Dodger Blue(s)

Metro Local 2 - Sunset Blvd/Innes Ave

Once upon a time (last year), there was a magical free shuttle that took riders from Union Station to Dodger Stadium every ten minutes.

Today, Dodger fans who wish to make the game on time have two choices:

1. Hang out for half an hour or more in the endless sea of cars converging on parking lots A-P or 1-12.
2. Take a hike.

Not for the faint of heart, hiking up to Dodger Stadium from the bus stop at the corner of Sunset Blvd. and Elysian Park Ave will give you a small workout. But it will also save you the $12 parking fee, and maybe a trip to the gym. The way down is much easier, but on both trips, watch for frustrated drivers.

The Metro Local 2 and 4 lines run regularly from Pershing Square to the corner of Sunset Blvd and Elysian Park Ave, which is also the main parking entrance for Dodger Stadium.

In the future, the bus might come right up to the front gates. Dodger Stadium has released their Dodger Stadium: The Next 50 Years plan, and it includes provisions for better public transportation access.

Would you like to encourage Dodger Stadium to restore the Union Square shuttle? Call them at (323) 224-1507.

Rolling on the Metro

L.A. Bus and Train Lines

Ride your bike and ride for free on Thursday! Just carry your bike or helmet on any bus or train for a free ride on bike to work day (May 14, 2009).

If you haven't ridden the bus or train, have been too shy to try it, or simply want to find a good use for the bicycle collecting dust in your garage, try riding to work tomorrow. If you do, you could be entered to win fabulous prizes (in this context, fabulous prizes include, but are not limited to, electric bicycles).

Never ridden your bike in Los Angeles before? Here is some help with planning your route:

• Detailed map from MTA (PDF)


• Wikipedia list of Los Angeles bike paths

And finally, here are some frequently asked questions about riding your bicycle:

1. Do I have to wear a helmet?
   
   While you won't get a ticket if you are an adult for not wearing your helmet, you are crazy if you don't.


2. Can I ride on the sidewalk?
   
   You can ride on the sidewalk in Los Angeles, as long as you are not endangering pedestrians.


3. What if there isn't a bike lane?
   
   Cyclists call it "Taking a Lane" when you ride so that a car must leave the lane in order to pass you. This is legal, and encouraged by many bike riders. Don't be afraid - you have a right to be in the lane - although if it is rush hour, it might be a bit terrifying.


4. How do I put my bike on the bus?
   
   It can be scary the first time, but if you are taking your bike on the bus, it needs to go on the bus rack in front (note: these are sometimes full, and not available on all busses).
   
   If you are the first one with a bike, lower the rack by squeezing the handle. Load your bike into one of the slots, and lift the securing bar. It is a good idea to let your driver know your stop when you board the bus. If you are the last one with a bike, make sure you put the bike rack back up before riding off!

If you're interested in more information about riding your bicycle in Los Angeles, or advocating for future bike routes, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation has information for LA City, while Metro has information and planning sessions for bikeways covering all of LA County.

Dirty Chips and Plastic Bananas.

Metro Rapid Bus 754 - Vermont/Melrose

If you have a pitcher of sangria, a view of Elvis and the Virgin Mary, and healthy helping of black beans, you might just be inside the Original Cha Cha Cha.

Inside the pink exterior are two dining rooms where the Chiquita Banana would feel right at home. It is one of those rare wonderful places that thrive in Silverlake or Venice beach, where good food and a friendly atmosphere blend perfectly with the eclectic decor.

Every time I go, the Dirty Chips with Guacamole are the first things ordered. Before 2pm you can enjoy breakfast dishes with sides of plantains (which are my personal favorite here). After 2 pm, make sure you make it to happy hour: 4-7pm Monday - Thursday for $10 Sangria pitchers.

The side dishes are always a hit, and I hear the Jamacian Jerk Chicken is amazing, although I can't say I've tried it myself. Best of all, everything comes with fresh, warm bread, perfect for dipping in black beans.

You'll leave a little happier, a little warmer, and feeling a little bit more like a part of the family that has kept Cha Cha Cha standing (out) on the corner for the last 22 years.

Tap That Pass

Only slightly thicker than a credit card, the TAP is the daily, monthly and weekly pass - Los Angeles' RFID answer to NYC's Metro Card.

What they do:

• Give you a satisfying beep every time you board a bus or train (note: it makes the same noise in the train station, but not on the busses, whether or not you have a balance on your card)


• Pay your fare without taking your card out. Just wave your wallet or purse over the TAP station - like magic!


• Stand up to the wear and tear of daily (ab)use, month after month (mine is over a year old)


• Save you from paying for transfers within MTA (because, well, you have to buy an unlimited pass)


• Let you reload your pass online

What they don't do:

• Give you the chance to buy or reload a pass from your bus driver -- train stations are the easiest place to buy passes


• Let you load up the cards with a set amount; you get unlimited passes only good for the day/week/month


• Make life easier for Grammar Girl (people have a tendency to say "TAP Pass" just like "ATM Machine")


• Give you your TAP card for free ($2 please)


• Convince people to pay their subway fare


• Keep monthly riders from getting citations

It is better than the paper passes in many ways. It makes more sense, and is easier to access. But it is unnerving that MTA requires tapping the card, even for in-station train transfers, and threatens citations if you do not. It is faster than swiping a card the way they do in New York City, but slower than flashing a paper pass.

Depot Revival

Metrolink – San Bernardino station

The birthplace of McDonald’s and one of the oldest Southern California communities (the “gateway to Southern California”), San Bernardino is now better known for its sprawl, fires, and placement on oft-debated lists of most dangerous cities.

San Bernardino as it stands now, is a prime example of (sub)urban planning gone a bit awry. Housing prices in San Bernardino are (and were) so low compared to the continuing high cost of homes in the Los Angeles market that many workers grit their teeth for four hour (or longer) commutes because they cannot afford to live closer.

With a large portion of the population gone for ten to twelve hours a day, San Bernardino has suffered. However, the rising cost and length of this commute has left some hope for the future of this community, which was originally based on rail travel. The necessity of commuter trains is slowly translating into improvements to the old Santa Fe station, which was once the heart of San Bernardino.

The Santa Fe Depot opened on July 15, 1918. It marked the beginning of a new era, as the largest station west of the Mississippi. During the height of passenger train travel (from 1920 - 1950), sixty to eight-five percent of people living in San Bernardino were employed at the station.

With the rise of the automobile and the decline of rail travel, the station slowly decayed. What started as a city hub in the 1900s almost became a great loss to the city in 2008. Without organizations such as the San Bernardino Railroad Historical Society and San Bernardino Historical Society helping to re-open the depot, Amtrak and Metrolink service to the San Bernardino area would have disappeared in June 2008. Although it is now open, the beautifully restored depot has restricted hours, and depends on limited funding and volunteers to keep the doors open and welcoming riders.

The future of the station is looking brighter, as SANBAG and other San Bernardino area organizations see it as a hub for transportation and, subsequently, commerce. Improvements to the area include plans for shops, restaurants, and other commuter conveniences in the "Mercado Santa Fe Depot District". By June 2009 a new parking structure for San Bernardino Metrolink riders is expected to increase ridership and launch the restoration of the area surrounding the Metrolink station.

With all of these changes, there is a great opportunity for San Bernardino residents. While Metrolink is both less expensive and faster to ride for a daily commute, many residents are afraid to leave the convenience of their car. A new commerce center will not only allow for that convenience, but it will also restore money to the community which would otherwise be spent along the road to or from downtown Los Angeles. The new parking structure will make it more convenient for riders who live too far to walk to the station, and offer greater security for cars that are left in the city.

Right now the train stations in the Los Angeles area suffer from the same plague: too many cars and too few amenities. Hopefully this will prove to be the first of many mixed-use stations along the Metrolink lines.

The Big Moveoutski

Metro Express Line 445 - Pacific Ave / 3rd

I have to admit, I’m a bit of a beach nut. I need to be near the water, which is why I spent so much time in West Los Angeles and Santa Monica.

You haven’t heard from me in quite some time. Well, that is because I’ve been in the process of moving. It takes a long time for a little squirrel to move across town, even with my bus pass.

