MetaFilter posts tagged with SanFrancisco and losangeles

I believe I can fly

Room 641-A — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 10:25:02 -0800

R/C cameraman Robert Mcintosh takes you soaring high above Santa Monica, Venice, and San Francisco. Float through the air as you glide along the beach and up through the spokes of the Ferris wheel over the Santa Monica Pier. Then head a mile or two south and get a bird's eye view of Venice's Muscle Beach. When your head has stopped spinning you can take in San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge or get away from it all (including the ground) out at at Vasquez Rocks. Note: You may want to keep the Dramamine handy.

Privately Owned Public Spaces

larrybob — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 18:31:04 -0800

When is a private space a public space? When it's a Privately Owned Public Space (POPS). In accordance with the planning codes of some cities, owners or builders of buildings are mandated to provide members of the general public access to spaces which include rooftop gardens, courtyards, and plazas. But how can you find these hidden gems? Here are some treasure maps: New York City's Privately Owned Public Space guide. There is also a collaborative project which rated NYC's POPs. Probably the best-known POPS in New York City is Zuccotti Park. Each week, OccupyPOPS visits different POPS in NYC. whOWNSpace, anyway? Pittsburgh is another city where the Occupy movement has occupied a POPS. The Guardian's list of privatised public spaces in Britain invites additional submissions. Space Hijackers is a British group which speaks out about the use of space and free speech rights. San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) points out some Secrets of San Francisco: Where to find our city's POPOS (privately owned public open spaces). The Planning Commission of the City and County of San Francisco has recently mandated an improvement in signage for POPOS, which are often obscurely indicated (an example is the rooftop of the Westfield Mall, which is accessible from only one elevator of a bank of four which is found through an door distinct from the entrance of the mall itself.) In 2006/07 a project called Commonspace by Rebar Art & Design Studio examined what uses of POPOS would be tolerated; their activities included practicing Balinese monkey chant; police refused to comply with security guards' attempts to eject them. Using public spaces freely: Ownership and management of public spaces is a research paper which discusses the history of New York's POPS and San Francisco's POPOS policies, which began in the 60s, and were subsequently modified, as well as examining the use of public space in Atlanta. Japan is another place that has had POPS since the 1960s. Los Angeles is lacking in green spaces, whether private or public. However here's a list of 10 public spaces along the CicLAvia Route. Seattle has also had Privately Owned Public Open Spaces policies since 1966 and the Seattle City Council offers a maps of POPOs in Seattle. Is Discovery Green in Houston a public or private park? However, Anil Dash notes that only 16% of POPS can be considered successful at what they purport to be. And the privatization of public space carries free speech ramifications.

SF To LA Using Public Transit

agatha_magatha — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 11:04:41 -0800

As a public transit geek, I really enjoyed this story. We've talked about taking public transit on unlikely routes previously, and I read the original blog post giving the directions on how to get from SF to LA using only public transit. But the article from SF Weekly's In Transit blogger, Joe Eskanazi, really brings the trip to life.

Goodbye, "Leih Hou Ma," Hello "Ni Hao Ma!"

zarq — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:57:09 -0800

"Chinatown" communities across the United States (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco) are undergoing a shift in linguistic identity, as recent immigrants are more likely to natively speak Mandarin (the official spoken language of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan,) instead of Cantonese. Also see these anecdotal reports about similar changes in Vancouver and Oakland, CA. Good news for the tri-literate: signs like this may soon become commonplace. :) The Language Atlas of China The PopUp Chinese Podcast and Arch Chinese site provide basic Mandarin lessons. Also see: Mango, ZhongWen and LiveMocha

So you ditched your car - here's help with public transit

desjardins — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:58:07 -0800

NextBus uses GPS to tell you the predicted time of the next bus. Google maps show buses in real time, and you can get updates on your phone/PDA. The coverage is limited to certain agencies within the US, so these other sites might be useful: Hopstop covers subways and buses in NYC, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, DC, and more. (mobile version) Google Transit has many US metro areas in addition to Canada, Europe, and Japan. (previously) Many more locations inside. Other trip planners (mostly mobile):

