A Little Summer Cycling in Eagle Rock

Recently we’ve had some of the most beautiful weather of the summer, great for bicycling. This past week I took a few walks along Colorado Boulevard and occasionally snapped pictures of people bicycling along our commercial corridor. Here’s some of what I managed to catch with my camera…

Bicycling on Colorado Boulevard and Mount Royal Avenue

Two cyclists using the drive-thru at Pete’s Burger

Bicycling past Colombo’s Restaurant

Five friends cycling on Colorado Boulevard by Townsend Avenue

….I also managed to snap some pictures of bikes parked at our local businesses

Three bikes parked at Comics Vs Toys, using one of the many bike racks along Colorado Boulevard

A bike parked at Permanent Records, at the intersection of Colorado Boulevard and Townsend Avenue

One bike, three bike racks at the business Pilates on Colorado Boulevard and Shearin Avenue

People love to refer to Eagle Rock as a small town and seeing so many people (particularly youngsters) cycling around town on quiet humble bicycles, patronizing local businesses helps enhance that feeling. Here’s to hoping we see more summer cycling in Eagle Rock!

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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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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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