Skip to Content
Streetsblog Los Angeles home
Streetsblog Los Angeles home
Log In
Boyle Heights

Mexico Meets Eastside: Ruminations on Buses, Metro, Bicycles and Swap Meets

Metro would never go for this Guatemalan styled bus, but it would sure turn heads. Kris Fortin/LAStreetsblog

It's a copout to compare my travels in Mexico and Guatemala to anything on the Eastside. But, I can't help it. It's one of the biggest things on my mind the entire time.

Every time I saw a bicycle in Mexico City selling flowers, or taking water canisters to businesses, I would think of the mobile bike vendors with chips and junk food I saw once riding down First Street a block from the Pico Aliso Gold Line Station. Every tiangus, or marketplace, whether the size of a small neighborhood or an outpost outside of a metro station, I recalled stories of the Breed Street market.

So, here's what I saw, the similarities, and the things I think could help the Eastside:

How many ways can you say bicycle

Metro

Bus

Now in Theaters: La Camioneta, The Journey of One American Schoolbus

Parklet

Others

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog Los Angeles

Active Streets: Mission at Twilight – Open Streets Open Thread

How was your experience at yesterday's open streets event - Mission at Twilight - through Alhambra, San Gabriel, and South Pasadena?

June 23, 2025

L.A. Press Club Awards Streetsblog First Place in Best Group Blog Category

The award acknowledges the 2024 calendar year work of SBLA Editors Sahra Sulaiman and Joe Linton, San Gabriel Valley reporters Chris Greenspon and Damien Newton, and Streetsblog California Editor Melanie Curry

June 23, 2025

La Verne Celebrates Metro A Line Station, Foothill Extension to Open Soon

The new $1.5 billion 9.1-mile Foothill A Line extension construction is complete, and Metro is currently testing. Rail service is expected to debut in the next couple months.

June 21, 2025
See all posts