ejaycat

Paris is quite humid in the summer; the last time I was there in the summer, I felt it was like being in Chicago during the summer. Or maybe it's because I'm from LA? But no, Paris is humid in the summer. LA *isn't* a desert. It has a Mediterranean climate. In fact, in my travels through Mediterranean countries, a lot of the landscape reminded me of southern California, like the chaparral. You even see that white marine layer haze in Mediterranean climates like you do in SoCal, which many mistake to be smog. You can grow many things in Mediterranean climates; in deserts, not so much.

Off-topic here again, my apologies, but just watching the news right now about the Orlando shooting, it's really awful. And I'm almost anticipating what the NRA and gun "rights" supporters will have to say about this. I wonder if they'll say that *more* guns is the answer, you know, that usual argument of "If everyone at the nightclub was armed, they could have protected themselves and taken down the shooter." Give me a BREAK!! More guns means more bloodbaths. My own little editorial, thanks for indulging me.

How is humidity a strength, and better for athletes? How are these strengths?

Not Olympics-related, but I just read the "green" comments. Los Ángeles may not be the greenest large city in the US (and to be honest, I don't know which city that would be, and if any of you care to enlighten me, please do so, and being that LA is the 2nd largest city in the US, if there's a greener city, it would be either a much smaller city, or NYC ), but hey, we're trying: From ABC7.com: LAPD GOING GREEN WITH 100 BMW I3 ELECTRIC CARS The Los Angeles Police Department unveiled a slew of electric cars Wednesday, making it the greenest law-enforcement agency in the country. (KABC) By Rob Hayes Wednesday, June 08, 2016 03:46PM DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES (KABC) --The Los Angeles Police Department is adding 100 electric vehicles to its fleet, making it the greenest law-enforcement agency in the country, city officials said. Mayor Eric Garcetti and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck drove up to City Hall in a new BMW i3. The fleet was enough to fill up most of the upper floor of the police department's parking structure. The electric cars bring the city's fleet up to 199, making it the largest municipal electric-battery fleet in the country. Read the rest here: http://abc7.com/news/lapd-going-green-with-100-bmw-i3-electric-cars/1377205/

Hahahaha!!! That made me laugh. You were being funny, right? is this a Carmen Miranda reference?

Thank you!

Yup, the completion of the Expo Line to Santa Monica is a big deal. Now, Los Angeles County's Metro Rail system is 105.8 miles in total track length, and it's only gonna get bigger; the Regional Connector, Purple Line Extension and Crenshaw Line are all currently under construction. Metro/Wikipedia And of course Metro Rail is a separate system from Metrolink, which is Greater Los Angeles' commuter rail service, which also operates on weekends, and has a total system length of 388 miles. My partner and I took the Metro Rail from where we live in South Pasadena to Santa Monica yesterday, and it is definitely a great alternative to driving. The Expo Line's eastern terminus is the 7th Street Metro Center station in downtown LA. Photo by me From there, the next stop on its way to Santa Monica is the Pico Station, which is a few blocks from LA Live, Staples Center and the Convention Center. As you can see, this area is under massive construction, for high-rise housing and retail. Photo by me Ride it all the way west, and you end at the Downtown Santa Monica station. Photo by me Santa Monica Beach, Pier, and the 3rd Street Promenade are all within blocks of the new Metro station. Photo by me Photo by me A Michael Jackson wannabe. Photo by me My partner and I ended up going to one of our favorite French restaurants and just hung out for a bit and got buzzed on 4 glasses each of Lillet blanc. Photo by me We also had some cheeses, French ham, cornichons and pâté de campagne. Photo by me And then I had the trout almondine. Photo by me And then we walked back to the Metro station and went home. Photo by me What does this have to do with LA's Olympic bid? Nothing. I was just bored, am kinda buzzed again right now from some Blue Moons, and decided to post some pictures. :-P

Well... While it's true that many palm trees were planted in anticipation of the 1932 Olympics, LA and southern California in general already had many palm trees well before the Olympics, Many were planted during the real estate speculation boom of the 1880s. And I thought I read somewhere that the Coliseum (which was completed in 1923) was built in an effort to lure the 1924 or 1928 Games, but I'm not sure. The LA84 Foundation is definitely a legacy of the '84 Games, probably the best legacy of those Games. The 1984 Olympic Velodrome at Cal State Dominguez Hills was eventually torn down; the USC Swimming Stadium of course is a legacy of '84 but is no longer configured to host an Olympic Swimming competition (lack of seating). And yes, I heard that the canoe slalom at the Sepulveda Basin would be retained. Golf, though; I thought that would be contested at the Wilson Golf Course at Griffith Park, which already exists...

From the Los Angeles Times: State Senate leader proposes $250-million bill to cover 2024 Olympics overruns BY DAVID WHARTON March 18, 2016, 8:25 p.m. The leader of the California Senate has introduced a bill that would provide up to $250 million in financial guarantees as part of Los Angeles’ bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon (D-Los Angeles) has proposed the creation of an “Olympic Games Trust Fund” to help cover any potential cost overruns if L.A. were to be selected as host and hold the Games. Mayor Eric Garcetti and the private LA 2024 bid committee have estimated the 17-day sporting event could generate enough money from broadcast rights, corporate sponsorships, ticket sales and other sources to cover a proposed budget that could exceed $6 billion. However, some past hosts have accumulated massive deficits and the city must sign a contract with the International Olympic Committee promising to cover any costs that exceed revenues. In a report issued Friday, city staff said de Leon’s bill -- SB 1465 -- is “consistent with the State’s prior practice of supporting California bid cities.” Los Angeles is competing against Paris, Rome and Budapest for the 2024 Games. The IOC is scheduled to select a host in September 2017. Source: http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-86269885/

I've been to San Francisco, dozens of times, and still go there on the occasional long weekend. Sydney, I've never been. OK this statement is absolutely false. The other things you said were your opinion, which is fine. And for the record, I don't give a flying turd if LA hosts the Olympics in 2024 or ever again. But you can indeed see and touch LA's history. And, LA didn't just instantly become a city in the 1920s. After LA became an incorporated American city in 1850 after being a Spanish, then later a Mexican, pueblo, LA developed like the typical small American town, growing into a small city of a little over 102,000 people by 1900. LA circa 1900. See the Hamburger's Department Store? It's in a building that was built in 1887. Hamburger's is what later became The May Company. USC Archive LA in 1900 looked like it could've been Cleveland in 1900. But Cleveland had a bigger population at that time, over 381,000 people USC Archive Not a highrise city, but a dense downtown circa 1900. A lot of those structures would be demolished for various reasons... earthquakes, street widenings/street grid realignments, to create parking lots, or simply because the buildings were considered old and outdated. USC Archive Hollingsworth Building, circa 1906. LAPL Circa 1900. See the wooden Victorian structure on the right? That was replaced by the Hollingsworth Building. The Jevne Company building and the Hayward Hotel still exist. The Methodist Episcopal Church is long gone. Metro Library Archive City Hall under construction, circa 1927. 19th Century LA is giving way to 20th Century LA. Old Victorian-era structures would be demolished, the street grid would be realigned and straightened, streets would be widened, all because of the automobile. By 1920, LA had around 576,000 people, and had taken to the automobile a lot earlier than most cities. LAPL By the time LA hosted the 1932 Summer Olympics, it had a population of well over 1.2 million people, according to the 1930 Census. This building still exists, by the way. A rainy day downtown, 1940s. USC Archive The same intersection. Photo by me Photo by me Photo by me The Continental Building, on the left, was built in 1903. In fact, downtown contains a lot of buildings circa turn of the 20th Century, 1890s-1910s. Since around 2000, a lot of these old buildings have been turned into housing. Downtown LA's population has significantly increased since then, not including the homeless. Photo by me The Alexandria Hotel was built in 1906. This was taken downtown on a Sunday morning, during the Historic Core Farmers Market. Photo by me Photo by me Photo by me Photo by me Photo by me Photo by me This area used to be so sketchy just even 10 or 12 years ago. Photo by me Sorry for the photo overload, but I have insomnia right now, so I thought I may as well keep myself busy to help me fall sleep. But anyway, though a lot has indeed been torn down in LA, a lot of old buildings still do exist downtown, pre-1920s and post-1880s.

But uh, looking at these threads, isn't that often brought up when cities want to bid for a summer Olympics, namely how well-known a city is globally? Isn't this why everyone was kind of surprised when the USOC initially put up Boston as its candidate city? It's like you guys contradict yourselves. Someone condescendingly dismisses LA, yet when someone else points out that it's actually an economically and culturally significant city, then all of sudden, that's irrelevant to a conversation that was initially brought up by the people that were dismissing it in the first place.

You obviously don't know much about LA, if you think that a sign is its most distinctive feature. Reminds me of a girl I used to work with, who has never been to San Francisco, and after a recent trip I took there, she asked me "so what's the big deal about San Francisco? So it has a bridge, so what." I didn't even bother telling her that there's more to SF than just the Golden Gate Bridge. Maybe not to you, and frankly not to me either, but it's an indicator of its economic and cultural global outreach/importance/influence. It's an indicator of how it contributes to the global economy. How are San Francisco and Sydney any more historic, rich in culture, etc., than LA? LA was founded as a Spanish Pueblo in 1781, and prior to that, was a collection of native Tongva villages. Saying LA has no history is like saying Florida has no history. It's obvious that that really is your subjective opinion, which is fine, we're all entitled to our own opinions. But like the other guy and his "sign" comment, it leads me to think that you don't really know much about LA.

Yeah, I'm wondering what he's basing this on. In the Global Cities Index, Los Ángeles ranks #6, above Sydney (#15) and well above San Francisco (#22). Source: A.T. Kearney Global Cities Index 2015 I've mentioned it before on this thread, but LA is a major manufacturing center with a very diverse economy. It's also very ethnically diverse, and a major cultural center, education center, etc.

How do you figure?

Rendering of USC Village, which would be the Media Village if Los Ángeles gets the 2024 Olympics. village.usc.edu Here are some pics taken last Sunday, Feb. 21, 2016, of how the construction is progressing at University Village adjacent to USC. Courtesy jgacis skyscraperpage.com Courtesy jgacis skyscraperpage.com Courtesy jgacis skyscraperpage.com Courtesy jgacis skyscraperpage.com Courtesy jgacis skyscraperpage.com Courtesy jgacis skyscraperpage.com Courtesy jgacis skyscraperpage.com A number of newer buildings currently under construction on the USC campus itself are being built in the Gothic style, I don't know why. The older buildings' architecture on the USC campus is Mediterranean Romanesque and Renaissance, so, I don't know why they're going with the Gothic motif---this is LA after all, not Princeton.

From KPCC/scpr.org: 88 percent of LA residents want the Olympics, poll finds Ben Bergman 3 hours ago Eighty-eight percent of Los Angeles County residents want Los Angeles to host the 2024 Olympics, according to the results of a new poll conducted by Loyola Marymount University and sponsored in part by KPCC. It's the first major independent survey gauging local Olympic support, and the percentage is even higher than the results from an internal poll conducted by Olympic organizers last year, which revealed 81 percent of L.A. residents support hosting the Games. “Across the board, everybody is just very supportive," said Brianne Gilbert, associate director at the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles at LMU, which gauged support for the Olympics as part of its annual public opinion survey of L.A. County. "This is really something Angelenos want to see in L.A," said Gilbert. "The support is really phenomenal.” Most of those who want the games to return to Southern California cited economic reasons, with 31 percent saying an economic boost was the top reason why L.A. should host the Olympics, and 18 percent citing a boost in job creation. (Although as KPCC has reported before, many economists say the actual economic impact Olympics have on cities is small.) Those who don't want the Olympics cited traffic congestion (21 percent) followed closely by the cost (20 percent.) Of those who support a 2024 Olympics in Los Angeles, 56 percent are "strongly supportive" while 32 percent are "somewhat supportive." Telephone interviews were conducted during the first six weeks of the year. The survey had a margin of error of ±3.0% and used sampling so that the 2,425 respondents represent the demographics of Los Angeles county. However, researchers found almost no differences between groups, which Gilbert says is very unusual. "I’ve never seen that in any survey I’ve done," said Gilbert. "There was no demographic or geographic group that had less than 80 percent support for the Olympics." Los Angeles is competing against Rome, Paris and Budapest to host the 2024 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee will make its selection in 2017. Source: KPCC/scpr.org

Beach Volleyball on the Champ de Mars, near the Eiffel Tower... Bon jour, Paris! nbcsports.com nbcsports.com

Using Grand Ave. itself for archery was one of my first thoughts. I'm wondering though how spectators would be accommodated. Geez, I'm hoping that by 2024, those awful parking lots on Bunker Hill would already be developed into something else. And when is Angels Flight gonna reopen?? They need to get that up and running again!!

Well, in the previous 2024 bid book, Archery was proposed at the Sepulveda Basin. I don't see why they couldn't keep it there; Bunker Hill seems so arbitrary to me. The only reasons I could think of was that it would be yet another event in the Downtown Cluster and Bunker Hill itself is public transit handy, with a Metro subway station (Civic Center Station) and another subway station (2nd Pl./Hope Street Station) under construction as part of Metro's Regional Connector project, which is being built behind the Broad Museum.

