One Stop.

September 06, 2017 by Reed Alvarado in Metro, Rider Stories

It's 6:30 on Monday morning, and while most of the work force is sleeping in on Labor Day, Maria Akis is walking out her door. She lives on the edge of MacArthur Park and is going to her job as a restaurant server at a hotel in Downtown Los Angeles. Considering it's a holiday, and Metro schedules usually run on an abbreviated schedule, I'm a little worried that we aren't going to make it to her job downtown by 7, but she assures me, "Metro takes half an hour." Even I – who prides myself on my confidence of in the Metro – seems skeptical, but we venture forth.

As we walk, sun still rising, I ask Maria what it is like to have always lived in LA without a car, (she moved here only a year and a half ago from Pittsburgh) and she admits, "It's sometimes annoying to get to places where you have to talk multiple trains or buses. Uber's are expensive, I was at the Annenberg seeing this show called "Generation Wealth"...the Uber was $17 from my house, and surging, I walked part of the way to get home...there isn't much shade in L.A. once you get off transit." This feeling of walking in a pedestrian wasteland is particularly strong coming off the week-long heat wave. In too many areas of the city, particularly around the Annenberg Space for Photography, heat coming off the wide boulevards of black asphalt and low concrete buildings offering little shade for cover makes pedestrians feel alone and unaccounted for.

However, MacArthur Park couldn't be more different. Even at 6:30 AM on a holiday, the streets are activated. This dense population of over 103,000 people in under 3 square miles makes it the second largest neighborhood by population in Los Angeles. Very few buildings have parking options and it's all centered around a large park that dates back to the 1880's. "I love MacArthur Park like it is. I would hate to see the chaos taken away. What's really nice is the breeze that comes off the lake, the little bit of grass, it makes a difference," she says. She talks about how even though she doesn't spend a lot of time physically in the park it affects the environment of all the apartments that face it, she even laughs about how she has a hummingbird that sometimes visits her on her balcony when she has her morning coffee.

“I love that about my neighborhood. I’ve thought about moving to other parts of the city but having both lines here is amazing. The train comes every four minutes toward Downtown in the morning.”

“I also love how each of the stations are different! The blue and orange tiles of the MacArthur Park Station...when my best friend was in town we did a photo shoot in the Pershing Station because of the different neons.”

It only takes about three minutes to walk to the station that she uses to get to her two jobs downtown. While many neighborhoods on the Eastside are transit-friendly, MacArthur park is the first that I've seen that is almost anti-car; there just isn't any room left to add parking. There is no parking at Maria's building and very few nearby lots. Transit here is the best way in and out, that's probably one of the reasons why there is such a vibrant market of vendors at the entrance of the station. In fact, as we are walking I realize my fear of making Maria late is unfounded, I forget that MacArthur Park station is served by both the Purple and Red Lines so trains run frequently even on a holiday. She says, "I love that about my neighborhood. I've thought about moving to other parts of the city but having both lines here is amazing. It comes every four minutes toward Downtown in the morning."

As we get down to the platform I ask her what aspects about her commute she wished could be improved and she quickly brings up that her second job has her coming home from Pershing Square station and the lack of seating there is disappointing. She assumes it's because of the large transient population that hovers around that station causing Metro to resist adding seating but as we look around at the station we're in, another preferred stop of the homeless population in LA, there is plenty of seating. Whatever the reason, it's an unfortunate truth however that the Pershing Square station feels barren despite its cavernous size and multiple entrances. It does not have the vendors of MacArthur or the volume of 7th & Metro.

Stepping on the train, she says that beyond seating she doesn't have many qualms with her daily commute, "I can rely on it...It's honestly interesting to me seeing the different vendor's and peddlers on Metro...there is an incense guy...I asked him how business was going once and he said it was good!" The interaction is one I know well. I too have had meetings with the incense man, while sometimes pungent, he's a nice guy doing his thing and I am often amazed by the number of people looking to buy the scented sticks. As we step out at 7th & Metro, only one stop later, we cut through the new entrance via The Bloc and Maria remembers, "I also love how each station is different! The blue and orange tiles of the MacArthur Park Station...when my best friend was in town we did a photo shoot in the Pershing Station because of the different neons." I admit that while used to think of them as superfluous when I first saw them, and still think a few are strange (the flying people at Civic Center is very unnerving in my opinion), and yet I have seen tourists enjoy them...I chalk it up to quirky L.A. charm.

