Stan’s Obligatory Blog

This morning was cold, but it wasn’t raining. The front range of the San Gabriels had a light dusting of snow on the peaks, which made for a nice visual reminder of just how cold it was. I headed down to Victory Park for the regular Sunday club ride. When I got there, I was the only one. So I went riding by myself.

I headed down Sierra Madre to California, then left and on down into Temple City. I took a left on Las Tunas and took that out to Live Oak. Another left got me on Arrow Highway, which I took all the way out to San Dimas. There was a little headwind all the way out, but aside from that and the cold, it wasn’t bad.

At Lone Hill, I took a left. I stopped briefly at the Bagelry, where we might have stopped for a bagel, had there been a group. Then I continued on up to Gladstone and took another left for the trip home.

The stretch of Gladstone through Glendora is where we usually go pretty fast, and today I figured out why. It’s slightly downhill there. Not really enough to see, but just enough that you can ride really fast and feel good doing it. And today I had a tailwind, too. So it was just like old times in my racing days when I could cruise down the street at 23mph and feel good. I thought about how fast I used to ride back then, and how I think I could have beat Lance Armstrong when I was in full racing form. He was only six years old at the time, so I’m pretty sure I could have beaten him. Yeah.

At Cerritos, I took a right and took that up to Foothill. Then I went left and took Foothill across the San Gabriel River and into Duarte. A right on Encanto and a left on Royal Oaks and then I was on the bike path into Monrovia.

When I got into downtown Monrovia, I took a little side trip to see Homer’s Auto Service. This is the repair shop that doubles as the headquarters of the San Gabriel Valley Transit Authority and its police department. This had come out in the news stories following the crash of the Ferrari Enzo in Malibu. So in the spirit of ‘ripped from the headlines’ sightseeing, I had to stop and snap a picture.

From there I took Colorado back into Arcadia, and then Highland Oaks up to Sierra Madre. Then it was straight down Sierra Madre Blvd back home, with just a short detour to get around the annual Wisteria Vine Festival there.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad day for riding. Just a bit chilly. But I had my Bagfoot on, and my feet were toasty the whole way.

42 miles.
cycling

Living here in Los Angeles, it’s hard to not encounter the old Urban Legend about how a conspiracy of General Motors, Standard Oil, Firestone Tires, and others destroyed a thriving rail mass-transit system here, forcing people to buy cars and commute on freeways. Something about this story always smelled wrong to me, and I’ve made a minor hobby of debunking it.

I have a page on my web site about this. It’s a short writeup about the sory and why it’s a myth, along with links to longer articles which give more detail about it.

Recently, I got an email from a fellow named Edwin Black, who is an investigative reporter. He wanted to talk to me about this, as he was researching information about General Motors. I sent him my phone number and told him when was a good time to call so we could talk.

When he called, he immediately started into an extended harangue about why I was wrong, and there really was a conspiracy. I’ve heard this harangue before, and I’ve still not seen any actual evidence that the conspiracy story is right. But I talked to him for a while, just to hear what he had to say.

He said a number of rather improbable things. He claimed that the fact that cars today are powered by gasoline rather than electricity was the result of a conspiracy. I’d always thought that it had more to do with the fact that batteries for electric cars just didn’t have the same range as a tank of gas. But he launched into another harangue about how most car trips are short, which is true. But still, human nature being what it is, most people will prefer a car that can go 300 miles between fill-ups, even if most of their trips are much shorter than that. He also claimed that electricity is a ‘clean’ form of energy when compared to internal combustion engines. This may be true at the point of use, but the electricity has to come from somewhere, and the majority of electricity is made by burning coal, which is not exactly a clean thing. Lastly, he claimed that people actually prefer mass transit to commuting by automobile. This doesn’t ring true. While it’s true that commuting by car in Los Angeles often is a slow and frustrating experience, most people are in fact able to use alternatives if they wanted to. But they don’t. Taking the bus or the train is almost always slower and less convenient, so human nature is to take the path of least resistance. To top it off, he claimed that all human use of energy has been the product of conspiracy ‘since the time of the Pharoahs’. That’s a pretty sweeping statement, and it seemed to me that he was perhaps someone who is predisposed to seeing conspiracy in any project that’s larger than any one person can do individually.

Another thing he said that sounded fishy to me was that “all the academics who have written about this are wrong”. I contacted one of the professors he mentioned. The professor reported having spoken with him, and said that he was ‘insistent and rude’, as well as someone who does not consider the larger context of the subject.

Hmm. It seems that my initial impression wasn’t that far off.

Now, it’s possible that GM, et al may well have intended to conspire to force people in Los Angeles to give up mass transit and buy cars, but that’s like conspiring to get dogs to eat meat. The simple fact is that the personal automobile is the killer app of modern civilization. People like it. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t use it. It’s just human nature.

