Category Archives: Metro Mentions

use for ‘Metro Mentions’ badge

Metro featured in high-profile Google ad during Grammys

Posted by
A woman steps inside a Metro train in a new Google ad.

A woman steps inside a Metro train in a new Google ad.

A commercial for Google that aired during the recent Grammy Award Show prominently featured Los Angeles Metro Rail. The ad showcased different scenarios with people in various cities using the new Google Now product. While people in other cities are shown checking the weather or looking up restaurants, the creative team behind the commercial chose to feature Metro Rail and a fashionable transit customer to represent Los Angeles.

Inclusion in this high-profile ad speaks approvingly of Metro’s rebranding and creative services work including maps, mobile apps and overall communications encouraging people to Go Metro.

The favorable ad was seen by 28.4 million viewers, according to Nielsen and reported by the Los Angeles Times–the second-largest audience for the recording industry’s annual awards show in the last 20 years.

New Google product demonstrating how users can check Metro Rail train times

New Google product demonstrating how users can check Metro Rail train times.

Students at summer science camp study the Expo Line

Posted by

 

Science camps have come a long way since the days of making bottle rockets and building balsa wood bridges. The middle school students attending the ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp at USC this year were studying urban infrastructure, green technology and how to reduce congestion and pollution through light rail transit. As it so happened, the Expo Line was conveniently available for them to use as a case scenario.

A future urban transportation planner at work! This camper is at the computer programming his robot “train” for its run through the LEGO city.

The 48 campers from grades 6-8 spent two weeks analyzing the Expo Phase II Final Environmental Impact Report, studying the route alignment and designing their own cities and autonomous light rail vehicles. They also got the chance to go on excursions and see the science at work out in the field. Earlier this morning, the students presented their LEGO-made master cities, the robots they designed and programmed to run through those cities (see video posted above, and yes that is this year’s Festival of Books dinosaur in the background) and stated their findings and opinions on the Expo Line Phase II.

While the summer science camp ended today, the campers’ love of science and engineering continue on. Who knows, one of these kids could be designing a real rail system for Metro one day!

Metro Mentions: Good Girl Dinette website

Posted by

Metro Mentions is a  feature on The Source where we highlight advertisements  we’ve stumbled upon that include Metro access information. Why? In this car-culture town, when local businesses and community organizations voluntarily go out of their way to include transit information in their ads, it raises awareness and informs people of transportation alternatives. Besides, transit info is something commonly seen in ads in other regions. Have you spotted a Metro Mention? Let us know at thesource@metro.net.

A reader sent in this Metro Mention: Good Girl Dinette, a Highland Park eatery specializing in Vietnamese food, makes note of its proximity to Metro Rail on its website. The critically acclaimed diner is just around the corner from the Highland Park Gold Line Station.

A quick glance at the menu reveals super affordable (nothing over $10) Vietnamese comfort foods – and Jonathan Gold lists the Chicken Pot Pie on his 99 Things to Eat in L.A. Before You Die list.

Yours truly is likely going to heed this Metro Mention and hop on the Gold Line this weekend to try out Good Girl Dinette. See, it pays to mention Metro!

Metro Mentions: Good Girl Dinette

"2 blocks from the Gold Line" Thanks for the mention!

Metro Mentions: take the Red Line to kickball!

Posted by

Metro Mentions is a  feature on The Source where we highlight advertisements  we’ve stumbled upon that include Metro access information. Why? In this car-culture town, when local businesses and community organizations voluntarily go out of their way to include transit information in their ads, it raises awareness and informs people of transportation alternatives. Besides, transit info is something commonly seen in ads in other regions. Have you spotted a Metro Mention? Let us know at thesource@metro.net.

Metro Mentions: take the Red Line to kickball!

Click to enlarge.

I spotted this little advertisement for a local adult kickball league in a recent issue of the Los Angeles Downtown News. The ad invites individuals, groups and teams to join the league for a season of games at the Shatto Recreation Center which, the ad informs us, is located right off a Metro Red Line station.

Now the ad doesn’t specify which Red Line station exactly, but a little Google Maps sleuthing reveals that it’s about four blocks away from the Wilshire/Vermont Station which also happens to be a Purple Line stop.

Plus, kickball is only half the fun of joining the league – the other half is partying after the game at The Mexican Village restaurant. League organizers were obviously thinking transit because the restaurant happens to be two blocks from the Vermont/Beverly Red Line Station. That means that after the game it’s a quick car-free ride to the after party.

Metro Mentions: 655 Hope advertisement

Posted by

Metro Mentions is a  feature on The Source where we highlight advertisements  we’ve stumbled upon that include Metro access information. Why? In this car-culture town, when local businesses and community organizations voluntarily go out of their way to include transit information in their ads, it raises awareness and informs people of transportation alternatives. Besides, transit info is something commonly seen in ads in other regions. Have you spotted a Metro Mention? Let us know at thesource@metro.net.

Metro Mention: 655 Hope
Downtown L.A. is not only the region’s transportation hub, it’s also the hub for luxury high rise loft apartments and condos. 655 Hope is one such luxury residence and it happens to be perched right atop the Hope Street entrance of the 7th Street Metro Center Station in the heart of Downtown’s Financial District.

655 Hope’s 45 loft condominiums have gone up for auction as noted in an advertisement in last Saturday’s L.A. Times Real Estate/New Homes advertising supplement and on 655 Hope’s own website. The list of amenities in the advertisement includes a Metro mention, although a somewhat misinformed one: “Above the Metro Rail/Metrolink Hub Station in Downtown’s Central Business District”.

While it’s true that 7th Street Metro Center is a hub for Metro Rail – the Red Line, Purple Line and Blue Line all serve the station – to claim 655 Hope sits above a Metrolink hub is a bit dubious. Downtown L.A.’s Metrolink hub is Union Station, three subway stops away from 655 Hope. Of course, someone living in the Central Business District would probably have little use for commuter rail anyhow.

Nonetheless, it’s always nice to see public transit listed as an amenity for real estate and hopefully future 655 Hope residents take advantage of the awesome Metro access just below their doorsteps.

Previous Metro Mentions: