LA River: Socked In

Photo: Diane Edwardson, December 10, 2015.  Fog rolled up the LA River this morning. It only took about 15 minutes for Elysian Valley to disappear from view.   Above, the top of Glassell Park is barely visible above the fog.  The soccer fields at Taylor Yard are on the opposite side of the Metrolink train; Parcel G of Taylor Yard is on this side of the train; the river, Elysian Valley and the 5 Freeway are on this side of the of the power lines.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, December 10, 2015.  Radio Hill in Montecito Heights was barely visible above the fog.  Elysian Valley was quickly disappearing.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, December 10, 2015.  Going...

Photo: Diane Edwardson, December 10, 2015.  Gone.  I had to climb higher on the hill for this shot.  If you look very closely, you can see the tallest radio antenna poking out of the fog bank.  Elysian Valley warehouse rooftops are still somewhat visible on the lower left corner.

Photo: Corralitas Neighbor, December 10, 2015.  Did we sleep through the "The Big One" and Silver Lake became a suburb of the San Francisco Bay?  Seriously though, this photo illustrates the same atmospheric and topographic conditions that trap airborne pollutants close to the ground through the LA River corridor, which create particularly bad air quality conditions in Cypress Park and Elysian Valley. 

LA River To The Red Car Property: Get Up Early & Enjoy The Light

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, November 2015.  The weather is perfect for a LA River walk.  Seen here is the Atwater side of the LA River between Glendale Blvd and Fletcher.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, November, 2015.  The Fletcher Bridge over the LA River is a City of Los Angeles Cultural Historic Landmark.

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, October 2015.  The Pacific Electric Red Car Viaduct Footings are a City of Los Angeles Cultural Historic Landmark.  They're two blocks from the LA River on Fletcher.

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, October 2015.  The Red Car Property is not a park, it just looks like one.  The trail from the viaduct footings goes a mile to the 2 Freeway and Corralitas Drive and further south along Corralitas Walk to Lake View Ave and Allesandro Way and the Holyland Exhibition.  

Note: Kotolo Milkweed is a native plant in the foreground of the last photo.  Its growing season is as screwed up as all the other plants this year.

Fletcher Drive & LA River: Looks Like Fall

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, November 22, 2015.  The native Sycamore trees are dropping their leaves for fall along Fletcher Drive between the Red Car Property and the LA River.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, November 22, 2015.  The Fletcher Bridge over the LA River is a City of Los Angeles Historic Landmark.  You can access the river trail on either side of the bridge.  If you're on foot or have dogs on-leash, the Atwater side is less crowded, as the path is not as bike friendly.
 

Red Car Property: That's No Turkey

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 22, 2015. An enormous Red Tailed Hawk was one of a pair hunting on the north end of the Red Car Property.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

I heard a very loud crashing of branches and looked up to see a huge Red Tail trying to balance in a Eucalyptus off Adelbert.  Usually, adult Red Tails are not that clumsy.  I suspect it was chasing a squirrel and missed, or the squirrel jumped to escape and went tumbling down to the ground.  

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 22, 2015.  It took a moment for the  Red Tail to regain its composure, it was panting, as I've seen them do after making a kill.  It must be the adrenaline of the hunt.   It sat in the tree watching something on the ground below for a few minutes before taking off, circling low around the north end of the property a few times, looking for alternate prey.  Considering neither AM/PM nor Rick's keep their trash bins covered, there should be an ample supply of rats on this end of the property too.

The first hawk quickly gained altitude, soaring in larger circles in the high winds and landed near the top of the DWP power line tower across Fletcher behind Home Restaurant.

The second hawk had been calling to the first throughout this encounter. I don't know if the second hawk was its mate or one of this year's babies.  Red Tails will hang around with their parents for the better part of a year while they learn to hunt. 

Silver Lake Neighborhood Council Elections: VOTE This Saturday, April 12, 2014

Photo: Diane Edwardson, July 15, 2013.  Riverside & Fletcher is an overlooked & frequently overwhelmed commuter corridor through Silver Lake. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

The entire Silver Lake Neighborhood Council is up for an election this Saturday.  Learn more about the candidates (including several from the Red Car Property Neighborhood) on the Empower LA website.

VOTE:

Saturday April 12, 2014

10 AM - 4 PM

Micheltorena Elementary School

1511 Micheltorena St

Los Angeles, CA 90026

 

More info on if you're an "eligible stakeholder", parking, curbside voting for the disabled, etc: http://silverlakenc.org/2014/04/04/vote-on-april-12/

2 Freeway: Rosebud Ave Overpass 1961-2013

Photo: Smith, 1961.  This 1961 photo reveals so many things about the history of Corralitas Drive (on the other side of the freeway), that we're going to talk about it for a few days.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

In 1961, this was a brand new alignment for Rosebud Ave, under the newly built 2 Freeway.  According to the Smith family (who built their house on Corralitas Drive in 1938), this entrance to Corralitas did not exist before the freeways.  Rosebud may have been 100' down Allesandro (closer to Riverside Drive) than its current location, lining up with the actual hillside street.  Our only good pre-freeway photo is from 1940, but it is not conclusive.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 13, 2013. Both photos shot from the paper street right of way of Modjeska, looking across Allesandro St, under the 2 Freeway on Rosebud Ave to Corralitas Drive & the Corralitas Public Staircase going up the hillside.

