Photo: Jennifer Vitanzo

On Thursday, September 24, at 9:46 P.M., Samuel L. Newton was born to this world, increasing the number of Livable Streets Activists in Los Angeles by one.  Samuel weighed in at seven pounds, one ounce and was 21 inches "long."  He was brought home by his parents on Saturday afternoon.  Mother, Father, and child are resting comfortably, if occasionally.

As you might have guessed, my presence at this site is going to be reduced for a couple of weeks while we adjust to life as parents and help Sammy through his all-important early weeks of life.  And let me tell you, it’s killing me not to weigh-in on Audi’s surreal anti-bike, anti-car, anti-alternative fuel but pro-unsafe driving on mountain roads commercial and our bankrupt state’s rush to extend the exemption for certain hybrid vehicles to use HOV and HOT Lanes until 2016.

But of course, we’re not leaving you alone; and no, I didn’t interview a couple dozen people to fill the blog for three weeks.  Traditionally, Streetsblog doesn’t publish on Yom Kippur, so starting tomorrow we’ll be bringing you a two and a half week series of news and views from some writers you’ll recognize and a couple of new names and faces.  And maybe I’ll drop in later this week to take a few shots at some of the more outrageous car-culture items in the news.