MTA (New York City)
MTA (Los Angeles)
Amtrak
New Jersey Transit
MBTA (Boston)
Washington DC Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Chicago Regional Transit Authority (CTA, Metra)
A Train (Atlanta)
Valley Metro (Phoenix)
San Francisco Bay Area 511 (BART, Muni Metro, VTA Light Rail, Cable cars, Commuter Rail, buses, ferries)
Portland (interactive map; roll your own app)
King County Metro Online (Seattle)
Toronto (TTC Buses and subways)
Vancouver (BC) Translink
Paris (RER, TGV, Metro, bus, more - in French)
London Underground and DLR
Norikae-Annei (Tokyo)

Liquor. For free. (or cheap.)

shakespeherian — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:20:04 -0800

myopenbar.com (Chicago link) is a dandy little site that lets you know where to score free and/or cheap eats and/or drinks on any given night in your area (assuming 'your area' = NYC, SF, LA, Honolulu, Miami, or the aforementioned Chi-town). The places are rated, and visited personally by the website's bloggers, but who cares? It's free booze. The site's been given as the answer in a few AskMes, but I figured an FPP couldn't hurt.

It was this, or a million rubber duckies.

Leon-arto — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:46:05 -0800

The world's largest ball pit? 400,000 black plastic balls, one reservoir, thousands of happy goths. Other unusual things being filled with balls: the Spanish Steps, Rome, a co-worker's cube, San Francisco. (videos)

Flavorpill adds Art & World Events mailing lists...

dobbs — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 16:21:59 -0800

2 years ago I FPP'd FlavorPill, a company that sends out permission-based emails for books (Boldtype), music (Earplug), and fashion (the JC Report). They've since added ArtKrush (it's art, stupid! - nsfw) and Activate (world events) to their aresenal. In addition to the topic-specific mailing lists, they offer city-specific lists for London, New York, SF, LA, and Chicago. Sample issues are archived on the site.

Rocking and rolling... California style!

RockBandit — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 18:35:53 -0800

San Andreas primed to "explode." Growing up in SoCal, we constantly practiced earthquake drills in anticipation of the "Big One." Now, new evidence suggests that the Big One will be even worse than we all feared. At the moment, everything looks calm though. People say we're crazy for living in either San Francisco or Los Angeles, of course we think living in New Orleans is crazy too. But cities are rebuilt. And no matter where you go, you really can't escape natural disasters. Besides, some of the biggest earthquakes in the United States were in Missouri! In any case, Forbes compiled a list of the safest and least safest places to live in the U.S. in regards to natural disasters. Apparently... we should all move to Hawaii!

LA is the number-one relocation city for fleeing San Franciscans.

josholalia — Tue, 24 Jul 2001 12:13:58 -0800

LA is the number-one relocation city for fleeing San Franciscans. Has the world turned upside down? The L.A. Examiner has the summary. And the complete story can be found, for now, on the LA Business Journal front page.

LAT Transplant Blasts Frisco.

josholalia — Thu, 07 Jun 2001 12:24:36 -0800

LAT Transplant Blasts Frisco. The charming cafe society? "Every pause seems to bubble up with the plaints of 20-somethings who still 'hate' their moms and dads."

Here's a nice survey of geographic location

mathowie — Mon, 14 Feb 2000 12:34:19 -0800

Here's a nice survey of geographic location of domain name ownership. I was surprised to see that people in Los Angeles own more domains than San Francisco, but I assume the researcher didn't lump all the Silicon Valley cities together to get that number. I'm sure a "Bay Area" grouping would be number one. Of the .com, .org, and .net addresses, the US still leads the world with 2/3 of all addresses in that domainspace, so I guess the web will continue to be American-centric for some time.