LA Air Quality

Despite improvements over the years, the Los Angeles area remains the most ozone-polluted region in the country, according to a report released Tuesday by the American Lung Association.
The group's 10th annual national report also found that 38 California counties, including Los Angeles, received a failing grade for air quality - 12 more than last year.

Among other factors, the bad grades reflect a more stringent national ozone standard implemented in 2008, said Bonnie Holmes-Gen, senior policy director for the American Lung Association.

"California has had an enormous population growth and vehicle traffic," Holmes-Gen said. "Over the last 20 years, our population has doubled, our use of vehicles has grown and all forms of transportation, such as freight movement, diesel trucks, ships at the port and locomotion, also have increased."

more at Daily News...

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DesertXpress

It wasn't until very very recently that I learned of this high-speed rail project being financed entirely by the private sector. This project began in 2002 and its Draft EIS report was approved in March by the FRA (Federal Railroad Administration). It's supposed to start construction in 2010 and operation will begin in 2014 if their time line is accurate, which it has been up to now and probably will keep on that track.

A little background on the DesertXpress, it's a high speed line starting in Victorville (no stops) all the way to Vegas, using steel on wheel tech (not using Maglev technology for what I assume monetary reaosons). It would take about 1 hr and 20 minutes to get to Vegas and I think their website says they will be charging about $50 each way...however don't quote me you can look at their website for more accurate info. www.desertxpress.com

Now, I wonder like so many other people....why Victorville? Why not wait for the Anaheim to Vegas high speed rail? The desertxpress makes a good case, they mention most people travel about an hour to two hours to get to work..I think its pretty accurate to assume that with traffic these days... However, people do not tend to travel to Vegas alone. At least the majority of the people travel with friends, and really one saves a lot of money when carpooling when a group of people, than stopping in Victorville to hop on the rail which will probably just end up taking as long to get to Vegas...

other issues..

The project is currently being financed solely by the private sector..but they're website mentions something about private-public partnership, which I think it's something we're going to be seeing more of with the economy being in such crisis (in my opinion a bigger crisis than the swine flu). Currently, they're having public comment periods in Victorville and Las Vegas..double check website on dates and encourage people to attend the meetings..

Lastly, I'm not sold on this project...I think they need to consider other locations. I just don't see how they're going to make any profit out of placing high speed rail in Victorville to Vegas without there being a connection to major metropolis areas???!

Cinco de Mayoo

SUV + Bicycle Incident Leaves All Parties Not-Guilty

Early Friday morning in downtown one bicyclist was sent to the hospital overnight after he had an incursion with a Hummer. That same vehicle ran over three bicycles a few minutes later.
What happened? Well, that depends on who you ask. The police say, via an unsolicited witness, that a cyclist, possibly drunk, crashed into the Hummer when he approached the passenger side door (apparently, he wanted to confront the occupants, but was going too fast). The group of cyclists say the Hummer purposely came up from behind and took one of their own out (full description of cyclist side of story here).

Basically, here's what both sides can agree on: something happened between the hummer and a cyclist, who got injured. Other cyclists surrounded the Hummer to ensure the driver didn't leave the scene. Well, he did leave the scene and in the process, ran over three bicycles dropped by riders moving out of the way. The police arrived, talked to each party, interview witnesses and call it a day, arresting no one, or as Sgt. Kevin Moore told LAist, they "split the baby." That's because to the police, it seemed that the Hummer driver had begun the incident by obnoxiously honking his horn at the cyclists rather than driving around them--it was 2 a.m. with zero traffic. They said he probably had feared for his and the passengers' safety when his car was surrounded by cyclists, making it okay to leave the scene of a hit and run.

As for the injured cyclist, he made it home Friday afternoon from the hospital, luckily with minor injuries. "It was so fast, i don't believe what happened," he explained to LAist. "The next thing you know, I'm in the air. I'm really lucky nothing is broken." Details were fuzzy to him, but one thing was for sure: he didn't hit or even approach the Hummer--it came out of nowhere sideswiping him. (Thanks to LAist)

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Oklahoma Adopts Flaming Lips Tune as State Song

Hey all you hipsters, Oklahoma has a much, much cooler state song than wherever it is you live.

The Sooner State's governor Brad Henry signed an executive order making The Flaming Lips' "Do You Realize" the official song for the state yesterday (April 28), which totally edges out "I Love New York" and "I Love California" by, oh a million miles.

