Los Angeles 2000

Colour-coded based on race: whites = pink.  blacks = blue. Hispanic = orange.  Asians = green.





Los Angeles 2000







http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1315078/Race-maps-America.html#ixzz10ZVzPPFD


Click on map to make it larger.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

  map

Water Rationing and Villaraigosa

Mr. Villaraigosa,

I am willing to go through one summer watering my lawn twice a week, in fact, we could get away with watering it ONCE a week ... IF ... IF you send out your crews to adjust school lawns to STOP with the automatic sprinklers when it rains, IF you turn off the shrubbery watering along freeways and have it come on ONCE a week, IF you use some of the city funds in conjunction with county and state funds to BUILD new water reservoirs.

This past rainy season we received on the very low end, about 8 inches of rain. In the hills above the Valley, over 14 inches. What isn't absorbed into the water table is run off and goes to the ocean. We have not built a new water reservoir in decades. Yet millions of new occupants reside in Los Angeles using hundreds of gallons a week, each. Think if we had more water reservoirs around the county, even a few within the city, or the state - think how much less serious this would all be if we made use of the water that falls on us.





Los Angeles restricts lawn watering to 2 days a week
Associated Press
06/01/2009

LOS ANGELES — It's now illegal to water lawns in the nation's second-largest city on any day other than Mondays and Thursdays.

New mandatory water conservation rules went into effect today in Los Angeles as the city faces a water supply shortage for a third consecutive year.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power says the city gets most of its water from elsewhere in the state and those supplies are being limited by drought and regulatory restrictions.

The department is also reducing by 15 percent the amount of water that customers can purchase at the lowest rate, known as Tier 1. Customers who don't cut usage by 15 percent will be charged at a higher rate for every gallon over their Tier 1 allotment.







water

FAA sets temporary LA-area flight restrictions

Hmmm. Let's see. Can we guess in three tries or less??





FAA sets temporary LA-area flight restrictions
The Associated Press
5/26/2009

LOS ANGELES—The Federal Aviation Administration announced temporary flight restrictions on private pilots will be in effect in the greater Los Angeles area between early Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning.

An FAA statement Tuesday said only airlines, law enforcement aircraft and air ambulances will be allowed to fly within a 12-mile radius of Santa Monica Airport between 1:15 p.m. Wednesday and 7:40 a.m. Thursday.

"During this time, private pilots will not be able to fly into or out of Los Angeles International Airport, Santa Monica Airport, Hawthorne Municipal Airport, Van Nuys Airport and Burbank Airport," the statement said.

During those restrictions, private pilots may fly in and out of airports between 12 miles and 30 miles from Santa Monica Airport, the FAA said. Pilots may also fly through that airspace but must have filed flight plans, must talk to air traffic controllers and must use transponders broadcasting a code unique to each aircraft.

The FAA said that at times the center of the restricted area will be at Los Angeles International Airport. Only airlines, law enforcement aircraft and air ambulance aircraft will be allowed to fly within a 10-mile radius of LAX between 1:05 p.m. and 2:10 p.m. on Wednesday, and between 6:55 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Thursday.

The FAA urged private pilots to view details of the temporary flight restrictions on its Web site.








terror

Los Angeles: One of the Worst Cities to Live In

Tale of two cities:The downside of living in L.A.

Los Angeles Daily News
Kevin Modesti
4/26/09

This could shatter Los Angeles' self-image as one of the world's sunny, happy, carefree capitals of the good life.

Forbes, the business magazine famous for publishing lists - from attention-grabbing ("Most Powerful Celebrities") to arcane ("48 Asian Altruists") - came out this month with a roster of U.S. cities where it's "Hardest to Get By" financially.

No. 1 is Providence, R.I. No. 3 is Riverside. The top 10 includes Buffalo, Detroit and Louisville.
And right there among those unglamorous places, No. 2 on this list of the American economy's most miserable municipalities, is Los Angeles.

When was the last time you saw Los Angeles, the Entertainment Capital of the World, and Providence, formerly nicknamed the Beehive of Industry, side by side in any context?
The worse news is that Los Angeles' poor placement on the Forbes list seems to come as no shock to people who live here.

