Corralitas Red Car Property: Neighbors Keeping An Eye On Silver Lake Fire Burn Area

Photo: Gary Vlahakis, January 9, 2016.  The June 19, 2016 Silver Lake Fire burned up to the homes atop this slope.  Luckily the protected native Coast Live Oak and Black Walnut Trees are recovering from the fire and should help hold the hillside together.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

The Red Car Property goes up to roughly the telephone poles in the middle of the slope.  I'm willing to speculate, we've not seen the usual amount of slippage on slope yet because the fire department poured an enormous volume of water on the slope during and after the fire, with hours of water drops via helicopters and fire hoses from both top and bottom of the hill.  Dead trees were removed and brush clearance was done in December.  

Worth noting: the denuded slope at the far end was cut into sharply to make room for the southbound lanes of the 2 Freeway in 1960.  The Red Car Property, Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract, 18-Acre Elysian Park Parcel and Menlo Property were among the large vacant parcels from which countless tons of earth were removed for grading of the adjacent 2 and 5 Freeways in 1960-1962.  When construction was finished, these lots also became dumping grounds for the unused dirt.

Corralitas Drive: Trees Used To Make Life Next To The 2 Freeway Tolerable

Photo: Diane Edwardson, July 17, 2015.  The wall of trees on the 2 Freeway used to shade Corralitas Drive in the summertime enough to play on the street until mid-morning.(Click on photos to enlarge.)

Corralitas Walk, the sidewalk between Corralitas Drive and Lake View and Allesandro Way, remained in the shade until early afternoon.  Corralitas Walk was mitigation for the state taking the secondary vehicle access away from Corralitas Drive when they built the 2 Freeway. 

Photo: Gary Vlahakis, July 22, 2016.  After the June 2016 Silver Lake Fire, CalTrans removed trees that were deemed unsafe.  With no trees on the 2 Freeway, Corralitas Drive at the Red Car Property only has shade until the sun comes up over the crest of the slope of the southbound lanes.

Trees may not block sound, but the scale of the 50+ year old stand of trees made living across the street from a busy freeway tolerable.  Now it's louder, dangerous (inadequate guard rails) and inhospitable. Neighbors no longer feel safe letting their kids play in the street in front of their homes.  

Rosebud Ave: 2016 Match To 1961 Photo

Photo: Corralitas Neighbor, May 3, 2016.  This is currently the best match to the 1961 photo.  If you look really closely you can catch a glimpse of Rosebud Ave going straight up the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' hill, across the 2 Freeway from Corralitas Drive.  Neighbors are grateful for any trees to block the oceans of concrete poured for the 2 and 5 Freeway construction 1960 - 1962. 

Photo: Smith, 1961.  Shot from a little higher on the hill than today's photo.  There were no houses on this location in 1961.  

Click here for our Smith Family photo archive.  

Rosebud Ave: Moved For Freeway Construction, 1961

Photo: Smith, 1961.  Prior to freeway construction, Rosebud Ave used to go straight across from Corralitas Drive, cross Allesandro and up the Semi Tropic Spiritualists Tract.  They created a dogleg (to ease the steep rise in Rosebud) from Allesandro to Rosebud and Sunflower on the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract side of the 2 Freeway. 

On the Corralitas side (this vantage point), Rosebud was moved a couple hundred feet south (to the right), where Rosebud presently crosses under the 2 Freeway, ending at the Corralitas Public Staircase.

It's difficult to match this shot today because of the trees on the 2 Freeway (foreground) and homes on Corralitas Drive. The 5 Freeway (on the left) is also under construction on the left side of this photo.  

Click here for all the 2 Freeway History related posts.

Red Car Property: Predictable Mudslides, Stormdrains & El Niño Preparedness

Photo: Diane Edwardson, February 2005.  Whenever we have big rain years, the Red Car Property slopes at the Corralitas end, have mudslides where earth was removed to build the 2 Freeway (1960 - 1962).

