The city of Los Angeles put up speed cameras on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu recently, and the findings were dramatic. More than 100,000 speeding violations were recorded over a nine-day period, which was reported last week in the Los Angeles Times (see the entire piece below). For myself and others who have lived in this area for a long time, there were two reactions to this finding: 1. Not surprised at all 2. Why haven't we had speed cameras? And the main question: is anyone going to do anything about this problem? Driving anywhere in the greater LA area means encountering dozens of speeding and/or erratic drivers daily, whether on city streets or freeways. It can be very stressful. While California currently ranks third in the nation for accidents , it is also true that incidences of speeding the reckless driving have increased significantly since the pandemic. What that looks like on a city street is the same as it appears on an interstate: you can be driving the speed lim...
Even as seasoned as I am, every once in a while something happens that makes me pause. Such was the case last Thursday when I learned late morning that a shooting had occurred in the middle of the night. Someone used an automatic weapon to fire several rounds into four people, at 2 a.m. Somehow, some way, no one died, and the victims were "found in multiple parking lots" adjacent to the site of the shooting. News coverage of the incident includes video of a nearby resident recording the gun blasts. The location where this occurred surprised me: a random arterial corner in Hawthorne, Calif, a suburb south of Los Angeles. I drive through that intersection every few weeks. Hawthorne is a working-class city that is bordered by similar cities on its north, east and south sides, and wealthier suburbs on its western boundary. It is not necessarily a place I'd expect to see a major shooting. But in talking with a police officer a few days later, I learned that things have chang...