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Happy 123rd Birthday, Yosemite National Park! Too bad you’re closed because of the federal government shutdown. And too bad a lot of people who dutifully pay their taxes won’t be able to see what they’re helping fund.

As for Metro, the two obvious impacts of the federal government shutdown: The Federal Transit Administration has to halt the long process of approving Metro’s grant application for roughly $2 billion in federal funding for the Regional Connector and the first phase of the Purple Line Extension, which is also being funded with Measure R funds (i.e. local sales taxes you pay). Metro also must wait to receive other federal grants it was supposed to get earlier this year — before the funds got held up in the state-federal dispute over California pension reform.

Finding L.A.’s fault lines before they fail (L.A. Times)

The editorial pushes for the city of L.A. to require more geotechnical work identifying the location of active earthquake faults before developments near faults are approved. Metro gets a mention because the agency did exactly that in planning for the Purple Line Extension.

Should Santa Monica Airport be closed? (Curbed LA)

Los Angeles Councilman Mike Bonin, whose 11th district abuts the airport, says that the jet crash Sunday is another reason to close the airport for good. My three cents — and I used to live under the takeoff path at Marine & Highland in Santa Monica: Completely agree.

It’s a huge chunk of land that could serve other purposes: namely, housing and park land. Of course, let’s face it: some residents opposed to the airport would surely oppose any kind of development on the site, even though it’s relatively close to the future Expo Line and Santa Monica’s excellent network of bike lanes.

City and county officials ask for changes to Grand Avenue project (Daily News)

The developer Related Co. is given until Jan. 20 to improve designs for the residential and commercial towers and structures planned to be built across the street from Disney Hall. The rendering included in the article does look like a fancy shopping mall. Whatever gets built — if anything — will be close to stations for the Regional Connector and the Red/Purple Line subway, not to mention many bus lines, including the Silver Line.

Sharing the road: can L.A. be a biker’s town? (L.A. Times)

This editorial says the Times’ editorial staff is generally supportive of cycling and that the editorial page will be delving deeper into bike issues around town. That’s a good thing because, to date, the editorial page has only toed the water. There is a lot of bike infrastructure either being built or being proposed around town and having a media voice question what works and what doesn’t could be useful.