Streetsblog Los Angeles

(If you’re not familiar with James Rojas’ interactive modeling workshops, click here.)

Over one hundred tenth graders from Esteban Torres High School’s Renaissance Academy had a chance to redesign the Gold Line Eastside Extension Station areas as part of a series of interactive modeling sessions designed to introduce them to urban planning.  Rather than introducing them to our modeling process through a presentation, we took the students to visit and take notes at three Gold Line Stations: Mission/Meridian, Lake and Del Mar Stations.

Photo: Latino Urban Forum/Flickr

Next, we had them examine the stations from a different perspective.  They participated in  a series of interactive workshops to help the students articulate their needs. We had them read maps of the station areas and create models from them using found objects.

The students presented their ideas through models of the Gold-Line Metro station areas and and explained how their proposed developments around the stations may increase ridership and attract people into East Los Angeles. They created three trains in their models; one, the newly christened Butterscotch Line, is made completely from candy (just in time for Valentine’s Day.)

The students designed these light rail station areas as neighborhood destinations to draw the community to the station and draw riders off the trains. They located services, and amenities lacking in today’s Eastside community such as parks, stores, housing, and offices within site of the stations.  The students were proud of their community and designed stations that welcomed people to the Eastside with “welcome” signs and decorative gateways.

Best of all, their stations and their Gold Line fit the community.  Before the workshops they investigated the physical form of the actual community.  The examined architecture and design that creates identity of place. They used that map of their community to create beautiful streetscapes designs that capture the artistic power of the community. Read more…

While many cyclists around the city applauded the 1st Street Green Lane, local drivers, pedestrians and even cyclists were confused when the lane was painted last fall. All pics by Carlos Morales

Bike lanes began to appear in Boyle Heights during November 2011.  It was a joyous celebratory occasion to many cycling advocates who have lobbied city hall for years.  The lobbying is a result of several thousand incidents throughout the city in which cyclists have been involved in automobile traffic collisions.  These incidents have resulted in property damage, personal injury, and tragically, death.

Politicos hold press conferences announcing the new bike lanes as they are painted in each district throughout the city.  They jump on a bike, ride for a block or so for the perfect photo opportunity.  After the picture has been taken, they walk away from the project, and it’s “Mission Accomplished!”

Well, not really….. I started to receive phone calls and emails from Boyle Heights residents asking questions as soon as the paint was dry on the new 1st Street Bike Lanes, part of which are painted green.  These calls were mostly concerned with how to maneuver around the new bike lanes.  This did not surprise me, as a matter of fact, I was expecting them. The simple reason is that there has been NO outreach or educational material distributed about bike lanes to our community.  Like magic, the bike lanes simply appeared.  After receiving these many calls in November, I rode over to observe for myself. I witnessed near misses between pedestrians, cyclists and motorists around the bike lane.

Too common a site...

In preparing for this article, I revisited First Street in Boyle Heights, where I witnessed the close calls.  First Street has about 1.5 miles of bikes lanes that run past the Mariachi Plaza and the Metro Eastside Gold Line.  I observed a couple interesting incidents. The first was a car double parked in the bike lane.  I pulled out my camera to document it, and as I approached the car to speak with the driver, he drove off.  This is a big problem. Cyclists often find obstacles such as cars, trash cans and debris thrown in the bike lanes. Read more…

This evening, eight street vendors will be open for business to raise funds so they can sell legally at a future evening farmers market in Boyle Heights. While the public munches on food like tacos dorados, and pupusas, their spent money will go toward helping the street vendors buy equipment and cover other overhead costs.  The vendors will be open from 5:00 to 10:00 P.M. in front of the offices of the East Los Angeles Community Corporation,  530 South Boyle Avenue.

To see a full sized copy of the poster, click on the image. For the Spanish language version, click here.

The street vendors sold food at the informal Breed Street Food Fair until the police forced them out in 2009.

