Top products from r/LosAngeles

This is the cam, the reviews weren't great and I took a gamble but I am happy with it. Came with a mini usb cable, a car charger cable and the whole window mount. Totally worth the dough:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0053DDNW6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Here is the card. I got a class 10 so the write speed would for sure be capable of the 1080p.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B7ID99I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I tried to run the cam at 720 but it looked fuzzy so I bumped it up to 1080p. I have it set to do 5 minute segments the whole time and each file is usually right around 1GB each. When plugged into a cig lighter that only has power when the car is on the cam starts itself and starts recording when it gets power and goes until you shut it off/loses power. I just set it and forget style on my window and pull the card when I see something interesting along the drive to save. It just overwrites the oldest files if you don't do anything with them.

Buy these books!! I am so serious. This is like the most urgent I've felt about any reddit comment ever.


-Secret Stairs: work them quads and see some new neighborhoods!

-10,000 Steps a Day in LA: This one has some epic adventures, it's a mix of parks and streets. I've never had a bad one from this book. Elysian Park East was weird but interesting. My friend swears by the Wilshire Blvd,/Ktown one.

-Walking L.A.: I think this one might be your favorite. All streets and stairs, organized by neighborhood.

..We are hardcore pedestrians... join us

So I have a wall AC unit in my living/dining room but it's too far from the bedroom and even with creative fan placement, zero cool air gets into the bedroom. In my bedroom there is already a pre-installed hose/vent/hole through the wall underneath the window that the previous tenant placed for their portable unit. However, after some additional research I decided that a dual hose unit was a must, so I think I'm going to end up using the window for the two hoses and NOT this pre-installed hole in the wall. I really wanted to go for a window unit, but decided against it due to my window design - I hope this was the right decision (sigh). I ended up going with this model.

Before wasting your time calling LADWP (they're just going to give you advice on how to save power) do this:

• Find the meter room. Call your landlord and ask them to open it for you.
  
• Find your meter and check the reading. Bring your bill.
  
• Here's how to read the meter
  
• If the reading is higher than what's on your bill, then you're being overcharged. Take a picture of the meter and then another picture of the meter holding your bill next to it.
  
• Call LADWP. Tell them what's up. They'll give you an email address. Send your pictures (along with the rest of your info) in an email. I also did the math for them in the email, letting them know how much the overcharge was.
  
• After a few days, you'll get an adjusted bill (if you havent paid) or credit on your LADWP (if you already paid).
  
  This is what I did. I ended up getting over $300 credited back. Sucks that I can't get reimbursed, but at least I don't have to pay for power for a while now.
  
  PM me if you have any questions.
  
  Edit: I also bought one of these and plugged it into each of my appliances/electronics for a few days to get a good idea of what my apartment's average power consumption is.
  
  Oh, and if you find an unlocked meter room / you have a nice landlord, go in there and take a regular record (e.g. a picture of the meter once a week or so) to keep track of your usage for a while. The better understanding you have of your power consumption, the easier it is to know when someone (LADWP) is making a mistake.

Sure. I'm an architect and when we get inquiries or RFPs the first thing we do is look at parking. I've worked on several large housing projects where the cost of underground parking has limited the size of the project because it stopped penciling out. Large complexes continue because demand is still high, but the cost is passed on directly to the tenant, which is why people complain that all new housing is expensive. Or maybe the developer wants a rooftop restaurant - those require 1 spot per 100 sf - that's huge!

In my experience, most planners agree that the market should dictate how much parking developers supply (see Donald Shoup) - if the developer doesn't think she can attract tenants without providing parking, then she's free to build as much as she wants, but others are free to try their hands renting units without a spot. I get it, parking in my neighborhood sucks too. There's an empty lot down the street from me; let's pretend I had enough money to buy it and pay the taxes on it (lol). It's a typical 50x100 RD1.5 lot, so take 5' off either side, 15' off the back and 15' off the front, leaving me with 2800sf buildable, which is a nice triplex, maybe two one-beds and a two-bed. But to do that I'd need at least five parking spaces... that eats into my ground floor space and net rentable area, pushes the project up on stilts, increases the amount of steel you need, or pushes the parking underground, adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to construction costs... it very quickly becomes not worth it.

