Open Space

As part of every Policies for Livable Active Communities and the Environment (PLACE) Grants awarded by L.A. County Department of Public Health in 2008, each community had to complete a sample project that demonstrated the types of street improvements that could spread throughout their city as a result of improved planning.  The City of Culver City completed the Downtown Connector project that provides a Sharrowed street connection between the Downtown and the future Expo Station while linking residents to local schools.  Long Beach spent their money on the Green Sharrowed Lane in Belmont Shore.

(We're kicking off a new series where transportation professionals write about some of the best practices in their city and how they could work in L.A.  Who better to start with than our favorite Occidental College Board Member? The NYC Plaza Program is a popular topic on our sister-site in New York.  - DN)

(Last week week, Carter Rubin filmed a couple of videos with Joel Epstein at the corner of Santa Monica and Bundy, in the area that would be the "Bundy Triangle Park" as proposed by Epstein.  Watch all four of his short interview videos at the Streetsblog YouTube page. - DN)

Now that the Expo Construction Authority has the legal green light to begin construction of Phase II of the Expo Line, it can move on to other issues.  Responding to a motion at the February 5, 2010 meeting of the Expo Construction Authority by Zev Yaroslavsky, Expo staff have put together a presentation listing the pros and cons of having station parking at the Expo Station at Westwood and Exposition.  The "no-parking" option has been endorsed by many of the groups backing the Expo Line such as Light Rail for Cheviot and Friends 4 Expo Transit.  The Construction Authority Board is expected to vote on whether to provide commuter parking  at their March 18 meeting.

A standing room only audience descended on the Fashion Institute of Design on South Grand Street to listen to a presentation from the embattled Community Redevelopment Agency for a ground breaking and popular proposal to transform the South Figueroa Corridor.  When people discuss Los Angeles' streets, they usually use terms such as "car-oriented" or "ugly."  The new South Figueroa, aka My Figueroa, would be a truly beautiful street designed for people to walk, bike wait for transit or just enjoy life outside as well as a way to shuffle cars from one area to another.

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and Qualcomm co-founder Irwin Jacobs unveiled a visionary $33 million plan to remove cars from the central square of San Diego's historic Balboa Park.  They hope to raise the funds to complete the plan by the park's 100th birthday in 2015.  The plan would open up the heart of the park to a pedestrian friendly climate where children could play free of fear of passing vehicles in a clean and inviting atmosphere.  To bring this vision to reality, the city would have to remove sixty seven spaces of free parking.

In San Francisco, the Pavement to Parks program has launched an initiative that may someday alter the way many dense U.S. cities decide to treat the streets of their commercial strips.

Interested folks can see Park 101 project plans, ask questions, and give input at a meeting preceding the monthly downtown Art Walk this Thursday. It takes place between 4 and 6 P.M. at Caltrans Headquarters, at 200 S. Main Street.

Yesterday the Los Angeles Times featured a story on what the Community Redevelopment Agency's (CRA) plan to bring a linear park to the corner of Olympic and Grand.  The Times does an excellent job explaining what the CRA is planning, but misses a key point.  A workshop, sponsored by the CRA and the Department of Recreation and Parks, will be held tonight to gather community feedback on what the linear park should look like.  but first, the Times explains the basics of the project: