Tag: public transportation (page 1 of 1)

January 2, 2025 / 0 Comments

No More Hiding

As the clock ticked to midnight, we were in Disney Concert Hall with the rest of “grown & sexy” Los Angeles losing our minds to Mike Phillips doing saxophone solos over Bone Crusher’s “Never Scared.” Nothing says you’re of a certain age like stomping the yard in one of the world’s premiere orchestral venues as a jazz saxophonist gets you hyped to a song that started fights in clubs 20 years ago.

We old, y’all. But much like Big Daddy Kane—who closed the D-Nice & Friends New Year’s Eve Club Quarantine Show and is well into his fifties—these knees still work, and we’re still out here getting the job done.

We are dancing in the aisles. We sing along loudly and off-key with Johnny Gill and Jon B. We canoodle to NEXT and Case’s hip-hop ballads. We get hyped to Greg Nice, En-Eye-Cee-Eee. We praise 90s icons in the building like Arsenio Hall, Yo-Yo, and the dearly departed DJ Clark Kent, whose turntables, kicks, and signature fitted cap were in a place of honor on stage. 

I did not want to enter 2025 on my couch watching other people’s lives on our TV. Leaving 2024 behind required something tactile. I needed catharsis.

I am not so dramatic as to need to burn off the sadness, loss, and illness that were frequent in the previous year, but I longed to feel of and in the world. I wanted to feel the electricity of being alive.

I wanted to feel all the days of my big Gen X age and, instead of standing on the sidelines shaking my head, be in the thick of it shaking my ass.

We took public transportation to experience the holiday with our fellow Angelenos. We ran into Cadence of the LA Sparks Crew on the train there. I took that as a good omen. Was our favorite tumbler from our favorite team going in the same direction as we were? Yes.

As we returned home, downtown LA was filled with shiny, happy people. We got to pet dogs and laugh at kids up way past their bedtime while dodging our intoxicated neighbors as they navigated to their next destination.

Like us, I hope they all made it safely to their beds and opened their eyes this morning to a day of perfect winter weather in our fair city. 

As I opened my eyes for the first time in 2025, I was immediately reminded that getting home safe and waking up is not guaranteed.

If we are so lucky as to wake up in this life, let’s face it directly. 

I ain’t never scared.

December 12, 2013 / 0 Comments

Humans of Los Angeles

“Man woman, you might as well dance. Get down, Zulu.” – Q-Tip, ManWomanBoogie

This image showed up several times on twitter a few days ago.


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I disagree.

I don’t know what I think the percentages might be but I do know that on most days, I see more acts of kindness than I do cruelty.

I’m splitting time between two offices until the new year, one of which is downtown. This has allowed me the opportunity to make metro my primary way of commuting and that allows me to spend more time in close contact with a much larger and more varied collection of the humans of LA.

Despite what you’ve heard, LA’s public transit system is well used. The Orange Line and Red Line are packed to the gills during commuting hours filled with all kinds of folks. 

Yesterday, there was the guy with the incredibly well behaved service dog. The tall kid mean mugging who seemed to think everyone walking past him was intentionally bumping him. The high fashion young italian tourists who had little sense of US norms for personal space and who truly embodied “talking with your hands.” The mom with the precocious toddler who could only be calmed (sort of) by the glowing screen of the smart phone. The other toddler strapped tightly into her stroller who couldn’t help but swing back and forth wildly, smiling at everyone who happened to give her a glance. 

And, while I do regularly see the tactics women have to employ to avoid unwanted suitors or harassment or the men who take up too much space on the train or the obnoxious teens who get loud in the hopes of menacing or making uncomfortable the rest of us, far more often, I’m aware of the little moments of kindness.

At least once a ride, I see someone go out of their way to clear a seat for an elderly or disabled person or weary mom. Yesterday morning’s commute featured a battle for graciousness between an older gentleman and a slightly younger than him lady over who should take a recently available seat. People help each other with directions. Regular commuters nod and smile at each other across a train with common understanding. People, for the most part, leave our homeless and mentally ill, who frequent the trains, be. And sometimes, they offer a few dollars and/or a little dignity.

We’re all just humans of Los Angeles.

So, no, three out of every four Americans don’t got me fucked up.

Three out of every four Americans got me wanting to do better.