Streetsblog Los Angeles

The proposed SCIG via LA 15th

In a show of solidarity for the city’s choice to formally appeal the proposed Southern California International (SCIG) railyard, the Port of Long Beach (POLB) Board of Harbor Commissioners unanimously voted to back the appeal despite holding a large amount of business benefits should the project move forward.

While Commissioner Thomas Fields recused himself due to possible economic conflicts of interest, the remaining members voted 4-0 to support the appeal.

Though the Board insisted that expanded and improved rail facilities are, as Commissioner President Susan Anderson Wise specifically put it, “critical to the economic development of the Port,” they ultimately said frankly that “everyone can do better on this project than has been done so far.”

Such a consideration is shocking–especially following the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) Board of Harbor Commissioners antithetically voting to support the project unanimously–since SCIG would be a near-dock rail yard and roughly 60% of BNSF’s business lies within the POLB. Even further, POLB loads about 25% of the current imports at rail yards within the Port terminals; however, there isn’t enough cargo at each terminal to go to each rail destination. Read more…

Stay Golden. Picture courtesy of Eric Gray.

I have often spoke of the simple art of beautification. From simple streetscaping to large park overhauls, the actual complexity of the projects doesn’t interfere with the fact that it’s a simple idea that sparks it all: beautifying our neighborhoods.

And the vast impact that even the smallest of touches can make–for example, the creation of a public art piece out of used CDs on a fence outside Berlin in the East Village–often compensates for the lack of realizing the larger dreams we all have–say, perfectly scaled, walkable sidewalks complete with shade, seating, and recreation.

It should be no shock that Eric Gray (yet again) has opted for this approach to beautification. After all, he continually looks at ways to lift up streetscapes to higher levels, albeit cost efficiently, so that pedestrians and residents alike feel not just more comfortable but proud of their neighborhood.

“I personally believe that the small details do matter–especially in the Long Beach, a place which struggles from a perception problem of being rundown,” Gray said. “I’m also a realist and know that I am not in a position to make larger streetscape improvement projects happen, the ones which I would really like to see come to fruition such as adding more pedestrian lighting in the East Village on Broadway and 3rd.” Read more…

A rendering of the RiverLink project. Photo courtesy of the City of Long Beach

(The 2002 River Link Report is available off our Scribd Account after the jump.)

You see, there’s this thing called a Healthy City–and according to the National Recreation and Parks Association, a Healthy City has 10 acres of parks for every 1,000 of its residents.

In 2001, a debate in Long Beach was sparked: how had a city of a half-million dwindled its park space to 5.2 acres per 1,000 residents? And, even more disturbing, how had the acreage of parks become so disproportionately spread? The Eastside was averaging–thanks to the massive 650 acre El Dorado Park–some 16.7 acres/1,000 residents while the Westside had a sadly dismal 1 acre/1,000 residents. Legally deemed “park poor,” this means that each thousand residents doesn’t even have a full football field of park space.

The once mile-long sprawl that was Victory (the OG Bluff Park) and Santa Cruz Parks along Ocean Boulevard in West Long Beach had become, particularly during the 1990s, nothing more than sidewalk landscaping for the office buildings and high-rises (yes, when you walk down Ocean on the southend sidewalk between Alamitos and Magnolia as well as between Cedar and Golden, they are considered “parks”).

Multiple green spaces were replaced with unshaded asphalt that, in combination with the elevated terrace that is Long Beach’s physiography, makes the city 10 degrees hotter than other coastal havens. The queen palms and sparsely planted eucalyptus trees that line medians exacerbate the lack-of-cover issue since they provide little shade. Combine this with the air quality–on- and off-shore winds mix with air, auto, and port pollution–and it is clear that the Westside lacks much needed green buffers.

And in 2002, the City Council noticed this deficiency–and unanimously voted to help increase the city-wide 5.2 acre average to 8, which would require an additional 1,000 acres to do so. Since then, 31 of those acres have been developed, with 14 parks newly created in West Long Beach; 150 are in acquisition or construction and supposedly an additional 800 have been identified for possible acquisition.

