Regional Connector

I took a metrolink train from El Monte to Downtown L.A. for the first time today. It definitely reinforced a lot of my perception that the trains here go from nowhere to nowhere.

The El Monte station was little more than a parking lot next to a train track. It looked like there was a three story apartment building down the street and a couple blocks away there was a bunch of run down shops. Still though, that was El Monte so I didn't expect much.

Then I got to Union Station. My plan was to try to walk to see some of the new construction sites such as the Wilshire Grand Tower. I figured that the train would take me somewhere central. When I got out, I found myself at the very edge of downtown. There seems to be very little of interest actually within a half mile walk of Union Station.

That experience makes me understand why the new Regional Connector subway is so important. Most of the rail going into downtown doesn't actually go to a central location. The only exceptions I see on this map seem to be the purple and red subway lines.

That is where the regional connector comes in. The Gold, Blue, and Expo lines will have three new stations downtown. Not only that, it will be convenient to go from Long Beach all the way to Pasadena helping increase the number of destinations easily available to someone who takes the train.

Still though, a much better solution would be transit oriented development. If train stations go from nowhere to nowhere the obvious solution is to build things right next to stations. A hundred 6+ story mixed use buildings within a half mile of stations is the easiest way to transform the rail into something actually useful.

More native plants

I posted another batch of plant pictures to the gardening subreddit.I limited it to plants from a single seed packet of shade friendly plants I bought from Larner Seeds.

SpaceX seems to be doing it

I rather misunderstood what SpaceX planned to do with the first stage of its rocket. I got that they planned to land it, but I pictured something much more like the space shuttle where they would land it like an aircraft. What they are actually doing is a whole heck of a lot more impressive:

They are really quite close to making this happen. On the launch to the space shuttle they had the first stage land much like in the video, except in the water. Within the year it is reasonable to expect they will be setting down the rocket on land. Since that first stage is such a high percentage of the cost that will result in an amazing price savings.

Worms are attacking

After all the propaganda I have heard in my life about how good earthworms are for soil, I somehow always assumed it was right.

This is apparently only true if you live in Europe. European earthworm species are apparently really a problem for forests in North America.

Plants Everywhere

They say that when you learn a new word, you see it everywhere and wonder how you could not have known that.This month has been that way, but with plants.

I was looking for good butterfly plants, so one of the plants I got was California buckwheat. 

After I bought the buckwheat, I noticed a bunch of plants along the freeway which looked like it. I stopped to investigate and sure enough it was. I have been passing at least two varieties of buckwheat on my commute but never knowing what they were.

Then I bought some deerweed seeds. A weed later I drove from Rialto to Victorville. There are hundreds of deerweed plants along the road there. I am even pretty sure I found one on my commute home from work. I must have seen them thousands of times, but never paid any attention to them. Unlike the buckwheat this doesn't seem surprising. deerweed blends in with mustard because they both have small yellow flowers.

Native Plants are Hard to Find

After looking through lists of what butterflies eat, I decided that I want to plant another milkweed, a monkey flower, and a California false indigo plant.

I settled on the species Diplacus puniceus, Amorpha californica, and Asclepias californica.

Then I went online to find a place to buy them.

Las Pilitas has Diplacus puniceus, but not Asclepias californica, or Amorpha californica.

 Larner seeds has none of them, but does have Mimulus guttatus and Asclepias eriocarpa which seem like perfectly acceptable substitutes for the monkey flower and milkweed I wanted.

Theodore Payne Nursery has Amorpha californica, but neither the milkweed or monkey flower I wanted nor a suitable substitute.

Amazon.com has Asclepias californica, but not Amorpha californica or Diplacus puniceus.

No wonder so few people plant native plants, I will have to buy all three plants from separate sources or wait until I encounter them in a nursery. A lot of the problem may be California. We have everything from redwood forests with lots of rain, to deserts with almost no rain. Elevations from sea level to high mountains. That has resulted in just too many different species for one nursery to handle.

Letter About the Jiffy Mart

I am continuing to harass the local city government. Here is what I sent about a little Jiffy Mart down the street:

Since the zoning is being implemented to match the La Habra General Plan, I thought I would draw your attention to one lot where rezoning would make sense. The lot is 426 Walnut street It was a Jiffy Mart until a few months ago when it closed. Now it is preparing to reopen as a another similar store.

As about the only business in La Habra which is dependent on customers who walk up, rather than drive, the present use of this lot fits into the spirit of the 2035 general plan. The 2035 general plan encourages mixed use neighborhoods, so it should preserve existing commercial sites in residential neighborhoods.

The lot however is zoned low density residential. This means that the owner is unlikely to make any significant upgrades to the building since anything like a major fire would shut it down and replace it with low density residential housing.

While the location for the store is good, the actual building is ugly, and need of serious renovations or even demolishing to create a nicer building. Rezoning to allow a two story live/work loft would be ideal. This sort of mixed use zoning would encourage the owner to invest more into improving the property. Because of that, I urge you to rezone the lot. Due to overly restrictive FAR requirements in the lower density mixed use zoning, I suggest "Mixed-Use Center 3" as the only zoning which might be high density enough to actually result in a nicer building being constructed.