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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New and Improved Spitz!

I often mention how much I enjoy Spitz, if not on this blog, on twitter,  or in person. An excellent restaurant and considered ‘healthy fast food‘. I absolutely love ‘not unhappy hour’, the veg sandwich, and the streetcart fries. I also declared Spitz as the restaurant with the best outdoor seating in Eagle Rock. When I visited Eagle Rock last week Spitz renewed and secured their title as I discovered that they made their exterior more pleasant. Here are some pictures

Greater physical and visual separation from parked cars for a nicer dining experience

Small touch yet still appreciated

Festive lighting for evening crowd

Spitz, you have outdone yourself, bravo!

However…

…I still think Spitz should address their issue of zero bike parking though. Small as this space is, while I observed the new aesthetic additions, I thought surely bicycles  be accommodated. While the curbside delivery is supposed to help ‘curb’ competition for car parking, it doesn’t allow customers to fully experience the lovely changes. Adding bicycle parking could convert car trips to bike trips, reducing the competition for the few car parking spaces Spitz does have and still let customers enjoy their food at Spitz as soon as it is ready in the beautiful patio seatin! While I was taking pictures of the new additions, I also photographed places for potential bike parking.

Small, but a safe location that could easily fit one or two bikes.

In addition I contemplated this area too

Perhaps if the seating were reconfigured another one or two bikes could be safely parked in this corner while avoiding conflict with the neighboring table.

As I sat outside, I was disappointed that Sizzler has bike parking yet Spitz doesn’t

I spy the closest bike parking... in front of a restaurant that has the letters S, I and Z in its name. Nope, not Spitz.

But let’s not end on a down note. I didn’t even arrive by bike at this most recent visit to Spitz, but I frequently do and think they should invest in bike parking…. especially as the recent LA Bike Plan draft aims to install bicycle infrastructure on Colorado, Eagle Rock Boulevard, York, Figueroa, Hill Drive, Townsend, Yosemite Drive… all of Eagle Rock’s major streets!

Here is some more of what I enjoyed at Spitz, aside from just sitting in their oasis like patio area.

You can never, ever, go wrong with ordering Streetcart Fries!

Or the gelato. (Please ignore my finger pointing to the texture)

All in all, Spitz remains my favorite eatery in town, I just wish they would consider that their customers, which there are plenty of, could benefit from safe and attractive bike parking. Installing safe, convenient, and attractive bike parking could perhaps even attract more customers and new customers to arrive by bicycle. Sounds like a win-win to me! And I am optimistic, as usual. On facebook, whoever runs the Spitz page said that they will ‘look into’ bike parking. Let’s see if Spitz surprises us with bike parking in the near future!

Reason #7 to walk Eagle Rock: Don’t worry about parking issues at Spitz and enjoy the patio area, free of thinking about cars for once.

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Fun Sighting: Eagle Rock in ‘The Office’

I have enjoyed relaxing for most of this Saturday, taking things real slow as opposed to the school week where I only have seconds to spare. So how do I spend downtime? Walking to the market to pick up some fruits and veggies, catching up on blogs I read, writing emails, and of course watch a little bit of ‘The Office’ for a few laughs. Why do I mention this? Well, as I was watching the episode ‘Sabre’ from season six I noticed something as characters Jim and Pam were at a daycare center, hoping to secure a spot for their soon to come baby. The location looked a little familiar…

The address atop is 2030...

At 2030 Colorado Boulevard we have…

Peekaboo Playland!

An other clue was here

So the building they are in has a brick exterior, okay Peekaboo has a brick exterior, check. The building across the street. Hmm… let’s see what the building across the street from Peekaboo looks like

Well, I was convinced, checked online and IMDB confirmed it– Filming Locations: Peekaboo Playland – 2030 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, California, USA

So I am a bit late on posting this, it is hardly considered news, I just thought I’d share this. There was a big buzz when the show ‘Glee’ filmed at the Eagle Rock Plaza but perhaps the ‘Glee’ crowd is more talkative than ‘The Office’ fans. Did anyone catch this when watching this episode?

Reason #6 to walk Eagle Rock: Skip driving around town and instead become so familiar with the community, walking at a peaceful pace so you are able to spot some of ER’s cameos on television shows and say “Hey, I know that place, that’s right around the corner from here!”

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Walk and Bike: 8-12-10

I enjoyed a good bit of walking and biking today though unfortunately did not have a camera on hand for the first half of my outings.
Today I walked from Oak Grove area to Delevan Drive area to meet the-soon-to-be-blogging-about-vegetarian-eating-and-fit-living hippierunner. About two miles. We then walked to the excellent restaurant Spitz via Yosemite Way/College View/Colorado for lunch with an old friend. The place was full of life as we arrived with the rest of the lunch crowd. The three of us enjoyed outdoor seating which still surprises me , due to the seven car traveling lanes adjacent. Actually, Spitz has THE BEST outdoor seating of any restaurant along Colorado Boulevard and let me explain why:  

• The outdoor seating is not on the sidewalk like it is at Taco Spot or The Coffee Table. It is on the property space like outdoor seating at The Oinkster.
• There is greenery providing separation from foot traffic but more importantly from the blight of a strip mall, and cars whizzing by. The flowers are much nicer to look at and smell than the exhaust coming from the cars on the street.
• Birds jump and chirp around by the planted  greenery. Today I saw a humming bird flying around this area as I ate my lunch- you just don’t get that anywhere else.
• There are no ashtrays so smoking is discouraged. Unfortunately, The Oinkster is more tolerant and accommodating to smokers.
• At night, the outdoor tables are candle lit. I did not know this until I went by recently when the sun was down.
• Plenty of shade is provided by the table umbrellas for the hot LA weather.
• This might be seen as a given, but the food is brought to you.
• Ambient music plays sometimes. I generally enjoy the selection of classic  rock and contemporary music. However, when music doesn’t suit your needs, you are able to ignore it as is consistently played at a volume which isn’t overpowering your ability to hold a conversation and hear yourself.

Spitz knows they are doing a lot of things right, and I am glad they’re in our town. Now I can officially grant them the title of having the best outdoor seating on Colorado Boulevard in Eagle Rock in all of Eagle Rock! Now the only thing that would make Spitz better is some bike parking in the patio area.  

The food was excellent, the company was excellent, and the atmosphere was, as you’d expect, excellent. All this might explain why hippierunner, and myself stayed there for about three hours with our friend.  

When it was time to part we all walked to Colorado Boulevard/Eagle Rock Boulevard. Our friend went on ER BLVD as hippierunner and I continued on Colorado until we reached Townsend Avenue, at this point I took Townsend to Oak Grove to get my camera and my bike. I apologize for not having it on me earlier in today’s adventure, I could have had some great pictures!  

As you may or may not know, the Eagle Rock/Highland Park DASH route is experiencing a shortening as part of citywide transit budget cuts. No longer will the Eagle Rock portion run on the eastside of town, this includes: Colorado boulevard east of Townsend Avenue, Yosemite Drive, and the bit along North Figueroa.  

A few days ago LADOT was out, re-routing, making the trip shorter. The new route cuts the eastside and instead runs along Townsend before turning left, westbound on Colorado. Here are pictures of the new stops  

Townsend/Oak Grove

Stop on Townsend/Yosemite still there, though it is on Townsend instead of Yosemite

Only the Metro 181 bus will stop here now

Townsend/Grandola

 The new route will no doubt impact many ERHS students once the fall session starts up again. From a personal standpoint,  the new route actually works favorably for me so let’s hope while the change will disservice many, that it can bring a new crowd some good. Unfortunately while we see a re-routing, Highland Park sees simply a cut by San Pascual area.  

