The Corralitas Red Car Property was a private right-of-way through Silver Lake (Los Angeles) for the Pacific Electric interurban streetcar. The “Big Red Cars” ran until 1955 when the Glendale Line was decommissioned for freeway construction. For more than 40 years, a series of developers tried and failed to develop the Corralitas Red Car Property. It's not a park, it just looks like one.
Showing posts with label Silver Lake Fire Recovery. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Silver Lake Fire Recovery. Show all posts
Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 17, 2017. Not a park, it just looks like one. We apologize to our readers. Due to other commitments, we're slow to publish to the blog lately. We hope to be publishing regularly soon. For timely updates, follow us on Twitter: @RedCarProperty
Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, July 21, 2016. While shot from a different angle, the trees on the Lake View Ave side of Red Car Canyon showed the extent of the heat damage from the fire, a month earlier.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 15, 2017. The huge pine tree in a Lake View Ave backyard never recovered after the June 19, 2016 Silver Lake Fire. The Red Car Property line runs along the power lines.
Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, November 30, 2017. Thursday, the sounds of chainsaws caught the attention of neighbors as the tree was finally being cut down. Neighbors had complained to LAFD Brush Unit as well as CD13 since before the May 1 deadline for brush clearance as nothing on the Lake View Ave lot, including the castor bean forest, was cleared this year.
Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, December 1, 2017. By Friday they were chopping up what was left of the huge pine tree.
Video: Red Car Property Neighbor, December 1, 2017. A better sense of scale is gained with the number of huge trunk slices laid out on the Red Car Property.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 17, 201. In case there was any doubt the big pine tree was dead, here's another angle.
Photo: s_d_m, October 27, 2017. Chicken of the Woods often returns annually to the same trees. This photo shows the fungus growing out of both sides of the stump. The stump was left behind after LAFD contractors did brush clearance in December 2016, six months after it was scorched in the June 19, 2016 fire.
Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor #1, September 14, 2017. This morning, photos and videos came in from vigilant neighbors of more tree carnage in Red Car Canyon. (Click on photos to enlarge.)
Neighbors report they seemed to be removing dead branches and trees. Yet, photos appear to indicate smaller trees recovering from the 2016 fire appear cut down in recent weeks. We'll run a comparison post soon. (These things take time and are depressing as all hell to look at what we lost.)
Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, September 14, 2017. Enlarged from previous photo, you get a better idea of scale when you see the worker up on the tree trunk.
Video: Red Car Neighbor Property Neighbor #2, September 14, 2017. Another neighbor captured the moment they felled the same Eucalyptus.
Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor #2, September 14, 2017. Photo confirmed the same contractor who's been doing brush clearance for the past few weeks, was chopping up trees in the canyon today.
Photo: Corralitas Neighbor, August 27, 2017. Unlike previous rounds of tree removal, there were a host of actual CalTrans vehicles and a backhoe working on the medians on both sides of the northbound 2 Freeway. Previous work was done by tree contractors.
Photo: Corralitas Neighbor, August 27, 2017. They picked up the green carnage in the dump trucks. It also appears they planted new trees.
Photo: Corralitas Neighbor, August 27, 2017. To our surprise, at least a half dozen trees were planted in the slope between north and southbound lanes. While the trees may not do much to clean the air today, at least it's a commitment to the future. Neighbors have been asking for trees for more than a year since the fire. Two weeks ago, another Red Car Property neighbor spoke to a representative from State Senate President Kevin DeLeon's staff regarding planting trees. According to the deputy, CalTrans planted 12 Sycamore trees and 40 Toyons on the 2 Freeway. Toyon is a slow growing, drought tolerant native shrub. The conversation occurred 10 days prior to the planting. We'd still like to know where all those trees were planted.
Photo: Corralitas Neighbor, August 27, 2017. There are 2 large Eucalyptus in the median south of the overhead "End of Freeway" sign. That's pretty much all the mature trees between the north and southbound lanes now. Related: Why We Bitch About Losing Trees What Difference Do Trees Make?Part 1, Part 2 Weekend & Evening Traffic(2015) Why We Need Trees(2014)
Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor June 6, 2017. Aside from the potential risk of fire fueled by dry weeds and unrestricted vehicle access to the Red Car Property, there are other risks both on the Red Car Property and adjacent lots. (Click on photo to enlarge.) 1. Several adjacent Lake View Ave, Silver Ridge Ave and Corralitas Drive neighbors have failed to do their brush clearance. There is a large Castor Bean forest growing on one Lake View Ave lot. Castor Bean Plants are non-native, highly invasive. All parts of the plant are extremely toxic and emit a toxic gas when burned (Ricin). Castor Beans will take over entire hillsides, quickly crowding out any native species. The power lines in the middle of the slope run along the property line between the Red Car Property and adjacent Lake View and Silver Ridge lots. 2. At least one telephone pole (see arrow in photo above) appears bowed or bent. With fires in 2014 and 2016, neighbors wonder if the pole has been weakened and needs replacing.
Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, July 16, 2016. Several neighbors spent months after the 2016 fire getting the runaround from DWP and AT&T regarding the status of the pole. Nothing ever seems to have been resolved. 3. There are several large dead and dying trees near the power lines including what's left of one pine tree leaning at a 45 degree angle (see first photo). The trees appear to be on the adjacent Lake View lots. In April, DWP contractors trimmed trees under and within 10' of the high voltage lines in the Red Car Canyon. However, Eucalyptus can collapse months after the rainy season, usually in July and August. At least one of the two big dead trees on the slope is Eucalyptus and perilously close to a telephone pole that has a transformer on top (see first photo). The first photo does show one positive thing. The protected native Black Walnuts and Coast Live Oak, along with other large trees are recovering from the 2016 Silver Lake Fire.
