Maybe not:
"LA looks to survive highway closure; Residents warned to avoid area roads" July 16, 2011|By Daisy Nguyen and John Rogers, Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - When the sun rises above Los Angeles today, residents in this car-dependent, traffic-choked city will see a rare sight: a 10-mile stretch of one of the nation’s busiest freeways turned into a virtual ghost road. Interstate 405 is closing for 53 hours for major construction.
As crews worked feverishly to get the freeway open in time for the Monday morning rush hour, residents have been making plans for weeks to stay off local roads, lest they trigger what officials dubbed “Carmageddon.’’
Such an event could back up vehicles from the 405 to surface streets and other freeways, causing a domino effect that could paralyze much of the city.
With warnings having been broadcast through television, radio, social media, and flashing freeway signs as far away as San Francisco, much of the city’s nearly 4 million residents appear ready to stay off the roads.
If they do, there will be no shortage of staycation activities awaiting them.
They can snag free popcorn being offered at movie theaters along the 405 or drop in on Michael Jackson’s dermatologist for 25-percent-off Botox injections so that frazzled commuters will not look quite so frazzled....
For those who do have to drive, a Cedars-Sinai Medical Center psychiatrist was offering advice. Among Dr. Waguih William Ishak’s tips: avoid road rage at all costs, apologize profusely to anyone you accidentally cut off in traffic, and be sure to leave for your destination with a full tank of gas and a cellphone.
And, he said, don’t forget to go to the bathroom before you leave.
Or, better yet, authorities say, stay at home.
And do what, read a newspaper?
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"LA avoids feared ‘Carmageddon’
LOS ANGELES - Southern Californians yesterday made the ultimate sacrifice to avoid the dreaded “Carmageddon’’: leaving their cars in the garage. Unusually light traffic flowed freely through the nation’s second-largest city despite fears of epic traffic jams produced by the 53-hour shutdown of a 10-mile stretch of one of the region’s most crucial freeways. Authorities closed a section of Interstate 405 to allow partial demolition of a bridge. It is to reopen early tomorrow (AP)."
"‘Carmageddon’ fears don’t pan out as LA freeway work is finished a day early" July 18, 2011|Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - The event that many feared would be the “Carmageddon’’ of epic traffic jams cruised calmly to a finish yesterday, with bridge work on the Los Angeles roadway completed nearly a full day ahead of schedule and officials reopening a 10-mile stretch of the busy freeway.
Drivers honked their horns and waved from car windows as traffic started moving in all 10 lanes of Interstate 405 just after noon for the first time since being shut down at midnight Friday. There were no major problems since the freeway was closed, despite warnings.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa praised contractors for working so quickly and thanked residents for heeding calls to stay off the roads. He also gave credit to news outlets for spreading word about the closure....
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"Two shot leaving LA antigang program" July 22, 2011|By Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - Two teens were shot and wounded in an apparent gang shooting yesterday outside a Los Angeles recreation center that is part of the city’s much-vaunted program to reduce violence in the streets by keeping public parks well-lit and open at night.
The shooting came a day before delegates at a US Conference of Mayors meeting were to visit another park in the program trumpeted as a model for other cities.
It was also the second time in eight days that violence erupted after a Summer Night Lights event, which keeps parks open until midnight and employs officers and gang-intervention workers to keep them safe. Police were evaluating how best to deploy officers to prevent more attacks....
On July 13, a man was shot in the face near a South Los Angeles park after the lights were turned off. It provided all-too-real drama for actors Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena, who were on scene at the time while on a police ride-along to prepare for an upcoming movie.
Summer Night Lights was created to reduce gang violence by lighting up 32 parks and recreation centers where youngsters are supervised as they play sports, watch movies, or participate in other activities.
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"A woman jumped from a pickup truck traveling on a Southern California freeway after the driver, her husband, splashed her with gasoline and set her ablaze, authorities said yesterday....
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Time to get off the freeway:
"Panel faults Coast Guard in fatal crash" July 13, 2011|Associated Press
SAN DIEGO - A Coast Guard vessel’s dangerous speed caused a collision that killed an 8-year-old boy and seriously injured four other people aboard a pleasure boat during a Christmas parade, the National Transportation Safety Board found yesterday.
The board also faulted the Coast Guard for lack of supervision in the December 2009 crash that occurred when a crew was rushing to a grounded sailboat that was in no danger of taking on water in San Diego Bay. The 33-foot Coast Guard vessel was going as fast as 42 knots - or 48 miles per hour - when it struck the pleasure boat shortly after a fireworks show in an area packed with kayaks, canoes, and other watercraft, investigators found.