After I went along the Townsend route, I joined hippierunner and an other friend at Pete’s for some chit-chat. I didn’t stay terribly long as I was antsy to take more pictures and explore. The first find, which taunted me from the window at Pete’s was this:  

ipod earphones

And a close up

I didn’t get to try the earphones out, so it’s unknown whether or not they work and I’m not sure if I would feel all that comfortable putting these in my ears. If I needed earphones, and if they worked, I would probably take them. You might say ‘they were tossed, they probably don’t work’. To that, I say: the other day I found an alarm clock by Delevan Drive in the middle of the street. I put a couple AAA batteries in and now I have a new alarm clock! Just goes to show, you never know why you find something on the streets and you can never assume whether or not your found item still functions.  

Since it had been a while since I had been on a bike ride for pure fun, I decided to just bike around. First I went up and down Colorado, then I moved to Chickasaw Avenue. I spotted some old classmates here, they were heading to Yosemite Park for some tennis though broke my heart going there by car. I continued my leisure bike ride along what I have determined is my favorite ‘short walk/bike ride’ in town. From Chickasaw I went South onto Argus Drive then wiggled along the short stretches of street around there, like this:  

View Larger Map

  

I can’t fully explain why I am so fond of this little area but I’ll try: The area is very peaceful, a quiet place but not nearly as eerie or isolated as walking along parks of Hill Drive can be at times. There’s little car traffic around here. The walk may not capture a complete image of Eagle Rock but I feel it encapsulates much of the warm atmosphere, tranquility and timelessness that can be found here. My feelings of this area may change over time, but in the six or seven years I have lived here this Argus walk has remained dear to me, always making me glad to live in our community and always making me feel happy and at peace. Here are just a few pictures from the brief ride: 

 

A speed limit I can stand behind. Why aren't all residential streets 15mph?

 

 

 

Surely longtime residents have seen this badboy before

When finished my Argus area meditation, I spotted my former classmates parking by the park and suggested they skip the car next time. From there I biked up and down Yosemite in similar fashion to how I had done on Colorado earlier. I tried the filming feature on the camera to get park of my ride recorded but I accidentally deleted the video so my directing debut will have to wait. 

I then biked over to hippierunner and our friend on their walk from Pete’s to the Delevan area. Shortly afterwards I biked home to Oak Grove and was satisfied with all the biking I got to enjoy. 

Reason #5 to walk Eagle Rock: Truly appreciate outdoor seating at Spitz while catching up with an old friend. Discover a change in bus route, and ipod earphones. Realize how lucky you are to live in Eagle Rock. Say ’hi’ to some old classmates,  and advocate they do the above mentioned or find their own reasons to walk Eagle Rock.

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Alleys Rock! Blast From the Past 80′s Style

There’s a bit of an 80′s invasion in today’s installment of ‘Alleys Rock!’ but perhaps I have already said too much, too early, let’s zoom out…

View of the alley from Glacier Drive. The left corner is where a more popular alley is.

Today’s alley is nestled between Glacier Drive, Oak Grove Drive, and Ruth Avenue. It’s one of the shorter alleys, only spanning about 145 feet. Obscuring it, and likely making it more neglected than most alleys is not only the short length, but also its location: adjacent to a ‘Not a Through Street’ (better known as NATS!) part of Ruth Avenue and a curved section of Glacier Drive, and parallel to Yosemite Drive. This alley is even eclipsed by a neighboring alley which is far more visible!

During my cross country days at Eagle Rock High School, I became aware of this alley when some of our long training runs would pass the area. I also noticed the alley when my friends and I turned practice into leisure walks, giving my eyes time to process the whole area with more detail. Outside of cross country and track practice there was no reason for me to notice this alley.  I only recently found the joys found in walking around our town, discovering and appreciating little details along the way.

I don’t know why I have such low expectations, but I didn’t think there would be anything interesting about this alley– I was wrong.

The first obvious observation of this alley is that there is a fair bit of vines growing, especially along the South side, but random vines are not exactly an unusual sight in Eagle Rock. On the North side, however, there’s a specific type of vine which we are less accustomed to seeing around The Rock– grape vines!