I found this little town called San Pedro. It is just across the water from Long Beach. From my new place I can walk down to the harbor and visit the sea gulls, or check out the starfish. I can ride the old Red Cars on the weekends, and even go for hikes around the cliffs. And I can still catch the bus and be downtown in about thirty minutes (my bus stop even has its own burger joint, which is a coffee shop in the morning).

It’s a pretty nice little area, perfect for me. And while there are plenty of locals, not very many people in Los Angeles know very much about San Pedro.

You know how much I like telling you about places you haven’t explored.

The only downside is that there aren’t as many trees here as there were in West LA. But I’m working on that too.

A different drum

Santa Monica 2 - UCLA

This weekend I visited the 23rd Annual UCLA Pow Wow.

There were dancers, drums, crafts, and children. And fry bread.

It wasn't the biggest Pow Wow I have been to, but it had some great highlights. Walking through the booths, the art of Debbie martinez-Rambeau particularly caught my eye. There were also more traditional silver crafts, fetish carvings (from Zuni and other tribes), and for about $10 I was able to pick up the materials to make a couple of dream catchers. Not too bad.

On the less traditional side, there were a few booths, with companies like Full Blood Skates which are bringing a different look and stronger feel to tribal pride. It's nicer to see than the End of the Trail images.

I don't have any pictures of the crowds, you'll have to go yourself to see the dancers.

But I did get my own little drum. I was the envy of all the UCLA squirrels.

If you missed this one, the SCIC Annual Pow Wow is one of the best open Pow Wows in the area, and it is coming up in July.

Wine Wine Wine

Rapid Bus 704 - Santa Monica / Lincoln

Like any decent LA happy hour spot, Bodega is a subtle presence.

Announcing itself with naught but a little sign, Bodega Winebar looks quite red from the outside (in fact, the red windows are its most distinctive feature), but is easy to pass by if you don't know it's there.

Inside, red is still the prevailing color, and their red wines seem to be their star players. At happy hour you can sample some fun wines (the Petit Syrah was the group favorite tonight), and nice appetizers to share with friends in a very low-key environment.

If you're looking for a place to sit - the back tables have brighter lighting and seem a bit more private (as in, you'll have trouble finding your friends if they're sitting there). The raised window seats are very fun, but you might get a bit warm if you're sitting there before sunset. In the center of it all are long tables with stools where you can socialize with larger groups or make new friends. All in all, it is a nice mix of seen or not-seen, mingle or alone.

Since Bodega is located around the corner from Lincoln, just a quick block from Santa Monica Blvd, it is easy to grab a bus and head home when you're done, and it saves you a buck or two on valet parking.

Earth Day Goodness

Metro Rapid Bus 720 - Wilshire / Western

Today I survived jury duty and made my way up to the Wilshire Center's Earth Day Celebration.

There were lines of booths with information on planting trees, meditation, and organic everything. People walking and people making friends while riding by (Guys - take note: Flagging down a girl walking by while alongside her on a bike is far more successful than whistling and cat-calling while driving by in a car, just based on what I saw today).


Perhaps the best part was the main stage area, where you could sit on the grass and marvel at how different the area looked with so many people gathered and relaxing. It was a lot different than watching people get upset while stuck in traffic.


A few solar panels on one side of Wilshire supplied the electricity for everything except the main stage. Which included the two side stages, as well as a movie/presentation tent.


There were lots of petitions to sign, causes to join, and people to listen to. Just as the range of causes varied from chanting meditations to collecting signatures for biofuel, the range of enthusiasm ran from bored to passionate.

And I must admit, I found something to be passionate about.

The ability to travel from Los Angeles to Sacramento or San Francisco in less than three hours. Without leaving the ground.

The proposed high speed rail system for California may one day receive its funding. It wouldn't be a complete solution to traffic or pollution, but it would be an appealing alternative to driving. (The big downfall here is that they're talking about running rail through the central valley without talking about freight rail - anyone who has driven I-5 through California knows that the great bulk of the traffic comes from truckers.)


Safer, faster, and greener than driving or flying, a high speed train would also be a huge benefit to tourism, and to economies in the central valley.

