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The news today is filled with discussions around a proposition that will be on the November ballot. Quoting the LA Times:

If a majority of voters who cast ballots agree, a long and contentious process would begin for three separate states to take the place of California, with one primarily centered around Los Angeles and the other two divvying up the counties to the north and south. Completion of the radical plan — far from certain, given its many hurdles at judicial, state and federal levels — would make history. […] Northern California would consist of 40 counties stretching from Oregon south to Santa Cruz County, then east to Merced and Mariposa counties. Southern California would begin with Madera County in the Central Valley and then wind its way along the existing state’s eastern and southern spine, comprising 12 counties and ultimately curving up the Pacific coast to grab San Diego and Orange counties. Los Angeles County would anchor the six counties that retained the name California, a state that would extend northward along the coast to Monterey County.

Of course, this proposal will never go all the way: it has to pass Congress at the national level, and they would be loath to create something that might topple the balance of power in either the House or Senate. That’s why neither Puerto Rico nor DC have achieved statehood: they’d come in a strongly Democratic. But there are so many other problems with this proposal. One can easily see why the last successful state split was West Virginia, during the Civil War, in an era where there wasn’t much state level infrastructure.

But splitting California would have so many problems:

• What would be the state postal code? After all, both NC and SC are taken. CN and CS and CA?
• You think the state bureaucracy is bad now? Splitting means duplicating and recreating all of the government bureaucracy: Three governors, Three Lt. Governors, Three of every executive, Duplications of staffs and such. Where does the money to pay for all of that come from?
• How will you divide infrastructure and infrastructure maintenance, especially when Caltrans districts straddle and cross state lines?
• Think about all costs associated with resignage. Almost every sign on state highways would need to be replaced if they referenced the state name or used the state highway shield.
• What do you do about funding of multiyear infrastructure improvement projects? How do you split the bonded indebtedness of projects that straddle state lines?
• How do you handle water, especially when all of the major urban areas are importing their water from new California states?
• How do we divide the costs of prisons, when they aren’t evenly distributed across the new states?
• Think about the mess this creates for Cal State and UC, as they now become multiple systems? How would USC react to there being another USC (and note that both SCU and CSU are also taken)? How will UNC react to their being another UNC (and note that both NCU and CNU are also both taken)?

Most importantly, would I have to do the Californias Highway Pages?

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as Breaking Up is Hard To Do by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

As I continue to clear out some news chum before starting work on the highway pages, here are some chum items of local-ish interest;

• “This Land” Becomes Real – Gentrification in Watts. In the play “This Land” which we saw recently, a key aspect of the plot was the gentrification of the community of Watts. Turns out — they were right. As one real estate developer said, “There is cheap housing in L.A. … The American dream is still affordable in Watts, Compton and all the forgotten ghettos.” Ralph McLaughlin, chief economist at the online real estate site Trulia, took a quick look at the numbers and said home values in Watts and Compton are at post-recession highs, indicating “increased demand to live or invest” in these areas. And who gets pushed out, and where do they go to live….
• Get Your Tacos Now – Music Center Renovation. Well, there goes Tito’s Tacos as a reliable low-cost dinner option before the Ahmanson. The Music Center will be renovating their plaza creating a stronger outdoor performance venue and redoing the restaurants in the process.  Note to self: Remember to get dinner in NoHo before you get on the Red Line to go to the Ahmanson or Taper for a while. Still, they need to do this — in particular, the escalators up to the plaza, because finding the elevators from the street is always a pain.
• As if By Magic – Proposed Hilton Universal Expansion. The Hilton Universal City has announced a proposal to expand the hotel. Thank you, Harry Potter. There are still many hurdles to overcome, including the site plan for the studio itself (the hotel is not on studio land). What I’m trying to figure out is precisely where they plan to build this addition, given the layout of the space and the hotel towers. I’m guessing it is going over the meeting space, but I’ve only seen a drawing, not a map. Not many more details here.
• Cutting the Cord — AT&T Removing Undersea Cable. Moving a bit further northwest, AT&T is planning to remove an undersea cable that runs from San Luis Obispo to China. The cable, part of the China-U.S. Cable Network, was retired from service in December 2016. In total, the 18,600-mile, $1.1 billion cable paid for by an international coalition of telecom companies connects the United States with China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Guam in a loop and had a capacity of 80 Gigabits, or 100 million phone calls at a time, according to a website that tracks submarine cable networks. The cables connect into a greater system at an AT&T terminal building about 10 miles inland on Los Osos Valley Road. Now it’s obsolete, and as Yoda says, pulled up it will be.
• Why Mother, You’re Growing – Mothers Market Expansion. Lastly, in the expansion of yet another natural food chain, Mother’s Markets are expanding into Los Angeles. Founded in Orange County in 1978 by a group of yoga enthusiasts, the pioneering organic grocery store said it is adding stores next year in Signal Hill and Manhattan Beach. The Signal Hill store, at 2475 Cherry Ave., is an anchor at a new development called Heritage Square. The store is slated to open in early 2018. The Manhattan Beach store, at 1700 Rosecrans Ave., is slated to open in the summer of 2018.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along the Road as News Chum: Of Local Interest by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link to the left. You can sign in with your LJ, DW, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. Note: Subsequent changes made to the post on the blog are not propagated by the SNAP Crossposter; please visit the original post to see the latest version. P.S.: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

