Comments on: Santa Monica Yuppie Scum Death Battle Overflows onto New York Times Front Page

By: Matt Mason

Matt Mason — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 06:45:31 +0000

Evan, all the more reason why the L.A. Times photo referenced by Spencer of the people on the stairs isn’t as relevant.

By: evan

evan — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 05:05:27 +0000

"As far as I can tell, police enforcement activity does not involve the considerable number of people using the stairs themselves for exercise (although some people exercising on the stairs do congregate at the top of each set of stairs when they get there). That might take some creative ordinance-writing, even in Santa Monica, to restrict."

Matt, I’m pretty sure the stairs themselves are in Los Angeles, and not the City of Santa Monica.

By: Matt Mason

Matt Mason — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 02:56:53 +0000

Thanks sroehlmax, and I liked the implication in your post that maybe there’s some buff body envy taking place by those slumbering Santa Monica shut-ins.

By: sroehlmax

sroehlmax — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 02:35:40 +0000

The People’s Republic of Santa Monica strikes again! Here are my thoughts on this outrage: http://justmypointofview.wordpress.com/2008/11/25/santa-monicas-no-exercise-zone/

By: Matt Mason

Matt Mason — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 01:38:27 +0000

Spencer, that photo is from the stairs, which are located across Adelaide from the end of the median in 4th Street. There’s also a second set of stairs about a hundred yards up Adelaide. As far as I can tell, police enforcement activity does not involve the considerable number of people using the stairs themselves for exercise (although some people exercising on the stairs do congregate at the top of each set of stairs when they get there). That might take some creative ordinance-writing, even in Santa Monica, to restrict. It’s pretty hard for someone to take up much space or make much noise on those stairs, other than very heavy breathing. Rather, the complaints appear to be over people planting themselves on the median for training, stretching, and other activities, as Gabriele points out.

By: Spencer Cross

Spencer Cross — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 01:20:52 +0000

The LA Times article (which, as Matt pointed out, predates the NY Times piece by nearly a month) makes it sound like it’s considerably more of a problem than just a handful of private citizens working out on a public grassy space. The version of that article that I read online led with a different photo that I think illustrates the problem well:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2008/10/new-westside-ni.html

By: gabriele360

gabriele360 — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 01:05:23 +0000

My take on the article was that there were trainers (etc) who were taking their clients (and sometimes groups) for their workouts on the median, and that often included loud instructions and pace-making cadences. If I lived there I think I’d be unhappy if I were woken up at daybreak by something sounding like a drill sargeant and his squad running through my neighborhood. I think people may have objected to the colonization of the median by people…runners, walkers & joggers occupy a smaller amount of space for a limited amount of time…and while this is cynical, I think some of the ‘beautiful’ people just want a place to show off as they work out…

By: Matt Mason

Matt Mason — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:59:20 +0000

See link to Oct. 30 L.A. Times story in my post, third paragraph, second sentence.

By: evan

evan — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:28:05 +0000

Chal, there’s only one national edition of the NYT.

The LAT did a story about this around two weeks ago, and it generated nowhere near the interest online that the NYT article has.

By: Matt Mason

Matt Mason — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:44:55 +0000

David, I agree, although, in all fairness, as the second link in my post indicates, the L.A. Times is covering this story as well. Now, whether this should qualify as local L.A. news worthy of such newspaper coverage(as opposed to a local controversy entertaininly evidencing stupidity and vanity, in other words, something perfect for L.A. Metblogs), is a different issue.