This is a 99% invisible.

I'm Roman Mars.

This past May, the city of Los Angeles

rolled out a brand new state-of-the-art feature for bus shelters.

It's called Los Ambrida. Lost Umbrita is a metal screen

that's intended to provide shade for the thousands of people who ride the bus every

day. The shade screen is about two feet wide, ten feet tall, and it kind of looks like a curved teal metal surfboard filled with tiny little holes.

Right away, Angelinos were not happy.

I was wondering why it was here because I was like, well, what's the point?

Criticism has been swift online with people comparing this to a cheese grater.

Many of the online complaints cited Los Embria's size.

While the designers say Los Embria can provide shade for two or three people,

critics say it doesn't look big enough for even a single person.

And many people are furious about the cost.

The Los Embria prototype cost around $10,000.

Clearly, Los Embrita isn't perfect, but in Los Angeles, a little shade goes a long way.

The controversy around Los Ambrida got me thinking about a conversation we had in 2020

with the journalist Sam Block. Sam is working on a book about the politics of

shade and how shade coverage in LA has become one of the city's biggest hot button issues.

Today we'll get Sam's thoughts about Lossumrita and

whether the controversial shade fixture could actually be a good thing for shade

starved Angelinos. But first my conversation with Sam Block from 2020.

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