NOT Silver Lake Court

Photo: Diane Edwardson, August 13, 2009. Neighbors contacted LAPD when a large generator was left overnight on August 12 for a movie shoot scheduled for August 13 -18. Film LA was under the impression the Red Car Property was a City Street: Silver Lake Court. Neighbors were alarmed at the proximity to the slope with uncleared dry brush (red-tagged by LAFD on August 6). Film LA is not requiring a Fire Marshall on set. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
Photo: Diane Edwardson, August 14, 2009. Production company vehicles were permitted by Film LA to park on Silver Lake Court. This is NOT Silver Lake Court, it is the Red Car Property, 2129 W. Silver Lake Ave. Clearly, Film LA is confused by the number of large vehicles already parked on "Lot C" of the Red Car Property. It doesn't help that Google Maps is wrong in identifying the Red Car Property as Silver Lake Court. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
UPDATE August 19, 2009: The City Finally picked up the pile of brush (above) today.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, July 19, 2009. This is Silver Lake Court, an unbuilt City street right-of way on the Lake View side of the Red Car Property. ZIMAS correctly identifies Silver Lake Court's location. Silver Lake Court begins at the Silver Lake Ave. Public Staircase and ends about 100 feet past the Roselin Public Staircase. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Red Car Property: Not A Park, Not A Road

Photo: Gary Vlahakis, August 30, 2016.  The Red Car Property is not a public road despite several mapping services identifying it as "Silver Lake Court."  Silver Lake Court does not extend this far.  It is a land locked paper street that has never been built, existing only on City maps, only connecting to two public staircases, Roselin and Silver Lake Ave.  Silver Lake Court does not intersect India Street.

Neighbors report trucks for the 13 Riverside Drive lots currently being graded (off camera to the right), were driving on and off the Red Car Property last week.  If you live off the Red Car Property, on Riverside, Adelbert or India St (east of the Red Car Property) and are seeing a number of trucks using the Red Car Property for access to 2344-2424 Riverside Drive, report it to Building & Safety.  This is not an acceptable "haul route."

Worth noting in the lower right corner of the above photo: the blue bin of trash has been migrating around Lot C of the Red Car Property for quite some time.

Silver Lake Ave Public Staircase: According To Dept of Transportation Map, 2/3s Of It Doesn't Exist

*Updated

Photo: Diane Edwardson, July27, 2015.  Yesterday, while trying to report a red curb in need of repainting, we learned the LA Dept of Transportation online map shows the Silver Lake Ave Public Staircase doesn't seem to exist between the paper street of Silver Lake Court and Silver Ridge.  In other words, one of the most well-used public staircases in the neighborhood doesn't link Lake View to Silver Ridge, the Red Car Property or Allesandro Elementary School. Yet there is  City street sign post on the south side of Lake View Ave and Silver Lake Ave Public Staircase marking the intersection.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, July 27, 2015. Remnants of red paint are on the curb, looking down toward the Red Car Property from Lake View.

The public staircase (or walk street) appears on ZIMAS (the City's mapping & zoning information system) and the County Assessors' maps.  LAFD used to have the only reliable public staircase (and unbuilt paper street) map for emergency response.  (In the  early 2000s, during the last Silver Lake - Echo Park - Elysian Valley Community Plan Update, we gave the LAFD Hillside map to the Dept of City Planning, so  they could update and create a public staircase map.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, July 27, 2015.  The Silver Lake Public Staircase intersects Lake View Ave and continues up to Silver Ridge Ave.  There is no parking anytime on the west side of Lake View Ave.

There is no excuse for the City not to coordinate all of their mapping systems.  This is 2015, not 1995. 

*Update 3:30 PM:  Word came from DOT via CD13 Silver Lake  Deputy Mary Rodriguez.  Submit requests like this using the nearest address, and describe the location.  Mind you, I tried that route several times yesterday, but the website refused to take my request.  Today the website accepted it.  If neighbors want to follow up on this red curb, use service request #44828.

Public Staircase Maintenance: Who's Responsible?

Photo: Diane Edwardson, June 13, 2010. The Big Parade on the Silver Lake Ave. Public Staircase between Lake View and the Red Car Property. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

In the Red Car Property neighborhood, the more open, visible and highly used a public staircase is; the more neglected it is.

I asked Mitch O'Farrell, Senior Advisor, Special Projects in Eric Garcetti's CD13, for advice on public staircase maintenance issues. For many years, O'Farrell and I have discussed public staircase maintenance and historic preservation. He reminded me of the citywide study conducted a few years ago (and discussed in a post yesterday). At the time, some staircases in a Echo Park and Silver Lake were repaired and lit. Since 2003, there has been no additional funding for lighting and repairs.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, June 13, 2010. The Big Parade on the Roselin Public Staircase. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

O'Farrell pointed out that living on a public staircase is similar to having a paper street next to your home. A paper street is one the City owns but never paved. In our neighborhood, Silver Lake Court is the primary example. With paper streets, the adjacent property owners are responsible for maintenance to the middle of the right-of-way.

