Longtime Los Angeles resident and legendary science fiction writer Ray Bradbury died Tuesday night at his home in the city. He was 91.
Bradbury moved to Los Angeles with his family in 1934 when he was 13 years old, and he never left. He watched the city grow and even tried to influence that growth.
A supporter of public transportation who never got a driver’s license, Bradbury fought for a network of futuristic monorails. He was even kicked out of a hearing in 1963 when the city foolishly turned down an offer to build the system for free. He wrote about it more than a decade ago:
On New Years Day 2001, let us pour 10,000 tons of cement into our never-should-have-been-started, never-to-be-finished subway, for final rites. Its concept was always insane, its possible fares preposterous. Even if it were finished and opened, no one could afford to use it. So kill the subway and telephone Alweg Monorail to accept their offer, made 30 years ago, to erect 12 crosstown monorails–free, gratis–if we let them run the traffic. I was there the afternoon our supervisors rejected that splendid offer, and I was thrown out of the meeting for making impolite noises… Subways are Forest Lawn extensions. Let’s bury our dead MTA and get on with life.
Bradbury will be buried at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery, under a headstone that reads “Author of Fahrenheit 451.”