Personally, I tend to think of L.A. in a narrow sort of way. Freeways, smog, mansions in the hills, a vast sprawling carpet of single-family homes whose lights twinkle forever as you fly over them. Oh yes — and total car dependency for everyone.
As Lauren Herstik writes in the New York Times, there are two existing L.A.s (one is mine) and an emerging third one. The third L.A. is not without detractors whose arguements are very familiar to us here in Vancouver. But there are also supporters, as in huge numbers of voters, who have a liking for the third L.A. And there is lots to recognise in the characteristics of the third L.A.
Writes Herstik: The effort to slow construction, known as Measure S or the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative, was financed mainly by Michael Weinstein, the president of the Hollywood-based AIDS Health Foundation. Mr. Weinstein’s office is on the 21st floor of a Hollywood skyscraper with a view of the hills, next to the future site of two 28-story mixed-use residential towers
Mr. Weinstein said that kind of development was out of character for the neighborhood. . .
. . . Measure S, which was defeated last month, was the third in a trio of transformative local ballot measures. In November, Angelinos approved a $1.2 billion bond to build affordable housing, along with a half-cent sales tax increase to pay for mass transit.
. . . Koreatown is well served by mass transit: Three metro stops along Wilshire Boulevard link it to downtown Los Angeles.
“It’s denser and people are choosing to live there because they want to give up some square footage in exchange for more,” Mr. Hawthorne said. That’s more time, access to transit and a pedestrian culture.
. . . “I see a series of many urban centers along the transportation corridors”, said Nelson Rising, chief executive of Rising Realty Partners, which has worked extensively in downtown Los Angeles.
“Anything near a transit stop will become viable and attractive”, Mr. Rising said. He pointed to specific hubs of density along the purple line, which currently links downtown to Koreatown and is set to extend all the way to Santa Monica with the passage of the transit measure. He also pointed to the Expo Line, which runs parallel to Interstate 10 and connected downtown to Santa Monica in May 2016.
The city planning department has laid the groundwork for these changes. Last year it enacted a mobility plan to diversify transportation modes by 2035, and created a new industrial live-work zone in response to demand from commercial and residential sectors for that kind of multiuse development.
It’s interesting to note how “insulated” some folks are when commenting on some issues. As an example, Mr. Rising (in the above article) says: “Anything near a transit stop will become viable and attractive”. But just an hour ago, I was reading in one of our local papers of the increase in noise complaints that TransLink received from those living near transit stations. And I know from personal experience from living in a brand new building adjacent to the Metrotown Station just how true this is! The trains squealed all throughout the day until well into the night. And once they stopped, the construction noise started on the Metrotown Station extension as apparently, TransLink is above the laws that govern the rest of us and they have no restrictions from noise bylaws. It got so bad (after 22 days one month without proper sleep) that I cut my two year lease early, paid a stiff penalty and moved as far away from the Skytrain as I could… a good move! But noise wasn’t the only issue in living near the transit line. Since 2011, my vehicle was only broken into only once and that was when I lived near that Metrotown Station. Luckily, the thieves were scared off before they were able to steal the vehicle but not before doing a lot of damage. What was interesting is when I called ICBC and they asked where the vehicle was parked, they were not surprised at all that there was an attempted theft and they said the crime rate near transit stations is higher than elsewhere. So perhaps Mr. Rising should reconsider his statement.
TransLink no doubt got a permit to operate beyond the local noise bylaw hours. I am sure they receive lots of complaints when they have no choice to affect repairs beyond operating hours. The only other option would be to shut the system down in high demand hours.
Your choice to live within earshot of an operating SkyTrain station is just that, your choice. Sound diminishes by the square root per unit distance. You could have rented one building back in the sound shadow of another building, or on the opposite side of the same building. This is no different than people who choose to live on arterials. Some may have triple glazing, or use earplugs or whatever. But singling out a transit asset over every other significant noise generator is really not a fair argument. Going underground in Burnaby may now seem like a justified argument despite the cost (one line item being moving several underground high-voltage electrical conduits), but I don’t think Grace McCarthy and Bill van der Zalm thought that far ahead back in the 80s.
And if SkyTrain is a crime train, then so is every road that funnels criminals to their destinations. You also have a large number of inexpensive rental housing in the area that, unfortunately, also accommodates a fair number of criminals and addicts who support their habits with break ins. ICBC is right in one stat, but there are also other “crime nodes” out there that have nothing to do with SkyTrain.