Los Angeles

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/16790112

Just tried commuting on my bike from Santa Monica to downtown Culver City today. I took the Exposition bike path, which was fine until I needed to get off of it to head south.

Google recommended I take National and--lo and behold--there's no bike lane with cars flying past at 55mph+ on blind hills. That's a death trap.

On the way home I left early to avoid traffic. I took Venice Blvd, since it has a protected bike lane all the way until McLaughlin which Google Maps called "bicycle friendly." No bike lane, of course, with cars flying past leaving a foot of distance between me and death. One testy driver in a BMW didn't want to wait the 15 seconds for me to pedal into the left turn lane to get back onto the Exposition bike path, honking and then flying by nearly killing me. Jeez lady, I'm not the city planner. Don't kill me to save 15 seconds.

How does Culver City put zero bike lanes going north to south connecting to the Exposition path? How do these drivers maintain their licenses?

What's a cyclist to do?

Hell yes! Love Clifton's!

Anyone else feel that? Felt like 3 seconds of rumble over in the SGV.

Edit: Here's the USGS report.

Source

The Fair Representation Act has been re-introduced in Congress. This bold solution can stop gerrymandering and make Congress work for every American. 

The Fair Representation Act can solve partisan gerrymandering, make every congressional district competitive, and encourage politicians to represent all of us instead of just their base. It does this by combining three reforms: 

• Multi-member districts. In three- or five-member districts, nearly every voter will elect a candidate they support. Voters like Massachusetts Republicans and Oklahoma Democrats will be represented in Congress. Gerrymandering will become nearly impossible.

• Ranked choice voting for all U.S. House and Senate elections. RCV frees voters to support their favorite candidates, and encourages candidates to reach out to more voters for second-choice support. When RCV is used in multi-member districts, it is a form of proportional representation.

• Uniform rules for congressional redistricting 

The Fair Representation Act can be passed without a constitutional amendment. It truly has the potential to transform our political system and create a more inclusive and deliberative government which respects and empowers all voices.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14932598

Watch live views of students protesting at UCLA in Los Angeles. The university canceled classes on Wednesday after dueling groups of protesters clashed overnight, shoving, kicking and beating each other with sticks as pro-Israel demonstrators tried to pull down barricades surrounding a pro-Palestinian encampment.

Follow latest updates on college protests here:

https://apnews.com/live/college-protests-palestine-updates

Decades ago my friends and I stole a car in Los Angeles and took a drive into the mountains just outside of LA. I was in high school and this was BEFORE all celular proliferation so we didn’t know where to go or what to do — we were shit thieves and one of us saw keys in a car and we jumped on it. Anyway — we ended up heading up a what I remember as a mountain road — and it couldn’t have been where Griffith park is or the Hollywood hills — likely, now that I think about it, we were so scared where headed east on the 210.

We figured we wouldn’t get caught if we just took the car into the mountains and drove home in the morning. Kidsarefuckingstupid

Anyway — the road we were on turned into a dirt road and we came around a bend and our headlight lit up two soldiers in full gear — helmets and automatic rifles so we stopped and they started screaming:

TURN AROUND AND LEAVE!! Leave now!!!

We left.

And got close enough to home to ditch the car and walk.

But this isn’t about our idiot joyride — this is about WTF soldiers.

Can anyone connect these dots? What were the soldiers doing?

(Also — I shared this because I MISS LA and I come to this community and find no post for a month! Shame on you! :-) but seriously — expates need your pics of parks etc.)