Learning a bit about how the red-light network works in LA is interesting, but I found myself frustrated at this generally-uncritical discussion of LA’s broken system. Lip-service was paid to optimizing the system for multiple modes of transit—light rail was even mentioned—but anyone who spends time outside of a car in Los Angels knows the system is completely optimized for the needs of the private vehicle at the expense of others.
In the episode, LA’s system was touted as “state of the art”, but it is decidedly not. It is outdated technologically and philosophically. For example, LA still uses in-road sensors at lights. These sensors completely miss cyclists. And most LA streets still require pedestrians to press the beg button to be given permission to cross, with no priority given to their passage. Other cities are far ahead of LA in these areas.
I’d expect better from 99% Invisible: Ask, how does the system quantify and prioritize pedestrians? Could more be done to optimize streetlights for public transit? (It could.) Or better, does optimizing the system for rush hour private vehicle traffic work against public transit? (I suspect it does, particularly along the E and A Lines downtown.)
What a missed opportunity to take a really interesting look into how LA’s traffic system works today, is frankly, stuck in the past, and could evolve in the future.
This episode of Matt Bernstein’s A Bit Fruity is a fantastic conversation on men, loneliness, and how our current cultural definition of masculinity falls so short as to be laughable (if it weren’t so broadly dangerous to society).
But the concept that has stuck with me is Broderick’s broader theory on video content: he suggests that no matter the motivation at the genesis of a specific category, it will all eventually be optimized into a kind of porn. His definition is loose here—it doesn’t require sexual content (though the skin creep happens), let alone explicit sexual content. He’s arguing that it all gets optimized into a form of visual triviality that plays to our instincts for attention and emotion, and has absolutely no intellectually-nutritional value. That tracks with what I see, even in niche circles you don’t normally associate with influencers, like product design.
LA does not need the federal government to “liberate” it from anything. If you are under a different impression, I would highly encourage you to seek additional news sources. Local publications like LAist and LA Taco are doing excellent work. They’re also working hard to tell the story of LA’s immigrant population, who are actually under siege in many ways.
One of my faves, LA Podcast, just did an episode walking through most of the events over the last week, up until their recording on Saturday. It provides some excellent nuance and context missing in most national news coverage. Highly recommend.
Los Angeles was founded around this river. But decades ago it was confined in concrete so that, for better or worse, the city could become the sprawling metropolis that it is today.
Historically, by the time it reached LA, the Los Angeles River was not a river in the normal sense of the word. If you put it on a map, you’d have to move it every few years. Its banks had no interest in staying put.
As someone who lives within walking distance of today’s concrete incarnation of the river channel, and spends a lot of time winding up and down its valley and adjacent neighborhoods, I really enjoyed this 99% Invisible episode.
Locally, there are ongoing efforts to further restore the river (and areas surrounding it) and finally connect the two ends of the bike path through downtown. But even now, the river is a phenomenal recreation and natural resource that remains a hidden secret to most of the city.
Poet Saeed Jones is one of the hosts of the excellent podcast, Vibe Check. On their most recent episode, he read a poem that he’d written that day, in refleciton on the election results. It’s beautiful and while you can read it, I highly recommend you listen to his own reading of it and the brief discussion afterward. It starts around the 49 minute mark (depending on the hellscape of dynamically-inserted ads in your download). The link should take you close to it.
“I am god talking to herself. I am evicting
America from my body and making room
in the borders of my black bad bitch body
for everyone I was sent into this life
to love loudly.”
Saeed is also a great follow on Bluesky.
I grew up religious and struggled to reconcile the experience with my sexuality. This podcast episode did a great job of relaying some of that struggle.