Red Car Canyon: Mudwatch for Lake View Ave

Photos: Red Car Property Neighbor, January 12, 2023.  

Around the 6” of rain earlier this week brought predictable mudslides and a downed tree just north of the mudslide on the Lake View Ave side of Red Car Canyon.  This slope is Red Car Property up to the fence line.  There are public utility  easements along the property line.

The Red Car Property owner chopped down all the young trees on this slope and throughout the property without regard to size or species. There were a number of young protected Coast Live Oak and California Black Walnut trees that managed to recover from the 2016 fire.  While this slope did not burn it was severely damaged by the heat.  

Most of the shrub-like plants in the above photo are remnants of trees that keep trying grow back every year after brush clearance.  I speculate the total disregard for hillside ecosystems is intentional, as it is common developer tactic to kill off as many trees as possible through neglect or removal in advance of development application.  

Over 30 years, we’ve seen the slope slide below and around the sewer outlet (the round concrete feature topped with green spray paint, adjacent the large tree at the fence line in photo).

In recent years, City contractors replaced sewer lines in the slope along the property line between the Red Car Property and homes above on Lake View.

In 2009 the Red Car Property owner repaired a  2005 landslide on the Adelbert end of the Red Car Property. 

It is a very steep slope cut for the Red Car Trolley in 1904.  Since the tracks were removed in 1955, a forest of trees repopulated the slope.  

Corralitas Red Car Property: Mudwatch

 Photos: Red Car Property Neighbor January 12, 2023.

Lake Corralitas and a familiar mudslide returned on the south end of the property.  The more things change, the more they stay the same. 

Red Car Property: Iconic California Black Walnut Tree Crashed Down

Photo: Gary Vlahakis, December 31, 2021.

In a fitting end to 2021, a huge protected native California Black Walnut Tree, growing on the Lake View Ave side of the Red Car Property, fell victim to this week's deluge.  As the species evolved to do, it survived decades of the drought/deluge pattern of Southern California weather. It was likely too much rain, too fast, on a steep slope, combined with run-off from the built hillside environment, to keep the beloved tree upright.  

Photo: Stephanie Bartron, May 2020.  

Oddly, I have admired the tree for three decades, but have surprisingly few photos of just this large tree. The Red Car Property is not a park, it just looks like one.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, 2009.

The native tree was so large and  among a long row of large trees, it was often difficult to single out just one tree.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, 2010.  

The healthy Black Walnut thrived behind a home at one of the lowest points of elevation of Lake View Ave. It took advantage of significant hillside run-off. It was couple of houses north of Rose Scharlin Nursery School.

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, 2016. 

A previous owner of the Lake View Ave house told me, the tree was a big reason they bought the house.  Despite knowing the tree was on the Red Car Property, they took care of it. They even hired a certified arborist/tree trimmer to maintain it, because the tree brought value to not only their home, but their lives.

Photo: Gary Vlahakis, December 31, 2021. Same tree, reverse angle.

Upon seeing today's photos, several neighbors had the same reaction as I did, "Noooooo!"  

Photo: Diane Edwardson, June 10, 2016. 

The native Black Walnut towered over the trail on the Red Car Property.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, 2015.

The Red Car Property is not a park, it just looks like one.  We mourn the loss of another iconic native tree.

2 Freeway: Car Crashes Onto Red Car Property From The 2 Freeway

All photos: Red Car Property neighbors, April 27, 2019.

Around 2:30 AM, Red Car Property neighbors were awakened by a horrible sounding crash on the 2 Freeway. A very expensive sports car crashed through the chain link fence and came to a stop at the base of a steep slope on the Red Car Property.  At least one neighbor called police when it appeared people took off after the neighbor shined a bright flashlight on them.

One Silver Ridge neighbor described the sound of the crash: a car's screeching tires on the southbound 2 Freeway, then a large crash followed by more squealing tires and an even larger traveling crash.  A Corralitas neighbor's doorbell camera recorded the same sequence of sound at 2:31 AM.

The photo above is a lighter version of the previous photo, shot around 3 AM. 

