Santa Monica

This is exactly why Santa Monica was a great place to grow up, but why I have no desire to live there again. NYT: That warning the other day was among hundreds that have been issued in a culturally tumultuous crackdown by Santa Monica officials against violators of a city ordinance, rarely enforced till now, that bars congregating on traffic medians. The target is increasingly loud, littering and generally intrusive groups of exercisers who gather from dawn until dusk along…

LA Times: In a surprising and ambitious move, local transportation officials said Tuesday that they would pursue planning for two subway lines to the Westside, with one train along Wilshire Boulevard and a shorter leg partially following Santa Monica Boulevard before diving south to meet the Wilshire line. Of course, the effort is still hypothetical, and Los Angeles still needs the money to build the multibillion-dollar rail line. But officials are showing unusual bravura for a project that looked to…

Gas at the 76 station closest to my parents’ house in Santa Monica is $4.83 a gallon.

I’m headed to Santa Monica on Thursday. Anyone want a ride?

Mila Rainof, one of the smartest, ambitious and most interesting people that I knew in middle school and high school has suddenly passed away in a tragic car accident in New Haven, where she was attending medical school at Yale. While I lost contact with her over the years, I feel a renewed sense of connection, knowing that she would have come to Oakland this fall to start her residency. The world is indeed worse-off without her. We’ll miss you,…

Wait, there’s a networking company in Lithuania called Santa Monica Networks? And they do business from Lithuania, through Latvia and Estonia, all the way up to Finland? Huh?

The NYT had a big piece today on my hometown, Santa Monica. Next door, Rooms & Gardens (No. 1311-A) sells furniture, antiques and accessories like pillows fashioned from an antique Indian sari. The actress Mary Steenburgen, one of the store’s three owners, praised the walkability of the area — not a common commodity in Southern California — when I asked her about the location of her store. “The thing I love about Montana is that you feel as if you…

LA Times: Much of the opposition to Villaraigosa’s plan emanates from the Pico-Robertson area, a heavily Jewish enclave that features a mix of auto body shops, dental offices, bakeries by the dozen, Israeli and Persian markets, Thai eateries, Catholic churches, synagogues and Chinese restaurants, including a kosher place with mezuzas on the doorways. The elements of this urban hodgepodge have set aside any cultural and ethnic differences to battle City Hall with a united front. “The opposition is across the…

More music tourism news, but this time, from my alma mater. Santa Monica Daily Press: The Santa Monica High School marching band will be marching over the Atlantic to London, England in 2009, ringing in the new year by performing in the city’s holiday parade. The 130-member marching band and colorguard will head to perform in the New Year’s Day Parade in London, the entertainment unit’s first trip out of the country since the 1960s when it performed in Mazatlan.…

I’m in Santa Monica all weekend. Will be in Oaktown by midday on Monday. Also, Highway 46 is one of the scariest stretches of road I’ve ever driven at night. It’s a two lane highway that’s really dark at night, and super far from everything.