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"OMG! These Cute Obama Shirts are Cheap to get! $12!"
Wednesday, Sep 3, 2008 6:50AM / Members only
I was told to let you know the following by my masters at moveon.org....Hey,
Want an Obama T-shirt? MoveOn's giving them out if you make a small donation to their young-voter registration program, aimed at registering half a million young voters in swing states. I just got mine, and wanted to share the opportunity with you.
Click this link to get your Obama T-shirt:
http://pol.moveon.org/obamatshirts/index13.html?id=-5172334-XZmO3nx
Thanks!
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Car(e) Free Los Angeles: The Wong Sans Wheels Chronicles #5-- What is your Walkscore?
Friday, Aug 29, 2008 12:43AM / Members only
Another scene from Cat Lady.
Part of switching to a low car diet, means living in neighborhoods that are compact and have everything you need within walking distance. This is why most New Yorkers and folks in San Francisco can go without cars. CNN featured this website called walkscore.com which basically takes your address and rates how good a walking neighborhood it is on a scale of 0 to 100 based on what things are in walking distance from your home.
Seinfeld's neighborhood in Manhattan is a 100 because it is within walking distance to theaters, groceries, bookstores, libraries, gyms, churches, schools, bars and all the things you need access to in order to have a good life.
Turns out my neighborhood in West LA is an 88! And the neighborhood I grew up in, in San Francisco is a 55 because that neighborhood is actually very far from commerce. Though San Francisco overall ranks as a more friendly city to walk in than New York!
My guess is that most neighborhoods in Los Angeles along the 10 freeway rank pretty high. Because if you think about it, there really is a major boulevard with lots of commerce and business on every corner.
So why aren't more people walking here? Why do people drive all the way to Vermont Ave or the Santa Monica Promenade to walk? Why not walk just outside your door? Why don't we shop at the carneceria around the corner and instead drive across town to go to Trader Joes? Why don't we get drunk at the bar four blocks away but trek to Roosterfish in Venice instead? Why do we drive to the Barnes and Nobles at Westside Pavilion instead of checking out a book at the local library?
It's interesting to think that I pretty much never have to leave my neighborhood in Los Angeles to get the bare basics of living. In the seven years (!) I've lived in my apartment, I have yet to go to the Oaxacan restaurant up the block or the bar that I found out on Walkscore is only four blocks away.
The thing with Los Angeles, is that "community" is not really defined by where you live. There have been times that I identified more with the citizens of Koreatown because I was spending so much time there. There were times I've felt more identified with the Little Tokyo community because I was doing so much work down there and that's where I'd meet up with friends.
Who will be my community be without a car? Where are you? Let's push our shopping carts down to the Jewish Grocery store together! -
Car(e) Free Los Angeles: The Wong Sans Wheels Chronicles #4-- It adds up.
Wednesday, Aug 27, 2008 11:47AM / Members only
Anyone want to drive this classy lady around?
So far, so free on the car free front. My camera is unfortunately in my friend Cindy's car (she picked me up from the tow yard). So I only have this picture from Cat Lady as the only visual hook to this blog entry which is about the money I have left in my pocket.
The Economic Perks of being Car Free, Thus Far.
Renting out the carport!
Score! I found a renter for my carport. $90 a month to do nothing but give parking to someone. That's $1080 over the course of the year. I actually think, now that I look around on Craigslist that I could have gotten up to $125 a month, but no matter. I'll gouge the next one that comes along.
REFUNDS! and Things I don't have to buy anymore.
So I didn't have insurance to cover the car loss when it caught on fire, I did get a refund on my car insurance that I wont' be using for the five months ahead ($390) and it looks like like I can get a refund from the DMV on my car registration ($90) and I won't be renewing my AAA membership this year ($78).
From the time I've been carless on August 14, this is what my transportation expenses have been...
