Public Facilities

An openly fractious Supreme Court opened the way Monday for states to limit access to abortion but it stopped well short of overturning the landmark Roe vs. Wade ruling that made the practice legal in 1973. On a 5-4 vote in the most closely watched case in a decade, the high court took a significant step back from its long-established practice of striking down nearly all state restrictions on abortion.

The list of tasks was simple enough: Get a drink of water at the library, go up the ramp entrance to the school district office, make a deposit at a bank, cross Garey Avenue and buy a soda at a Mexican restaurant. But these everyday errands, normally so easy to accomplish, became a grueling test Thursday when a group of able-bodied Pomona officials and members of the business community made themselves "disabled" for a time on what was billed as Access Awareness Day.

This summer my mission was to discover the five best public places to play pickup hoops in Greater Los Angeles. I've been playing basketball most of my life. I grew up in Seattle and played guard at Seattle University, then transferred to Occidental College in Eagle Rock where I played the last two seasons on the basketball team. This fall I will be a senior. I searched all over for games.

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Friday to make it illegal to urinate or defecate in public, a step many said was necessary to curb a growing problem of human waste on city streets. Some advocates for the homeless were outraged.

If Los Angeles officials want a glimpse of what might result from their decision to install 150 pay toilets around town, including in its most downtrodden areas, they need only consult Robert Anderson. Each day, the downtown parking attendant watches drug-addled street denizens with their shaking hands and dirty bedrolls congregate at the corner of 6th and Mission on San Francisco's skid row. At the oval-shaped pay toilet, one of 25 installed by the same French company with which L.A.

Re “ Making the mean streets a little less mean ,” Editorial, Dec. 24 Homeless resident David Busch built a homemade public toilet. He conscientiously cleaned and serviced it and disposed of the waste, all for free, instead of cursing the city of Los Angeles for failing to provide public facilities. The city's failure also jeopardized the health of housed residents in the area, where streets provided the only alternative. Busch's real crime was to embarrass public officials.

They've been coming to Urartu Coffee for months, and every day it's the same. They sit. They sip. They smoke. It's hard to explain, the men say -- there's just something about the taste of tar joining java. But Jack Kakoyan, 28, and his friends may soon stop meeting at their usual table, where they spend hours socializing in the sun.

The following hotel reviews are excerpted from Zagat Surveys, a series of regional dining and lodging guides based on extensive ratings and reviews contributed by local restaurant-goers and frequent travelers. Ratings for rooms, service, dining and public facilities are based on a numerical scale: 0-9, poor to fair; 10-19, good to very good; 20-25, very good to excellent; 26-30, extraordinary to perfect. Hotel price reflects estimate of a double room for one night.

New Orleans-bound business travelers may want to consider these value-oriented hotels--or splurge at the city's top hotel dining rooms. The following reviews are excerpted from Zagat Surveys, a series of regional dining and lodging guides based on extensive ratings and reviews contributed by local restaurant-goers and frequent travelers.