Sunday, June 1, 2014

Red Car Property: Shifting Soils *Updated

Photo: 1904. Curve north of India St. Red Car trolley stop. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

The slope north of India on the Red Car Property has always been a crumbly one. Enlarge the 1904 photo to see the pile of rocks to the right of the tracks. It is likely they were recently cleared from the tracks. Anyone who walks the property regularly can witness rocks tumbling down without warning.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, August 2003. Curve north of India St. 

It is the same slope a neighbor was digging into with a backhoe, so he could park his large vehicles on the Red Car Property. 

In 2003, the slope was included as an "open space lot" in a developer's proposal for 75 homes on the Red Car Property.  Of course, the "open space" would have been encased in a giant retaining wall with a paved road beneath it. 

 Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 29, 2014.  The angle is slightly off, the hill has eroded, the trash chute is obscuring the slope.

When the trash chute appeared across the not so stable slope earlier this year, one neighbor remarked, "The Red Car [Property] is a lawless place."

The County assessor's maps identify the lot as "Lot C." Could it be "C" for crap?

A version of this post first appeared August 7, 2008