The Reluctant Metropolis by William Fulton. Not only does he talk about development and history of Los Angeles, but also how it relates to Orange County, the San Fernando Valley, and Las Vegas.

If you're interested in water and politics of the American west including Los Angeles, I also recommend Cadillac Desert -- pretty relevant in this multiyear drought

All I'm saying is that if neighbors would like to convert a public street into a private parking lot, they ought to pay for that privilege. I'm not actually opposed to PPDs, I just felt someone should respond to /u/kheszi.

Parking requirements are actually a pretty thorny subject when you look at them close. If you're interested I recommend Donald Shoup's work.

As someone who previously worked in urban planning and has been spending some time learning about his newly adopted city- thank you for this!

For those interested in the history of LA from a planning perspective, here are two really good books:

The Fragmented Metropolis: Los Angeles, 1850-1930

The Reluctant Metropolis: The Politics of Urban Growth in Los Angeles

My favorite is a book about what was not built in Los Angeles. Its fascinating to see what LA could have looked like. http://www.amazon.com/Never-Built-Los-Angeles-Lubell/dp/1935202960

https://www.amazon.com/V1-Dashboard-Recorder-G-Sensor-Detection/dp/B00X528FNE/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1448255017&sr=1-4&keywords=dash+cam I got this one less than a year ago. Excellent video quality. My only gripe is that the adhesive that attaches part of the connector piece that holds the dash cam to the window melts in any temperature above 80 degrees, causing it to fall. I finally superglued the connector to the dash cam clip and it stays perfectly in 100+ degree weather.

I really enjoyed Writing Los Angeles. It's an anthology of works on LA and is pretty comprehensive.

He literally wrote the book on rail in Los Angeles. So, yes, I'm pretty sure he knows that. He's simply suggesting that BRT would make more sense in this transit corridor.

I think it's a great museum and there was actually a really good book written about it called Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder (http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Wilsons-Cabinet-Wonder-Jurassic/dp/0679764895) which I highly recommend... I actually read the book before I had ever visited there and was not disappointed...

For those of you, like me, who are going to miss having the versatile plastic shopping bag, you can buy 900 of them at Amazon for about $25. Those stupid small garbage bags cost about $46 for 360 of them; what a rip-off! And they don't have handles!

http://www.amazon.com/Inteplast-Group-THW1VAL-Thickness-Thank/dp/B004MDM6LC

And it says "Thank you! Have a nice day!" I like that.

There's one more free movie night: https://silverlakepictureshow.com/

I also highly recommend picking up a copy of Secret Stairs and doing one of the 1/2 dozen walks in the neighborhood.

Just finished "Railtown: The Fight for the Los Angeles Metro Rail" a few days ago. For anyone interested in LA's lackluster rail history it's a great read.

Parking is a low value use of land which discourages the growth of public transit. There is no good reason for LA to be mandating anyone build more parking than makes economic sense.

I refer you to this book for a good description of why the quest for too much free parking just makes cities worse places to live.

There is a book about the MJT... makes for a really fun read even if you've been there and think you've seen it all.

Mr. Wilson's Cabinet Of Wonder

It really depends on a lot of things, lot size, the size of the outdoors spaces for either the building or the house, the size of the house itself, etc. It isn't going to answer your question, but perhaps you'd be interested in this book: https://www.amazon.com/Happy-City-Transforming-Through-Design-ebook/dp/B009LRWHPY?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

Good summary. I would also recommend Railtown for those who want to know more about LA's prolonged delay versus other cities in building rapid transit.

Yep, that's exactly the problem, there's a huge underlying problem that needs to be solved, but the benefits of solving it are very hard to prove.