With no large trees that used to prevent drivers from crashing onto Corralitas and the Red Car Property, the driver crashed through the brush on the side of the 2 Freeway, down the slope, through the chain link fence, across the public sidewalk (Corralitas Walk) and onto the Red Car Property, stopping at the base of the steep slope at the south end of the Red Car Property.  

Neighbors were on alert for fire since brush clearance had not been done.  This is the same part of the property that burned in the 2016 Silver Lake Fire.

When the sun came up, the path of the crash was more clear.  The orange cones mark the section of chain link fence taken out by the car crashing through and across Corralitas Walk.  It stopped at the far right of the frame.  The tire tracks completing the circle to the left, show the path the tow truck took to reach the car.

The large gap in the trees along the southbound 2, just past the orange cones, is where CalTrans cut down all the trees, including a number of enormous Eucalyptus trees that previously kept cars from flying onto Corralitas Drive and the Red Car Property.  

CalTrans cut down all the trees, including recovering trees that were not dead, after the 2016 Silver Lake Fire.  As soon as CalTrans cut the trees down, neighbors began asking CalTrans for trees, a sound wall or even concrete K-rails because they were suddenly feeling exposed.  A few months after the trees were removed a car flew off the freeway and crashed horribly onto Corralitas Drive.  It was fortunate no pedestrians were injured in either crash.

By 4 AM the tow truck was loading the car now in the Corralitas cul-de-sac, adjacent to the Red Car Property.  A neighbor confirmed the crashed car was a brand new Lamborghini.  It still had dealer paper plates.  From the photos, it appears CHP was present.

After last week's crash, we asked CD13 to prioritize brush clearance on the Red Car Property and request CalTrans do their brush clearance too. A fire could have sparked with the hot engine resting on the dry grass. 

Related: 
Car flies off 2 Freeway onto Corralitas Drive, 2016

All our car crash posts

Several neighbors from Silver Ridge Ave (directly above the Red Car Property) and Corralitas Drive contributed photos, video/audio recording, in addition to what they saw and heard to help create this post. 

This post was published May 7, 2019 and postdated to the incident date for reference.

Elysian Park: In Memoriam, Peter Lassen 1939 – 2018, Community Activist

Photo: Diane Edwardson, Red Tailed Hawk. January 14, 2013.

Friends will gather at the Grace Simons Lodge in Elysian Park tonight to honor the life and legacy of Peter “Pete” Lassen who passed away August 8, 2018.  

I am personally saddened by Pete’s passing as he was a mentor and friend for nearly 25 years.  I always looked up to Pete.  As a community activist, I learned so much from him and we always had a great time talking about things not related to whatever community issue was at hand.  He was charismatic, friendly and had a mellifluous deep voice.  He put family first.  Pete was an inspiration to so many.  Most of all, he was a good person.  

Weeks later, my hands are shaking as I write this and I still can’t adequately sum up the decades of friendship and activism. So I’ll just tell a couple of stories.

A few years ago, while sharing lunch at HOME Restaurant patio, on a beautiful winter day with blue skies and fluffy white clouds, over the din of Riverside Fletcher intersection and the 5 Freeway, while discussing a nearby development proposal, Pete suddenly exclaimed, “Whoa! A huge hawk just took off from that power line tower! Wait there’s another one!”  In the afternoons the updrafts created by the roads and topography makes it an ideal jumping off place for hawks to soar.  Naturally, the hawk led into a long discussion of our enormous hawks and other wildlife in our neighborhoods.  In the last ten years, we actually spent more time talking about other stuff than the issue at hand.

As fellow city planning geeks, we often talked about the built environment, topography, history, native landscapes and urban wildlife. Pete always looked at how the minutiae fit into the big picture, not just how it affected immediate neighbors.

Pete was willing to explain complex and esoteric issues to community members trying to genuinely understand the technical plans on boards at community scoping meetings and how it related to the neighborhood.  When neighbors were attending 2 Freeway Terminus meetings, I told them, find Pete, hang out behind him and you’ll learn what’s important. That’s what I did.  He later said “I thought there were a number of people from your neighborhood asking me questions, and asking good questions.”

