Survey: 62% Want Feds to Pay for LA Infrastructure

A MAJORITY OF citizens who took LA City Council President Eric Garcetti's survey about what to do with $19 million in federal stimulus funds agree with me. A full 62% of respondents want infrastructure (lights, sidewalks, streets) to be among the top 3 priorities for the federal "community development" money. 34% say infrastructure is 1st priority 16% say infrastructure is 2nd priority 12% say infrastructure is 3rd priority Just so long as they don't shut down neighborhoods to do it.

Diabolical! Close Half the Streets, Ticket the Other Half

YOU HAVE TO give credit to the City of Los Angeles. If ever there were an unbeatable revenue model, this would be it. First, close half the streets in the neighborhood for "slurry" coating. Force cars to squeeze onto the other half of the streets, most of which happen to have parking restrictions for street-sweeping. Then, start writing dozens of $58 parking tickets. I swear I could see a gleam in the eye of the parking enforcement guy. (The best part? 8:30am and not a slurry truck in sight.)

City of LA Holds Atwater Village Hostage Next 2 Days

THE NEXT COUPLE of days are going to be a pain in the asphalt. Many Atwater Village streets are closed, in part or in full, Wednesday or Thursday, all day, 6:00am to 6:00pm.

Why? The city's Bureau of Street Services (BOSS) is applying a slurry coat seal that "prolongs the life of the pavement by stopping asphalt erosion caused by water and oxidation from the sun."

Great. Does it also absorb stray bullets? Here's the original City notice, left without fanfare (or postage) in neighborhood mailboxes. And here's the City-to-Newbie translation:

• If you want to pull your car out of your driveway after 6:00am, too bad for you
• If you want to street-park your car within sight of your home, too bad for you
• If you want to sleep past sunrise, too bad for you (garbage trucks come first, at 6:00am)
• If you're disabled and need to be picked up or dropped off at your door, too bad for you
• If you're working on your house or yard and need a vehicle nearby, too bad for you
  
• If you want to water your yard in the next 3 days, too bad for you (the City says runoff would harm the "integrity" of the slurry)

And if your block seems to be in reasonably good condition and you wish Street Services would go do something more useful, like repair potholes and cracks in other parts of the neighborhood, well that's really too bad for you. Take it up with the BOSS office at (213) 485-5667.

City Trucks at 6:40AM: Apparently OK in LA

APPARENTLY THE CITY OF Los Angeles noise rules, where most "excessive, unnecessary, and/or annoying noise" is banned before 7:00am in residential areas, does not apply to the City's own trash and recycling trucks. The big trucks can roll a whole hour earlier, starting at 6:00am; hence the 6:40am yard-waste truck invasion this morning in Atwater Village. Does the extra hour really make a difference in collection routes? And if this is a neighborhood's the only regular, excessive and/or annoying noise, does it make sense to exempt it from the noise rules?