"I'm not terribly surprised," said Shelley Baker, a West Hills resident since 1970. "L.A. is a wonderful place to live, but I see the desperation, the people on the streets ... people having to cut back. It's harder and harder and harder."

Forbes says the rankings were determined mathematically by measuring the cost of living, median household income and February unemployment rate for each of the nation's 50 largest metropolitan areas.

Los Angeles - actually, the L.A.-Long Beach-Santa Ana metro area - had a cost-of-living index that's 48 percent above the national average, a median household income ($56,680) that's slightly better than average, and an unemployment rate (10.2 percent) that's worse than the nation as a whole.

While even worse unemployment hurt people in Providence and Riverside, and low incomes afflict No. 4 Tampa and No. 5 Buffalo, it's the whopping cost of living here that accounts for Los Angeles' position on the dishonor roll.

Mostly, what accounts for our high cost of living is the high cost of keeping roofs over our heads. L.A. housing prices are 2 1/2 times the national average - though still less than two-thirds the prices in Manhattan.

Does Los Angeles' No. 2 ranking in this bottom 10 accurately state how hard it is for people here to make ends meet?

"I know we live in an expensive place," Mark Young, a children's animation producer from Woodland Hills, said one cloudy morning this past week outside the Woodland Hills post office. "And like everyone, I'm concerned that instead of leveling off, it's climbing (getting worse). I can't find solace in any direction anymore."

Local economists say they take some solace in knowing the Forbes finding is merely a statistical snapshot.

Because it's based entirely on numbers, the ranking doesn't give Southern California credit for its noneconomic good points, beginning with the weather.

"If you're looking for the cheapest place to live, this isn't it," said Elan Shore of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. and the San Fernando Valley Economic Alliance. "But there's a reason people still want to live here ... still see this as a place of opportunity."

And because it reflects only a moment in time, the ranking doesn't tell if things here are getting worse or better.

As high as L.A. County's median house price is, it actually has fallen 34 percent since March 2008 - faster than the national average has fallen - according to California State University, Northridge, Professor Daniel R. Blake, director of the San Fernando Valley Economic Research Center.

If house prices continue to slide, so could Los Angeles' ranking on Forbes' bad-news list. On both counts, we have a lot of room to improve.

"I do think rents will stabilize or drop off, becoming a little cheaper next year. I don't see the lower-end housing, the cost of buying a home, dropping that much more," Blake said.

But, Blake said, if Forbes were to conduct the same study in 2010, "I think L.A. will be more affordable, relative to income. I think a year from now, unemployment will be down. I think L.A. would not be No. 2 on the list - but I would still expect it be in the top half."

Shore cited a competing study, by the Financial Times' Foreign Direct Investment Magazine, that recently ranked Los Angeles No. 7 among North American "cities of the future" for business.

By contrast, Shore said, "The Forbes study is based on looking backward."

That's no consolation to those who are looking at Los Angeles in the rearview mirror.

Doing interviews in front of the Woodland Hills post office on Friday, one was struck by the beleaguered looks of the people scurrying in and out. They were looks you'd expect in a Bronx subway, not on a leafy side street in a nice Valley neighborhood.

A reporter approached 10 people, asking if they could spare a minute. Five walked past, saying they were in a hurry. One listened to the reporter describe the Forbes conclusion, then said he'd lost his voice and would rather not be interviewed. One listened and said only, "It doesn't surprise me at all."

One, a 35-year-old Woodland Hills resident who declined to give his name, said the Forbes study was "interesting, because I just lost my job."

"I'm from Wisconsin, and I'm moving back to Madison," he said. "I would attempt to stay, but I know my funds would run out fast. I'd have to find (a job) pretty fast, and in this economy, that would be hard."

Good news for him: Madison, Wis., doesn't make the top 20 on Forbes' list of the places where it's Hardest to Get By.

Meanwhile, at this cash-strapped moment in time, Los Angeles is No. 2 in the nation, in a world of economic hurt.

We can't even have the satisfaction of saying we're No. 1.

Los Angeles

Los Angeles is running out of water.

Of course there are no implications for people moving here, thousands, millions. No costs. No problems. After all, everyone else came here - everyone else should also be able to.

