Let’s Find a Freeway Project for Which to Advocate

Doesn’t That Look Like Fun!?!?

I have to admit, I’m feeling left out.

Everywhere I went today, people were talking about “710 Day.” It was all over my Inbox. My wife brought it up at lunch. The regular news reports on KFI devoted regular coverage to it throughout the day.

For those of you that missed the news, Alhambra declared July 10 to be “710 Day.” The city is planning to celebrate all of the progress being made to one day  connect the I-10 and I-210 freeways and doom the entire region to an even more rapid increase in truck traffic.

I’m not jealous because they have a truly awful project to celebrate. After all, I live on the Westside. If I were Payton Manning I could hit the Sepuveda Pass Improvement Project with a strong throw from my house if the 405 were wearing a Patriots jersey. No, I’m jealous because I want a road project for which to advocate. It looks like so much fun.

So, I reached out to the Streetsblog L.A. Editorial Board for some help, and got some great ideas. Leave your own ideas for truly, amazingly awful freeway projects we can advocate for. We’ll vote next week on election day for the best bad project idea and on July 10 we’ll have our own celebration. If you need a cheat sheet, click here.

Some of our ideas can be found after the jump.

“A 170 extension from Cahuenga Pass to Baldwin Hills.”

“i want the Reseda Freeway through the Santa Monica Mountains and the Beverly Hills freeway.” “The 170 and the 101 W do not connect to each other because it was assumed they would be constructed when the 170 turned into the Laurel Canyon/Beverly Hills freeway. The construction of the 170 certainly expedited its “desirability” as a commuter suburb into downtown LA. I would also make the case it accelerated its shift into an inner-ring suburb and all of its accompanying problems revolving around environmental justice and social equity.”

If you have a better bad idea, let us know, below.