The grape vines taking over the metal barrier. Visible on the left is the former red of the barrier and an "AVES" tagging.

I saw a bunch of grapes hanging, wondered how long they had been growing there. For the sake of exploration and my readers’ interest, I tried one. Thankfully, but perhaps with little surprise, the grape was fine. It didn’t taste different from any other white grape I have had but I decided not to try anymore.

Low hanging fruit

The grapes are growing on a metal barrier which appears to be protecting the home below from any reckless driver who may accidental go head-on towards the house rather than any of the two neighboring alleys. The barrier was at some point painted red but now exists in white with a tag from The Avenues.

After eating the grape I walked along and discovered there is actually a garage here too.

The garage does not appear to be used frequently and is in poor condition, with another Avenues tag.

Beside the garage, underneath all the vines, I spotted arroyo stone wall. This discovery called to mind a thought I get frequently when exploring alleys: How did this alley come to be? Was this alley ever popular? Has the appearance changed much? And for this alley in particular, what did it look like before the vines took over?

After seeing all that is in my regular line of vision, I looked down at the ground. Some alleys are nothing but dangerous cracks though this one remains in good condition. Along the North side of the alley, I see some scribbles in the cement. Taking a closer look, it becomes clear that someone took the opportunity to become part of urban streetscape history. Somebody wrote a year in the cement. Perhaps this was done when the concrete block wall was put up to protect the privacy of the adjacent homes. Then I noticed there are actually quite a few signatures and years in the cement, all from the 80′s!

"1982"

"III 5-82"

"4-15-83 TONY JR"

 

"LUPI Y TONY 6-8-83"

"3-15-86"

Look at the alley from Ruth Avenue

I don’t think I have ever seen a car go through this alley but somehow I suspect it may still be used by people who park at the end of Ruth Avenue. Now I won’t advocate playing in this alley at night, but it seems like kids can have fun playing catch, soccer, hop scotch, and riding scooter, bikes, or roller skates  in this alley in conjunction with the cul-de-sac of Ruth Avenue in the mornings and throughout the day. Am I the only one who wants to see more kids playing on the streets rather than indoors? Eagle Rock is privileged with three parks, and there are plenty properties with nice yards, but the streets are available to all of us and as long as Eagle Rock is primarily residential, there’s no reason why most of the streets shouldn’t have slow traffic with kiddies playing about.

Reason #4 to walk Eagle Rock: Travel to the past, and have a grape contemplating the history of what goes on in some of Eagle Rock’s secret alleys.

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Walk: 7-28-10

Today I went for a walk around town, something I have not had the opportunity to do lately for a variety of reasons. Most prominently, I twisted my ankle crossing the street about a month ago and I am just getting to the point where I can go with absolutely no pain during or after my walks.

A lovely Wednesday it was today, the weather almost ventured into the “too hot” category but stayed nice throughout with no sporadic changes in temperature, making for a smooth and cool transition into the evening.

View Larger Map

3.78 miles according to Google

The initial intention of this walk was to snap pictures for an “Alleys Rock” segment but I ended up picking up a treat from Pete’s for frequent commenter, hippierunner, and I to share.

The starting point for this walk, Loleta Avenue/Oak Grove Drive. I walk down Oak Grove and appreciate the calmness of the street. I make this point often but by no means thoughtlessly, like a handful of other streets in ER, Oak Grove Drive could easily become a bicycle boulevard. It would be an especially convenient bike boulevard at that as students walking or biking to Eagle Rock High School could do so with ease and bypass the more hectic Yosemite Drive. As I toy with the thought I am lucky enough to actually cross a cyclist’s path.

A few minutes later I caught a skateboarder too, on the street, perhaps a testament to the calm, low traffic volumes Oak Grove has, further making the case for the street’s conversion to a bike boulevard.

Off in the distance, to the right

I turn North by Glacier Drive/Oak Grove Drive but instead of going onto  Glacier, I take the alley running parallel to it. (I will save the pictures of this alley when I take a more detailed look on it in a separate segment of “Alleys Rock!”)