The Coast Guard’s electronic equipment failed to capture the precise speed, but investigators said it was going at least 19 knots, still too fast for conditions. A 12-second video taken within 100 yards of the crash clocked the vessel at 42 knots, and eyewitnesses said it maintained that speed. The boat’s driver and a crew member estimated lower speeds.
NTSB board members were harshly critical of the Coast Guard command and the failure of other crew members to notice the hazard.
“I find it ironic that the Coast Guard is in the position of evaluating all of the other folks in the boating community to determine if they are complying with the rules, but then when they are in a position, they are essentially saying, Do as I say, not as I do,’’ said chairwoman Deborah Hersman.
Dan Dewell, a Coast Guard spokesman, said his agency looked forward to reviewing the NTSB findings. The Coast Guard is also doing its own investigation, he said.
Mike Neil, a lawyer representing the family of 8-year-old Anthony DeWeese in a wrongful-death lawsuit against the federal government, said the NTSB findings were “right on the money’’ for faulting the Coast Guard chain of command.
“These young Coast Guard men and women were put out on these boats without adequate supervision and training and they are also, in a sense, victims,’’ Neil said. “The members of that crew are going to have to carry the memory of the death of this boy for the rest of their lives.’’
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Maybe you should stay on the beach:
"Malibu resident told to open path; Judge orders beach access for the public" by Noaki Schwartz, Associated Press / July 17, 2011
LOS ANGELES - It turns out the going price for privacy on Malibu’s “millionaires row’’ is only $250,000.
A nonprofit called Access for All that manages public pathways to the beach agreed to get rid of an access point at a home overlooking one of the most exclusive parts of the California coast in exchange for money and lawyer fees from the resident to open a different pathway.
However, the deal didn’t get very far. Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant upheld enforcement action by the state to open the original pathway past Lisette Ackerberg’s home to Carbon Beach.
The pathway was a condition of a development permit the Coastal Commission gave in the 1980s to the Ackerberg family, which has a mansion, three-car garage, tennis courts, and pool on two beachfront lots.
Steve Hoye, who heads Access for All, and Diane Abbitt, an attorney for Ackerberg, did not immediately return calls for comment.
While California’s Coastal Act of 1976 ensures beach access, the rich and famous who want to keep the state’s dramatic coast exclusive have in some cases launched yearslong legal battles. Some regularly post fake “no parking’’ and “private beach’’ signs that are so convincing that unfortunate beachgoers occasionally get ticketed.
Perhaps the most famous is the pathway film and music mogul David Geffen promised in exchange for a remodeling permit. Geffen, who finally relented in 2007, battled for decades to stop the public from using a section of Carbon Beach in front of his Malibu compound, citing concerns about traffic, privacy, and the potential environmental harm sunbathers would cause....
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Can't go that way.
Where else can one swim in California?
"Young tourists above one of Yosemite National Park’s beautiful and perilous waterfalls were trying to pose for a picture. Instead they burned a horrifying image into the memories of everyone who saw....
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Don't go chasing waterfalls, kids!
"Snowmelt fuels rash of deaths in West" July 22, 2011|By Gosia Wozniacka and Tracie Cone, Associated Press
YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. - The deaths of three young tourists who were swept over a 317-foot waterfall this week in Yosemite National Park serve as a reminder of the deadly and alluring beauty of the raging rivers and streams across the West after a record winter snowfall.
As temperatures rise, the melting snow has engorged waterways, causing flooding and sometimes tragic consequences. Some states have seen an increase in water-related deaths that they blame on the surge in river flows.
Witnesses to the Yosemite tragedy described the traumatizing image of a young woman slipping on a rock above the raging Vernal Fall and two friends falling while trying to save her.
In an instant, a church photo opportunity turned horrific beyond description as the frigid Merced River, swollen by snowmelt, swept the trio over the edge Tuesday.
“I can’t talk about what happened there,’’ Tanya Badal, a sister of one of the victims, said before breaking into sobs Wednesday.
Across the West, rafters, kayakers, swimmers and even some drivers have lost their lives in recent weeks due to fast-moving water.
In Montana, at least 10 people have drowned this year and another man is missing and presumed drowned after trying to retrieve an oar that fell out of his raft Sunday. Only three people drowned in 2010, and Montana officials are warning that the difference is the volume of fast and cold water from the melting snowpack and spring rains.
At least 11 people have drowned in Utah waterways since April, many of them swept away in fast-flowing rivers swollen by melting snowpack. The deaths included a 15-year-old boy who drowned in a swollen river near Zion National Park in June while swimming with friends who were swept over a waterfall.
Five people have died after being swept into Colorado’s raging rivers and creeks. One of them, a Kansas woman, drowned June 22 after rolling her vehicle into a river.
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Why not just stay out of the water?
