families?

Re: Environmental review kicks off for the Silver Lake Reservoir Master Plan

jfruh — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 12:06:04 -0000

I went to several of the public meetings about this a couple years ago and it felt like a parody of liberal LA NIMBYism. This was during the first Trump impeachment and when it was announced that someone from Adam Schiff's office was there he got a spotaneous standing ovation. 20 minutes later person after person was getting up to demand that the lake not be changed in a way that might include "amenities" that would attract "outsiders." I too really wanted swimming as a component of the plan, but the very idea inspired several near-meltdowns from attendees. Basically I'm surprised this master plan doesn't consist entirely of a bigger fence around the resevior.

Re: Transportation Committee Approved Motions To Implement New CA Laws: Speed Limits, Bus Lane Cameras, Slow Streets

jfruh — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 13:57:29 -0000

Oh for sure. I will never forget the time I saw a car parked in one of the rush hour bus lanes on Wilshire in KTown. The city tow truck came to get it, but it parked in front of the car in the bus lane and they both just sat there for like 20 minutes while the driver filled out paperwork.

Re: Transportation Committee Approved Motions To Implement New CA Laws: Speed Limits, Bus Lane Cameras, Slow Streets

jfruh — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 12:09:54 -0000

I just looked up the law and it only allows it for parking violations, which is actually really dissapointing!

Re: Transportation Committee Approved Motions To Implement New CA Laws: Speed Limits, Bus Lane Cameras, Slow Streets

jfruh — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 11:09:38 -0000

Who would have to approve getting cameras on Metro buses for bus lane enforcement? The county?

Re: Metro Completes Design for 210 Freeway Crash Barrier to Keep Trucks Off Gold Line

jfruh — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 15:46:14 -0000

The real hidden gem is this is that the light rail line is going be single tracked, presumably for years, while they work on this. Very excited for the A Line to finaly open from Asuza to Long Beach and then be put on all-day 20-minute headways indefinitely six months later

Re: Metro considers four build alternatives for West Santa Ana Branch

jfruh — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 13:20:20 -0000

would've been great if they could've built a station box during the regional connector construction. other cities do this in advance!

Re: Metro considers four build alternatives for West Santa Ana Branch

jfruh — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 12:41:04 -0000

Definitely the wildest thing here is that in the option to LAUS, the Little Tokyo station is "optional", and if they do build it, there will be no underground transfer option! Passengers will have to go all the way up to surface level and walk across the plaza. Metro's complete inability to understand the importance of seamless transfers as it builds out its network is utterly baffling to me. But I think in this case they just really don't want to build the station at all, which is equally insane as it means there won't be a direct transfer from the WSAB to the E line.