View Larger Map

The alley is interrupted by Yosemite Drive and Neola Street. Beyond Neola the alley continues on until it meets a set of stairs which brings one up to Glacier Drive/Saginaw Street. As I transition from the stairs to Glacier I begin noticing charming little details.

The curb next to the stairs has been beautified and personalized with smooth stones inserted. From my limited experience I would say this is a unique sighting of anywhere. I have see custom mailboxes and street signs and street addresses, but an entire custom curb? Not until now!

Mosaic art in front of one residence

Looking East there are some nice, interesting, and undoubtedly unique views of Figueroa Street area.

More interesting details on homes

Found an empty soda can, and if I were in the mood I would bring it home to recycle it for cash, instead I opted to place it in the nearest blue bin.

When I reach Colorado all the peacefulness from where my walk started on Loleta Ave/Oak Grove Dr to the small portion Glacier Drive is lost. Cars zoom by and there is a significant drop in attractive aesthetics.

Crossing from South Colorado to the North side and continuing West lowers the pedestrian’s subjective/psychological safety as the island refuges are bare, and tiny in comparison to the space dedicated for cars traveling on Colorado as well as cars entering the 134 freeway. I personally did not really notice this before, but any area adjacent to a freeway entrance seems to have cars racing for the 65mph freeway speed limit before they are actually on the freeway. The cars not entering the freeway also decide to travel faster just because the surrounding cars are doing so. The on-ramp in this area is particularly long and there is no reason why cars shouldn’t slow down before they are on the on-ramp. Alongside other ‘radical’ pro bike and pedestrian tricks I wish to push upon the rest of Eagle Rock, I think it would be a good idea to have cars slow to speeds between 10 and 20 mph before getting on an on-ramp; this could be accomplished in the form of traffic calming devices such as curb extensions or round-a-bouts. It is awful enough that people have to live next to freeways, the on/off ramps should at least favor the pedestrians who frequent the area or live there. But I digress… Also not helping the pedestrian’s subjective safety are the chain-link fence and glass and other roadside debris that collect on the curbs or sidewalk.

Confusing location of sign

Can't imagine waiting for the bus here

Continuing, I pass the infamous housing project that never finished with an Occidental College sign on a street post. The immediate area does not give Eagle Rock  a proper impression to first-timers.

Things that caught my attention on Colorado:

I guess dogs are a problem in this complex

Around Hartwick there are some signs rarely seen elsewhere in Eagle Rock, if at all

No parking of vehicles over 6ft

This is why the signage is necessary

Is this phone booth still in use? or can it become a book booth?

The result of one pedestrian wanting to cross the street, a block of traffic

Funny poster for upcoming movie

A narrow Mount Helena Ave

After I took a picture of Mount Helena there was a voice “what’s the picture for?” To my left I see a tattooed man with a beard smoking a cigar. Forgive my prejudgement, but I did not expect much in the way of conversation with this man. I simply told him I was taking pictures for a blog I just started and the street was particularly narrow, something I hadn’t noticed before. He responded “A blog just about Eagle Rock?” I specified it was from a walking perspective to which he said jovially “You can say you met a guy smoking a cigar after a 20 mile bike ride”. How did he know I love bicycling!? His ride length impressed me. I told him it was cool he did that. I asked if it was okay to take a picture of him with his bike. He struck a cool pose. I asked if he was informed with the LA Bike Plan. He was not aware of but mentioned the Mayor’s recent bike spill. I forget how the conversation exactly went but he pointed to his house, told me he submitted some comics to the Boulevard Sentinel, that he tries to arrange group rides, that the corner we ere standing on is subject to many car accidents and that he bikes to work when the weather is nice (he better bike often then!). His name is Matt and shook my hand with his left hand so I did not get smoke smell on my hand.  In our brief conversation he also gave a friendly nod of respect to a bicyclist that went by. You just don’t get that kind of spontaneous interaction when trapped in your car.

