"Standing United—in Grief"

"The images each have a unique emotion, almost a personality, and the array of views of the American people and their landscapes feels both intimate and collective. Fusco shot for the entire eight hours it took for the train to make the usually four-hour journey. Hundreds of thousands of people lined the tracks of this train as it made its way, in huge crowds, small groups, and alone. The tracks pass through urban courtyards, suburban lawns, dirt roads, and old fence posts, along bridges and byways and secluded patches of nature, farms, and even boat docks. People gather with signs and cameras and American flags, they wave and stand at attention, they cry and hug one another, they stay stoic and solemn; they’ve walked and biked and driven; they’ve been waiting all day."

Shana Nys Dambrot at The Village Voice revisits Paul Fusco's photographs from Robert F. Kennedy's funeral train in 1968.

"Don't Buy into the Roger Rabbit Myth"

"When I began teaching a Los Angeles geography class I was crestfallen when I learned that this was not the case—that democracy, with all its attendant imperfections, and not corrupt private interests, had killed the streetcar. Robert Folgeson among others points out that the streetcar system was never part of a brilliant masterplan to create a more navigable city. On the contrary, rail tycoons like Henry Huntington used stakes in the industry to subsidize tracks which would service and thus enhance the value of real estate holdings. Far from an early 20th century version of smart growth avant la lettre, the streetcar system was often, if not exclusively, a moneymaker for wealthy Angelnos who had the foresight and good fortune to buy low and sell high."

Kurt Hofer at The American Conservative argues that the Los Angeles streetcar system of the early twentieth century "was built mostly by market forces, and dismantled mostly by democracy."

"The Playbook Companies Used to Win: Empty Social-Justice Rhetoric, Which Then Can Be Filled With All Manner of Poison"

"Democrats retain the support of the lowest-income Americans, and they're eager enough to shake hands with unions. The party's viability depends, too, on its ability to appeal to voters of color (and based on Biden's apparent problems with Latino voters, it has no reason to assume that demographic changes work to its favor). But it's not enough to tell people that you’re concerned about racial justice, that you want progress, that the policies you favor will be good for the poor. Anyone can do that. If you spend enough money, and coerce enough people, you can even make your story look like the truth. Uber and Lyft just proved it. So Democrats face a test of authenticity. If they mean any of the things they told voters this year, then economic injustice has to occupy a more central role in its policies and messaging. And class position is an overdue addition to the party's concept of identity politics. Silicon Valley isn't going to drop its war on labor, and gig workers need Democrats to fight back."

Sarah Jones at New York reacts to the passage of California's Proposition 22.

"Turning Los Angeles into an Intentionally Segregated City"

"Freeways created physical barriers that made any non-white presence on the 'white' side of the road conspicuous—and thus easier to target by law enforcement. One 1943 freeway marketing pamphlet, designed to win over reluctant white communities, boasted of the freeway's fortress-like impermeability and ability to preserve 'neighborhood character.'
"As Rothstein told NPR in 2017: 'The "Underwriting Manual" of the Federal Housing Administration recommended that highways be a good way to separate African American from white neighborhoods. This... was a matter of government regulation.'"

Matthew Fleischer at the Los Angeles Times discusses how racial segregation was affected by the impact of L.A. freeways.

"A Historical Analog for This Fall From Grace Does Exist"

"There was a time when Americans loved and talked about the transcontinental railroads the way we loved and talked about the internet. The steel lines spanning the nation were, as the Stanford historian Richard White put it, 'the epitome of modernity.' '[Americans] were in love with railroads because railroads defined the age. The claims made for railroads by men who wrote about them were always extravagant,' White wrote in Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America. 'The kind of hyperbole recently lavished on the Internet was once the mark of railroad talk.'
"Then the public turned on the transcontinental railroads."

Alexis C. Madrigal at The Atlantic looks to the past when pondering the fate of today's tech barons.

"The Crowds Who Came Out to Witness Kennedy's Body Being Carried to Its Grave"

"In 2018, looking back at those images, as the train approaches the terminal and the light begins to fade, you realize that you are watching the final hours of the great Democratic coalition that had dominated American politics since the election of Franklin Roosevelt, in 1932—the coalition that would fracture six months later with the election of Richard Nixon, and which is now as dead as Robert Kennedy."

Louis Menand at The New Yorker discusses the San Francisco Museum of Art's exhibit "The Train: RFK's Last Journey."

