Wilshire/Vermont station
Wilshire/Vermont is a heavy-rail subway station in the Los Angeles Metro system. It is located at Wilshire Boulevard and Vermont Avenue, in Los Angeles' Mid-Wilshire/Koreatown District; this station is served by the Purple Line. As its name implies, Wilshire/Vermont station is located at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Vermont Avenue; the station itself is to the east of the intersection, allowing diverging Red Line trains to head north underneath Vermont. A number of educational institutions, including Southwestern University and the Robert F Kennedy Community Schools, are located nearby. Above the station is the Wilshire Vermont Station mixed-use transit village development, a $136-million apartment and retail complex designed by the architecture firm Arquitectonica and developed by Urban Partners and MacFarlane Partners on land owned by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority; the development opened in 2007 and includes apartments, an adjacent middle school.
The property is managed by Greystar Real Estate Partners. The station is located where the Red Line and Purple Line converge on their way to Downtown Los Angeles; the station is designed with two platform levels: eastbound Purple and Red Line trains use the upper level, westbound Purple and Northbound Red trains use the lower level. The artwork at the station depicts typographic symbols designed by Bob Zoell; the letters on the pillars of the lower platform spell out "going by-by", what the red line and its patrons do when they zoom in and out of the station. Addition artwork at the station is the creation of Peter Shire; the Wilshire/Vermont station contains the two longest continuous escalators in the state of California (in fact, west of the Mississippi. Metro Local: 18, 20, 51, 52, 201, 204, 351 Metro Rapid: 720, 754 LADOT DASH: Wilshire Center / Koreatown In 2009, a sign listing the Wilshire/Vermont station was used in a Geico "It's So Easy A Caveman Could Do It" commercial featuring the song "Let Me Be Myself" by Three Doors Down.
Station connections overview
Volcano (1997 film)
Volcano is a 1997 American disaster film directed by Mick Jackson and produced by Andrew Z. Davis, Neal H. Moritz and Lauren Shuler Donner; the storyline was conceived from a screenplay written by Billy Ray. The film features Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche, Don Cheadle. Jones is cast as the head of the Los Angeles County Office of Emergency Management, which has complete authority in the event of an emergency or natural disaster, his character attempts to divert the path of a dangerous lava flow through the streets of Los Angeles following the formation of a volcano at the La Brea Tar Pits. A joint collective effort to commit to the film's production was made by the film studios of 20th Century Fox, Moritz Original and Shuler Donner/Donner Productions, it was commercially distributed by 20th Century Fox. Volcano explores civil viewpoints, such as awareness and crisis prevention. Although the film used extensive special effects, it failed to receive any award nominations from mainstream motion picture organizations for its production merits.
Volcano premiered in theaters nationwide in the United States on April 25, 1997 grossing $49,323,468 in domestic ticket receipts, on a $90 million budget. It earned an additional $73.5 million in business through international release to top out at a combined $122,823,468 in gross revenue. Despite its release and recognition, Dante's Peak gained more commercial success than Volcano, it was met with mixed critical reviews before its initial screening in cinemas. The Region 1 code widescreen edition of the film featuring special features was released on DVD in the United States on March 9, 1999. In downtown Los Angeles, an earthquake strikes. Michael'Mike' Roark, the head of the city's Office of Emergency Management or OEM, insists on coming to work to help out with the crisis, although he has been on vacation with his daughter Kelly, his associate, Emmit Reese, notes that the quake caused no major damage, but seven utility workers are burned to death in a storm drain at MacArthur Park. One escapes and survives, but is burned on one side of his face.
As a precaution, Roark tries to halt the subway lines that run parallel to where the deaths took place, but Los Angeles MTA Chairman Stan Olber mulishly opposes, feeling that there is no threat to the trains. Against regulations and his coworker Gator Harris venture down the storm sewer in the park to investigate, they are nearly burned alive and escape when hot gases spew out of a crack in the concrete lining and flood the tunnel. Geologist Dr. Amy Barnes believes that a volcano may be forming beneath the city with magma flowing underground, she has insufficient evidence to make Roark take action. The next morning, at around 5:15 A. M. Barnes, her assistant Rachel, venture in the storm sewer to investigate the scene of the incident, they discover the crack in the ground. While taking samples, a more powerful earthquake strikes, Rachel is killed when she falls into the crack, engulfed by a rush of the hot gases, while a subway train derails underground and power is knocked out across the city. Minutes steam explodes from the sewer system, in the La Brea Tar Pits, volcanic smoke and ash billows out, followed by high velocity lava bombs that burst out of the tar pits, which ignites several buildings.
