UCLA History: Ample Free Parking in Westwood
Westwood had a sign in 1945 advertising ample free parking
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UCLA History (and travel)
The Fox Theater in Westwood in 1938. Today is a travel day and therefore slow blogging day. Flying out of LAX. Luckily, there are black robed angels at LAX that wake up daydreaming air controllers. (Funny how they look like Nicholas Cage.)
Focusing on the Proposed Hotel/Conference Center
Some background documents regarding the proposed hotel/conference center planned to replace the Faculty Center can be accessed below. There will shortly be focus groups on campus set up on the hotel/conference center issue. If you are part of such a group, or know someone who is, you (or he/she) should be acquainted with the documents below and many others. The Academic Senate website has many pertinent documents, for example. A simple way to track the hotel/conference center issue if you are already on this blog is to type in “faculty center” in the search option and read the resulting entries….
UCLA History: Westwood in the Past
Yesterday’s post dealt with the current attempts to revive Westwood via (re)creation of a Business Improvement District (BID). In 1937 (top photo) and 1945 (bottom), Westwood looked a lot different with – among other things – a line of gas station towers.
BID FOR WESTWOOD?
No, not that kind of bid. BID stands for Business Improvement District. Essentially, through a process permitted under state law, local businesses form a BID which provides services (such as street cleaning and security) above and beyond what the city provides. In effect, the businesses tax themselves to pay for the added services. There are several BIDs in downtown LA, for example. Westwood went into decline after a shooting in the late 1980s seemed to scare away tourism and shoppers. The action went to Century City and Santa Monica. A BID was formed at one point but someone ran off…
tuition | UC-Riverside | UCLA
Differential Tuition Pricing at UC: The Sky Would Fall Says the Contra Costa Times. But Would It?
The Contra Costa Times on 5/12/11 had an editorial indicating that differential tuition among the UC campuses would be a bad idea. Below is an excerpt: FINANCIAL ADVERSITY can spawn positive innovation; it also can lead to huge mistakes. Establishing variable tuition at the University of California campuses would be the latter. Advocates of different tuition rates for each campus argue that it would allow individual campuses to raise more revenue during a time of tight state budgets and that consumer demand should play a bigger role in the cost of education. However, the likely result of variable tuition is…
Hired Gun Who Will Travel (from Downtown LA to Westwood)
PKF consulting produced a questionable (mild statement) analysis of the proposed hotel/conference center to replace the Faculty Center. Turns out, PKF also is involved in producing a report to justify tax breaks for hotels in downtown LA. Warren Olney did a segment on that issue on “Which Way LA?” on May 9. You can hear the entire broadcast at http://www.kcrw.com/media-player/mediaPlayer2.html?type=audio&id=ww110509do_downtown_la_hotel The description from Which Way LA? is as follows: “David Zahniser… wrote a Times’ story about tax breaks for massive hotels in booming downtown Los Angeles. J.W. Marriot, which opened last year, is reportedly doing well enough to produce some…
Two-Faced Policy on Sidewalk Parking Around UCLA
Earlier posts have noted the problem of parking on the sidewalk in the areas surrounding the campus and the fact that legal action has been brought against LA City for not enforcing its parking rules. But the City seems to be two-faced, sometimes taking action and sometimes not. The legal action against the City has been based on disability rights, i.e., that disabled persons in wheelchairs can’t use the sidewalks easily if they are blocked by parked cars. Excerpt from the Daily Bruin today: The Los Angeles Department of Transportation has suspended ticketing for apron parking after protests from students…
How Big Would the Hotel/Conference Center Be?
The consultant’s report for the hotel/conference center proposed to replace the Faculty Center was premised on 276 rooms. Other numbers of rooms in that range have been reported. Most of us are not in the hotel business and don’t have a sense of scale. So how big is that? The LA Business Journal regularly prints tables showing larger businesses in different sectors. The May 2 issue had a listing of LA County hotels so we can look up hotels in the Westwood area. According to that listing, the Hotel Palomar at 10740 Wilshire Blvd. – walking distance to Westwood Village…
UCLA History: Founder’s Rock
Founder’s Rock in the 1950s stood in the central area of campus. It’s still nearby but not so central. And, since it’s Mothers’ Day today, here is something also from the 1950s: