Streetsblog Los Angeles

Cliff Lee's $4 million arm hangs from a subway strap.

With a 6-0 won-loss record and a 0.81 earned run average, Cleveland Indians southpaw Cliff Lee is, for the moment, the hottest pitcher in Major League Baseball. HIs delivery is so smooth, so perfect looking, it's hard not to think Sandy Koufax.

Last Wednesday, Streetsblog tech director Nick Grossman and I journeyed up to the Bronx to watch Lee pick apart the Yankees over-priced line up (yes, I'm an Indians fan), handing Yankees ace Chien-Ming Wang his first loss of the season. Unfortunately, I took the D train to get to the stadium. Had I left a couple of hours earlier on the 4 train, I might have been as lucky as baseball blogger Rich Lederer:

We caught the 4 Train from Grand Central to Yankee Stadium. After getting a bite to eat in the food concourse, we hopped onto the subway at about 3:45 pm. Our car was crowded so we found ourselves standing in the middle, holding onto the rails for safety. After we got situated, Joe whispers to me, "I'm 95% certain that's Cliff Lee standing next to you" (notice the arm of my brown jacket in the foreground). I look up and, sure enough, it looks just like the Cleveland lefthander.

In any event, while making eye contact with Lee, I make a pitching motion with my left hand as if I were throwing a breaking ball. He gives me a quizzical look so I mouth "Cliff?" He nods his head. Conscientious that I'm wearing a NY hat for the first time in my life, I point to it and tell him that I'm from Long Beach, California and not really a Yankees fan. Lee smiled and shook his head. I explained that Joe and I were on a father-son baseball trip and had already been to Fenway Park the previous weekend and were going to our first Yankees game that night, and to Shea Stadium on Friday night.

There wasn't a single person other than Joe or me who had any inclination that Cliff Lee was standing on the subway, holding onto the rail tightly with his left arm.

All of the streets in the lower 48 United States: an image of 26 million individual road segments. No other features (such as outlines or geographic features) have been added to this image, however they emerge as roads avoid mountains, and sparse areas convey low population. The pace of progress is seen in the midwest where suburban areas are punctuated by square blocks of area that are still farm land.

When he’s not biking down freeways, or writing for Westside BikeSIDE and Emerald City, Alex Thompson has been hard at work creating Ibikeu, a wikipedia for all things bicycle related. To check out the bike wiki, click on over to www.ibikeu.com/wiki/

Thompson describes the ibikeu Wiki at Westside BikeSIDE:

The ibikeu Wiki is intended to document everything bike, from social rides like Santa Monica Critical Mass, to broad topics like the history of bicycles or bicycle infrastructure terminology.

For the time being the wiki is open for public viewing but not editing/contributing by the public. If you would like to contribute, as an editor or otherwise, please email me at alexcthompson at gmail dot com.

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Disclaimer: It's not legal to ride your bike on the 405 or the 10. So kids, don't try this at home.

Via WestSideBikeSide, last week 10 cyclists took to the highways arguing that riding on a highway at rush hour is no less safe than riding on the PCH.

Other blogs have picked up the video. Metblog called it "equal parts stupid and awesome," and Joke Is Up calls it a "great little bit of anarchy here in Los Angeles." Viewers at You Tube seem similarly at odds. One poster says he "fell asleep b4 I got to the part where the idiots got crushed by a Hummer," but another commenter asks what I think is the million dollar question, "LA is made for cars. Why are bicycles getting places faster?"

The Future Home of Expo Light Rail

The community update meetings on the progress of Phase II of the controversial Expo Light Rail line are completed.  For anyone who like me was unable to make any of the three meetings, a copy of the presentation is available at the Expo Construction Authority's website. 

Even though there was no pushing and shoving this time, it's clear that both those that wish to kill the project if an at-grade crossing isn't in place at Dorsey High School and those that want the line built either way were not satisfied with the presentation from Expo Construction Authority Staff.  After the jump you can read letters from the Cheviot Hills Homeowner's Association and Light Rail for Cheviot after the jump.

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