Embrace Occidental College

Eagle Rock is very proud to be home to the humble and increasingly well-known Occidental College, or Oxy as it is known among the college’s students and locals. The sign that welcomes people at our town’s eastern end, at the  intersection of Colorado Boulevard and Wiota Street, reads “Eagle Rock, Founded 1911. Home of Occidental College”. Every year when Occidental College starts the Fall semester a banner hangs at the intersection of Colorado Boulevard and Eagle Rock Boulevard that welcomes Oxy students back to Eagle Rock. These are literally signs of the affection and positive relationship fostered between the College and Eagle Rock.

There is no doubt that Occidental College has had a positive impact on our community, and that Eagle Rock has been good to Oxy. Though perhaps Eagle Rock can be more welcoming to Occidental College, particularly to its students, and equally benefit to the community at large through ways that embody the messages we put on our welcome sign and the banner that hangs over our town’s major intersection.

While Eagle Rock has always been home to a handful of Oxy students, about 60% of the school’s students are not from California, which demonstrates quite clearly many students are seeing Eagle Rock for the first time. Eagle Rock being the lovely and cool neighborhood that it is is definitely worth exploring, but is our community accessible and inviting to the many car-free college students who’ve never been here before? Our residential streets are typically relaxing and nice to walk along, but unfortunately the same cannot be said of our car-centric commercial corridors– which is a shame because that’s where our local businesses are! But things can change, for the better.

So what’s the current situation?

We can perhaps assume that most Oxy students are easily willing to walk to local destinations that are within a 10 minute’s reach. In actual distance this means students are likely able to stray about 0.5 miles from campus at a calm, relaxed walking pace. This also means that most of what is captured in this 0.5 mile radius from campus is our nice residential streets with a few businesses at the periphery of this comfortable walking distance zone along Eagle Rock Boulevard and York Boulevard. The below map shows a visualization of the 0.5 mile radius, a blue circle, around the Oxy campus with some local businesses indicated with red markers.

(Click on the map for a better view)

Almost everything within the blue zone is no more than a 10 minute walk from campus. Reaching any of the above destinations requires minimal walking on our car-centric commercial corridors and makes the local businesses indicated as likely candidates as destinations that Oxy students may visit. As one may notice, the map also includes several destinations just outside the comfortable walking zone along York Boulevard between Avenue 50 and Avenue 52. I included these businesses because that stretch of York Boulevard is enough of a hot spot, with enough commercial activity, that it is likely to warrant the little extra walking required to reach the area. York Boulevard is a relatively pedestrian friendly street that makes it attractive enough to walk to. This is especially true during Northeast LA’s monthly art walks, which liven up York Boulevard considerably.

What’s unfortunate about the comfortable 10 minute walk zone, is that it excludes many of Eagle Rock’s most popular businesses along Colorado Boulevard. This is understood clearly from a typical comment made by an Oxy freshman in a recent Eagle Rock Patch article–

I haven’t been able to venture out in Eagle Rock yet, but I’ve heard there are a lot great eating places. I heard there’s a real great Thai place and a Mexican place, although I’m not sure if they’re within walking distance of Occidental.

In reality businesses along Colorado Boulevard are not far from Oxy. The corner of Eagle Rock Boulevard and Colorado Boulevard is only a mile away from campus and businesses such as Organix are less than 2 miles away from campus. Given that it takes about 20 minutes for a typical young, healthy person to walk a mile, reaching businesses along Colorado can seem daunting, especially when one needs to walk on Eagle Rock and Colorado Boulevard– unfriendly, loud streets with zooming car traffic.

What Can Be Done?

So nothing can be done to physically move the Colorado Boulevard business corridor close to Oxy, however, as I suggested earlier, the businesses can be made more accessible. What does this mean? Well currently Eagle Rock Boulevard and Colorado Boulevard are car-centric; if you’re not in a car, you’re not prioritized. This is clear through the street design that gives the majority of space to motorists, encourages speeds in excess of 35mph, the obvious lack of crosswalks, and absence of bike infrastructure. All these conditions make our streets unaccommodating to Oxy students, 40% of which are car-free.

