life on the edge
daily musings about the oddities of san pedro, california.
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Friday, December 23, 2005
Holiday Tree Tales
But wait. What is with this "Holiday Tree"? Why isn't it called a Christmas tree? Whats going on here?
I'll be frank, I don't think that Christmas trees (or any other religious doo-dad) have any place on public property, but that's not the issue here. If you're have to have a Christmas tree, call it a goddamn Christmas tree, for Chrissakes! What is with all of this "holiday tree" pussyfooting going on this season?
There is nothing less stealthy than a fifty foot lighted pine tree in Southern California, and no one is fooled by the "holiday-ness" of this or any other tree. It's got a star on top (you know the five pointed symbol that stands for the star that led the Wise Guys to baby Jesus?), which I presume is just a "holiday star"?
All I'm saying is that if the Christian community wants a special display of their religion on public land, then they can pay for it themselves (which I hope they are already doing) and they should take the pride to call it a Christmas tree, or not have the silly thing at all.
Oh, and Merry Christmas & Happy Chanukkah to everyone. As of this year I'm lactose intolerant, so put back some nogg for me.
LAFD action in the Harbor today
If anybody knows what was happening, I'd love an explanation. I as going to ask the pack of idling fish proccessors, but after being told "I don't like having my picture took" (I wasn't taking their picture at the time) and threated to be "thrown overboard" I didn't think that they were the most helpful folks. Anyways, it was cool to see the fireboats in action.
Here's a pic of LAFD Fireboat #5, assisting in the operation.
UPDATE!
Brian Humphrey, official LAFD Fireblogger found my photos on Flickr and posted about the details of the incident. Apparently the vessel being assisted was not on fire, it was sinking. Check out the LAFD blog for his full post.
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Chuck Wright is Awesome
He's got flashlight headlights, a squeezebulb horn and he's probably rain-proof in his contraption. I like to think that he's unwilling to sacrifice any mobility as he ages and that his use of this device is part of his struggle to overcome his situation.
Juan Cabrillo National Monument
I was pleasantly suprised at the site, a hilltop bluff that overlooks both the ocean and the whole of San Diego proper, and which has been painstakingly preserved as a refuge for both public use and native plants. On a Saturday, there must have been dozens of people wandering about, tourists from all over the world and locals making recreational use of a beautiful natural area. We even got to see F-14 Tomcats taking off from the Naval Air Station.
Anyways, if you're ever in San Diego, don't miss it, they have a little museum and an auditorim where you can see movies about Cabrillo and also about grey whales, apparently the whale watching from the site is amazing. I wish we had somthing like this in Pedro, or even on the Peninsula...
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Marineland remembered
There's a great article in today's breeze about the history of Marineland. I was a card carrying member of the Sea Lion Society there as a kid, and I remember being totally bummed out when it was closed in 1987. I never got to go up in the Sky Tower because my dad was deathly afraid of heights, I can only imagine how awesome the view from that thing was, especially back in 1966 when it was first erected and the area was much less developed.
The article mentions that fromer Marineland photo shop manager Jim Patryla has self-published a book of his photos of the park. The Santa Clarita Valley Signal has an article on the book, and it's available for sale here, for the local history, marine animal and photo buffs in the house.
The article mentions that fromer Marineland photo shop manager Jim Patryla has self-published a book of his photos of the park. The Santa Clarita Valley Signal has an article on the book, and it's available for sale here, for the local history, marine animal and photo buffs in the house.
Get your reccomended dos-age tonite
Pardon the lame post title. Watt's always doing it for the kids during the holiday season, making tonight your chance to see him and Kira double up the bass at Sacred Grounds, and deliver holiday cheer to the deserving kids at the Orangewood Orphanage . Here's the details...
dos
tonight, December 18 @ 7 PM
Sacred Grounds 468 West 6th Street
$5 donation or an un-openend gift for entry - bring a good one!
Proceeds benefit the Orangewood Orphanage
dos
tonight, December 18 @ 7 PM
Sacred Grounds 468 West 6th Street
$5 donation or an un-openend gift for entry - bring a good one!
Proceeds benefit the Orangewood Orphanage
Friday, December 16, 2005
Do it for the kids...
In case you're into that sort of thing, Napoleon Dynamite is playing at the Warner tonight, and all it takes to get in is a can of food (bring good food, not out of date, back of the cupboard no-one-wants-to-eat-this discards). I'm not sure who the canned food goes to but, I'm sure it's someone who needs it.
