On Making Altadena Walkable.....

There is a group in town that's wanting to get a study funded about how to make Altadena walkable. They are organizing to have this done so a grant can be written and funded. Myself I am kind of confused. I've lived in Altadena all my life. Its the most walked non gentrified non Uber developed place in Southern California. people are walking here all the time and walking everywhere,



It seems the good grant writer who is facilitating this group doesn't know that these studies have been done. We know the answers, the answers don't really change, and what's more, the answers are really the same town to town and place to place. That's because the people who do this have all been implementing the same strategies and methodologies since San Francisco redeveloped Ghirardelli Square in the early 1960s. In fact, way, way, way back in 1987, in the last Altadena Community Plan, every strategy for street improvement that leads to walkability was studied and discussed endlessly. A report was written with the strategies that would work on Mariposa where the land is flat and Lake Avenue where the land is steep. While the County of Los Angeles accepted the plan and even adopted it's findings regarding the Mariposa and Lake Avenue business areas, except for the installation of trash containers and regular servicing of them, in 2004, nothing has been done to implement that well thought out workable plan.



During the redevelopment of Lincoln Avenue, Eric Lloyd Wright and Taliesin Architects developed a plan that had cross axis on the commercial where the local shops would be down visible from the car pedestrian alleys, where there were European style plazas with seating and amenities at the intersections, where there were water elements and seating areas throughout the development and where there was to be adequate parking and pedestrian amenities on the street such as benches, trash containers, and art. Once the first developer, Harold James died, and he was replaced by Greg Galletley, Greg and Corde Corillo of the L.A. County Community Redevelopment Commission conspired together to downgrade the project. Galletley to increase his profits and Corillo because he didn't think a project that nice was needed for "those people, over there." They had willing help from the east side representatives of the Altadena Town Council and various not for profit groups in town that got donations from Galletley.  They destroyed one of the best designed commercial developments that would have ever been built in California and one that was when designed twenty years ahead of its time, instead we got an underparked oversized strip mall. But all is not lost. many of those amenities could still be provided, no further study needed.



There are a lot of great ideas. They have to be built within the fabric of State and County Codes. This is why diagonal parking, a idea popular with dreamers, will not work on lake and will not work on Lincoln.. There is neither the required width, sightlines, low actual speed, or lack of grade on those streets to have diagonal parking within the constraints of the law. And just IMAGINE the hell to pay if this idea popular with the fifty people who showed up to that meeting were implemented- the THOUSANDS of angry commuting Altadenan's filled with road rage as their commute to and from work is lengthened.



What makes business districts walkable are large amounts of virtually free  three to four hour parking spaces so people can explore and stroll; shade from trees and as important, shade from awnings or roof overhands that can also protect in bad weather, areas that are like plazas that can be used both to access places unseen from the perpendicular view of the street and to congregate in, seating, bright lighting at a level six foot and under, SIDEWALKS CLEAN OF TRASH,  storefronts that are maintained, and full of interesting shops, and hate to say it to the Teatotallers in Altadena, but one thing that gets people walking in commercial districts is Restaurants and bars that serve Alcohol and music venues. We know this. Architects have been doing this since the Leidesplein was built in Amsterdam 550 years ago. The studies for how to do most of this on Lincoln have already been done. We can eliminate the things that the bad first phase of Lincoln Crossing and the lack of redevelopment agency funds make impossible now, and implement the rest. It will require changing the County Code regarding Awnings and other structures overhanging the public section of the sidewalk.



There is some talk of getting sidewalks in the residential sections of Altadena. Historically, most Altadenan's have been adamant that they just don't want this. Perhaps some streets do, and if that's so, they should be done on a block by block basis with the same kid of approval process that speed bumps have. If we are going to have sidewalks anywhere in Altadena, lets not do it as hardscape poured concrete that rolls water off the land as if it's undesirable. Lets have porous pavers over a bed of sand and deep gravel with filter mesh so that our sidewalks put water back into the land instead of run it off like its undesirable. This too is not a new idea. it was first proposed and blocked 12 years ago, by not for profits that had other plans...Altadena if it implements this can be the first place in Southern California to do so.



To review: Don't fund another income stream for a grant writer, use the plans that have already been done, and with residential sidewalks have a block by block approval process and don't run the water off, store it in the ground.