FAST Executive Director Hilary Norton

How Lucky We Are to Live in a City Like This

Hilary Norton is the executive director of Fixing Angelenos Stuck in Traffic (FAST). Before participating in a panel on the future of traffic in L.A., she talked the Vatican, her oldest pair of loafers, and her spirit cheese in the Zócalo green room.

Q:

What do you wake up to?


A:

The sound of my alarm as I try to get myself and my children to school in the morning.


Q:

What’s your favorite cliché?


A:

“Out-of-the-box thinking.”


Q:

How do you pass the time when you’re stuck in traffic?


A:

Singing to the radio, much to the embarrassment of my children. Or listening to KCRW.


Q:

What’s the last thing that made you laugh?


A:

Coming down here to Zócalo on the 720 bus with the most darling tour group of Italian tourists—watching them chirping just delightedly in Italian, thinking, “How lucky are we to live in a city like this.”


Q:

If you could take only one more journey, where would you go?


A:

To the Vatican.


Q:

What are you keeping in your closet that you should have thrown out already?


A:

Loafers from college, long since full of holes, but they have sentimental value.


Q:

What’s your favorite pizza topping?


A:

Eggplant. Good, breaded eggplant. Casa Bianca [in Eagle Rock] puts eggplant on pizza.


Q:

What was the first album you bought?


A:

Billy Joel’s 52nd Street.


Q:

What cheese best describes you?


A:

Sottocenere. It’s a truffle cheese that has an ash rind to it, and it’s just delicious. I like the fact that inside, something that looks like ash is something just delicious. I like when you can’t judge a book by its cover. Which is probably another cliché I should have listed, too.


Q:

Where do you come up with your best ideas?


A:

Walking around my neighborhood with my kids.