paste("South", c("Central", "Bay"))[1] "South Central" "South Bay" Captain’s Log, stardate 100732.45, or Earth date February 18, 2023.
Did you know that LAX has an official song? And there are two versions of lyrics. Cool and ethical are different concepts. I find many things cool but unethical, such as pretty much everything aerospace designed by and for the military industrial complex. Also, while I can’t help but find jetliners cool and I enjoy flying, especially the thrill of acceleration when taking off and the view from above, I try not to fly because it’s bad for the environment. So LA International Airport, where the big jet engines roar, says the first version of the LAX song. Cool, I like that song. But meanwhile, the roar of your engines belongs to the trash can of history.
There’s no tl;dr, because there’s a lot to see over 90 miles.
Arts District
I have nobody to blame but myself. On November 5, I went to Bike Shed Moto in Arts District, where “bike” stands for motorcycles, more specifically the loud and heavy Harley Davidson kind, for the Bike LA’s fundraising event, where “bike” stands for bikes powered by human muscles or small electric motors. I took some photos and offloaded them onto my desktop, where they sat for a few weeks, until I decided to clean up my files and accidentally deleted that directory, which I didn’t realize until I finally had some time to edit the photos and couldn’t find the photos of interest. Now I use a different system to organize photos. I offload them straight into my external hard drive rather on my limited laptop disk space, and I have another external hard drive for backup. I also wanted to take a better photo of the Art Deco building that is currently occupied by Urth Cafe and the lighting is better in the morning while I visited in the afternoon in my first trip. These are the reasons why I went to Arts District. Plus I just like that region.
Off the 1st St bridge. I needed to make a left on Vignes and then to 2nd St to get to Santa Fe Ave to the heart of the Arts District. On 2nd St, I found this really cool mural about Cyberpunk DTLA on something that is probably an old warehouse.
Then I began to recapture the photos I lost last November. Arts District is gentrifying and the brand new One Santa Fe apartment complex with artistic and sustainable features is a prime example. It was once an industrial region full of railroads, but the modernized industry neede larger warehouses and roads so moved to Vernon and City of Industry to the south, leaving Arts District abandoned. In the 1980s, artists rented the super cheap old warehouses for studios and galleries. Eventually, LA recognized this artistic use. Now there are some new posh apartments here. Some of the old warehouses got cleaned up and acquired new modern motifs befitting of gentrification.
There’s a cool human anatomy mural beneath the 4th St bridge, among the scenes I’m recapturing
There’s also lots of graffiti beneath 4th St bridge, of course, in less public regions. What’s the difference between murals and graffiti? I think generally graffiti is highly stylized words and letters while murals mostly depict people, scenery, things, and etc., usually not centering on words. Also, while I’ve seen murals of various caliber in LA, the average mural tends to have better artistic caliber than the average graffiti. LA murals also often have the Chicano style, a tradition from Mexico and the Chicano Moratorium, while graffiti block and wild form letters come from New York. However, there are overlaps. For instance, I tend to call graffiti with better artistic caliber murals. Also, both traditions tend to be rebellious, though there are officially commissioned instances. Some murals deliberately feature graffiti, such as the The Wall That Cracked Open mural by Willie Herrón III in City Terrace, which was painted overnight around existing gang graffiti and deliberately invited the community to add more graffiti. As a result, it was mistaken as graffiti damage and was once mistakingly whitewashed.
I had to make a U turn in order to take photos of that mural, so I got back to 3rd St and found this cleaned up historical probably warehouse, for toys and grocery. Are the writings on the top of the building deliberately preserved to preserve the layers of history?
Then I continued southon Santa Fe, and made a detour to some studio blocks where the Arts District Co-op that sells Collette Miller wings merch is located. I went there for the Urth Cafe, and to revisit this more pedestrian friendly region that I first visited last October after the ASHG conference at the LA Convention Center. Again, sign of gentrification, as Urth Cafe ain’t cheap.
“Santa Fe” is named after the Santa Fe railroad, and some old railroad remnants can still be seen.
