Support L.A. River Path – Motion at Metro Board Meeting Tomorrow

Ten years after voters set aside $365 million (about $500 million in today’s dollars) to complete the L.A. River trail through downtown, Metro is finally on the cusp of approving a realistic plan to do that.

Bass and Solis Introduce Critical Motion

Mayor Karen Bass and Supervisor Hilda Solis have introduced a motion for consideration at tomorrow’s board meeting that would start the process of creating a new agency to be responsible for building, operating, and maintaining the trail. The motion responds to advocacy by the Festival Trail to change the proposed alignment of the path from above the channel—at a cost of $1.1 billion and unlikely to be built any time spoon—to an alignment in the channel at a cost well within the budgeted set aside with money left over for other safety improvements in the region. The in-channel option can even feasibly be built by the summer of 2028, in time for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Bike paths in flood channels are common around the world, including in Los Angeles. The proposed 8.5-mile section in the LA River would be a better version of the existing in-channel path on the floor of the Arroyo Seco. It would have gates to close the path during flood events. Engineers at GeoSyntec, Inc. analyzed the proposal and confirmed that existing technology would give more than 4 hours notice before flooding, plenty of time to evacuate the channel. A flood event would close the path approximately 10-15 days each year. A path that’s not open every day is not ideal, but being available 96% of the time is infinitely better than none of the time, which is the realistic alternative for the next decade.

Unfortunately, the Motion is Weak

It merely calls for studying the creation of a new agency and other governance options. It makes no mention of the in-channel option. It sets no deadline for the completion of the study. And most importantly, it does not direct Metro to begin the permitting process with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers which must begin immediately in order to have a chance to build the trail by the summer of 2028.

You can help. The Festival Trail has created this action tool. It drafts a letter, in your own email program, to send to the Metro representative most appropriate for you depending on your address.

The vote is tomorrow. Contact your Metro representative today. Now, actually. Contact your Metro representative now. It will take less time than reading this article.