Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Reminder: Construction Authority Board Meeting Tonight (http://www.iwillride.org)
Reminder: Construction Authority Board Meeting Tonight
reports.
The Construction Authority Board of Directors will be holding a meeting tonight (Wednesday, May 25, 2011) at 7:00 p.m. The meeting is open to the public and will be held at the Arcadia City Hall, Council Chambers, 240 W. Huntington Drive, Arcadia, CA 91007. Click here for more information or to view the meeting agenda and reports
GUEST EDITORIAL: RAIL LINE MUST GO UNDERGROUND TO PRESERVE, PROTECT KEY BLACK L.A. BUSINESS CORRIDOR (www.wavenewspapers.com)
GUEST EDITORIAL: RAIL LINE MUST GO UNDERGROUND TO PRESERVE, PROTECT KEY BLACK L.A. BUSINESS CORRIDOR
By DAMIEN GOODMON
On Thursday, the MTA board of directors will be presented with an opportunity to approve Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas’ motion to keep the entirety of the Crenshaw-LAX Light Rail Line underground on Crenshaw Boulevard. The implications of the motion should concern every Angeleno, for the Crenshaw-LAX Line is a true regional rail project, and the Southland needs its last African-American business corridor.
The current Crenshaw-LAX project from the future Expo Line Crenshaw station to the Green Line by way of LAX is simply the first phase of perhaps the most significant north-south rail project for our region.
Just consider the Crenshaw-LAX Line extensions that have recently finished study or are currently under study, and one can view a rail line that soon after completion would produce the highest ridership of any light rail line in the country.
To the south, MTA has dedicated funding to extend the line deep into the South Bay to Torrance, along a route that parallels the 405 Freeway. Studies have been conducted to take the line even further south into San Pedro or Long Beach.
To the north, preliminary studies have been completed to extend the line to Wilshire to connect with the Subway to the Sea. Also, last year, MTA planning resources were dedicated to studying an extension of the line beyond Wilshire to the Hollywood/Highland Red Line station by way of West Hollywood (a project that is known as the Pink Line.)
Hollywood, West Hollywood, Miracle Mile, Mid-City, Crenshaw District, Inglewood, Westchester, El Segundo, Redondo Beach and Torrance all connected by one rail line to LAX, a line that would have transfer stations with four of the five east-west MTA rail lines. The implications to the MTA system and region as a whole are huge.
In the South Bay, the line would provide an alternative to the I-405 freeway. And in the north from Hollywood to the Expo Line, the line would have a total monopoly on high-speed transportation, because it would be 100% underground permitting trains to travel 55 mph between stations in a section of our region that has no freeway option. The result: Hollywood to LAX in a little over 30 minutes.
Imagine that.
The only impediment to fast, reliable rail service for this entire line is the median street-running segment in Park Mesa Heights from 48th Street to 59th Street. The regional line, serving Southern California’s air traffic hub, would have to compete with an already overburdened roadway. Over 60,000 cars per day travel this portion of Crenshaw Boulevard, and at the major intersection of Slauson/Crenshaw, MTA’s own studies reveal that rush hour congestion is at its worst possible level (Level of Service “F”) and cannot be improved with a street-level crossing.
From 48th Street to 59th street, the train would have to stop at signals and travel with no crossing gates. Of the nearly 900 accidents on MTA’s street-level Blue Line, America’s deadliest light rail line, 76 percent of all accidents and 92 percent of all vehicular accidents are at crossings with no gates.
If one of the goals of the public investment is to convince travelers that they can make their flights on time by “Go[ing] Metro” — that they need not clog the city streets and 405 to get to LAX — surely it is wise to avoid designs that are known to be problematic and create significant delays to passengers.
The historic African-American Crenshaw corridor has been waiting for its rebirth since at least the civil unrest of 1992. There have been piecemeal public and private investments, but none so singularly significant as the Crenshaw-LAX light rail project. At $1.7 billion, it is the largest public works project in the history of South Los Angeles.
In spite of all the challenges, Crenshaw merchants are still standing. In the Park Mesa Heights community institutions like Dulan’s, Nobody Jones Boutique, Crenshaw Yoga and Margarita’s Café remain, if in the case of some, only by the skin of their teeth.
Ridley-Thomas’ motion would connect the two underground portions of the rail line, avoiding the safety hazards and business impacts of a street-level design between 48th Street to 59th Street in Park Mesa Heights.
