2011-06-30
Vae Viator16
America’s Best? NOT!♪
Let the work speak for itself
There are so many things which the LACMTA should be doing to improve mass transportation in Los Angeles and it is difficult to find head way being made in any of them. Rather, as we saw on the 26th of last month, service is being cut so that the aggressive, wasteful and in some cases utterly pointless spending, I mean building program can go on.
I fail to see that they have any concept of providing service where it is needed at an affordable price.
Monthly my postings point out these failures, often repeatedly. Just recently I assisted some German tourist is attempting to navigate the “system” and could not come up with any reasons why they could not conveniently and easily obtain a day pass. Although the bus driver told them they could buy a “tap card” he had no idea of where the closest point of sale for said cards was located.
With some exceptions, there is no way to deterministically plan a trip, that is, know with any certainty how long it will take when multiple buses are involved. That is simply because the LACMTA doesn’t understand the origins and destinations of its ridership and makes no attempt to learn that information. Once known buses or other modes could be scheduled so that transfers between modes could be made, with the resultant shortening of travel time.
Here is a quote that dates back over fifty years and still rings true today! “While the transportation crisis in now particularly acute in large metropolitan areas, which are perilously close to the saturation point in automobiles, non-urban areas must soon be harmfully affected unless we begin to conserve our highway funds by proper planning and proper expenditures.” (Van Der Vries 1)
Early one morning I made the unfortunate discovery that the only way from the LAXCBC to Aviation Station by public transportation was, well, no way at all. That was the case in spite of the fact that several Green Line trains were running early; earlier, in fact, than any bus service!
Given that there seems to be an endless supply of excuses as to why LAX, unlike the 20 other U.S. airports can’t have a direct rail link.
Further, fallacious logic which seems to justify the Expo Line passenger projections based upon those who will come from the Crenshaw line. The dates of the high utilization of the line are like, twenty (20) years in the future, when all those who are “selling” these bad ideas will have long been retired.
Your Mole’s answer to this is “recalling” Measure R and let the LACMTA get back to providing Mass transportation not building infrastructure that is neither needed nor accomplishes the goal of moving people from point A to point B, efficiently and economically.
Serving two constituencies is impossible. Building freeways and slap-dash rail that results in law suits and turns the public (see the Leimert Park) fiasco below, against them is not how success is achieved. They may see themselves as “America’s Best” but this Mole is far from being alone in having quite the opposite opinion.
<<Faites-vous des amis prompts à vous censurer.>>
[Make friends with those who would be quick to criticize you.]
Su Topo interprets the quote above from a positive standpoint, i.e., those who correctly criticise you can help to improve you.
The quote should be accepted as good advice by the LACMTA. Given their usual low caliber work, soliciting the consul, if not friendship, of their critics should only improve local transportation.
The Mole reads the papers and other things, obviating the necessity of your doing so.
The excellent, now defunct, Condé Nast Portfolio magazine headed an article: “The Worst Investment in America?” (Raines) It was about investing in the newspaper business. The piece quotes the publisher of the “Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News”: “There is a dearth of talent on the business side of the industry that is shocking to me.” No one goes to Wharton and says, ‘I want to run circulation at Knight-Ridder.’” “… the business side has let down he journalistic side of newspapers.”
The article devotes significant space to the agonies of our own Los Angeles Times.
And things don’t seem to be getting any better. News delivery seems to be moving to a mode that is intermediated by an “app”. The Poynter Organization headlines, “News apps make up only 3% of all offerings in Apple’s App Store” and continues, “News was 12th out of 20 categories.” (Sonderman) This does not bode well for the future of our society, people with less education and even less interest in the news.
Pew Research reports, “Local news is going mobile. Nearly half of all American adults (47%) report that they get at least some local news and information on their cell phone or tablet computer.” (Purcell, Rainie, et al.) ‘Thus, while almost half of adults get local news on mobile devices, just 1 in 10 use apps to do so. Call it the "app gap."’ (Ibid.)