The song was originally chosen through Interent polling, though the Oklahoma house failed to pass the measure last week after getting all uptight about things. (thanks to Aversion.com)

What would Orange County's official song be?
Something by No Doubt perhaps? Pennywise? NOFX?

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Obama's first 100

Today is the 100th day of the Obama administration. Judging a president after 100 days is not realistic -- and may be absurd.

After the first hundred days, President Carter was viewed as potentially great, and President Clinton was viewed as a one-termer. Obviously, it didn't turn out that way.

No one can predict after a few months whether a presidency will be successful over the long four-year term, or eight years if he gets re-elected. We have no idea what lies ahead.

In a way, it is like judging a marathoner after he has completed the first few blocks of a race. You can tell whether he is running easy or smart or whether his stride and pace is correct, but you certainly can't predict whether he will win or finish the race strong.

The president has an appealing style. The country is giving him high marks, but so far they are style points and not necessarily for his policies. We don't know whether the policies will work.

more fron CNN...

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Can the recession help solve urban sprawl?

The article below predicts that home prices may not have hit rock bottoming prices...what can this mean for urban sprawl, the environment, infrastructure, employment..etc???

U.S. Home Prices Continued to Decline in February

Joshua Lott for The New York Times

Construction has been halted in this subdivision in Chandler, Ariz., a suburb of Phoenix.

By DAVID STREITFELD and JACK HEALY

Published: April 28, 2009

Phoenix has achieved the unwelcome distinction of becoming the first major American city where home prices have fallen in half since the market peaked in the middle of the decade, according to data released Tuesday.

Though historical statistics are scant, experts said the precipitous decline probably had few if any equals in modern times.

“Even during the Depression, I’m not sure prices fell this quickly,” said Karl Guntermann, a professor of real estate at Arizona State University.

Greg Swann, a Phoenix real estate agent, took a moment to marvel at the news. “What happened here will some day be a new chapter in ‘Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds,’ ” the classic survey of investing mania, he said. “We were living during the boom like there was no tomorrow. And guess what? Now it’s tomorrow.”

Home prices in the Sun Belt city, the 12th-largest metropolitan area in the United States, dropped 4.5 percent in February, according to the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index. Prices in Phoenix are now down 50.8 percent since the market peaked in June 2006.

For the country as a whole, the Case-Shiller numbers offered the thinnest of silver linings: things are still getting worse, but more slowly.

In February, the price of single-family homes in 20 major metropolitan areas fell 18.6 percent from the year earlier, compared with a record drop of 19 percent in January.

“Finally, we’re seeing a touch of moderation,” said David Blitzer, chairman of S.& P.’s index committee. “This is the kind of thing one might see if we’re beginning to see a bottom. I would not run out and celebrate, but I would not dig the bunker any deeper.”

Mr. Blitzer said the decline in Phoenix outpaced any during the recession of the early 1990s, for which reliable figures are available. The only precedents he could cite were the Midwestern cities hit by the Great Depression and a contemporaneous drought, and Miami after a 1920s craze for beachfront property reversed itself.

The boom in Phoenix was founded on a basic truth: it was a place where many people wanted to live. But the market turned irrational. Investors bought homes they did not even bother to rent out. They merely waited a few months until prices rose again so they could flip them.

Ordinary homeowners got caught up, too. “People saw themselves as cashing in on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Mr. Guntermann said.

Except for the few who managed to get out at the peak, it was a mistake. By now, anyone who bought in Phoenix a decade ago would have lost money after inflation. Many did not get off so easily. Foreclosure notices were filed against one in 40 houses in the metropolitan area in the first quarter, according to RealtyTrac Inc. That was the ninth-highest rate in the country.

The Case-Shiller data show that housing markets across the United States are still suffering. Half of the 20 metropolitan areas in the index posted record year-over-year declines. In all, the 20-city index was down 2.2 percent from January.

From Atlanta to San Francisco to Chicago, not one of the 20 cities posted a gain in home prices from January to February, and values in all but five cities dropped by double digits from a year earlier.

The nearly 51 percent drop in Phoenix is not an isolated plunge. Prices in Las Vegas are down some 48 percent from their peaks. They are down 45 percent in Miami from their highest levels, and down 40 percent in Los Angeles and San Diego.

Economists said housing prices would probably continue to fall as Americans, worried about rising unemployment and the recession, put off big financial decisions like buying a home.

