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Today’s Zocalo Public Square profile of a Metro rider: When I’m not talking, I’m doing my makeup, Avenue 38 to Douglas Street.

Art of Transit from Metro’s Instagram feed:

State says Carson site ready for construction of NFL stadium (L.A. Times) 

At least from an environmental perspective, the former landfill on the southeast corner of South Main Street and Del Amo Boulevard in Carson is a go, according to state officials. The Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers say they want to build a stadium there and share it.

And how is the site from a transportation point-of-view? It’s near the very busy junction of the 110 and 405 freeways, about two miles from Metro’s Harbor Gateway Transit Center and about four miles from the Blue Line’s Del Amo Station. The future Torrance Transit Center is about a 3.6-mile drive — the Green Line may one day be extended there.

Meanwhile, the St. Louis Rams are pushing their proposal for a new stadium at Hollywood Park. That would be about a 1.3-mile walk from the Crenshaw/LAX Line’s future station at Florence Avenue and La Brea.

The football stadium proposed by AEG in DTLA adjacent to Staples Center would be a five-minute walk from Pico Station shared by the Blue and Expo Lines. But no team has committed to that site, nor does any team or the NFL want to play in (or try to renovate the historic) L.A. Coliseum and Pasadena residents don’t seem much interested in having the NFL in the Rose Bowl, which is about a two-mile walk from the Gold Line’s Memorial Park Station in Old Pasadena.

Of course, the NFL still may not return to our region. If they do, I supposed a Dodger Stadium Express type arrangement is possible with some of the possible stadiums — as Dodger Stadium is also in an out-of-the-way location transit-wise but the bus service has proved popular with some fans. And, yes, it will be returning for 2015.

Semi-related: If both the Chargers and Raiders move to Carson, one of the teams — likely the Chargers — would likely move to the NFL West and the St. Louis Rams to the AFC West, reports Sports Illustrated.

Quasi-related: The Los Angeles Kings won their seventh straight, downing San Jose at the 49ers light rail-adjacent football stadium in Santa Clara on Saturday night. Booya! As for football/baseball stadium hockey — I’m all for outdoor games, but wish they were in much smaller stadiums that brought fans close to the action. The next Sharks-Kings game should be in the parking lot of Squaw Valley, near Lake Tahoe.

The 6th Street Viaduct officially breaks ground; actual breaking of ground is yet to come (Streetsblog LA) 

The project to replace the 3,500-foot long bridge between DTLA and Boyle Heights spans the L.A. River and railroad tracks. A pretty neat model was rolled out for the ceremony last week. The new bridge is being touted as more pedestrian and bike friendly than the existing structure and park space under the bridge’s abutment on the DTLA end is part of the package. The project could take until 2019 to be completed but looks to be a nice addition to the neighborhood.

Media reports downplay the dangers of driving while sensationalizing everything else (Greater Greater Washington) 

The planning blog opines that the media pays disproportionate attention to cycling and pedestrian deaths while ignoring the fact that driving kills far more Americans each year than both.

Not so sure that I agree. I do think there tends to be more trend stories about cycling/pedestrian dangers whereas media stories about driving deaths — and most accidents do get some type of coverage, however brief — tend to focus on one accident at a time. I also think that if bikes and cars are going to share the same road space in increasing numbers, the media should be paying attention to what happens even if the resulting stories don’t please every constituency.

The most important urban policy story in the world is happening in India (VOX)

Interesting story about efforts to allow more taller residential buildings with more units in Mumbai, known for its sprawling slums (photo gallery here at Flickr). Matthew Yglesias argues that rules that prohibited more bigger residential buildings in effect trapped residents in those slums because there was not nearly enough quality housing to accommodate the city’s 12 million residents. Meanwhile, the city offers a lot of jobs.

The L.A. area is certainly different from Mumbai in many ways, but I think there is one parallel: there is no new housing that is affordable to a lot of residents, thereby meaning they have to stay put wherever they now live. In fact, the Metro Board of Directors are scheduled to consider this item at their meeting this Thursday. Here’s the cut-and-paste from the agenda:

40. EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE RECOMMENDED (4-0) Garcetti, Ridley-Thomas, Kuehl, Solis, Bonin and Dupont-Walker Motion that the CEO direct staff to report back to the Board with the following items:

A. amendment to MTA’s Joint Development Policy, establishing a goal that in the aggregate, affordable housing units represent 35% of all residential units developed on MTA-owned property;

B. recommended criteria under which MTA would allow proportional discounts to the fair market value of MTA owned property for the purpose of contributing towards the cost of affordable housing;

FURTHERMORE, WE MOVE that the CEO direct staff to:

C. develop a memorandum of understanding with interested local cities and the County of Los Angeles to promote co-investment along transit corridors, such as leveraging municipally-controlled affordable housing and small business dollars for MTA’s Joint Development affordable housing sites;

D. negotiate terms and conditions for the Board’s consideration that reflect MTA’s participation in the collaborative creation of a multi-partner Countywide Transit Oriented Affordable Housing loan fund, and report back to the Board on the following:

1. criteria for eligible joint development projects, including neighborhood serving businesses to be funded by the loan fund;

2. administration of the fund;

3. loan program structure;

E. report back to the Board during the FY2015-16 Budget regarding the feasibility to budget $2 million annually for 5 years, up to $10 million to establish the fund; and

F. work with the affordable housing community to establish a revenue neutral TAP purchase program that provides passes to current and future occupants of MTA joint developments.