Riverside & Fletcher: "Wildfire Embers Can Travel Over One Mile"

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 19, 2015.  The billboard on the corner of Riverside & Fletcher has a timely message.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

A brush fire broke out in Elysian Park this morning.  LAFD said the cause was a homeless camp's  cooking fire.  More: The Eastsider 

Get your brush clearance done!  LAFD brush inspections begin May 1.

UPDATE 4-30-15: The graffiti on the Waverly Public Staircase was painted over.

Historic Viaduct Footings: Bugs Are Busy - Dragonflies, Multiple Harvester Ant Colonies, Tarantula Hawk

Photo: Diane Edwardson, June 27, 2014. From the Historic Landmark Viaduct Footings looking toward Griffith Park (the second hill in the background).  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Yesterday, I walked the Red Car Property with Daniel Marlos, A.K.A. "The Bugman of Mt. Washington."  The bugs at the north end of the property put on quite a show for him.  Marlos immediately spotted a swarm of large green dragonflies around one of the California Black Walnut Trees growing above the viaduct footings.   In 24 years of walking the Red Car Property I have never seen a swarm of dragonflies.  I was unable to get a clear photo.  See photos & read about Green Darner Dragonflies swarming: What's That Bug?

Photo: Diane Edwardson May 24, 2014.  California Harvester Ants above the viaduct footings.

The Harvester Ants were very busy collecting seeds & plant matter, bringing oversized bounty back to their nests.  We looked at 2 colonies, but acknowledged we were not sure if they were separate colonies or part of a supercolony.  The entrances to the colonies were several hundred feet apart.  Read more about this important "indicator species:" What's That Bug

Marlos caught sight of a large Tarantula Hawk, "flying casually" under the heritage Coast Live Oak Tree on Lot C.  I noted we've been seeing a lot more Tarantula Hawks than ever before on the Red Car Property, especially on the north end, where the soil is less compacted & the habitat  includes more native plant species.   Marlos commented that we must have a lot of tarantulas or even trapdoor spiders in the neighborhood since those are their preferred hosts for egg laying. 
  

Historic Fletcher Viaduct: The Big Parade Will Walk Through History Today

Photo: Loren Ayers, June 19, 1955.  The last day of Pacific Electric Red Car Trolley service for the Glendale Line crossing the Fletcher Viaduct as seen from Waverly.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

The Big Parade, the ultimate urban hike, will have to cross Fletcher at street level but can marvel at how the bridge stood up to earthquakes and rainy seasons on such shallow concrete viaduct footings.  City of Los Angeles Cultural Historic Landmark #770 as seen from the Waverly Public Staircase.

Follow The Big Parade on Twitter  as they work their way toward Griffith Park Observatory on Day 2.

Riverside & Fletcher: Gunfire A Reminder We're Not Completely Gentrified Yet

Photo: Diane Edwardson, December 17, 2012.  (Click on photo to enlarge.) 

Last night, a woman's car was struck by gunfire near the intersection of Riverside & Fletcher: The Eastsider

Red Car Property Neighborhood: Coyote Alert

Photo: Russell Bates, July 29, 2012.  I've seen coyotes go up and over 6' fences with ease (like this one on a Lake View Ave fence).  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

 

Check out the latest coyote making itself at home in a backyard on Waverly near Farwell: The Eastsider 

 

Don't leave your small animals outside.  If you feed your pets outside - pick up the food bowls as soon as they finish.  Read more about living with coyotes and other urban wildlife: LA Animal Services.

Monte Sano: Why Wouldn't You Want To Live Next Door To A Major Construction Site?

Photo: Diane Edwardson, February 9, 2012.  Neighbors of the old Monte Sano Hospital Site at Waverly & Glendale Blvd are learning first hand what excavating more than 46,300 cubic yards of earth means to their health (and wealth as apartment dwellers move out).  (Click on photo to enlarge.) 