Why is your Mole concerned about this trend away from local news toward an even more centralised production of news which is distributed electronically? The short answer: it means the news will be controlled by fewer people. There is a definite ongoing consolidation trend in media and although the “apps” mode of news delivery plays a relatively small role today, the economies of scale assure that it will grow.
Therefore we will end up with a few people sending us their version of the news; this is NOT a good thing.
Here is a series of articles from the Los Angeles Times all which fit under thr rubric “Let the work speak for itself”.
An editorial entitled, “Keep MTA's Crenshaw/LAX project on track”(n.a) made this Mole wonder if the headline writers have a hard time inserting “LAX” into the headline about rail service that su Topo thinks of as “going nowhere new LAX”?
“The Crenshaw/LAX project would run southwest from the Expo Line at Crenshaw Boulevard, meeting the Green Line near Los Angeles International Airport.” [Emphasis added: Mole] The editorial argues against tunneling on the line, instead of arguing for tunneling that would bring the train to a terminal right under, say, Bradley International Terminal. Doing so would finally close the loop and bring better transportation to LAX than it has had since the RTD stopped looping World Way.
A singe quote from the Los Angeles Times places the LACMTA and its predecessor agencies in sharp focus highlighting their current and historical ineptitude.
“At least 20 airports across the nation have rail access, according to the American Public Transportation Assn., including those in Chicago and New York. LAX is the nation's third-busiest airport and the sixth-busiest in the world, and travelers have long wondered why L.A. has no airport rail link.” (Bloomekatz)
Mr. Bloomekatz has impressed this Mole as the best Times Transportation reporter in recent history.
In early May, he takes on the Leimert Park Crenshaw Line station issue (Bloomekatz). Here again we can see the LACMTA’s “ram it down their throats” tactic in operation. In their eagerness to spend funds, the LACMTA would rather do a “quick and dirty job” rather than the slower, methodical careful planning required of mass transportation systems. Overlooking, some would say desensitized, to the needs of the community resulted in overlooking Leimet Park’s desire for a station. The fallback position of the LACMTA is “we held community meetings” or what su Topo would rather describe as “blame the users.”
This Crenshaw Line planning and design problem mirrors that of the Gold Line Extension. To refresh your memory and to remind the LACMTA of its “pay now AND play later” philosophy, please read this: “A groundbreaking ceremony for the new Ramona Opportunity High School building has been scheduled for May 31. L.A.Metro will contribute more then[sic] $32 million [Emphasis added: Mole] for the rebuilding as part of the school property exchange for the right-of-way on Indiana Street required to construct the Indiana Station for the light rail line.” (Metro Community Relations)
A column in the Times argues in favor of a station in Leimert Park. The piece documents some historical inequities which Mr. Tobar writes that the Crenshaw Line is “[the] project that can help atone for the sins of the past.” (Tobar)
A Times piece has this statement: “The county's Metropolitan Transportation Authority unveiled this month a record $4.15-billion budget that includes money for about a dozen rail lines that are either under construction or being planned” (Bloomekatz) To la Taupe this reads like an eloquent plea to “recall” Measure R. The article shows a portion of the “Regional Connector” on a map, but doesn’t describe any other detail. This Mole believes that the bad idea called, the “Regional Connector” exists for the following purposes: (i) to spend money; (ii) and this is simply an hypothesis –to put money in the hands of political donors; (iii) to serve as a patch on a poorly conceived, planed transportation “system”.
You can see a the FY12 (Fiscal Year 2012) Budget aqui.
http://www.metro.net/about_us/finance/images/Proposed_Fiscal_Year_2012_Budget.pdf . It has a nice colour picture of Mr. Arthur T. Leahy on the page (unnumbered) after the title page. On line 193 of the budget we find this: 193 Regional Connector (cp #) 860228 (Expected Expenditures through 2011) 29,179[,000] (FY12 Budget) 39,101[,000] – (Expenditures Life of Project) 68,280[,000] (Note) 6 Note 6 says, “Measure R projects with an interim LOP. The final LOP will be determined at a future time”.
Nowhere in the report was “LOP” defined, I expect it means either Life Of Project or a Lo[o]phole which will allow the LACMTA to overspend and under deliver as thaey do on all big project and probably lots of small ones too.
In late may the Times printed “Metro's support for Leimert Park Village rail station is verbal, not monetary” (Bloomekatz) This is a piece in which the whole story is told by the headline. The LACMTA wants you to have a station in Leimert Park, but simply can’t affore it. Here is yet another case where the few hours of poorly timed, badly scheduled and sparcely attended meetings
Ear to the Rail
This year marks IBM’s 100th Birthday. Please follow the link below to see the fascinating life story of the company.
Here are just a few of IBM’s contributions as reported (Taft) in eWEEK: the magnetic stripe on credit cards (1969); floppy disks (1971); UPC bar codes (1973); Personal Computers (1981); a $1 billion investment in Linux (2001); and Watson, as seen on Jeopardy (2011). Please follow this link < http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Infrastructure/IBM-100-Years-of-Innovation-428031/ > and read this excellent article.
¿Musica? Here is what la Taupe likes listen to when he writes about the LACMTA J. It is classical music from Grooveshark.com, like this piece, “Gnossiennes” by Satie.
If you would like to hear more classical music try: http://listen.radionomy.com/radio-mozart The few announcements you hear will be in French, and some in English too; but it will mostly be beautiful misic!
Cosmology
Here is an interesting quote about the “dark flow” that seems to be pulling (or pushing) galaxies away from (or toward) us.
“The dark flow is controversial because the distribution of matter in the observed universe cannot account for it. Its existence suggests that some structure beyond the visible universe -- outside our "horizon" -- is pulling on matter in our vicinity.”
Please link here to read the whole article: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/releases/2010/10-023.html
Left open is the relationship between the “big rip” and “dark flow, viz., will the latter be the cause of the former?
Below is a link to an APOD (Astronomical Picture Of [the] Day) called the “Big Dipper). Place your cursor over the picture and you can learn the names of the seven stars which comprise it. Click on say M101 and you will be presented (slowly) with a stunning picture of the sky! http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110624.html
M101 is shown here in its full glory! http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110415.html
Holiday Greetings for July 2011
Happy Fourth of July!
OR
Again, Happy Fourth of July! Clickez pour voir cette carte = Click to view this card.
OR
Again, Happy Fourth of July! Clickez pour voir cette carte = Click to view this card.
And this from youtube plus one more (below):
Joyeux fête nationale! Bon 14 juillet à tous! Vive la belle France!
Joyeux fête nationale! Bon 14 juillet à tous! Vive la belle France!
Bbelow youtube presents us with the French National Anthem, but first please read the biography of Mirelle Mathieu, who is the singer: http://www.mansachs.com/MireilleMathieu/documents/eng.asp
Now please, listen to Mme Mathieu perform: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_8dafLxLcI&feature=related
The Mole Rides Again, so that you need not look up at a bus stop sign and see that you can’t get there from here.
(All times are expressed in the 24 hour system.)
442 Bus Stop Sign♪
Su Topo spent a lot of time out of town this month, so he took fewer rides.
Don't these buses get checked for, at least, the emergency windows being locked in place? The work speaks for itself!
2011-06-05: The 115 Line schedule show a 8:51 departure from Manchester and Market. So la Taupe is waiting at the bus stop at 8:41. It seems that two (2) buses disappeared so this Mole doesn't arrive at Manchester and Sepulveda until after 9:20. This is what is meant by non-deterministic travel.
2011-06-03 @ 15:50: Your Mole rides a 117 Line bus #8184, seated on the left side just back of the rear exit doors. He notices that the emergency window exit on his immediate left is swinging open. This presents a real danger to children so he makes a report to the driver who acknowledges his report but seems to do nothing else??
