Dept. of Video: Pretty cool — the western side of the new Sixth Street Viaduct — coming in 2020 — will serve the booming Industrial District in DTLA.
Speaking of the Industrial District….
Photo by Steve Hymon/Metro.
Checked out Row DTLA on Sunday (at 7th and Alameda) and their behemoth new 10-story parking garage — let’s just say the developers obviously have faith in L.A. staying a car town!
Row DTLA is the old L.A. Terminal Market building that is being converted to retail and creative space. It’s already home to Smorgasburg and seems to be shaping up nicely, although most of the retail spaces remain unoccupied.
Three thoughts:
•The ROW DTLA website says they’ll be running shuttles to both Union Station and 7th/Metro to better connect visitors to transit. So that’s good.
•The Union Station to Artesia light rail project (known as the West Santa Branch Corridor) is looking at four routes in DTLA. Two would have stations at 7th/Alameda, two would be in between Alameda and the L.A. River. More here. With a bunch of big developments in the pipeline for the Industrial District, this project is going to supply a much-needed north-south connection to the Metro Rail system.
•That Sixth Street Viaduct looks great. But here’s my question: what’s L.A.’s version of the High Line that has been wildly popular in New York? The High Line took an old elevated freight railway and turned it into a park. Is something like that possible at ground level in the Arts and Industrial District where a few old railroad spurs remain (and are typically used for parking)?
The High Line in Gotham. Photo by Craig Dietrich, via Flickr creative commons.
Perhaps the Rail to River project is our High Line. That will convert a stretch of the old Harbor Subdivision tracks between Inglewood and the L.A. River to a walk/bike path. It’s a cool project but not in DTLA.
Dodger Stadium Express update: The bus to the ballpark from Union Station and Harbor Gateway is expected to being rolling deep into October. The World Series begins Oct. 24. The Dodgers are currently eight games ahead of the Astros for the best record in baseball and home field advantage in the Fall Classic. Meaning the Dodgers will be at home for Games 1 and 2 of the World Series on Oct. 24 and 25.
The Dodgers are currently winning 71.2 percent of their games. The math suggests that they should win a seven-game series in five games — meaning the Dodgers will likely win the World Series on the road, perhaps in Beantown, the Bronx or Houston.
While I cannot honestly say that I am the biggest Dodger fan, as a kid I did bear witness to the Cincinnati Reds destroying the rest of the National League in similar fashion in 1975. So I totally get the excitement. It’s fun to see a team walk through the majors like Michonne walks through a field of biters. She hasn’t lost yet.
And this….with the Dodgers probably facing Arizona or Colorado in the Division Series, there remains a chance that the team with MLB’s highest salary could face the league’s lowest salaried team in the NLCS if the Brewers win the NL Central and beat Washington in the other Division Series. That might be fun. Plus, Milwaukee jokes.
The Dodgers success extends to their farm teams, btw. Check out the way that Great Lakes ended a 39-game hitting streak by an opponent last week! High five to that, eh?
Football express: Both the L.A. Rams and the L.A./Carson Chargers open their preseasons at home this weekend. The Rams host the Dallas/Arlington Cowboys on Saturday evening at the Coliseum with the Chargers making their StubHub Center debut on Sunday afternoon/evening against the Seahawks. The Coliseum, of course, is easy to reach via the Expo Line and Silver Line. News on shuttle buses between Metro Rail and StubHub Center will be burping forth very soon, I’m told.
The Raiders ninth home game of the season — in Carson — is at 1:30 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, btw.
What will Los Angeles transit be like when the Olympics arrive in 2028? (LAT)
L.A.’s Olympics probably won’t mean much for Los Angeles transit (Urbanize LA)
Nice roundup of transit projects on the docket in the LAT as well as a look at some traffic issues. As reporter Laura Nelson points out, one reason that traffic was light during the ’84 Games was that local officials used the old scare-tactic route, repeated with success during Carmageddon and its sequels.
Over at Urbanize, Scott Frazier predicts that due to a confluence of factors — most notably a dearth of federal $s — other transit projects probably won’t get accelerated just because of the Games. Metro is looking at some possible deals with the private sector and those deals, as we’ve said before, aren’t the easiest thing in the world to put together. But stay tuned!