Some economists expect housing prices to fall another 5 to 10 percent before they hit a bottom; others say that prices could decline by as much as a third. According to the National Association of Realtors, the median price of a home in the United States, which peaked above $230,000 in 2006, has fallen to $175,200.

As prices have dropped, frozen housing markets in hard-hit areas like Southern California, Phoenix, Las Vegas and South Florida have begun to thaw. Record-low mortgage rates and huge inventories of foreclosed homes and other fire-sale properties have enticed first-time buyers to the market and lured others who had been sitting on the sidelines.

Home sales in Southern California and the San Francisco Bay area, where foreclosures dominate many markets, have snapped back this spring as prices dropped. But sales have slowed to a crawl in other markets like New York City, where prices declined 10 percent from a year ago.

“We’re seeing very strong sales in a few states and weak sales across 40 states,” said Patrick Newport, United States economist at IHS Global Insight. “The key factor driving them right now is just the excess inventory. Even though prices are undervalued, they’re still going to drop because of the excess. Even if we were at full employment we’d still see prices dropping.”

Inventories of unsold homes are edging down slightly, but there was still a glut of 3.7 million unsold homes in March, the Realtors’ group reported, representing a supply of nearly 10 months.

Mr. Swan, the realty agent, said inventories of lower-priced homes were already dwindling in Phoenix as investors snapped up bank-owned properties at bargain prices.

“I’ve got Canadians coming here who are putting together investment pools of millions of dollars to buy houses by the hundreds,” he said. “They’re going to rent them out to all the people who were foreclosed and need a place to live. This is going to be a good year for us.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/29/business/economy/29econ.html

Capitalism and the Flu by Mike Davis

April 27, 2009

THE SPRING Break hordes returned from Cancún this year with an invisible but sinister souvenir.

The Mexican swine flu, a genetic chimera probably conceived in the fecal mire of an industrial pigsty, suddenly threatens to give the whole world a fever. Initial outbreaks across North America reveal an infection rate already traveling at higher velocity than the last official pandemic strain, the 1968 Hong Kong flu.

Stealing the limelight from our officially appointed assassin--the otherwise vigorously mutating H5N1, known as bird flu--this porcine virus is a threat of unknown magnitude. Certainly, it seems far less lethal than SARS in 2003, but as an influenza, it may be more durable than SARS and less inclined to return to its secret cave.

Given that domesticated seasonal Type-A influenzas kill as many 1 million people each year, even a modest increment of virulence, especially if coupled with high incidence, could produce carnage equivalent to a major war.

Meanwhile, one of its first victims has been the consoling faith, long preached in the pews of the World Health Organization (WHO), that pandemics can be contained by the rapid responses of medical bureaucracies, independent of the quality of local public health.

Since the initial H5N1 deaths in Hong Kong in 1997, the WHO, with the support of most national health services, has promoted a strategy focused on the identification and isolation of a pandemic strain within its local radius of outbreak, followed by a thorough dousing of the population with anti-viral drugs and (if available) a vaccine.

An army of skeptics has rightly contested this viral counter-insurgency approach, pointing out that microbes can now fly around the world (quite literally in the case of avian flu) faster than the WHO or local officials can react to the original outbreak. They also pointed to the primitive, often nonexistent surveillance of the interface between human and animal diseases.

But the mythology of bold, preemptive (and cheap) intervention against avian flu has been invaluable to the cause of rich countries, like the U.S. and Britain, which prefer to invest in their own biological Maginot Lines, rather than dramatically increase aid to epidemic frontlines overseas--as well as to Big Pharma, which has battled Third World demands for the generic, public manufacture of critical antivirals like Roche's Tamiflu.

The swine flu, in any case, may prove that the WHO/Centers for Disease Control (CDC) version of pandemic preparedness--without massive new investment in surveillance, scientific and regulatory infrastructure, basic public health and global access to lifeline drugs--belongs to the same class of Ponzified risk management as AIG derivatives and Madoff securities.

It isn't so much that the pandemic warning system has failed as it simply doesn't exist, even in North America and the EU.

Perhaps it is not surprising that Mexico lacks both capacity and political will to monitor livestock diseases and their public health impacts, but the situation is hardly better north of the border, where surveillance is a failed patchwork of state jurisdictions, and corporate livestock producers treat health regulations with the same contempt with which they deal with workers and animals.