Later, riding back on a 117 Line bus, number 8307, the driver is constantly leaving his seated position to pull down the left windshield window shade which keeps rolling up of its own accord.
2011-06-05: The 115 Line schedule show a 8:51 departure from Manchester and Market. So la Taupe is waiting at the bus stop at 8:41. It seems that two (2) buses disappeared so this Mole doesn't arrive at Manchester and Sepulveda until after 9:20. This is what is meant by non-deterministic travel.
2011-06-14 @ 6:20: Your Mole looks up at the bus stop flag and wonders, can this be correct? This would seem to be the spot to catch a Downtown bound 442, yet the sign is the one pictured above. Of course, it is the usual work of the LACMTA! They didn’t install the correct sign here. It is just one more instance of the work speaking for itself. Sure enough, a 442 line bus bound for Union Station rolls up in a few minutes.
The 442 line is a seeming good alternative, to the poor connections between the 42 and the slowly being strangled 439, when I have to head Downtown. This bus, like the 439 has a friendly ambiance and the riders seem to know one another.
About a dozen passengers are on-board and the bus slowly fills to about half capacity although it is just around 6:30. It is just about quiet enough to read –but, not so quiet as to not be able to here talk about the possible cancellation of this line.
We head east on Manchester and join the freeway at Florence and are quickly immersed in the flow of bumper-to-bumper traffic.
Soon, however, the twenty of us are in the HOV lane and flying down the freeway near the speed limit. This is a much faster way fo su Topo to get to his meeting. That is not to say the a determined LACMTA couldn’t make the 42/439 alternative better.
2011-06-15 @ 12:18 LAXCBC: A white pickup truck with license number of 8U28922 enters the center. It turns into the exit lane on the east side of the center “island” and head the wrong way. He quickly makes a U-turn and parks. It turns out that he is the BCT relife driver for bus number 0532 on the 109 Line.
I watch as driver number 76800 throws his cigarette butt on the sidewalk before taking the wheel of a 232 Line bus. Perhaps he will quit smoking when he sees some of the photos which will begin appearing on cigarette packs next year. Here is one from France that would make almost anyone quit! N.B. it is not for children or the faint of heart. http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.whyquit.com/freedom/ImageLibrary/Warnings/Mauritius_cancer.jpg&imgrefurl=http://ffn.yuku.com/topic/22925&usg=__8vZ5j60tvxP_MoMcjVbZMSbyPEg=&h=319&w=450&sz=37&hl=en&start=39&zoom=1&tbnid=FfcdOdfRet2kwM:&tbnh=137&tbnw=161&ei=R3kCTp7nNMXWiAK_qImKBQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dcigarette%2Bpack%2Bwarning%2Bpictures%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1600%26bih%3D738%26gbv%3D2%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=1172&vpy=442&dur=3951&hovh=189&hovw=267&tx=177&ty=87&page=2&ndsp=36&ved=1t:429,r:7,s:39&biw=1600&bih=738
The warning says in translation “Smoking causes cancer of the mouth”.
[Mole]
Amny.com ran several PSAs which pulledno punches vis-à–vis the effects of smoking.
Support and funding for these hard-hitting public service advertisements was supplied by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with the involvement of NYC Health, too. This Mole gives a standing ovation to any agency which helps people improve their health which, in turn, leads to a longer and hopefully happier life.
Reminder Notice!♪
2011-06-27: For weeks we have seen the reminder of the “June shake up” (pictured above). Yet of the six (6) bus rides I took today, the first weekday of the June shake up, only three (3), that is fifty per cent, had the new schedules available on board. It seems that LACMTA staff needed some reminder notices too.
2011-06-30 @ 8:30 aboard a CCMBL number 6: The woman across the aisle is listen to her personal audio device and su Topo is trying to read. But the woman is also making noise; more like emulating musical instruments than singing, In fact, to this Mole's ears it seems like a whine or a response to pain.
