In Los Angeles, the sense of impending doom in the air and on the news makes it seem like the world will end this weekend.
Not quite, but close enough – 10 miles of the 405 freeway will close for 53 hours from July 15-18. For LA traffic, that’s 53 hours too many to go without a chunk of the city’s main artery, leading Angelinos and the media to dub the event – and potential road nightmare starting midnight on Friday – as “Carmageddon.”
“If you think the 405 is gridlocked during the week, you haven’t seen anything yet,” Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa told the New York Times. “My message is to stay home. Or go on vacation. Walk. Go on a bike. But do not get in your car and go anywhere near the West Side. It’s going to be a mess.”
Many people and places are anticipating that Carmageddon will highly impact their daily lives, including religious activities and religion-related events.
- Several places of worship on the West side will close for the weekend, including Bel Air Presbyterian Church and Leo Baeck Temple.
- The 405 expansion keeps messing up an Orthodox Jewish eruv, a ritual enclosure where observant Jews to perform certain actions on the Sabbath that Jewish law prohibits in public on that day.
- A Marina Del Rey couple is planning on getting married in Bel Air on Sunday. Another couple is set to wed on Saturday in Beverly Hills. Will the brides make it to the altar on time?
- The Skirball Cultural Center will close for the weekend and has rescheduled performances of the David Ives play “New Jerusalem,” about a Jewish merchant who is suspected of unorthodox beliefs.
Will Carmageddon affect any of your faith-based activities?
For more information and updates on the 405 closure, visit the official site for the Sepulveda Pass Improvements Project.