Even though we had only gone a single stop, we walk up into a different world. Downtown L.A. with its high-rises and smaller population it is a vastly different place than its neighbor. Maria talks about how she fears gentrification may risk the city becoming more homogeneous one day and she hopes Los Angeles can figure out a way to keep neighborhoods intact even as new people move in. One thing MacArthur Park has the going for it is that the lack of car accessibility, slowing the influx of change. While the neighborhood will inevitably evolve, as all neighborhoods do, one can hope that whatever happens we can find a way to keep the vibrancy, the vendors, the life.

“I love MacArthur Park like it is. I would hate to see the chaos taken away. What’s really nice is the breeze that comes off the lake, the little bit of grass, it makes a difference”

However, not all change is bad. As for Downtown, along with all the new high-rises, one improvement she hopes to see is additional green space and trees just as she has in MacArthur Park. Her own neighborhood is a good example that density doesn't mean one must forego nature. Walking through the neighborhood of construction zones you can see the newly planted tree's and rising towers but only time will tell what they will bring. By the time we reach the front door of her restaurant a few minutes later I look at my clock and realize the whole trip took twenty-one minutes. Not bad for an L.A. commute.

Finding freedom on Metro

August 23, 2017 by Reed Alvarado in Rider Stories, Metro

It's 7:30AM and as I am walking out of Heidi Ippolito's apartment, a spot only two blocks away from an apartment I lived three years earlier, I realize I already have a problem with this week's story. I don't know what the proper title is for this neighborhood. I would call it Thai Town, others would call it Little Armenia. One could, incorrectly, throw it in with Los Feliz. A few count it as the fringe of Franklin Village, and finally there are those who just chalk it up to East Hollywood. Whatever you call it, the stretch of Hollywood Blvd between Normandie and Gower, and its neighboring streets, are some of the most dynamic and dense in the city.

Ferndell Trail at the Western/Los Feliz Griffith Park Entrance.

This compilation of communities has caused for a neighborhood where you can get award-winning Thai Food, go to a comedy show at UCB, check out the more pedestrian friendly entrance to Griffith Park, and finish at one of the most iconic bars of Hollywood all within a square mile, but ask anyone who has lived here and they will tell you one aspect that defines the neighborhood over all else is parking.

Made up mostly of two to five-story walk up apartments and strip malls, the neighborhood has limited parking. I remember the anxiety when I lived here with my car. Even in a smart car finding a spot was like winning the lottery. I would often spend twenty-five minutes circling the neighborhood. It became a ritual.

“when people told her about the freedom of having a car she just felt that freedom got her stuck in traffic.”

So as I'm walking with Heidi to the station, I wonder where her car is. Her answer surprises me; San Diego. She first moved to Franklin Village proper in 2008, then Los Feliz proper a couple years later, all with a car, but after she left to pursue a graduate degree in Scotland she returned to the stretch of Hollywood that lies between her two former neighborhoods. Having lived in the area before she knew how the neighborhood worked. She decided to leave her car at her parent's house in San Diego, waiting to see if she would need it, and after landing a job at the University of Southern California, another notoriously frustrating place to park without a parking pass, she decided she was better off without it.

As we walk underground, Heidi talks about how she became a Metro commuter. She remembers as a freshman not having a car, but utilizing the Zipcar locations that USC offered, and would take the Amtrak Surfliner to visit her home in San Diego. However, starting Sophomore year she brought up her car and had it for five years until she left for grad school in Scotland. After living abroad, she felt that not having a car made her life easier. "To not be driving felt more luxurious than having a car...there's more freedom not having a car," she recalled and said that when people told her about the freedom of having a car she just felt that freedom got her stuck in traffic. Heidi views Metro as "freedom within a structure (she) can't control," and that gives her the ability to find peace in her commute. She feels in the age of ride share, if something really goes wrong with a delay she can always call a Lyft or Uber for work.

“Every once in a while you get a character who is filling the space entirely with their own vibes, and for the most part you’re just making eye contact with everyone else like ‘you see this, yeah I see this too.’”