Photo: Diane Edwardson, December 21, 2010.  The Red Car Property goes up to the power lines.  The Red Car Property "meadow" is also a handy catch basin for  stormwater run-off.  Additionally,  stormdrains run down the side of the 2 Freeway, as well as through the Red Car Property, from the very steep hills going up to Lake View and Silver Ridge.  

Why we're not on anyone's radar for a stormwater management project must be because of the morass of City, County and CalTrans (State) stormdrains in the area not being together on one map.  (CalTrans is not exactly known for cooperating with other agencies or neighbors.)  We've talked about the Red Car Property's potential as a stormwater project to anyone who would listen for many years. 

A host of City departments are hosting an El Niño Town Hall TONIGHT:

City of LA El Niño Town Hall

Thursday, November 5, 2015 

6:30 - 8:30 PM

Glassell Senior Center 

3750 Verdugo Road 

Los Angeles, CA 90065

2 & 5 Freeway Interchange: Big Parade LA Will Walk Around It Saturday

Photo: Smith, 1961. The scale of the 2 & 5 Freeway Interchange is deceptive when you're standing on Riverside Drive.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Big Parade LA starts the 2 day, 32 mile, 86 public staircase, epic urban hike, Downtown, Saturday May 2, 2015.  Echo Park Lake, Elysian Park, LA River, Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract and all the quirky routes in between are featured in Day 1.  The day is split into multiple trail loops.  Maps, timetables and everything you want to know: http://bigparadela.tumblr.com/

Photo: Smith, 1961.  When seen from the lot next to Paul Landacre's cabin in the Semi-Tropic Spiritualists' Tract, you get a better idea of the impact the freeways and their construction had on the neighborhoods of Elysian Valley, Echo Park and Silver Lake.  The freeways physically and psychologically divided the 3 communities.  This photo also shows the phenomenal volume of earth moved grading for the freeways. Prior to the freeways, there was a valley between Corralitas and the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract. 

Note the huge scarp on the slope  2/3s of the way up the hill on Corralitas where CalTrans cut into the hill moving Corralitas Drive making room for the 2 Freeway.   

We are proud to support Big Parade LA, as we have every year since the first Big Parade in 2009. Click here for all our Big Parade posts.
 

Corralitas Drive: We've Been Through Grading Hell Before

Photo: Kleven, 1960.  Corralitas Drive used to have a secondary outlet to the south on Allesandro Street between Whitmore and Walcott, past modest homes with grassy front yards, where children played beneath large shade trees.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Kleven, 1961.  Within a year, homes were removed (some were moved to other parts of the neighborhood),  trees cut down and the State moved countless thousands of cubic yards of earth from the Red Car Property and other area vacant hillside lots to grade for the 2 & 5 Freeways. 

We've looked at the  photographic history of 2 Freeway through our neighborhood primarily through unique images contributed by long time neighbors of the Red Car Property.  Click here for all our 2 Freeway History posts.
 

SR-2 Freeway: Match To Yesterday's Photo

Photo: Diane Edwardson, March 12, 2015.   Corralitas Drive looking south toward Rosebud Ave & the 2 Freeway Terminus. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Trees help block the view of oceans of concrete and help reduce the heat island effect of the 2 Freeway.
 
Note: There are no sound walls planned on the southbound side of the 2 Freeway between the 5 Freeway & the Terminus at Glendale Blvd.  The sound walls are only taking trees between Oak Glen & supposedly El Moran (more likely, Rosebud) on the Allesandro Street (northbound) side of the 2 Freeway. 

SR 2 Freeway: Sound Wall Construction Starts Tonight

Photo: Smith Family Archive, November 1961.  The State Route 2 Freeway (SR 2) was built through our neighborhood between the 5 Freeway & the SR 2 Freeway Terminus in 1960 to 1962.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Expect a lot more northbound night time traffic on Allesandro Street.