Then I went south on Mateo. When the 6th St viaduct opened last summer, it drew widespread criticism from the cycling community because the bike lane is designed to be permeable to cars, with plastic bollards easily crushed by cars. Advocates want the bike lane to be with the sidewalk, separated from cars by a concrete barrier. Soon, almost as expected, Sergio Cordova was killed there. There was a ghost bike for him back in November, whose photo I have lost so hopefully someone else has taken a photo. This time, the ghost bike is gone but there were still some flowers and a tiny bike painting.
Whenever someone gets killed at a familiar place, I wonder if I’m insane. Many of my colleagues don’t even dare to bike to work due to dangerous roads. While I have braved a lot of traffic, even I have no courage to revisit some large highways that really scared me. The highways that have destroyed Black and Brown neighborhoods and are giving then asthma. I have lots of reasons to hate car culture. I look forward to a day when people reclaim the roads from cars and the planet from the plutocrats, so when we go out for a ride, the first thing we say is “have a nice trip” rather than “ride safe”.
The galleries and murals – though not Chicano style – continue south on Mateo until Olympic Blvd. These are some cool examples.
The industrial city of Vernon
I always find Vernon bizarre. Why on earth is it a city while it only has 222 residents in the 2020 census? How did it become a city in the first place? It’s all warehouses and factories and tens of thousands of workers work here, though few live here. Then I found this interesting article about the origin of Vernon. In summary, back in the 1880s, it used to be rural, with orchards and gardens, considered paradise-like. Until it got into water troubles and got divided up. West Vernon was annexed by LA City, while the remaining part got bought up by John B. Leonis, who ruled like a king and the corrupt legacy of Vernon continued for decades, so as a result, in 2011, California tried to disincorporate this city. Vernon was also ruled by drunkenness, decadence, and sports venues, and had great business opportunities that attracted the factories and warehouses. It also left a legacy of pollution, which made many residents leave, and which still lingers around South East LA. How privileged I am that I have never lived near such an industrial region! I would never begin to think about dealing with things like oil refineries and contamination from that abandoned battery recycling facility in the heart of Pasadena and Westwood.
As Arts District used to be an industrial region, I found a continuity in architectural style from Arts District to Vernon and wouldn’t have known when I crossed the city line without that sign.
There’s a historical building in Vernon that would fit in nicely in Arts District. However notice the difference: Santa Fe Ave in Vernon is much wider than Mateo in Arts District. Also, while some of my Arts District photos have pedestrians because there were more pedestrians, I didn’t see any pedestrian in Vernon. Santa Fe Ave south of Olympic Blvd is really scary for a cyclist. Sharing the road with semis is not fun. Only a crazy adventurous roadiot like me dare to bike there, and actually I don’t really dare so this might be my first and last trip there.
Arts District became more industrial as I continued south.
Vernon officially begins south of 25th St. Soon I got to the civic center, which is unexpectedly fancy considering the tiny population. Maybe it’s the corruption, or maybe it’s all administration for the factories and warehouses.
South Central
Vernon officially stops at Alameda St. When I saw some residential houses on Vernon Ave, I wasn’t sure if they were in Vernon or LA City. Most likely it was LA City. Welcome to South Central!
In this photo, I deliberately emphasized the continental crosswalk, because Metro just rejected funding for continental crosswalks in Pasadena. I like having cyclists in my photos. They ride on the sidewalk, yet I have the guts to ride on the road. Because at least around here, on Vernon Ave, I could keep up with cars, which somehow made me feel less vulnerable. I sort of wonder what the driver behind me was thinking when I was keeping up with cars.
Then Avalon. There are many interesting murals and small shops, and here are some examples:
In my original plan, which was made before the East Side Rider trip, the route went to the Maya Angelou High School, which I visited after riding with East Side Riders. However, I decided to revisit simply because I like it.