Photo: Corralitas Neighbor #1, June 3, 2017. Saturday, a CalTrans crew cleared brush about 10' back from the chain link fence on Corralitas Drive. (Click on photos to enlarge.)
Photo: Corralitas Neighbor #2, June 3, 2017. Unfortunately, the work order did not include the steep slope directly adjacent to the southbound lanes of the 2 Freeway.
Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, May 30, 2017. Dry weeds are taller and more dense than they were just a year ago. Although the trees are recovering from the 2016 Silver Lake Fire. Note the dry brush on the slope. Neighbors are asking, once again, "How do the large lot owners get away without doing brush clearance by May 1, EVERY YEAR?" (Click on photos to enlarge.)
Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 17, 2016. A month before the June 19, 2016 fire, the dry weeds on the flatter part were sparse and the dry brush on the slope was mashed downand not as thick as normal years due to the lack of rain.
Photo: Gary Vlahakis, June 19, 2016. Firefighters stopped the Silver Lake Fire in the middle of the canyon with endless water drops from helicopters, followed up with wildland fire crews and water from the ground level. Neighbors had been complaining in writing, with photos, to CD13 and LAFD Brush Clearance Unit for at least a month before the fire. The dry grass and high winds (that come up every afternoon from the 2 Freeway), spread the fire quickly north on property. It burned right up to homes on Lake View Ave, Silver Ridge Ave and Corralitas Drive while simultaneously burning northbound on the 2 Freeway toward the 5 Freeway. (Several homes suffered some damage.)
Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, April 28, 2017. After more than 24 inches of rain this rain year, it would be easy to blame the rain for this skinny but apparently healthy pine tree in Red Car Canyon, near the public access easement trail down to Riverside Place. (Click on photos to enlarge.) In fact, I thought this tree would have died last summer or been removed when the LAFD contractor did brush clearance in December.
However, while combing my files for similar photos, the tree has been in this position for a number of years. More interesting, is the ever changing landscape around the tree. Very few native trees are growing in the canyon area. However if you look up on the slopes, beneath the larger trees, you'll see smaller protected native California Black Walnuts and Coast Live Oaks as well as recently proposed for protection, native Blue Elderberry and Toyon.
Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, December 12, 2016. LAFD Contractor did brush clearance and took down a large number of dead and dying trees in the canyon, but left the leaning pine tree. Its crown was still green, despite its awkward position.
Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, December 11, 2016. Lots of trees were taken down or trimmed back.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 9, 2016. In 26 years, I had never seen more dead and dying trees in the canyon. Trees that did not burn in last year's fire, in just a few months, had succumbed to a variety of problems amplified by the fire and 5 years of unprecedented drought.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 19, 2016. After five years of unprecedented drought, and one month before the fire, Red Car Canyon was still green. It's hard to comprehend that even though the fire was stopped 100' away, it toasted all many of these trees.Even days before the fire, the canyon was green.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, September 23, 2014. A year earlier, the bamboo and other dry brush were freshly dumped.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, June 21, 2013. Red Car Property neighbors and friends celebrated Make Music LA Day at the Charles Lacey Memorial. The leaning tree is not the first one, but it's in the background (arrow pointing to it.) Sadly, the tree at the Lacy Memorial was cut down in December 2016 by the LAFD contractors. It was one of many that was already suffering from 5 years of extreme drought prior to the June 19, 2016 fire.
Diane Edwardson, June 15, 2012. Green trees, dumping and the leaning tree, so what else is new?
January 15, 2010. Until 2016, the only way you could tell the difference in photos between January and June, was the color of the grass.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 10, 2009. The leaning tree had a markedly different angle in 2009.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, August 6, 2008. The trees were so dense and green,you could barely make out the leaning tree. Clearly this has always been a favorite dumping spot since it was hidden from the neighboring upslope homes by the dense tree canopy.
Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, May 12, 2017. Some upslope neighbors did their brush clearance by May 1. Understandably, it appears at least one went overboard clearing well past the property line. (The power lines, halfway up the hill, are at the property line to the Red Car Property.) Many of the protected native Black Walnuts and Coast Live Oaks are recovering from last year's fire, including trees LAFD's contractors cut down (that were not dead) 6 months after the fire.
Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, May 5, 2017. The dead tree still had its crown a week earlier. Ironically, May 8, three days after this photo was taken, CalTrans sent me email confirmation that the fence had been fixed here on a complaint I'd made November 3, 2016, regarding fence damage between Rosebud/Corralitas and Allesandro Way/Lake View Ave. I guess if they can't see it from their trucks, the problem doesn't exist.
Photo: S. Bartron, March 20, 2017. It just looks like one. (Click on photo to enlarge.) LAFD deadline for brush clearance in the Very High Fire Hazard Severity Zone (VHFHSZ) is May 1, 2017. In the past 26 years I've only seen the Red Car Property cleared a handful of times before the 4th of July. Let's hope this year is different.
Community Residents’ Association for Parks is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization formed in 1997 by our Silver Lake neighborhood. We are dedicated to acquisition and preservation of the Corralitas Red Car Property as a park in partnership with the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.
Contact: redcarproperty@gmail.com
