One Bike Rack at Kaiser Permanente

I'm not sure I can adequately represent how big Kaiser Permanente in Hollywood is, but I'll try.

All I'm trying to say in the post is that it's fucking big. And in its "fucking bigness" or better word "immensity", lost is the fact it has one eensy meansy bike rack tucked away in a little corner on the first floor of their 3 or 4-floor parking structure.

Growing up around the area, I always saw Kaiser Permanente as this huge monolithic, unnavigable place full of procedure and bureaucracy. So many different buildings, so many wards, so many different rooms. Plus, a lot of my friends moms, Filipino moms, worked there.

I still see Kaiser Permanente as an unnavigable place full of procedure and bureaucracy.

Just yesterday being there it felt like a maze to find the entrance to the hospital. Whereas in the past I'd been able to enter the hospital from Edgemont Street, there was a bit of a subtly placed red sign that said "Enter on Sunset."

The sign itself wasn't confusing, but then there was a hallway and elevators that led elsewhere. There wasn't anything blocked off or any kind of urgency in the sign that communicated an absolute need to turn around. There was nobody at the entrance to direct me anywhere else. Indeed, another family was also confused about the entrance.

So yeah. Kaiser Permanente really big, really unnavigable for amateur use. They need to put together a set of instructions.

The same bigness and immensity can be found in Kaiser's towering 3-floor parking structure. On Edgemont, you can't miss it. Cars pouring in by the bunches, cars pouring out by the bunches on an MLK holiday Monday.

Contrasting Kaiser's numerous manifestations of bigness was my slightly straining search for just one bike rack. It took me about 2 or 3 minutes to locate one, but I found one eventually. And when I did, here's what I found:



Do you see that little outline of a bike rack?

One entire bike rack serving a hospital with thousands of employees and visitors a day? Kaiser Permanente Hollywood, please tell me that's not the only bike rack you have.

Just one of many micro-example of how bikes are a mere afterthought in the bigger schemes of LA.

Irony is that it's motto is centered around the healthy lifestyle "thrive", gave a grant to the LA County Bike Coalition for day laborers, and came up with the commercial below.



*On a more delicate note, please send good vibes for my Tita Cora, mother of my godsis.
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