Program approved to give free bus passes to Downtown workers (Columbus Dispatch)
Credit: Sent from the Past, via Flickr creative commons.
About 43,000 workers in downtown Columbus, Ohio, would be eligible for free bus passes beginning next summer. Some of the $s come from an assessment on building owners, the rest will come from fundraising efforts.
Parking is tight in DTCO, which has led to a decrease in rents and more vacancies. The goal of the program is to try to get at least some people to stop driving. Which in Ohio — and anywhere, really — is not a super easy thing to do.
New York’s subways are not just delayed. Some don’t run at all. (NYT)
What happens when a reporter descends into the subway armed with a subway schedule?:
On the Lexington Avenue line, which carries the No. 4, 5 and 6 trains, just 77 of 90 scheduled trains routinely run through the busy Grand Central Station stop from 8 to 9 a.m. The rest, 14 percent of trains, are effectively canceled, at a time when the system needs them most.
Again in the evening, from 5 to 6 p.m., only 76 of 88 scheduled trains stop at the station, on average. Each canceled train accounts for roughly 1,000 passengers who could be accommodated if the system met its published schedule.
It matters because the Lexington Avenue Line is the busiest in the New York system, making it the busiest subway line in America. The rough summer continues for the subway in New York, which is facing a long list of maintenance issues and ongoing/imminent closures.
Five myths about infrastructure (Washington Post)
The WaPo applies its popular ‘five myths’ format to infrastructure. One point they make: there has long been private investment in infrastructure via the purchase/underwriting of muni bonds that government sells to raise money to build projects.
Categories: Transportation Headlines
The LA TIMES article on transit in 2028 was followed by this comment from Dougie72:
“Transit” will always be the first choice of illegal alien maids, broke students, virtue-signalling hipsters, and the mentally ill and homeless. The rest will drive their cars, Uber, or, soon, cheap self driving shuttle pods. I’ll never, ever, set foot on “transit”.
It seems LA attitudes haven’t changed since the 50s.
I disagree. It’s one comment — I’m guessing anonymous — from one person on one story. More than two-thirds of L.A. County voters in 2008 and 2016 voted to tax themselves to greatly expand the transit system. Maybe a lot of those folks don’t use transit routinely, but I doubt the vast majority of them would say they are never going to ride it.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
The bridge video has everything looking shiny and new. I feel like all these concept vids should be required to render with 5 years of accumulated soot and oil on everything. The landscaping looks nice enough here, but nobody wants to casually stroll under a 4-lane highway.
Pigeons. These videos never show pigeons or their impact. I would say that I may agree with you in concept but in practice…well good luck telling someone their video isn’t grimy enough 🙂
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
Will the Stadium Express be running for the Red Bull Soapbox Derby on the 20th of this month?
Will need to check. For non-baseball events at the stadium it’s usually up to the promoter whether to provide the service.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
I think the closest thing we have to the highline in L.A. isn’t an old elevated railway, but the Calvin S Hamilton Pedways of Bunker Hill. Interesting they were originally built in anticipation of there being a people mover system. They are mostly just bland concrete walkways, so they don’t have the sexy landscaping that the high line has. I think they should redesign each of these pathways and make them look similar to the new one going up in Long Beach.
http://www.longbeachize.com/11-1m-pedestrian-bridge-in-dtlb-begins-construction
That is a fine idea!!!
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
Steve, how do I report the run-down pedway on the north/west side of the Bank of America and YMCA buildings, under 4th St.? I went there recently trying to get a good photo of the crane for the TBM and saw a transient camp with a guy sitting at the top of the stairs shooting up. The entrance to the BofA plaza was locked (why?) which means the pedway led nowhere and was an eyesore at best and a safety issue at worst.
I’m pretty certain that’s not Metro’s property. My hunch — could be wrong — is that is managed by the building owners. So I would start there. You may also try calling the city of L.A.’s 3-1-1 line and asking them. Hope this helps!
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
Let’s see, 77 trains over 60 minutes at Grand Central. That means 38.5 trains each way. That’s 1 minute, 33 seconds between trains. While I understand that there are multiple tracks in each direction on the Lexington Ave line, our system can’t even beat 6 minute headways right now.