Donald Shoup (as much as I hate giving a bruin credit) is doing really good work looking at the overall problem of parking, he literally wrote the book on it: http://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Parking-Updated-Edition/dp/193236496X

BTW, if you guys are interested in LA geographical trivia or you know someone who is, these books are pretty damn good:

• Los Angeles in Maps (beautifully bound!)
  
• California Place Names (not specifically for Los Angeles, but it includes name histories for very many places in the LA area.

The High Cost of Free Parking, Updated Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/193236496X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_TRPNBb707AMQM

Oh look, he's a guru too. Here's his transformative lifestyle system on Amazon.

Edit: OMG His two hour shirtless video dating profile from two years ago. Maybe he's getting better?

Uh, go to Palms at 7pm and try to park.

If you actually care about this, here's a great book about the issue. Parking in Westwood can take 15-20+ minutes due to a parking shortage, which promoted an economist to try to determine what pricing strategies could be used to solve the parking shortage in the city. The shortage is very real and has very real costs.

Interesting point but I disagree.

You're citing Donald Shoup, the author of the paper I linked above. He did the full economic analysis and believes that we should eliminate parking minimums.

He also is very clear that we should charge appropriate prices for street parking.

Eliminating parking minimums is not a subsidy to property developers and property owners. Charging below-market fees for street parking is.

Since you cited Shoup as your primary evidence, in addition the the previously-linked article (http://shoup.bol.ucla.edu/Trouble.pdf), I'd also check out his book https://www.amazon.com/High-Cost-Free-Parking-Updated/dp/193236496X (paper here http://www.uctc.net/research/papers/351.pdf)

[Longer-term, I suspect that self-driving cars are going to make it so that we call cars using our phones. They'll actually park farther away from the denser areas where people live. In that case, I hope we don't cast huge parking lots into concrete when they could be built into things that have productive use.]

https://www.amazon.com/Railtown-Fight-Angeles-Metro-Future/dp/0520278275

It covers a lot of the history of transportation in LA, which is in itself interesting.

I would also recommend water treatment tablets. The water supply could be undrinkable for days, and you may run out of potable water supply.

Pet food, extra set of shoes/sneakers, and spare eyeglasses.

Additionally, I keep a kit in my car, and one in my home.

Yes. The short version is, "Do you want to pay in time, or do you want to pay in money?" Because everyone pays, one way or another, the high cost of "free" parking.

you might like this one next

One thing you can do is get an Electricity Usage Monitor and check the power usage of appliances by the kilowatt hour and make sure there is something that is not a power hog. This device also Calculates Electrical Expenses By The Day, Week, Month Or Year

It seems that your comment contains 1 or more links that are hard to tap for mobile users.
I will extend those so they're easier for our sausage fingers to click!


Here is link number 1 - Previous text "one"



----
^Please ^PM ^/u/eganwall ^with ^issues ^or ^feedback! ^| ^Delete

You can find some as low as $57, like this expired Slick Deal. I just ordered this one on Amazon today.

Railtown is authoritative on the early LA Metro history. For Expo Line, [check out the archives of Friends4Expo] (http://www.friends4expo.org/news2.htm) and learn how it happened.

[This guy is correct folks. Read this book if you don't believe him.] (https://www.amazon.com/Color-Law-Forgotten-Government-Segregated/dp/1631492853)

Sometimes you gotta improvise

http://www.amazon.com/PUR-Black-Basic-Vertical-Faucet/dp/B009V9K6BY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=8-1&keywords=pur+faucet+filter+black

I've been using it for about a year. Haven't changed the filter yet - it started blinked red a while ago [indicating filter change], but I've been riding it out and haven't tasted a difference.

He's got a kindle publication. ....

