hike in the rain

After work today I stopped by the Army Surplus in Lincoln Heights and got me a pair of rain boots, a big umbrella and an orange poncho. I put on the boots and poncho then headed up into the hills of Lincoln Hts. Here are two shots. I used my iPhone so they aren’t the best quality, but you get the idea. It was fun walking in the rain able to step in puddles without worry. Only my knees got wet because they were the only part of me  exposed. I felt refreshed walking uphill in the oxygen rich air.

wet LAThe Rolling Hills Above Happy Valley

Green hills again

Pasadena Ave. - Lincoln Heights

Pasadena Ave. - Lincoln Heights

On a walk home from the Heritage Square Gold Line station I noticed once again that green is back in the NorthEastside.  Coming down through Highland Park on the line I could see the green all over the hills.  The frankly sparse amount of rain we’ve received has let all those empty hills, lots, and cracks in the street come to life.  Even with all the environmental degradation life still persists.  As my dad once said, “One day the Earth will finally shake us off like a bad case of fleas.” I’m no complete misanthrope, but in the end that doesn’t sound too bad for me.  Toda va, todo vuelve.

Where’s my bus rider tax break? Post Tax Day Post

Prius drivers get tax breaks, why not transit riders?

“Because it’s entirely different,” a person who knows where I’m going with this, but wants to stop me, because bringing up race and class is divisive and makes people feel bad.

Well too bad.

Ever since I’ve given up my car I realized some things:

    People who take the bus are treated very shittily.

    The bus takes way too long to come.

    It is very easy to not pay and take the Red Line.

I get treated way differently than my white boyfriend in regards to not having a car. No one ever asks Bob if he has a car when he’s applying for some little shit job to make some extra cash, but that’s one of the first questions that will come out of their mouth with me.

“Do you have a car?”

I applied for a job at an environmental organization and they wanted to know if I had a car?

WTF? If I can do the job what does it matter how I do it, especially if other people there don’t have a car?

What the fudge kind of environmental agency are you anyway?
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Hills of the Eastside

Having lived most of my life in North East L.A. I have come to find refuge in the hills around here. As a kid I would go up Eastlake Ave in Lincoln Heights and up into the hills to flatop to seekout lizards, snakes, centipedes, and all the other wildlife you see around these parts. Many people say that Los Angeles scarecly has seasons, but I think it is because they do not understand how the seasons present themselves here. Elsewhere you have heavy rains (which we occasionally do have), snow, or extreme cold to show that things are changing.

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