If you've got pre-freeway photos of the neighborhood surrounding the 2 & 5 Freeway interchange, email jpegs to us: redcarproperty@gmail.com.  Please include as much pertinent info as possible, including photographer, year, where your family lived or worked in the area etc.& if your family is still in the neighborhood. 

Corralitas Drive: The Curse Of August 5th Fog

Photo: Diane Edwardson, August 5, 2013, 7:12 AM. I was about to make a comment about it looking more like April, than August, when I discovered a photo from August 5, 2011, where the fog was almost as dense.   (Click on photo to enlarge.) 

You can barely see the power line towers on the other side of the river. 

LA River: Kayaking Elysian Valley Photo Op

Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 27, 2013.  State & City officials & the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (SMMC) celebrated (at Marsh Park) the opening of the LA River Recreation Zone Pilot Program.  (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 27, 2013.  SMMC Director Joseph Edmiston presented outgoing City Councilmember (CD1) Ed Reyes wit an honorary ranger hat for all his efforts to open the river for recreational use.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 27, 2013.  As if to illustrate the story City Councilmember-elect Mitch O'Farrell told about being "baptized in the LA River" on his kayaking journey this morning, a loud splash was followed by laughter & squeamish "eeeewwwws" by those watching the kayakers from the bike path.  Yes, you will get wet if you go kayaking in the LA River.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 27, 2013.  There are two groups already offering commercial kayak tours of the LA River through Elysian Valley:

LA River Kayak Safari
LA River Expeditions

Read more about kayaking the recreation zone pilot program:
The Eastsider

Historic Fletcher Viaduct: 1904-2008*

Photo: Ralph Morris. Fletcher Viaduct looking north on Riverside Drive. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Different sources date the above photo at any year between 1904, when the viaduct was constructed, to 1914. The house sits on the current site of Home Restaurant, formerly Rudolpho's. In the 1950's, Currie's Ice Cream Shop occupied the location. The hillside in the background is Waverly Drive. The viaduct was over 453 feet long and over 40 feet high. Learn more about the Glendale Line on The Electric Railway Historical Association's website.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, August 22, 2008. Riverside Drive, matches photo above. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

*This post was originally published August 22, 2008.

Adelbert All-Weather Lounge: Writer Calls It, "Feral Furniture"

Photo: Diane Edwardson, January 16, 2012.  I caught sight of the Adelbert All-Weather Lounge in a post headlined, "Feral Furniture," on The Hollywood Walker blog, by writer Geoff Nicholson.  (Click on photo to enlarge.) 

While the Adelbert All-Weather Lounge has seen better days, it has moved around the northern end of the Red Car Property since November 2010.  It does make a great photo op.

Click here all the Adelbert All-Weather Lounge posts.

Click here for Nicholson's walk down the Red Car Property.

Corralitas Drive: Back to School

Photo: Kolts, circa 1936. First day of school, 2598 Corralitas Drive. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

School is back in session and the neighborhood has more small children than in recent decades. Slow down and get off your cell phones while driving the narrow hillside streets.

Red Car Property: Signs of Spring

Photo: Diane Edwardson, February 16, 2010. Wild Radish (non-native, invasive) is beginning to sprout flowers atop the historic viaduct footings at Riverside & Fletcher. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

DWP Property: Trees Gone

Photo: Diane Edwardson, December 19, 2009. Delayed by the rain for a week, DWP cut down the remaining trees near their transmission towers at 2333 Fletcher at Riverside Drive. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

DWP Property: These Trees Are Doomed

Photo: Diane Edwardson, December 10, 2009. All these trees are scheduled to be cut down on Saturday. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

All the trees in the above photo are scheduled to be cut down on Saturday 12-12-09. The trees are at the base of the DWP power line tower at 2333 Fletcher Drive (behind the parking lot for HOME Restaurant).

Yesterday, a Waverly Drive neighbor met on site with Greg Bartz DWP liaison to CD 4 and Steve Cole, DWP Water Systems Property Manager. Both said all the trees have been on the schedule for removal because the dangers posed by trees in/near power lines. But, looking at another photo, the trees are not so close to the tower.

The neighbor expressed dismay at the loss of the trees. The trees, while non-native, improve the appearance of the otherwise barren hillside. Bartz and Cole said it was not their call to make.

