A Weekend for Coffee Lovers and the Eco-Friendly — or Perhaps Eco-Friendly Coffee Lovers

Who’s the best barista in the West? Intelligentsia Coffee is holding the Western Regional Barista Competition this weekend in downtown.

Competition takes place starting today at 11 a.m. through Sunday. Coffee and espresso will be served through the event — and the public is welcome.

Details: “Coffee lovers, true believers, under-macchiato’d hopefuls, join us at the Spring Arts Tower, 453 Spring St., (downtown) Los Angeles.”

ALSO THIS WEEKEND: The Go Green Expo takes place this weekend, Jan. 23-25, at the L.A. Convention Center. The event showcases eco-friendly products, services and business, as well as interactive presentations and panel discussions in numerous categories.

According to the event, “Among the stars appearing at the Los Angeles event, Ed Begley Jr., renowned actor and a leader in the environmental community, and Academy Award nominee Mariel Hemingway will be speaking to event attendees about how to live a greener life.”

Hey, you’re already downtown, I’d say, check out both!

Autumn in January

With the prolonged “cold” weather here, it’s finally fall in Southern California. Our tree, above, quickly turned a nice shade of gold, and is now dramatically shedding leaves. Below, we woke up one morning recently to frost — frost!– on our grass.

C’mon, Los Angeles, Fix Your Slovenly Ways

Twice in two days now, I’ve been driving behind someone who — at a stop sign or stop light — tossed their garbage right onto the street.

Yesterday, it was a car full of punk ass teens throwing their empty soda bottles out the window. Today, it was a business man IN A BMW!! who opened up his car door while idling at a stop light, and SET HIS STYROFOAM CONTAINER ON THE STREET next to his car, before driving off!

People, it’s 2008. That’s just not how we do things. The world is not your trash can. Ideally, you oughta be recycling that bottle. But for starters, how about not slamming your refuse in the streets? Thanks.

Lamenting the Ambassador

Actress and preservationist Diane Keaton wishes now that an environmental argument had been used in the battle to Ambassador Hotel. She writes in an LAT op-ed:

Preservation has always been a hard sell in Los Angeles. But maybe in the years ahead it won’t be as hard as it used to be, considering several new facts. No. 1, as my Dad would have said, a building represents an enormous investment of energy — much bigger than we thought when we were fighting to save the Ambassador. No. 2, we now know that construction of new structures alone consumes 40% of the raw materials that enter our economy every year. No. 3, according to the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the resources required to manufacture these materials and transport them to a site and assemble them into a structure is the equivalent of consuming 5 to 15 gallons of oil per square foot. No. 4, a Brookings Institution study indicates that the construction of new buildings alone will destroy one-third of our existing building stock by 2030. And finally, No. 5, the energy used to destroy older buildings in addition to the energy used to build new ones could power the entire state of California for 10 years, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

We’ve treated old buildings like we once treated plastic shopping bags — we haven’t reused them, and when we’ve finished with them, we’ve tossed them out. This has to stop. Preservation must stand alongside conservation as an equal force in the sustainability game. More older and historic buildings have to be protected from demolition, not only because it affects our pocketbooks but more important because it threatens our environment.

Of course, as Keaton notes, every other argument failed to sway the LAUSD, and I’m doubtful these assertions would have changed anything.

Hey Kids, Let’s Rap About The History of Recycling!

Meet the LA City mascots! Via LA City’s website, today we introduce you to Robo Blue.

His “blue brothers and sisters”? Brings up an, ahem, obvious question: How does one figure out the gender of a recycling bin?

A Car-Free Wilshire on Earth Day

Emerald City has the details on the Earth Day celebration at Wilshire Center. Closing down a chunk of Wilshire (between Harvard and Western) for most of the day — pretty big, and sure to cause some driving headaches. (I know it will affect my commute). But I suppose that’s the point.

I wish I could join in, and go car-free for at least one day. But there’s just no logical mass transit way to make it from our Glendale home to my mid-Wilshire offices that wouldn’t take hours and hours. I’d also love to see the free Michael Franti show; Franti puts on a good show, and manages to mix cool beats with socially relevant lyrics. But it’s Tuesday… so there’s no chance to make it down there.

Nonetheless, the festival goes on from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., so make it down there if you can take the Metro Purple Line straight to the festivities, or Metro bus. Or bike it, Emerald City’s Siel suggests.

License Plate of the Day: Green Edition

Here’s someone who has clearly converted their diesel Mercedes to run on biofuel. After pouring that vegetable oil in your tank, your exhaust supposedly smells like french fries — not a bad reason to convert your car, environmental reasons aside. Hence the “Fry-o-Diesel” license plate.

Insult to Injury on La Brea’s Tree Kill Lane

It’s not bad enough that the lush trees on La Brea were chopped down earlier this year (leaving nothing but ugly stumps up and down the street), but now, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts building — which had previously been covered by the trees — has painted its La Brea campus a puke-y burnt orange.

Too… much… orange. Why was that necessary?

Granted, I’m still getting used to the stark brightness of that part of La Brea (not to mention those naked stumps) in the wake of last October’s tree massacare.

Here’s a reminder of what went down. As you can see, behind the trees, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts building was a deep olive color. Not sure that’s much better (what’s with these Crayola 64 box colors?), but it’s still not as out of place as that burnt orange.

Helios House of Music

It’s still one of the most surreal gas station sights you’ll see: Coffeehouse-style performances at BP’s Helios House.

Helios House, the semi-eco-friendly gas station at the corner of Olympic and Robertson, is not without controversy — after all, it’s more than a little odd to see an oil company start spouting green-friendly jargon.

But given the choice between a regular gas station or one that at least s acknowledging eco issues, I try to fill up there when I’m on the west side (which is rare). Above, a guitarist performs at one of the regular Helios House nighttime gatherings.

And below, a drive-by look at the station.

When a Tree Falls on La Brea, It Does Make a Sound

Strange happenings on La Brea this past Saturday afternoon, as zealous workers were taking a chainsaw to quite a few trees up and down the east side of the street.

Were the trees diseased? Blocking someone’s view? Mistakingly chopped down?

The massive project caused a surface steet traffic jam, as La Brea was reduced to just one lane at a point.

That’s a lot of wood.

Anyone with firm details on why these trees were cut down, let us know!