It would also be the first step toward a larger focus on rail travel throughout the state and the nation. And I'm all for that.

Jury Duty

It isn't that I don't like doing my squirrel duty. It's just that they make it awfully difficult.

You see, at first they tried to send me to the airport courthouse. And it was the first time in a long while that I really felt my lack of car. See, a driving commute from my house to that courthouse would have been about twenty minutes (OK, forty in rush hour). But, because our bus system is divided, I would have had to travel nearly two hours in a very roundabout way to get there. And that doesn't include the risk of missing a transfer or otherwise ending up (very) late to serve.

It seems that court assignments for Jury Duty in LA are done in a random(ish) manner. So instead of a courthouse which is convenient to you, most jurors are called to serve at courthouses which are within a twenty mile radius.¹ For those of you who don't realize it, there is a reason that distance in LA is measured in driving minutes, not miles. Twenty miles can be a very long drive.

From a legal standpoint, I suppose I can reason this to a certain extent. After all, you want to avoid a jury of your peers who actually know you. But in Los Angeles, where neighbors rarely know each other, and most people spend more time working in districts or cities which are quite some distance from their homes, it does seem a bit puzzling.

So I filed a request for relocation due to an inability to reasonably reach the appointed courthouse on time. This went back and forth for a little while, with apparently varying opinions over whether or not my lack of automobile constituted a true hardship and justified a change of venue. Finally, after much confusion, and a near-warrant situation, a friendly jury selection employee helped to get my jury duty rescheduled much closer to home.² To a trailer, in fact. But I can walk there!

Although this means that I will have to spend earth day in a courthouse. And that has me a little sad.

So, if you have a chance, go out and plant a tree for me, will you?

¹ Q: Why can’t I be summoned to a courthouse closer to my home?
A: Summoning you to the court location closest to your home is not possible for several reasons. First, you are not summoned based on your place of residence, city, or zip code. All jurors are summoned by a computerized process. The assignment is made taking into consideration the location of the juror and the location of the court which need jurors at the time the juror is summoned. Jurors are summoned from a 20-mile radius of a given court.

² Fellow walkers, a tip: if you do not have an excuse (such as care for a small child or sick person) other than your lack of car, skip trying to write back for rescheduling and go straight to the phones. They'll help you with what language to use, and the difference between an inconvenience and a hardship, for problem-free rescheduling.

Walking in the way of cars

Red Line - Western Ave

Tomorrow, from 10 am - 5pm, Wilshire Blvd will be closed.



Okay, so it's only the small section of Wilshire (0.3 miles) that calls itself the "Wilshire Center". But it is in honor of Earth Day, one of LA's few officially declared car free days (not to be confused with world car free day on September 22nd).

So ditch the car. Ditch work. And come find me in the crowd*.

There's a bike raffle, live music, free reusable grocery bags, and the whole event kicks off the start of the Wilshire Cool District Program created by the Wilshire Center Business Improvement Corporation. The Wilshire Cool District is a commitment to reduce the area's carbon footprint by 2% a year for 40 years.

* I may or may not be there, depending on how quickly I get out of Jury Duty. More on that later.

HOWS Market: The new Hughes Market

Metro Red Line – North Hollywood Station

If you lived in LA from the sixties to the nineties, you probably shopped at a Hughes.

Hughes was somewhere between Trader Joes, a Whole Foods, and Ralphs. Before Trader Joe’s sold fresh (not frozen or preserved) produce, and before Whole Foods and Farmer’s Markets were in every neighborhood, Hughes was where you went for variety and fresh vegetables (I hear their meat was pretty good too). All of that, and I think one of the things I remember best about Hughes was that, unlike most other stores, they had a large clock which you could see from almost anywhere in the store. It was very convenient.

The chain was sold in 1997, and disappeared not too long after that.

And now they’re back.

HOWS market in North Hollywood is across the street from the last stop on the Red Line (or Orange Line, if you're coming from the valley), comfortably surrounded by coffee, ice cream, and food.

The trick is knowing how to enter. After exiting the subway, walk Southeast on Lankershim (just go forward). Cross the street, walking toward the white window-wall, which looks like a mis-placed leftover from the Beetlejuice set, and take a left. You’ll pass a few stores, and head right into HOWS.

