>> BREATHE LA’s Green Salon considers the latest advances in diesel use and examines new policies that mandate a shift to cleaner practices.  Event includes a drawing for four free pairs of Metrolink Weekend Passes.  BREATHE LA will be hosting events throughout the day, so check their website for more details.  The Green Salon takes place Thu., Oct. 27 from 9-10:30 a.m. at The California Endowment, 1000 N. Alameda Street, Los Angeles. Cost: free. Email info@breathela.org to register.

>> EarthFlow Design Works, Fais Do Do and The Los Angeles Permaculture Guild present Harvest the Rain, a book signing and talk with Nate Downey, author of Harvest the Rain. “Every drop of rain is an opportunity, every storm a resource.”  Come out on Fri., Oct. 28 from 7-9:30 pm at Café Club Fais Do-Do, 5257 West Adams Blvd., Los Angeles. Cost: Free.

>> Come out this weekend for the first Green Festival in Los Angeles.  Listen to experts talk, check out eco-friendly products, taste delicious organic foods and beverages, try out yoga and movement classes, and mix and mingle with other forward thinking minds!  Event takes places Sat., Oct. 29 from 10 am – 7 pm and Sun., Oct. 30 from 11 am – 6 pm at the Los Angeles Convention Center, 1201 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles.  Cost: free for minors and folks that cycle to the event, or $15 at the door.  See website for more details.

Image via Green Festival

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>> Metro day passes are just $5 now! Enjoy the cheaper rides while they last –

>> Plastic bags are officially banned in Long Beach starting today — at least in the big stores. And paper bags will cost you 10 cents each — so remember to BYOB! In case you’ve forgotten, a plastic bag ban also went into effect for the unincorporated areas of L.A. County last month. Here’s how we’re doing on plastic bag bans in L.A County cities. Earlier: Got extra reusable bags? Drop them off at Santa Monica’s Share A Bag spots.

And soon you can expect:

>> Birth control sans copays. Insurers now have to cover birth control with no copays — which I think is big green news. Fewer unplanned pregnancies means fewer baby Americans means fewer resources needed. Earlier: Single and happy? Five single bloggers that make solo living fun.

>> Less trees and better views at Yosemite. Of course, hacking down trees for sightseeing purposes is a plan that’s proving controversial.

>> Less Chromium 6 — a.k.a. the Erin Brokovich chemical — in California tap water. California set the nation’s first public health goal for this carcinogen at 0.02 ppb — an unenforceable limit, but one that’s hoped to, you know, become enforceable. LA Times reports: “Environmentalists praised the new state goal, saying they hoped it would pressure state and federal officials to set enforceable standards for the metal and other drinking water contaminants.”

Photo by Fire Monkey Fish

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In case you haven’t heard yet: L.A. cyclists raced against a JetBlue plane from Burbank to  Long Beach over the weekend — and the two-wheelers won by over an hour. Even more interestingly, public transit taker (and also a cycling advocate) Gary Kavanagh beat the plane too. So did a tweeting woman on rollerblades!

Clearly, fighting traffic to the airport, making it through security, and relying on a cab driver to know the way is not as efficient as traveling across town in more eco-friendly ways. Slate has the unofficial finish times, calculated by @bcgp:

Bike: 1:34
Metro/Walk: 1:44
Rollerblades: 2:40
Plane/Lost Cabdriver: 2:54

For those new to the story, Slate’s Tom Vanderbilt provides a nice comprehensive article on what went down — and waxes lyrical about the possibilities of cycling and public transit in the city:

In the face of this fanciful idea (a traffic-busting flight!) it became possible to demonstrate that cycling, often taken as a non-serious or marginal or even annoying (to some drivers) form of transportation in the United States, could seem eminently reasonable: not only the cheapest form of transportation, not merely the one with the smallest carbon footprint, not only the one most beneficial to the health of its user, but the fastest….

But the race today wasn’t only about the cyclists. Gary Kavanagh*, who had reacted enthusiastically to my initial daydreaming about a “Tour de Carmageddon,” was the day’s dark horse, revealing the secret efficacy—and perhaps, for some remote Twitter spectators, the existence—of Los Angeles’ oft-derided subway system. (When I thought of a cyclist racing a jet, I admittedly wasn’t even aware one could take mass transit between BUR and LGB).

Many Angelenos who weren’t even aware of this race talked about how the freeway closure actually made for quite the pleasant weekend. KPCC’s Molly Peterson picked up on this tweet from L.A. County’s public transit agency Metro:

That’s one big idea — and GOOD asked for more this morning by kicking off a new project: “Imagine Your Los Angeles Street Beyond Cars.” Submit your best car-free vision by Sunday, July 31 for a chance to get it seen at the A+D Museum on Thursday, August 11 during the Moving Beyond Cars party. One winner will get GOOD goodies and other prizes. RSVP for the party now to find out who the winner is then.

Earlier:  Without a Car in the World: See 100 Car-free Angelenos

Photo by Michael Dorausch

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Yes, the 405′s closing for a weekend. Yes, the 10 and 110 freeways are getting toll roads. Here’s why you should stop whining, as L.A. Times’ Steve Lopez advises, and start taking public transportation more often.

>> Public transportation + calorie counts on menus = Weight loss. Fascinating story from a man who always thought he’d be fat — then lost 80 pounds by moving to New York, where walking’s de rigeur and calorie counts are prominently posted at fast food joints, per state law.

The first week in New York I went to Chipotle, something familiar from back home, and I was confronted with a menu that prominently listed each item’s calories, posted by law thanks to a 2008 regulation championed by Mayor Mike Bloomberg. The truth was shocking. The tortilla alone was 290 calories, plus beans and rice added another 250 calories. That was 540 calories before I even made a real choice. For my favorite burrito — chicken with corn salsa and guacamole — the grand total was about 960 calories. Here I was making “healthy choices” at Chipotle, and I’d blown nearly half a day’s suggested calories.

Earlier:
>> Simple summer slimming tip: Take public transit to drop pounds
>> 7 Eco-friendly diets: Live green, lose weight, save money
>> Supersized is the new normal — but can you eat just half the burrito?
>> Organic junk food — less corn syrup, just as many calories

>> Metro’s even offering some free bus service during the 405 closure — and “adding 61 buses and 32 rail cars to enhance service on the bus and rail lines serving the area which will be impacted.” See if your fave bus line’s offering free rides next weekend.

Photo by Michelle

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>> Yes, you can get from San Francisco to Los Angeles via public transportation. A writer for the SF Weekly did it (via LAist):

I wander off into the heart of downtown L.A. beneath a staggeringly bright midday sun. Doing the math, I have just taken 16 buses or trains operated by seven public agencies. Transportation costs totaled $41.25 for a trip that took exactly 32 hours and seven minutes and covered some 480 miles. And was it crazy? Of course. But traversing the state via public transit allows you to meet people and see places you’d never encounter in any other way. You share a seat with a cross-section of California.

>> Get ready to bike downtown — Bicycle lanes are planned for Figueroa, Flower, Spring and Main Streets. According to blogdowntown, “within the next year, lanes should be headed to Figueroa between 7th and Cesar Chavez, Flower between 3rd and 7th, Spring between Cesar Chavez and 9th and Main between Cesar Chavez and Venice.”

>> Californians are snapping up electric cars — so much so that California’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Project has run out of money! LA Times reports “The ARB proposes to triple the amount of funding to the program for the 2011-2012 fiscal year to $15 million. The rebate amount for zero-emissions vehicles, however, is likely to be reduced, from $5,000 to $2,500 in order to meet demand.”

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