We get in a packed train downtown, and Heidi acknowledges she is asked about her safety on Metro from friends. She says she has her tactics but that they are the same she has at a bar or on the street. While admitting she doesn't usually take the Metro alone late at night, she states that she finds comfort in being surrounded by the other people on the train, unlike when she drove and had to park far away from her apartment alone late at night. Heidi, like other passengers, creates her bubble, riding the line between being friendly and keeping to herself. "I just stand, walk, and sit with a purpose...it's awareness and experience, nine out of ten times it's same old same old. Every once in a while you get a character who is filling the space entirely with their own vibes, and for the most part you're just making eye contact with everyone else like 'you see this, yeah I see this too.'"

About fifteen minutes later we pull into 7th & Metro where, in the middle of the morning commute, Heidi snakes through Metro's busiest station and heads up to her next train. She finds that after the transition to being a daily commuter she is now slowly using Metro more in her social life as oppose to ride-share services. If she has to go to The Grove, she will take the Purple Line as far as she can then use ride-share the rest of the way. What she loves the most about Metro is the freedom it has given her to make stops on the way home. "I can meet people Downtown on the fly. (When I had my car) I would always want to rush home to park while the spots were still there before going out, and that didn't make me feel free. I stay on campus more often now going to screenings and classes because I don't feel like I have to rush to my car."

“I can meet people Downtown on the fly. (when I had my car) I would always want to rush home to park while the spots were still there before going out, and that didn’t make me feel free.”

The last ride along the Expo Line is a frustrating stop and go experience, due to the cross-traffic that is notorious among this particular section of the Expo Line, but Heidi enjoys the line that didn't exist when she was a student at USC. It is an option that helps make USC feel more integrated into the city of LA. She even notes that she sees a good amount of younger faculty using the train, which is a frustrating observation considering USC disbanded their $30 subsidy toward a $100 monthly pass. Heidi would certainly benefit from that subsidy but says that she still saves money by no longer having to pay for the various costs attached to her car. It costs Heidi about $70 a month to commute to work.

It took about another fifteen minutes to get to Expo Park/USC Station, and we walk the last ten minutes through campus. In the end it took forty-nine minutes from Heidi's front door to Heidi's desk in the center of campus. While it's important to note there are still great subsidies for Undergrad and Graduate students at USC it is a missed opportunity that one of Los Angeles's largest employers does not have a program that encourages a non-car commute.

Until that changes, Heidi will enjoy the other social and monetary benefits that this shift has brought to her life. She has even considered opting for a monthly pass at $100 a month so she can be encouraged to use it more outside of her commute. As for that car in San Diego, she has decided to sell it.

The Evolution of an Angeleno.

August 09, 2017 by Reed Alvarado in Rider Stories, Metro

Morning walk to the Red Line through Virgil Village.

Picture this. Rene wakes up every morning, leaves his apartment, walks a couple blocks to a subway station, goes four stops, walks about five more blocks and is at work in roughly 30 minutes. Door to Door. If that was the only information I gave you, where would you say he lived? Perhaps Midtown Manhattan. Another option is Virgil Village, a neighborhood along the Red Line, sandwiched between Silverlake and East Hollywood. Rene moved here about 3 years ago, but was raised nearby in Thousand Oaks, a city about 15 miles past the northwest border of Los Angeles. Throwing even more LA mass transit stereotypes out, Rene doesn't take the train because he has no other option, Rene has a car. I ask him how often he uses it and he semi-jokingly says, "twice a week. Moving it from one side of the street to the other...for street cleaning. I think I'm going to sell it soon."

“Therefore, on top of savings gained by not parking, not only does Rene save $4 a month commuting to work, any other time he uses Metro, he’s saving money.”

Always ask your supplier if they have B-TAP.

It surprised me that Rene wouldn't use the car he has. "It's too expensive. Every time I drive it's like $10 for the day (at a parking lot near Ace Hotel)." He has the option for a monthly parking space, but at about $100 a month, it isn't a solution for him. A more appealing option is the subsidized TAP card the hotel uses through a program with Metro called B-TAP. This gives him an unlimited monthly TAP card for about $66 a month. A standard monthly TAP card is $100 a month. He learned about the option in an orientation that new hires at Ace Hotel take. It's a great option, which allows you to use it 24/7, not just while commuting to work. If Rene payed for single use rides he would be paying $3.50 round trip each day. Thats $70 a month. Therefore, on top of savings gained by not parking, not only does Rene save $4 a month commuting to work, any other time he uses Metro, he's saving money. That's a great reason to work at Ace Hotel. Only a handful of companies currently are enrolled in the B-TAP program, but for many companies it makes a lot of sense. It's not just an advantage for Rene, Ace Hotel took over an old office building from 1927 built long before the private automobile engineered how we designed our city. The cost of providing parking for all of their employees would be far too high, a predicament many companies see. More and more companies, and even cities (See what Columbus, Ohio is doing), are finding new ways to get their employees to work.

Growing up in Thousand Oaks, Rene didn't use mass transit. He hadn't even tried Metro until 2012, while going to UCLA, when he found his way first to the Expo line and then on to the Red Line to go out one evening. Prior to that night, he didn't really think of it as a viable option. As we are getting on our train he says, "I didn't really think about it at all...it existed, but my whole life was on the Westside. I didn't try."

“Five years after his first ride on Metro, Rene lives in a place where his car sits parked on the street.”

Video monitors display when the next train is coming.

Five years after his first ride on Metro, Rene lives in a place where his car sits parked on the street. He gets around via Metro, and when time is of the essence he supplements his transport by ride sharing services like Lyft (a service which he spends about $25 a week on). He takes an average of four Lyfts a week. Having an unlimited TAP Card has made it more desirable for him to pick mass transit. I wondered how he got here. He wasn't raised to take mass transit. He isn't forced to take mass transit. Often in Los Angeles many assume that there are only two types of people who rely on Metro: the one's who can't afford private vehicles, or the transplants from more urban cities like New York or San Francisco that are used to the lifestyle of underground trains and shared spaces. Rene is neither. He's just an Angeleno who has chosen to participate in LA's great 21st century experiment: Can this city have more than one option for how we move around? Rene wants something different than the normal LA commute. He wants more time to do what he wants to do. He wants to be able to get around without a car. "It's made me write and read more, even though I have only about 10 minutes on the train." It gives him a reason to get a book started or brainstorm a project.

"I love walking into these stations and imagining what they are going to look like in the future." It's an interesting thought. Will there one day be enough traffic or political will power to justify the in-station concession stands we are used to in other cities? Will there be more digital visuals or art? More entrances and exits like the one that recently opened at 7th and Metro he uses to make his way to work. The new portal saves him two minutes on his walk. These are all valid questions. Our rail system is relatively young. The Blue Line, Metro's oldest line that streches from Long Beach to DTLA, only opened in 1990, a year before Rene was born. He remarks that he feels enjoyment that he's part of the big experiment of bringing rail back to Los Angeles.

The interesting thing about talking to Rene is that he wasn't seeking to change the way he lived his life to survive in LA. He just made choices that made economical sense and gave him the ability to use his time the way he wanted. He wanted less time in traffic and more time with friends. He tries to encourage his friends to use mass transit to varying success, he did manage to persuade his roommate to get a TAP card. When we think about what growing up in Los Angeles means we usually have a few ideas that come to mind, but it's important to remember that this city is changing fast and those idea's might become more of an option rather then a rule.

“What would happen if we introduced mass transit education into schools the way we teach DMV handbooks?”

There are thousands of children growing up in LA today who have had an operational rail line within a mile of them their whole life. They might have already used their first TAP Card. What would happen if we introduced mass transit education into schools the way we teach DMV handbooks (as Seattle Mayoral Candidate Nikita Oliver recently stated)? How would this effect the next generation and their perception of transit? Would it be normal to them? Will they grow up and have to move to SF or NY if they seek a more urban life? Or might our future Angelenos just have to move to another part of town. As I walk up to the door at Ace to conclude our talk, Rene notes how he wishes the subway to Westwood had been built when he was in college, 25 minutes from DTLA to Westwood/Wilshire. Can you imagine?

Rene's Commute from Virgil Village to DTLA. Provided by Citymapper.