Once inside, it almost looks like any other supermarket. Except the ambiance is a little bit calmer. The lights don’t seem so harsh. You can sit and eat on the patio outside, or inside in a small deli/dining area. Or visit the wine bar, located inside the separate alcohol corner.

Prices are the same or cheaper than the nearby Ralphs, and if you’re traveling on the train, or just a bit farther than the average local, they’ll give you special bags to take home your frozen foods, or you can buy reusable hot/cold insulated bags.

I’m just happy to have my childhood Hughes market back.

The City of Trees

Sacramento, CA

If you ever want to feel the difference trees can make on a hot day, visit Sacramento.

In the summer, temperatures break the triple digits. Even now, in April, the temperature hovered around ninety in the sun. But it was a perfect day in the shade.

Sacramento sits at the end of the great bowl that is California’s Central Valley. This means that all of the pollution, pollen, particulates, and other P-words from Sacramento stick in the air, and are fed by San Francisco from one direction, and the Central Valley farms from the other.

It wouldn’t seem like the best place to go for a walk to get a breath of fresh air.

Except for the trees. Downtown Sacramento is an Urban Forest. Most blocks have trees planted every five yards; trees which are anywhere from five to a hundred years old. In fact, Sacramento claims to have more trees per capita than any other city in the world.

You can feel the temperature difference – ten to twenty degrees – from a block without many trees (they're rare, but do exist around construction areas) to blocks with fully grown trees. The tree canopy helps to make Sacramento a walkable city. It also assists in keeping the city from existing under water, as part of Sacramento's flood management program.

The Sacramento Tree Foundation is now looking to expand this tree canopy, with a goal to plant five million trees over the next 40 years. Their three-part, staged plan will include working with twenty-six jurisdictions around Sacramento. The goal is to plant trees in urban areas while educating businesses and residents in the planting, care, and appreciation of trees, to help ensure the long life of the urban forest.

I can’t argue with that, but it does make the Million Trees LA initiative seem a bit lacking.

Walking Merced

Merced, CA

Most people visit Merced on their way to Yosemite. It’s a place to stop and grab a bus to Yosemite Valley on YARTS (highly recommended), or to fill up on gas and snacks for people just driving through.

But you can also walk through Merced to see a small town with a lot of history. Most of the towns in this area are filled with great little places to stumble upon, since most of them were built during the gold rush era.

Merced even provides you with a helpful walking map of famous and historical buildings, which you can pick up in the California Visitor Center located next to the old Santa Fe rail station.

Highlights included:
- The old Courthouse, built in 1875 (it’s the one with Lady Liberty on top).

- The 1888 cottage built by William McElroy which was also home at one point to “Rusty” Doane, "a reputed underworld boss of Merced's earlier shady days" (it's the picture of house with the flag out front).

- The Greenbrier House, which is not only beautiful, but has served the city well; first as a sanitarium then as a boarding house for bachelors. You can even still tie up your horses out front on one of the handy hitching posts. While it's Merced's pride and joy, there is some doubt about when Greenbrier was built, since the early records refer to properties more than they refer to structures atop them (it's the picture with the green house to the left).

Most recently Merced has become home to one of the newer UC campuses, UC Merced (opened in 2005 alongside Lake Yosemite, it is also one of the prettier UC locations).

If you want to get around Merced (or visit neighboring cities) and you get tired of walking, you can grab The Bus from 7am – 6pm at any corner along any of its routes. Just wave down the driver, and hop on.

These Boots Were Made for Walkin’ (Country Remix)

Clovis, NM

There’s no substitute for a good pair of boots. And if you’re looking for Cowboy, the southwest is the place to be.

In Clovis, I found 16,000 pairs at Joe’s Boot Shop.

You can pick your color and style (Blue Alligator!). Snakeskin, Ostrich, leather, it’s all here. Row by row you can find any type of cowboy boot you can imagine, and even some that are beyond what you'd think anyone would dream up.

In the back of the store, you can buy tack or learn to rope. If you’re there on the right day, you can participate in special contests, from calf roping to the Clovis first chuck wagon cook-off.