 

Proud Matt shows off his bicycle

And so my walk continues…

Heather’s Store now sells jeans, not perfect for the summer but the price is right at 10$ a pair.

Sometimes I feel the streets are cluttered with signs which do little to compensate for poor road design, found this by Heather’s

I was not aware I was ever in a school zone, there was no change in street-scape and definitely no change in car speeds either.

The Beverage Shop at it’s worst… soon to come a branch of Delta Driving School

An opportunity to do something with this little patio area, too bad it isn’t being utilized.

Finally I arrive at Pete’s. As bicycles are always on my mind, I take a few pictures of where there is ample space to install bike racks.

Every time I go to Pete’s by bike I need to lock it to a street post. Taking the pictures I also spot two cyclists, both on the sidewalk despite Colorado Boulevard being an official Bike Route.

Maybe the city is doing something wrong in making the street attractive to cyclists?

Amusing find inside Pete’s

Receiving my order I walk on Mt. Royal Drive for about a second before spotting a super cool alley which I take for as long as I can, then it was up Townsend Avenue to Hill Drive and down on Hartwick Street where I met with hippierunner to start sharing the chocolate shake and fries I ordered. Back onto Colorado with nothing new and a left on Townsend heading towards Oak Grove. As we turned onto Oak Grove I was pleasantly surprised to see an old friend. Just had a brief word with him then hippierunner and I concluded our walk on Oak Grove Drive and Loleta Avenue.

Reason #3 to walk Eagle Rock: admire intricate details on the local streets, re-imagine the paths you frequent as you would like to see them, go from Oak Grove Drive to Colorado Blvd without taking Figueroa St, Genevieve Ave, or Wiota St. In fact do it with only being on an official street for a small fraction of the time! Notice signs you did not see before, meet new people and discuss common interests, discover new ways to get places, say ‘hi’ to an old friend, enjoy an other friend’s company  and reward yourself with some Pete’s!

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Not A Through Street: Casper Avenue/ Colorado Boulevard

This crossing light has a long wait time

Today NATS (Not A Through Street) brings us to Casper Ave, a small, out of place street. It is parallel to Eagle Rock Boulevard and perpendicular to Colorado Boulevard, the life of Eagle Rock. Casper also crosses Chickasaw Ave and is within close proximity to Fair Park Ave, two of Eagle Rock’s most disjointed streets. Casper Ave hosts the Eagle Rock Farmer’s Market and our library, you would think this street is long or robust, right? Wrong. Somehow, despite all of it’s local descriptors Casper Ave is a short street, an especially short street at that running about a third of a mile from end to end, around 1780 feet long. This little street also holds title as the only street that interrupts Las Flores Ave between Sumner Ave and Townsend Ave, a title I wish it did not have. Las Flores would be an excellent candidate for a bicycle boulevard conversion, an alternative to bike or walk on instead of the crazy former portion of Route 66, Colorado Blvd, if it continued through  Casper. Between Figueroa Street and Live Oak View Ave, Casper is also the only street perpendicular to Colorado Boulevard from the North which does NOT connect to Hill Drive. These are the things that distinguish Casper Ave before exploring it as a NATS, so lets take a closer look.

View Larger Map

Even before passing beyond the “Not A Through Street” sign, there is something that makes this NATS different from the rest – aside from what was mentioned in the previous paragraph – the location of the NATS sign is unusually low. The interesting thing about the location is that it is tailored for cars, making it somewhat large, and when it is placed so close to the ground that one can stand in front of it, the largeness of the sign is realized to any pedestrian walking by. Anyway…

The first find past XTC was the very cute Jack’s Gym. When my sister was younger she used to have gymnastics lessons all the way in South Pasadena, if Jack’s Gym had been here at the time we could have saved time, and gas while supporting local business. I worry that because of the NATS sign less people will discover this business than if it were placed on a regular through street. However, Jack seems to be in good shape and hopefully playful exterior reflects the classes given there.