12-11-09, 11:30 AM UPDATE: Trees are indeed doomed by policy. Steve Cole from the DWP responds in an email, " I did some research on this and it is Power System's policy to have no trees in their right of way for overhead transmission. The right of way for large transmission towers can be up to 75' on either side of the tower. The policy is guided by federal requirements from FERC which regulates high voltage power transmission and distribution."

Urban Archaeology

Photo: Diane Edwardson, December 10, 2009. Ancient retaining walls were uncovered by Wednesday's brush clearance on DWP Property at 2333 Fletcher. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Two weeks ago the same view looked like this:
Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 25, 2009. Bougainvillea, planted to discourage graffiti vandals, grew into walls hiding a well-entrenched homeless encampment for years. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

8 Months After Fire, DWP Trims Trees

Photo: Diane Edwardson, December 9, 2009. DWP workers trim trees off public staircase adjacent to HOME Restaurant on Fletcher. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Work began today on clearing brush adjacent to the public staircase near Riverside & Fletcher, eight months after a small grass fire on another part of the same DWP-owned property between Fletcher & Waverly.

A large homeless encampment persisted for years in the privacy of the dense brush. Neighbors had sent email to CD4 and the DWP for months pleading with them to trim the trees to discourage such use of DWP property. Apparently the DWP was the only one unaware that the grove of trees was on their property at 2333 Fletcher Drive, no matter how many times we sent the photo below.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 21, 2009. The fire started out of the frame (to the left), in another grove of trees. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Grass Fire Between Fletcher & Waverly

Photo: Diane Edwardson, 11:34 AM, April 21, 2009. Between Waverly and Fletcher. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

In case you need another reminder to do your brush clearance. I was driving by before the LAFD got there. LAFD knocked it down in about 10 minutes. Ten minutes must have seemed like an eternity for the homeowners on Waverly.

Brush Clearance Info: http://www.lafd.org/brush/
Sign up for Red Flag Days notification: http://www.lafd.org/redflag/

120 Units Proposed for Menlo Property, But The Wall Will Not Come Down

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 1, 2007. The Menlo Property, Riverside Drive north of Fletcher. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Sam Menlo, convicted slumlord, submitted an application to build 120 condo units on his Riverside Drive property north of Fletcher. It's being handled by City Planning's Expedited Case Unit. Representatives of Menlo's Century Quality Management will present plans to Silver Lake Neighborhood Council's Urban Design & Preservation Advisory Committee (SLNC UD&PAC) at their next meeting:

Tuesday April 7, 2009
6:30PM
SLNC Office
2898 Rowena Ave. #101
Los Angeles, 90039

Remarkably, Menlo has no intention of removing the giant retaining wall towering above pedestrians on Riverside Drive. Instead, the wall will remain as is, along with the compacted slope behind it as "open space."
Photo: Maryann Kuk, April 25, 2000. Menlo Property on Riverside Drive north of Fletcher, note the steel rebar sticking out of the ground on the far end of the half-finished retaining wall. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Since the mid-1980's, what's become known as the Menlo Property on Riverside Drive north of Fletcher has been controversial. The history is almost as long as the Red Car Property's (south of Fletcher). Over the next week, we'll look at the highlights of the past 20+ years.

According to the City's Department of Building & Safety files on the property, in 1987, Hartwood Development Inc. secured grading and building permits to build 288 apartment units in three buildings on Riverside Drive between Fletcher and Glendale Blvd. Construction began on the River Glen Apartments closer to Glendale Blvd soon thereafter.

The second phase was closer to Fletcher, and was to include a 900-foot long, approximately 30-foot high retaining wall, built right up against the sidewalk. Atop the retaining wall would sit a 35-foot high apartment building. Letters from neighbors and Silver Lake Residents Association meeting notes describe the proposed wall and structure as prison-like.

Work soon began on the wall which remained half finished for more than a decade. A Building & Safety report dated July 20, 2000, talks about exposed rebar, mountains of plastic-covered uncompacted fill dirt and an unsecured site remaining unchanged from a report dated February 21, 1991.

Menlo acquired the property in 1992. Throughout the 1990's, Menlo kept saying he would build the approved plan, even though the approvals had expired. For years, Menlo ignored the Orders to Comply issued by Building & Safety to restore the slope to its original condition.

Coming tomorrow: graffiti-covered black plastic slopes and neighborhood activism.
See also: Legacy of Failed Development

Backing into the New Year

Photos: Kolts, 1937. Nancy Kolts at 2598 Corralitas Drive.
(Click on photo to enlarge.)

There were once giant power line towers crossing the Red Car Property, Corralitas and Allesandro to the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract. The house in the background burned down in a fire in 1980. Photo courtesy Pat Kolts.