After 6 PM yesterday, Peter Jones, from CalTrans, sent out a press release: 

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SR-2 TERMINUS PROJECT Phase 1B

Soundwall Construction  – Oak Glen Place to El Moran Way

 

CITY OF LOS ANGELES - State of California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), in conjunction with community councils, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) & Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) as part of Phase 1B will start construction on the soundwall.

Thursday, March 12, through Friday, March 13

Northbound SR-2

8 p.m. to 6 a.m.     – Up to two lanes between Glendale Blvd SR-2 & Golden State Freeway I-5

7 p.m. to 6 a.m.     – On and Off Ramps & Connector to I-5 CLOSED between Glendale Blvd SR-2 & Golden State Freeway I-5

Friday, March 13, through Saturday, March 14
Northbound SR-2

8 p.m. to 10 a.m.     – Up to two lanes between Glendale Blvd SR-2 & Golden State Freeway I-5

8 p.m. to 10 a.m.     – On and Off Ramps & Connector to I-5 CLOSED between Glendale Blvd SR-2 & Golden State Freeway I-5

Detours will be posted.  Peterson-Chase Construction is the contractor on this $8.6 million project which is expected to complete in early 2016.  

So all the years of wrangling over redesigning the SR 2 Freeway Terminus have come down to building sound walls on Allesandro Street between Oak Glen & El Moran (just south of  Rosebud) for about $8.6 million.  But if you live above the line of sight and/or more than 75 feet away from the 10-12' tall sound wall, it will do no good whatsoever. Thanks for the 25 hour notice on a project that will take a year to build - hopefully.

Click here for all our sound wall related posts.
 

Holyland Exhibition: Corner of Lake View Ave & Allesandro Way Since 1924

Photo: Antonia Futterer, Holyland Exhibition, circa 1924.  Tour the Holyland Exhibition & learn more about its founder, Antonia Futterer, on KCET, h/t Eastsider.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Antonia Futterer also chronicled the changes in the Red Car Property Neighborhood on film, from 1923 - 1962. Years ago, Betty & Karen Shepherd, custodians of the exhibit, shared his photographs with us to help preserve the history of the neighborhood.  We are grateful for the fantastic photographs.


Watch the video: KCET So Cal Connected

Click here for all our Holyland Exhibition related posts.

SLNC History Collective: Feb 5th, Screening of "Los Angeles, The Early Days"

Photo: Security Pacific National Bank, circa 1930.  About 20 years ago, I encountered a guy on the Red Car Property trying to understand where this photo (without the street labels) was taken from.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Without the 2 Freeway, it's hard to understand where things are.  The Red Car Trolley tracks take a left just past the Holyland Exhibition, running north on what we refer to as the Corralitas Red Car Property.  The landscape was massively reshaped in 1960-62 when the 2 & 5 Freeways were built using countless tons of earth removed from the Red Car Property, among other local large lots.  Click here for a handy before/after 1905-2012 photo transition shot in the same location by Jonathan Vandiveer.

That guy wandering the Red Car Property with the photo almost 20 years ago was David Rapka, Echo Park resident & filmmaker.  The Silver Lake Neighborhood Council (SLNC) History Collective will screen his documentary, "Los Angeles, The Early Days."  The Red Car Property is featured in the film.

SLNC History Collective Meeting & Film Screening

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Meeting starts at 6:30 PM 

link to agenda

Screening: 6:50 PM

Silver Lake Public Library

2411 Glendale Blvd

Los Angeles, CA 90039

SR 2 Freeway Terminus Project: Update TONIGHT At EPIA Meeting, 7PM

Photo: Smith Family Archive, 1961.  The 2 Freeway looking southbound from the top of the Corralitas Public Staircase.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

CalTrans & Metro will present the latest 2 Freeway Terminus project update to the Echo park Improvement Association (EPIA).  The meeting is open to the public.

TONIGHT

Thursday September 4, 2014

7PM

Williams Hall at Barlow Hospital 

2000 Stadium Way

in Elysian Park 

A 2000' long sound wall on Allesandro Street, between Oak Glen & Rosebud, is in the next phase of construction set to start this winter. Go to the meeting & ask questions.