Just for the record, I do own a car, which I’ve used six times so far this year. I ride my bicycle to work. I don’t take mass transit because the bike is faster and more convenient than either the bus or the car. I like trains, and I use the trains here in L.A. whenever I can. Anyway, since Mr. Black said he was going to write about me in his book, I thought I’d return the favor here. Even if my soapbox isn’t as big as his.

Route map and photo locations

Today’s ride was out to Toluca Lake. It was kind of chilly this morning, but it looked like it was going to be a nice day.

We started out going west from Victory Park. We took Orange Grove to Colorado, and then went down the hill into Eagle Rock. We took the ‘scenic route’ across Eagle Rock on Eagle Vista Drive, which is a lot quieter than riding on Colorado. Then we took Broadway and Wilson into Glendale, and then got on Glenoaks.

Glenoaks took us all the way across Glendale, and then a left on Sonora brought us into Toluca Lake. We passed the Bette Davis Picnic Area, and then Bob Hope Drive. Then we were into Burbank. Riverside Drive took us through the towers of the Burbank Media Center, and then we got to Priscilla’s in Toluca Lake. We stopped for a snack there. The bagels and fresh-squeezed orange juice there are very good.

After the stop, we decided to take a little side trip. Vikki wanted to know where the Bicycle John’s shop is on Hollywood Way in Burbank. So we rode up there. On the way, we passed the Warner Bros “Ranch“, where they have their big outdoor sets. A few of the big false-front buildings are visible from the gate. When we got to Bicycle John’s, the sign said, “Closed Sunday”, so Vikki could only window-shop.

Since we were all the way up in Burbank, we decided to take one more side trip. We took a left on Chandler and took the very nice bike path there over to Whitnall. Then a right turn brought us up to Clybourn Ave, and then we came out on Victory Blvd at Pierce Bros Valhalla Cemetery. We rode in through the gate and found the grave site of “Curly-Joe” DeRita, “The Last Stooge”.

Leaving the cemetery, we took Victory east to Burbank Blvd, and then followed the signs for “Downtown Burbank” We passed the big Media City mall and then ended up back on Glenoaks again.

We took Glenoaks back across Burbank and then up Verdugo to Hospital Hill. From there, it was all downhill back into Pasadena.

42 miles.
cycling

Today they are filming a scene for a new “Nancy Drew” movie down the street from our house. It’s a simple scene, but as seems to be usual for these sorts of things, it takes all day. They have a big crowd of people setting up lights and such, but aside from that, there’s not a lot of action. The paper that they dropped off at our house said:

It will be a short scene which our actress knocks on the door looking for a certain individual who doesn’t live at that particular house. The home owner says “sorry”, and closes the door.

Still, this is only the second time in ten years that they’ve filmed at a house on our block, so it’s kind of novel.

On Sunday afternoon, I took Lucinda down to Redondo Beach to see the last stage of the Tour of California bicycle race. It was a perfect winter beach day, warm and sunny.

This was actually the first time I’ve ever been to an actual professional bicycle race. It was nice. The crowd it drew and the riders in the race were all impressive. The race itself was pretty exciting, with an early breakaway that lasted nearly the whole distance before being caught on the last lap. Lucinda liked watching it, and I got to tell her stories about my bike racing days while we were watching. We also got to see a BMX stunt show, and wander around near the beach. It was a very fun afternoon.

And on a related note, I had found out recently that my old bike racing friend Ray is the founder and manager of the Navigators Insurance Pro Cycling Team and that he was going to be at the race. Lucinda and I had spent a good bit of the afternoon looking for the team camps without luck, but at the end of the race, we saw the Navigators team car go by and we just followed it to their camp. After the prizes were awarded, we found Ray. It was fun to visit with him and reminisce about the days when we were young, strong, and fearless. And Lucinda got an official Navigators cycling cap. So this was a special treat to top off a very nice afternoon.

cycling

Route map and photo locations

Today’s ride was one that I came up with earlier this week. There was an article in the Los Angeles Times about how oil had come oozing up out the middle of Olive St in downtown L.A. My immediate thought was to make a bike ride to go and see it. So that’s what we did today.

We started out from Victory Park in Pasadena and headed down Sierra Madre Blvd in to San Marino. Then we turned on Huntington Drive and took that all the way to Mission Blvd on the edge of downtown L.A. There we took a right and rode a bit to Main St, which took us into downtown.

A quick right turn on Ord St brought us into Chinatown, and then a left on New High St sent us south, past City Hall. We rode south all the way past Pico Blvd. Then we took a right on 14th Pl and took that over to Broadway. That brought us to our first sightseeing stop, which was the St. James Oil Company site at 1325 S. Broadway. This is the set of oil wells that is most likely the cause of the seepage. I took a couple of pictures and then we moved on.

At Olive St, we turned north and quickly came to the 1200 block, which was closed to traffic. We hopped up on the sidewalk and went in to see. There were some cleanup tanker trucks parked there, and there was a backhoe digging up oil-soaked dirt from the middle of the street. I took some more pictures.