There’re more murals at this high school. I find the pseudo-Arabic font murals especially interesting. Probably alluding to 20th century African American Islamic traditions, distinct from the pre-colonial African Islam of about 1/4 of the slaves brought to America because they couldn’t pass on their tradition when their families were broken apart by slave holders – as Islam is racialized as an Arab religion in the West although most Muslims are not Arab and they have their distinctive culture – from Nation of Islam to Five Percenters to orthodox Sunni Islam like of Sherman Jackson and Malcolm X later in life to feminist Islam like of amina wadud. I go to the Women’s Mosque of America, which indeed has a higher proportion of Black congregants than LA as a whole.
To boldly go where Lambda has never gone before, I went on San Pedro. It’s not very popular on Strava’s heatmap and I wondered why. Is it because it has dangerous busy and fast car traffic? Or something else? Turns out that San Pedro is much smaller and less scary to ride on than I thought, so it’s unpopular because it’s smaller and there are larger parallel roads with bike lanes such as Avalon and Broadway. These are some interesting Chicano murals on San Pedro, as South Central now is also very Latino:
Not murals, but I found it interesting: Oh wait, would those be fitted with illegally loud engines?
Inglewood
Why on earth did I draw the route on Manchester Ave? It’s one of the most terrifying roads I’ve never ridden on. I’m not coming back. That said, I saw some cool buildings on Manchester, including some Atompunk Googie car washes. OK, not officially in Inglewood yet. There’s an interesting region at Vermont and Manchester. There’s that 1970s brutalist Chase bank, and an abandoned historical theater at Vermont and 87th St, the Balboa Theatre. Again, I wonder why so many beautiful historical theaters have shuttered and often remain empty decades after closing.
I knew that the So-Fi Stadium was close when I began seeing giant screens showing advertisement and match results. Here’s another historical theatre, the Academy Theatre, next to one of those screens.
SoFi Stadium
I have mixed feelings about the SoFi Stadium. On the one hand, it has caused gentrification. On the other hand, when I visited, I found it a great feat of engineering and a nice park where many people and birds enjoy.
Love. Really? I don’t think gentrification is an expression of love. Yesterday, I listened to this online interview on love in the Islamic tradition. In short, in the pre-colonial era, love was central to Islam and what we now call Sufism was mainstream Islam. That Islam is an arid legalistic orthopraxy is a colonial construct, and our colonial overlords want Wahhabism, which fits that description, to become orthodox, so as a result, many Muslims today say Sufism is haram. Colonialism, White Man’s Duty, claims to spread love, liberty, and justice, but does anything but. The hypocrisy led many people today to lose faith in those ideals. So in Khaled About El Fadl’s law school class at UCLA, 99% of students these days no longer believe that justice is possible. I feel like this sign saying “love” looks like commodifying and hence making a mockery of love. I mean by commodify when we pretend that love is represented by items that can be bought and sold. Otherwise don’t displace the poor. In late capitalism, what isn’t a commodity?
Yet I somehow found this place cool. It’s designed to look beautiful. A central theme of this trip is cool but unethical.
The parking lots are larger than the stadium itself. Again, cars suck because they take up so much unnecessary space, to the point of driving up rent. Imagine how many people such space can house and how much food we can grow once we abolish car culture. Across a parking lot is the Kia Forum, whose building I find cool.
Downtown flea market
It was already past 1 pm. I wasn’t hungry yet, but I was running late. Next up: Downtown Inglewood. Initially I planned to ride on Locust St, but decided to check out Market St instead when I saw the flea market, to experience the city and interact with locals. I had to walk there, pulling down my average speed for the trip.
I heard about Malik Books, an independent Black bookstore in the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza. It brought its mobile bookstore here.
I stumbled upon the MLK day celebration. The Mayor and some council members were speaking.
Aero Collective. As a cyclist, even if I’m not a racer, “aero” catches my attention. Turns out that it’s for architects.
There’re some interesting historical buildings here, from Spanish revival to 1970s brutalist. Inglewood has many great 1970s architecture.
Another abandoned historical theatre! This is the Fox Theatre, closed since the 1980s. See historical photos here.
One of the coolest things in this trip: these lowrider bikes are definitely works of art! Here’s the Instagram of the those who built the bikes. I was wondering if the bikes were ridable. They are. One of the makers said he rode the bike all the way from Vermont, presumably Manchester and Vermont. Both bikes have speakers behind.
It was 2 pm, and I was hungry. I saw someone juggling a Soul Food sign and decided to eat at that restaurant. There was a line, but I didn’t want takeout because I wanted to avoid single use plastics. So I waited, which got me behind schedule. I got red beans, black eyed peas, rice, cabbage, which came with complementary cornbread. I tried to get whole foods. It was well seasoned and good value by Pasadena standards.
Civic Center
I already got a glimpse of the 1970s style Inglewood City Hall from Market Street. Not all city halls in LA County have great architecture, but the Inglewood one is among the great ones, again, in terms of architecture, as I don’t know much about their local politics. Again, I wonder, why do so many cities have 1970s style city halls?
What’s to the right of the handrails? It’s a sculpture called Skedans.
Looking down, with my shadow
I then returned to Manchester Ave. The part around Civic Center didn’t feel as terrifying. I checked out the Public Library and the adjacent Health Center 1970s building.
More murals! Inglewood High School across Manchester sports a mural, showing a Native American’s face, and the Civic Center and traditional sandstone buildings, signaling change. The palm trees have grown taller since the photo was taken for the webpage about the mural linked here.
There’s another long mural in the Grevillea Park across Manchester, History of Transportation, from horses and oxens to 1940s airplanes.
Randy’s Donuts
Actually, I originally planed this trip to see the FAA building in Hawthorne, but kept on delaying the trip because of weather and other trips. The first version of the route didn’t go to downtown Inglewood. I changed my mind when our new lab manager brought two boxes of Randy’s donuts to lab meeting and I really liked them. I found that the original Randy’s Donuts is in Inglewood, sort of en route to Hawtorne, so I added this detour and a few more miles.
Before heading to LAX, I saw another cool Googie car wash. I could see the snowy peak of Mt San Antonio in the distance.
However much I hate car culture, I admire the beautiful monuments it has inspired, including these Googie car washes, the 1929 Bullock building on Wilshire whose main entrance faces the parking lot rather than Wilshire, and the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza that kicked off suburban shopping centers. Meanwhile, as I know that there are vibrant bike cultures, what are the monuments for bike cultures that deserve to be called art? In LA, it would be the new Taylor Yard Bridge, North Atwater Bridge, Spoke Bicycle Cafe, Rivers of the World mural, and Bicycle Kitchen’s artwork. Not historical. Yet. I’m sure that there are great historical monuments for bike cultures in the Netherlands, as 1970s buildings do count as historical these days. Time flies!
Aerospace district
LA International Airport, where the big jet engines roar. Can I believe that? I was at LAX! I definitely won’t bike to the terminals, but I was right outside the runways. The air was thick with exhaust, presumably jet exhaust blown inland by the ocean breeze. Not a healthy place to ride though there was a bike lane.
There are some interesting places on Aviation Blvd that I couldn’t safely stop for photos: The Metro K line is coming to LAX. All Metro train stations have public art, and I like the Islamic looking tesselation at the yet opened Aviation/Century Station. I also passed by a place with many vintage airplanes, probably no longer flying. I couldn’t find info about that place. Finally, right before I got to Imperial Hwy, there was that gravel pit like place.
Now the narrative is no longer chronological, as I didn’t visit all the aerospace places at once. I’ll put all the aerospace things here. Next stop: Hawthorne Municipal Airport. Maybe instead of protesting car culture, I should protest here, against private jets, as the obscenely rich have vastly larger carbon footprints, as Extinction Rebellion has done in Europe. One of the protest signs says “tax frequent flyers”, though I think there’s a caveat, in that I personally know many frequent flyers who fly a lot simply because they have family living far away and flying is the easiest way to see them. What to do in that case? For me, regular video chat does the trick, but I don’t know how well it works for others. Furthermore, some of my colleagues have resumed flying to conferences as covid has waned.
The academic career path also looks like trying to prevent us from setting up roots early in our career, since academic positions can be very competitive and labs with a specific research interest can be very scattered throughout the world (or at least North America and Western Europe). Postdocs are meant to be short and adjuncts have poor job security so we may be forced to move a lot. Meanwhile, conferences and research centers, at least in the biomedical field, feel pretty much the same wherever I go, as if shielding us from thought provoking local cultures. No, I don’t mean different foods and holiday decorations, largely irrelevant to research itself and hence don’t really contribute diversity. I mean different ways of thinking shaped by different cultures. I’m sure that most academics attending conferences in LA from out of town don’t know about the cool and rich Eastside culture; even I didn’t know after living in LA for years until I deliberately sought it out although Eastside isn’t physically far from Pasadena (but it is physically far from Westside). I didn’t even know about the redlined region in northwest Pasadena north of the 210 freeway until I got my commuter bike Enterprise and began to revive the little trip (the voyages before I got USS Voyager), FINALLY venturing north of the 210 freeway – which used to set my northern limit of activities – after living in Pasadena for years. It’s not just that academia forms its own elitist niche, but also segregation in urban planning in part facilitated by freeways.
Space X isn’t far. The Tesla car is all too fitting for this place.
Space X is next to the Dominguez Channel, where there’s a paved bike path. Dominguez Channel is actually not a tributary of LA River. It’s its own thing. I’ve been to the bike path in Carson, and I kind of want to visit all bike paths in LA.
Then I went to Alondra Park and a North Redondo bike path, but I’ll save those for the next section and finish the aerospace theme here. I was heading to the FAA building at Marine and Aviation. I passed by Northrop Grumman, again, cool but unethical. Cool in that it’s NASA’s contractor to build the James Webb space telescope and the Apollo lunar module, but it’s also a top “defense” company, profiting from machines of death.
While I was somehow worried that I missed the FAA building, I had not. I finally got there, in the golden hour glow.
I attempted to do that star trick with the smallest aperture when the building reflected just a little sun, but it didn’t work. But I also like including my own shadow, though I don’t like taking selfies.
The Metro C Line goes to this region. The Redondo Beach Station is befitting of aerospace corridor.
The C Line train goes on a cool railroad bridge over Rosecrans. From the photos, you can tell that Rosecrans is very bike hostile. Indeed, I rode on the sidewalk until I got to Sepulveda.
South Bay park spaces
I’ll back track a bit, to before Northrop Grumman. I went to the Alondra Park, a potential spot for water, plus there’s a lake. It’s nothing very special, but it seems that the community likes this place.
The concrete ball at the park building is probably there to prevent cars from crashing into the park, just like the red concrete balls at Target. Cars crashing into stores is actually not uncommon, so a man who lost his legs in a 7-11 crash sued 7-11 and advocates want 7-11 to install bollards to protect customers from these crashes. Moreover, I’ve been to a coffee shop in Sierra Madre that was just renovated as of that visit because it was damaged by a car crashing into it. See, what’s so difficult about building concrete or metal barriers between car lanes and bike lane?
After Alondra, I went to a North Redondo community bike path built on a strip of grass beneath power lines, with people walking their dogs and kids riding there. The design, with frequent stop signs, made me feel like riding slower. I suppose road designs with maximum rather than minimum speed in mind works.
Fast forward to Sepulveda and Rosecrans. I was about to enter Valley Dr in Manhattan Beach. I decided to go because of the interesting shape of the road, with a long strip park sandwiched between two roads going all the way to Redondo Beach. It’s a nice and most likely not cheap neighborhood. The strip park is full of ice plant, which while pretty, is highly invasive.
Sail
Finally, Redondo Beach. I’ve been stupid. In my original plan, I was to have lunch at the vegan Italian restaurant Pura Vita. Because of the Inglewood flea market, the wait at the Soul Food restaurant, and all those photos, I got a glimpse of sunset while on Valley Dr. Almost dinner time, though not hungry yet.