Roark helps injured firefighters out of the area. Moments a newly formed volcano erupts from the tar pits, lava begins to flow down Wilshire Boulevard, incinerating everything in its path, including Roark's GMC Suburban, an LAFD fire truck downed by a lava bomb, killing two firefighters inside. Roark and his daughter become separated as she is injured when a nearby lava bomb sputters and burns her leg, she is taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center by Dr. Jaye Calder. A few minutes while in the Red line metro tunnel, the passengers in the derailed subway train are exposed to severe heat and toxic gases, which causes them all to lose consciousness; the conductor tries but fails to open the doors along the length of the train, until reaching the rear where he sees the incoming lava flow in the tunnel hundreds of meters away. Meanwhile, Olber leads his team through the tunnel to the derailed train, they manage to save everyone, but Olber notices that the train driver is still missing and goes back.
Knowing that the train is melting, Olber sacrifices his life to save the driver by jumping into the lava flow, throwing the driver to safety. Roark and police lieutenant Ed Fox devise a plan to stack concrete barriers at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, creating a cul-de-sac to pool the lava as helicopters dump water on it to form a crust, making the operation a success. Barnes theorizes that the magma is still flowing underground through the Red Line subway extension, calculates that the main eruption will occur at the end of the line at the Beverly Center near Cedars-Sinai. To prove this and Roark lower a video camera into the tunnel to watch it, only for the camera to be incinerated by a fast-moving flow of lava, they calculate the speed and realize that they have 30 minutes until the lava hits the end of the Red Line. Through Roark's direction, explosives are used to create channels in the street to divert the flow of lava into Ballona Creek, which will flow into the Pacific Ocean, but Barnes realizes that the street is sloping in the opposite direction and instead the lava would flow directly towards the injured patients, much to the displeasure of Roark and Fox.
Roark devises another
Langer's Deli
Langer's Deli known as Langer's Delicatessen-Restaurant, is a kosher-style delicatessen located at 704 South Alvarado Street in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, opposite MacArthur Park. Founded in 1947, Langer's is known for its No. 19 pastrami on rye sandwich, described by the Los Angeles Times as "the Marilyn Monroe of pastrami sandwiches". Since its founding, the restaurant claims to have sold over ten million pounds of pastrami, its pastrami has been deemed by some as being the best in the world. Langer's Deli was opened in June 1947 by Albert J. Langer as a deli catering to the waves of new Jewish immigrants arriving in Los Angeles. Langer had sold off a smaller shop at the corner of 8th and Irolo Streets in present-day Koreatown when he had heard of a pair of German immigrants selling their sandwich shop on Alvarado Street. With the help of a German friend who helped him look over the deal, Langer acquired the shop for $14,500. Langer's opened with only $500 on hand, requiring loans from partner businesses and operating with only Langer, his wife Jean and a dishwasher, working sixteen-hour days.
Corned beef sandwiches sold for only 35 cents, throughout the 1940s and 1950s most of its clientele came from the Jewish immigrants who inhabited the hotels and boarding houses surrounding MacArthur Park at the time. Despite most of Westlake's Jewish businesses moving west by the 1960s and the neighborhood suffering significant decline by the 1980s, Langer kept his restaurant open, convinced that it would continue to have customers. Increased gang activity fueled by the crack epidemic affected business by 1990, by 1993, the restaurant was doubting its future, with it considering closing entirely. However, Langer's credits its survival to the opening of the Red Line of the Los Angeles Metro Rail, with the Westlake/MacArthur Park station opening a block away. Office workers in downtown Los Angeles would take the Red Line from 7th Street/Metro Center to Langer's, providing a steady stream of business, Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky joked that the $1.2 billion spent on building the line's initial operating segment was worth it to keep Langer's open.
Despite the opening of the Red Line, neighborhood activity continues to affect operations, with an increase in Metro Rail fares causing revenue to drop by 30% in 1997, unlicensed street vendors causing a 23% decline in business in 2015. Langer's celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2007, culminating in the renaming of the intersection of 7th and Alvarado Streets as Langer's Square on January 23, 2008, which would have been Albert Langer's 95th birthday. However, Langer died on June 26, 2007, ownership of the restaurant passed to his son, who started working at Langer's in 1962 and, running it since the early 1990s. Langer's Deli occupies a 4,300-square-foot space at the corner of Alvarado and 7th Streets. Operating as a 12-seat restaurant along Alvarado Street, the restaurant has since expanded to 137 seats. In 1953, Albert Langer bought out a neighboring liquor store, in 1967, he acquired the space of a bank, vacating the corner of Alvarado and 7th Streets, consolidating the three spaces and building the current restaurant.
