Red Car Property: Mudwatch Near Adelbert

Photos: Red Car Property Neighbor January 16, 2023.

Another predictable mudslide is below properties on Adelbert Ave, flowing down the Red Car Property.  This Red Car Property slope was stabilized and restored in 2009, after a 2005 slide.

Lesson: plant these slopes with native trees to help hold them together.  At least toss some found acorns on the slope from the nearby Coast Live Oak or Black Walnuts from the once plentiful natives adjacent Adelbert. just north of this location. And stop clear cutting young native trees which do repopulate slopes.

This crumbling slope and mudslide is in the same stretch on the Red Car Property's Lot C.  The same craftsman home is in both photos.
 

Red Car Property: Leaky Pipe

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 15, 2017.  If you live on northern end of Lake View above the Red Car Property, you might want to check your backyard for leaky water or sewer lines.  The swath of bright green grass flowing downslope, way above the historic viaduct footings, indicates a problem. 

Native tree note: the small trees in the foreground and to the left of the green grass are protected native California Black Walnut trees.  They are currently dropping their leaves for winter.

Red Car Property: More Dead Eucalyptus Near Adelbert

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 15, 2017.  There aren't too many Eucalyptus left on the north end of the Red Car Property near Adelbert.  More keep dying.  This is a fire hazard.  Adelbert is a very narrow substandard Hillside street with only one access point for vehicles, hairpin turns and no place to turn cars around without using driveways.

We're not sorry to see Eucalyptus go, since they are non-native and do not hold hillsides together in the rain.  However, we mourn the loss of shade and radical change in the ecosystem on the north end of the Red Car Property.  It's a lot hotter and drier now.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 17, 2017.  Despite their death, the Eucs are a host for shelf fungi.  Here, seen with what appears to be a dried up Chicken of the Woods.  

Editor's note: This post was published December 18, 2017, and backdated to the the week the photos were shot since they show hazardous conditions on the Red Car Property, in the Very High Fire Severity Zone (VHFHSZ).  The first photo also may indicate evidence of erosion along the middle of the slope.

Red Car Property Neighborhood: Signs Of The Times

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, September 15, 2017.  Last week, LA City Fire Department began posting "No Smoking, No Discarding of Burning Objects" signs in the Hillside Area surrounding the Red Car Property and Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract (above photo at Allesandro and Rosebud - the sole vehicle entrance to the steep Semi Tropic hillside).

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, September 15, 2017.  The municipal code sections are referenced on the signs, here seen at the site of the 2016 Silver Lake Fire at the end of Corralitas Drive.  The LAFD has the authority to place these signs in Hillside Areas. 

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, September 15, 2017.  While brush may be cleared in many of the areas now, brush is often often dry for months before it is cleared.   Neighbors who've seen the same signs all over the Hollywood Hills for decades, noted their more recent proliferation in Beachwood Canyon and requested the signs for our neighborhood.  Several neighbors provided a list of suggested locations to the LAFD fire marshal overseeing the placement of the signs.

Photo: Jay Lieske, September 23, 2017.  Indeed, the fire marshal compared parts of our  neighborhood to neighborhoods in the Hollywood Hills.  We have many isolated areas like this one on Adelbert, right up against brush areas on narrow winding Hillside streets with no through traffic, in addition to public staircases and paper streets that are hidden and open to the Red Car Property.

Neighbors welcomed the signs as a reminder we live in a tinder dry hillside neighborhood.  Neighbors hope the signs get the attention of smokers who carelessly discard their cigarettes in dry brush areas.  At least one neighbor documented discarded cigarettes in parts of the neighborhood in the request for signs.  Neighbors noted areas where partying, homeless camps and squatter houses have attracted problems.  

I've asked for these signs for 25 years.  I'm grateful to the Red Car Property Neighbor who was able to devote time and energy into spearheading this project to making it a reality. 