From there, we continued north on Olive St, up Bunker Hill, where we saw the sign for General Thaddeus Kosciuszko Way. I’d hate to have to give directions involving that street.

At 1st St, we took a left and headed out of downtown. We passed the Department of Water and Power building with the solar-powered parking lot. We also passed the entrance to the old Pacific Electric Subway at 1st and Glendale Blvd.

Continuing on Beverly, we passed the original Tommy’s hamburger stand, and then took a right on Benton Way. This is a small street that goes through Silver Lake and is a nice quiet alternative to riding on Silver Lake Blvd. The downside, so to speak, is that it goes up and over a steep hill. But that’s all right. I like riding up hills. At the top, we stopped to regroup, and that’s where I saw the ‘Ask Me About My Vow of Silence‘ bumper sticker.

From the top of the hill, we went down the other side, coming out on Silver Lake Blvd right by the reservoir and dog park. Then we continued on down the hill to Glendale Blvd. At Fletcher, we took a right and went across the river. We took Eagle Rock Blvd north to Yosemite, which took us across Eagle Rock. Then it was up the Colorado St hill and back into Pasadena.

On this ride, Spencer and I were racing up every hill. This was fun, but something seemed to be not quite right. On the way back into Pasadena I realized what it was. We passed Michael going the other way and I realized that that was what was missing. If Michael had come on the ride today, he would have been the King of the Hill, and Spencer and I would have been left in the dust. Still, we had some fun.

34 miles.
cycling

Today Lucinda had a friend from the neighborhood over to play, and we took them to see “MatheMagic!” at Caltech. This is one of their “Saturdays at 2:00” programs for kids.

Today’s show featured Bradley Fields, the “Mathemagician”. His show was a magic show combined with math tricks and history of mathematics. And it was very funny and entertaining. Lucinda and her friend liked it a lot.

Today we went to the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana. They were having a special exhibit about dogs, including a dog stunt show, so Lucinda wanted to go see it.

The parking was full when we got there, and there was a long line to get in. I suppose I should consider it a good sign that that many people want to go to a science museum. But on the other hand, I think it may have more to do with the fact that it’s actually a pretty small museum, and the parking lot is also small. Anyway, after parking the car at the nearby mall (there’s no shortage of those in Orange County) we got our tickets and went in.

We saw a presentation on therapy dogs at the local Children’s Hospital, and we got to meet and pet one of the dogs.

The main event of the day was the dog stunt show. The dogs did tricks, including catching, jumping, and running obstacle courses. They were all very good at what they did, and it was very entertaining.

The last thing we did was to ride in the earthquake simulator. It’s one of the better museum earthquake simulators, and it’s more realistic than most. They also have a whole section of the earthquake exhibit devoted to Lucy Jones, which is funny to me, since I work with her. I don’t think of her as being famous, but she’s about as famous as a scientist can be. (Have I mentioned lately that I really like my job?)

After the museum, we stopped off at the mall where we’d parked the car so that Cathy could look for some red hair color. The red she’d gotten just wasn’t red enough. While she discussed hair color minutiae with the beauty supply people, Lucinda and I went and got ice cream.

It was a fun day.

We’ve been having a cold spell here in L.A. At least it’s cold by our standards. And this morning, there was even frost on our garage roof. In 10 years in this house, this is only the second time I’ve seen that.

brrr

Today started out cold and rainy, and it rained out the regular Sunday club ride. But then, almost miraculously, it stopped raining and cleared up. But 10:00, the sky was blue and the streets were (almost) dry. So I went for a little ride by myself.

I headed east through Sierra Madre to Arcadia, then east some more into Monrovia. When I got there, I went up Norumbega Drive, which goes up a nice hill and makes a loop back down to where it started. It was a nice gratuitous hill.

Then I went down Mountain Ave, and it was there that I spotted a thong in the street. When I used to live in Hollywood, I rode every weekend on Mulholland Drive, up in the hills. And every Sunday morning, I would see lots of women’s clothing, particularly shoes and underwear on the side of the road. That was just a normal thing in the hills above Hollywood, but this is the first time I’ve seen anything like that here in the suburbs.

I rode through a little bit of Bradbury and then into Duarte. I took the bike path along Royal Oaks to its end, and then went up Melcanyon just to add another gratuitous hill. I made a loop up there and came out on Encanto by the park there, and then headed back towards home.

I took Santa Clara St back into Arcadia just so I could stop for a photo at the Young Dong Restaurant. Its name probably means something like “Mom’s” in Korean, but the sign looks funny to American eyes. And it’s right around the corner from the Turf Analist, so there is an ongoing tradition of Engrish in that area.

Next, I headed back up 1st St to get to Highland Oaks and Sierra Madre for the trip home. I stopped for one more photo of the “Reclamation Center” sign, right by the cemetery. I guess it makes sense in some way.

From there, it was downhill all the way home. It was a pleasant ride, even if it was chilly and kind of windy.

27 miles.
cycling