There are bike lanes on part of Eagle Rock Boulevard and York Boulevard, however the Eagle Rock Boulevard bike lane disappears at Westdale Avenue (just at the periphery of the comfortable walking distance zone) and the York Boulevard bike lane only makes the already pedestrian friendly portion of York more accessible, and does little to encourage students to travel north to Eagle Rock’s businesses corridor.

But there is a solution. In fact, there are many solutions but the simplest and most cost effective measure that can be implemented to make Colorado Boulevard businesses more accessible, and make our streets more welcoming is to extend the existing bike lanes on Eagle Rock Boulevard north all the way to Colorado Boulevard and to add bike lanes along Colorado itself. Comfortable bike lanes have a well-documented effect of encouraging cycling – particularly among younger people – and the bicycle allows one to cover a greater distance than walking with the same amount of time. One can easily cover a mile in 10 minutes on a bicycle, and if Eagle Rock’s main boulevards were kinder to all modes of travel there is little doubt that more Oxy students would cycle and patronize local businesses. The map below shows some local businesses that are within a comfortable bicycling distance from Oxy

(The outermost circle represents everything within a 1.5 mile radius from Oxy. The middle circle represents everything within a mile from the campus and the innermost circle is the comfortable 0.5 mile walking zone. Click the map for a larger image.) 

Will It Work?

While college students are typically thought of as being on tight budgets with little free time, this does not mean that college students do not spend money or have zero free time. It’s not unusual to see Oxy kids visiting the businesses that are within the 10 minute walking distance from campus. In fact, some Oxy students already like to eat out at businesses along Colorado Boulevard as well despite not being within the quick, and comfortable walk zone. A student from the same Eagle Rock Patch mentioned above commented the following about Eagle Rock:

I always eat at Classic Thai. The pad thai there is the best—and I can’t go to any other Thai restaurant. I also love the Eagle Rock Music Festival. People are friendly and the nightlife is very calm and chill.

Classic Thai is about 1.5 miles from the Oxy campus and could be same “great Thai place” the other student was quoted as saying it was not within walking distance. Perhaps this particular student reached Classic Thai by some other means but combining the comments made by the Oxy students does suggest that if businesses are easy to reach, the students are just as likely to enjoy local eateries, cafes and shops as much as the rest of the community. As already mentioned, Oxy students are known to visit many of the businesses that are easy to reach, within a comfortable walking distance. It seems plausible that if we extend the distance that students are comfortable traveling independently, and truly make Eagle Rock a welcoming home to Occidental College, that businesses as well as students will can benefit.

Current Eagle Rock Neighborhoood Council President, Michael Larsen, seems to have confidence in such a vision– of streets that are friendly and inviting to college students. In an Eagle Rock Patch article titled “The Future of Eagle Rock” Larsen had this to say–

“I’d love to see more places where the Oxy kids could hang out. We have an amazing, world-renowned college here and Eagle Rock should really have more of the traditional positive features of a college town… I’d like to lure them [students] back by making walking and bike riding more pleasurable and safe. I’m encouraged by Take Back The Boulevard campaign that just started, which will re-envision Colorado Boulevard to make it pedestrian and bike-friendly. Slow it down, plant more trees, give space to bikes, create safe crosswalks.”

There are plenty of bike racks along Colorado Boulevard and Eagle Rock Boulevard. Occidental College is than a mile away from 2 bike shops and the campus even has a bikeshare system, which allows students to borrow bicycles for daily use. Most Eagle Rock businesses are less than 2 miles away from campus. It seems the only thing that’s preventing more Oxy students from taking to two wheels is safe provisions for bicycling.  Existing signs are encouraging, we see on York Boulevard that bike and pedestrian friendly measures have increased the number of people walking and cycling along that street. Can Eagle Rock step up and make an environment that is welcoming to Oxy students? As Occidental College’s own website says of Eagle Rock–

“Oxy isn’t just located here; it’s a vital part of the community.” 

Let’s make our streets reflect our written commitment– let’s welcome students and have Eagle Rock feel like home.

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Restoring Angled Parking on Eagle Rock Boulevard

I’m not typically a proponent for adding parking capacity in Eagle Rock however I have recently thought of a situation which could please those who seek more car parking and those looking for a more pleasant pedestrian environment in downtown Eagle Rock– restoring diagonal parking on the block of Eagle Rock Boulevard between Merton Avenue and Colorado Boulevard.