Read more: Los Feliz Ledger

See also our posts from:

March 23, 2012

March 25, 2012

All our air quality related posts

Glendale Blvd: Road Closure Update

Map: DWP.  River Supply Conduit Lower Reach 4 Improvement Project causing traffic and trouble breathing in the neighborhood north of Fletcher on Glendale Blvd.  (Click on image to enlarge.)

DWP sent out an email late Tuesday announcing temporary no right turn from Fletcher onto Glendale Blvd starting Wednesday. Copied directly from the email:

Temporary lane closure of right-turn lane on Fletcher Drive starting June 20: Construction activities will require a temporary closure of the right-turn lane from Fletcher Drive onto Glendale Boulevard, which will be in effect:

June 20-22: 8 am to 5 pm

June 25  at 7 a.m. through June 27 at 6 a.m.

If necessary, the right-turn lane closure may be extended to include:

June 27-29: 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

June 30: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

More Info: www.ladwp.com/RSC4

Related Glendale Blvd traffic news: The Eastsider

Monte Sano: Community Meeting Wednesday, May 23, 2012, 7PM

Photo: Jerome Courshon, February 2, 2012.  The old Monte Sano Hospital site is destined for condos.  The grading plan (when the project was approved) involved removing 35' off the top of the hill.  So much for the "Hill of Health" as Monte Sano Hospital & Sanitarium once boasted.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Community Meeting

to discuss Monte Sano, currently called "Waverly Terrace" 

plans & mitigations

hosted by CD4

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

7PM

Citibank Community Room

2450 Glendale Blvd

City Councilmember Tom LaBonge (CD4) arranged a community meeting, despite the fact that Monte Sano will be in CD13 as of July 2012.  Let's hope someone invited CD13, or you can expect a lot of feigned ignorance of conditions for approval, once construction begins from CD13.

Of course it will be difficult for most Monte Sano neighbors to get to the meeting since it's not exactly walking distance and driving the Glendale Blvd corridor is difficult, thanks to the DWP.

See also: The Eastsider

From this blog: Air Quality Issues: Construction Sites

Legacy of Failed Development

Red Car Property: The Big Parade 2012

Photos: Diane Edwardson, May 20, 2012.  112 People walked down Corralitas Walk to the Red Car Property with The Big Parade today.  (Click on photos to enlarge.) 

The group paused at the Silver Lake Court paper street right-of-way to hear about the Red Car Trolley history in the neighborhood.

After taking a trip up the Roselin Public Staircases to Adelbert, The Big Parade came back down to the Red Car Property, and walked along the historic viaduct footings to Fletcher.

The parade proceeded up the opposite side of the viaduct footings behind HOME Restaurant and along the "Antenna Trail" to Waverly.

See what else you missed on The Big Parade, the 2 day, 100 public staircase walk from Angel's Flight to the Hollywood Sign.

The Big Parade 2012: 10 Days Away - Are You Ready?

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, May 22, 2011.  The public staircase leading to the former Red Car Trolley Viaduct above former Currie's Ice Cream Parlor is a likely feature of Day 2.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

May 19 & 20, 2012: The Big Parade is the FREE, 2-day, 100+ public staircase hike from Downtown to the Hollywood Sign. We've been big supporters of the Big Parade since their first outing in 2009.  The historic landmark Red Car Viaduct Footings are also a feature of Day 2. 

It is a pretty amazing sight to see 100 people working their way on foot through our historic public staircases.  Join The Big Parade for a few staircases, miles or 3 days (there's a Mt Washington 10-mile warm-up hike on Friday, May 18). 

Routes, timetables, features, advice and photos are all available: The Big Parade

Click here for all our Big Parade related posts.

Glendale Blvd: DWP's Piles Of Dirt*

Photo: Jerome Courshon, April 19, 2012.  It seems like everything on the northeast end of Silver Lake is under construction these days.  The DWP has moved their LA River Bypass tunneling onto another part of Glendale Blvd this week.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

The DWP has failed to keep their contractors covering piles of loose dirt as prescribed by the EIR for the control of particulate matter or "fugitive dust."  I drove by earlier this week; saw traffic cops in face masks, looking miserable, while they directed traffic in the middle of sandblasting and contractors cutting the asphalt without any water at all. 

Read Courshon's take on the DWP's project: Echo Park Patch

Neighbors in the Waverly, Locksley, Rowena, Glendale Blvd corridor are organizing to coordinate efforts to deal with DWP and various construction sites (Monte Sano, the Coffee Table site, etc). **

*UPDATE 4-26-12: Read more on the detours and disruption on The Eastsider. 

** 2015: Contact info removed by request.

Red Car Property: Hawkwatch

Photo: Diane Edwardson, March 28, 2012, 9:44 AM.  I heard what sounded like a hawk atop the huge California Black Walnut near the Adelbert cut-through.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Straining to see in the the bright light and zooming in on the bird, it appears it was a Mockingbird doing hawk calls.  

Photo: Diane Edwardson, March 28, 9:46 AM.  A few minutes later, taken in by the Mockingbird, a rather anemic-looking hawk landed in a nearby Eucalyptus on the Red Car Property. 

Photo: Diane Edwardson, March 28, 2012, 9:47 AM.  I think it's a thin Red Tailed Hawk, but this was the best shot I could get.  It was definitely not one of the nesting pair from Rosebud & Allesandro.  They are very healthy looking hawks.  This one posed for photos and flew to the top of a pine tree on the DWP property between Fletcher & Waverly. 

More Hawkwatch Notes:

Later the same morning, March 28, 2012, I watched 3 big healthy Red Tails circling the south end of the Red Car Property, riding updrafts, calling and clearly playing with one another.  One dove at another on the telephone pole to start the chase.  (It seems one of last year's babies is still hanging around with the nesting pair.  The pair never seem to chase the third hawk off, so it's a good guess it's one of their young.)  One hawk broke off from the play, pulled in its wings and dove at high speed, landing on the nest at Allesandro & Rosebud.  It was impressive. 

The recent cold weather has kept one of the hawks in the nest most of the time.  They are likely incubating eggs.  Watch the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Red Tail Hawk Cam to learn more about nesting behavior. 

March 29, 2012: A friend pointed out a Cooper's Hawk that landed briefly, high up in a tree, in my backyard. Definitely not one of the Red Tails: it had a long thin neck, small head and beak, long tail.   Of course, there's rarely a camera handy when I see an elusive Cooper's Hawk.  

Air Quality Issues: Construction Sites

Photo: Jerome Courshon, March 9, 2012.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)  The DWP has moved onto Rockeby from Glendale Blvd.  They're digging just a few feet from homes and businesses, without dust screening on the nearby construction fence.  Neighbors are complaining of inadequate wetting of the site and lose dirt blowing in the wind. 

Why are we talking about dust?  Particulate Matter, specifically PM10 & PM2.5, is so small, you can't see it without a microscope.  They are smaller than the width of a human hair.  PM10 and especially PM2.5 get down deep in your lungs and stay there, causing damage that can lead to variety of health problems ranging from sore throat and increased allergies to asthma, COPD, heart problems, chronic bronchitis, premature birth, premature death and cancer. 

Children are at even greater risk, since their lungs are not fully developed.  Similarly, the elderly and those with pre-existing heart or lung problems are at increased risk too.

People who live or work within 1000' of a major source of Diesel Particulate Matter (freeways and rail yards) are at even greater risk since our baseline exposure has made us more susceptible to increases in exposure, like from construction. 

During the environmental review process, special attention to PM10 & PM2.5 is supposed to occur when a site is within 1000 feet of a school.  Ivanhoe Elementary is within 1000 feet of the DWP project, Coffee Table site, (plus another condo development a few doors from the Coffee Table site), Monte Sano, Menlo Property and the 5 Freeway. 