“It actually created a safe market. People were more vigilant when they were in mass numbers. And then they weren’t prey to negative sources,”said Mike Dennis, ELACC’s director of community organizing. If enough money is raised – the goal is $15,000 – the evening farmers market could bring back a Breed Street style of community interaction, Dennis said.

The equipment most street vendors currently use don’t adhere to local codes for food vendors because they are makeshift.  These carts and stands are cost effective, they only cost a couple hundred dollars.  In comparison, the more expensive equipment that adheres to health and safety codes cost nearly $1,500 in most cases.

Boyle Heights resident Jessica Perez highlights the event  on her Mis Neighbors blog and gives her local take on the situation:   Read more…

Vea el Streetfilm sin subtítulos, aqui.

After sponsoring two Streetfilms of the first two CicLAvias, Los Angeles’ version of the open streets festival based on Bogota’s Ciclovia, Los Angeles Streetsblog faced a dilemma: How can we continue to cover the event that draws over a hundred thousand Angelenos to the streets?  The Answer? Make a Streetfilm that was accessible to Southern California’s large Spanish-speaking population.

¡Viva CicLAvia! consists of two parts.  First, narrator Mara Corina Arellano Colin explains the history and concept of Los Angeles’ amazing open streets party, including footage and photos from similar festivals in Bogota, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Brussels and Miami.  While the narration is a great explanation of the benefits and culture of CicLAvia, the soul of Social Impact Consulting’s efforts are the interviews with participants.

The next five minutes is a parade of Spanish speakers professing their love of CicLAvia.  Whether it’s the team from South Central’s Mendez Bike Shop, the traffic officer spreading his arms while explaining Viva CicLAvia, or Hollywood’s City Councilman Eric Garcetti; the broad smiles in the Southern California sun give a message in any language.  Giving people more chances to play in the sun is good for Los Angeles.

This Streetfilm marked another first for Streetfilms, a directly reader supported video.  L.A. Streetsblog asked its readers if they wanted a Spanish language film on CicLAvia, and when they said yes, the readers were challenged through a Kick Starter campaign to fund the film.  Needless to say, the readers came through.

Watch here without English subtitles.

Eddie Solis leaves the Metro Red Line, which serves as one part of his hour-long commute from his day job in Hollywood to his home in Boyle Heights. Much of the inspiration for his band It's Casual comes from his observations from being car-free, a bus and subway rider, and a skateboarder. Photo courtesy of Eddie Solis.

A few weeks ago, the hardcore band It’s Casual posted “The Red Line” music video on Youtube and quickly caught the attention of local and national blogs for it’s simple yet creative critique of Los Angeles freeways. A current resident of Boyle Heights, guitarist and vocalist Eddie Solis sat down with Eastside Streetsblog to talk about how his car-free lifestyle inspires his music and how he encounters on his morning walks the smell of Boyle Heights tortilla factories.

You do a lot of music that’s very transit oriented; can you explain why you went that route?

Sometimes I think there’s a lot of content out there that’s too, I want to say, too fiction. Kind of make believe. And I notice all my favorite music that hits home to me in my heart and that I kind of step back and see these bands still going  . . . are bands that write timeless music with timeless contact that basically come from the truth of actual events and someone’s perspective. So I said I really want to find an avenue and report on it. And I go, wait you know what, my daily commute. I see LA different because  . . . I take the bus and subway everywhere. And the freeways are just sitting there, and people are in their cars just frustrated about it, but I’m just like sightseeing everyday. So I took that concept and said, “You know what, I’m basically going to report on what I see and interpret it.”

What kind of message were you trying to evoke when you were making “The Red Line” and then making the video? Read more…

Today is the day Los Angeles Streetsblog has been waiting for since our first launch in March of 2008.  Today, we’re expanding.  Everyone give a warm welcome to our two newest writers, Kris Fortin and Sahra Sulaiman.

Kris Fortin, photo:Rafael Cardenas

Streetsblog is happy to announce that thanks to a generous grant from the California Endowment, today we are opening two “local bureaus” in South Los Angeles and Boyle Heights.  These bureaus will each feature new writers who will bring us stories on how decisions on transportation planning, development, transit oriented development and open space impact the health and character of these communities.

There’s also a lot that everyone can learn from these communities.  Fortin and Sulaiman will be exploring how the culture of these communities impacts their streetscapes, architecture and local culture.  As we explored in-depth during our 2011 series on L.A. County Department of Public Health PLACE Grants, how a community is built has a dramatic impact on the health, well-being and life expectancy of the people living there.

In addition to publishing their stories on the front page of Streetsblog, all of the South L.A. stories and Boyle Heights stories will be published on special community sites at http://eastsidestreetsblog.org and http://southlastreetsblog.org .

Sahra Sulaiman

In Boyle Heights, Kris Fortin will be leading our local coverage efforts.  Fortin has been freelance writing about the Latino community for the past four years at the Los Angeles Times, the former Café Magazine, and currently at Boyle Heights Beat and Mis Neighbors. After getting his bachelor’s degree in journalism and urban studies and planning, Fortin wedded the two areas through an internship at Planetizen and hopes to continue to delve deeper into urban issues through journalism.

In South L.A., our lead writer is Sahra Sulaiman.  Sulaiman is a documentary photographer and researcher who has been 99.5% car-free since buying a road bike and riding it across Spain on a dare in 1996. A well-travelled M.A. and A.B.D. in International Relations, she also is deeply invested in LA as a regular volunteer with at-risk teens in local-area high schools and is currently working on a year-long photography project documenting the difficult circumstances which many of them endure. She seeks to use her skills for gathering unique stories to bring a more human dimension to discussions about the future of transit in Los Angeles.

Each writer will be publishing a story later today.  I won’t ruin the surprise for you, but they’re both great reads.

Carlos Morales PhotoFlying Pigeon

Speaking of surprises, we’re also proud to announce the addition of Carlos Morales to our team.  You may know Morales through his writing at The Voice/La Voz papers in East L.A. or you might recognize him as the founder of the Eastside Bike Club.  Morales will be writing a weekly column for us about his observations and views of life while pedaling through Los Angeles.  His first piece will run a little later this week.

But don’t worry, just because new writers are joining the team doesn’t mean that our original writer, Damien Newton, is going anywhere.  You might see his byline a little less frequently than several times a day, but the tradeoff is that you’ll also see longer stories and more original reporting.

I’m sure some of you are reading this and wondering, “Why does Boyle Heights and South L.A. get local coverage and not my community?  The good news is that we plan on continuing to expand over the next couple of years to provide more community reporting.  If you can help us find a source of local funds, we’ll be happy to provide regular local coverage in your community as well.

Wildflowers in bloom at the cornfields. Note the proximity of industrial development. Photo: Creek Freak

Can a community plan claim to be progressive without a strong affordable housing component?

That questions has been at the heart of a debate about the Cornfield Arroyo Seco Specific Plan (CASP) that promises to transform 660 acres located in the communities of Lincoln Heights, Cypress Park and Chinatown from mixed-use, mostly industrial, to a more residential area with industrial areas designed to attract green and other LEED certified (environmentally clean) businesses.  Back in March of 2009, Joe Linton described many of the benefits of the plan, including a decoupling or parking from rental or purchase fees of new apartments.

But what makes the plan so impressive to Livable Streets advocates makes it a nightmare for affordable housing ones.  Because the plan offers increased density and reduced parking requirements without requiring an affordable housing tradeoff, advocates are concerned that the end result of the CASP will be to force out existing residents by turning the area into one for those earning a higher income.

