64worst – Blogging.la

March 28, 2008

64 Worst: Curb sneakers vs. LADWP’s Festival of Lights

Curb sneakers, noun
1. drivers who speed into the right turn lane at a red lights, then cut back into traffic when the light turns green ahead of the rest of us suckers.
2. bastards, assholes, scumbag alpha males

LADWP’s Festival of Lights, noun
1. the tackiest holiday display in the city
2. annual car only event billing itself as “eager-to-green” while marked by miles long lines of idling, emissions spitting vehicles, moving through at a snails pace while forbidding pedestrian foot traffic and providing only one bike only night per year.

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

Poll closes Monday at 3pm.

March 27, 2008

64 Worst: Cost of Buying A House vs. 110 Freeway

Following up on this morning‘s topic of crazy rent pricing, is the outrageous cost of buying a house. IrvineHousingBlog covers our pathological need to compete and how out of whack out housing pricing is — when LA County’s median income is half of what is needed to buy a median priced home, there is something terribly, terribly wrong. Thankfully the idiots that ruined the market for the rest of us are getting their comeuppance…

Even if you could afford to buy a home, you prolly wouldn’t want to put it along the 110 Freeway. Home to the most recent rash of Freeway shooting to the South and adorable, but antiquated construction to the North, this first freeway is where Americans go to die on the road.

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

March 27, 2008

64 Worst: Cost of Rent vs. No NFL Team

Which is more ridiculous, the cost of rent in L.A., or the absence of pro football?

The economy is in shambles. Or, as President Bush calls it, in a “slowdown.” The housing crisis has littered the SoCal landscape with signs of foreclosure. Yet, with home prices falling, rents are going up. And half the time, you still have to bring your own refrigerator.

There have been arguments that professional sports teams can be a boon to a city’s economy. They can also be a source of civic pride, if they’re not a joke on the playing field. Los Angeles has been home 3 different NFL teams: the Raiders, the Rams, and the Chargers. Now, two years after Governor Schwarzenegger told the league he wanted 2 teams, L.A. is still home to none.

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

March 26, 2008

64 Worst: The Paparazzi vs. Glassell Park NC’s Bradley

The paparazzi are not only the bottom feeders of the entertainment machine, they also show no concern for your safety, your neighbors, or your tax dollars in their pursuit of a photo of Britney, Lindsay, or Paris. They’ve been documented driving into oncoming traffic, breaking onto private property, and even sneaking onto schoolgrounds. The problem has escalated to the point that city council is considering legislation to restrict their activites. Even if you’re not a celebrity being harrassed by this vile class, city services are being spent to keep things in control.

And then there’s Bradley, until recently Chair of the Glassell Park Neighborhood Council (now an area rep), who Eric of Curbed L.A. described as “the Madonna and the Cher of LA neighborhood politics.” Just how does a lone volunteer with no actual power make it to L.A.’s worst of list? Try attempting to intimidate a critic by towering over her during a council meeting, or confiscating evidence presented to him of his alleged acts of conflicts of interest, or repeatedly insisting that the public isn’t allowed to record neighborhood council meetings in spite of rules to the contrary NC members should be familiar with? Of course, maybe Bradley isn’t the worst of the neighborhood council members – he just has the misfortune that much of his misconduct was found on tape. In short, he’s symbolic of every bad, power hungry neighbor ever to appear in an ABC Movie of the Week. (see the videos of his antics at Curbed)

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

Poll ends Friday at noon.

March 25, 2008

64 Worst: Uptalkers vs. No Twizzlers/Jujyfruits at concessions

Considering how calm the responses were to yesterday grievance polls, I thought I’d kick things up with a duel that has much more at stake…

In one corner, weighing at around 10 ounces, are movie favorites Twizzlers and Jujyfruits… and by favorites, I mean at least everywhere but Los Angeles. When and why did L.A. theater managers decide to stock their concessions with Red Vines, “red twists” instead of Twizzlers, “strawberry twists”? And where the hell are all the Jujyfruits, which are a staple in every other city I’ve watched a movie? Seriously, people, I want names and numbers.

And in the other corner are the “uptalkers” – those people who end every sentence as if its a question. This seems to be a relatively new phenomenon, one I blame on Canadians and/or home schooling.* Julia Frey drew attention to this recently in her post about some Florida teens who were banned from Southwest Airlines, so maybe its more of a Florida thing, but since I’ve been noticing it everywhere I go lately, I’m going to use this as my platform to gripe before things get out of hand. (According the a 2001 article from the UK’s Guardian, uptalking is also known as “HRT (high-rise terminals), a speech habit that is taking over the way we talk.”)

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

*Whichever one you, dear reader, think is funnier.
Poll ends Friday at noon.