Ugh

I got this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0053DDNW6?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00

and this memory card:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B7ID99I?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00

Upvotes for maporn. This is going on until November 2012. If anyone else is into maps of LA, this book is a must: http://www.amazon.com/Los-Angeles-Maps-Glen-Creason/dp/0847833917

Also check out the secret stair walks!

http://www.amazon.com/Secret-Stairs-Walking-Historic-Staircases/dp/1595800506/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265753126&sr=1-8

Here you go. 25 bucks. 900 bags. You'll be set for the next decade.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00X528FNE/

http://www.amazon.com/Happy-City-Transforming-Through-Design-ebook/dp/B009LRWHPY

Looks like he wrote a book a few years back. This man is insane. http://www.amazon.com/Cilleys-Ultimate-Lifestyle-Transformation-Challenge-ebook/dp/B00ERQAKAS

If you really want to learn why people disagree with you, I recommend you read this book: The Color of Law. Brown folks (and many white folks too, who weren't 'anglo' enough) were systemically excluded from homeownership during the post-WWII boom.

Probably more trouble than it's worth to get your landlord to do anything about it. Grab one of these and call it a day.

Buy a dual hose unit. Single hose works against itself by depressurizing the house and causing hot outside air to leak in.

My father in law bought one of these and he can't stop raving about it.

Whynter 14,000 BTU Dual Hose Portable Air Conditioner (ARC-14S) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0028AYQDC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_RYbAxbAJZE330

I found the dog whistle apps aren't nearly loud enough to get their attention from any distance. So I bought this: http://www.amazon.com/Dazer-II-Ultrasonic-Deterrent-20-Feet/dp/B000IBRI2Y

Worked great. I don't even need it anymore, after several months of consistent use. I would point it out my upstairs window at the neighbor's dogs when they got loud, and give them a brief correction. Usually it takes 2-3 corrections because they will start barking again, but they get the message.

Now they only bark at the HOA's gardening crew. I've been unable to get them to stop doing that and have given up trying, but they no longer bark most other times.

*edit: Link

Writing Los Angeles is a wonderful anthology of short stories that portray LA in every light imaginable.

"...Los Angeles has always been a place of paradisal promise and apocalyptic undercurrents. Simone de Beauvoir saw a kaleidoscopic "hall of mirrors," Aldous Huxley a "city of dreadful joy." Jack Kerouac found a "huge desert encampment," David Thomson imagined "Marilyn Monroe, fifty miles long, lying on her side, half-buried on a ridge of crumbling rock.'"

These. My brother-in-law had a dog problem and this worked. Plus he wired them right into motion detector lights, then it would trigger when the dog would walk by the garage and wouldn't get a chance to bark. After like two months the dog didn't come to that side of the garage and if it did it didn't bark.

But that was out in the sticks.

Dog Dazer II Ultrasonic Dog Deterrent https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000IBRI2Y/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_5Cd7ybAVXMPKX

OxGord Stop Dog Barking Ultrasonic Anti Bark Off Limiter Birdhouse Box Silencer Controller Device for Pets https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XNU2UZ2/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_5Jd7yb51HXJ56

The Reluctant Metropolis: The Politics of Urban Growth in Los Angeles

> William Fulton chronicles the history of urban planning in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, tracing the legacy of short-sighted political and financial gains that has resulted in a vast urban region on the brink of disaster. Looking at such diverse topics as shady real estate speculations, the construction of the Los Angeles subway, the battle over the future of South Central L.A. after the 1992 riots, and the emergence of Las Vegas as "the new Los Angeles," Fulton offers a fresh perspective on the city's epic sprawl. The only way to reverse the historical trends that have made Los Angeles increasingly unliveable, Fulton concludes, is to confront the prevailing "cocoon citizenship," the mind-set that prevents the city's inhabitants and leaders from recognizing Los Angeles's patchwork of communities as a single metropolis.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Reluctant-Metropolis-Politics-Angeles/dp/0801865069

Alright here we go...now what I got, I tried to price compare and review compare. Some stuff may be better elsewhere but it's what I went with regardless.

