A trip to Norwalk II

I had just transfered three times and was waiting at the Norwalk green line station for the local Norwalk bus. I walk to the only bus I see and ask the driver, "Do you know where the County..."
"You want number 4"

I wait about 10 minutes for the bus to arrive and then it's off to downtown Norwalk. It's a sad little city, with the look of Irvine or Thousand Oaks but no money. I arrive at the Civic Center on the corner of Norwalk Boulevard and Imperial Highway. It's a mix of fences, construction sites and strip malls. Somewhat out of place is a large green space with a sculpture of children playing in front of a fountain. It evokes a past when kids played freely outside of parent supervision. This time no longer exists, not so much because of parent paranoia about sexual criminals--although this exists--but because of the danger presented by automobile dominated streets.

Many claim to know the sign of the devil. It's found in the index and pinky finger rising together, the number 666, the pentagram, the crescent moon, Pan and other signs associated with the Masons.

But the true sign of the devil is the 32 lane intersection. An intersection where at every turn the pedestrian has 8 lanes to cross and must wait 4 signal cycles before walking--left turn lane signals and green lights one way, left turn signals and green lights the other way. The young and spry can make it across before the light turn's red, but the elderly are lucky to make it half way across before having to wait another cycle as cars speed by.

Collective outrage greeted the arrest of an 82 year old woman trying to cross Foothill Boulevard in the valley, but no-one pointed out the satanic cult of transportation engineering responsible for this woman's fate. It is this cult, which thrives on the Angelinos auto-eroticism, that created the 32 lane intersection and 50 mph speed limit on pedestrian shared streets--devices meant to make driving safe and walking like getting your toenails manicured by a chewing pig.