morgan chee | david derosa | kevin finkel | richard france | scott john | chandini singh

Southwest East Los Angeles

UP273: Site PlanningFall 2009Prof. Vinit Mukhija

Site AreaSite analysis

Public HealthEducation

TransportationHousing

Clean ManufacturingConclusion

Introduction

Our project and design interventions are in an area that we affectionately refer to as Southwest East LA. Our group and the residents of this area envision a “Healthier Neighborhood” for our study area. We will use this theme throughout the project to inform our design and policy interventions. The contents of our project will identify the location of our site area, the current landuse landscape, problems related to public health, an education campaign to inform the residents of the dangers of living within proximity of Interstate 5, transportation, housing, and clean manufacturing policies to help alleviate some of these public health concerns.

Site Area

On a map of unincorporated East Los Angeles, the southwest corner, highlighted in red, is our study site. Initially, we were all attracted to this area after touring the whole of East Los Angeles during which we encountered our study area, a residential neighborhood which is bisected horizontally by the Interstate 5 Freeway. We were all rather aghast at the resulting problems including not having buffers between the edge of the freeway and residential development immediately adjacent to the freeway. Unfortunately, after an initial analysis of the area, it became apparent that there were few, if any, options for trying to reconnect the two halves of the community. Thus, there was no way to design away the freeway but a simultaneous realization that the solutions should embrace its existence, and implement design and policy interventions that would allow the residents to coexist with the freeway.

Our Southwest East LA site area is bound by Whittier Boulevard to the north, Gage Avenue to the east, Olympic Boulevard to the south, and Indiana Street to the west. Because there were also concerns with other impacts to our study area that originate outside of the defined site boundaries, we also chose to look into impacts on our neighborhood created in what we refer to as our extended study area to the north, east

and south of our site. Note some of the major landmarks in the vicinity of our project site including Cavalry Cemetery to the northeast of our project site, Salazar Park in the northwest portion of our project site, and Eastman Avenue Elementary School in the southeast portion of our project site.

Site Analysis

In addition to the landmarks within and near our project site, we would also like to point out some of the neighborhood’s assets. These elements were identified by the residents within our site area and represent resources that we want to build upon with our design and policy interventions. These include: Salazar Park, Eastman Avenue Elementary School, two medical facilities,

the East Los Angeles Doctors Hospital and the Los Angeles Community Hospital, a desirable concentration of retail and restaurants along Whittier Boulevard, and approximately 14- to 15-foot wide sidewalks as well as street trees along Olympic Boulevard. Here are some photographs which depict these resources.

Who are these residents that helped us identify the neighborhood’s assets? There are approximately 3,300 individuals that reside within our study area and they comprise 733 households and reside in 768 housing units. Approximately 80 percent of this housing stock was built before 1970. Of the 733 households, approximately 12 percent are receiving some form of public assistance. Of the 3,300 residents, approximately 97 percent are Latino, approximately 37 percent are minors, and approximately 26 percent are below the poverty line. The 3,300 residents translates to a density of approximately 17,000 people per square-mile within the whole of East Los Angeles.

This is a zoning map of our site area. There is a lot of commercial retail activity along Whittier Boulevard. north of the I-5. Although Olympic Boulevard is zoned for Commercial Manufacturing, there isn’t much retail activity down there. Instead it is primarily auto body shops and light manufacturing facilities.

This graphic illustrates the pedestrian character along Olympic Boulevard. Buildings in grey are unpleasant for pedestrians to walk by. This means that they lack transparency, are fenced-in, abandoned, or do not front the street. While Olympic has some street trees and wide sidewalks, it remains a largely unpleasant area for pedestrians.

These are the areas in our site that we felt could use the most attention. The large 99 cent warehouse contributes to neighborhood truck traffic. The I-5 freeway bisects our site area, and polluting land uses surround the elementary school.

The site area’s existing transit network includes several Metro lines and a local El Sol line. Most notably, there is the Metro 720 rapid line that runs all the way to the west side of Los Angeles. While there are a number of transit lines serving the area, headways for some are rather long.

This side represents our informal survey of residents and workers in our site area. The most frequent comment was that everything is located up on Whittier Boulevard. This was especially true for those residents who lived south of the freeway. Additionally, workers informed us that they spent very little time in the area outside of working hours. Neighbors complained about the lack of a grocery store and stated that long

waits for local buses made using the Gold Line extension impractical.

Public Health

When people live near freeways they are almost twice as likely to die from heart or lung disease. While adults are at risk, children are six times more likely to develop all types of cancer and eight times more likely to get leukemia. Pregnant women are also at a 10-20 percent greater risk for premature birth and low birth weight. Health conditions such as asthma, wheeze, cough, and runny nose are significantly more common for children living within 330 feet of a freeway.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) estimates that pollution from freight transport costs $19 billion a year in health effects. This is just within the state of California and is related to costs for premature death, hospital admissions, and asthma, etc. CARB also estimates the benefit to cost ratio to be at least 3-1, and possibly as high as 8-1. This means that $1 spent now to prevent these poor health conditions can save at least $3 in future costs. In other words, improving public health is a good investment.

Public Health Education Campaign

This is a map of East Los Angeles and the freeways running through it. The red area is an approximate 500 foot buffer, which represents the area where residents are susceptible to the negative health effects of living near a freeway.

This graphic shows the density distribution of particulate matter related to freeway proximity.

As a part of our project, we would like to start a public health education campaign. This slide shows the framework for

making this possible. You need to start with providing basic information and stressing the urgency of the health concerns. We feel that the data provided up to this point accomplishes this, and gives us a good case for building support in the community. The campaign needs to consider the community needs, which are reflected through our design interventions in the upcoming slides. Gathering funding is an important part of the campaign and we address possible financial sources later in the presentation when discussing our design interventions. Finally, an evaluation process is the last step and is critical for determining the success of our design and policy interventions. This step would provide great information if our project was to be implemented in other neighborhoods. Overall, we feel the public health situation in our site area is vital to the implementation of our project, and provides the background for our design proposals.

Transportation

There are three freeway on/off ramps located within a mile of each other on the freeway corridor running through our project area. Removing the middle on/off ramp on Ditman Ave to both north and south-bound traffic would reduce the amount of heavy truck

and car traffic driving through residential areas, increase bicycle and pedestrian safety, and reduce the amount of airborne particulates associated with diesel engines. Additionally, by adding a green buffer and sound wall where the on/off ramp once was, it could help to reduce airborne pollutants and CO2 and lower noise and vibration levels. In addition to eliminating the Ditman Avenue freeway access, we also propose to change the

alignment of Dennison Ave, which runs parallel to the freeway, to a one way street. This would reduce through truck traffic and become a less used street more accommodating to bicyclists with the addition of a bike lane as well.

This is the existing on/off ramp on the northbound lane of the freeway. It is currently at grade with the existing residential neighborhood immediately adjacent to it and is heavily used by cars and trucks entering and exiting the freeway to access Whittier and Olympic Boulevards, as well as the manufacturing and rail hubs in the City of Commerce.

This is the Dennison Avenue and Ditman Avenue intersection after the proposed design intervention. We have closed the on/off ramp, added a sound wall coated with TX Active or a similar product, planted large, broad leafed pollution absorbing trees and shrubs, changed the alignment of Dennison Avenue to a one-way, and added a bike lane.

By planting certain species of trees near areas of heavy airborne pollutants such as freeways and factories, they can reduce air pollution by as much as 2% as well as provide sound and light absorbing functions to reduce freeway noise and the urban heat island effect. Trees also provide a nice visual background in place of other building materials.

“Smart Concrete” is a coating that can be applied to nearly any concrete surface that enhances the photocatalytic reaction between sunlight and pollutants to break them down more quickly. It has been calculated by researchers that if 15% of all the visible surfaces in an urban area were coated with this product it could reduce airborne pollutants by 50%. It costs about 30% more than standard concrete, but its benefits of reducing airborne pollutants can greatly reduce healthcare and other costs related to air pollution.

Smart concrete can be applied to almost any type of surface and is already in use in several cities in Europe. Los Angeles Unified School District has demonstrated an interest in this product after it becomes more mainstream in the United States.

Creating infrastructure for alternative forms of transportation can result in a much healthier neighborhood. Our transportation improvement proposal highlights current deficiencies, and how incremental changes can create a drastically better environment. In order to improve access to the Gold Line via public transit, we propose that the El Sol transit service increase their frequency and extend their hours

before 9am and after 5pm.

