MetroRiderLA

[tags]los angeles, urban planning, paul shigley, downtown[/tags]

Pasadena not only has a beautiful city hall, pictured, but it was also named California’s best mid-size city downtown by an urban planning blogger. Find more images in Flickr’s Pasadena photo pool.
Credit: Lush.i.ous via Flickr (Creative Commons license)

California Policy & Development Report’s editor, Paul Shigley, compiled his list of favorite downtowns in California’s mid-sized cities. The winners surprised no one, as his preview for this list mentioned there had to be more to downtowns than Pasadena and Santa Barbara.

Sho ’nuff, Pasadena and Santa Barbara have the number 1 and number 2 mid-size downtowns in California. An alternative headline to this entry could have been “We’re Number 1,” as big cities of Long Beach and Los Angeles placed third and fourth in California’s list of big city downtowns.

Southern California was well represented, and one shoo-in received a backhanded compliment from Shigley.

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[tags]los angeles, urban planning, bill fulton, joel kotkin, richard florida[/tags]

Bill Fulton promised a three-part salvo against Joel Kotkin on his blog, ever since the latter criticized Los Angeles for “Manhattanizing.” Kotkin believes the cities of the future are the ones who stick to mid-20th-century suburbanization.

In the coda, “Cool v. Uncool Cities: The Battle For The Soul Of Economic Development,” Fulton has Richard Florida caught in the Kotkin crossfire. Florida’s thesis is an economy driven by 40 million workers that are a part of the “creative class.” This class desires an urban space with lively arts, commerce and architecture. Kotkin, meanwhile, asserts cities must stick to modernist planning to keep local economies relevant — “Irvine-izing” rather than “Manhattanizing”.

This series has been a fascinating read. MetroRiderLA has recaps of this debate in the following posts:

• On Joel Kotkin
• Pasadena, not Manhattan
• Another week of Fulton vs. Kotkin

[tags]los angeles, north hollywood, laist, google maps[/tags]

LAist co-editor Zach Behrens was stunned at the revelation that he’s now a transit geek because of the map he drew.
Left photo credit: LAist

Zach Behrens, co-editor of LAist, had to done do it. He created a Google Map. A Google Map of a proposed streetcar route for North Hollywood. He’s officially a transit geek now.

Behrens drew a bowtie-shaped route connecting the Metro Red and Orange lines with the funness of the NoHo Arts District via Lankershim Boulevard and Vineland Avenue.

His rationale?

Some people find that even the 20-minute walk up Lankershim stops them from using the Red Line. And if they do, those local residents will drive to the station, a tactic that only works during non-peak hours when spaces are available. A few females have told us they are concerned of walking solo at night.

The NoHo Arts District has made leaps and bounds since the days of boarded up shops and true ghettoisms, yet it still has lots of room to grow. Maybe a streetcar fits into that too.

Behrens has added a complementary route, running along Moorpark Street from his house Van Nuys Boulevard to the city limits at Clybourn Avenue.

In short order, Kymberleigh Richards will educate us on the impossibility of such a service — especially if it’s in the Valley — and Rob Dawg will … be Rob Dawg.

[tags]los angeles, transit oriented development, curbed la[/tags]

This condo complex replaced a large outdoor courtyard at Wilshire Boulevard and Vermont Avenue.
Credit: Andrew Hurvitz, Here in Van Nuys

Curbed LA had a plethora of links to various developments occurring on or near rail stations. Here’s a sampling:

• The skinny Sunset+Vine tower has its advertising wrap removed, and “It’s like looking at Nicole Richie disrobed … all bones.” There’s also an ad for a downtown L.A. development at the site.
• Elderly gays can look forward to living to in the award-winning Triangle Square at Ivar and Selma avenues.
• NoHo14, the huge tower next to the North Hollywood Orange Line station (and Red Line across the street), is going to be ready to be lived in. “You can almost see into parts of Los Angeles where people want to live,” said jwilliams.
• Arquitectonica issued a press release congratulating itself for building the condos above the Wilshire/Vermont subway station. The site is in Flash, and the firm, which does work predominantly in Florida, has the condo project listed in transportation.
• See the progress of Solair, the high-rise atop the Wilshire/Western Purple Line Station. It has links to an older update and construction for a shopping center across the street.
• Here’s an item that’s not situated near the subway. In Anaheim, trouble’s a’ brewin’ at Angels Stadium, where the baseball club’s owner does not want housing on the grounds of the ballpark. The stadium is also the city’s Metrolink and Amtrak station. Orange County Register has the details, along with shock and awe from the OC Keyboard Warrior light infrantry division in the comments to the article.
• Last week, KTLA-Channel 5 put up its historic Sunset-Van Ness studio up for sale. This week, it traded its number one (living) anchor to former next-door neighbor KTTV-Channel 11 for reruns of “Family Guy.” Damn, Tribune must be really hard-up for cash.

[tags]long beach, streetcar, public transit, long beach post[/tags]

Credit: Thomas Hawk via Flickr (Creative Commons license)

Long Beach ought to consider bringing back streetcars to complement its land use and transportation plans, suggests a commentary in the Long Beach Post.

Brian Ulaszewski writes in a September 4 article about streetcars, following up on a council member’s proposal earlier this year to study building a trolley line connecting downtown Long Beach — which has the Metro Blue Line — with the east side of the city.

Ulaszewski balances his streetcar advantages with counterpoints of comprable service provided by Long Beach Transit buses now. He says that streetcars offer a better perception of transit service because its fixed routes represent a continuity, and it would attract higher ridership and increased development.

“What streetcars offer that buses cannot is a sense of permanence,” he writes. “Laying tracks for a streetcar line signals significant community investment to residents, business-owners, and local stakeholders. This cannot be replicated by even the most elaborate buses and bus shelters. Such investment can spark significant economic development along the streetcar line (upwards of a 20-to-1 return on initial investment in some cases).”

[tags]bus rapid transit, texas, austin, capital metro[/tags]

A Capital Metro bus in downtown Austin, Texas.
Credit: Cloverity via Flickr (Creative Commons license)

Metro’s Rapid bus network has been the brigadier general in the public relations offensive for bus rapid transit. The narrative goes: bus rapid transit builds a rail transit system without even having to lay down track, and transit users cannot tell the difference.

Metro succeeded admirably. It has built 6-lane guideways for buses, and the spare capacity can accommodate other vehicles! It has efficiently allocated the use of proof-of-fare machines by placing them on board the vehicles! The vehicles, indistinguishable from rail cars apart from the red livery, pimp-strut up to traffic lights and demand, “Where’s my green, bee-yotch?”.

Everybody buys it, except for the riders. They recognize Rapid as not only a bus, but a service that looks, feels and smells similar to limited-stop services.

And a transit rider/blogger is picking up the wafting odors in Texas. M1EK’s Bake-Sale of Bile writes about public transit in the Austin area, and the author underwhelmed by Capital Metro’s overwhelming bus rapid transit plans.

It’s not going to be too overwhelming, yet. The “opening” has been pushed back from this year to 2010.
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