When the Coffee Table site developers came to the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council, the Urban Design & Preservation Advisory Committee warned City Planning of the potential cumulative impacts from not only traffic, but short term construction effects on air quality.  UD&PAC pointed out the proximity of Ivanhoe Elementary. No extraordinary mitigations were required by City Planning.  Although the DWP is supposed to be monitoring their PM, but no one seems to enforce their violations of AQMD's Rule 403.

PM10 & PM2.5 are supposed to be mitigated by specific measures on construction sites.  The City standard conditions for approval include measures like twice a day wetting of lose dirt, which is insufficient for "fugitive dust" control.  Truck loads of earth as well as the piles of loose dirt are supposed to be covered to prevent "fugitive dust."  Many neighbors asked me about this when they saw the DWP failing to cover their truckloads before leaving the site.   

The only construction site where I ever observed really good dust control was the construction of the mini-mall on Glendale Blvd at Glenhurst in Atwater, where they used constant wetting during grading activities. 

Developers and the City fail to understand how deadly routine exposure to particulate matter is.  Even short term effects from construction cause health problems.  Just by knocking on doors, neighbors near the Glendale Blvd & Waverly DWP construction found at least 30 neighbors experiencing increased health problems since the DWP started work in December September 2011. 

If you live near the work in the vicinity of Glendale & Waverly, neighbors are organizing to deal with the DWP, Monte Sano and the other area construction issues.*  

This is why no one likes to write about health effects of particulate matter and what can be done about the issue.  It's complex and does not easily condense.  And when you live next to a freeway or rail yard - do you really want to know how bad it is for you? 

Recommended reading from the California Air Resources Board: Air Quality and Land Use Handbook: A Community Health Perspective

*2015 Contact information removed by request.

Monte Sano: Neighbors Hoping Developer Provides Required Dust Control

Photo: Jerome Courshon, February 5, 2012.  Grading began and stopped in February as the grading permits expired for the 63 units at Monte Sano.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

According to the previously approved and now lapsed grading permits, they plan the following earth moving:

CUT: 46,300 Cubic Yards

FILL: 5,930 Cubic Yards

IMPORT: 40,370 Cubic Yards

Photo: Diane Edwardson, February 9, 2012.  An apartment building on Waverly is right next to the old Monte Sano Hospital site.  That's a whole lot of dirt to move right next door in a neighborhood that's already burdened by months of DWP construction.

What's missing in these photos?  Dust screening material on the chain link fence.  It may not seem like much, but it does help keep some of dirt contained.  It is the very least a developer can do.  

When we had several homes under construction on different parts of my street, the one with dust screening had less dirt in the street than the other 3 unscreened sites. With every car driving by, the dust (particulate matter) becomes airborne and ends up deep in your lungs.   

More on the dangers of Particulate Matter (PM10 & PM2.5) tomorrow Sunday.

Monte Sano is one of the large problem lots in the Legacy of Failed Development in our neighborhood.

Glendale Blvd & Riverside Drive: Reopening Soon

Photo: Diane Edwardson, March 13, 2012.  The DWP sent out an email that Glendale Blvd would reopen, Friday March 23, 2012.  They'll now close Rockeby "part time" between Glendale & Rowena for another 3 months.  (Click on photo to enlarge.) 

Neighbors say they've already moved the work onto Rockeby.  DWP is holding their quarterly update meeting at Fire Station 56, 4:30 PM, March 29, 2012. 

Read more: The Eastsider

Neighborhood Air Quality Issues On The Rise

Photo: Futterer, Holyland Exhibition, 1960.  Grading for the 2 Freeway involved moving a lot of earth, as seen from the Holyland Exhibition at the corner of Allesandro Way & Lake View Ave.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)  

It's been 50+ years since our neighborhood has seen anywhere near the amount of earth moving we'll be in for if all the projects approved in recent years break ground (some already have): Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract, Monte Sano, DWP projects, Menlo Property, Coffee Table site, Bert Co site, 2 Freeway Terminus and Taylor Yard.  Now there are rumors of a complete tear-down/rebuild of the Ralph's shopping center on Glendale Blvd. 