Phil Hester, the former director of Long Beach Park, Recreation & Marine who during his tenure increased Long Beach’s park space by 1000, began his Context + Discourse lecture with one of the more ambitious–not to mention realistic and deeply needed–projects that came out of that 2002 vote: the Long Beach RiverLink, a project developed between the city and Studio 606 of CalPoly Pomona.

Hester’s idea is simple: alter the perception of the Los Angeles River, which winds down the Westside, and connect Districts 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, and 9 to the river by altering the concrete metropolis into a biking and pedestrian haven of green.

The project is bold: California sycamore, alder, and oak tree-lined medians on the main arterials (such as Pacific Coast Highway, Wardlow Blvd, & Anaheim), minor arterials (such as Market Street), collective streets (such as Spring Street), and parkways (such as Daisy Ave), all complete with native landscape planting to offer aesthetically pleasing, low water, low maintenance foliage that actually cools down.

Read more…

This week, the Long Beach City Council–acting as the Successor Agency to the Redevelopment Agency in Long Beach–voted unanimously 6-0 to implement a ballot process to possibly establish the Uptown Business Improvement District (UPBID).

The North Long Beach Business Alliance is well known for Thursday evening's Long Beach Uptown Farmer's Market, but they hope to score a true business improvement district to make the community more business (and everything else) friendly. Photo:Good Veg.org

Largely headed by the North Long Beach Business Alliance (NLBBA) and 9th District Councilmember Steve Neal for the past two years, the UPBID will extend mostly along Atlantic Avenue north of Carson and up to Artesia. At Artesia, it will head east until it meets Gundry, where thelong-delayed Fire Station 12 is currently being developed.

Atlantic Avenue–particularly during the decades between 1920 and 1960–was considered arguably the most popular strip in Long Beach and is considered key to economically developing North Long Beach today. Once home to the famed Atlantic, Brayton, Crest, and LaShell Theaters -of which the 1948 Crest was the first prototype for the Fox-style moviehouses that eventually spread across Los Angeles–the strip was vibrant and lively back in its heyday.

Following a dilapidation over the the 1970s and 80s, the strip soon became unused and unpopular–a disheartening fact considering its rich history and roots in Long Beach. The UPBID, or at least those who are marketing it, are hoping that such a sentiment will change by making simple changes ranging from tree and median maintenance to retention efforts easier to materialize.

“While it is still really early in the process,” said Rex Richardson of Neal’s office, “if this thing comes to fruition, it would be hugely transformative for our community.” Read more…

In an attempt to not only clear traffic between the Port of Long Beach (POLB) and the Alameda Corridor rail line but also clear the air of pollutants, the Green Port Gateway–after years of discussion–is finally underway with a ten-month later-than-expected completion date.

The Signal Tribune used this picture to show rail congestion in the 2011 announcement that the project was approved.

Originally slated to be completed in September of this year with a projected $66 million budget, the project will now cost some $83.5 million and is projected to be finished in July of 2014. POLB scored a grant in December of 2011 from the U.S. Department of Transportation via their TIGER funding; after failing to receive funds in the first two rounds of TIGER funding, the port received $17 million from the $511 million pot. In addition, the project receivesome $27 million from Prop 1B funds, otherwise known as the Trade Corridor Improvement Fund.

The advertised point of the project is two-fold: to reduce traffic congestion amongst the rails leaving the port–the much larger focus–and to decrease pollution.

Currently, there is an infamous bottleneck of rail traffic where Ocean Boulevard meets the 710: three railways leaving the port immediately converge into two. The project will create a new six-mile span of track that will open up the bottleneck so each track can run without convergence. Read more…

Mitsubishi, and other bus makers, have developed all electric buses.

Long Beach Transit (LBT) is considering two common, albeit game-changing RFPs (depending on their decisions): to purchase new buses that fit within the so-called alternative fuel sectors–that is, hybrid, CNG, or electric.

Before I even make another statement, there are two that shouldn’t even be on that list–and it isn’t electric.

As dollar signs float through the various minds of various transit board members across the globe, let’s first break down LBT’s two current RFPs.