They also have 12,000 belts, 10,000 hats, 5,000 candles, and a trailer parked out front.

It happened to be a bit breezy that day (60 mph winds), which meant blue skies and clouds of dust. If you’d rather not walk against the wind, you can always call in and request delivery (the online store is a bit lacking).

Oo-oo I look just like Buddy Holly

Clovis, NM

The home of the Clovis Man, the Clovis culture, and the Clovis sound: Clovis, NM is a little big town with people who enjoy naming things after their city.

If you go a few miles west, you’ll be in Texas. A few miles south, and you’ll reach Roswell. In between are miles and miles of desert.

While you might not be able to travel through space, you can certainly take a trip through time in Clovis. At Blackwater Draw you can view the famous (and recently controversial) evidence of what is generally accepted as the earliest culture in North America. If you aren’t ready to travel that far back, take a look at the 7th street studios, where Buddy Holly recorded “Peggy Sue” to take a trip through Rock ‘n Roll history.

If you’re traveling, you might want to take the bus. The Clovis Area Transit System (CATS) where you can pay 50¢ to have a bus pick you up and drop you off (curb to curb). Kids can even buy a $25 summer pass to travel to and from any location while school is out.

That’s right, the stops are where you make them. Their new transit home will eventually become the center of a standard fixed route service. But for now, it is quite convenient to be shuttled door to door when you need it.

Just make sure you make your reservations at least a day in advance.

Texas Beef and Town Squares

Canyon, TX - Hereford, TX

Sometimes I travel to distant, exotic locations (small towns in the middle of nowhere).

Along the way, I get to have little driving adventures. Outrunning tornadoes in the Texas panhandle, for instance.

And I get to see a lot of the United States – big or small.

On my way through Texas I missed a turn, and found myself in Canyon, TX.

Among stories about cattle ranchers, Canyon was also home of Georgia O' Keefe from 1916-1918 while she was teaching at what is West Texas State Normal College (now known as West Texas A&M university).

Honestly, I was a bit puzzled by the name. There were any canyons visible from downtown (Palo Duro Canyon, the grand canyon of Texas, is to the Northwest).

But there was the town square.

In fact, Canyon is part of Texas’ Main Street City program, and was revitalized in 2002.

The time and the weather (see previous note about tornadoes, which also explains the quality of these pictures) meant there weren’t many people walking around Canyon’s main street while I was there, but the town square had its own little walk through time.

The Rock’n’Roll Soda Shoppe had I ♥ Lucy lunchboxes inside, a soda fountain, and pink flamingos out front.

It was hard to resist.

More classic stores lined the main street block, with the architecture ranging from turn of the century to 50’s chic.

Although I’m not sure that I believe that the cleaners is as modern as they want you to believe.

Also, I saw Hereford, TX in Deaf Smith County. Beef capital of the world.

This too was flat.

But there were many statues of cows. Like this one.

Time for another Good Idea, Bad Idea.

Good Idea: Reading a book on your way to work.

Bad Idea: Reading a book while driving to work.

Taking a book to read is perfect (if not essential) for the bus or train or even walking. But it can be tiresome to carry them around. Especially when you're a little squirrel.

Enter the e-book. A few years before the dot-com bust, e-books were supposed to put librarians and bookstores out of business. They were going to kill the paperback, the printed page. It turns out that electronic letters just don't do it for many readers.

For the most part, I'm one of them. It is still one of my favorite things to find a corner in a bookstore or library and sit down to read a new book.

But... I have to carry this little big phone with me at all times for work (you never know when you will encounter a nut emergency), and I like to travel light. So I gave the eBooks a try.

And I really like them. In fact, I have become addicted to ManyBooks.net (or, on your smart phone, mnybks.net). Little files with free Project Guttenberg, Creative Commons, and Public Domain books. No charge, no dead trees, as many books as you can read (up to 20,208) in handy formats to match your electronic gizmo of choice.

