Jim Morrison

This small editorial piece in the NY Times today is reflective of what newspapers do better than most.  It also speaks to what is now, more often then not, lacking from the LA Times -- a good nugget of a story, told from an interesting angle that makes people think about life in a somewhat different way. 

That this really LA story was told by the NY Times and not the LA Times is indicative of so much.

Los Angeles Times

The great many people who Zell has had shitcanned this year have had their severance checks frozen!  I'm not shocked, but I am appalled.  Until now, I've been a loyal (though surely disappointed) subscriber to the Times.  Now, though, I think it may be time to cancel my subscription, until the people who made the paper what it was, are fairly reimbursed.

Now, Eli Broad or David Geffen or Ron Burkle or somebody else out there, won't you please save the Times?  The Paper will (probably) never achieve 20% annual growth, but it's still profitable and relative and important to the city.

Help!

Los Angeles Times

Another sad day at the once great Los Angeles Times. More than 2 dozen well-respected writers have taken the buy out. Isn't there any local wealthy person or corporation willing to step in to save the Paper? So sad.

Jim Murray is spinning in his grave.

A Great Paragraph

Gets noticed.

Al Martinez, formerly of the L.A. Times

Man, the people who are making decisions at the L.A. Times suck ass. They've just let go Al Martinez. That's like letting go of Jim Murray or any number of previous greats that the Times used to have in its stable. Hopefully, Zell will sell the Times to a local owner who will bring back greatness to the former Paper of Record. It'javascript:void(0)
Publish Posts a dark week for journalism in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Gridlock

I live in Atwater Village and work in Beverly Hills and the commute is awful and getting worse. More light rail, subways, busways, and transit-oriented growth will help in the long run, but for now, here are some simple steps that can help us all out immediately:

1. Walk more. Walk to lunch from your workplace. On the weekends, walk in your neighborhood to your local stores, banks, restaurants. It's good for you, good for your neighborhood and good for the city.

2. Prohibit trucks from driving on the roads/freeways during peak hours. This worked during the 84 Olympics and will work again.

3. Prohibit city street crews from working during peak hours. The Mayor was said to put this in place, but from what I can see, it's largely being ignored (anybody remember the leaf blower ban? yeah, that's what I thought.)

4. Pick one day a week to work from home or take public transit to work. Yeah, the public transit is not the best (despite the ludicrous award the Metro got), but it will get you there.

5. Synchronize lights on every major thoroughfare and keep adding those left turn lanes. Just hurry up and do it.

6. Make major east/west streets one way. Start with Olympic, Wilshire, Beverly and Third. It works downtown and it improved Manhattan.

7. The city/county should be spending money on four things: Safety, Education, Transportation and Healthcare. If resources are dithered away to less important things, it's time to hold them accountable.

8. Remember that this is a problem that politicians can't solve themselves. People have to be willing to make some sacrifices. The old cliche is truer now than ever, you're either part of the solution or part of the problem.

You can post your thoughts here or at the L.A. Times Bottleneck blog. Oh, and special note to The Times, this is exactly what you should be doing more of as the Paper of Record for L.A., California and really the entire country west of New York. Good job! More please.

Los Angeles Times

I love the Times, in all its dysfunction and believe that recently it's really been stepping up its game -- contrary to what a lot of media pundits have been saying. Really, about a month after the horrific redesign, The Times started really starting to cover stories like Kinsley suggested (More California, more Entertainment biz, more Latinio) and doing more indepth analysis of national and local stories.

Evidence of this can be found in the uptick in links from progressive blogs.

Now, I believe that Tim Rutten nailed it with his story on the WSJ and the future of newspapers in print and online. The future of journalism is back to the future -- morning papers and evening papers. The morning papers (now online editions) are for late breaking news while the evening papers (print) are for rich and contextual analysis.

In regard to online, The Times has some amazing print writers/photographers -- Al Martinez, Bill Plashke, Steve Lopez, Shawn Hubler, Mary McNamara, Carolyn Cole -- I hope they can entice them to blog and really turn the online Times into something with the personality of its great writing staff.

And, of course, I hope The Times can be taken out of the Tribune stable and returned to local ownership (whoever that might be from the Chandlers to Geffen to Burkle) and let it cry out in its unique voice far removed from the other power centers of the country. It's good for the city, it's good for the country and, in the end, it's good for the world.