"We Know the Trump Administration Is Full of Liars"

"On March 13th, in San Diego, Trump, accompanied by Border Patrol agents, said that Brown 'has done a very poor job running California. They have the highest taxes in the United States. The place is totally out of control. You have sanctuary cities where you have criminals.' Brown replied on the President’s favorite platform: 'Thanks for the shout-out, @realDonaldTrump. But bridges are still better than walls. And California remains the 6th largest economy in the world and the most prosperous state in America. #Facts.'"

Connie Bruck in The New Yorker visits Jerry Brown, as he begins his final year as governor of California.

"A Kind of Bias That I Call Technochauvinism"

"With driving, the stakes are much higher. In a self-driving car, death is an unavoidable feature, not a bug. By this point, many people know about the trolley problem as an example of an ethical decision that has to be programmed into a self-driving car. It’s too soon to tell whether the Uber crash was a situation where the car was programmed to save the occupants and kill the bystander, or if it was a software malfunction, or if something totally unexpected happened. If the car was programmed to save the car’s occupants at the expense of pedestrians, the autonomous-car industry is facing its first public moment of moral reckoning."

Meredith Broussard at The Atlantic discusses self-driving cars in the wake of the first pedestrian fatality because of them.

"'As You Can See, They Are Quite Harmless,' Says Uber Representative Guiding Detective Through Warehouse Of Sleeping Autonomous Cars"

"At press time, the discouraged NTSB detective was turning around to leave when one of the autonomous vehicles suddenly awoke from low-power mode and, as if winking, flashed a single headlight at him."

From The Onion.

"A Feat of Deceitful Legal Alchemy"

"Field nonetheless saw Davis's erroneous summary as an opportunity. A few years later, in an opinion in an unrelated case, Field wrote that 'corporations are persons within the meaning' of the Fourteenth Amendment. 'It was so held in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad,' explained Field, who knew very well that the Court had done no such thing.
"His gambit worked. In the following years, the case would be cited over and over by courts across the nation, including the Supreme Court, for deciding that corporations had rights under the Fourteenth Amendment."

Adam Winkler at The Atlantic explains how corporations became "people."

"Caution Watch for People Crossing Road"

"'There's only a handful of really iconic images that have been successfully mobilized for the purposes of immigration politics,' said Everard Meade, director of the Trans Border Institute at the University of San Diego. "The thing with these symbols is that the response is 50-50.
"'Some people see that sign and think, "My God, this is a sign that represents how our immigration policy has just failed, and we've put people in this vulnerable position such that we have to have a road sign so people don't run them over on the highway,"' Meade added."

Kate Morrissey at the Los Angeles Times notes the end of the "immigrant crossing" caution signs.

"What Happened to Walt's Tomorrow?"

"The future was exciting, optimistic, radiant, and at Tomorrowland, it was a place you could visit and enjoy, marveling at what was to come.

"But at some point in the last six decades, Tomorrowland went from a land of possibility to a land of nostalgia. Today, on that same land in Anaheim, California, stands a retrofuturistic attraction, full of old-fashioned, cutesy ways of thinking about space travel, transportation, and robots. Even the 2015 Tomorrowland movie flopped. Disneyland seems to have lost its passion for futurology, letting what was once an innovative, optimistic, imaginative Tomorrowland slip into a symbol of yesteryear."

Rachel Withers at Slate discusses the eclipse of the future at Disneyland.

 "It's the Ethic, Not the Policy, That Matters Most"

"While many commentators say Trump will have to bring back jobs or vibrancy to places like the Rust Belt if he wants to continue to have the support of people who voted for him, Thompson's account suggests otherwise. Many if not most Trump supporters long ago gave up on the idea that any politician, even someone like Trump, can change the direction the wind is blowing. Even if he fails to bring back the jobs, Trump can maintain loyalty in another way: As long as he continues to offend and irritate elites, and as long as he refuses to play by certain rules of decorum—heaven forfend, the president-elect says ill-conceived things on Twitter!—Trump will still command loyalty."

Susan McWilliams in The Nation looks at Hunter S. Thompson's 1966 book on the Hell's Angels as a forerunner to the rise of Donald Trump.

"The Last Surviving Astronaut of the Original Mercury Seven"

"When Glenn took his pioneering turn in space, astronaut Carpenter spoke for all Americans when he radioed from launch control just before liftoff, 'Godspeed, John Glenn.' Carpenter later said he had tried to keep the mood light by telling Glenn: 'Remember, John, this was built by the low bidder.'
"NASA cut the flight short—Glenn was supposed to orbit Earth seven times—when mechanical failure created concern that Friendship 7's heat shield might fall off during reentry and cause the capsule to burn up.
"Although he remained calm, Glenn later told Life magazine that he had been prepared to die. The heat shield held. After Glenn's safe return, he became a national hero. Bathed in the spotlight, Glenn was typically low-key.
"'It's been a long day,' he said after being fished out of the Atlantic Ocean by helicopter, 'but it has been very interesting.'"