Things that are great about ebooks:

• You can read in the dark (backlighting, people)
• Fit in your pocket (or laptop, if you prefer)
• Tiny pages (finish a 4,000+ page book in a week)
• You look busy or important staring at your cellphone
• Finally read all of those classics you should have read in High School
• You don't inadvertently make eye contact with a crazy person on the bus
• Try out books you might never buy otherwise
• No trees were harmed in the making of these ebooks
• Did I mention they're free?

Rust and Lace

Big Blue Bus, Line 5 – 26th Street

Gallery hopping can be draining. Especially gallery hopping at Bergamot Station.

Once the final stop for the red line trolley (started in 1875 by the Pacific Electric Rail system), which ran from Los Angeles to the Santa Monica Pier, Bergamot Station is now an eight acre art gallery complex.

Although it appears the public transportation link will be reborn with an Expo Line station at or around Olympic and Cloverfield, the most striking feature of Bergamot Station is the parking lot. People walk around the complex, or to their cars, but they don’t walk here (yes, I realize I mentioned this earlier).

One by one, the thirty-odd galleries become a blur of large-scale abstracts and watercolor sketches; black and white photography and ceramic lavaflows.

But at the end of the line, one gallery stands out. The (now formerly known as) Patricia Faure Gallery is currently host to the eye-catching work of artist Cal Lane.

Steel lace. Delicate strength. Refined, rusted car parts are arranged in one room: a filigree car bombing. The crumpled remains appear frozen in time, reworked as fragile veils.

Further into the exhibit hang silent, nudging cartographies etched into oil drums. The etched maps recall the age of discoveries, medieval wars, ancient explorations. And always, the border of the oil drum itself, the spigot poised just over the North Pole.

Lane uses the pieces we throw away, carves them with plasma torches, and delivers them reborn as reminders of the consequences of what we use today.

Finally is the piece that can’t be bought or held. A delicate lace of dirt fills the final room.

The roped-off display feels almost sacred. The one creation more ephemeral than lace.

Go. Visit. Try to ignore the irony radiating from all of the Jaguars in the parking lot.

It is worth the trip.

Arbor Ardor

Big Blue Bus, Line 5 – 26th Street

Some people drive cars. Some people plant trees. Some people make art.

This car, formerly known as a Mercedes, is now decorating the entrance to the Santa Monica Museum of Art at Bergamot Station. It is one of four “Junker Garden” cars created by Farmlab, the thinktank/performance venue/art group which evolved out of the Not a Cornfield project.

The this junker garden was the center of today's Cause for Creativity: Arbor Ardor event.

Inspired by the 2006 eviction of the South Central Farmers from their community garden, the Junker Gardens evolved as a way to bring the garden back to the city. Farmlab realized that constructing mobile or container gardens would cost a fraction of the $16.3 million demanded (and, subsequently, refused) by Ralph Horowitz to repurchase the 14 acres in South Central that once constituted one of the nation’s largest urban gardens.

With a car, some space, some soil, and a few days, Farmlab explained how to build your own self-contained car garden. Although you can’t exactly drive it, it can still be towed, pushed, or dragged from place to place.

Volunteers from TreePeople were on hand, showing kids and parents the essentials of tree planting, but, unfortunately, not planting any actual trees.

Together they created art trees with colored scraps, potted two-by-fours, and staple guns. The colorful garden grew throughout the afternoon with the help of children's hands.

The objective was to expose the groups of children to art, the process of creation, and the idea of growth. The hope was to inspire the kids to look at nature, see what can be created, and plant the seeds of art and arbor ardor (too much alliteration?) in them.

While fun, I still prefer actual trees. It would have been exciting to gut, decorate and plant old toy cars with real plants that the kids could take home.

As a young squirrel, I once visited TreePeople and planted little pine tree seedlings in old milk cartons. That day I learned that even little me could create and be responsible for something living. Something that could very well out-live me.

TreePeople is still doing plantings like this at their Coldwater Canyon nursery. One day I will try to venture up the canyon to join them again (it’s a long walk).

At the end of the day, the City of Santa Monica Environmental Programs Division spread the word about the green living and business workshops they offer, and offered printed copies of the City of Santa Monica Environmental Directory for all attendees.

It was a sunny, colorful day filled with art and laughter and thoughts. Although I was the only one leaving Bergamot Station without a car.