Several years ago, the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council's Urban Design & Preservation Advisory Committee and Silver Lake Improvement Association kept bringing up the cumulative effects, including serious health effects, of all these projects in the pipeline, but City Planning failed to acknowledge them.

1960 - 1962 our neighborhood saw earth moving on an unimaginable scale: 2 Freeway, 5 Freeway and Dodger Stadium dramatically changed the neighborhood's landscape. 50 years ago, no one knew just how all that unmitigated dust would effect our health. 

Over the past 10 years, a significant volume of research has confirmed the health risks of living near freeways and rail yards - sources of diesel particulate matter.  There is no shortage of studies confirming the risks, including heart disease, COPD, asthma, chronic bronchitis, cancer, premature death, premature birth and low birth weight.  

Health risks to children are particularly high, since their lungs are still developing. The elderly and those with chronic heart & lung problems are at greater risk of premature death. 

People who live close to sources of diesel particulate matter are more susceptible to increased levels of particulate matter that come with construction sites.  To simplify, it's microscopic, you can't see it or smell it and it can kill you. 

So, we will look at air quality issues at least once a week as they relate to neighborhood projects.

  

Glendale Blvd at Riverside Drive: Closed Starting October 3, 2011

Word comes from Mary Olmos at the DWP that work on the River Supply Conduit will close Glendale Blvd between Riverside Drive & Waverly, for several months, starting Monday October 3, 2011. 

See DWP website for more information: www.ladwp.com/rsc4.

Glendale Blvd at Riverside Drive: Closing "Soon"

Expect more traffic headaches as the DWP will close Glendale Blvd between Waverly and Riverside Drive starting in September 2011 for work on the River Supply Conduit Improvement project. (Click on image to enlarge.) 

The notice Mary Olmos of the DWP sent out to Silver Lake community leaders stated, "Currently, the updated schedule for the start of the Glendale Blvd. closure is postponed from August, 2011 to sometime in September, 2011.  The closure is expected to last for at least 6 months."

  

Photo: Diane Edwardson, August 30, 2011.  Signs went up on Riverside Drive recently warning of the closure.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, August 30, 2011.  However, the sign only indicates 4 months of closure, giving us false hope for a speedy completion.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Glendale Blvd and Riverside Drive was once the site of the Monte Sano Red Car Trolley Stop.

Sort of related: Clarence Inman Collection

Red Car Property Neighborhood: Saluting Labor

Photo: Diane Edwardson, September 3, 2011.  Equipment for the gas main construction is quiet today on Corralitas Drive.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Ever wonder why we get so many politicians and their supporters knocking on our doors prior to competitive races?  (Think back to the 2001 City Council race for CD13.)  

The Red Car Property Neighborhood is home to many local, state, national and international labor union members and leadership, including, but not limited to, SEIU, AFSCME, UTLA, LA College Faculty Guild, SAG, AFTRA, IATSE, WGA, DGA and Teamsters. Los Angeles is a union town and Silver Lake and Echo Park are teaming with union support.

We proudly salute hard working people everywhere, not just our neighborhood. 

Historic Fletcher Viaduct: The Big Parade On El Pueblo To Griffith Park Trail

Photo: Loren Ayers, June 19, 1955.  The last day of Pacific Electric Red Car Trolley service for the Glendale Line crossing the Fletcher Viaduct as seen from Waverly.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, May 22, 2011.  The Big Parade made their way back to the Red Car Property from the Roselin Public Staircase Complex and Adelbert, via the trail cut-through near the Adelbert All-Weather Lounge.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Read more about the planned El Pueblo Trail in an earlier post. 

This week, we're following The Big Parade's trek through the Red Car Property Neighborhood.