Geraldine Baum and Valerie J. Nelson in the Los Angeles Times writes an obituary for John Glenn.

"It's a Dangerous Game"

"Trump's 'Contract with the American Voter' (get to know this document) stresses that his American Energy and Infrastructure Act 'leverages public-private partnerships, and private investments through tax incentives, to spur $1 trillion in infrastructure investment over ten years. It is revenue neutral.'
"What do 'public-private partnerships' and 'tax incentives' mean here? This report from Peter Navarro, set to be one of Trump’s leading economists, lays out the blueprint. The government would sell $1 trillion in revenue-producing bonds, needing only to supply an equity cushion to ensure everyone gets paid. Navarro estimates around $140 billion in government funding when all is said and done, which you could easily get through repatriation.
"Investors would get a tax credit to entice them to buy bonds, and Navarro claims that the tax revenue from new jobs created by the projects makes up for that cost. He also wants to contract out these projects, building in a 10 percent profit margin for the private contractor. Navarro claims that construction costs are higher when built by the government, and the private sector is more efficient.
"Does this sound familiar? It’s the common justification for privatization, and it's been a disaster virtually everywhere it’s been tried. First of all, this specifically ties infrastructure—designed for the common good—to a grab for profits. Private operators will only undertake projects if they promise a revenue stream. You may end up with another bridge in New York City or another road in Los Angeles, which can be monetized. But someplace that actually needs infrastructure investment is more dicey without user fees."

David Dayen at The New Republic warns against Donald Trump's approach to infrastructure.

"I Think a Lot of Folks in the Bay Area Look with a Lot of Envy Toward Los Angeles"

"BART's 44-year-old electric rail system is so decrepit that bay water is seeping into tunnels, ancient power systems surge so much they disable train cars, and even the steel rail itself has cracked and split off during the height of the morning rush hour.
"Meanwhile, Los Angeles is in the midst of a major rail system expansion, building so rapidly that Metro's 105 miles of rail is nearly equivalent to BART's 107 miles. If two-thirds of voters approve Measure M—which would raise the sales tax by an additional half a penny for every dollar spent—Los Angeles County would see a dramatic expansion of rail over the next 40 years."

Rong Gong Lin II in the Los Angeles Times compares the futures of public transportation in Northern and Southern California

"A Holiday for City Planners"

"The idea is simple: Kids, and the parents who chaperone them, have a way of sussing out good urban design. On Halloween, they'll flock to places where cars drive slowly, streets are well-lit, houses are close together, and front doors are close to the street. If there's a holiday for city planners, the planner Brent Toderian has argued, Halloween is it."

Henry Grabar at Slate discusses the "trick-or-treat test" for walkable neighborhoods.

"A Practical Solution to a Horrific Problem"

"I happened to go to the Autry Museum [of the American West]. They had an exhibition on Route 66. And there was a 'Green Book' tucked away in a corner of the display. I took a photograph of it—even though it said, 'Do not photograph'—and then I went home and did research. It was a light-bulb moment."

Carolina A. Miranda in the Los Angeles Times talks with photographer Candacy Taylor about African Americans travelers in the mid-twentieth century.

"Documents of a Disappeared Time"

"'I had to get very close to people to get what I wanted, but then I quickly moved on (or, in many instances, they moved on, in their rush to flee the airport). I was polite but determined; I didn't have any altercations with anyone, but they were usually too stunned to realize what had happened when I walked away,' he said."

Jordan G. Teicher in Slate talks with John Brian King about King’s new book, LAX: Photographs of Los Angeles 1980–84.

"A True Creative Genius"

"Barris began building model cars and customizing at an early age. The first car he and his brother Sam (who was later his business partner) made was from a 1925 Buick and in high school he created his first full custom using a 1936 Ford convertible as the base. Barris made a name for himself when he moved to Los Angeles after World War II, launching Barris Kustom Industries with Sam. His first shop was on Compton Avenue but for a long time his shop has been located in North Hollywood.
"The popularity of his cars caught the eye of Hollywood, and his first film assignments included work on cars for Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest, 1958's High School Confidential and 1960's The Time Machine."

Borys Kit in The Hollywood Reporter reports the death of "kustom" king George Barris.