Tonight was a talk on SF streetcars with Rick Laubscher, author of On Track: A Field Guide to San Francisco's Historic Streetcars and Cable Cars.
The spouse was interested so we BART-ed in together to the Glen Park station and walked the 15 or so minutes to the Excelsior Branch of the SF Public Library.
Rick Laubscher about to give his talk.
The event was filmed so it should be posted to the SF Public Library's "You Tube" account ..at some point in the next couple weeks.
**edit** here's a link to the video posted back in September..
I finally got around to editing a short clip from our return into Downtown LA late last month as we cross over the LA River and into the rail-yards of downtown.. I suggest turning down the volume as the iMovie 'theme' music wears on the nerves after a minute
KPCC/NPR is reporting this morning that American Apparel has hired some 2500 workers to fulfill their growing business needs. They also stated that yesterday (Tuesday) Mayor Villaraigosa toured the facilities and praised them for keeping jobs here in LA. They played a soundbite from the mayor as well.While I couldn't find a link to the streaming audio, you can read the small related piece here:
Suffice to say it was a good piece and I hope that other businesses are listening to this example.
Recently other bloggers had posted about American Apparel's expansion to the Eastern edges of the Arts District. American Apparel is a very vocal company which I recall May First they rallied their employees and were a huge presence for immigration reform. Most everyone in LA should be familiar with their "Legalize LA" campaign. It's not empty words. American Apparel seems to take good care of its employees with benefits and a decent wage.
Employees from American Apparel at the MayDay Rally on Broadway May 1st, 2008.
Another article I *did* find was regarding getting reliable & easy transportation for its employees:
"..This being Los Angeles -- City of Traffic and Angels -- there is no direct bus service to Union Station. Thus the reason for my visit.
Employees who want to reach Union Station by mass transit have to take a circuitous route that involves walking a few blocks to a bus that travels west into the heart of downtown, where they transfer to the subway. It's a journey that takes 31 minutes, not counting the initial walk to the bus, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority trip planner.
That's 31 minutes to travel 1.6 miles as the crow flies, which I compute to be 3.2 miles per hour. That's not slow. That's Stone Age."
You should definitely read the entire article. They are working w/ MTA. Currently DASH doesn't get quite close enough and in a city where the newest DASH route only got started last week, it seems it might be some more time before the next one.
Saturday was mostly me recovering from sleep debt and other stress related stuff. I moved some more things, then Sunday was a day to hang out in Pasadena at the Pasadena Police Classic Car Show & the Pasadena Chalk Fest 2008. Left later than anticipated, but the MTA Gold Line got us there. It was super hot so we were glad we brought some bottled water and when we were out, there was a Starbucks van handing out samples of Frappachino. sweet! (seriously).
I was up super late getting these pix up so you can see my flickr groups HERE and HERE respectively. There were so many photos I had to break it up into 2 parts. The first is the car show, then the 2nd is lunch at Islands and the chalk fest. Included are some pix of some bands that were there entertaining as well. We stopped in Filmore station to pick up some groceries on the way back at the first TJ's (or one of the first) and I got some shots later, but honestly this stuff wore me out. Here are some highlights!
Pasadena Police Classic Car Show:
1948 Chevy Pickup
Entertainment was provided by "the answer to classic rock" who did a pretty good cover of 70s/ 80s hits.
another Chevy!
Citroen!
Classic Ford Engine
***
Lunch at Islands:
Island fries with cheese. =)
Meeko's favorite Island burger:
Aloha burger with bacon (extra on the bacon).. I dare you to click on the photo (or better yet the original!).
Chalk Festival:
"Girls drawing Girls"
A little Lakers pride.
some art had serious themes:
gazing on a classic theme.
working out the details.
finishing the details.
shading...
There's many more in the flickr groups but you get the idea. It was a lot of really cool and sometimes amazing work all done from a picture or an idea, drawn & colored ot large scale and put down in chalk and judged.
