My new go-to spot for a fast superfood fix: Earthbar. Here you can get a quick sweet meal full of healthy, organic ingredients — like the Acai Bowl (above). This healthy vegan twist on the yogurt parfait has three layers: A blended, yogurt-like bottom of acai, banana, hemp milk, and add ons of your choice — in my case, almond butter for an extra nutty protein kick, homemade granola in the middle, and fresh bananas and strawberries on top.

The Acai Bowl actually comes in a large cup — and makes for a very filling lunch! For a lighter meal or snack, Earthbar also offers lots of fresh organic juices and smoothies. My friend Traci got an Earth Berry organic smoothie (below) — blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries sweetened with agave and blended in coconut water.

Need something you can really chew on? Earthbar’s bars are fresher, superfood-ier alternatives to the run-of-the-mill energy bar. The organic bliss bar, for example, is made with raw almonds, cashews, goji berries, cacao nibs, agave, hemp seeds, maca, flax seeds, sea salt — all for $3.75. (more…)

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The organic dining competition’s heating up in West Hollywood. Tender Greens, O! Burger, and Hugo’s Restaurant now have a new green friend — Fresheast, an organic, pan Asian eatery in West Hollywood.

This casual dining spot serves your favorite Asian dishes — made organic and healthy. Opt for the Korean Bulgogi Bowl (above) made with Harris Ranch certified natural beef, Chinese Mongolian Chicken made with natural Jidori Chicken, or the Japanese Green Tea Salmon (below) made with certified organic Shetland Salmon. Thai and Indian dishes are represented too.

But for veg and vegan readers: Fresheast isn’t all about the meat. In fact, (more…)

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Los Angeles is known as THE car-centric, traffic snarled city. But if you’ve ever been in a car in New York City, you know that traffic there’s really, really bad too. So why aren’t New Yorkers constantly complaining about their horrific traffic? Because they don’t have to deal with it — they’ve got a great subway system and a newly expanded bike network too!

That’s why the news that building L.A.’s Subway to the Sea would only relieve traffic congestion by 1 percent doesn’t disappoint me at all. Once that subway gets built, it’s bye-bye to fighting traffic — and hello to hopping on a subway train that’ll get me from Union Station to UCLA — in just 25 minutes.

The 1 percent statistic was announced as part of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement/ Environmental Impact Report for the Westside Subway Extension — or to put it in layperson’s terms, a draft study of how extending the Purple Line down Wilshire (and perhaps the Red Line through West Hollywood and Beverly Hills too) all the way to the beach would affect the city.

Even if you’re a diehard driver, there are good selfish reasons to support the Westside Subway Extension. Think a 1 percent improvement’s too measly an improvement to be worth pursuing? Zach Behrens at LAist points out that without the subway, traffic will get a whole lot worse instead of very slightly better: “Population growth means more vehicles on the road. Metro estimates about a 26% increase in daily vehicle miles traveled within the westside subway extension area.”

Ready to start riding the subway? Well, it’ll be a little while. Steve Hymon at Metro’s The Source blog spells out just how long you may have to wait:

Under the long-range plan adopted by the Board of Directors of Metro last year, the subway would reach Fairfax by 2019, Century City by 2026 and Westwood by 2036 using a combination of Measure R sales tax money and federal funds. Why so long? Because the subway to Westwood is expected to cost about $4 billion and sales tax money flows into local coffers over time — not all at once. Measure R funds also have to fund a plethora of other projects promised to county voters.

However, there is a plan to speed up construction of the subway. The 30/10 Initiative being pursued by Metro — and backed by many other politicians, environmental, business and labor groups — would use federal loans and other financing to try to build 12 Measure R transit projects in the next 10 years. So there’s hope.

Want to help get the subway built sooner rather than later? Then you’ve got to get involved with making the Westside Subway Extension a reality. Read the executive summary of the draft EIR (PDF) — or if that 64-page PDF is just too painful, read Steve’s quick bullet points about the report at The Source.

Then get thee to one of the public meetings about the draft EIR! Those will happen from 6 pm – 8 pm on:

>> Mon., Sep. 20, LACMA West – Terrace Room, 5th Fl., 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.

>> Tue., Sep. 21, Westwood United Methodist Church – Fellowship Hall, 3rd Fl., 10497 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles

>> Wed., Sep. 22, Plummer Park – Community Center, 7377 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood.

>> Mon., Sep. 27, Roxbury Park – Auditorium, 471 S Roxbury Dr., Beverly Hills.

>> Wed., Sep. 29, Santa Monica Main Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica.

After Metro collects feedback until Oct. 18, Metro officials will select a route for construction on Oct. 28 — after which will come a final environmental impact report, followed by actual action to start building the subway (the process is more complicated than I’ve made it sound; see page 2 of the executive summary for the wonky details).

Earlier: Find out what the Subway to the Sea stations near you will look like

Images via Metro

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Don’t have the time or money to invest in both an organic face mask and a scrub? Get both in one in Josh Rosebrook’s Active Enzyme Exfoliator, a new skincare product made with all organic and wild-crafted ingredients!

In this yummy skin concoction, an honey mask meets a gentle walnut scrub. Concocted by Josh Rosebrook, senior stylist at West Hollywood hair salon The Parlour on 3rd, this exfoliator’s full of organic herbal extracts — from bilberry to white willow bark to ginkgo leaf — combined with very finely ground walnut shells and organic essential oils in an organic honey base. Open the jar and you’ll get an intense herbal scent — by which I mean real, organic, botanical herbs, not the weird synthetic stuff that gives Herbal Essences its not-so-natural odor.

For green beauty seekers used to exfoliating with a scrub, washing off, then reapplying a face mask, Josh Rosebrook’s exfoliator will simplify your routine. Just apply a small amount of the product in a circular motion to exfoliate, then leave the stuff on to work its magic as an herb-and-enzyme honey mask — for as little as 10 minutes to as long as an hour — before rinsing off.

I was a little nervous before using Josh Rosebrook’s exfoliator because I was concerned the walnut shells would be too abrasive for my skin — but I found that the shells were ground into very fine granules that did their work gently and that the honey and enzyme mask left my skin feeling healthy and pampered. That, plus the fact that this exfoliator’s really about as organic and natural as a product can get, makes me think the product will be replacing my usual Arcona Cranberry Gommage as my favorite exfoliator.

There is a downside to this coveted skin care elixir full of high-end organic ingredients, however. At $60 for a 2-ounce jar, Josh Rosebrook’s exfoliator doesn’t come cheap. A small amount of the product goes a long way, though, and if you were spending more than $60 to buy separate scrubs and masks, this exfoliator could actually save you money.

Find Josh Rosebrook’s Active Enzyme Exfoliator at The Parlour on 3rd, both in store or by calling 323.651.4200, and expect other L.A.-area spas and boutiques to start offering this product in the fall.

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>> Malibu’s Paradise Cove’s no longer Parasite Cove, thanks to the city’s Clean Ocean Project, a new facility that’ll capture runoff stormwater, cleaning and disinfecting the dirty water before sending it out to the ocean. Writes Heal the Bay’s Mark Gold: “The end result should be dry weather straight “A”s for years to come, and maybe even “A” grades during the rainy season too.”

>> L.A.’s turning into a cyclist’s paradise for a day, when CicLAvia rolls into town. Come Sun., Sept. 12 from 10 am to 3 pm, 7 miles of roads from Boyle Heights to East Hollywood will be closed to cars — and open to bikes and vibrant, car-free streetlife. (via LAist)

>> Prep for CicLAvia by taking the FREE Confident City Cycling Course sponsored by the City of West Hollywood. Local bike activist Ron Durgin will be teaching the class, which includes a class session on Sat., July 10 and an on-the-road session Sat., July 17. Classes frun from 11 am – 4 pm both days; contact Ron at 424.288.1747 or rdurgin@gmail.com to sign up. (via Be a Green Commuter)

Photo by ubrayj02

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