Eastman Avenue Elementary School, located on the southern side of Olympic Boulevard, has no crosswalks or lights at the school block. Instead, there is a poorly lit, very dirty tunnel kids can use to cross the street. This tunnel could potentially be the site of crime and deactivates the street by forcing kids to cross underground. We propose to create two lit crosswalks at Eastman Avenue and

Gage Avenue at Olympic Boulevard. This will allow children to cross the street safely, and create more activity on Olympic Boulevard.

There has been a substantial increase in bicycling nationwide. In fact, bike sales have grown faster than auto sales in recent years. Unfortunately, there is no bike infrastructure in place in Southwest East Los Angeles. This can have terrible consequences, as bicycle fatalities and injuries are much more prevalent among the Hispanic community and where there is no infrastructure in place. We propose creating a bike lane network, complete with bicycle amenities such as racks, along Indiana Street, Olympic Boulevard and Whittier Boulevard.

Whittier currently has no bike lanes, very narrow sidewalks, and few trees. Although the majority of services are on Whittier, the walking environment is quite unpleasant, especially during summertime heat and sun. Olympic, on the other hands, is quite pleasant in terms of streetscape, with wide sidewalks and trees; however, the current type of businesses do not encourage an active street life.

We propose removing the middle turning lane on both Whittier and Olympic in order to add bike lanes and shade-giving trees. As mentioned earlier, shade-giving trees can provide pollution reduction benefits and mitigate the urban heat-island effect, where street level temperatures are much higher causing an unhealthy physical environment. The bike lanes provide a safer, alternative method of transportation throughout the neighborhood and East Los Angeles.

On S. Indiana, we propose similar changes. Currently, the street has one wide lane in each direction. Without agreement from the City of Los Angeles, which has jurisdiction over the western side of the street, we cannot make drastic changes to the streetscape. In the interim, we will stripe a shared bike / auto lane to signal drivers that biking should be expected. We will also plant trees on the eastern side to provide shade and a sense of enclosure for the pedestrian.

Here is what S. Indiana looks like currently. Notice the lack of trees and poor street surface.

Here is our proposal in action.

Our last transportation improvement occurs south of Interstate 5, on the streets which currently abut the freeway in a “U” Shape (highlighted in green).

We propose to make these streets one-way in order to create a vegetative buffer and wider sidewalk. We will also line the soundwall with smart concrete. Both of these changes will improve air quality, minimize freeway noise, and again, create a more pleasant and healthier walking environment.

Housing

The following represents our plan for addressing the housing concerns that residents may have in regards to the various public health issues that we have brought to light in this project. Weatherizing is a process of improving indoor air quality by retrofitting a building so that it can more efficiently use energy and resources. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) invests and allocates for specific

projects almost $8 billion to state and local governments to do this retrofitting.

Research shows that exposure to high traffic volume areas affects outdoor and indoor quality in surrounding areas. To combat the negative health affects this causes, the US EPA recommends “pollution proofing” during weatherizing to improve indoor air quality. As a result, residents of East LA are encouraged to take advantage of the stimulus program that ARRA offers.

Here are some before and after photos to show some examples of additional housing that will be provided on Whittier for the anticipated increase in housing need within the area. We anticipate an increased need in case residents would no longer like to live adjacent to the freeway.

Clean Manufacturing

As John A. Loomis says “The revival of urban manufacturing is a viable opportunity for creating jobs and rebuilding communities.” We plan to take advantage of the industries that are already located on Olympic and create a district that will attract clean, small manufacturing creating a district on Olympic Boulevard. This district will house artistic and cultural manufacturing tenants, which will employ fewer than fifty workers each. Olympic will continue to foster some retail and preferably retail that can go through the entire process of production on this same street and reduce the amount of truck traffic and therefore pollution in the area. The tenants that will move in will be manufacturing companies such as garment industries, woodworking, and paper products. These industries will also facilitate an easier move towards smaller cars traversing Olympic like vans. This district will not only reduce the amount of pollution in the area by downsizing the manufacturing but it will also increase the sales tax base in this part of East LA in preparation for the future of the cityhood movement.

This is an example of what this small, clean manufacturing district could look like.

Here is a summary of our design proposals.