Historic picture of Eagle Rock Boulevard between Colorado Boulevard and Merton Avenue with diagonal parking (and pedestrian oriented street lighting). Image credit: Eagle Rock by Eric Warren

Below’s an overhead view of the same block of Eagle Rock Boulevard today, with largely the same historic buildings seen in the first picture.

This is where Eagle Rock Boulevard is at its widest. Just a few blocks before the street is only 2 lanes with curbside parking and a center turning lane– here the block has 2 left turning lanes, one through lane, and one wide right turning lane and curbside parking.

That’s an awful lot of space dedicated to having cars zoom through the community and miss all the local businesses on the block inhabiting beautiful historic buildings. Additionally, the sidewalk experience is rather unpleasant for a pedestrian. Trying to cross the wide street with fast moving cars or enjoy outdoor seating at Swork – the cafe that anchors the corner of this block where it intersects with Colorado Boulevard – the experience just isn’t all that nice.

It seems that this portion of Eagle Rock Boulevard, in it’s current configuration, is more conducive for funneling cars than attracting potential customers and encouraging people to pop into the local businesses. Given how excessively wide this portion of Eagle Rock Boulevard is (approximately 50 feet northbound with the 2 left turning lanes, and 40 feet along the brief portion when it is three lanes and curbside parking) there’s a lot of room for creative solutions to  generating foot traffic, slowing down the street, and attracting potential customers. As suggested at the beginning of this post, one solution could be to restore diagonal parking that once existing along this block but also utilize the ends of the blocks, where parking is currently not allowed, to create sidewalk extensions. This would presumably only require the removal of one northbound lane, leaving 3 lanes in addition to the parking.

Below is a rough interpretation of the idea.

The green shapes at the ends of the block represent sidewalk extensions. Not only would these sidewalk extensions shorten crossing distance for pedestrians, it would make outdoor seating at Swork more pleasant by buffering the outdoor seating from the motor vehicles and allowing for calmer, quieter experience. The blue lines represent delineated diagonal parking spaces, which would increase the number of parking spaces along the block.

It’s uncertain how feasible this solution is from an engineering standpoint though one would assume that with enough funding coupled with political and community will, it could happen. And who knows, maybe it would make the block safer, more vibrant, and enjoyable than it is today while benefitting the adjacent businesses.

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A Look at Eagle Rock’s Relationship with Parking

A recurring complaint about Colorado Boulevard is that the street does not provide enough parking. This may be a valid concern, but when we gain parking we usually have to lose something in exchange. Walkability, attractive store fronts, lively sidewalks…

Perhaps the three most known examples of where parking has been gained in Eagle Rock, the story has not been pretty.

First lets recall the event considered to have sparked the formation of The Eagle Rock Association, April 1st 1986:

“In response to the threatened destruction of the historic business buildings at the corner of Townsend and Colorado. Kathleen Aberman stands on the building’s roof in an attempt to ward off the surprise demolition by the owner.” – Eagle Rock Historic Society

In the middle right is the building Aberman tried to rescue. Photo credit: Metro Library and Archive

Another two views of the building

The building in the center of the picture is the one that was destroyed. Image credit: Eagle Rock by Eric Warren

A close up of the building. Image credit: Eagle Rock by Eric Warren

Aberman was unsuccessful in protecting the historic building at the intersection of Townsend Avenue and Colorado Boulevard. The building was demolished and replaced by a strip mall, which has close to 30 parking spaces.

Today the location looks like this

Photo credit: Google Maps

Was it worth it? Sure there’s enough parking now, but we lost a beautiful structure. On any given day the parking lot sits half empty and has made the corner rather unambitious and undesirable. When visitors rave about destinations in our neighborhood, never have I heard anyone cite this structure as particularly attractive or wonderful. Locals never brag about the aesthetics or social value of this structure.

More often, visitors and locals alike appreciate and enjoy locations with historic buildings that predate parking demand. Like the building now famous for housing Swork

Photo credit: UrbanPhotoAdventures

or the charming building that prominently features The Coffee Table

Another bitter, well-known tale in which the community gained parking takes place at the intersection of Eagle Rock Boulevard and Colorado Boulevard. The story is perhaps best described by Eagle Rock resident Rebecca Niederlander:

“More than 20,000 signatures were collected to help the city understand the value Eagle Rock places on its history and culture. Many people went to city hall meetings and spoke to the possibilities of compromises that could be worked to meet everyone’s goals. That streamline moderne building, was the flagship store for the Shopping Bag Grocery chain. And had a place in La’s history. But the LA Conservancy will tell you now, as they told us back when they offered, pro bono, all the help they could to try to get the building saved, that Los Angeles governmental agencies do not often work for the citizens and smaller communities of our city.

And so we as a community lost the possibility of having the Walgreens rehab and beautify our history, and the 14,000 sq. ft. building (pretty much the exact size of the one they built) was destroyed.” – Rebecca Niederlander

Niederlander describes the loss of a building located in the commercial center of Eagle Rock. We lost this

The Shopping Bag Building. Image Credit: Eagle Rock by Eric Warren

And Eagle Rock gained this

Photo credit: Google Maps

Over 50 parking spaces and structures that have little aesthetic value, originality and historic merit– soulless faux mission inspired architecture.

Lastly, one of the most iconic buildings of Eagle Rock’s past was again lost in the name of parking in the heart of Eagle Rock.

Security Bank Building. Image credit: Eagle Rock by Eric Warren

More pictures of the beautiful building

Picture credit: Metro Library and Archive

Picture credit: Metro Library and Archive

The building has since been replaced with this

Same corner that once featured the Security Bank Building. Picture credit: Google Maps

The corner has since been slightly cleaned up, now housing a Chase Bank, but the building is nowhere near as beautiful or socially valuable to the community. The lot has over 20 parking spaces.

At what point will Eagle Rock have enough parking? How many more historic buildings need to be destroyed before those that demand more parking are appeased?

Proponents for parking argue that it will benefit the local businesses from the added parking. This may be partially true but when I think of successful Eagle Rock businesses, there seems to be little correlation with amount of parking. Consider businesses like Casa Bianca, The Coffee Table, Brownstone Pizzeria– why are they successful? None of them provide any special parking lots for their customers, simply relying on curbside parking. Businesses like Oinkster provide many parking spaces (the property has about 20 parking spaces) though I don’t think parking has been the sole or primary reason for its success. One would think that if parking were a marker of success, the pitiful strip mall at Townsend Avenue and Colorado Boulevard would be Eagle Rock’s most prized possession– but it isn’t.

In a community like Eagle Rock, which is very walkable, and proud, with locally supported businesses it seems that a businesses’ success is measured by how valuable it is to the community, not by how many parking spaces it provides. If something is desirable, people will flock to it by any means necessary.

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The Struggles and Potential of Eagle Rock Boulevard

In my last post I explored some traffic information about Colorado Boulevard. The results were surprising, showing that Colorado Boulevard on average carried no more than 35,000 average daily trips (the street is designed to carry between 30,000 and 50,000 average daily trips). Unfortunately Colorado also proved to be a rather dangerous street, but when the street resembles a freeway in width and speed in a popular downtown, the many crashes that have occurred along the Boulevard may not come as complete shocks.

In this post I thought I’d look at Eagle Rock Boulevard – our other major boulevard – as it runs through Eagle Rock, and Glassell Park.

First I compiled counts of intersections that have been monitored more than once. The counts are all available from LADOT though I have turned the numbers into easy-to-read charts that show the observed volumes recorded between 2001 and 2009 for the various intersections. Eagle Rock Boulevard is a major class II highway like Colorado Boulevard, designed to carry between 30,000 and 50,000 average daily trips as shown on the map below from the LA General Plan Transportation Element.

(From LA General Plan Transportation Element Highway Map)

Description of street designations and their capacity (from LA General Plan Transportation Element)

All the observed intersections show that Eagle Rock Boulevard can barely carry the minimum 30,000 ‘average daily trips’ it is built for, this is particularly true for the street south of Verdugo Road. Sometimes segments of Eagle Rock Boulevard struggle to reach 20,000 ADT or ‘average daily trips’. The image left shows a description of how a Major Highway Class II should be designed.