The first one was issued last October following the receiving of the Department of Transportation’s Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction (TIGGER) grant. It also acted as one of LBT’s most progressive: instead of simply following the grant’s requirement of reducing GHG emissions and energy costs, which means any alternative fuel buses could be purchased with the grant monies, LBT decided to offer an addition of Prop Bond 1B funds to obtain a 10 bus fleet of zero emission electric buses. If succeeded and followed through, it would be the largest electric bus fleet in the nation.

This RFP, whose applicants were narrowed down this past February, has been slightly delayed following LBT staff’s recommendation of one company over another and has prompted the Board to reevaluate their recommendation process. Deferring their vote and holding study sessions, the LBT Board was presented with a breakdown of how the staff went about not just the RFP, but their decision.

In an interesting contradiction to bringing in electric buses, Board Member  Lori Ann Farrell asked if LBT was required to spend the grant on electric buses–to which LBT Maintenance and Facilities Executive Director Rolando Cruz explained that, while not required, the 1B funds LBT would put up themselves allow them to purchase ten of the more expensive, zero-emission electric buses that the grant alone would not permit them to do. Read more…

City Fabrick, the nonprofit urba-nerd group in Long Beach, has officially launched. And this, Long Beachers, is a good thing.

The organization has no little–or amongst cities like San Francisco, New York, and even good ol’ Los Angeles, not an uncommon–task: to rearrange the city’s physical space to “promote progressive urban design that enhances the livability of communities and the health of residents in Long Beach,” according to Executive Director and urban guru Brian Ulaszewski.

And even before the formal brouhaha of launching “officially,” they did so quite literally in the streets.

Take the rather successful Park(d) Plaza. Sitting across the street from the parklets of Berlin and Fingerprints, the space reconfigured an entire parking lot into a 30′-by-75′ foot public space–while simultaneously improving ADA access and adding an additional parking spot. Oh, and they have tetherball courts to bring out your inner third grader competitiveness.

Click to enlarge. Various Walk LB cards. Image courtesy of City Fabrick.

Read more…

The proposed area of the Terminal Island Freeway to be removed.

Last night, the Long Beach City Council voted unanimously to (once again) approved a motion to pursue a grant in order to further a study on the removal of the northern portion of the Terminal Island Freeway (I-103) that sits above Pacific Coast Highway in West Long Beach.

This marks the second bold decision by the council–following last year’s vote to seek a CalTrans grant that was ultimately not achieved–to push forward on what could mark one of the largest freeway removals in Southern California history, stretching from slightly south of PCH all the way to Willow Street.

The Terminal Island Freeway has been at the center of a proposed restructuring since 2010, when community leaders pointed out a simple thing: the existing northern length of the freeway, following the development of the 20-mile long Alameda Corridor and the still-underway modernization of the Intermodal Container Transfer Facility (ICTF) by Union Pacific Railroad, is redundant. Read more…

Google Earth image of Schroeder Hall via Everything Long Beach

After a long and arduous battle that pitted neighborhood fears of wandering homeless folk against the acquirement of an Army-owned property that the city hoped to turn into a new police substation, it seems that the city plans for Schroeder Hall are moving forward as planned. Instead of building the federally-mandated homeless facility near Schroeder (and, for some, much too close to Stearns Park), the Mental Health America (MHA)-operated facility will be located at 1955 Long Beach Boulevard.

The homeless are, despite one’s viewpoint on the subject, a relatively invisible host of bodies in Long Beach. They’re there, but most residents rarely acknowledge their presence. Like a trash can, citizens usually relegate them automatically to the role of inanimate scenery.

That is, until a 9-to-5 mental health facility that caters to them is suddenly being proposed some 1.5 miles from an affluent Long Beach neighborhood. Then, Long Beach residents speak up–and they spoke up raucously for over five years in the dreaded tale that is the acquirement of Schroeder Hall.

The former Schroeder Hall Army Reserve Center sits in the 5th District of Long Beach at Grand Avenue and Willow Street and was offered to the city by the U.S. Army as “surplus property” in 2006. Given its surplus designation, certain rules have to be followed via the McKinney Act signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1987–particularly Title V, which mandates that surplus federal properties must also provide a facility that caters to the homeless via a nonprofit in addition to its use by states and local governments. Read more…