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ChineseMetroFlickrLA: Los Angeles Metro – Blue Line
Copyrighted image by rjmcconnell; used with permission from the MetroRiderLA Flickr pool. All rights reserved.
In this Flickr image, the photographer asks, “Who would have thought that the gritty Blue Line passes through such a setting as this?” So true. The Blue Line is highly functional. It connects the two largest cities of Los Angeles County in less than an hour, and it is a workhorse of a line with more than 70,000 riding each weekday.
Formwise, the Blue Line leaves much to be desired. To go between Los Angeles and Long Beach, the Blue Line must pass through very poor, crime-plagued communities that often have residential bungalows, toxic industries and junkyards as next-door neighbors. The right of way is a visual collage of graffiti, concrete, chain-link and steel fences, dust and rubbish.
That image is usually what riders take away, since it is most jarring. Yet beauty has the power to emerge from unexpected places. Even on the Blue Line.
This prairie wilderness is on the long, fast stretch between the Del Amo and Wardlow stations, which is probably why many wouldn’t know this urban prairie even exists. This would be on the Long Beach bank of the Los Angeles River, a misnomer in itself. During the “Age of Progress,” the river was used as a conduit for urban waste and runoff. The river is literally an inch deep at most times, not more than a fraction of a mile wide, and contains water that’s a clear and present danger.
Yet slowly, nature is reasserting itself along the river, and now progress is marked by turning back the clock.
If only all sections of the Los Angeles River can look like this. Much like the previous day’s Gold Line photo, it is yet again a composition of the layers of natural and human civilization. Nature is not only in the front, but the reddish-green hues of the flora draw the eye immediately. Transit is again a bridge. The Blue Line crosses a bridge to get here, and it’s a clean horizontal divider between the foreground and the background. The visual appeal does not extend to the sound wall, but if you are one of the residents of the houses in the background, it’s a way of coping with technology and nature.
Helping to hold all the pieces in place is the sky, with cirrostratus clouds helping to make the top half of the photo look sponge-painted.
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[...] another winning image by rjmcconnell, who also shot the Blue Line’s Long Beach prairie near the Los Angeles River. He cast his camera to the Blue Line portal in Downtown Los Angeles and captured the transformation [...]