Similarly, a decade of urgent warnings by scientists in the field has failed to ensure the transfer of sophisticated viral assay technology to the countries in the direct path of likely pandemics. Mexico has world-famous disease experts, but it had to send swabs to a laboratory in Winnipeg (which has less than 3 percent of the population of Mexico City) in order to identify the strain's genome. Almost a week was lost as a consequence.

But no one was less alert than the legendary disease controllers in Atlanta. According to the Washington Post, the CDC did not learn about the outbreak until six days after the Mexican government had begun to impose emergency measures. Indeed, the Post reported, "U.S. public health officials are still largely in the dark about what's happening in Mexico two weeks after the outbreak was recognized."

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THERE SHOULD be no excuses. This is not a "black swan" flapping its wings. Indeed, the central paradox of this swine flu panic is that while totally unexpected, it was accurately predicted.

Six years ago, Science dedicated a major story (reported by the admirable Bernice Wuethrich) to evidence that "after years of stability, the North American swine flu virus has jumped onto an evolutionary fast track."

Since its identification at the beginning of the Depression, H1N1 swine flu had only drifted slightly from its original genome. Then, in 1998, all hell broke loose.

A highly pathogenic strain began to decimate sows on a factory hog farm in North Carolina, and new, more virulent versions began to appear almost yearly, including a weird variant of H1N1 that contained the internal genes of H3N2 (the other type-A flu circulating among humans).

Researchers whom Wuethrich interviewed worried that one of these hybrids might become a human flu (both the 1957 and 1968 pandemics are believed to have originated from the mixing of bird and human viruses inside pigs), and urged the creation of an official surveillance system for swine flu. That admonition, of course, went unheeded in a Washington prepared to throw away billions on bioterrorism fantasies while neglecting obvious dangers.

But what caused this acceleration of swine flu evolution? Probably the same thing that has favored the reproduction of avian flu.

Virologists have long believed that the intensive agricultural system of southern China--an immensely productive ecology of rice, fish, pigs, and domestic and wild birds--is the principal engine of influenza mutation: both seasonal "drift" and episodic genomic "shift." (More rarely, there may occur a direct leap from birds to pigs and/or humans, as with H5N1 in 1997.)

But the corporate industrialization of livestock production has broken China's natural monopoly on influenza evolution. As many writers have pointed out, animal husbandry in recent decades has been transformed into something that more closely resembles the petrochemical industry than the happy family farm depicted in schoolbooks.

In 1965, for instance, there were 53 million American hogs on more than 1 million farms; today, 65 million hogs are concentrated in 65,000 facilities, with half of the hogs kept in giant facilities with 5,000 animals or more.

This has been a transition, in essence, from old-fashioned pig pens to vast excremental hells, unprecedented in nature, containing tens, even hundreds of thousands of animals with weakened immune systems, suffocating in heat and manure, while exchanging pathogens at blinding velocity with their fellow inmates and pathetic progenies.

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ANYONE WHO has ever driven through Tar Heel, N.C., or Milford, Utah--where Smithfield Foods subsidiaries each annually produce more than 1 million pigs as well as hundreds of lagoons full of toxic shit--will intuitively understand how profoundly agribusiness has meddled with the laws of nature.

Last year, a distinguished commission convened by the Pew Research Center issued a landmark report on "industrial farm animal production" underscoring the acute danger that "the continual cycling of viruses...in large herds or flocks [will] increase opportunities for the generation of novel virus through mutation or recombinant events that could result in more efficient human-to-human transmission."

The commission also warned that promiscuous antibiotic use in hog factories (a cheaper alternative to sewer systems or humane environments) was causing the rise of resistant Staph infections, while sewage spills were producing nightmare E. coli outbreaks and Pfisteria blooms (the doomsday protozoan that has killed more than 1 billion fish in the Carolina estuaries and sickened dozens of fishermen).

Any amelioration of this new pathogen ecology, however, would have to confront the monstrous power exercised by livestock conglomerates such as Smithfield Foods (pork and beef) and Tyson (chickens). The Pew commissioners, chaired by former Kansas Gov. John Carlin, reported systemic obstruction of their investigation by corporations, including blatant threats to withhold funding from cooperative researchers.