Shows are at 6 & 8 PM - tonight, Friday the 16th
Shows are at 6 & 8 PM - tonight, Friday the 16th
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
LAUSD Moves Right Ahead
Looks like the half-baked multi mini-school proposition failed to put the brakes on the LAUSD vote. Will this close the issue?
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
High School Alternatives
From today's Breeze.
Hahn asks delay on San Pedro school site vote
The satellite school plan. I actually like this type of plan, in general, but not as it's being put forward now. Some deeper thinking needs to go on for this to be feasable.
Why it's a good idea:
1) Smaller schools allow for the administration to pay much closer attention to what's going on in the classroom, and with the students. Problems are seen sooner and are more difficult to ignore.
2) Sports are less relevant at schools that don't have the facilities. This is a actually a good thing, as it allows schools to place more emphasis on art, music and trades, educational areas that get the short end of the stick and are as critical non-academic activities as sports.
3) Traffic. By distributing traffic around the area, everyone gets it a little worse, but no one get's totally shafted. Nothing will eliminate the total number of car trips going through the community as a whole, but the choke points will be more numerous, but less intense.
issues:
1) Traffic. No studies have been done on the traffic impact of the proposed plan. This is a "no one knows" alternative, in this area, at least.
2) The LAUSD land in Angles Gate Park (where I work, at the Cultural Center) may have environmental issues. No one wants to build a mini-Belmont. From my understanding many of the LAUSD buildings on site are actually storage for toxic materials. Not to mention the history of contamination from the mortar battery and other military facilities. Before you can even propose this, you should have a study done on the site. As it stands, the proposal to use this site for a school is an empty one, without a proper study on the environmental feasablity of the project. And given that the only LAUSD access to the site is on Alma in the middle of a difficult to access residental neighborhood, a creative traffic solution is key to the potential use of that property for any purpose.
3) The number of seats doesn't add up. From the article, I'm counting 500 on the Navy Land, 500 at Angels Gate and 500 at Harbor College. I'm guessing that the alternative plan is counting on the 500 seats at the POLA high school as the final 500 needed to add up to 2000? The LAUSD plan called for a 2000 seat school, in addition to existing LAUSD high school facilities in the area. This alternative, as I see it, is 500 seats short.
My big question mark on the alternative (at first glance) is the seats issue. I have a lot of detail oriented questions and doubts about the Angels Gate option, but that's probably mainly due to my intimacy with the site.
My favourite plan was building the whole campus on the golf course at Harbor College. Eliminating a golf course is a major mitzvah in my book, and what would redeem such a waste of land than to see it turned into a center of learning? Also, having a high school directly adjacent to Harbor College might bring added attention to the needs of that institution, possibly bringing up the quality of the programs there at the same time. Or the 2000 seats could be divided between the Navy site and Harbor College, with 1000 seats at each site. Would that lessen the traffic problems sufficiently to please the community around Western Avenue?
Hahn asks delay on San Pedro school site vote
The satellite school plan. I actually like this type of plan, in general, but not as it's being put forward now. Some deeper thinking needs to go on for this to be feasable.
Why it's a good idea:
1) Smaller schools allow for the administration to pay much closer attention to what's going on in the classroom, and with the students. Problems are seen sooner and are more difficult to ignore.
2) Sports are less relevant at schools that don't have the facilities. This is a actually a good thing, as it allows schools to place more emphasis on art, music and trades, educational areas that get the short end of the stick and are as critical non-academic activities as sports.
3) Traffic. By distributing traffic around the area, everyone gets it a little worse, but no one get's totally shafted. Nothing will eliminate the total number of car trips going through the community as a whole, but the choke points will be more numerous, but less intense.
issues:
1) Traffic. No studies have been done on the traffic impact of the proposed plan. This is a "no one knows" alternative, in this area, at least.
2) The LAUSD land in Angles Gate Park (where I work, at the Cultural Center) may have environmental issues. No one wants to build a mini-Belmont. From my understanding many of the LAUSD buildings on site are actually storage for toxic materials. Not to mention the history of contamination from the mortar battery and other military facilities. Before you can even propose this, you should have a study done on the site. As it stands, the proposal to use this site for a school is an empty one, without a proper study on the environmental feasablity of the project. And given that the only LAUSD access to the site is on Alma in the middle of a difficult to access residental neighborhood, a creative traffic solution is key to the potential use of that property for any purpose.
3) The number of seats doesn't add up. From the article, I'm counting 500 on the Navy Land, 500 at Angels Gate and 500 at Harbor College. I'm guessing that the alternative plan is counting on the 500 seats at the POLA high school as the final 500 needed to add up to 2000? The LAUSD plan called for a 2000 seat school, in addition to existing LAUSD high school facilities in the area. This alternative, as I see it, is 500 seats short.