When we were involved in the SR2 Freeway Terminus Redesign, I would call him up and say things like “Am I insane?  Or is this the first time sound walls appeared on a map or at all? In 16 years, they never even discussed sound walls anywhere other than the immediate terminus.” Pete’s response was “Yes, you are insane, and, no, those sound walls were not in any previous plan or discussion [prior to the Draft EIR].”  He knew the teasing didn’t bother me.  Decades earlier, I’d learned from Pete, the importance of the details on a proposed map even if they’re not mentioned in the written portion of a proposed plan.

I remember Pete from the first community meeting I ever attended for a development proposal on the Red Car Property in the early 1990s.  He was someone I often consulted, particularly with large complex issues in the community. As community activists, through countless community meetings, small meetings and lunches, we volunteered our time fighting in the community’s interest on the Silver Lake - Echo Park - Elysian Valley Community Plan, SR2 Freeway Terminus Redesign, Glendale Blvd Corridor Plan, Neighbors of Dodger Stadium, Red Car Property, Menlo Property, Semi Tropic Spiritualists’ Tract, just to name a few things affecting our immediate neighborhood.

In his death, Pete joins more of my mentors, Virginia Adams and Rey Dominguez of Elysian Valley, Alicia Brown of Solano Canyon and Judy Raskin of Echo Park.  Pete, and all of them, not only made our community a better place, they made Los Angeles and the world a better place.   

Rest in peace Pete.
Diane Edwardson  

Read more about Pete Lassen: The Eastsider
 

Red Car Property: Not A Park, Follow Us On Twitter

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

Corralitas Drive: Termites Dining On Dried Chicken Of The Woods

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 16, 2017.  Several enormous Chicken of the Woods mushrooms sprouted from a dead Eucalyptus stump on Corralitas Drive.  Several were turkey platter size.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 16, 2017.  When the fungus dries out, termites move in from the host tree.  The tendrils beneath the fungus are termite droppings.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 16, 2017.  They grow in the same host trees year after year, prior to the rainy season, usually in October and November..

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 16, 2017.  All of these mushrooms were growing from the same stump.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 16, 2017.  In the Red Car Property Neighborhood, Eucalyptus is most often their host plant.

Read more: MykoWeb
All our neighborhood fungus

Disclaimer: The Corralitas Red Car Property Blog prefers to quote reliable sources, such as CalFlora and California Poison Control on the issue of toxicity. MykoWeb is the resource everyone seems to refer to for mushrooms. The Los Angeles Mycological Society has a recommended reading list. 

If you are eating your way through the Red Car Property, we DO NOT recommend you eat any plant you find in the Red Car Property neighborhood without first doing your own research.

Red Car Property: Not A Park

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November15, 2017.  Sometimes, you just have to wonder how desperate we are for open space near our homes, that we're willing to put up with the construction fence that took more than half the width of the Red Car Property near Adelbert.  The fence went up over a year ago for a development on Riverside Drive that is not a part of the Red Car Property.

Red Car Property: Red Tailed Hawk Makes A Kill

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 17, 2017.  One of the big Red Tailed Hawks ate  breakfast atop one of its favorite telephone poles on the Red Car Property.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 17, 2017.  Moments earlier, a neighbor and I watched as the hawk launched itself with a couple of big flaps of its wings, from a tall tree on the Lake View side of the property, pulled its wings tight to its body and zoomed across the Red Car Property to a vacant lot on Corralitas Drive.  It was on the ground for a minute, before flying back with a bird in its talons, to a telephone pole on the Lake View side of the Red Car Property.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 17, 2017.  If you look closely, the hawk is on top of the telephone pole with a bunch of doves perched on the surrounding high voltage wires (uppermost set of wires) on the telephone pole.  

Worth noting: the native Black Walnuts in the foreground are recovering from last year's fire.

Red Car Property: Not A Park, It Just Looks Like One

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 17, 2017.  Red Car Property between Lake View Ave and Corralitas Drive includes the slopes up to the fences on either side of the canyon.  Many of the trees are recovering since they were toasted by the heat of the fire in 2016.