Until the 1990s, Langer's stayed open as late as 3:00 am. However, business considerations coupled with safety concerns owing to the changing makeup of the Westlake neighborhood forced it to cut costs by laying off employees and cutting opening times. Since 1993, the restaurant is open from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm on weekdays and Saturdays, remaining closed on Sundays. Operating hours however are extended for special occasions, like its 65th anniversary in 2012, the installation of a new art fixture inside MacArthur Park in 2015. Although it is a sit-down restaurant, Langer's is known for its curbside service, introduced at the suggestion of an employee, Alex Barragan, who promised to deliver an order to a waiting customer outside. Curbside service has been successful for the restaurant, with anywhere between 35 and 70 orders being delivered daily. Langer's employees are unionized, the restaurant has a reputation for remaining loyal to its employees, offering full benefits and giving support when needed.
Many of its employees are employed at Canter's in the Fairfax District, with the two restaurants sharing employees due to a talent shortage. The relationship between the two restaurants dates back to the 1930s, when Albert Langer found work as a deli man at Canter's before opening his restaurant. In 1997, the Los Angeles Times reported that Councilman Mike Hernandez was sponsoring a resolution in the Los Angeles City Council honoring the restaurant. Four years Langer's was awarded the America's Classics award by the James Beard Foundation, the second restaurant in Los Angeles to be given the honor. Official website of Langer's Deli
Pastrami
Pastrami is a meat product made from beef, sometimes from pork, mutton, or turkey. The raw meat is brined dried, seasoned with herbs and spices smoked and steamed. Beef plate is the traditional cut of meat for making pastrami, although it is now common in the United States to see it made from beef brisket, beef round, turkey. Like corned beef, pastrami was created as a way to preserve meat before refrigeration; the name pastrami comes from Romanian pastramă, a declination of the Romanian verb păstra meaning "to conserve food, to keep something for a long duration" whose etymology is linked to the Bulgarian pastrija or to the Greek παστραμάς/παστουρμάς, itself borrowed from Turkish pastırma, short for Turkish: bastırma et "pressed meat." Wind-dried beef had been made in Anatolia for centuries, Byzantine dried meat is thought by some to be "one of the forerunners of the pastirma of modern Turkey". Early references in English used the spelling "pastrama", closer to the Romanian pastramă. Pastrami was introduced to the United States in a wave of Jewish immigration from Bessarabia and Romania in the second half of the 19th century.
The modified "pastrami" spelling was introduced in imitation of the American English salami. Romanian Jews emigrated to New York as early as 1872. Among Jewish Romanians, goose breasts were made into pastrami because they were inexpensive. Beef navel was cheaper than goose meat in America, so the Romanian Jews in America adapted their recipe and began to make the cheaper-alternative beef pastrami. New York's Sussman Volk is credited with producing the first pastrami sandwich in the United States in 1887. Volk, a kosher butcher and New York immigrant from Lithuania, claimed he got the recipe from a Romanian friend in exchange for storing the friend's luggage while the friend returned to Romania. According to his descendant, Patricia Volk, he prepared pastrami according to the recipe and served it on sandwiches out of his butcher shop; the sandwich was so popular that Volk converted the butcher shop into a restaurant to sell pastrami sandwiches. New York pastrami is made from the navel end of the brisket.
It is cured in brine, coated with a mix of spices such as garlic, black pepper, cloves and mustard seed, smoked. The meat is steamed until the connective tissues within the meat break down into gelatin. Greek immigrants to Salt Lake City in the early 1960s introduced a cheeseburger topped with pastrami and a special sauce; the pastrami cheeseburger has since remained a staple of local burger chains in Utah. Bündnerfleisch Pastırma – Cured dried beef seasoned with a special spice paste called çemen Pastramă List of dried foods List of smoked foods Montreal-style smoked meat Corned beef – Salt-cured beef product Food portal Specific GeneralUrsula Heinzelmann, "Rauchware aus der Querrippe" in Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung p. 50
Los Angeles Department of Transportation
The Los Angeles Department of Transportation referred to as LADOT, is a municipal agency that oversees transportation planning, construction and operations within the City of Los Angeles. LADOT was created by city ordinance, is run by a general manager appointed by the Mayor of Los Angeles, under the oversight of a citizens' commission appointed by the mayor. LADOT is best known for providing public transportation to the City of Los Angeles, it operates the second-largest fleet in Los Angeles County next to Metro. It consist of over 300 vehicles, serving nearly 30 million passengers a year and operating over 800,000 hours. LADOT develops the traffic signal timing and transportation planning for the city. Actual road maintenance and construction is provided by the Los Angeles City Department of Public Works. LADOT performs many transportation related duties, with six main operating groups: Parking Enforcement & Traffic Control, Project Delivery, Parking Management & Regulations, Transit Services, Administration.
