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A woman waits to board a bus along Long Beach Boulevard . Photo: Michael Lozano Story by Stephanie Perez. Speaking with the riders of the Long Beach Transit system , you will find common stories . John Muller, 23-year-old bus rider, saw a rider across from him masturbating on the bus. Tyler Joscelyn, 22, confronted two men who were harassing a girl “because she was pretty” to only end up in a physical fight. And then there’s the downright weird. Rebecca Macareno, for instance, felt unsafe during a recent afternoon bus ride from her apartment to Cerritos Mall when a man chose to sit directly next to her. “He stared at me the entire bus ride even when I looked away,” she said. “He never spoke to me or touched me, but his eyes were red, and it felt like he never blinked. He could have sat anywhere on the bus, but he sat by me.” City locals, including high school and college students, rely heavily on public transportation to get around each year but many also feel uneasy and unsafe, es...

The 11th-hour deal that put the United Nations on a midtown site long covered by East River slums and slaughter-houses came in a frantic rush on Tuesday the 10th of December 1946, just the day before the General Assembly 's deadline for decision. All at once, John D. Rockefeller Jr. had offered to buy the land from developer William Zeckendorf and donate it to the UN. "If this property can be useful to you in meeting the great responsibilities entrusted to you by the people of the world," the old philanthropist told the delegates, "it will be a source of infinite satisfaction to me and my family." As it happened, the good deed would not only please the famously generous family , it would eliminate a potential rival to Rockefeller Center: Zeckendorf had announced plans to fill the site with a center of his own, with apartments, offices and a new Metropolitan Opera House . As it also happened, there was some question whether Zeckendorf had suffic...

Pamper Yourself with a San Antonio Vacation Home San Antonio is a cultural hub in South Texas, and it is one of the largest cities in the second largest state in the country. It is rich in history, and the historic ambiance of the city is combined with modern appeal and attractions to give you a truly amazing place to visit. There are some lovely vacation homes located in San Antonio, and these give you a picture-perfect place to rest and relax while you explore all that the San Antonio area has to offer. With a closer look at the homes, you may discover that they have a garage, a fenced yard, a kitchen and other amenities that will help you to feel right at home during your stay. Attractions When you stay in your South Texas vacation home , you will love the fact that you are located in the heart of one of the largest metropolitan areas in the state, and this is because there is so much to see and do. The Riverwalk, located in the heart of the city, is among the top destinations t...

By Diana Hubbell Travellers have long looked towards Asia – with its shimmering azure waters and near-limitless selection of palm-fringed white-sand beaches – in their search for paradise. Intrepid hippies put the area on the map as a tourist destination in the 1960s. The intervening years, meanwhile, have seen rustic bamboo beach shacks edged out by a growing phalanx of upscale hotels and resorts. Indeed, these days it is just as likely to be high- powered investors making for the region’s resort destinations as singlet-wearing backpackers and other holidaymakers.   Countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and the Philippines, can ably cater to the most demanding of buyers, with sumptuous properties ranging from secluded island hideaways to palatial residences with easy access to first-class restaurants and highly developed transport infrastructure . MORE: The Mediterranean is still the dream second home for wealthy Asianssztbauwa Investors who are as keen on po...

Competition for housing is soaring, affordability is weakening and the U.S. housing recovery is grinding to a crawl — and, in large part, the baby boom generation is to blame. No, they're not doing anything immoral or illegal; in fact, they're not doing anything at all, and that is precisely the problem. They're not moving. Baby boomers, the enormous group born between 1946 and 1964, are staying in their big suburban homes far longer than previous generations did at this age, and that is having repercussions down the housing supply line . If baby boomers don 't downsize out of big suburban homes , younger buyers eager to upsize, especially in this improving economy, can't find a home to buy. As the competition from young millennials heats up at the entry level, the logjam at the top of the market only heats that competition and pushes prices ever higher and out of reach. So, why don't boomers move? Some if it is because their empty nests have filled back u...

When you look for apartments in Lancaster, you'll find a charming, historic town full of architectural wonder in a prime location that's close to major metropolitan centers like Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, as well as the beaches of Delaware and New Jersey. Lancaster, whose name is taken from a city in England, was settled by the Pennsylvania Dutch in 1709 and is considered one of the oldest inland cities . Rent an apartment in Lancaster's Central Business district if you want to be in the middle of the excitement. There you'll find some of the Red Rose's major buildings like the Fulton Opera House , one of only eight theaters designated a National Historic Landmark . Explore the four blocks of Penn Square and uncover a wealth of unique restaurants, galleries, upscale retailers, antique dealers, bustling farmers market and well- preserved historic buildings . Drop by the Chameleon Club to hear live, original music by some of the hotte...

Every metropolitan area in the nation is racially segregated, and Los Angeles is no exception. We tolerate residential segregation because we’re convinced that it happened informally — because of personal choices and private discrimination. But what cemented our separate neighborhoods is something most of us have forgotten — government’s unconstitutional and systematic insistence on segregated housing in the mid-20th century, establishing patterns that persist to this day. The 2010 census data show that 60% of Los Angeles’s African Americans live in neighborhoods where few whites are present. The exposure of blacks to whites is as minimal as it is in Chicago or Newark; concentrated African American poverty is as common in L.A. as in New York or Pittsburgh. The New Deal created the nation’s first civilian public housing in the 1930s, segregated not only in the South, but nationwide. In his autobiography, the African American poet Langston Hughes recounted his adolescence in Worl...

Recent data shows that the average rent-to-salary ratio in Beijing is 58 percent. Some expats say they are not surprised because rent is expensive in Beijing. Photo: IC Helena Javitte, 28, from France has just moved into her new apartment in Xinyuan Xili in Chaoyang district. It is her third apartment in her four years in Beijing. For Javitte, who works at Sanlitun SOHO and commutes via scooter, a convenient location is the top priority, followed by the apartment and its price in that order. Her rent is about 40 percent of her wages, but she thinks it's worth the convenience. "I'm willing to spend more money than average on the apartment," she said. According to a recent report released by Shanghai-based E-house China R&D Institute, the average rent-to-income ratio in Beijing is as high as 58 percent, followed by Shenzhen, Guangdong Province with 54 percent, Sanya, Hainan Province with 48 percent and Shanghai with 48 percent. The figure has triggered discussions...

Photo: Ahn Young-joon, AP Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Image 1 of 8 In this Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2017, photo, people gather at a shelter during a civil defense drill at City Hall in Seoul, South Korea. Once or twice a year, streets of South Korea’s busy capital freeze for several minutes at the sound of a siren, with cars stopping on roads and pedestrians moving into buildings and subway stations taking part in a nationwide drill aimed at preparing against a North Korean attack . But critics say the remarkable scenes mask aging policies that are failing to train South Koreans at a time when the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear and missile program is growing. less In this Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2017, photo, people gather at a shelter during a civil defense drill at City Hall in Seoul, South Korea. Once or twice a year, streets of South Korea’s busy capital freeze for ... more Photo: Ahn Young-joon, AP Image 2 of 8 In this Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2017, photo, people walk out of ...