There are limits, and we have now reached, what appears to be the point at which we have no more resources. The next step will be rationing.

Imagine world response to that: The US rations water or electricity or ...





LA Mayor moves to limit water use and punish violators


12:27 PM, February 9, 2009


Calling the ongoing three-year drought a crisis, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today called for severe water-use restrictions and a tiered rate system that would reward customers who conserve and punish those who don’t with higher bills.

Lawn watering would be restricted to two days a week, Mondays and Thursdays, and could be cut to one day a week by summer if the drought continues, Villaraigosa said. The mayor made his announcement on a rainy winter day, but L.A.'s current wet weather is not expected to ease the drought. Restrictions could be imposed as early as March but would have to be approved by the City Council and commissioners at the city's Department of Water and Power.

The increased conservation measures are proposed because the Metropolitan Water District, a major wholesale water supplier to Los Angeles and the rest of Southern California, has warned that the worsening drought may force it to cut water deliveries by 15% to 25%.

“We’re headed into a crisis that we have not seen in decades," Villaraigosa said at a morning news conference in City Hall.

How much would water abuse cost residents?

The mayor urged the DWP to approve “shortage-year" rates, a tiered pricing system that encourages customers to conserve by charging more for water as usage increases. Customers who meet the city’s conservation targets would not see their bills increase -- and could even pay less -- the mayor said.

It will be up to the DWP’s board to set those conservation targets, and the price increases embedded in the proposed shortage-year rates, when it meets later this month. Customers could be asked to cut their water consumption by an additional 8% to 15%, or face steeper water rates if they do not.

Statewide, reservoir levels are at their lowest levels since the 1976-79 drought. The Eastern Sierra snowpack, a major source of water for the city, is also 71% of normal. Water that Southern California receives from the Colorado River Aqueduct and State Water Project also have fallen sharply, all of which is “grim news" to water users in Los Angeles, said DWP General Manager H. David Nahai.












water

The Big One: It is Coming, just not today.

Study finds troubling pattern of Southern California quakes

The southern stretch of the San Andreas fault has had a major temblor about every 137 years, according to new research. The latest looks to be overdue.

By Jia-Rui Chong
January 24, 2009
Los Angeles Times


Large earthquakes have rumbled along a southern section of the San Andreas fault more frequently than previously believed, suggesting that Southern California could be overdue for a strong temblor on the notorious fault line, a new study has found.

The Carrizo Plain section of the San Andreas has not seen a massive quake since the much-researched Fort Tejon temblor of 1857, which at an estimated magnitude of 7.9 is considered the most powerful earthquake to hit Southern California in modern times.

But the new research by UC Irvine scientists, to be published next week, found that major quakes occurred there roughly every 137 years over the last 700 years. Until now, scientists believed big quakes occurred along the fault roughly every 200 years.

The findings are significant because seismologists have long believed this portion of the fault is capable of sparking the so-called Big One that officials have for decades warned will eventually occur in Southern California.

"It's been long enough since 1857 that we should be concerned about another great earthquake that ruptures through this part of the fault," said Ken Hudnut, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena who was not involved in the study.

Many scientists thought the Carrizo area produced relatively infrequent but large-scale earthquakes such as the Fort Tejon temblor. The new work suggests the area produces more quakes but also ones of a smaller magnitude than Fort Tejon, said Ray Weldon, a University of Oregon geologist who was not involved in the research but reviewed the paper for the Journal of Geophysical Research.

Such temblors, experts warned, would likely be at least as big as the 1994 Northridge quake, which had a magnitude of 6.7.

"Even moderate earthquakes on the San Andreas can cause considerable damage, so the overall hazard and risk has gone up," Weldon said.

The section of the San Andreas fault threading through the dry Carrizo Plain is one of the most famous and photographed parts of the fault because creek beds and other features on one side of the fault have clearly shifted away from matching features on the other side. About 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles, the Carrizo area was one of the main sections that ruptured in the 1857 quake. That rupture, roaring southwest into the Los Angeles Basin, rocked parts of the region so hard that men were thrown to the ground.


[To read the rest of the article, click on the title link]





earthquakes