[Eric Green on his Green Machine]
DOWNTOWN - Sure, downtown already has "green" transportation options, like, say, the subway. But subways are so, you know, MASS transit-oriented and so very 20th century. We say we gotta take it back - way back - to the days of the cycle rickshaw. All of a sudden, pedicabs are making downtown LA look a little more like London, or Copenhagen, or Jakarta. A reader points us to the new pedicab company that recently launched downtown: Green Machines, owned and operated by Eric Green. How very fortunate his last name is not Toxicwaste or Mesothelioma. Right now Eric is a lone entrepreneur/cyclist transporting downtowners and tourists to and fro but hopes to purchase more pedicabs and lease them to independent contractors. Not a bad option for downtown residents looking for a quick ride home after a night at Seven Grand. [CurbedWire Inbox/Metrorider]
LOS FELIZ - Another reader writes in with news about Griffith Park: "Well, the park opened both north and south-bound lanes of Crystal Springs/Griffith Park Blvd, so the upper southbound is now open for one of its two lanes, really improving flow of traffic in evening rush hour when everyone uses it to avoid the overly-congested I-5 south of the 134 Fwy." Handy to know. [CurbedWire Inbox]
INGLEWOOD - Just to stoke the flames of the Inglewood War, although what it's over, we're not really sure. LA Weekly writer Daniel Hernandez lets us know that the WPA mural "The History of Transportation" by Helen Lundberg (pictured below) was rededicated this weekend: "After four years and a million-dollar restoration, the mural [was] rededicated. A significant signpost for Southern California art history, at 240 feet long and 8 feet high, The History of Transportation has been called the largest New Deal–era public-art work ever commissioned." The mural now rests at Grevillea Art Park, Manchester Blvd. and Grevillea Ave. [Intersections/LA Weekly]