"Great Streets": Reseda Boulevard

This month the mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, announced his intention through executive directive to remake specific corridors into "Great Streets". What this entail would be a collaboration among city departments and non-government parties to improve pedestrian, transit and cycling amenities in the designated areas. Some pilot projects elsewhere in Los Angeles provide a look at what direction this areas will take.

One such pilot is the Sunset Triangle "dot plaza" in Silver Lake where a section of a turn way was closed to cars, the ground painted, and shaded tables and bike racks placed.

One of the first 6 street corridors chosen was Reseda Boulevard near the campus of California State University-Northridge (CSUN). Most of the boulevard has seen the completion of bike lanes painted along its length. In addition, a community plan for the Northridge area has seen the area being very slowly remade along new urbanist guidelines. I took a walk along the corridor to see what is already stirring and what potentials are easily identified.

To begin with, this photograph I snapped on a separate hike shows the setting of the west San Fernando Valley. Mostly flat, the area was primarily developed in the 1950s and 1960s though has been reinterpreted informally since the 1980s.

 

Much of the boulevard south of Roscoe is lined with apartments and an ad hoc jumble of commercial structures including a focal point for Los Angeles' Vietnamese, Persian, and Central American communities. The area selected to be in the Great Streets project is further north adjacent to the university campus.

This stretch has an older commercial stretch with the current structures dating from the 1950s (while a sign points to the establishment of the area several decades before that)

Notable new developments include the opening of one of L.A.'s 99 best restaurants (according to LA Weekly), the very authentic Thai restaurant Lum Ka Naad.

This business has made improvements to the façade of the structure as well as landscaping and public seating. It has also raised awareness of this area, bringing in people from far and wide. In addition, two multi-story apartment buildings (one with ground floor retail space) have either opened or are under construction directly on the boulevard amid businesses.

Much development activity can be observed, mostly relating to the community plan, while it remains to be seen what elements the Great Streets designation will yield.

 Twin aging 1970s office buildings have been vacated and are in the midst of being torn down..

 ... to be replaced by brand new structure(s) housing a Starbucks, Farmers Boys, and Urbane Café, all to feature updated designs in line with the agreed upon plan elements.

As the projects evolve (including Great Streets) this post will be updated.