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Jennifer Steinhauer's stuff may already be on the truck bound for Washington and Adam Nagourney, the former chief national political correspondent, is now the Los Angeles bureau chief of the New York Times. Naturally, his first L.A. soft feature is about traffic — the 405 widening project and what it means to the Westside. "What looms is an alleged three-year marathon of open and closed exit ramps, shut and narrowed lanes, banging overnight construction, detours sending traffic rumbling through some of the city’s most elegant neighborhoods, and a reminder of the price paid for the absence of meaningful public transit," he writes. He's taken by the local custom of calling the freeway the 405 "rather than 'Interstate 405' as it would be called in most other states." Wait until he finds out that for many it's still the San Diego Freeway.
Umbrage: Daniel the California Highway Guy found the tone not to his liking and blogged, "NYC may have a better subway system, but dammit... you don’t insult our freeway system. That’s our job." He also does the indispensable California Highways site.
Steinhauer out: She became a keen and witty observer of the city, in my humble opinion. (Her most recent: a feature on the timeless Wilshire Ebell Club.) She tweets about a fantastic first and last meal at Bastide: "Was like meeting someone great on the last day of a cruise."