This collection of news chum (perhaps the ultimate for this trip, or the penultimate) all relates to Southern California:

• Adaptive Reuse of the HeraldEx Building. Whereas other cites let decaying buildings rot, Los Angeles turns them into film sets. When the only real competition to the LA Times — the Los Angeles Herald Examiner — closed down back in 1989 (I still have copies of the last issue), the architectural gem that what the HeraldEx building in downtown (designed by Julia Morgan, the same architect behind Hearst Castle) shut down as well. It has had an active life since then as a filmset — not only serving as a newsroom, but as a prison and number other locals. The site has finally been sold by the Hearst Organization, and is slated to become a mix of creative offices and mixed use, preserving the architectural quality of the building and the ornate lobby.
• The 213 Expands. The area code 213 is just a shadows of what it once was. In the early days, it covered all of Southern California. Nowadays, it just covers the downtown core. But no more. The 323 area code is running out of numbers, and with 213 projected to be good until 2050, they are expanding 213 to be an overlay for 323 as well. Me? I’m in 818, although when I was much younger I was in 213 (but that area is now 310).
• Are They Building It With an Allen Wrench? The first Ikea in Southern California was in Burbank. We’re in there regularly; it is across the street from the Colony Theatre and their restaurant makes a great grab for dinner before the show. But that Ikea is a dead furniture store walking. Construction workers have been issued their hex nut wrenches, and America’s largest Ikea is being assembled a miles way in Burbank. The new 456,000-square-foot store will be twice as big as the original 242,000-square-foot location built in 1990 located about a mile down San Fernando Road from the new site near the 5 freeway.
• The Worm Capital of the World. When you think of Compton, what comes to mind? The recent “Out of Compton” movie? How about the worm capital of the world? Compton is home to Rainbow Mealworms, one of the largest suppliers of mealworms. Worms and crickets are being touted as “the next sustainable protein source“, although it may not be as eco friendly as is being touted. The LA Times has an article on the growing use of edible insects, and Rainbow Mealworm’s part in it.

ETA: Some sad news:

• The End of the Line. Allied Model Trains used to be a great store on the Westside, with not only trains but loads of books on train history.  Around 1990, it moved to Culver City, in a building that was modeled after Union Station downtown. In 2007, the long-time owner sold the business and moved it down the street (the Union Station-model becoming a Samys Camera). Business continued to dwindle, and in July, Allied Model Trains (now owned by The Whistle Stop in Pasadena) closed its doors for good.  There was going to be an auction of the remaining stock. Now that’s on hold, as a fire last night damaged the store and stock. After 69 years, there is no longer a train store on the westside.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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It’s been stewing on the stove for two weeks because I’ve been so busy. Let’s hope it is still tasty and flavor-right. Here’s your news chum stew for the last two weeks:

• Going For a Ride in my Car-Car. As you probably know, I’m in a vanpool. So when I saw a headline that read “Long commutes make you fat, tired, and miserable“, I was curious. The article notes that spending more than two hours of your day commuting — as 8.3 percent of American workers now do — will probably make you miserable. But there’s research that suggests doing it with other people will make it far less unbearable. As for the “fat”, it isn’t the commute that does it. Rather, it was the fact that commuters were less likely to get exercise. When you get home after a long commute, you’re too beat to exercise.  Now, add to the fact that the touted “driverless” cars may mean we will be willing to commute longer — alone — and… well… you do the math.
• Sorting it Out. Penn and Teller once did an episode of Bullshit noting that people really want to recycle, even if it is meaningless separation. It turns out that our not sorting — that is, putting all recyclables into a single blue bin, is leading to recycling stalling in America. The cost to separate is so high, and the value-return for recyclables is so low, that it is cheaper to make new. What a waste… but then again, we often forget we need to waste a lot of energy to recycle. There is a better solution. Use less in the first place.
• Out, Out, Damn USB. Have you ever tried to get Windows to eject a USB device, but it keeps refusing. Here’s a list of what to do when Windows is recalcitrant.
• Graphic Subtleties. You may not have noticed it, but Facebook is sporting a new logo. Look closely. Its subtle.
• Celiac Disease Riddles. Here’s an interesting article about celiac disease, where they may have found the underlying culprit. It turns out that it is an immune response, and the heredity pattern with celiac disease is very similar to the pattern with other autoimmune diseases.
• Food and Fun. Three interesting food related articles. The first explores how to cook ribs in the pressure cooker. The second talks about high fat foods that might be healthy for you.   The last looks at outstanding mom and pop restaurants in the San Fernando Valley.
• Drought Landscaping. If you live in California, you’ve probably seen a major visual effect of the drought: people replacing their lawns with either plastic grass or gravel. We know plastic grass is bad — you can’t smoke it it is isn’t porous, and prevents water from being absorbed into the water table. But it turns out gravel is equally bad. What’s worse is one company, Turf Terminators, has made a business taking rebates and making yards ugly. If we go to xeriscaping, I’d like something prettier than gravel, except perhaps in selected paths.
• Bubble Wrap No More. Do you enjoy popping bubble wrap? Soon you might not be able to do so. The company behind Bubble Wrap, sealed air, is exploring a new wrap that is shipped flat and inflated on site. There’s a major advantage to this: shipping costs depend on size of the package, and inflated bubble wrap rolls are too expensive to ship distances.
• iPod Solutions. Why, oh why, can’t Apple make an iPod with an SD slot. 200GB storage is getting affordable.
• Underwriters Lab for Cybersecurity. Mudge has left Google to try to create an Underwriters Laboratory for Cybsersecurity. The problem is: we already have one.  What’s worse is that most people don’t know about it.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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I’m currently reading a very interesting book called “Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water” by Marc Reisner. It is very timely reading, given the drought that we’re currently facing in California. The book explores much of the relationship of the American West and water, especially the power, politics, and idiocy behind many Bureau of Reclamation projects and Army Corps of Engineer projects — such as the Central Arizona Project, the Teton Dam, or the proposed Narrows Dam — that are not economically viable and often built in unstable areas. There are two chapters devoted to California: one explores the story of William Mulholland and the first Los Angeles Aqueduct (here are some interesting maps related to that), the second explores the history of the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project. Other chapters touch on some Army Corps projects that helped large farmers in the San Joaquin valley, the story of obtaining water from the Colorado, and the more surprising story of how they wanted to get more water for the Colorado / Central Valley from the Feather, Eel, Klamath, and even the Columbia river. What’s missing in the book is any discussion of San Francisco and its water, and the battle over Hetch Hetchy. It is a glaring omission.

In any case, this book has gotten me thinking about water, and a number of articles this week have emphasized that thinking. It’s also got me looking at many government projects a bit more cynically — when you understand some of the political battles behind them, you can see the waste. This is independent of party: both conservatives and liberals, Repubs and Democrats, have fought for water project boondoggles. Democrats like Jimmy Carter and Dwight Eisenhower tried to cut them, but never succeeded.

So here are some articles on water, with commentary:

• Once It’s Gone, It’s Gone. One of topics repeatedly mentioned in Cadillac Desert is how areas in the west have been over-pumping the ground water (similar to how we are over-pumping oil). We’ve been drastically drawing down a slow-to-replenish resource, and don’t have the water projects to replace it (and don’t get me started on how we’re contaminating the aquifers through fracking). A number of articles are bringing this fact home: the Las Vegas Sun has an article on how the groundwater loss in the Southwest is shocking: “Groundwater losses from the Colorado River basin appear massive enough to challenge long-term water supplies for the seven states and parts of Mexico that it serves” [combine this with the fact that more water from the Colorado River has been promised to the states along its path than flows through the river in a normal year]. The LA Times is reporting that farmers are having to drill deeper to find groundwater for wells. This indicates that the aquifer is getting low. The AAAS Science Magazine is reporting that the Western US states are using groundwater at an alarming rate: “A new study shows that ground water in the [Colorado River] basin is being depleted six times faster than surface water. The groundwater losses, which take thousands of years to be recharged naturally, point to the unsustainability of exploding population centers and water-intensive agriculture in the basin, which includes most of Arizona and parts of Colorado, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Wyoming.”  Yes, droughts are cyclical; but global climate change, combined with our misuse of what water resources we have, are making this one even scarier.
• A Crappy Situation. Think about your personal water usage. Outside of irrigating your landscaping, where is most of your water used? The answer, of course, is the bathroom. One of the articles I saw this week was on why the modern bathroom is a wasteful, unhealthy design. There are a number of interesting points in the article. Thanks to the modern bathroom, the average water use per person went quickly from three gallons of water per person to 30 and perhaps as much as 100 gallons per person. Further, we’re doing silly things like storing medicine, open toothbrushes, and glasses in an environment where fecal bacteria are being flung around. That’s less of a problem if you’re the only person using your bathroom; more of a problem if it shared.
• Go Jump in a (Concrete) Lake. Our house, alas, has a swimming pool. I don’t want it, but we liked the rest of the house. So here’s an interesting question: What uses more water — a swimming pool or the landscaping that replaces it? If a lawn is going it, quite likely the pool is water smarter (other than the fill, which is one-time). The pool only loses water due to evaporation; you pour water on the lawn regularly. It does make me think seriously about getting a pool cover to control evaporation, however. I just hate to think of the leaves that would accumulate on top of it.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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It’s the last Sunday of the year, and so I think you deserve some Saturday news chum stew, a day late. That’s what prompted the title to this post. However, looking at the articles, they all seem to relate to that notion: they are either past their time, or they are situations where there might not be enough cash, or both:

• Lick It and Stick It. If you aren’t already aware, postage rates are going up, “temporarily” (yeah, right), to 49c for the first ounce, and 21c for each additional ounce (forever stamps are still whatever the current rate is, so buy them now). Postcards will go to 34c. A number of other rates will also increase. The rates will supposedly go back down in 24 months, but I’ll believe that when I see it.
• Bookstores Gone But Not Forgotten. Kevin over at LA Observed has posted his list of bookstores that have closed in Southern California. We lost some biggies this year, including Cliff’s in Pasadena (which I thought would be around forever). I regret not getting over to Cliff’s before it closed.
• Breaking Away. A bunch of Northern California counties want to secede from California because they have no say in the legislature. Actually, they do have the same say as every other voter in the state; it just happens that most of the other voters live in the big urban areas. They seem to believe that their votes will make it so. What they forget is that it has to be approved by both the state legislature and congress.  Further, they will need to pay for their share of the state-owned infrastructure and assume their share of the state’s debt… and being rural, they won’t generate enough taxes to pay for all of that plus the additional bureaucracy they will need for a new state’s government. Since the United States has been created, a state split has occurred only once, and that was during the Civil War (the Carolinas split before the revolution).
• Double-Chined Barbie. There is a meme going around Facebook encouraging production of a stereotypically obese Barbie with a double chin. While I certainly agree that having a Barbie with realistic proportions would be a good idea, and that having Barbies that look like real people (including skin colors and facial characteristics, as opposed to a colored-skin white Barbie), this mock-up is not the answer.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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Today, my city and my state lost one of its greatest boosters, and his passing reminds me of other great journalistic boosters for my city and state. In their memory this post is dedicated.

Today’s news brings the sad report of the death of California icon Huell Howser. Howser, a transplant from Tennessee, grew to be one of the greatest booster of Los Angeles, Southern California, and all the quirks and oddities of California. Starting in the mid-1980s with Videolog, he rapidly developed a folksy style over a series of travelogue programs covering our great state. I know he was out to Orange Empire Railway Museum numerous times (which increased attendance every time), and even did a video report on the subway tunnels of the Pacific Electric. He was evidently as nice in person as he was on TV, and just enjoyed telling people about this wonderful state. I’m glad to see KCET will continue to air his shows.

Thinking of Huell made me remember another lost icon of Los Angeles, Ralph Story. Story died in 2006, and I wrote up some recollections then.  Story worked for KCBS (then KNXT) and KABC. I remember Story from his award winning series “Ralph Story’s LA”, which explored the history of Los Angeles. I particularly remember the segment he did on the Pacific Electric Railway tunnels near Echo Park.

I tend to like to do things in 3s, so I wanted a third person who boosted LA and has passed away. My wife came up with the answer: Jack Smith of the Los Angeles Times. Smith was a columnist who did regular columns on Los Angeles and Southern California; many of these were collected into books such as “The Big Orange” (for you Bay Area folks, substitute Herb Caen). Smith died in 1996, and I’m not sure the Times has had a columnist like him since. About the closest is Steve Lopez.

While writing this remembrance up, one other booster came to mind, but it is neither dead or off-the-air… however, it hasn’t had the same impact. KABC’s program, Eye on L.A., is a long running travelogue series hosted by whomever KABC had on staff (I remember Chuck Henry hosting it, but there have been others). However, it hasn’t exclusively focused on Los Angeles, or even California.

So, Huell, we thank your for your love of Los Angeles and California, and for continuing in the tradition of Ralph Story and Jack Smith, bringing the stories of the people to the people. You will be missed.

This entry was originally posted on Observations Along The Road (on cahighways.org) as this entry by cahwyguy. Although you can comment on DW, please make comments on original post at the Wordpress blog using the link below; you can sign in with your LJ, FB, or a myriad of other accounts. There are currently comments on the Wordpress blog. PS: If you see share buttons above, note that they do not work outside of the Wordpress blog.

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