The upcoming weekend's 405 closure between the 101 and 10 freeways, which has been dubbed "Carmageddon," is fast approaching. With just a little more than 2 days to go, media hype has crescendoed and the entire LA area is being made to believe that this is practically the end of the world. Get out of town, stay off the roads, and brace yourselves seems to be the dominating message.
How about this one: does anybody remember the 1984 Olympics? Granted, I was rocking some huggies at the time, but residents were told before the Games to do as much as they could to stay off the roads. Yes, there was still a warning message prior to the event, but those that reported the upocoming event didn't speculate over the length and extent of delays. They reported that in order to avoid gridlock and delays, the public's cooperation would be required.
Today's journalists just like pouring gasoline on any tiny flame in the hopes of turning it into the next towering inferno. Sensationalism sells second only to sex, apparently. That's why reality TV is- gasp- scripted, after all. Sure, there will be a bit of a spillover of traffic into the canyons and onto some of the side streets, but I'm thinking that overall the effect just won't be that bad. Of course some drama queen in West Hollywood is going to perform some over-the-top lementing to the on-camera news reporter because the 3 square blocks around Coldwater Canyon were more congested than normal, and people had bad tempers, honking their horns and such, but come on...Drama Queen?...We-Ho?... it's not professional to stage newstories, people!
I plan on finding a good vantage point from a distance on Saturday morning, to assess the damage- or lack thereof- that Carmageddon is creating. I see a problem, so I'm offering a solution. Facts oriented observation of the issue at hand, as it unfolds this weekend. Keep the feed rolling (blogosphere version of stay tuned)....
No comments:
Post a Comment