Red Car Property North: Still Needs Brush Clearance

Photo: Jay Lieske, July 13, 2017. The grass is dry and mostly mashed down but not cleared between the construction fence and Fletcher on the Red Car Property.  Protected native Black Walnuts are repopulating the slope.  A number of trees died after five years of drought.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Jay Lieske, July 13, 2017.  The Red Car Property is between Riverside Drive and Fletcher and Adelbert Ave.  Adelbert is a substandard Hillside Street with a number of hairpin turns to reach Lake View Ave.  It has only one means of access.  We don't know why Adelbert is not a Red Flag No Parking street.

Photo: Jay Lieske, July 13, 2017.  A year ago, the construction site on Riverside Drive, directly below the Red Car Property, took a lot of the Red Car Property with their construction fence, in addition to clear cutting trees on the Red Car Property.  This is the pedestrian path they left us.  Last year, their agreement with the property owner was to do the brush clearance on both sides of their fence.

Photo: Jay Lieske, July 13, 2017.  The construction site appears to have done brush clearance on the portion of the Red Car Property behind their fence.  It also looks like a few native trees are returning and recovering to the flat portion of the Red Car Property above the construction site.

Neighbors have expressed concerns that the native saplings and recovering native trees should be preserved as the brush clearance contractors are not known for their care with young trees.  

As with other parts of the Red Car Property, neighbors want to know why the property owner is allowed to get away with not doing brush clearance by May 1, every year?

Click here for all our brush clearance posts.

Red Car Property Lot C: Needs Brush Clearance

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, July 1, 2017.  Two months since the deadline for brush clearance passed (May 1, every year) and the Red Car Property (in this post, north of India Street) has yet to be cleared.  That huge dead Eucalyptus is in the 40' wide City street right-of-way for Silver Lake Court.  High voltage lines appear to go through the tree to the adjacent telephone pole.  The crumbling slope is Lot C of Red Car Property.

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, July 1, 2017.  Just north of India Street, the grass is taller and much more dense than a year ago.

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor July 1, 2017.  Another dead Eucalyptus was trimmed back during brush clearance in December 2016, only after the Red Car Property was red tagged and cleared by a LAFD brush clearance contractor.

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, July 1, 2017.  The grass is so thick, you'd never know how crumbly the slope really is.

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, July 1, 2017.  The 4th of July is 2 days away, but cigarettes can be tossed any day of the year. 

Send your concerns about brush clearance on the Red Car Property to CD13's Hector.Vega@lacity.org.

Red Car Property North: More Dry Brush

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, June 29, 2017.  Heading towards Fletcher from the construction fence, you get a better idea of how much the grass has been mashed down.  Some of the dead  Eucalyptus still needs removal.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, June 29, 2017.  The native trees came back nicely.

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, June 29, 2017. The native Blue Elderberry (on the far left) is beginning to fruit.  It looked dead this time last year.  The native Black Walnut saplings never went away. Native trees evolved with our drought/deluge/fire Southern California landscape.

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, June 29, 2017.  The protected native Back Walnut Trees above the historic landmark viaduct footings recovered well from 5 years of exceptional drought.

Red Car Property Lot C: No Brush Clearance Yet

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, June 23, 2017.  Brush clearance has yet to happen on the Red Car Property slope above the Riverside Drive construction site.  (The construction site took about 60' in width of the Red Car Property with their construction fence.)  *Photo details at end of post.

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, June 23, 2017.  At least many of the remaining trees on Lot C are recovering from five years of unprecedented drought and complete devastation of the slope below the Red Car Property.  The upslope side of the trail (to the wood fence) is Red Car Property.  It's the end of June and still no brush clearance.  

*Photo details: A neighbor ran into LAPD Senior Lead Officer (SLO) Luis Reyes (covering for vacationing Silver Lake SLO Lenny Davis) and CD13 Deputy Hector Vega on Lot C of the Red Car Property.  They were investigating neighbors' complaints of homeless camps near Rose Scharlin and near Fletcher.  They notified the homeless person near Fletcher of the no trespassing order the property owner has on file with the LAPD for the Red Car Property.  While offering services, they told him he could not stay on the property.

Red Car Property: Still Waiting For Brush Clearance

Photo: Gary Vlahakis, May 15, 2017.  Native Jimsonweed is holding its own among the tall, dry, non-native, invasive weeds on the south end of the Red Car Property.  

Still no sign of brush clearance by the property owner.

Red Car Property: Not A Park, It Would Still Look Like One Without The Construction Fence

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, April 30, 2017.  North of the construction fence on the Red Car Property, some, not all, of the protected native Black Walnut Trees have recovered from the last five years of exceptional drought.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Let's hope all those trees are storing lots of water.  Due to the loss of more than a dozen huge Eucalyptus trees on the property near Adelbert, and developers clear cutting the adjacent recovering native woodland for a 14-home development on Riverside Drive, the north end of the trail has been through radical change of the urban forest.  It's hotter, sunnier and drier than just a few years ago.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, July 19, 2009.  The Big Parade walked through the same section of the property in JULY.  Almost all the trees on both sides of the trail (for the length of the hikers' line in this shot) were California Black Walnuts.  Now the walnuts are fighting back with other native and non-native trees.   

Corralitas Red Car Property: Why Does The Red Car Property Owner Get away With Not Doing Brush Clearance By May 1?

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, April 28, 2017.  When the dry weeds are taller than your dog, it's time to do the brush clearance.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Seems like every year we have to bitch about the fact the Red Car Property owner doesn't do the brush clearance by May 1 like the rest of the Hillside homeowners are required to do.

If you look closely at the small dirt slope in the background, that's where there was a 40' tall wall of trees (with some 80' tall Eucalyptus) separating Corralitas Drive and the Red Car Property from the southbound lanes of the 2 Freeway, prior to the June 19, 2016 Silver Lake Fire.  CalTrans used the fire as an excuse to cut down all the trees, including the trees that did not burn in the fire.  As a result, Corralitas Drive is hotter, dirtier drier and more dangerous than ever before.

Last year, we documented the hazard with photos sent to CD13 and LAFD Brush Clearance Unit prior to the fire.  Unfortunately, we were unable to post here in the month prior to the fire.

Neighbors, report your brush clearance concerns about the Red Car Property to CD13 Deputy: Hector.Vega@lacity.org and LAFD: LAFDBrush@lacity.org

Click here for all our brush clearance posts.

Red Car Property: Looking For Wildflowers?

Photo: S. Bartron, March 22, 2017.  The north end of the Red Car Property, above the City of Los Angeles Historic Landmark Viaduct Footings (looking toward the Menlo Property and Griffith Park), has long been a healthy ecosystem where native wildflowers and wildlife can be found.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 9, 2009.  Tomcat Clover above the historic viaduct footings.

Even though the non-native grass and flowers are tall, it's time to look for native wildflowers low to the ground, particularly at the base of the slope going up to Adelbert, among the viaduct footings and along the edges of the trail.  Many of the native flowers bloom after the non-native, invasive grasses have gone to seed, so there is still time to start looking for the native plant communities.

Photo: Diane Edwardson,  February 2, 2013.  Miner's Lettuce (Claytonia) near the viaduct footings.

What blooms on the north end of the Red Car Property?  Natives include: Blue Fiesta Flowers, Miner's Lettuce, Tomcat Clover, Golden Stars, Arroyo Lupine, Spanish Lotus, California Fuchsia, Doveweed, Kotolo Milkweed, Cudweed, California Poppy, Toyon, Native Dandelions, in addition to protected native Coast Live Oak and Black Walnuts.  There are others we've not yet identified.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, June 6, 2016.  Mystery plants near Adelbert have green flowers that apparently create pink to red seeds.

Non-native grasses are more diverse than you might think.  Non-native Wild Radish flowers are widespread, scenic and attract a variety of butterflies.

California Harvester Ants were thriving and helping to diversify the plant population by harvesting and inadvertently planting seeds.  Prior to the devastation of the urban forest on the Red Car Property and the the Riverside Drive Lots now being graded, Harvester Ants thrived in either a super colony or multiple colonies between the Coast Live Oak Tree and Fletcher.  Harvester Ants are an "indicator species."  Their presence is a sign of a healthy and diverse environment.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 21, 2016.  Native Dandelions attract a variety of pollinators including tiny beetles.