We've written ad naseum about proposed sound walls since 2009.
 
In 1962, Echo Park & Silver Lake activists stopped the 2 Freeway (an already approved project) from further dividing our communities.  By then, the 2 Freeway was complete through our part of the neighborhood, permanently leaving Corralitas Drive with one means of vehicle access. (Echo Park has a rich history of community activists speaking up for lost causes.)

Corralitas Public Staircase: The Big Parade Will Pass By Today

Photo: Smith, 1961.  When they cleared the path for the 2 Freeway in 1960, the State cut steeply into many of the adjacent hillsides, like Corralitas Drive.  They also rebuilt the lower third of the Corralitas Public Staircase.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Smith, 1961.  The Corralitas Public Staircase dates back to at least 1922, when it used to go straight up and down the hill.  The above photo shows the framing for the 1961 retaining wall & new set of stairs on the lower 3 levels.  

Brian Smith, who grew up on Corralitas & who's father shot the photos, said, "The stairway from upper Corralitas to lower Corralitas used to be a straight stairway. When the freeway cut was made it took out the lower portion of the stairway. The State rebuilt the lower portion of the stairway at an angle to allow for the cut. Otherwise there would not have been enough room for the number of steps needed."

Photo: Diane Edwardson, 2013.  Today the Corralitas Public Staircase is a well used staircase by neighbors for exercise and for getting around the neighborhood - particularly on Red Flag Days.  It's also a highlight of many a staircase tourist adventure. 

Today The Big Parade will pass by, but not take the Corralitas Public Staircase on Loop 4, Stairways of Echo Park.  Join The Big Parade for a few staircases, miles, hours or both days on a 35 mile trek and 80 public staircases from Downtown to Griffith Observatory.  It's free & a great way to explore your neighborhood.

http://bigparadela.tumblr.com/

Follow their progress live on Twitter

Reminder: Get Your Brush Clearance Done!

Photo: Futterer, Holyland Exhibition, 1960.  Grass fire on the slope above the Red Car Property when there wasn't a whole lot on the hills leading up to Lake View & Silver Ridge.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

If single digit humidity and triple digit temperatures combined with Santa Ana winds, fires in the LA River weren't enough motivation, perhaps those San Diego County fires this week will light a fire under your ass.  Get your brush clearance done!  Rethink your landscaping if you have combustible plants like bamboo or arundo which literally explode and spread fire in all directions when they burn because gases build up in the hollow chambers of the plant until the plant bursts.  

Photo: Futterer, Holyland Exhibition, 1960.  That's the view from atop Lake View looking down on the grading for the 2 Freeway.

Links:
LAFD Brush Clearance Unit

LAFD Red Flag Alerts

All our brush clearance posts

Holyland Exhibition

Red Car Property: 1905-2012

Photo: Title Insurance & Trust Co., C.C. Pierce Photography, 1905. Pacific Electric Glendale Line looking north toward Glendale. Corralitas is the hill to the right of the tracks. (Click on photos to enlarge)

Click here for a very cool matching then & now photo transition of the neighborhood created by Jonathan Vandiveer, 2012. 

This post is a rerun; it first ran May 18, 2013.  

2 & 5 Freeway Interchange: 1961 Massive Grading Project

Photo: Smith, 1961.  From El Moran & Peru Streets in the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract. The State built up a massive wall of dirt for the 2 Freeway.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

The huge cut into the Corralitas hillside is more evident in this photo than the photo we reviewed for the past few days.  Keep in mind, Corralitas Drive drops below the level of the freeway to meet Rosebud Ave under the Freeway. Take a look at the 1940 photo to try to understand the complete reshaping of the landscape imposed on our neighborhood. 

The slope reshaping/stabilization continued downslope between Corralitas Drive and the Southbound 2 Freeway lanes (below the oldest house on Corralitas), stretching down to Riverside Drive below.  Since the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) didn't take effect until 1972, it's a good bet they did not use adequate dust control measures. 