“The critical question about the Cornfields Arroyo Seco Specific Plan is this: Will the plan lead to luxury housing and market rate shops unaffordable to local residents? Or will it lead to a community where everyone can live?” asks Serena Lin, a staff attorney with Public Counsel. “Right now the plan prioritizes luxury housing developers over local residents, and we call on Councilman Ed Reyes to amend it.”

If CASP had a provision that offered extra density bonuses or reduced parking standards if a developer agrees to build a small percentage of affordable units, the Plan could be a real tool in our City’s toolkit argues Public Counsel. Instead of fighting with community groups, the city could proactively plan for communities where all residents, including people struggling with poverty, can afford to live. Instead, the Plan offers developers incentives to build market rate housing, without any provision for affordable housing. In an area with a median income of less than $25,000 per year, much of the current community would get priced out of a community where they. Read more…

The impact of the Gold Line Eastside Extension on local bus options is one thing that Eastsiders have complained about at recent meetings.

Recall the language in the 1st amendment to the U.S. Constitution about “the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances?” Keep it in mind as you read this overview of the recent interaction of Metro, a group of disgruntled riders, and a local politico. If nothing else it illustrates what American Democracy in action looks like.

When I wrote about Metro’s February 1st ‘all regions’ public hearing for the June service change proposals, I mentioned that among the attendees were “a vocal contingent from East L.A. Their message was to reverse the truncation of lines 30/31 by instead having them again extended to Atlantic Ave.”

By April the residents with the aid of the Bus Rider’s Union held a rally to press their case that the changes had left many residents stranded and was causing hardship.

When I spoke to some of the eastsiders attending the February meeting they shared frustration about their concerns receiving a lack of attention from L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina and her staff. By May the Eastside Sun was reporting that Molina’s staff had gotten the message and attempting to assuage constituents’ complaints by proposing a re-routing of the El Sol community shuttle to address access issues along 1st Street.

By August Metro’s San Gabriel Valley Service Council was holding a public workshop “to listen to the concerns of East Los Angeles Metro bus patrons”along with presenting proposals to address the complaints. Read more…

Map of proposed quarter-mile Arroyo Seco Bike Path from Avenue 26 to San Fernando Road - click image for 9-page pdf containing more detailed version of this image. Image from L.A. County Thanks, Creek Freak

The confluence of the Los Angeles River and the Arroyo Seco, is one of the most historic places in Los Angeles.  In 1769, Spanish explorers Colonel Gaspar de Portola, Father Juan Crespi and Michael Costanso “discovered” Los Angeles.  It also, in the words of the Arroyo Seco Foundation, “provides the key linkage of the Los Angeles River to vital habitat and wildlife corridor, joining the San Gabriel Mountains to the Santa Monica Mountains.”

There are ongoing efforts to preserve the area surrounding the Confluence, for reasons of historical significance and the ecological value.  Earlier this week those plans received a boost.

As recently as 2009, it seemed unlikely that an extension of the Arroyo Seco Bike Trail would occur anytime in the near future.  But times have changed, thanks in part to the process creating the LA County Bike Plan and political pressure brought by Councilman Ed Reyes and County Supervisor Gloria Molina.  Earlier this week the City Council Transportation Committee quickly and unanimously passed a motion by Councilmen Bill Rosendahl and Reyes allowing the city to begin construction of a quarter mile portion of a bicycle and pedestrian path extending from Avenue 26 to San Fernando Road.  The path provides direct access to the future Confluence Gateway Project from Metro Rail.  The Avenue 26 Metro Gold Line station, known as the “Lincoln/Cypress Station” is within a stone’s throw of the trail entrance.

The Arroyo Seco Foundation explains the route of the path: Read more…

A new Colorado Boulevard? Rendering by SALT Landscape Architects via bipediality

Calls for a Road Diet on Colorado Boulevard are growing, and beginning to become too loud to ignore.  For those not familiar with the layout of the road, it currently spans six car travel lanes, provides on-street car parking, and features a seventeen foot median that occasionally features live grass.  Eagle Rock residents have been puzzled about a road configuration that is designed for many more cars than actually use it.  The result is that the traffic that does use the street, tends to drive above the speed limit.

