Breaking My Addiction

I wanted to move to Downtown LA so I could utilize public transit more often, but the day I moved to my apartment the city announced it would shut down for COVID the next day. And just like that, we were shut down. Although everything has gone back to normal, I continued to drive drive drive mostly because it took less time than public transit. So I’d drive to the various markets I go to.

One of the things I noticed while I was in Berlin was the myth that public transit there was faster than it is here in LA. While that marginally might be the case, it’s not necessarily significant. It would regularly take me 40 minutes to get to anywhere not including the walking that had to be done. I resolved to take more public transport here in LA despite its imperfections.

Yesterday I needed to go to Hannam Chain Market in Koreatown on Olympic and Berendo, so I took the 28 that picks up near my apartment on 6th and Spring. I had music in my ears and a book to read, so I really tuned out my surroundings. I looked up and realized oh shit, we’re already there. In just 15 minutes we were there!

There has been a lot of talk about how unsafe Metro is, but on a Saturday late morning, a bus from Downtown through the Pico-Union district to Koreatown was uneventful. The worst thing about it were the fucking dots on the window:

There were two other annoying things that I noted:

• People who don’t use headphones – I don’t want to hear your shitty music, your shitty video, your shitty phone conversations. I really hope you lose your hearing.
• People who smoke pot in public – I get it. Pot is legal in California. Hooray. But that doesn’t mean you must smoke your shitty ass skunk weed wherever you damn well please. I still have PTSD from the time this really stoned motherfucker came over, and I had the worst sex ever. Just one whiff of pot makes me relive this experience.

This is probably why I hate leaving the house. But, to be honest, the dots were the worst.

Regardless of these quibbles, it was a completely pleasant experience. I didn’t have to stress about dumb ass motherfuckers who don’t know how to drive in Downtown. I didn’t have to worry about drivers who for whatever reason refuse to even come close to driving the speed limit. I just sat my ass in a seat, wait 15 minutes, and voila!