After more than 6 miles of safari-style bike riding, Nate and I had reached Exposition Park. We inhaled our lunches and beers and our hearts felt light and free. We left the native garden and went to play in the Science Center entryway. Here, underneath a wide canopy gushing tripped-out purple lights, I watched a vast group of Catholic nuns walk up the circular ramp above my head, my view interrupted by strings of enormous golden reflecting orbs. The plaza beneath is built of large rock tiles sporting science related quotes and images of nautilus cross-sections and the like, and here I sat while kids of all sizes ran around me playing some game or only pretending nonsense with their parents chasing after.
We soaked up the color and the flavor, mounted our bikes and took off, passing large jet airplanes on display near the Aerospace Museum. Here, in between buildings, Nate and I found a great little buildering opportunity. Buildering and bicycling make a great combination. Buildering is about details, small spaces, the little features in buildings, and all of this is only visible from ground level at reasonable speeds, none of which is provided in a car. Sure, cars allow a searcher wider range, but a bicycle offers the searcher ease of movement, agility, responsiveness, like bombers to fighter-jets.
Our buildering site was a set of tiles leading nearly to the roof of the building, some 50 feet up! No sweat, but a few jitters later, I'd gotten my hands dirty climbing up the walls, so I splashed a little water onto one of my Pop-Ups, unrolled the hand towel and cleaned myself off! Good as new. Really, these things are The Jam for so many situations...
Next on our trip along Expo Line, we headed toward downtown to Figueroa & Jefferson. Here is where Expo Line does something interesting: it travels underground for a few blocks to avoid street traffic. And this is certainly one of the more controversial facets of the entire Expo Line project and construction.
For myself, I am literally so excited to have a new public transportation option between the Westside and Downtown that I actually don't much care if it's underground or above. I like street-level track-crossings. I am also a big subway fan, being from Washington, D.C. which boasts one of the best subway systems in the world (*my opinion. Turns out it's NOT one of the world's best, but oh well.) If grade-crossings are unsafe in a city like LA, I fail to see why an underground line in earthquake stricken LA would be any safer. If traffic delays are the concern, I just don't understand why grade-crossings cause more of a delay than years of underground construction. In consideration of the weak financial situation LA is plagued with at the moment, at-grade seems the FAR cheaper option.
My hope is that the entire controversy is only a small irrational fear of change, what is new and different, and what we have never known before. I understand that when things go wrong, trains can, have, and will continue to kill people. But just how many? Cars can, have, and will continue to kill people, and in far greater numbers than trains. Are train deaths really that numerous? (*FTA Commuter Rail Safety Study, "Fatalities", page 13) We are all told to look both ways before crossing a street; so why should introducing a train be so unsafe? Isn't the same principle still in place?
Beyond the underground Expo crossing, Nate and I made our way up to a transit station on I-110 freeway for a quick smoke, another beer, and a nice look around. This surely is one of the most unique views in Los Angeles: freeway insanity on both sides, sunlight blasting, and the entire downtown skyline uninterrupted. A fun and strange place for a respite.
Having snapped a few dozen pictures, we continued onto Mercado La Paloma. If you're asking me, this is one of the most interesting and beautiful places in LA, where a community has been made and fostered over many years.
My travels along Expo Line finally merged with the Blue Line coming up from Long Beach somewhere beyond Mercado La Paloma near LA Trade Technical College. We were up Figueroa, now, moving beneath the Nokia Theater, Staples Center, Figeuroa Hotel, and finally passed that LA jewel, The Pantry Cafe. We were into the thick of Downtown LA's financial district, and our wheels stopped moving outside of the underground 7th St. Metro Center, where Expo Line officially blends with existing Metro infrastructure, and disperses into the commuter melange.
We'd ridden the Expo Line, and were bound to ride back via another route. Our travels continued on through Chinatown, and up into Radio Hill Gardens, overlooking Dodger Stadium at Elysian Park and Solano Canyon Community Garden.
This was one of the most beautiful and engaging trips I have ever taken in my life because it was powered by my own legs, it was in a city I already loved so much, it cost me almost nothing, and it showed me something I hadn't realized until that point: Los Angeles is a single, colorful community that can be travelled in a single day with so many surprises along the road!
My hope is that LA residents will learn to live with a new and open Exposition Commuter Light Rail Line, including all of its safety and traffic concerns, because in the end it will have a positive impact on so many people who already live here in this community, even if we don't always recognize that it is, in fact, a "community." If you ask a kid if he likes trains, he or she will likely respond in the affirmative. If you were to show this same kid a working, full-scale commuter light rail train in Los Angeles, all facts and fears aside, that kid would smile, slap hands, and shout, "I want to ride it, I want to ride it!"
Or maybe that's just the kid inside me, still trying to get out on the open road (err, tracks...)
That is all, for now, on this 4-part journey along LA's soon to open (April 2012!!) Exposition Light Rail Line.
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