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As the drought continues, Californians are tearing out their lawns. Here's a DIY guide to killing grass to prep for a drought-tolerant landscape. 
AmcrestPOECameras's comment,
October 22, 2022 1:25 AM
nice
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An explosion Saturday at a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power plant in the San Fernando Valley caused a major fire and knocked out electricity to 140,000 customers.
PIRatE Lab's insight:
Yet another argument of a distributed, battery/storage-based electrical grid.
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By Bob Wing Oil has been a source of tremendous wealth for Los Angeles, but the city’s 1,071 active oil wells also pose serious health risks for the nearly 628,000 Angelenos who live near them. That’s why residents and environmental justice organizations ar
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The Los Angeles Zoo will celebrate its 50th anniversary Monday.
PIRatE Lab's insight:
For all their controversy in some quarters, zoos and aquaria clearly played an important role in shaping the public attitude towards wildlife and our greater environment, particularly in the 18th century and in the immediate wake of WWII.
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Many Democratic assemblymembers believe that not enough money generated from the state's climate change programs are going to their districts and they're wary of extending the entire effort
PIRatE Lab's insight:
Environmental Justice is a very real, very important thing. But the current focus on California's Air Resources Board and associated critiques smack of politics, not making things more efficient, etc.
Is this same oversight given to insurance oversight board, office of spill response, etc.? I think not. I suppose it is a vote of confidence that the Air Resources Board has become so "powerful" that it has now become a target of powerful interests.
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It's not easy going green for food festivals. They produce a ton of waste. But the organizer of the LA Food Fest is trying.
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Millions of Californians live in places with dirty air, according to an annual report card issued Wednesday that ranks two major urban areas in the state as the
PIRatE Lab's insight:
We're #1! We're #1! We'er #1!...wait...I think I was channeling a Presidential candidate or something there for a minute.
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Source: Southern California air board puts new restrictions on urban oil fields - LA Times We have seen a spate of complaints about air quality near our urban oil fields here in southern California...
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20,000 shade balls released into L.A. reservoir. #shadeballs #shade #balls Follow @pourmecoffee for shade balls news pic.twitter.com/rATHAc6Kg8— pourmecoffee (@pourmecoffee) August 11, 2015 Los Angeles lakes and reservoirs: they just seem...
PIRatE Lab's insight:
This is an old technique. I first recall seeing these when James Cameron filmed "The Abyss" in an abandoned nuclear power plant fuel pool/containment building.
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Nowhere do automakers sell more hybrid vehicles than California, with its unique combination of environmental consciousness, high gas prices and traffic-choked highways. But new hybrid models will be in short supply at this week's Los Angeles Auto Show — one sign that the technology is still struggling to break out of its green-car niche, experts say.
PIRatE Lab's insight:
There is nothing new about this analyses, but it is an updating of older efforts with the most recent numbers out there. It is true that using coal-fired power to juice your your car is problematic, but for most of the county (e.g. coastal areas) most of us would be better off switching to electric transportation systems. Also, the best possible solution is to power our vehicles with locally-generated power, such as roof top or garage-top solar panels.
The trick is getting this into everyone's hands in an easy, turn-key manner. I think the tone of this piece misses that key point. This is an evolving conversation and new technology. It also needs to be one part of a broad spectrum of approaches to de-carbonizing our energy markets. Falling back onto the old mantra of "it doesn't work everywhere all the time" is a bit ho-hum and overly simplistic. Kind of the way some folks feel it is necessary to write an op-ed about their research to get increased attention for it.
For those interested in the actual study, you can find it here:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~mansur/papers/GraffZivin_Kotchen_Mansur_MargEmit.pdf
There is also an interesting story, in a similar vein, from the LA Times about faltering gas-electric hybrid vehicles at this week's LA Auto show:
http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-la-auto-show-no-hybrids-20141121-story.html
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Los Angeles officials and environmentalists have begun deploying emergency low-tech watering devices to try to save trees in desperate need of water during the drought .
PIRatE Lab's insight:
Inspiration for low cost slow-release watering devices from our friends down under.
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Passengers arriving at LAX will no longer be able to use the peer-to-peer ride-sharing service uberX — which connects private car owners with people seeking a ride — to call a car to pick them up at the airport.
