Quite often, I’ll rip into Los Angeles in terms of its lack of planning or poor management as a city. But the thing that should be obvious by everyone who isn’t a selfish beach house living asshole is that Los Angeles is in dire need of a Metro line that runs along the coast. Perhaps, it should run parallel to PCH (the 1) or the 405. But no matter what, Los Angeles really needs this line more than ever.
PCH and the 405 are two of the worst roads to travel. PCH is constantly clogged with its tiny lanes. Part of it might split into Sepulveda Blvd or Lincoln depending upon the part of the city you’re in. And the 405 is notorious as one of the worst freeways to have to deal with on a daily basis. It’s so bad some people refer to it as the 45 (meaning a minimum of 45 minutes to get anywhere using it). In both cases, they run north to south and are jammed by constant construction, car accidents, confusion (because of how elastic the lanes can get) and intermixed with all the assholes that are created every time someone gets a new license here.
Despite having these problems for ages, the city has done really little to mitigate it. I feel that some form of politics play a huge role in not correcting the fundamental issues that are obvious to any native Angelian (or those who have lived here for a reasonable amount of time). It’s as though a combination of unions, the car industry and rich people essentially tell the city’s denizens to fuck off in making any reasonable attempt at fixing the issues. Outside of a disaster on the scale of a Ronald Emmerich to force the city to rebuild this clusterfuck.
What’s worse is that some moron signed a deal to increase size of the ancient, sprawling and obese behemoth known as LAX. The city had an opportunity to move a good portion of the core issues to either Burbank’s airport or Ontario but instead chose to place all the eggs into a single basket. Why on god’s earth would anyone want to do something insane as create a massive target or potential disaster like this?
The result of this eyesore is that you have an extreme amount of wasted space simply protruding like flab in between some of the most critical areas to traverse. And there’s not a lot of options to get around this monstrosity. Yet when you get a scenario like a few nights ago where the drop off/arrival area got seriously backed up, you halt a huge section of traffic. This is at fucking night.
The people of Los Angeles deserve far better. We pay far more taxes for the most useless services than anyone I believe. And we have to deal with an incredible amount of bullshit that makes just getting to work a nightmare. The only apology the city can give is a proper subway or (in this case) a Metro line that runs from San Diego all the way up into the valley to remedy some of these issues.
My proposal would be to have two lines in fact. One for PCH and one for the 405. We already see an example of how the city can run a Metro parallel to the freeway with the 110 (and to the 105 to an extent). But with the growth of the so-called Silicon Beach, a lot of businesses now are propping up along the coastal regions like Playa Vista, Santa Monica and Westwood. Those areas are a commuters’ worst nightmare (especially Santa Monica and Westwood) despite providing the potential for some of the best jobs.
Yet without proper commuting options those businesses are in danger of not receiving the best talent as a result of people being unmotivated to drive there. The area surrounding those zones are often old and overpriced. In the case of Playa Vista, the apartments go for prices that are starting to match the Bay Area, except being nicer.
However, many people simply want an affordable spot or better yet a place that they can own rather than just a room that they rent and are being ripped off from. Unfortunately, the only affordable options exist so far out that you have to balance between dealing with a 1+ hr commute or a crappy, overpriced shack.
Those with families have it worse as housing and schools may not be in a convenient location depending on what the family is willing to sacrifice. But for those that want to start a family, it’s harder yet. Then you have to deal with choosing good neighborhoods, schools and an area that can support other needs (e.g. maybe Asian markets for instance).
Right now, the only places that provide any affordable housing that is decent are way the fuck out in the Valley or in the far east like Temecula. Unfortunately, neither are really ideal and even spots that are reasonably close like Torrance remain a hassle commute-wise and price-wise.
Sadly, most companies seem to not want to compromise on issues like telecommuting or having offices in less popular spots. That leaves the vast majority of people struggling to deal with stuff that they really have no control over.
Thus, the only real solution is for the city to be more pro-active and stop pussying around when it comes to things like the Metro. Certainly, we’ll hear stupid excuses like the fault-line or needing tons of research. But for the city to scale it requires the overall management to stop being so damn inefficient. Earthquakes can’t be helped but ensuring that buildings and structures are up to code can be. And if the libtards by the seaside are so insensitive about being able to see their precious blue skies, just remind them that their narrow mindedness is simultaneously making the sky gray due to all the pollution.
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