O'Farrell continued, "If you live on a stairway street, you are responsible for maintaining the stairway to the middle. This is because no funding is currently available to maintain and clean our public staircases. This is not unlike having a sidewalk in front of your house. By code, the property owner is responsible for all sidewalk repairs and maintenance. But from the early 1970's to current times, the city has funded sidewalk replacement. However, with the current budget crisis, city funded sidewalk replacement is on hold."

This explains why the section of Silver Lake Ave. Public Staircase (top photo above) is in such poor condition. The Red Car Property is adjacent to both sides of the most neglected flight of stairs. When you have an absentee owner, as many of our vacant lots do, brush clearance, dumping and graffiti affect the neighbors more than the vacant lot owner.

It's also easier for neighbors to maintain the smaller, hidden public staircases, like Roselin, because neighbors are literally right on top of the staircase.

Tomorrow: cleaning up public staircases.

Riverside Drive: NOT Silver Lake Court Adjacent

Photo: Diane Edwardson, August 12, 2009.  The downslope lot (from the property line marker) is on Riverside Drive.  It showed up in The Eastsider yesterday.  (Click on photo to enlarge.) 

 

Google Maps incorrectly shows Silver Lake Court going to the rear of this Riverside Drive lot.  Silver Lake Court is an unpaved "paper" street that is nowhere near this lot. 

 

The Red Car Property is upslope from the property line marker.  This section of hillside between Adelbert and Riverside Drive is within a USGS identified landslide zone.  The loose soil and northeast facing slope proved ideal habitat for the native California Black Walnuts (a protected tree in the City of Los Angeles) which have completely taken over the hillside.



NOT A Public Staircase*

Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 29, 2010. Neighborhood folklore INCORRECTLY identified this as a public staircase. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

* October 18, 2010, UPDATE: THIS IS NOT A PUBLIC STAIRCASE. The staircase pictured here is on private property. The owner has posted no trespassing signs.

This strange little staircase lies between homes on Lake View Ave. and the paper street of Silver Lake Court, just southwest of the India Street entrance to the Red Car Property. However, a review of the tract map indicates no such public staircase at this location.

The stairs appear to be on the Silver Lake Court paper street right-of-way, which would put the stairs in the public domain. This is a matter for an experienced surveyor.

The quality of workmanship looks as if it was built by the same builder of the Roselin Public Staircase, but there is no obvious contractor stamp.

When you look at the City tract maps, it can get pretty confusing. So I'm going to speculate: either a contractor started building the Roselin Public Staircase in the wrong location and abandoned the half finished stairs, or Residents had the stairs built for easy access to the India Street Red Car Trolley Stop.

We're celebrating our neighborhood's public staircases in anticipation of The Big Parade II, the 2-day, 100+ public staircase hike coming June 12 & 13, 2010: www.bigparadela.com.

Red Car Property: Mercedes Abandoned Memorial Day Weekend, Has Not Moved

Photo: Gary Vlahakis, August 3, 2015.  We first reported this silver Mercedes SUV, CA plates: 6AON271, to the property owner's rep and LAPD Senior Lead Officer Lenny Davis on May 23, 2015. Now it's attracting more trash and dumping.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

City Parking Enforcement refuses to tow cars from private property if they are not stolen.  This car was registered to an address in San Rafael when LAPD SLO Davis checked in May.  At the time, it was not reported stolen.  The Red Car Property owner has to have the car towed. 

In June, it was reported to Building & Safety. The inspector seemed to think this SUV was coming and going from the property.  Right.  My guess is he never went out to see the vehicle. CD13 has requested Building & Safety follow up on the complaint.  There is no lack of photographs on the blog or in my archives.

Click here for all the abandoned Mercedes SUV posts.

At least the Buick abandoned on Corralitas at the Red Car Property was finally removed in the past week.   Parking Enforcement can cite and tow if the car is abandoned on a City Street.  

Note: Despite what many mapping services say, the Red Car Property is NOT Silver Lake Court (an unbuilt City street right-of-way, just west of the property between Silver Lake Ave Stairs, ending north of Roselin Stairs).  The Red Car Property is private property and it is a lawless place. 

Red Car Property: Once Again, "Lot C" Is A Parking Lot

Photo: Diane Edwardson, September 3, 2011.  Saturday morning saw a ridiculous number of cars parked on the Red Car Property's "Lot C."  (Click on photo to enlarge.) 

Most of the cars in these first two photos seem to belong to people who live on Riverside Drive and India St.  (This is in addition to the usual cars parked further north on "Lot C."  The construction of a house on India St. at the Red Car Property accounts for some of these cars, not all.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, September 3, 2011.  "Lot C" has always had a lot of problems, dumping, dry brush, parked cars, mudslides and misuse, but recently, there's been an increase in the number of parked cars on the Red Car Property.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, September 3, 2011.  Even people who live on Riverside Place are parking on the Red Car Property, and Rose Scharlin Nursery School isn't even in session yet.

Perhaps people are parking here because Google Maps has the Red Car Property marked as "Silver Lake Court."  It is not Silver Lake Court.  It's private property that we've all been trespassing on for 56 years.  However, driving and parking on the property creates a much bigger nuisance as well as particulate air pollution, than hikers, joggers, bicyclists and dog walkers. 

I haven't seen this many cars parked on the Red Car Property since the early 1990s. 

Silver Lake Ave Public Staircase: Reported To City, We'll See How Long It Takes For Removal

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, April 15, 2014.  A neighbor who diligently paints out graffiti in the neighborhood & on the Red Car Property, was pressed for time yesterday & asked me to report this to the City for removal. 

City contractors never seem to be able to find the Silver Lake Ave Public Staircase between Riverside Place & Lake View Ave, let alone the portion between the Red Car Property & Lake View.  Technically this portion of the public staircase is at the corner of Silver Lake Ave & Silver Lake Court.

It can be confusing to make a request for graffiti removal to the City, as there appear to be 2 different departments dealing with it.  One is the City's Office of Beautification Anti-Graffiti Request System from the Board of Public Works.  That website does NOT allow you to submit a photo - really important in places like this.

The best place to submit is via the City's My311 website, where you can include photos.  Photos are important so the graffiti removal crew can see what color the wall is, & give important clues to its location if there is no address. 

You can also download the My311 app for your phone. 

Lake View Ave & Silver Lake Ave Public Staircase: City Graffiti

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, October 20, 2015.  Various utility companies left their tags on Lake View Ave and Silver Lake Ave Public Staircase, as well as the paper street of Silver Lake Court.  We suspect this is involved with the sewer work in the area. 

Worth noting, I requested a repainting of the red curb on Lake View at the Silver  Lake Ave Public Staircase in early August to the Dept of Transportation (DOT), service request # 44828.  Of course the DOT doesn't bother to put a date on the public website (that is if they even found the curb.  It does not show they've even investigated.  There does not appear to be accountability at the DOT.  That's another reason we post things to the blog.

Red Car Property: Property Owner Asserting Rights

Photos: Red Car Property Neighbor, October 28, 2014.  A new sign and a parking gate returned to the India Street entrance to the Red Car Property yesterday.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

For now it appears the gate is open, but it seems the Red Car Property owner means business this time around.  (According to the owner's rep, pedestrian access is still allowed.)  Earlier this month, vehicles were towed from Lot C, north of India St. 

Steel parking gates used to block all but pedestrian &  emergency vehicle access to the Red Car Property.  In the 1990s, they disappeared.

As a side note, Silver Lake Court is an unbuilt (City) paper street that does not actually intersect India St.  It intersects the public staircases of Roselin & Silver Lake Ave.  Silver Lake Court runs along the crest of the slope with the palm tree, behind the telephone poles; it dead ends out of frame to the right. 

Red Car Property Lot C: More Uncovered Truckloads Of Dirt, Bulldozer Delivery

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, December 22, 2017.  At 7 AM yesterday, more uncovered truckloads of dirt began arriving for the Riverside Drive construction site, using the Red Car Property north of India Street.  

The motorhome, parked on the Red Car Property with someone living in it, has become a permanent feature of the site since October.

The Red Car Property is not a park, nor is it a city street right of way.  Silver Lake Court is west of the Red Car Property.  This is Lot C north of India Street.  

More than a year ago the architect for the adjacent Riverside Drive 13-unit development told me they would not be using the Red Car Property for deliveries, hauling nor storage of vehicles or equipment or for access to their site. 

They fail to make any attempt to control fugitive dust while driving on the Red Car Property.  That shouldn't be surprising since they also make no attempt at covering the dirt in the truck beds as required by state and city codes.  No haul route was established for the site. The route to this part of the Red Car Property involves hairpin turns on Substandard Hillside Streets that go past the driveways for Allesandro Elementary School. 

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, December 22, 2017.  A mini bulldozer arrived early Friday morning too.

Red Car Property: Not A Park, Nor Is It An Unpaved City Street

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, September 25, 2015.  The LA Times and some mapping services incorrectly identify much of the Red Car Property as Silver Lake Court.  They are wrong.  The Red Car Property is private property. Silver Lake Court is a an unbuilt paper that is west of and inaccessible from this part of the Red Car Property.   (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Red Car Property: City Councilmember O'Farrell Reaffirms Park Vision

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 1, 2014.  This is not Silver Lake Courtt, it's the Red Car Property at India St: private property on which we've all been trespassing.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

In a recent letter to Red Car Property neighbors, City Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell reaffirmed his support of Trust for Public Land acquiring the Red Car Property "to become permanent parkland and serve this community for future generations." 

In response to the Red Car Property owner's recent attempt to fence part of the property to prevent dumping, O'Farrell adds, "I want to be very clear, I am committed to working with the entire neighborhood on a permanent parking solution."

Read Councilmember O'Farrell's letter here.

Red Car Property: "Lot C" Still A Parking Lot

Photos: Diane Edwardson, February 14, 2012.  Wonder if this guy has permission from the property owner to park on "Lot C" of the Red Car Property.  "Lot C" is not the unbuilt paper street, Silver Lake Court.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)  

With so many other vehicles parked on "Lot C," I'm not sure why this one was singled out by Parking Enforcement.  There had been a drilling rig parked across the lot for more than 10 years.   

Menlo Property: Political No Man's Land

Photo: Tom LaBonge, undated, but between 1962 and 1987. Menlo Property is on Riverside Drive, between Fletcher Dr. and Glendale Blvd. (Click on photo to enlarge.)


Since removal of the Red Car Trolley tracks in the late 1950's, it seems no politician wants to be too closely associated with the stretch of Riverside Drive between Glendale Blvd and Fletcher Drive. It's been 22 years and 5 City Councilmembers since the River Glen Apartments were first approved in 1987. The Menlo Property and River Glen Apartments have a front row seat for the 5 Freeway.


The property started out in Councilmember John Ferraro's district. By 1991, court-ordered redistricting put the land in CD13. Mike Woo was CD13's City Councilmember running for mayor. By 1991, the developer, Hal Klein, Hartwood Development, Inc., abandoned the project and it fell into foreclosure.


In an LA Times column, July 25, 1991, Doug Smith reported on the blight at the Riverside Drive project that had been worsening for 18 months. Mike Woo's office failed to do more than pass residents' complaints on to Building & Safety. Since the area had been downzoned since the original approval, Smith called on Woo to use leverage "to demand the wall come down and that a new plan use imagination in place of brute engineering to fit the development onto the hillside." Photo: Maryann Kuk, April 25, 2000. Deteriorating black plastic covered the slope behind the Menlo Wall. (Click on photo to enlarge.)


Menlo acquired the property in 1992 from First Interstate Bank. By 1993, Jackie Goldberg was CD13's City Councilmember. According to an October 20, 1993 Los Angeles Independent story by Lee Condon, the City Planning Commission failed to recognize Goldberg's request for a continuance of Menlo's request for an extension of the approvals for 93 units. Goldberg's deputy made the request in person at the hearing, not in writing. Goldberg wanted time to renegotiate design issues to make a more community friendly development. Goldberg was the first politician to recognize the earlier proposed prison-like walls would continue to attract graffiti and blight.


By 1998, Building & Safety issued another Order to Comply to restore the hillside since the approvals for grading had expired. Two years later, Goldberg asked the City Attorney to investigate filing a criminal complaint against Menlo for the derelict and deteriorating site (see: Menlo Property: The Pattern of Neglect). Unfortunately, for the better part of a year, CD13 had no representation at City Council, as Goldberg went to the State Assembly.


In 2001, Eric Garcetti took over CD13 as City Councilmember. A year later, redistricting put the Menlo Property back in CD4, now represented by Tom LaBonge. By then, the slope restoration ordered by the Building & Safety Commission was under way.Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 1, 2007. A restored and landscaped slope on the Menlo Property still attracted graffiti, dumping and homeless. (Click on photo to enlarge.)


When the slope restoration was completed, this stretch of Riverside was now besieged by meth-addicted homeless, transients living in motor homes and even more frequent dumping of trash and furniture. While this was nothing new, the highest concentration was on Riverside between Glendale Blvd & Fletcher Dr.


Throughout the 1980's and 1990's the "motor homeless had been pushed off of Los Feliz Blvd. and Riverside north of Glendale Blvd. by "No Overnight Parking" districts. So by 2007, when CD4 asked the SLNC UD&PAC to support a similar district in front of the Menlo Property, it was a sign another development application from Menlo was coming. (The SLNC UD&PAC requested all of Riverside Drive between Los Feliz and the confluence of the LA River at Oros Street be included in the parking district so it didn't just push the problem onto the Red Car Property neighborhood, south of Fletcher.)


Tues April 7, 2009: Menlo's Representatives will present plans for 120 condo units on the Menlo Property to Silver Lake Neighborhood Council.


See also: Legacy of Failed Development.