PIRatE Lab's insight:
While some peer-to-peer services are messed up (see the bike sharing troubles of Montreal; http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/01/21/264582819/big-bike-sharing-suppliers-bankruptcy-doesnt-doom-u-s-programs), many are making things more efficient. For example, places like LAX need some help. There is huge congestion, they had a recent set-back trying to bring light rail to the terminals (http://www.dailybreeze.com/general-news/20140123/metro-board-advances-4-plans-to-connect-rail-with-lax),, and now the often more efficient peer-to-peer rider-car matching service is getting the thumbs down.
I don't beleive the "safety" aspects of the objections. Rather, this is a threat to the folks who make big money payments (e.g. SuperShuttle) and see plane passengers as their own personal cash cows.
This is messed up. We need as many ways to be as efficient as possible. Oh, and public transportation!
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SoCalGas’s corporate dysfunction and a lack of oversight for underground gas storage facilities are responsible for the largest methane gas leak in American history, USC-led study finds.
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From
laist
The fruit-bearing plants were installed by the art collective Fallen Fruit.
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Hear from the kids of Wilmington, California, who grow up in the shadow of oil wells. This video, second in the series of Stop Fooling California, tells the story of urban oil extraction in Los Angeles. Via pdeppisch
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Nobody walks in L.A., as the saying goes. But many people want to and will pay more to live in more walkable neighborhoods where they can stroll to work, shops and restaurants from home. It’s a rare luxury in most metropolitan areas and one worth thousands of dollars on average, according t
PIRatE Lab's insight:
Walkability tends to be more valuable in places that are already somewhat walkable. In neighborhoods in the top 5% of Orange County’s price spectrum, slightly more walkability actually leads to a $451 price cut, compared with a $8,225 premium for the same demographic in Los Angeles.
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Because of a court ruling, no one in Los Angeles is allowed to build second units on their properties. As the city determines a plan, three bills in the Legislature aim to make the process easier
PIRatE Lab's insight:
Housing shortage? Try easing the process for allowing homeowners to add additional units in their backyards.
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Opposition builds to a proposed Southwest L.A. skyscraper
PIRatE Lab's insight:
Again, the question is: how should we develop?
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A new survey of "Best Drivers" ranks Los Angeles and Glendale among the absolute worst. And the survey includes more than 200 cities.
PIRatE Lab's insight:
What drives drivers to drive poorly? Clearly training is part of it, but frustration and lack of social cues and reinforcement to drive responsibly are part of it. I wonder if anyone has done a experimental test of reducing the amount of cars on the road (via more public transportation, more bike lanes, etc.) and then examine the per capita vehicle accident rate.
Anyone?
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State officials warn that Southern California could face as many as 14 days of scheduled blackouts this summer because of depleted reserves of natural gas caused by the massive leak in Aliso Canyon. The canyon in the hills above Porter Ranch is a crucial gas storage facility, supplying 1
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There's nothing like blasting Adele's "Set Fire to the Rain" to encourage water conservation -- at least that's the hope of one Southern California water supplier.
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If you're grabbing lunch from a vending machine, chances are it's a soda, instant noodles and a sad, sad turkey sandwich with neon cheese. If there were a machine full of mixed greens, berries, almonds, flax seeds, organic quinoa and spinach, would you bite?
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Los Angeles Department of Water and Power crews were still busy Saturday morning trying to repair a broken water main that closed a portion of Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood on Friday.
PIRatE Lab's insight:
This is the latest high profile failure of our water infrastructure here in California. This pipe was laid a century ago and concrete-lined to extend its useful life...in the 1950s. One might think that servicing more than once a century would be on the to-do lists of public works agencies. I understand all the arguments about why this is so hard, but the fact remains: physical materials wear out and need physical replacing. That is the long and the short of it.
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After countless delays, cost overruns, gridlock gripes from Tesla's Elon Musk and a phenomenon known as "Carmageddon," officials Friday will finally unveil on the 405 Freeway the nation's longest continuous carpool lane.
PIRatE Lab's insight:
Wow...it only took a billion dollars, a decade of active planning/construction (on top of our twenty previous years of discussions), unions screaming for the "high paying jobs" the construction would provide, beyond aggravated motorists, etc., etc.
Who says we can't do overpriced, car-centric, gasoline-centric, dated-before-it-launches transportation planning?
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