Moreover, this is a highly globalized industry, with equivalent international political clout. Just as Bangkok-based chicken giant Charoen Pokphand was able to suppress investigations into its role in the spread of bird flu throughout Southeast Asia, so it is likely that the forensic epidemiology of the swine flu outbreak will pound its head against the corporate stone wall of the pork industry.

This is not to say that a smoking gun will never be found: there is already gossip in the Mexican press about an influenza epicenter around a huge Smithfield subsidiary in the state of Veracruz.

But what matters more (especially given the continued threat of H5N1) is the larger configuration: the WHO's failed pandemic strategy, the further decline of world public health, the stranglehold of Big Pharma over lifeline medicines, and the planetary catastrophe of industrialized and ecologically unhinged livestock production.

http://socialistworker.org/2009/04/27/capitalism-and-the-flu

Mexico flu sparks worldwide fear

Please click on the link below to find out more about this new epidemic facing a possible world-wide crisis.. It's so bad that the Mexican soccer games were closed off to the public?!! Hmm..this is a bit frightening! Let's hope this clears up prontooo.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8019100.stm

Hardships in CA's Imperial Valley

The Imperial Valley is accustomed to the spectral look of failure: Houses around the Salton Sea have been abandoned for decades; the Planters Hotel in Brawley stood empty for years before it was destroyed by fire; Main Street in El Centro, the Imperial County seat, remains stubbornly vacancy-pocked.

But even by historical standards, the latest bust in the region's cycle of hardship and hope has been profound.

Never-completed subdivisions resemble movie lots waiting for a picture set in a typical Southern California suburb. Men who had found high-paying jobs building homes are back in the fields -- if they can find work at all.

more here..

Profile: Gavin Newsom

This past week, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom (D) announced (via Twitter) his candidacy for Governor of the State of California.

As a planning student, reading Newsom's executive summary "Better Neighborhoods and a Better City for Everyone" put nothing less than a smile on my face. Key points of the summary include:

• When creating more housing, placing an emphasis on creating unique and vibrant neighborhoods rather than flooding the city with more buildings.
• A Smart Transportation Plan (multi-nodal, green, safe)
• Focusing on street level planning (sidewalk improvements, outdoor seating, aesthetic designs)
• Reducing politcally-motivated decision-making in city-planning -- giving the planning commission a broader authority.

Also an advocate of the battle against homelessness, his initiative Project Homeless Connect, has been adopted in over 100 cities. Newsom brings an undeniable energy with him wherever he works, maybe one day in the near future, our state can sustain his leadership for a better future.

Gavin Newsom (Twitter)
Better Neighborhoods

Committee to Defend Academic Freedom @ UCSB

I'm in utter shock of having read what is happening at other UC campuses..specifically what's going on in my alma mater school of UC Santa Barbara..

What's happening in Santa Barbara.. to get to the point is that a professor is being reprimanded for speaking his mind. Imagine that? Someone speaking their mind at a university institution, how absurd is that right? Of course it's not, after all that is what a university institution is supposed to do and inspire, critical thinking!

A group of students have formed this committee below to speak out against this new injustice. I would like to call upon RFK for some words of wisdom: "We know that if one's mans rights are denied, the rights of all are endangered" RFK.

Below is a some information on the committee (http://sb4af.wordpress.com/). I urge everyone to go this link and send a letter of support, we can't afford to stay in the sideline and do nothing, especially when it comes to issues that jeopardize our first amendment right, our right to freedom of speech!!

The Committee to Defend Academic Freedom at UCSB (CDAF-SB) is committed to educate about, promote, and defend academic freedom through a coalition of progressive students and organizations on campus. CDAF-SB is dedicated to organizing students on campus against nation-wide campaigns of political repression.

What bring us together are principles of academic freedom, participatory democracy, and open dialogue. These principles are essential to the protection of a holistic, higher education. As the most important of the nation’s civic institutions, the university must maintain its vigilant defense of the full and free exchange of ideas.

A silencing campaign has recently manifested itself at UCSB through allegations of anti-Semitism and misconduct against Professor William I. Robinson. CDAF-SB strongly opposes the flagrant and baseless affronts to academic freedom on this campus and to Professor

Planning, Politics, and Ethics!

In the classroom setting, we learn about theories and ways that as planners can carry on APA's guidelines and ethics..but I wonder are APA ethics and ideals even being followed??

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-landpolitics19-2009apr19,0,2646867.story?page=2

A recent article in the Los Angeles Times provides an insight of what it is like for a working planner..