I’m not sure what to think of veterans. On the one hand, I hate the military industrial complex and all those imperialist wars. On the other hand, according to David Graeber’s book Bullshit Jobs, some people enlist to do something meaningful and respected while so many other well-paid jobs are so meaningless that they become torment. Also, many veterans ended up homeless and need our help. Anyway, the Veteran’s Park has great views and the memorial is well-designed.
This is my 3rd trip to the Redondo Beach pier, so I didn’t feel like there was something new for me to document. So I headed to the marina, where I haven’t been.
The way back
To boldly go somewhere I have never gone before, instead of the beach bike path, I took the inland road in Hermosa Beach, and got a new look at downtown. There’s a cool mural at the Starbucks at 13th St and Hermosa Ave, but it was too dark to take a good photo of it.
Eventually I got back to the beach bike path, where I slowed to a crawl due to sand. When approaching El Segundo, I saw a great ship with many bright yellow lights. I wonder what it is. Maybe just another cargo ship. Or would it be something more?
Also to boldly go where Lambda has never gone before, I climbed out of the beach area towards LAX and rode on Pershing Dr, west of the runways. Not as bike hostile as I expected, at least when traffic was light in the evening. Good news: there was a bike lane. Bad news: speed limit 55 mph, meaning still really dangerous.
Next up: Playa Vista. I have visited about this time last year, to see the Howard Hughs hangars. I watched half of the 2004 The Aviator movie about Howard Hughs and didn’t finish because he was such an asshole, at least according to this movie. However, this time, I visited because I recently read the O My Ancestors book of the Tongva. Development of the new posh Playa Vista destroyed a Tongva burial ground and much of the Ballona wetland. I wouldn’t be able to find traces of the burial ground, but I visited to pay tribute and express solidarity against colonialism. But meanwhile, burning question: I’m a settler of color, here in LA to seek opportunities, not a refugee. I love LA and have taken roots here, though I didn’t grow up here. As a settler of color, I benefit from settler colonialism. However, where else can I go? I was a social outcast where I grew up, so I don’t want to go back there. I suppose the best I can do is to listen to Indigenous people and support Land Back, and to think of land as a relative to be loved and respected rather than a resource to be exploited. Again, in that interview with Khaled Abou El Fadl on love in the Islamic tradition, one thing he brought up is that if we love God, then we should treat everything God created with love and respect, such as the land; capitalist exploitation of land is definitely not love, and is just like abusive relationships in which one spouse moves on to another once they finished using the previous one.
I climbed the Playa Del Rey hill and descended by LMU, eventually getting to good old Ballona Creek bike path where I’ve been a zillion times. Yet this time was different. Near the northern end in Culver City, there was a bush fire. The helicopter’s search light shined on me as I was taking photos of the fire, which gave me some warmth in the cold of the night. I heard sirens blaring, pretty sure coming for this fire. I still wonder what caused the fire. Maybe – not to demonize them – homeless people cooking or trying to keep warm? Sadly, more people die of hypothermia in LA than NY.
To boldly go somewhere I have never gone before, I took Jefferson instead of Exposition Blvd to get back to DTLA. There were many cool murals on Jefferson, such as around Hillcrest, Buckingham, 11th Ave, and Normandy, but it was too dark for me to take good photos of them. There was no bike lane, but it didn’t feel too bad riding on Jefferson when the traffic was lighter at night. The bike lane emerged as USC began. Again, cyberpunk chaos. The Figueroa bike lane was blocked by cars – parked or coming out of driveway – so many times. Around LA Live, a group of pedestrians began crossing too late. The light turned green for us to go on Figueroa. The drivers next to me yielded to the pedestrians, but then caused a chaos of horns blaring impatiently.
Little Tokyo
I’m the number one party of one.