Please remember: Rapid buses are not really "rapid transit" because they share the roadway with lot of other vehicles. Any reduction in time over the route is as the result of bypassing regular bus stops and abandoning those who wait at them. It is, "Taxation Without Transportation" which is in itself a kind of reverse Robin Hoodism. Your Mole proposes Measure Rx which would completely eliminate the Measure R tax as the prescription for Measure R.
2011-06-30 @ 8:30 aboard a CCMBL number 6: The woman across the aisle is listen to her personal audio device and su Topo is trying to read. But the woman is also making noise; more like emulating musical instruments than singing, In fact, to this Mole's ears it seems like a whine or a response to pain.
Please remember: Rapid buses are not really "rapid transit" because they share the roadway with lot of other vehicles. Any reduction in time over the route is as the result of bypassing regular bus stops and abandoning those who wait at them. It is, "Taxation Without Transportation" which is in itself a kind of reverse Robin Hoodism. Your Mole proposes Measure Rx which would completely eliminate the Measure R tax as the prescription for Measure R.
‘Don Quixote was comforted by the prophecy he heard, for he at once comprehended its meaning perfectly, and perceived it was promised to him that he should see himself united in holy and lawful matrimony with his beloved Dulcinea del Toboso, from whose blessed womb should proceed the whelps, his sons, to the eternal glory of La Mancha; and being thoroughly and firmly persuaded of this, he lifted up his voice, and with a deep sigh exclaimed, "Oh thou, whoever thou art, who hast foretold me so much good, I implore of thee that on my part thou entreat that sage enchanter who takes charge of my interests, that he leave me not to perish in this captivity in which they are now carrying me away, ere I see fulfilled promises so joyful and comparable as those which have been now made me; for, let this but come to pass, and I shall glory in the pains of my prison, find comfort in these chains wherewith they bind me, and regard this bed whereon they stretch me, not as a hard battle-field, but as a soft and happy nuptial couch; and touching the consolation of Sancho Panza, my squire, I rely upon his goodness and rectitude that he will not desert me in good or evil fortune; for if, by his ill luck or mine, it may not happen to be in my power to give him the island I have promised, or any equivalent for it, at least his wages shall not be lost; for in my will, which is already made, I have declared the sum that shall be paid to him, measured, not by his many faithful services, but by the means at my disposal."
Sancho bowed his head very respectfully and kissed both his hands, for, being tied together, he could not kiss one; and then the apparitions lifted the cage upon their shoulders and fixed it upon the ox-cart.'
Sancho bowed his head very respectfully and kissed both his hands, for, being tied together, he could not kiss one; and then the apparitions lifted the cage upon their shoulders and fixed it upon the ox-cart.'
Miguel De Cervantes (1547-1616) Don Quixote (1605), excerpted from Chapter XLVI.
Fare Box Score Box and related Lists of Shame
I.D. Numbers of buses with Out of Order Fare Boxes: XXXX;Note: No or few entries above do not necessarily mean all fare boxes are in operation.
I.D.Numbers of Distracted Drivers: XXXXX (-);
None included here, but observations of a minor nature may be included in the main posting;
Codes: (i) Extended conversation(s) with passenger(s) or (ii) cell phone call(s). Frequently, details can be found in the text above, (ii*) cell phone call(s) which are aggravated by some other action, (iii) Self-distracted. Codes (ii*) and (iii) will ALWAYS be explained in the posting.
I.D. Numbers of Buses Defaced by WhoIs stickers: XXXX;
~UR or +UR = (+UR) whois sticker and the ugly residue left after passengers partly remove the sticker. (~UR) = Only the ugly residue left after passengers almost completely remove the sticker. +L = an old (legacy) sticker black letters on a plain white background –these are the original form of defacement.
* Another reason for displaying the operator's ID on the internal display and the headsign.
ID numbers of Buses whose Head and Tailsigns disagree: 6566 111/710; 6566 111/550;
Format is Bus number followed by Headsign number/Tailsign number.
