DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Twice a week I take the DASH D route up to the Gateway Transit Center on my way to work. Today we had to make two detours. One was to get around filming on the Spring Street side of City Hall, the other was to loop around brick repairs at the Gateway Transit Center. I can't find a picture of the brickwork itself, and I felt more like getting into work and getting paid than going back to take a picture this morning. If you haven't seen it you'll just have to take a look at the other aspects of the project there and imagine that the bus loop is paved with sandy red bricks.

The problem? Those bricks aren't all that strong when it comes to standing up under constant bus traffic. I was talking to the driver and he said this sort of repair work is a regular occurence. Paraphrasing from memory, I think his quote was along the lines of "I think they just want to waste money." The Gateway Transit Center has been criticized as more of an art project than a functional piece of transportation infrastructure, and it's in this sort of a problem that you can see where those concerns are justified.