Historic LA (back when it was legal to walk)

The header image for this blog shows a historic 1900 map of the area between downtown L.A. and Santa Monica. My dad grew up (drinking water from the Owens Valley) in the 1920s in the area toward downtown L.A. on Hobart Blvd., just east of Western Avenue.

2013 map (thanks to Google Maps) of the area in the 1900 map in the header.

 These maps are centered on the area seen in the photos below (found in the Facebook album Vintage Los Angeles).

These photos were taken in about 1920, about 20 years after the map was made. This area is now one of the most congested areas of the city. Note the presence of the oil and aero(space) industries--a strong presence in Southern California ever since then.

These maps also show the area where the Mono Lake Committee
held the Wild & Scenic Film Festival last night.

 At LADWP's headquarters there is an exhibit on William Mulholland. A 1903 report he wrote on the water situation is open to a page that talks about how the city grew a huge percentage that year, and water rates were lower than any other cities in the west. Needless to say, the water supply was being stretched, and the low water rates were part of the problem. The next year, Fred Eaton concocted his idea for the LA Aqueduct that would eventually devastate the Eastern Sierra (with dessication) and the Los Angeles Basin (with growth).

Graphs posted at the William Mulholland exhibit show
the exponential increase in water consumption (bottom)
early in the 20th century as population (top) and electricity
use (middle) grew. The City of Los Angeles had strong
pro-growth policies in place despite the lack of a water
supply necessary to support the growth.
In 2013, it has not stopped growing.

It is incredibly depressing to walk around an area that is totally artificial for hundreds of square miles. This imbalanced land use has pushed anything resembling the natural, native environment to the edges, the steep areas, the flooded spots, the rare protected gems. How can someone understand their place in the natural order of things, when they never are exposed to what that natural order might be?

This also applies to the massive metropolitan area of Los Angeles (you mean you didn't realize the paragraph above is about the Central Valley?).

Part of what is depressing about walking around LA is, well, walking. The reason people have to drive is because walking is so unpleasant. Even new things that are being built are poorly-designed, and unwalkable, unbikeable--sometimes by design (perhaps illegally).

On Friday I walked from the Santa Ana River to the fantastic Orange County Groundwater Replenishment System for a tour. They are recycling 73,000 acre-feet of wastewater each year (and expanding), allowing the district to stop buying imported water from MWD. This leaves more water for the Colorado River Delta and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. A shining example of what every city should be doing. This is a relatively new facility, one that you'd expect would be promoting pedestrian access and walkable streets. In order to avoid walking in the bike lane of a busy street, you have to walk along the facility's fence. There is a nice trail, and the berm between the fence and the bike lane is well-vegetated, screening the traffic. Unfortunately, someone has erected short fences projecting across the trail every 100 feet or so with "No Trespassing" signs. The trail just goes around the fences--they aren't much of a detour. But the presence of the fences and signs not only makes you nervous, but pisses you off at whomever thought it was necessary to discourage pedestrian traffic in such a way.

I know industrial facilities like this, and like the Torrance Exxonmobil oil refinery, are totally paranoid about terrorists and security. But people in cars are a much bigger threat. I actually parked my car in the parking lot in front of the facility, and because I got there early I walked to the River and back. But it was WALKING to the facility that was prohibited. It is hard to understand why such poor planning and poor design is everywhere.

Later that day I parked on a side street in downtown LA and walked into an LADWP parking lot for another recycled water presentation. I walked in--right behind a car from our group that drove in and wasn't stopped, carrying four people. I was stopped, and even though I told the very nice guard that I was with the group that just drove in, he checked my ID and wrote down my name.

If you walk in LA, I guess you are suspicious. I'm going home.