The DASH is a transit bus operates 30 routes covering Downtown Los Angeles and many outlying communities within the City. Its primary function is to provide localized service, is a feeder into the countywide MTA Metro service. DASH Community Routes include: Beachwood Canyon Boyle Heights/East LA Chesterfield Square Crenshaw Downtown A: Little Tokyo/City West Downtown B: Chinatown/Financial District (connects with the Metro Red Line, Metro Gold Line, Metro Blue Line, Metrolink Lines: Ventura County, Antelope Valley, San Bernardino, 91, Orange County, Amtrak lines: Pacific Surfliner, Coast Starlight, Sunset Limited, Southwest Chief, Texas Eagle Downtown D: Union Station/South Park (connects with the Metro Red Line, Metro Gold Line, Metro Blue Line, Metro Expo Line, Metrolink Lines: Ventura County, Antelope Valley, San Bernardino, 91, Orange County, Amtrak lines: Pacific Surfliner, Coast Starlight, Sunset Limited, Southwest Chief, Texas Eagle Downtown E: City West/Financial District Downtown F: Financial District Exposition Park, L.
A. Coliseum/LAFC Stadium/USC El Sereno/City Terrace Fairfax Highland Park/Eagle Rock Hollywood Hollywood/Wilshire King-East Leimert Park/ Slauson Lincoln Heights /Chinatown Los Feliz /Weekend Observatory Shuttle Midtown Northridge Observatory Panorama City/Van Nuys Pico Union/Echo Park San Pedro Southeast/Pueblo Del Rio Van Nuys/Studio City Vermont/Main Watts Wilmington Wilshire Center/Koreatown Most DASH buses are El Dorado EZ-Rider vehicles powered by propane, although CNG Gillig BRTs have since been introduced; the first two digits of DASH bus numbers denote. For instance, 98001 denotes 1998 and 06301 denotes 2006. All DASH buses are 30 feet long, making it easier to navigate in dense neighborhoods where there are narrower streets and tighter turns. Commuter Express is an express bus service, consisting of 13 routes, all but one running during rush hours only. Service started in 1985. Routes 419, 423, 431, 437, 438, 448 are former Metro lines that were cancelled. Fares are based on a flat rate for travel on streets plus an extra charge based on the distance traveled on freeways.
Unless otherwise noted, all services operates towards Downtown LA during the morning rush and from Downtown LA during the afternoon rush. For the purposes of this chart, closed-door means that customers are not allowed to use buses for local trips and open-door means that customers are allowed to use buses for local trips. Commuter Express services are provided by a variety of suburban vehicles, including Gillig Phantoms, Neoplan Metroliners, Stewart & Stevenson Apollo T-40s. Part of the fleet are a small number of CNG powered Orion V coaches. CityRide is a program for individuals in the City of Los Angeles, aged 65 or older and for qualified disabled persons. Los Angeles Department of Transportation TrafficInfo Department summary, p. 36
7th Street/Metro Center station
7th Street/Metro Center 7th Street/Metro Center/Julian Dixon, is a metro station in the Los Angeles County Metro Rail system located in the Financial District of Downtown Los Angeles at the intersection of 7th Street and Flower Street. The station is served by the light rail Blue Line and Expo Line, heavy rail Red Line and Purple Line, by the bus rapid transit Silver Line; the Blue Line and Expo Line have their downtown terminus at this station. Many bus routes serve the station; this is one of only two stations in the entire system that has an underground side platform, the other being the Wilshire/Vermont station. The station was the first underground station in the Metro system, consists of three underground levels; the main concourse is on the first level down, the light rail side platforms are on the second level down, while the heavy rail island platform is on the third level down. A small first level mezzanine connects the light rail side platforms; the Metro Silver Line stops at the street level next to the station's entrances.