I did too, as well as the building itself. I liked the cylindrical glass elevator.

I went to Bunker Hill today, and... yeah, the only place I could think of to possibly hold Archery, was Grand Park... Photo by me It would have to be at the lower tiers, though, of the park. Photo by me Of course the lowest tier would be right near City Hall, which incidentally would also be where the Marathon would start and end, according to the bid book. But I've imagined Grand Park to be a large gathering space for Olympic festivities, and not for a sport venue. Photo by me Walked by the Broad Museum, too, just to see if there was still a line for it. Photo by me There was. Photo by me

You're kidding, right? Los Angeles has tons of examples of Art Deco and Streamline Moderne architecture. The Wiltern, Bullock's Wilshire, Union Station (a fusion of Spanish Revival and Art Deco, of course), Coca Cola Bottling Plant, buildings in the Miracle Mile District, Hollywood, the Sunset Tower... With some of your comments in regards to LA, I feel like you don't really know about it. If you're referring to the Housing Administration office, yeah, that's located within campus housing, but if you're referring to the actual University administration building, that is clear on the other end of campus (Murphy Hall, I believe, is UCLA's admin building, or at least it contains undergraduate admissions and the registrar's office). UCLA's on-campus housing is actually perfect as an Olympic Village, being that it's in one corner of the campus, and is easily secured on its perimeter, unlike USC's on-campus housing, being that USC is in a more urban setting, and their dorms are practically near the city streets. Here's a screen capture from the LA2024 bid of the UCLA dorms. It practically screams Olympic village, and it's adjacent to Drake Stadium, the tennis courts, and Pauley Pavilion is to the east, out of frame: LA definitely needs more housing, and it does need to address solutions to water source, but LA already has a very diversified economy, probably one of the more diverse economies of any large city in the US. LA is the largest manufacturing center west of the Mississippi--apparel being one of many things manufactured in LA. And people seem to forget that LA is also a big oil producer; it has the largest/busiest shipping container port in the nation (when you combine it with Long Beach); it has shrunk of course, but aerospace technology is still present here, healthcare industry is pretty big, as well as education. People seem to not realize that the LA metro area has a multitude of colleges and universities, public and private, and some pretty prestigious ones. And of course there's the entertainment industry, but it's actually a small fraction of LA's economy. Here's an NPR article from last November: What Gets Made in LA is Way More Than Movies I'm not being an LA booster, either. I'm just responding to your comments, which like I've said before, lead me to think that you actually don't really know a lot about Los Angeles. Yourself being a "former resident of the metro area," where exactly did you live, and for how long, if I may ask?

When I first saw the plan to create an Olympic Village at the Piggyback Yards, my knee-jerk reaction was 'Oh wow! It would help revitalize the river and create new housing.' But then of course there was the issue of cleanup, the cost... And then the more I thought about it, I didn't like it anymore. If anyone's been in that area, it's very industrial, and a housing complex there would feel very isolated. The design essentially looks like a bunch of apartment buildings in a park; from an urban planning point of view, that seems like such an outdated model, basically suburban. I would prefer a neighborhood that engaged with and livened up its streets. UCLA was planning on building more housing on campus anyway, so this fits in with the Olympic Village thing.

Current venue plan for LA 2024. LA2024 I don't know why I'm so intrigued with the archery event being held on Bunker Hill. Just for shits and giggles, I think I'll go to Bunker HIll and do a site survey of my own...

That was my thought too. At least what I've seen on TV anyway, you really only mostly see bobbing heads above the water, and then only occasionally will you see an underwater shot, with headless bodies. I also think this proposed IBC is part of/could be incorporated into NBC Universal's plan for their new west coast headquarters. NBC sold their studios in Burbank a number of years ago (in 2007, I think?) in order to move and consolidate all of their operations to one area, namely Universal City. When Conan O'Brien did The Tonight Show, he did it out of Universal City, not Burbank, and in 2014, LA's local KNBC-Channel 4 news studios moved from Burbank to the new Universal City location (news story: KNBC Channel 4 leaves Burbank; moves to new L.A. broadcast center). Universal City is also actually unincorporated county territory, so I would imagine that permitting building demolition/building new structures might be somewhat easier than in an incorporated city, particularly a big city like Los Ángeles; fewer hoops to have to go through, in other words. But I could be wrong.