Things to read from the past week:
How a commune-like encampment in Echo Park became a flashpoint in L.A.’s homelessness crisis "For differing reasons, both advocates for homeless people and those frustrated by the lack of cleanliness in the park disparage the city’s response, which is fundamentally rooted in the slow pace of providing housing or shelter. They share a particular scorn for Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, who has tried to split the difference, promising to clear the park by finding homes for everyone living there. So far, he has not managed to reduce the number of tents, let alone stop their spread." (LA Times)
Column: Our other pandemic — speeding cars and lost lives "In Los Angeles, the number of traffic fatalities dipped slightly in 2020, down to 238 from 246 a year earlier. But that slight decrease occurred even though traffic volume was down as much as 30% to 50% at times last year, according to statistics from the Los Angeles Department of Transportation." (LA Times)
Belkin to halve headquarters in move to hybrid workplace "Belkin International Inc. said it will move its headquarters later this year from Playa Vista, California, to El Segundo...The new location at 555 Aviation comprises 65,422 square feet — half the square footage of the previous location." (Bizjournals)
Aerial view of Union StationHunter Kerhart Architectural Photography
L.A. Union Station to host part of the 93rd Academy Awards on April 25 "Union Station will remain open to transit riders throughout the awards events and riders will be able to access all bus, rail, Metrolink, Amtrak and private transportation providers, along with vendors. Alternative waiting accommodations for Metrolink and Amtrak riders will be provided. Signs throughout Union Station will help visitors navigate to transportation and parking options. During closures, customers will be able to access transit services through Union Station East....We’re working hard to minimize disruptions around Union Station and we don’t expect any bus or rail closures due to the event." (The Source)
L.A. loses 100 billion gallons of water a year. This park is helping recapture it "The design is the first phase of a major renovation of Earvin “Magic” Johnson park, located in unincorporated Los Angeles County land in the South L.A. community of Willowbrook. Near the intersection of two major interstate highways, Willowbrook is a lower-income neighborhood that’s been underserved for years. The 126-acre park was originally designed in the 1980s and is the largest open space in South L.A., which has made it a popular but heavily used public space." (Fast Company)
Christina Development Restoring Larchmont Village Storefronts "...a stretch of 14 storefronts, located in a building at 124 ½ to 148 N. Larchmont Blvd., is being renovated by Malibu-based Christina Development Corp., which purchased the property in 2018....The Larchmont Mercantile project, as it’s known, is designed by Gensler, and CBRE Group Inc.’s Zachary Card and Erik Krasney are leasing the storefronts." (LA Business Journal)
Conceptual rendering of a monorail viaduct in the median of the I-405 Freeway in the Sepulveda PassLA SkyRail Express
Ten Reasons to Ditch the Sepulveda Monorail Proposal Now "Sepulveda is a mega-project that is only partially funded. Typically, when this is the case for projects, Metro seeks funding from other levels of government – like, say, the pro-rail pro-transit Biden administration. For Sepulveda, Metro hopes that a Public-Private Partnership (P3) might bring private sector money to the project." (Streetsblog LA)
LACMA sets a reopening date. Six new shows are lined up after year of closure Los Angeles County's move into the red tier will permit museums to open at 25 percent capacity with safety protocols in place. LACMA will reopen for visitors starting April 1. (LA Times)
$85 million lawsuit against Carson over failed outlet mall gets thrown out "A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Monday, March 15, threw out the bulk of an $85 million dollar lawsuit in which the developer of a long-planned, but now-abandoned outlet mall along the 405 Freeway made allegations of financial mismanagement and negligence against the city of Carson...Cam-Carson, a partnership between mall developers Macerich and Simon Property Group, filed the lawsuit last year against the city and Carson Reclamation Authority, the agency created to oversee the complex and expensive environmental remediation effort required to turn the 157-acre tract atop a former garbage dump into usable land." (Daily Breeze)