The station has direct access to The Bloc Shopping Mall with a pedestrian-friendly entrance from the mall directly to the subway station. Metro spent nearly $2 million worth of enhancements to 7th Street/Metro Center station as part of the Expo Line project, completed weeks before the Metro Expo Line began service to La Cienega/Jefferson Station; this enhancement included improved signage in the station. Blue Line hours are from 4:00 AM until 1:00 AM daily. Red and Purple Line hours are from 5:00 AM until 12:00 AM daily. Expo Line hours are from 4:00 AM until 2:00 AM daily. Silver Line operates 24 hours a day. Metro Bus lines 20, 51, 52, 60, 351, 442, 460, 487, 489, 720 and 760 stop near the station entrances at 7th and Hope streets, 7th and Flower streets and 7th and Figueroa Streets. Santa Monica's Big Blue Bus express Line 10, LADOT Dash shuttles Routes D, E, F stops at the 7th Street/Metro Center Station. Foothill Transit Commuter Express lines 493, 495, 497, 498, 499, 699 serve stops adjacent to the station on 7th and Figueroa Streets.
California Shuttle Bus provides service to San Francisco and San Jose from a bus stop at the corner of Figueroa and 7th streets. The under construction Regional Connector Transit Corridor will result in the Blue Line and Expo Line continuing north from this station terminus through Downtown Los Angeles to connect with the Little Tokyo/Arts District Station on the Gold Line, which will become an underground subway station and move across the street; the Expo Line will be defunct upon opening of the tunnel, with the Gold Line using its route from 7th Street to Santa Monica, proceeding through the tunnel to its normal route to Atlantic station, while the Blue Line will follow the Gold Line's old route from APU to Little Tokyo proceed through the tunnel to 7th Street and run along its normal route to Long Beach. Station connections overview OpenStreetMap relation for the station
Los Angeles
Los Angeles the City of Los Angeles and known by its initials L. A. is the most populous city in California, the second most populous city in the United States, after New York City, the third most populous city in North America. With an estimated population of four million, Los Angeles is the cultural and commercial center of Southern California; the city is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity and the entertainment industry, its sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles is the largest city on the West Coast of North America. Los Angeles is in a large basin bounded by the Pacific Ocean on one side and by mountains as high as 10,000 feet on the other; the city proper, which covers about 469 square miles, is the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the country. Los Angeles is the principal city of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second largest in the United States after that of New York City, with a population of 13.1 million. It is part of the Los Angeles-Long Beach combined statistical area the nation's second most populous area with a 2015 estimated population of 18.7 million.
Los Angeles is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States, with a diverse economy in a broad range of professional and cultural fields. Los Angeles is famous as the home of Hollywood, a major center of the world entertainment industry. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index and 9th in the Global Economic Power Index; the Los Angeles metropolitan area has a gross metropolitan product of $1.044 trillion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. Los Angeles hosted the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics and will host the event for a third time in 2028; the city hosted the Miss Universe pageant twice, in 1990 and 2006, was one of 9 American cities to host the 1994 FIFA men's soccer World Cup and one of 8 to host the 1999 FIFA women's soccer World Cup, hosting the final match for both tournaments. Home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California.
The city was founded on September 4, 1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence. In 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4, 1850, five months before California achieved statehood; the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California assured the city's continued rapid growth; the Los Angeles coastal area was settled by the Chumash tribes. A Gabrieleño settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning "poison oak place". Maritime explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claimed the area of southern California for the Spanish Empire in 1542 while on an official military exploring expedition moving north along the Pacific coast from earlier colonizing bases of New Spain in Central and South America.
Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2, 1769. In 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. On September 4, 1781, a group of forty-four settlers known as "Los Pobladores" founded the pueblo they called El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles,'The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels'; the present-day city has the largest Roman Catholic Archdiocese in the United States. Two-thirds of the Mexican or settlers were mestizo or mulatto, a mixture of African and European ancestry; the settlement remained a small ranch town for decades, but by 1820, the population had increased to about 650 residents. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the historic district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street, the oldest part of Los Angeles. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, the pueblo continued as a part of Mexico.
During Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta California's regional capital. Mexican rule ended during the Mexican–American War: Americans took control from the Californios after a series of battles, culminating with the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga on January 13, 1847. Railroads arrived with the completion of the transcontinental Southern Pacific line to Los Angeles in 1876 and the Santa Fe Railroad in 1885. Petroleum was discovered in the city and surrounding area in 1892, by 1923, the discoveries had helped California become the country's largest oil producer, accounting for about one-quarter of the world's petroleum output. By 1900, the population had grown to more than 102,000; the completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, under the supervision of William Mulholland, assured the continued growth of the city. Due to clauses in the city's charter that prevented the City of Los Angeles from selling or providing water from the aqueduct to any area outside its borders, many adjacent city and communities became compelled to annex themselves into Los Angeles.
Los Angeles created the first municipal zoning ordinance in the United States. On September 14, 1908, the Los Angeles City Council promulgated residential and industrial land use zones; the new ordinance established three residential zones of a single type, where industrial uses were