However, recently the idea of putting Colorado on a diet has begun to gain more traction, thanks in large part to Scott Wilson, who formally drove on Colorado daily for almost six decades but now travels on an electronic tricycle.  Wilson proposes a diet that would reduce auto capacity from six lanes to four, create a rainwater cistern to support greenery, slow traffic and even add some bike lanes.  Wilson’s proposal began to gain notoriety after articles in the Eagle Rock Patch and Bipediality.

As it exists now. Rendering by SALT Landscape Architects via bipediality

Traffic counts for Colorado, provided by the LADOT but laid out by Josef Bray Ali and viewable here, show that outside of the areas immediately surrounding freeway entrances that Colorado is actually a tremendously underutilized road.  For example, at the intersection with Eagle Rock Boulevard, less than 10,000 cars travel through the intersection over the course of a day, or roughly one and a third car every minute.  However, near the intersection with the Golden State Freeway, that number is five times as high.  Of course, during peak hours those numbers are much higher.

If you believe that there are other factors in determining whether a street is successful than just how many cars can be flushed through, then Bray-Ali shows how Colorado is a complete disaster for Eagle Rock in addition to how much space it wastes:

There is absolutely no measurement made as to the effects this has on the social fabric, local commerce, noise pollution, etc. – suffice it to say that these streets are generally detrimental to traditional human contact and social ties, they degrade local commerce (auto parts, repair, nail salon, discount store, auto parts, repair, nail salon, fast food discount store, etc.), and they are really, really, loud.

Despite placing Wilbur Avenue in the Valley and James M. Wood Blvd. in the Downtown on diets, the LADOT seems disinterested in fulfilling Wilson’s vision.  Colorado is listed as a Bike Route currently, despite its reputation as a dangerous place for cyclists because of the speeding car traffic, and is a “potential” street to receive bike lanes in the current Draft Bike Plan.  However, Councilman Jose Huizar tells the Patch that there is no interest in putting Colorado on a Diet:

The Department of Transportation, given that Colorado Boulevard is a major thoroughfare between Glendale and Pasadena, is trying not to slow down traffic. Otherwise there will be bottlenecks. We have had a couple of accidents on Colorado not too long ago.

Huizar goes on to say that his office would be interested in proposals that would reduce the capacity from six lanes to four.  But its really sort of amazing to hear that LADOT doesn’t want to slow down traffic on the road when residents aren’t just asking for slow traffic, but complaining that traffic is regularly speeding.  Huizar himself explains how this can happen:

As people get off the 2 freeway and head west, they go downhill and speed naturally without stepping on the gas.

Severin Martinez, author of Walk Eagle Rock, echos Huizar’s rationale for how easy it is to speed on Colorado.  However, Martinez shows a lot less compassion for the speeders than his elected leader:

Slowing is exactly what we want. While I don’t drive, I have traveled on Colorado with several different people behind the steering wheel, all exceed the 35mph speed limit. Usually drivers unconsciously and unconcerned reach 40mph. Forget about cars yielding at the one unsignalized crossing for pedestrians at Hermosa Ave.

But despite the community outcry, and the strong case that Colorado is crying for a diet, it doesn’t appear to be in the cards anytime soon.  The possibility of even adding a bike lane would require removal of a car travel lane which the city would study endlessly before implementing.  And has the city begun to study that possibility?  Nope.

With the LADOT absent on the issue, the next best hope for change would seem to be Huizar’s office.  However, Huizar sent mixed messages in his interview in the Patch.  On one hand, he seems to believe that “striking a balance” between the needs of the community and commuters is accomplished through off-peak light de-synchronization.  On the other hand, he seemed open to at least talking about a diet.

If LADOT won’t step up as it did in other parts of the city, it’s time for the Councilman to show some leadership.  Your community is waiting.