Comments on: Can We Learn From New York?

By: waltarrrrr

waltarrrrr — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:34:31 +0000

I like Bert’s proposal. I’d also add that the city remove all these god-awful face slicers.

There has been some talk in recent years about converting Hollywood Boulevard at Highland Avenue into a car-free zone. Seems practical; with special events and filming, the street is typically closed once a week anyway.

I really like the idea of making Broadway a pedestrian zone.

It was originally built for high-volume foot traffic. As far as vehicle traffic; even though it once was the terminus of a major highway (Route 66), being surrounded by broader one-way streets, it’s not much of a through street, and the bus lines already detour around it. Besides, the subway is just a block away on Hill Street.

The city could reclaim their classic Los Angeles Railway Trolley (Yellow Car) and Pacific Electric (Red Cars) from San Francisco’s Market Street MUNI line, and run them down car-free Broadway to 1st Street, through Little Tokyo / Little Seoul, to the soon-to-be opened Gold Line Station on Alemeda.

This could make a nice tourist link between South Park/LA Live area and the north-side of Downtown (Grand Avenue, Little Tokyo, Chinatown, and LA’s 1st pedestrian street: Olvera.) After all, as author and tour guide, Charles Phoenix has shown us, Disneyland is just a kitschy rip-off of the real Downtown Los Angeles anyway.

Thanks Jason Burns for getting me all excited about this. Now lets build it!

By: Can We Learn From New York? » SocialNetworksGuru.TV

Can We Learn From New York? » SocialNetworksGuru.TV — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:50:04 +0000

[...] Here is the original: Can We Learn From New York? [...]

By: Bert Green

Bert Green — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 01:35:55 +0000

1) Make all push button crosswalks illegal. Add a pedestrian light cycle to every traffic light.
2) Add traffic lights at all marked crosswalks.
3) Outlaw right turn on red in Hollywood, Koreatown and Downtown.
4) Reduce speed limits to 25 mph city wide, and add many more speed bumps.
5) Build more rail, and expand the Rapid system.
6) Dedicated bus lanes on most streets wider than 2 lanes in any direction.

I am sure I could come up with more, but this would be a good start.

By: bromike666

bromike666 — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:22:12 +0000

I worked on the corner of Broadway and 42nd for 8 years and I can’t wrap my brain around the idea of Broadway being a pedestrian only street. I bet it’s pretty awesome, I kinda wish I still worked there so I could try it out.

By: victorialane

victorialane — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:46:43 +0000

I fall into the same category as Frazgo. What he said.

By: nathan

nathan — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:33:20 +0000

We already have with the Santa Monica Promenade, no? They are taking cues from us.

By: bromike666

bromike666 — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:25:42 +0000

I’d make everything west of Vermont into a giant dog run.

By: frazgo

frazgo — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:11:04 +0000

Thanks for the clarification, but I don’t see the need to rip out and reinvent, rather I’d like preservation and creating new uses for the many old buildings we have. Keeping our history intact is much more important than some fake times square or other sanitized new development.

Add some parks. Reuse what we have to keep our character intact. Guess that makes me a quasi-preservationist.

By: jeshii

jeshii — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:04:17 +0000

lol, Trader Joe’s customers would walk, especially if it got us entered into the raffle!

By: Jason Burns

Jason Burns — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:35:50 +0000

To clarify…

This isn’t about making L.A. like New York. This is about giving one corner of the city an extreme makeover in whichever way you see fit.