$150 to set up a a Zip Car Membership ($25 for application, $50 for annual membership, $75 for optional $0 deductible insurance)
$10 in gas money for Marie Reine
$10 in taxi on drunken night with Greg
$10 approx in bus fare.
TOTAL $180.
This is not bad considering that I won't have to pay ZipCar again unless I actually use their cars. I may actually spend as little as $100 a month to get around if I really use my bike and public transpo to get around and no cabs. And that's pretty much what I'll be getting to rent out the carport. Woo hoo!
The Approximate Numbers: My attempt at Math....
According to some sites I've been looking at, the average car owner spends $7000 a year to own their car. I'm pretty sure my old Vegetable oil car cost me a lot more than that. I think this $7000/year estimate is old (from 2004) and the cost to drive has gone up with gas prices. So let's say, that it is actually $8000 a year to drive with current gas prices.
If I use a Zip Car one full day a week for four times each month ($264), budget public transpo at $3 a day for all other days of the week since I don't ride every day($75), money for gas/ parking chip-in ($30), taxis for drunken nights ($60), meals for nice friends with cars who drive me around ($30), and bike maintenance ($15).
My monthly transpo budget is at-- $474 a month
Multiply this by 12 months (and mind you, I'm on tour so much that there are months I won't even be spending anything on transpo)-- $5688
Add the yearly Flex Car membership and insurance-- $125
Subtract the amount I get from renting the carport-- $1080
TOTAL to transport me around town-- $4733
Savings (against $8000 estimate a year to own a car)-- $3267
Does this math sound right? It doesn't actually seem super significant a savings considering the headache of figuring getting myself around. I actually think I save a lot more since I'm not around all the time and work from home and don't even use the bus or won't always need the Flex Car. Oh yes, and I won't be having THAT many drunken nights that I need to cab around town. So my guess is that my savings might be something closer to $4000 a year, if not more.
OTHER PERKS OF THE CAR FREE LIFE
* I've been reading books on the bus! Yeah! Remember those?
* I have been taking notes about bus riding and have already been talking up "The Bus Show" with a really big LA Theater presenter... this very well could be a show!
* Needing to get around means I'm spending more time reaching out to friends. With cars, and without.
* I'm making new friends who don't have cars! Like my friend Narinda who blogged about me.
THE JOYS OF THE SUBWAY
I found myself in Downtown LA Sunday morning and needed to get to Koreatown. I had no idea that the subway (yes, there is a subway in Los Angeles) would get me there so quickly. It was exciting. Like I'd discovered some secret Los Angeles portal.
I've taken the subway here before, but had no idea how convenient it was. All these new stations opening! And there is nobody to check your ticket!
The Honor System? In Los Angeles?!
My friend Soo Jin and I went to Sunset Junction to see what the big freaking deal was with that annual summer Silverlake Street Fair. Basically, it was a sham. $20 to see bands I've not heard of. So we tried to recuperate the admission cost by amassing condom samples, free lightbulb samples, and beer samples. Someone bought our wristbands from us for $10 when we left, and we were happy for the rebate.
It was a fun weekend. We took the subway to get to Sunset Junction (avoiding a lot of parking headaches), and then took a bus to see the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors show. After the show, the guys from 18MMW gave a shout out to Herbert of Culture Clash and then to ME! I was so honored. I didn't do anything but show up.
And then I got a ride home from a friend I hadn't seen in a while. He gave me some real estate advice on the ride home. That's what has been nice about riding home with people, we actually get to talk outside a computer screen!
According to my friend Jay who drove me home, we got another year or two before the real estate market bottoms out!
I'm ready. I'm on the path to saving up for my first down payment on a house in my car free life and I'm going to invest what I have already until this market hits the pits.
Home ownership... here I come! Watch out Malibu! I'm coming for your foreclosed beach house! (By bus... at least....) -
Car(e) Free Los Angeles: The Wong Sans Wheels Chronicles #3-- How Fast I Fall.