Because Eagle Rock Boulevard fluctuates in the number of lanes it has, in showing the observed traffic counts I divided the street into 4 ‘segments’. As map shared earlier above indicates, Eagle Rock Boulevard is considered a Major Highway Class II the entire length south of Colorado Boulevard despite the changes in widths and number of lanes. I am sharing the counts in sequential order as the intersections appear if one were to travel South on Eagle Rock Boulevard.

Red= 2 lanes in each direction, no bike lanes. Green= 3 lanes southbound, 2 lanes northbound, bike lanes on both sides. Purple= 3 lanes in each direction, bike lanes. Blue=2 lanes each direction, bike lanes.

The traffic volumes have  many jumps and great declines but the picture across all traffic counts is rather clear. Rarely does Eagle Rock Boulevard reach its designed minimum, sometimes struggling to reach half of that when observing intersections in the Glassell Park portion of the street. The street is designed to certain widths and to provide certain number of lanes but if not enough cars are using it, the space simply is wasted as unused asphalt.

Do the low traffic counts result in a successful street? Unfortunately no. While cars may be provided with ample space, pedestrians and cyclists are left with close to nothing. Sidewalks exist though South of Verdugo Road they become very narrow and sometimes unnavigable as the occasional tree or telephone pole block the entire sidewalk. As one goes south of Eagle Rock Boulevard the bike lanes become narrower and narrower until they verge on bothersome and dangerous. Eagle Rock Boulevard is also a popular transit corridor, serviced by the Metro 84 line taking students to school and bringing people downtown. However, many of the bus stops lack bus schedules, benches, or shelters, again this is increasingly true and apparent as one goes south on Eagle Rock Boulevard. As a general observation, the street provides fewer accommodations in the Glassell Park portion of the street. This is rather unfortunate as this is where one sees the most walking, cycling, and bus use on a consistent basis.

And while cars may benefit from not encountering traffic jams, the street is not much better for motorists from a safety perspective. As with Colorado Boulevard I tried finding crash or safety statistics for Eagle Rock Boulevard. Perhaps as a relief, there was less information on Eagle Rock Boulevard. What I did find comes from LAPD Operations Central Bureau.

Top 5 Traffic Collision Intersections of past 6 months as of January 2011:

Los Feliz Blvd/Riverside Drive, Figueroa St/Avenue 26, Alvarado St/Reservoir St, Eagle Rock Blvd/Verdugo Rd, and Figueroa St/La Loma Rd

Top 5  Traffic Collision Streets of past 2 years as of January 2011:

Figueroa St, Los Feliz Blvd, Fletcher Drive, Eagle Rock Blvd, and Riverside Dr.

"# of T/C" means "number of Traffic Collisions"

Like Colorado Boulevard, Eagle Rock Boulevard is very dangerous and there is a lot of space on the street that could go towards improving conditions for all modes of travel.

While Colorado Boulevard receives a lot of attention from the community as a street that needs improvements it could be argued that Eagle Rock Boulevard is in much more dire need of help. There is no reason that cars should be given superfluous space at the expense of other modes of travel. When something so essential as decent sidewalks are lacking and the street itself is documented for its danger it seems fairly straightforward that changes need to be made– as the traffic counts show, there’s already plenty of space that could be used to create a more  safe, complete street– it just isn’t being utilized.

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A View of Eagle Rock: March 18 2011

I took this picture on March 18th as the title says and I personally rather like it. I take many snapshots when around Eagle Rock and I end up deleting many of them though there’s something about this photo that has me compelled enough to make a post just showcasing it.

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What a Welcome!

Back in Eagle Rock for a brief visit and Friday, my first day back, I was greeted with many positive sights, making me optimistic for a safer, livelier, more active, and more pleasant neighborhood environment. Here’s what I saw:

Just five minutes into my walk and I saw some kids with active transportation: skateboard and bicycle

Some activity, and a bicycle on the corner of La Roda Avenue and Yosemite Drive

New bike lane on Fair Park Ave in front of Eagle Rock Elementary!

Active Farmer's Market

Ped Power!