I urge everyone to read the article and think critically about ways that as critical planning students we can help create a stronger link between APA ethics and what's actually being practiced.

L.A. County probes supervisors' role in land use planning

Email Picture

Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times

Bruce McClendon, L.A. County’s former director of land use planning, was fired for unknown reasons.

Ousted chief planner alleged that county supervisors and staff have tried to influence development, zoning and code enforcement decisions -- perhaps criminally. Auditor-controller is investigating.

By Garrett Therolf
April 19, 2009

According to the rules of the job, Bruce McClendon seemed to be succeeding in every way as Los Angeles County's top land use planner.

After more than a year in the position, he had good marks on his latest performance evaluation. His boss wrote, "Mr. McClendon has become an active and supportive member of the county family, and his efforts and contributions are appreciated."

Four months later, county supervisors meeting in a closed session voted to fire him. But no one told McClendon.

Instead, he said, for months after the vote last November he was pressured to quit and leave quietly. Ultimately, William T Fujioka, the county's chief executive, carried out the firing Jan. 16.

The supervisors have refused to say why they ousted him. McClendon, 62, blames it on what he describes as the unwritten rules governing land use -- one of the most intense, politically fraught areas of county government.

Now, county investigators are trying to determine whether the planning process is so fierce that supervisors -- and their staff -- regularly violate their own rules.

McClendon, a highly respected former president of the American Planning Assn. and the first outsider to lead the department in more than three decades, said he tried -- not always successfully -- to shield his staff from efforts by supervisors' aides to influence code enforcement, zoning and development decisions that were not supposed to be political.

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FOR THE RECORD:
Auditor's investigation: An article in Sunday's Section A about an auditor's investigation of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors' dealings with the land planning department cited a civil lawsuit brought by Malibu landowner Brian Boudreau. The article incorrectly said that an e-mail provided by Boudreau's attorney, Fred Gaines, came from an aide to Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. The e-mail, which said "Project is getting very political," was sent by a public works employee; Gaines did not say it came from Yaroslavsky's office. —

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He has declined to publicly detail his allegations, citing a letter from Fujioka that ordered him not to publicly release documents or information after his firing. Instead, he would only say that the problem was not isolated to a single supervisor's office and that he believed criminal law might have been violated when supervisors' aides tried to use back channels to influence hearing officers who were set to hear landowners' appeals.

"I've been in government for 30 years and I've never seen anything like it," said McClendon, who previously led planning departments in Florida. "They are supposed to establish policy; we are supposed to carry it out in a fair, professional way."

McClendon's allegations are under investigation by Auditor-Controller Wendy Watanabe, formally appointed by the supervisors earlier this year. Investigators from her staff recently met with McClendon and received detailed information from him, both sides said. Watanabe plans to release written findings in the coming weeks.

Watanabe acknowledged that investigating her superiors, the county supervisors, is awkward. "This is the first time I can remember a situation like this," she said.

She strongly asserted, however, that her office would be capable of an independent investigation, saying the supervisors take a "hands-off approach" to her work.

"My integrity and reputation are at stake," she said.

Central to Watanabe's probe is whether the board violated a 3-year-old "non-intrusion" rule approved by supervisors that prohibits elected board members and their staff from giving orders to or instructing "any county officer or employee."

Supervisors flatly deny any impropriety. They cite another provision in the county governance rules as the basis for communications McClendon has alleged were improper. That provision allows them to "coordinate district specific policy and program initiatives, working directly with an individual department."

In a region where many people feel choked by growth that lacks the infrastructure to support it, intense skirmishes between builders and residents commonly occur within the county's more than 2,600 square miles of unincorporated land.

"All but the smallest projects are the matter of great public debate," said Allan Kotin, a longtime real estate consultant in the county and an adjunct professor at USC. "Almost every developer hires a lobbyist that has access to one or more supervisors. There is at least temperature-taking before the actual application process even begins."

In the city of Los Angeles, planning director Gail Goldberg has been outspoken about her belief that elected officials hold more sway over planning decisions in this region than in almost any other area in the country. But Goldberg, who came to Los Angeles from San Diego three years ago, said that during her tenure, elected city officials have used official channels and open meetings to influence decisions.

"When these decisions reach the political arena, it's fair to say the decisions are not always the best planning decisions, but that's appropriate because the elected officials have more to consider," she said. "Giving the elected officials the best planning advice we can give is the best we ask."