And along with the sweet of Jack’s Gym, I found the sour, a lemon tree from the neighboring property that drops free lemons in Jack’s parking lot.

This lemon survived the fall

Across the street from Jack’s Gym was a little less impressive

Grimy, dirty LA with telephone lines, ugly lots and all.

Shortly afterward I discovered a resident growing their own corn, tomato, chilli, and likely more. There’s a sign accompanying the produce though the website on the sign is no longer functioning.

As I paused to photograph the veggies, this large deodar ceder (?) easily caught my eye before I resumed walking up Casper Ave. It stands so elegant, yet strong.

Look at house for idea of the scale

Next, the bicycle enthusiast in me was excited to see that Casper Ave narrows right around the massive tree. Casper still can accommodate standard desired four cars’ width after narrowing and makes me wonder why we insist on making our streets unnecessarily wide.

This is not an optical illusion, look on the right curb and notice the narrowing

Right before reaching the end there’s an other interesting transformation of a front lawn.

The top has been reached and I am greeted with peace, how nice.

... Does this mean "End Peace"

Lots of Cacti on the top too!

Looking South the street is very picturesque with the hills in the background. The noise of Colorado is long gone at the end of this street and standing there, one would never guess so much hustle and bustle goes on just a block away.

Reason number 2 to walk Eagle Rock: Forget the noise of Colorado Boulevard while admiring homes, enjoying a lemon, and finding ‘peace’.

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Not A Through Street: Delevan Drive/Range Road

 

Although Eagle Rock has historically been a suburban community of Los Angeles, it does not conform to horrid images of suburbs that may imply Eagle Rock is a sterile cookie cutter community. Perhaps this is partially because Eagle Rock was primarily developed as a streetcar community and was its own city for a bit over a decade, from 1911 to 1923.

However Eagle Rock remains suburban is certain respects nonetheless and because of this it is not uncommon to see a street sign reading “Not A Through Street” in the neighborhood. These streets are obviously of no interest to people unless they live there. It is for this reason that I am interested in these ‘NATS’ (acronym of Not A Through Street) as I will affectionately refer to them. What exactly is at the end of these not through streets? What is the unique character and feel adopted?

This installment of NATS looks where Delevan Drive and Range Road meet, up a bit of an incline running along the southern end of Delevan Drive Elementary. This NATS is definitely different from other NATS as it has a metal barrier physically preventing cars from traveling through. This feature especially interested me. When I saw the barrier I began to wonder, “does it actually go through but on a dangerous path, is that why it is blocked off?” Nothing prevents a pedestrian from passing the barrier, so I crossed it and embarked on a brief adventure.

Looking down the street I started thinking there may be a house at the end and they really want people to keep off their stretch of the street. I walked with hillside to my right and fencing along the left. I spotted a rusted bike in the corner of someone’s yard up against a chain-link fence.

Handlebars are visible on the othe rside of the fence.

Then the street curved to the right and in an unusual manner for a street that is paved and continues for so long– there was nothing developed at the end.

Where am I going?

At the end of the road there was some shrub, broken branches,  loose leaves, and… a dirt path!

End of the line… sort of.

The path was very narrow with plants brushing my side.

And at the end the path this is what I saw:

The path connects to the other side of Delevan Drive which is otherwise accessible via Yosemite Way. In the process of writing this post I looked at two maps of Eagle Rock: a map from 1937 shows Delevan as a continuous street that does not appear to get cut off anywhere; and Google Maps shows exactly the same thing– a continuous Delevan Drive.

View Larger Map

Even for people that like to explore unknown streets, a “Not A Through Street” sign typically ends any speculation of a potential new short cut or hidden path. However, one of the many advantages of walking is that you can often go places cars can’t and move through a space without a flat, paved path. This is why I was pleasantly surprised to see that despite the sign’s warning, walkers can continue along Delevan Drive.

Reason number 1 to ‘walk eagle rock’ : Go from one end of Delevan to the other uninterrupted, defying signs claiming the street is bisected.

Looking at the dirt path from the other end.

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