Comments on: Why Are Metro Station’s “No-Man’s Lands?”

By: SoapBoxLA

SoapBoxLA — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:20:50 +0000

Most important element of my focus was the fact that the Red Line station, supervised by the LASD who have a $67 million contract to provide services, is a “No-Man’s Land” because the LASD, the LAPD, the CRA, the Property Manager and the Metro are all unable to agree on baoundaries, jurisdiction and responsibility.

Therefore, this is known as a “No-Man’s Land” because nobody claims it, nobody supervises it, nobody takes responsibility and two watch commanders on a Saturday night were both able to tell me it was the other department who was responsible. When the Sheriffs showed up, they did not walk the property, just the underground portion of the station.

The urine, the feces, the homeless encampment were all upstairs on the patio area of Metro Hollywood. The area is visible to City Council President Eric Garcetti from his 4th floor office window in the Mayer Building.

All this heat and nobody notices the blight at the Metro Red Line Station at Hollywood & Western.

That is what is known as “No-Man’s Land!”

By: Damien Goodmon

Damien Goodmon — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 21:11:02 +0000

I think Box was focusing more on the maintenance of the station, than the amount of or lack of people there, when he arrived.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:30:05 +0000

Gotta say – not really on board with this post/perspective. I have found the red line stations to usually be pretty full or people during the day and early nite – yah, at midnight not so much – seeing how service ends around then. Will agree that keeping escalators and elevators running continues to be a major challenge for Metro, that needs to be addressed, as well as a major challenge for those who rely on it.

By: Spokker

Spokker — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:41:19 +0000

In other words, programs to help the homeless is socialism and going to war is U-S-A #1!!!

By: Spokker

Spokker — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 04:40:22 +0000

Programs to help the homeless are great. Get the ones who are insane the proper medical care they need and get the ones who are just unlucky but not insane into the workforce. The Iraq War is estimated to have cost 2.3 trillion dollars. Perhaps enough could have been spared to solve the homeless program in this country.

By: ubrayj02

ubrayj02 — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:13:36 +0000

It is too easy to propose kicking out the homeless. I understand why that is read into a critique of the status quo, but it is conceivable that people with no homes can be provided for as well as people with homes who pass through the area during the day.

In other words, let’s focus on trashing MTA stations and not trash our trashing of them. Hrm.

By: Spokker

Spokker — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:47:59 +0000

If you kick out the homeless the ACLU will sue you.

By: Joe Linton

Joe Linton — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:31:49 +0000

I agree with Josef above… Another thing that helps contribute to lifeless station crater zones (not so much at the Red Line stops cited, though – more at NoHo, Universal, and many Blue and Gold Line stops) is all that free parking.

Metro should recruit some taco trucks, swap meets, etc. to bring life to these parking wastelandias.

By: Erik G.

Erik G. — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:21:52 +0000

Wilshire/Western is also about to take off with the opening of a TOD project.

What I think the article does a good job of shining a light on is the absolute disconnect between LASD, LAPD and LA Metro. I mean WTF!?!

You search my bag, you tell me to use this turnstile over that turnstile and not the one ADA faregate, and you bark at me to show you my ticket, but Osama bin Laden could be living high on the hog down in Hollywood/Western station and its “What me Worry?”

By: angle

angle — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:19:51 +0000

So where else are the poor people supposed to sleep?

By: ubrayj02

ubrayj02 — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:15:05 +0000

I think it is fair to say that a lot of the ghost-town stations are that way because of an overemphasis on throughput of cars immediately surrounding the stations and not one that focuses on ground-floor retail and pedestrian comfort and access.

By: browne

browne — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:40:19 +0000

And the thing is this train station and the bus stop across the street is right by Eric Garcetti’s office. I thought he was a pro-alt transit kind of guy…

http://www.thebusbench.com/2009/04/the-bus-stop-outside-eric-garcettis-office.html

Browne

By: Fred Camino

Fred Camino — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:07:15 +0000

Good points DJB. Wilshire/Vermont is an especially good example, as is Hollywood/Highland. There’s lots of stuff to see and do (although I think Wilshire/Vermont needs to expand well beyond that corner), and the retail and TOD is rather good at those spots. The fact is, the more active an area is with productive activities, whether it be jobs, shopping, entertainment, the more those areas organically self-regulate behavior.

By: DJB

DJB — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:54:32 +0000

It may be premature to label all metro stations “no man’s lands”. I’ve seen Hollywood/Western being used by “regular” people just hanging out or skateboarding. Vermont/Santa Monica is used as a public plaza and market. Wilshire/Vermont is just amazing on a lot of levels, and Hollywood/Highland is one of the biggest tourist spots in LA. My biggest complaint about LA TODs is that their housing tends to be so damn unaffordable.

As far as homelessness goes, that’s a problem that Metro really can’t do much about. Most cities do everything they can to get rid of homeless people, shoving them out of sight somewhere. The outside of transit stations are public spaces, and consequently one of the few places where homeless people are allowed to exist.

Vandalism and broken escalators (and we don’t know who did that in this case) are always unfortunate, but the bottom line is everybody has limited resources and there are limits to what any agency can do. We need a larger public commitment to a lot of things in this country. Transit and (ending) homelessness are two of them.

By: Fred Camino

Fred Camino — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:13:57 +0000

I think the larger reason is that LA’s streets are a “no-man’s land” for the most part, and especially later at night. In the video Stephen mentioned that the Metro had already stopped running, so it was probably midnight or 1am, but even if it was earlier the trains are on 20-minute headways for much of the night so the stations are rather devoid of man anyways. It’s sad that after all these years that corner (I used to live a few blocks west) has not been activated in the way it could. I think regular late night transit service and much more robust collection of transit oriented developments (a ground floor bank is not robust) would attract more mans and make it no-man’s land no more.

By: ubrayj02

ubrayj02 — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:07:05 +0000

Hmmm, why are metro stations so vacant? This is a tough one … let’s see … what exactly is there to do at a Metro station?

Well, you can get your bag searched. You can buy a ticket. You can wait. You can have your conversation squelched by the roar of automobile and bus traffic that is always increased (by law?) around Metro’s projects.

I can’t figure it out! With all of this cool stuff to do, why wouldn’t you want to hang out at the “TOD” Metro stations?