If you can match the above photo from a time before the freeways were built, please send it to redcarproperty@gmail.com with any details like year, photographer, if it was in your family's photo album, etc. 

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 13, 2013.  I don't have a good match in my archives for the 1961 shot because the trees on Modjeska block the matching shot. 

Corralitas Public Staircase: 1961 Rebuild

Photo: Smith, 1961.  This photo is excerpted from the wider shot of the Rosebud Ave overpass of the 2 Freeway.  The red arrows point to the framing for the new retaining wall for the then newly rebuilt Corralitas public staircase.  (Click on photo to enlarge.) 

When the State of California cut into the hillside on Corralitas Drive to build the 2 Freeway, they had to rebuild the public staircase.  Prior to the cut into the hillside, the staircase went straight up and down the hill, instead of cutting back at a sharp angle like it does now.   The 1922 real estate brochure, a 1940 photo & an email from Brian Smith, who grew up on Corralitas Drive (his father shot the 1961 photos) confirm the earlier alignment. 

Smith wrote, "The stairway from upper Corralitas to lower Corralitas used to be a straight stairway. When the freeway cut was made it took out the lower portion of the stairway. The State rebuilt the lower portion of the stairway at an angle to allow for the cut. Otherwise there would not have been enough room for the number of steps needed."

Photo: Diane Edwardson, September 29, 2011.  The steep hillside & need for the retaining wall is more evident from the base of the Corralitas Public Staircase.

Corralitas Drive: They Cut A Lot Of Hillside To Build The 2 Freeway

Photo: Smith, 1961.  The red arrows are pointing to the line marking how high they cut, way up into the hillside on Corralitas Drive, adjacent the 2 Freeway.   (Click on photo to enlarge.)  

When the 2 Freeway was built in 1960 - 1962, they cut into the surrounding hillsides for fill dirt.  They also moved streets around. 

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 8, 2013.  Corralitas Drive looking south, the log cabins are directly above. 

We had no idea they'd also cut into the hillside where the log cabins now perch high above the 2 Freeway.  However, it does explain the extreme slope of the hill. 

We already knew they moved Corralitas closer to the 6 existing homes on the short end of the street as those homes lost their front yards, cut off our secondary access to the rest of the world, cut into the Red Car Property and pushed a giant wall of dirt in front of those 6 homes on Corralitas Drive.     

Corralitas Drive: Rainfall Totals

Photo: Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract Neighbor, 1973. Eucalyptus trees, while non-native, quickly grew tall to break up the stark effect of the barren wasteland of the 2 Freeway, completed in 1962.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

We're tracking rainfall collected in the Corralitas rain gauge:

November 28-29, 2013: 0.4"
Season to Date: 1.1"

2 Freeway: Rosebud Ave Overpass 1961-2013

Photo: Smith, 1961.  This 1961 photo reveals so many things about the history of Corralitas Drive (on the other side of the freeway), that we're going to talk about it for a few days.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

In 1961, this was a brand new alignment for Rosebud Ave, under the newly built 2 Freeway.  According to the Smith family (who built their house on Corralitas Drive in 1938), this entrance to Corralitas did not exist before the freeways.  Rosebud may have been 100' down Allesandro (closer to Riverside Drive) than its current location, lining up with the actual hillside street.  Our only good pre-freeway photo is from 1940, but it is not conclusive.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 13, 2013. Both photos shot from the paper street right of way of Modjeska, looking across Allesandro St, under the 2 Freeway on Rosebud Ave to Corralitas Drive & the Corralitas Public Staircase going up the hillside.

If you've got pre-freeway photos of the neighborhood surrounding the 2 & 5 Freeway interchange, email jpegs to us: redcarproperty@gmail.com.  Please include as much pertinent info as possible, including photographer, year, where your family lived or worked in the area etc.& if your family is still in the neighborhood.