ID numbers of Buses without Braille signs: XXXX;
METRO drivers Basic Technical Skills Report
The format is Driver number F[{Y/-n/+n} C[{Y/N}]. Meaning of F if Y the driver stopped with the Bus stop “flag pole” somewhere between the bus front door frame. A negative number, e.g., -3 is the approximate distance in metres (think yards dear readers) between the nearest bus door vertical frame member and the flag pole signifying that the bus stopped short of the flag. A positive number, e.g., +3 (metres) is the approximate distance between the nearest bus door vertical frame member and the flag pole signifying that the bus stopped past the flag. The value for C[{Y/N}], “Y” tells us that the driver stopped within an easy step from the curb to the bus, “N” means it was NOT an easy step from the curb to the bus. It is this Mole's belief that an average experienced good driver should be able to control his bus so as to position in near the curb and with the flag pole slightly to the front of the bus.
76949 F[+6*] C[Y] *That's almost half a bus length, folks!;
I.D. numbers of drivers who are almost guaranteed to give you a Rough and Jerky (R & J) ride. XXXXX;
I.D. numbers of drivers who will give you a potentially life-threatening ride. XXXXX(-); XXXXX(-);
Codes: S = not wearing seat belts; J = bad judgment (unsafe driving practices).
La Taupe's Abréviations
ADADO = Automatic Destination Announcement (on) Door Opening. This feature is installed on many buses and operates on extremely few. Another “money down the toilet” LACMTA investment. La Taupe that this is intended for the visually impaired because people who can see can read the “head signs”.
ASAS = Automatic Stop Announcement System the GPS (Global Positioning System) driven mechanism for generating audio for the upcoming stops. N.B. Because of the low power (read weak) processors used in the on-board stops may be too close to identify stops separately. This is known as a granularity problem. Then too, if the driver operates the bus at speed above the speed limit you will find the system “back announcing” stops which you have already passed. I find that this will NOT keep some drivers from complaining “that you didn’t signal (ring) in time. They don’t understand their relationship to the system and how, by driving faster than the GPS computer, they can bias it.
BBB = Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus
CC or CCMBL = Culver City (Municipal) Bus (Lines)
CCTC = Culver City Transportation Center this is the place formerly known as FHMTC = the Fox Hills Mall Transportation Center (Sepulveda & Slauson)
FFE = Full Fare Equivalent (presently $1.50)
LAXCBC = the LAX City Bus Center.
OCTA = Orange County Transportation Authority.
Rapid Transit = does not compete for right of way, that is, it will not run at grade unless it has EXCLUSIVE DEDICATED USE of the right of way).
R & J = Rough and Jerky [ride].
TT = Torrance Transit.
T1 = the normal type of driver/staff.
T2 = is the non-stop talker type of driver/staff, on the phone or to passengers,
T3 = the uncommunicative type of driver/staff, sometimes surly.
WLATC = the West Los Angeles Transportation Center (Fairfax & Apple)
Su Topo’s Disclaimer and apologia
Your Mole always attempts to write an easy-on-the-eyes page using text input. Blogger.com however, has other ideas and will often not stay with a single font type or point size, produces extraneous spacing and etc. I wish I had time to debug the HTML which they produce, it is NOT the straight text which I pasted into the form, but I don’t. Therefore, I apologize on behalf of Blogger.com for the changes which they make, of which I do not approve. Sometimes, what I see, thankfully you don’t, is 24 point type –it is giant and other times they swallow my text, although it still seems to be there. In fairness to them, things seem better, although this is partly because I do understand which of their “features” do the most damage to me and consequently do not use them. Communicating these problems to them, for me, is something like having teeth extracted without the benefit of anesthetic, actually it is less fun than that. By their design, there is no simple e-mailing them with "Please look at my say, posting of 2009-06-28, it is weird!” I am hoping that one of their developers will some day read this, copy my code and improve their text to HTML engine. Until then, lo siento.
Mole’s Copyright Statement
All photographs and original written materials are copyrighted © 2007~2009 by LAmetroMole. ♪Clicking a photo will often* present you with an enlargement (sometimes successive clicks will further enlarge the photo). *This feature is dependent upon the Internet browser which you use and possibly other factors.
FAIR USE NOTICE
This site contains or provides links to copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, sustainable development, environmental, community and worker health, public disclosure, corporate accountability, and etc. We have often included relatively brief quotes from articles and etc., sometimes in addition to a simple link, because we have found that links frequently go "bad" or change over time. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without fee or payment of any kind to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes and to those who access the site via any and all other channels. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Music or other recorded material on this site, or referred to by this site are copyrighted by their respective artists and are made available here for evaluation purposes only. Please support the artists you like by buying their commercial CDs, MP3s and downloads.
Your Mole’s Conflict of Interest Statement
This is to certify that I, the blogger who is known as the LAmetroMole, with respect to this blog, except as described below, am not now nor at any time during the past year have been, nor it my current intention to ever be:
1) A participant, directly or indirectly, in any arrangement, agreement, investment, or other activity with any vendor, supplier, or other party doing business with any of the entities about which I have written, which has resulted or could result in personal benefit to me.
2) A recipient, directly or indirectly, of any salary payments or loans or gifts of any kind or any free service or discounts or other fees from or on behalf of any person or organization engaged in any transaction with any of the entities about which I have written.
Any exceptions to 1 or 2 above are stated below with a full description of the transactions and of the interest, whether direct or indirect, which I have (or have had during the past year) in the persons or organizations having transactions with any of the entities about which I have written.
There are no exceptions.
Date: 2009-06-24 S/ LametroMole
Works Cited
Bloomekatz, Ari. “Rail service plan for LAX still has hurdles”.
Los Angeles Times. Apr 17, 2011. Web. Jun 22, 2011. http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/17/local/la-me-green-line-20110417
Bloomekatz, Ari. “Metro urged to add a Leimert Park stop on the Crenshaw Line”. Los Angeles Times. May 4, 2011. Web. Jun 22, 2011. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-leimert-park-20110504,0,6382247.story
Bloomekatz, Ari. “Los Angeles County is poised to accelerate its rail projects”. Los Angeles Times. 15 May 2011. Web. Jun 22, 2011. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-metro-budget-20110515,0,5726891.story
Bloomekatz, Ari. “Metro's support for Leimert Park Village rail station is verbal, not monetary”. Los Angeles Times. 27 May 2011. Print. Jun 22, 2011.
Metro Community Relations. “L.A. Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension Project Moves Forward at Excellent Pace”. PRWEB. May 11, 2007. Web. 22, 2011.
Purcel, Kristen, et al. “Closing the Local News ‘App Gap ‘”. pewresearch.org. Mar 14, 2011. Web. Jun 22, 2011. http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1926/local-news-going-mobile-but-few-use-apps-to-access
Raines, Howell. “The Worst Investment in America?”. Condé Nast Portfolio. 2 May 2008:49. Print.Sonderman, Jeff. “News apps make up only 3% of all offerings in Apple’s App Store”. www.poynter.org. May 25, 2011. Web. Jun 22, 2011. http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/romenesko/133674/news-apps-make-up-only-3-of-all-offerings-in-apples-app-store/
Taft, Darryl K. “IBM: 100 Years of Innovation”. eWeek. Jun. 6, 2011:26-32. Print.
Tobar, Hector. “Leimert Park deserves a light-rail station”. Los Angeles Times. May 6, 2011. Web. Jun 22, 2011. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tobar-20110506,0,1948565.column >
Van Der Vries, Bernice T. “Mass Transportation Problems in Urban Area”. Annual Meeting Board of Managers, The Council of State Governments. Greenbrier Hotel, White Sulpher Springs, VA. 3 Dec 1959. Presentation. OpenLibrary. Web. 4 March 2011.
“Keep MTA's Crenshaw/LAX project on track” Los Angeles Times. Apr 28, 2011. Web. Jun 22, 2011. < http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-crenshaw-20110428,0,6896311.story >
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