My big question mark on the alternative (at first glance) is the seats issue. I have a lot of detail oriented questions and doubts about the Angels Gate option, but that's probably mainly due to my intimacy with the site.
My favourite plan was building the whole campus on the golf course at Harbor College. Eliminating a golf course is a major mitzvah in my book, and what would redeem such a waste of land than to see it turned into a center of learning? Also, having a high school directly adjacent to Harbor College might bring added attention to the needs of that institution, possibly bringing up the quality of the programs there at the same time. Or the 2000 seats could be divided between the Navy site and Harbor College, with 1000 seats at each site. Would that lessen the traffic problems sufficiently to please the community around Western Avenue?
Monday, December 12, 2005
Long Time No Blog - Catching Up
Well this little cephalopod got so busy that he coudn't squeeze out even the barest entry in what has been a busy few weeks here in Pedro. If you don't have the energy/time to write something worthwhile, then don't pick up the pen.
Anyways... There's commmunity storms a brewing everywhere in town these days. Let's start with the LAUSD vs. Developement vs. Traffic Advocates vs. Community Members vs. Old Folks battle shaping up on Western at ye old navy housing. Finally something's getting done there, but who knows if it's the right something. Frankly, I side on the we need a new high school team on this one, because I'd rather see that need get taken care of than more housing/condo/senior living development.
The biggest news, of course, is the naming of a new Executive Director for the Port of Los Angeles. Perhaps her previous job as Managing Director for the Port of Long Beach indicates that her appointment is based upon a desire to address regional issues, such as traffic and pollution, an area in which her resume seems to be relevant to. At least she's not from within the department. Will her tenure lead to a change in the counterproductive culture that permeates the departement?
Other Coverage: L.A. Times, Daily Breeze, Long Beach Press Telegram, Los Angeles Daily News, Mayor Sam
In case you needed to be told - should a tsunami hit the Port of Los Angeles, we're gonna be screwed big time. That mother nature's still got more muscle than mankind isn't news, and that we aren't really prepared for the whims of nature isn't a suprise either.
The Queen Mary 2 is coming to town and boat-o-philes can get all nautical over it.
Oh Joy! Looks like the satanic developers determined to mine the Peninsula coastline for every available inch of real estate had their dreams come true, with every luxury vacation condo at the planned resort on the former Marineland site selling out in 3 hours at an average price of $2.4 million.
Apparetly the interest in Reggie the Gator still deserves some tiny amount of ink.
The L.A. Times did an interesting article on the struggles of the Harbor Ship Supply group.
Oh, and of course you've gotta love the Life on The Edge Crimebeat. If it's not sneaky scuttling or gun & drug running bar owners, it's gotta be 43 tons of illegal squid sales. I love this town.
Anyways... There's commmunity storms a brewing everywhere in town these days. Let's start with the LAUSD vs. Developement vs. Traffic Advocates vs. Community Members vs. Old Folks battle shaping up on Western at ye old navy housing. Finally something's getting done there, but who knows if it's the right something. Frankly, I side on the we need a new high school team on this one, because I'd rather see that need get taken care of than more housing/condo/senior living development.
The biggest news, of course, is the naming of a new Executive Director for the Port of Los Angeles. Perhaps her previous job as Managing Director for the Port of Long Beach indicates that her appointment is based upon a desire to address regional issues, such as traffic and pollution, an area in which her resume seems to be relevant to. At least she's not from within the department. Will her tenure lead to a change in the counterproductive culture that permeates the departement?
Other Coverage: L.A. Times, Daily Breeze, Long Beach Press Telegram, Los Angeles Daily News, Mayor Sam
In case you needed to be told - should a tsunami hit the Port of Los Angeles, we're gonna be screwed big time. That mother nature's still got more muscle than mankind isn't news, and that we aren't really prepared for the whims of nature isn't a suprise either.
The Queen Mary 2 is coming to town and boat-o-philes can get all nautical over it.
Oh Joy! Looks like the satanic developers determined to mine the Peninsula coastline for every available inch of real estate had their dreams come true, with every luxury vacation condo at the planned resort on the former Marineland site selling out in 3 hours at an average price of $2.4 million.
Apparetly the interest in Reggie the Gator still deserves some tiny amount of ink.
The L.A. Times did an interesting article on the struggles of the Harbor Ship Supply group.
Oh, and of course you've gotta love the Life on The Edge Crimebeat. If it's not sneaky scuttling or gun & drug running bar owners, it's gotta be 43 tons of illegal squid sales. I love this town.