[LA.pm] hollywood.pm.org

[Kevin Scaldeferri]

Only half joking...

This pretty much makes it sound like the situation for those on 
Westside is utterly hopeless unless the meeting is essentially at their 
work (which clearly can't work for everyone).  So, probably we should 
just give up on that crowd entirely and make the meetings somewhere 
that people can come from a 10-15 mile radius to get to.


Like Pasadena ;-)


-kevin


On Feb 2, 2006, at 10:48 AM, Peter Benjamin wrote:

> IMO, the LA PM mailing list should be the forum to make
> the decision of how many PMs should be in LA.
>
> Towards that end I supply information for that argument.
>
> And to state I sure would like monthly meetings.
> And I would drive to Ticketmaster from Santa Monica
> for at least the first 3-6 meetings there.  Why so
> few?  Read about the commute below.
>
> At 10:01 AM 2/2/2006, terry mcintyre wrote:
>> I can, by the way, well imagine a place where traffic
>> is worse than in Los Angeles. Try Pittsburgh during a
>> snow storm -- it can take hours to travel 8 miles.
>> Even
>> an ordinary rush hour can cause an 8 mile commute to
>> take over an hour.
>
> Well, LA has Pittsburgh beat then.  The 10 Freeway
> is still the busiest freeway in the world.  It's
> rush hour is from 2:30 to 7:30.  I know.  For the
> LAMPsig.org meetings I travel from Santa Monica
> to Hoover.  On a normal "early" day it takes 20 minutes.
>
> This same 11 miles has taken me 1 hour, 1.5 hours
> and 2 hours.  It is terrible.  And I bring the
> video projector to the meeting, and must arrive
> 15 minutes before to have time to set it up.
>
> The average time to go the 1 mile from my home office
> to the 10 freeway is 20 minutes along Lincoln.
>
> The average time to travel from downtown Santa Monica
> to the 405, a 5 mile stretch is 30 minutes or more.
> Never less.  So, the posters who make 'light' of that
> short commute, should not.
>
> To get past the 405, on either the freeway or streets
> is another 10 minutes, to go just 1 mile.  Sometimes
> 20 minutes on the street.  Any accident or CHP parked
> on the freeway causes the freeway to be 20 minutes.
> Any accident on the 405 north or south causes this
> 1 mile to get past the 405 to be 30 minutes.
>
> At that point on the freeway it speeds up, and getting
> to an exit before Harbor Freeway is not much of a problem.
> Erh, well, Hoover just before the interchange can take
> 20 minutes to get off the freeway.  So one gets off
> at Vermont and goes north several miles before cutting
> over to Hoover.
>
> Now getting off at Fairfax to go north... no brainer...
> never do it.  It necks down to one lane, and to get
> to Ticketmaster on Fairfax means adding 2 hours.
> Yes, 2 hours to go 3 miles.  (I made that mistake
> only once.)
>
> So, La Brea or La Cienega are the only alternatives.
> 20 minutes minimum to go north to Melrose.  I have
> a client on Melrose, so I know.  That is, if you
> take the parking lane at speed.  Otherwise, about 35
> minutes.
>
> So, minimum time from Santa Monica to Ticketmaster
> is 70 minutes.  Of stop and go.  Average would be
> about 90 minutes.  Sometimes it would be 2 hours.
>
> After that, one is in no mood to sit some more, and
> no mood to "network" with fellow mongers.  A cool
> down of 20 minutes is needed.  So leaving work
> at least 90 minutes early is needed.  And eating
> dinner needs to be added.
>
> To be consistently there on time, and in a good
> mood means leaving work 3 hours before the meeting
> or before 4:00.  And half the time that will mean
> getting there 30-45 minutes early with nothing to
> do but wait.
>
> It is a problem.
>
> --
>
> One solution is to have a pre dinner event there
> for those with the long commute, where it is known
> we must wind down, relax, eat a slow meal, and just
> exchange knowing looks that no one is a talking mood.
>
> Is there a restaurant in the area where parking is
> free enough to not have to move it to go to Ticketmaster?
>
> --
>
> It is wrong to not have LA metro have two or more Monger
> groups.  We have almost a dozen LUGs.  www.LALUGS.org
>
> I've written this long post just to make that point.
>
> Comparing LA to London, that has been done on this list
> as well now.  I think it can be agreed there is no
> comparing the two cities as being "commute similar."
>
> The entire thread, when done, can be mailed to the PM master
> for review.
>
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