Editorial: Metro Gives Monterey Park $100+ Million to Improve Transportation… and the City Wants to Build Parking Lots with it? "Metro awarded Monterey Park $100+ million from the Measure R sales tax increase passed by voters in 2008. This tax increase was supposed to fund the completion of the North 710 Freeway stub, but when that idea was killed in 2017, Metro divided nearly $1 billion amongst San Gabriel Valley cities to improve traffic. Funds could be used for: repairing roads, increasing local bus services, intelligent traffic lights, lane expansion, and various other transportation improvements....The city is proposing to use this once-in-a-lifetime funding for lane expansions and parking lots – with virtually no community engagement. No surveys were sent out. No town halls were conducted. No input from residents on how we want our tax dollars spent." (Streetsblog LA)
The TriforiumWikimedia Commons
What exactly is the Triforium? And other tales of L.A.’s public art "The Triforium has been the subject of many obituaries, all of them correct in one way or another. Tellingly, its grand debut was delayed half an hour because the sound system didn’t work. It has scarcely ever worked since then; when it did, it played everything from canticles to Janis Joplin. Brilliant in conception — coordinated music and rainbow trills from 1,494 Italian colored glass prisms — it stumbled in execution and action. The Triforium was like a car: The city owned the vehicle but the artist had the keys, and they could never quite get it together." (LA Times)
Eyes on the Street: Newly-Protected Bike Lane on Figueroa Street "The new improvements are located on the 0.6-mile stretch of Figueroa between Wilshire Boulevard and 2nd Street in downtown Los Angeles. The location is immediately north of the MyFigueroa protected bike lane. For all but one block of this project (from Wilshire to 3rd Street), Figueroa is one-way northbound, so the protected lane is one-way northbound." (Streetsblog LA)
The Sears Store In Boyle Heights Is Closing Its Doors For Good Next Month "The historic Sears building at the corner of Olympic and Soto has been a mainstay of Boyle Heights for generations....The enormous retail complex (two MILLION square feet) first opened in 1927, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006." (LAist)
Demar Matthews wants to unerase Black lives from architecture. First stop: Watts "...Matthews has launched a GoFundMe to help support the Watts project, with L.A.'s A+D Museum as the fiscal sponsor. Several architectural firms also are on board as design sponsors, including Gensler, Steinberg Hart and Studio-MLA — the latter the landscape design firm led by Mia Lehrer. But fundraising for architecture in a pandemic has been challenging. So far, the project has drawn only $8,000 of the $150,000 needed to realize the building." (LA Times)
Speed Cameras In LA? A New Bill Would Allow CA Cities To Explore The Technology "The bill would direct the state's transportation agency to develop guidelines for speed camera pilot programs so local cities could launch their own versions. The bill would require the programs to be run by local transportation agencies, not police." (LAist)
He challenged himself to build an ADU for under $100,000. What’s his secret? "Working as his own general contractor, Navarro and his design firm ANDesign built the ADU in place of the property’s 35-foot-wide carport in just five months for $95,000, including design, engineering, permits and construction costs." (LA Times)
Rendering of the new bridge at 2nd/Hope StationMetro
Eyes on the Street: Regional Connector Bridge Construction on Bunker Hill "The under-construction Grand Avenue Arts/Bunker Hill Station is in a somewhat-out-of-the-way location, on Hope Street at 2nd Street, essentially directly behind the Broad Museum. The station will connect to Grand Avenue via a pedestrian bridge over Hope Street. The bridge will take riders to a walkway immediate south of the Broad – allowing for additional transit access to Grans Avenue destinations including the Broad, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Colburn School, California Plaza, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Music Center, and Grand Park." (Streetsblog LA)
Warner Bros. steps away from $100-million Hollywood sign aerial tramway "Warner Bros. in 2018 told Los Angeles city officials it would fund an aerial tramway to take visitors to and from the Hollywood sign, starting from a parking structure next to its Burbank lot....The effort, dubbed the Hollywood Skyway, would have cost the studio an estimated $100 million. The tramway would have taken visitors on a six-minute ride more than 1 mile up the back of Mt. Lee to a new visitors center near the sign, with pathways to a viewing area." (LA Times)