Some who have dealt with the county on planning matters say they feel they have come under political pressure.

Wayne Fishback, owner of a Chatsworth ranch, said he believes that planning officials ordered code enforcement action against him at the behest of Supervisor Mike Antonovich's office. Fishback said he has been pressured to sell his land to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy so it can be incorporated into the Michael D. Antonovich Regional Park.

To support his claim, Fishback's attorney provided e-mail correspondence that Antonovich aides sent to enforcement officers a few days before officers arrived on Fishback's property and issued a series of violation notices.

Antonovich spokesman Tony Bell said Fishback's allegations were "absurd and have no basis in fact." Bell said that constituents had brought concerns about the property to his office and that staffers alerted the planning department.

Malibu landowner Brian Boudreau has brought a civil suit against the county alleging improper meddling by Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's office. Boudreau has been trying to clear the way for 80 single-family homes in the Calabasas area and says Yaroslavsky's office has used "ministerial" processes to block development.

Boudreau's attorney, Fred Gaines, provided e-mail correspondence that a Yaroslavsky aide sent to a planning department staffer and county staffer that comments: "Project is getting very political."

Yaroslavsky said he was "very confident" that the staffer's e-mail about the political nature of the project was not a reference to any action by his office. He declined to talk further about Boudreau's case because of the pending lawsuit.

Yaroslavsky, who first won his seat in 1994, said his efforts to prevent further development in the Santa Monica Mountains are about enforcing the rules, not playing politics.

"When I got here," he said, "the culture in the county, at least my part in the county, at least for two decades, was that people just did not abide by the rules. Since it's out in the wilderness and no one is paying attention, by the time the county found out about it, there was nothing you can do about it."

garrett.therolf@latimes.com

Planners Out and About -- Coachella 2009

Coachella has always been praised for its eclectic lineup from year to year and 2009 stood by that notion wholeheartedly. Anchored by classic heavyweights (Paul McCartney, Morrissey, The Cure, Public Enemy) and a showcase of a new generation of American punk rock (Vivian Girls, No Age), Coachella provided a deserved escape in the face of our country's adversity.

Friday was all about Macca and the Fab Four. From M. Ward covering "Roll Over Beethoven" to Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos' t-shirt reading "George Harrison" to the variegation in ages and backgrounds of the concert-goers that day, his aura had overtaken the day. Beginning his set with "Jet" and "Drive My Car," Paul set the tone for what would be a thoroughly energetic night. For a man who needs no justification for attention, Macca provided the playfullest of banter in between songs. Even more endearing were his homages to his late wife (whose anniversary of death was that same day), John and George. In the last hour and a half or so, Paul and his bandmates churned out the best of the best one after another. As a boy listening to my parents cassette tapes on road trips or on Sunday afternoons, I could not describe the amazement I felt singing along with 30,000 people "Yesterday," "Let It Be" and "Hey Jude."
















The Cure and My Bloody Valentine provided a moodier affair on the closing night of the festival. Earlybirds that day were treated to the simplistic but noisy punk of New York's Vivian Girls and Los Angeles duo No Age. Both bands made notice that punk rock is alive and well in the 21st century. If you decided to camp out at the main stage for the whole day, you were treated to a slew of fine tunes. Okkervil River, Lupe Fiasco and Peter, Bjorn and John provided a great segway into the hotly anticipated set by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Featuring a backdrop of a huge, inflated plastic eyeball, the festival and indie rock's quintessential female rock star, Karen O blessed the crowd with her infectious charisma and YYYs classics. Public Enemy featured a 50 year old reality tv legend stage diving at all angles while The Cure pulled out the classics.

For those who have never attended, the Coachella is operated extremely well. The layout specifically makes great use of the enormous amount of space given to the festival allowing for individuals to easily make their day however they please. As a planner and music lover, Coachella is a very satisfying experience. Just bring your ears, some friends and sunscreen and you’ll be alright.

hub2

Hub2 seeks to enable local neighborhoods to participate more meaningfully in the design and development of their own public spaces. Residents engage in a process that employs 3D tools and problem-solving techniques to articulate a common vision reflecting the participants’ values.

hub2

The 4th Bin

What if there were an easy way for businesses and individuals in New York City to dispose of all of their e-waste? What if there was a 4th BIN ?

Valiant Technology in association with Core77, The Architect’s Newspaper, Metropolis Magazine, Microdesk Inc., Soho Reprographics, Supermetric, and Per Scholas has launched “Design The 4th Bin” a competition aimed at designing the next generation E-waste logo and an E-waste Bin for New York City.

The winning logo is to be released as a public domain/creative commons design, to be as familiar as the möbius strip on every paper and plastic recycling bin.

The winning bin is intended as inspiration for an E-waste collection system in New York City. It aims to help building owners, businesses and residences comply with the new laws going into effect in 2010 restricting the disposal of electronic waste.

The 4th Bin

The Dutch Bicycle

THE Great Downturn may have its first real status symbol.

It has plenty in common with recent extravagances. Like the Range Rover or the Sub-Zero fridge, it has a solid frame designed for function. Like a Louis Vuitton trunk, it has a chic design and a patina of history stretching back to the 19th century. And like a bottle of San Pellegrino, it evokes that genteel way of life that Europeans are always going on about.

This new It object is the glossy black Dutch bicycle, its design unchanged since World War II. Increasingly imported to the United States and starting to be seen on the streets of New York (and in the windows of at least one clothing store), it appears to have everything a good craze needs. That includes a hefty price tag — usually between $1,000 and $2,000 — and a charming back story about how the bikes have been an indispensable part of the picturesque Dutch cityscape for decades.

more from NY Times...

5th Annual Social Justice Summit

This event will be held this Saturday, April 18th...

for more info..please click on the link below...

 http://www.fullerton.edu/deanofstudents/volunteer/VSCProjects/summit.html

Also,

Don't forget this Sat. too is UCI's Waysgoose/Open House 10 am - 4 pm..along Ring Road

The event itself includes carnival rides, a car show, etc. and is sure to be a great time!!

Obama encouraging agency tweeting

Obama's Open Government Directive, due in May, to encourage agency tweets.

Twitter is taking flight in unlikely skies: the U.S. federal government.
From NASA to the General Services Administration, more federal agencies are embracing Twitter as another Web-based channel to communicate news and engage in conversations with U.S. citizens (10 Twitter tips from early federal adopters).

NASA announced Monday that astronaut Mike Massimino would use Twitter to provide a personal behind-the-scenes peek at his last few weeks of training before embarking on a space shuttle mission. In the first 48 hours of Astro_Mike tweets, Massimino attracted more than 14,000 followers on Twitter.

more at Network World...

City council backs plan for prefab housing

Vancouver city council is backing a proposal to provide 550 temporary housing units for the homeless, including prefabricated modular units, by the end of the year with funding for up to five years.

The interim strategy involves placing 190 prefab units on city-owned land adjacent to the Drake Hotel in the Downtown Eastside and at the Old Continental Hotel on Granville Street.

more at The Vancouver Sun...

Postopolis! Recap

Postopolis! presented by The Storefront for Art and Architecture took place last week on top of The Standard Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. It featured discussions on architecture and urbanism amongst many bloggers and professionals in the region and country.

Friday of that week featured a refreshing presentation by Eric Rodenbeck representing San Francisco based Stamen Design. Among the many map designs presented, one of the more interesting concepts featured an interactive catalog of every work held in the San Francisco MOMA. Other highlights of Stamen's work involved geo-tagging and crime-mapping in the city of Oakland.

The main feature of the night was a talk from LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne. Just recently back from a trip to Dubai, Hawthorne presented images and thoughts of world's current nexus for design monstrosities. He particularly touched on the current state of the economy with respect to the many abandoned projects in the emirate. Also noted was the many comparisons and influences in the designs of the many pockets within the city. These range from Phoenix to Manhattan to Las Vegas.

Postopolis!

Transportation czars enjoy $300-a-night hotels while traveling

The Orange County Transportation Authority spent $95,802 on travel and conference expenses for its board members over the past three years, according to agency documents - including $300-a-night hotel rooms in The Big Apple and $975-per-person conference fees to join a posse of SoCal officials trying to grease the wheels for transportation spending in Washington, D.C.

more at OC Register...

Welcome

You have reached UC Irvine's Planning Student Organization blog. The is a freeform account where you will find the musings on issues of Urban Planning as well as students' opinions on books, music, film etc.

All in all, this is meant to provide an outlet for our students and more or less a good read for those who need a break from work or school.

Enjoy all.

Matthew Agustín
Masters of Urban and Regional Planning '10
Planning Student Organization - President