Metro considers proposal to rename Pico Station

Metro is considering a request to rename an existing light rail station on the system:  

•Changing the name of “Pico Station” on the Blue and Expo Lines in downtown L.A. to the “South Park/LA Live Station.” The station at Pico and Flower streets is in the South Park neighborhood in DTLA and a very short walk to Staples Center, Microsoft Theater, L.A. Convention Center and Grammy Museum, among other destinations.

When Metro evaluates proposals to change station names, comments are welcome from organizations and individuals. If you wish to provide comments, there are various ways to do so, including in person, via email, or by regular U.S. Mail.

Comments are due by Friday, January 12, 2018.

Comment on the Pico Station renaming: 

To provide comments in person – Attend the Metro Westside/Central Service Council meeting:

Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2018, 5 p.m.
Gateway Room, 3rd Floor
Metro Headquarters Building
One Gateway Plaza
Los Angeles, CA 90012

To provide comments via US Mail, please send your comments to:

Mr. Michael Cortez
Community Relations Manager, Central Area

One Gateway Plaza
Mail Stop 99-13-1
Los Angeles, CA 90012

To provide comments via email, please send to: cortezmic@metro.net

Staff will report back to the Board of Directors with a recommendation as well as any public input received in early 2018. For more information on Board and Committee meetings, please visit www.metro.net

19 replies

  1. All of the stations in the system should be named after the intersections they are closest too. L.A. Live sucks, Pico Station is fine; and what about Chick Hearn? Did I mention L.A. Live sucks?

  2. No , please do not change the name of this station. Pico station is really easy to identify when you are heading to Staples Center, Convention Center and other places near by. Changing the name of this station can bring confusion. I beg for the station to NOT be renamed.

  3. I am all for the name change if LA Live is willing to give some funding to the future grade separation. At Pico. Its a great Private/public partnership.

  4. It makes sense to keep the name of the cross street where the station is located. Maybe you could even change it to “Pico Blvd” to make it more specific. Not everyone from the greater LA area would know the neighborhood of South Park, and tourists certainly wouldn’t.

  5. LA Live is a poor choice for a station name, although I think there should be pedestrian wayfinding signs to direct people there. Pico/Flower is an obvious but good choice, as well as LA Convention Center as an iconic stop for those drawn to the area from out of town.

  6. Why does METRO have to renamed the PICO station (on flower) that already has a name: PICO/CHICK HEARN? If we are going to do away with people’s names let’s remove ALL names of people at all are stations such as Zev and Gloria. We should also do away with Rosa Parks name.

    I am against any name change to the Pico/Chick Hearn station, leave the name alone! Many of us still remember Chick Hearn.

    • Agree with removing all ceremonial names from stations. Rosa Parks deserves an honor a lot better than train station in a highway median.

  7. This is such a great idea cuz most people don’t know wtf pico station is and somethang like la live or lakers/kings stop would be a great idea……..

    • What about the Clippers and Los Angeles Sparks. Their Logo/names should be noted at the station too.

  8. They need to separate the whole thing underground to Washington. South Park/Pico Station gets my vote, screw LA Live.

  9. LA Live is a private for-profit concern. Metro decided not that long ago that station names wouldn’t be commercialized. If the neighborhood wants to include South Park in the station name, perhaps “South Park/Convention Center”. Common sense would have it be “Pico/Flower”.

    Station names should be easy for most people to identify where they are. Do most Angelenos know where the Southwest Museum or LATTC/Ortho Institute are? No.

    As others point out, the station needs to be redone. Underground is the logical choice due to the proximity of the Flower tunnel. I know this is one of the options for the 28 by 28 plan.

  10. Ideally, the station would be grade-separated (either elevated or underground), with stairs directly to the west side of the street. The current design is not very good, forcing masses of people to scramble across busy Flower Street to get to LA Live.

    At minimum, the station needs to be widened. It is super busy, and it’s only going to become more busy when the Regional Connector opens.

    • Pico, along with every Blue Line station, was remodeled not two years ago. They added more shelter from the elements, improved lighting, and generally cleaned the stations up cosmetically.

    • Makes the most since. Perhaps even Pico Blvd/South Park. Setting the world on fire here.

  11. If they plan to re-brand the station, I hope L.A. Live plans to pay for the updates to everything as a result.

    This definitely feels a little gross that it’s even being considered…but I mean, I guess Trump is our president now so up is down and so on. Is Metro going to install some Carls Jr. vending machines too?

    • with this logic, should we change the Universal City, Expo Park/USC, Warner Center, and Southwest Museum stations since naming stations based on major nearby sites is gross? idgi

      • No, it’s CHANGING a name of an already existing station to a name that benefits corporate interests and puts another step in removing Los Angeles history (Pio Pico, obviously), and replacing it with the name of what is basically a glorified mall. The real question is why do you think tax payers need to subsidize the branding efforts of private businesses?

        While I understand that changing my argument to fit what you’re saying is appealing, it is not accurate. Lastly, Exposition Park and Southwest Museum don’t really fit in with that naming scheme, do they?