Unusual bugs to look for: mod-looking Flower Flies, Funereal Duskywings, swarming Green Darner Dragonflies, Trapdoor Spiders and in June, look for Tarantula Hawks. 

Photo: Diane Edwardson, August 8, 2014.  Red Shouldered Hawks tend to hang out in the protected native Black Walnut Trees.   

Red Tailed Hawks ride the updrafts of Fletcher at Riverside, often landing in the power line towers off the public staircase coming down from Waverly.  Neighbors report hearing owls after dark.

Rarely seen, but present in the neighborhood: Bobcats and Gray Foxes.

In the early mornings you're likely to see coyotes on this part of the Red Car Property, even crossing Fletcher near the ARCO Station.

Click here for all our neighborhood native plant posts.

Red Car Property: FIESTA!

Photo: Jay Lieske, March 19, 2017.  Native Blue Fiesta Flowers (Pholistoma auritum) reclaimed the slope at the Adelbert cut-through on the Red Car Property.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Lieske, a longtime Red Car Property neighbor, reports the Blue Fiesta Flowers are thriving in the slope between the Adelbert cut-through to Fletcher.  Lieske said, "The Fiesta Flowers are even climbing up the chain-link fence around the construction."

Photo: Diane Edwardson, March 13, 2009.  In 2009, we first discovered and documented a few Blue Fiesta Flowers near the Adelbert cut-through to the Red Car Property.

2016 was a lean year for the ever festive Fiesta Flowers due to the extraordinary drought combined with the removal of more than dozen large Eucalyptus that died suddenly over the course of 2 years. This alone changed the ecosystem dramatically due to the loss of shade as well as water and carbon storage capacity of the huge trees.  The north end of the Red Car Property which had always been cooler and more damp, suddenly became an inhospitable place, hotter and drier than the previous 26 years I'd walked the property.

Further destroying habitat, in August2016, an entire forest of trees  (including scores of protected native Black Walnuts that had begun to grow back after the 2014 illegal tree removal) was clear cut for the development of the Riverside Drive lots north of Gilroy, further changing the climate and ecosystem in the neighborhood.  

Let's hope the remaining protected native trees on this section of the Red Car Property recover from the past 6 years of extreme drought and stupidity development, encouraging the entire native plant community and the diversity of wildlife it supports to return to the north end of the property.

Click here for all our Blue Fiesta Flower photos and related posts.

Red Car Property: Mudwatch, Sliding Boulder Near Adelbert

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, January 24, 2017.  A good sized boulder slid down the Red Car Property slope below Adelbert onto the trail, during the series of weekend storms.  (CLick on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, January 24, 2017.  There used to be a lot more trees on this slope, so it's hard to find comparable photos in my archives showing where the really big rock came from.  The boulder appears to have slid a good 15' downslope then rolled another 10' feet to the edge of the trail. 

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, January 24, 2017.  Despite more than 5" of rain Thursday - Sunday, the trail north of the construction fence is walkable.

Note: In 2005, I got stuck in the mud while shooting photos of a mudslide about 50' north of the boulder.  I was standing on the mud when I sunk about 8" into it.  Luckily, I was wearing knee high rain boots.  It was like quicksand.  My foot came out but not the boot.  I had to try to balance on one foot, trying not to slide deeper in the mud, while pulling my boot out of the mud - not easy in the rain. The mud did not want to cough up my boot.  It took me about 20 minutes to extricate myself from the mud. I was on what I thought was the edge of the slide, on the grass, but apparently not.  

Respect the mud.  If you have to go out onto the mud in your yard for repairs, be sure you bring planks of wood or rocks to walk across.  The ground is saturated. 

Red Car Property: Mudwatch Lot C

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, January 5, 2017.  The fence blocking the walkable portion of the Red Car Property for the Riverside Drive construction site, also crosses the vernal pool on Lot C, forcing pedestrians up the slippery slope to access the portion of the trail the developer left open to the public.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

The pile of drywall debris dumped a year ago remains to the right side of the frame. But look, through butchered trees, you can see Griffith Park.

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, January 5, 2017.  The flat portion, where cars are parked, is the Red Car Property.  It is not a public road, nor is it even a public right of way.  To make it a private street, it would require a discretionary action by City Planning.  The upslope side is also Red Car Property.  It is well documented as the most crumbly slope on the property.  The side where most of the cars are parked, is where neighbors have encroached onto the Red Car Property by 20' or more.

See also: Vernal Pool on Lot C on October 14, 2009

Red Car Property: Killing Native Habitat

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 6, 2002.  The former most beautiful California Black Walnut Tree on the Red Car Property, that we've followed for 16 years, is first big tree behind the encroached chain link fence, on the left side of the photo.  (Click on photos to enlarge.) 

Photo: Diane Edwardson, September 9, 2012. This shot is wider and shot from further away.  The same tree is behind the fence on the left.  In 2012, the leaves of the protected native Black Walnuts were just starting to turn yellow before dropping their leaves for winter.  Yet the big healthy beautiful tree we've followed for so long, was still a deep dark green.  It was always one of the to last drop its leaves.  

The photo above shows an environment with lots of Black Walnut Trees of varying ages from saplings to mature trees.  The closest Black Walnut on the left (the young tree in the foreground) was already over 6 feet tall.  There were also Coast Live Oaks of varying ages, Coffeeberries,  Blue Elderberries as well as non native species.  It was a rich and varied ecosystem. 

Photo: Gary Vlahakis, November 6, 2016.  The now dead looking tree on the left is the former most beautiful Black Walnut on the Red Car Property.  The developer of the Riverside Drive 14-lot development below the Red Car Property butchered all the fresh growth on the tree in September. He also claimed to be watering the trees.  (However the water lines appear to be for dust control.)  

The same developer erected the fence across the Red Car Property that's become a magnet for graffiti vandals.  Thanks for making our neighborhood a better place to live.

Related: Why Trees Matter

Red Car Property: Dawn Yesterday

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, November 6, 2016.  Last week, more digging occurred around the huge Coast Live Oak Tree on the Red Car Property, adjacent to the Riverside Drive 14 unit. development.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, November 6, 2016.  Who could have guessed? Graffiti vandals found the fence, visible from the 5 Freeway, irresistible.  Neighbors notified CD13 a week ago.  The fence was put up by the developer of the 14 unit development under construction on Riverside Drive. It is up to the property owner to remove the graffiti.  Spray paint cans litter the site.  Neighbors hope this doesn't become another Menlo Property.

Red Car Property: Undead, Undead, Undead, Undead

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 8, 2016.  Happy Halloween.  The Former most beautiful California Black Walnut Tree on the Red Car Property at the Adelbert cut-thru is not dead yet.

Red Car Property: Developer Blocked Walkable Portion Of Trail, But Did Brush Clearance (After Some Arm Twisting)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 8, 2016.  From a distance, it appears the construction fence for the 14 unit development on Riverside Drive is blocking the Red Car Property, north of India Street.  However, they left us passage on the upslope side of the fence, hidden behind a silver Mercedes.  (The Mercedes finally left last night, after being parked there more than a month.)  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 8, 2016.  The pile of drywall dumped last January is on the downslope side of the trail, along with a reduced pile of salvage and trash on the 20 - 30' of downslope that is Red Car Property.  No word if people are still living in the sheds further downslope.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 8, 2016.  Neighbors still aren't buying the line from the Riverside Drive developer, that he doesn't have a deal to develop this part of the Red Car Property.  They only cleared the brush from the path here once I bitched at him that it was not a functional path he claimed to have given us.  It was full of trampled down brush and castor beans.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 8, 2016.  The heritage Coast Live Oak is still standing.  The developer blocked the highly used portion of the trail, and left us the narrow portion between the slope and the dust screened, chain link fence. 

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 8, 2016.  There are a few leaves left on what was the most beautiful California Black Walnut Tree on the Red Car Property.  Last month, the developer's brush clearance crew cut all the new growth from the tree for no good reason.  The tree is definitely on the Red Car Property.

This site is not the site of the proposed zone change to allow 49 units.  However, you better believe if they get the zone change and subdivision for condos on the south end of the property the remaining lots will be subject to a development application.