There are some products that I already have from camping so I didn't feel the need to double up. I also plan on supplementing the packs with more food and obviously water as well as medicine, change of clothes and a few other things. I also plan on adding a few things to the medkit, more aspirin, some more realistic materials as well. So all in all I felt this was a pretty solid starter survival kit for most situations. Just something to grab for a few days if shit hits the fan. It's going in my truck where some other camping gear already is (Axe, shovel, wd-40, lighters, mace, knives)

Only product I would buy differently would be the backpack. I didn't realize it ships from China, I'd only buy somewhere else due to the 1 month shipping time. (I didn't catch that initially) there's some decent similarly priced backpacks available elsewhere that will be at your door within a few days.


$13 - S.O.S. Rations Emergency 3600 Calorie Food Bar - 2 Pack - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AFOF2DG/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

$3 SE 6-in-1 Survival Whistle http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001C31AGC/ref=oh_details_o00_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

$6 ER Emergency Ready Thermal Mylar Blankets, Pack of 4 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008DEYGJQ/ref=oh_details_o00_s01_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

$40 Ambient Weather Emergency Solar Hand Crank AM/FM/NOAA Digital Radio, Flashlight, Cell Phone Charger http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B9HRJI4/ref=oh_details_o00_s02_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

$8 Potable Aqua Water Treatment Tablets http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001949TKS/ref=oh_details_o00_s02_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

$9 8' X 10' Blue Multi-Purpose 6-mil Waterproof Poly Tarp Cover 8x10 Tent Shelter Camping Tarpaulin by Grizzly Tarps http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0053QUAAG/ref=oh_details_o00_s02_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

$6 Survivor HK-106320 Outdoor Fixed Blade Knife 7 Overall WITH FIRE STARTER http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00178CS4K/ref=oh_details_o00_s02_i03?ie=UTF8&psc=1

$9 5038-3 PK Fix-It DUCTape 1.87-Inches x 60-Yards, 7-Mil, 3-Pack http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002KQ6682/ref=oh_details_o00_s02_i04?ie=UTF8&psc=1

$40 Outt(TM) Sport Outdoor Military Rucksacks Compact Assault Pack Camping Hiking Trekking Bag http://www.amazon.com/Outdoor-Military-Rucksacks-Compact-Trekking/dp/B00HWR37KE/ref=sr_1_4?m=A15PKGU8PFZ6QO&s=merchant-items&ie=UTF8&qid=1396882222&sr=1-4&keywords=Sport+Outdoor+Military+Rucksacks+Compact+Assault+Pack+Camping+Hiking+Trekking+Bag

$32 Fully Stocked MOLLE Tactical Trauma Kit First Aid Pouch http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003TL2NX4/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

$5 550lbs. Military Paracord Type III Rope 100' Foliage Green http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001B6LFWE/ref=oh_details_o03_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Total price for everything: $171 Probably spend another 30 or less on food/water/extras

The Fragmented Metropolis. The rise of Los Angeles and how politics, greed, and infrastructure led to a dispersed city that is torn apart logistically and emotionally. Health schemes, shady property deals, and good old racism saw new residential developments in far flung areas like the west side and east LA that ensured a legacy of a city too widespread to be tight-knit. Car manufacturers killed the public transit system before it was even really born and paved the way for a future of hellish commutes and isolated neighborhoods. And despite the amazing fact that most of LA residents have usually been generally on the same side when it comes to politics, the power structure of the city allowed for some devastatingly harsh class and political struggles that are still going to to this day.

I read this book a few years ago in a grad school class and didn't quite "get it." It was only when I visited New York this summer that I understood how people use public space differently in each city. It suddenly clicked, and I understood that LA is fragmented and on so many levels, and that we were doomed to experience this strange sense of still-born culture and emotional limbo from the moment that greed and modernity began planning and shaping this city.

A wonderful study of LA and a great - if depressing - comment on the great city of the 20th century that was promised but never came to pass: Los Angeles as a failed urban and human experiment.