Gridlock

President Obama will return to Los Angeles on Friday, and the city is bracing for a repeat of extreme gridlock because of his visit. Obama felt the sting of Angeleno road rage in August when street closures for his motorcade stretched Westside commutes from the normal 45 minutes to the duration of a one-way flight from L.A. to Chicago. Will traffic conditions be smoother this time? Los Angeles police say don't count on it. Even in places where streets aren't closed, traffic could be affected well into the evening rush hour.

Re "Unsnarling traffic can be a mess," Opinion, March 2 Marc Haefele ignores a number of businesses on Pico in the congested path adjacent to Century City that would suffer devastating effects from the traffic plan proposed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and L.A. City Councilman Jack Weiss. Haefele should have done some research to determine what actually contributes to the gridlock and why Weiss and the mayor are partly to blame for it. Both have supported mammoth, traffic-generating developments that bring many thousands of cars to this clogged area without requiring the adequate infrastructure to accommodate the traffic.

"Do I look like a firework?" Adam Lambert cooed from the stage at Gridlock's fourth annual New Year's Eve bash. "That was my motivation." Sporting his signature finger-less gloves and going a little heavier on the usual glitter and guyliner allotment, the "American Idol" runner-up had his work cut out for him at the Paramount Pictures lot Thursday night: executing his first full set of original music in front of about 4,500 revelers, each of...

On June 7 you ran a Voices piece, "Transportation of Tomorrow Exists Today." On June 8 you ran "Valley's Silver Bullet Hits Mark," featuring Gerald A. Silver ("the most public face of opposition to freeway expansion"), and "O.C. Doesn't Want to Leave the Suburbs." The latter two articles are why the first article doesn't stand a chance. Today, Silver and his ilk are heroes to a small but vocal number of Valley residents, and the citizens of Irvine are patting themselves on the back for voting to delete their portion of the 11.4-mile light-rail system.

Marcella and Richard Tyler may be in the path of a traffic hurricane many fear will whip around next weekend's shutdown of the 405 Freeway, one of the most heavily traveled interstates in the nation. The couple's Sherman Oaks neighborhood, near Sepulveda Boulevard, sits in an extended corridor between the San Fernando Valley and West Los Angeles most at risk of becoming clogged with motorists trying to skirt the 53-hour closure of the 405 for construction work. "We believe the streets will be totally gridlocked.

In a sign that political paralysis in Congress is taking a toll on its own members, Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) on Monday unexpectedly announced he would not run for reelection this year, blasting the Senate for its recent failure to address major issues like reducing unemployment and the federal deficit. "After all these years, my passion for service to my fellow citizens is undiminished, but my desire to do so in Congress has waned," said Bayh, whose decision to step down was all the more surprising because he appeared almost certain to be reelected to a third term in November even though he represents a predominantly Republican state.

Jerry Brown captured the governor's office for Democrats at the same time voters entrusted his party with broad new authority over state finances, changing the Constitution to sideline Republicans in the effort to climb out of the budget abyss. But that will not necessarily free California of political gridlock. It is true that Brown and Democrats will be able to jam through their own spending plan without GOP votes if they choose to; passage of Proposition 25 allows lawmakers to pass budgets with the simple majority that Democrats command.

In Southern California, where tourism is the top industry, not everyone is happy with the visitors flocking back to Hollywood after a recession-fueled slump. In the high-priced environs of Beverly Hills and the Hollywood Hills, some residents say an increase in tour buses ? crowded with photo-snapping tourists ? is clogging narrow residential streets, generating noise and causing gridlock. "On weekends, it's every 10 minutes," said Tre Gibbs, a voice actor who lives on Beachwood Drive, a popular tour bus route to the iconic Hollywood sign.

The budget crisis in Los Angeles may have unpleasant consequences for concert- goers, Lakers fans and even Dodgers fans on the day of the first game of the National League Championship Series: gridlock. For more than a decade, the city has covered the full cost of providing traffic officers for events at the Greek Theatre, Hollywood Bowl, Coliseum, Sports Arena and former Olympic Auditorium. Similarly, it absorbed part of the cost for traffic officers who keep cars moving around Dodger Stadium and Staples Center.