Urban Living in California

Photo and article from Curbed LA by Adrian Glick Kudler.

Are we finally getting to the good part in planning the Subway to the Sea (aka Westside Extension of the Purple Line)? Metro is holding a series of community meetings to share the latest news since the Draft Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report process started in April, and there was firm-ish talk of station locations and construction arrangements. Curbed was at last night’s West Hollywood meeting, where Metro’s Jody Litvak and David Mieger presented updates and heard from community members. (First shot: Wilshire Blvd, peeled back. At Fairfax)

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Photo from blogdowntown

Article from blogdowntown by Ed Fuentes

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — The Downtown Film Festival returns for its second run August 12 – 22, with a lineup long in dark themes mixed with a bit of comedy.

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The heavy-traffic area at the connecter from the 110 to the northbound 5 will get futuristic ‘Smart Studs,” intended to reduce long lines. These studs gauge the flow of traffic and open and close a lane depending on how many cars are on the road. This $3.2 million installment is hoped to be functioning by this November, and if the project goes well, the city will consider putting ‘Smart Studs’ on other parts of the freeway.

Read the full article by Craig Howie from the LA Times

From Bloomberg.com by Courtney Schlisserman and Bob Willis

July 27 (Bloomberg) — Purchases of new homes in the U.S. climbed 11 percent in June, the biggest gain in eight years, underscoring evidence that the deepest housing slump since the Great Depression is starting to stabilize.

Sales increased to a 384,000 annual pace, higher than every forecast in a Bloomberg News survey and the most since November, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington. The number of houses on the market dropped to the lowest level in more than a decade.

Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economists said today’s figures signal an end to the slide in home construction and sales. While that means the drag on economic growth will turn to a stimulus in the second half of the year, property values are likely to continue falling and rising unemployment will temper the recovery, analysts said.

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From LAist.com by Zach Behrens

Jobs, environment, public transit, crime and education were the focus of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s second inaugural address today on the south steps of City Hall. “I stand, hopefully a little bit wiser as well, chastened and enlightened both by our successes and failures over the last four years,” he said. “Angelenos, I offer this oath today. In the next four years, we are going to judge ourselves plain and simple — based on what we build. We intend to write our record in concrete rather than poetry, focused on deadlines over headlines. And you have this in writing, we are going to track our promises and put the results online. And we are going to build our efforts around five clear goals for the next four years.”

Of note in his lengthy speech, was about the building of twelve rail projects funded by Measure R, the additional sales tax that began today in LA County. “The people did their part,” he explained, “now it’s time to do ours; to get that investment off the drawing board and into the ground; to connect the eastside to the airport, and Downtown to West L.A; to build housing for our workers along transit lines and near job centers; to take action to build all 12 Measure R rail projects on time or ahead of schedule.”

Read Mayor Villaraigosa’s full speech here:

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