Thursday, Aug 21, 2008 7:55AM / Members only
Did you know that not only are there children in Los Angeles, but seniors, and people who use wheelchairs to get around? Yes! It's true! I see them on the bus!
On the bus today there was an older woman with a big suitcase she couldn't get onto the bus. She screamed, "Help! Help!" And this younger guy got out of his seat to help her carry it on. She was so thankful and kept thanking him. He smiled back. And it was the sweetest interaction I remember seeing between two strangers in this city in a long time. I mean, when was the last time you saw strangers helping each other in LA who weren't expecting to be tipped?
So far, so good on the car free front. The bus has been good to me. My friends generously offer me rides when they can. And my friend Yen is loaning me her folding bike, so I have an easy-to-collapse bike option.
As I was filing old receipts, I cringed at all the auto bills from the last few months. I hate that car! There was easily a mortgage on a house in the desert in that car. Gone! No more investments that depreciate in value! Car Free! Here I come! For sure!
I have had weird anxiety dreams the last few nights about traveling. Last night, I had a dream that I was trying to get from Salt Lake City to Columbus, OH and couldn't find a direct flight to save my life. In the dream I had to drive to Bozeman, Montana to get a flight that could get me to another city in Ohio. And the whole time there was a guy screaming that I would never be able to get to Columbus on a direct flight. Never! He kept screaming in my dream.
I had a meeting at TeAda today about my show in one month. That's right! Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest hits Southern California for NINE SHOWS September 19- October 5! (By the way, the tickets are on sale NOW.)
I was telling the TeAda staff about my new life without the car:
"Last week I was a high class lady driving a fancy pink Mercedes down Rodeo Dr. And this week, I'm pushing a shopping cart filled with kitty litter past the homeless people on Santa Monica Blvd and sitting next to men who wear feces stained coveralls on the bus. Between that, my stimulus check, and the $40 coupon from the government to get a digital converter for my TV-- I feel like a senior citizen on welfare. How fast I fall!"
(insert their laughter)
I know, I'm being dramatic. And it has been pointed out to me many times since last week, I am fortunate that making the decision to be a car-less citizen of Los Angeles is my choice, not an economics obligation.
But I can't help but feel like a second class citizen of the city as I wait at these bus stops all vulnerable to the big noisy cars vrooming past me. Sitting with other quite-average-for-LA -standards people who many Angelinos forget also live and work in our city. It's been great to get some reading done, to send emails from my blackberry, and to get a few blocks of walking in here and there-- but I still feel very disoriented in my new identity as a car free citizen in this city.
I was on a big bicycling kick three years ago (remember when I did the AIDS Ride?) and left my car parked quite often. But there is part of me that feels invisible/ lost/ disabled without a big machine in my carport with my name on it-- literally.
Though, I did kinda flip out today when I realized how much this car loss has hit my bank balance. The car loss was conveniently timed after all these expensive repairs, my return from an unpaid 6 week residency in Florida, and a long summer with virtually no shows dates scheduled. Lest my readers forget, this artist must survive in the same economy as you! I'm actually looking forward to the school year starting-- schools shows! I need you!
Perhaps its a great thing that the car imploded. Because at this rate, it would take down every last cent I had.
By the way, I was just approved for the Zipcar carshare service yesterday. So I will have an option for a lo-cost rental car with free gas should I so desperately need a car in the next year. If you are interested in signing up, let me know, I can send you an email that will allow me to get $50 in driving credit! -
Car(e) Free Los Angeles: The Wong Sans Wheels Chronicles #2: I CAN ROCK A SHOPPING CART
Sunday, Aug 17, 2008 11:27AM / Members only
Stats
- Kristina Wong is a nationally presented solo performer, writer, actor, educator, culture jammer, and filmmaker. Described by the East Bay Express as "brutal but hilarious... a woman who takes lif...
- Occupation: Theater , Stand-up Comedian , Author
- Gender: Female
- Total visits: 2,901