My walk through Eagle Rock ended on the corner of Eagle Rock Boulevard and Colorado Boulevard. I waited for a friend  before we proceeded to take the 84 bus to catch up with an other friend. In about 15 minutes of waiting I saw plenty of people on bicycles.

Eagle Rock Cycle Chic?

And some students happily walking

It was a good day for walking and biking in Eagle Rock. After I got on the 84 I saw about nine more cyclists and many more people on foot. And why not? It was a beautiful day and surely people would enjoy the day properly, walking and cycling to get places, if they didn’t feel forced into their cars.

Today was an especially inspiring day and I was reminded of a component of this blog which hasn’t been active lately, my ‘reasons to walk Eagle Rock’. Looking through my old posts I noticed I left off on #7. To see my other reasons to walk Eagle Rock, check the tag “Reason to walk Eagle Rock”.

Reason #8 to walk Eagle Rock: Appreciate the neighborhood by going for a walk, it is a great way to connect to the community, especially if you haven’t been around the block lately. Discover a bike lane, enjoy the farmer’s market on an especially fantastic day and go places with a friend, or two!

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Status of ‘Walk Eagle Rock’ for Next Few Months

Dear readers,

I have really enjoyed blogging about Eagle Rock this summer though unfortunately I will not be able to continue my regular stream of posting for a few reasons. Most namely, I will not be in Eagle Rock because I attend school in the Bay Area. As a result, I have little ‘ER related’ content to work with this Fall semester. Yes, I do have a bit of stuff saved on my computer so I might be able to put together a handful of more regular posts before the well goes empty. I also do not know how frequently I will be posting as I try to keep up with school work, however I will continue updating you all when I do post. That said, I would appreciate suggestions with what to do with this blog for the Fall.

Don’t consider the blog temporarily dead because I will continue posting. Also, for smaller pieces of information regarding ER, I have a twitter account twitter.com/walkeaglerock which I will try to keep updated, it’s not that I forget to check it but I lack a smartphone so I can only use it from my computer.

Thanks for reading and for further conversation, information, suggestions or anything,  drop a comment.

View of Eagle Rock Boulevard from Scholl Canyon hills

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Part Two: Metered Parking vs Free Parking

Since writing ‘part one’ I have realized that there is only so much that can be said of the metered parking vs free parking without sounding terribly redundant or requiring a good bit of time to set aside to study certain curbsides or parking lots. Nevertheless here is my ‘part two’.
On today’s adventure I tried getting the numbers of all the parking meters that are not functioning. A meter is determined broken if the screen is completely blank, flashes ‘FAIL’, or says ‘dEAd’ (about five meters in Eagle Rock have this on the screen). I may have missed some meters, in fact I am almost certain I did though I scanned Colorado from Ellenwood to Eagle Vista (it was unnecessary to go that far though I didn’t want to miss a single meter). I went down Eagle Rock Boulevard from Blockbuster to Fair Park Ave, with the few pockets adjacent to ER Blvd. Here are the meters I noted as not functioning:

9  14  47  50  55  56  58  60  62A  65  67  68  69  72  80  85  86  93  98A  103  105  108  110  123  124  125  127  129  130  131  133 134  135  139  140  142  143  146  150  152 155  156  157  159  160  162

To have the meters fixed, call 1-877-215-3958. You will be forwarded to a live person, when they go on the line say you want to report over 30 broken meters in Eagle Rock or any of the ones I have listed. Before hanging up be sure to get the person’s name for reference in case we have to call again in a couple of weeks.

I forget how to engage in these kind of phone conversations so I probably didn’t play my call all that well. I did not get the woman’s name and she stopped me after I named about 15 meters and said she would put in a request for the area. She asked where I was parked and I told her I wasn’t parked anywhere but was simply reporting broken meters. She sounded a bit exasperated throughout the conversation, but I assume she just isn’t used to getting calls for broken meters since everyone enjoys the socially implied free parking a broken meter provides.

Sure free parking is great but we need to realize it comes at a high cost and that frankly cars should pay for parking because of the sheer amount of space they take up. Here’s the now famous poster illustrating the problem of car dominated cities and why we can’t sustain more cars on the road each year.

Credit: Press Office City of Munster, Germany

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