I have a personal tradition that I would eat artisan ice cream if and only if I ride at least 100 km (abour 62 miles) in one day, and I wanted to try Somi Somi in Little Tokyo, as I saw a line last time I came and expected something special. It was 8 something pm, and the line was long. I was hungry, having burnt up the Soul Food calories. How about also getting dinner in Little Tokyo? I went to Ramen Yamadaya. Pretty much every restaurant around there had a line. As there were only two more parties of two in front of me and some groups were already well into their meals, I didn’t expect a long wait, so I signed up. I walked around a bit but came back so I wouldn’t loose my spot. The two parties of two didn’t show up, so it was my turn, as a large party departed from the outside dining area. I got to claim the spaces for 5 for myself. However, as a smaller table next to me was cleaned up, I moved there so the larger one could accommodate a larger party. I got the vegetable ramen. I wouldn’t say it’s remarkable; I think HiroNori in Pasadena makes better vegan ramen, but I just needed some fuel. Deuterium.
It was past 9 pm. The Somi Somi line grew even longer. Someone was playing the Chinese instrument ’er-hu at that plaza for some change. His portable speaker was dying, so he soon left.
I liked the EDM played in the shop and danced to it while waiting in line. Just make sure that I could watch Voyager. I got ube ice cream in the unique fish shaped cone filled with red bean paste. I watched how they made the fish shaped soft cone with waffle batter and a special waffle iron, though I wasn’t sure it was appropriate to take photos of that process. Basically they added some batter to one half of the iron, added filling, topped with more batter to enclose the filling, and closed the other half of the iron, just like making waffles.
While I was eating (and shivering as I cooled down after not riding for a while), a homeless man came to ask people in the store for change. This is a reminder that the touristy region of Little Tokyo is not far from Skid Row. Refueled, I headed back to Pasadena.
Epilogue
What a trip! As I said, there’s a lot to see over 90 miles. It also took me quite a while to write this Captain’s Log. I got to see so many different regions and aspects of LA, some I didn’t know before, such as the aerospace corridor. As usual, the voyages is just the beginning to get me curious enough to look up more info, which I did for Vernon and the historical theatres. Meanwhile, others in the PAA rode on the LA and San Gabriel River bike paths to Seal Beach. It took much longer for me to complete 90 miles here than some of them did 100 miles, on mostly flat courses, because it’s evident now that I invented a very different sport. I really care more about photography than racing. While I’m not outstanding in either cycling or photography, it’s the combination and the thinking that make this tradition unique. It’s often not about speed, but about connection to the places, about curiosity and discovery, and solidarity, though sometimes I enjoy the thrill of speed. Planning the trip is also sort of an art. I need to find out those interesting places to visit; I’ll write another blog post about the resources I use for this purposes. Then I stumble upon dangerous roads. As a result, many people I follow on Strava only ride on a few tried and true routes, while my Strava heatmap is very spread out, covering most blocks in some regions of Pasadena, Altadena, Highland Park, and Sierra Madre. That’s a cost of “to boldly go where Lambda has never gone before”.
Recently, Oxford’s traffic filter to discourage car use and encourage active transport and transit led to a right wing conspiracy theory that the 15-minute city uses environmentalism as a guise to impose authoritarian lockdown. Oxford is really not the first to limit car access to its core. My point here is that many European cities are limiting car access to city core, so it’s the car that can’t access many cool places. Now in many regions of LA, it’s the other way round. Because of dangerous roads and poor transit, many places can’t be accessed by most people without a car. Which is bad news besides climate change and pollution, because it’s not just me, but several people who do drive also told me that you miss many things in a car because it goes too fast. Slowing down gives a very different view of the city. If car culture and freeways are meant to not to see, especially to not to see the Black and Brown neighborhoods, then my voyages does precisely the opposite, to see everything I can, and be immersed in it. Given LA’s decentralization, with the numerous mini-downtowns, wouldn’t it be easier to build 15-minute cities in LA? It doesn’t mean that I can’t go on adventures to other 15-minute cities; it means that my adventures will be safer and more pleasant.