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.  

December 1, 2011, we had a major windstorm that knocked down trees, knocked out power and started a fire on Lake View Ave.  
 

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: Count The Rings

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, December 1, 2017.  It was a really big pine tree.

Lake View Ave: Dead Pine Tree Removed

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.  

Worth noting: the native Coast Live Oak and California Black Walnut Trees were recovering on the Red Car Property, downslope from the power lines.  In fact, many of the protected native trees were cut down by LAFD brush contractors and overcautious homeowners in the past year and a half.  However, even the the native trees cut all the way to a stump are, for the most part recovering.  Black Walnuts 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 Canyon: Shredding Trees, Spreading Dust, But What About Insects & Pathogens?

Red Car Canyon: hope you closed your windows before you went to work today- they're heading toward Riverside Pl now pic.twitter.com/B7Hq5mjsKZ

— Corralitas (@RedCarProperty) September 14, 2017

Video: Red Car Property Neighbor, September 14, 2017.  While it's technically OK per LAFD to spread the tree shred/mulch around to help retain moisture on the slopes, it's not exactly the best thing for air quality during the chipping or shredding.  There's also the question of spreading pathogens of the dead trees.

After consulting a neighbor who is a landscape designer, and reading up on some of the local insects and pathogens, I can wholeheartedly say, if you have a sick, dead or dying tree, consult a certified arborist.  This issue is way beyond my skill set to simplify beyond the following advice.  There are too many ways to infest/infect other trees depending on the insect and or pathogen, and you may be able to save your trees.  Your mature trees are an investment in not only your home's resale value, but also the future of our neighborhood and local air quality.

We've lost a lot of large trees in the neighborhood in the past few years.  Take care of your large and native trees.  Every tree counts.

Red Car Canyon: More Trees Coming Down

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.

Red Car Canyon: TIMBER!!!! Eucalyptus on Lake View side pic.twitter.com/YDVui3KOhO

— Corralitas (@RedCarProperty) September 14, 2017

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.  

Looks like our heat island is expanding.
 

Red Car Property: Brush Clearance Resumed Today

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor,  August 30, 2017.  Workers took a break from the insane heat and brush clearance on the slope below Lake View Ave, in the shade of a protected Native Black Walnut Tree.  It's hard to tell in this photo, but it looks like some more of the recovering Black Walnuts were chopped yet again.  

The Red Car Property line goes, roughly, along the power lines. 

Note: We're playing catch up for the month of August. This was post was actually published 8-31-17 and backdated to the date the photo was shot and originally published on Twitter.  It's our goal to catch up this weekend. 

2 Freeway: Sunday's Tree Work

Photo: Corralitas Neighbor, August 27, 2017.  The sound of chainsaws on the 2 Freeway at 6:30 AM, Sunday, awoke neighbors on Corralitas Drive.   One neighbor investigated.  CalTrans took down more than a dozen big trees in past month, claiming they were dead after last year's fire.  (We've not yet had a chance to put together a comparison post on what was removed a few weeks ago.  It is pending.)  We only have a handful of big trees left on the section of the 2 Freeway just south of the 5 Freeway. 

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.  It appears they cut down everything growing in the medians, including young trees making a comeback after last year's fire and a few rounds of CalTrans' tree removals.

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)
 

Corralitas Drive: "Since CalTrans [Expletive Deleted] Woke Me Up This Morning"

Photo: Corralitas Neighbor, August 27, 2017.  Sunday, a neighbor got a scenic sunrise shot because CalTrans started chainsawing on the 2 Freeway medians at 6:30 AM.

Photo: Corralitas Neighbor, August 27, 2017.  The neighbor could not see what CalTrans was doing to the freeway through the neighbor's trees. However the work appeared to take place in the two medians on the northbound side, south of Rosebud Ave.  The neighbor wondered if there were any trees left on the 2 for CalTrans to remove.

Note: We're playing catch up for the month of August. This was post was actually published 8-28-17 and backdated to the date the photo was shot and originally published on Twitter.