LA On Ice

Something shocking is happening today. Half of Los Angeles will stay home, not take to the freeways and side-ways to run hither and yon like little ants on steroids. The reason for this is a national news event! 10 miles of the I-405 freeway on the West Side of the city has SHUT DOWN! The empty lanes are such an unusual sight that news crews from all over the world have sent reporters with cameras to capture the historic sight/site.

With awestruck voices, news anchors bolstered by in-field reporters breathlessly tell the tale of how the concrete stretch of the busiest freeway in the U.S. is devoid of cars and trucks and cycles and such. It is a sight no one has ever seen! An empty freeway in Los Angeles! Jaws are dropping! Tweeter’s are twittering how they are staying home! Imagine that!  Others prepared for this momentous event by buying all of their emergency rations in advance of what is now known as “Carmageddon” and are hunkering-down for the 53-hour cut-off.

The purpose for the stunning event, should you have been otherwise occupied with your own lives or gripped by the Murdoch scandal and hadn’t heard the details, is to demolish a small bridge overpass and widen the highway, adding a car pool lane, to accommodate the estimated 500,000 vehicles that bumpity-bump-bumper-to-bumper every day through this particular part of the freeway known as the Sepulveda Pass. Progress at last! Infrastructure (sort of) dollars at work! Jobs! Wow!

But, alas, progress comes with sacrifice: Inconvenience. Detours. Dire, ominous warnings from local officials to stay off the roads lest the surrounding streets and connecting freeways turn Los Angeles into a bigger than usual parking lot. No shopping sprees for some. No frivolous jaunts to the beach. No champagne brunches on Sunday. No Costco runs.

Can LA bear this catastrophic interruption? Will families be forced to spend time together? Oh, the horror!

Well, I must go now to watch the latest news updates on the construction. There is nothing more entertaining than to gaze at empty freeway lanes, busy bulldozers, and news reporters all aflutter.

After all, it becomes boring to star-gaze in the city of many not-so-bright-bulbs. We need a new diversion in our visual excursion's.

Image Source: www.hotterinhollywood.com, from Tokyo Nobody