To fit street-level tracks on Crenshaw in Park Mesa Heights, MTA would impose a variety of roadway changes that would transform the boulevard, which currently features pedestrian-friendly designs (coupled with a specific plan that requires new buildings to be built in a manner that is pedestrian-oriented) into a highway that is far more auto-centric.
MTA’s street-level plan would make it harder for patrons to walk and drive to the mostly black-owned small businesses. The median lined with mature trees that contribute to Crenshaw Boulevard’s scenic highway status would be wiped out, available parking would be cut in half, and left turns at multiple intersections would be eliminated along with mid-block pedestrian crossings. A tremendous economic revitalization opportunity would be hampered. And the impact on current business with 4-5 long years of street-level construction is daunting.
Could Park Mesa Heights merchants withstand it?
It’s highly doubtful. Far more stable business corridors succumbed in the best of economic times.
It would be a death to the last African-American business corridor in Southern California.
The plight of the Crenshaw business community should concern us all. If Los Angeles is a salad bowl filled with a mixture of cultures from throughout the world, Crenshaw must be the dressing. Our region should no more welcome the destruction of the Crenshaw business community than it should Little Tokyo or Chinatown. Crenshaw is as much a part of our unique identity as a multicultural city, as any other ethnic center. We must both preserve it and enhance it with the Crenshaw-LAX Light Rail Line.
The Crenshaw community is ready for the rebirth that will occur if MTA builds the Park Mesa Heights tunnel. With it will come not just a preserved cultural destination and better public transit, but also a stronger tax base for the region.
Goodmon is chair of the Crenshaw Subway Coalition Chair and coordinator of the Fix Expo Campaign.
Monday, May 23, 2011
The Wilshire BRT: LA Metro's Achilles Tendon (http://www.huffingtonpost.com)
The Wilshire BRT: LA Metro's Achilles Tendon
Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joel-epstein/the-wilshire-brt-la-metro_b_865160.html
A few months ago an injury changed the way I see the need for more bus rapid transit (BRT) in Los Angeles. I'm 50 now and hardly the picture of fitness I was or wasn't when I was younger. And what is it they say? "Exercise will kill you." Well not quite, but it did contribute to my tearing my Achilles tendon. I knew it the minute the real athlete at the front desk of the rec center told me what I'd done. Unmistakable, the telltale "pop" of another middle-aged weekend warrior's brittle tendon tearing.
Thanks to a great surgeon at UCLA and a better-than-average health plan I am on the mend and should be fine. It hasn't been without its inconveniences of course, but in the scheme of things it hasn't been too bad. In two weeks I will have spent over two months in a cast, during which I learned how to "run" for the bus on crutches, and discovered the joys of carrying stuff around without a free hand.
But what the experience really taught me has nothing to do with my age-related vulnerability to a routine sports injury. The lesson of this annoyance has been about the daily lives lived by the thousands of elderly and disabled Angelenos, many of them veterans, who can't run for the bus with or without crutches and won't get to take off their cast and return to a normal life in the next couple of weeks. If you ride Metro you see them every day, struggling to bridge the gap between the curb and the bus or find an open seat near the driver when the designated seats have all been taken up by inconsiderate riders who aren't supposed to sit there.
Being temporarily disabled has helped me appreciate the importance of the kneeling buses that drop down to make it easier to board and the automatic ramps that unfold so that a rider in a wheelchair can more easily access the bus.
I don't know how many of those who rely on Metro and the other local bus operators are elderly or disabled but on many routes the numbers are no doubt considerable. And until we find the fountain of youth we can only expect more Angelenos to become dependent on public transit in the years to come.
Given the mobility challenge older and disabled riders face, they should be the city's fiercest supporters of the rapid public transit solutions like the Wilshire BRT will provide. Which is why it is such a mystery that transit riders throughout the city but particularly in districts with large numbers of older and disabled people don't get the respect they deserve from certain members of the City Council and Metro Board. Maybe it is the silent dignity of older and disabled transit riders that leaves these public officials thinking there is nothing wrong with their seeking special exemptions from the Wilshire BRT project for their districts? Maybe these elected and appointed officials think they are only hurting the city's bus-dependent poor and working class when putting the interests of car commuters ahead of Metro's customers? As if doing so was an acceptable excuse for dissing the region's transit riders.
Like all transit battles in this town there are two sides to every story and the fight over the BRT is no exception. At the end of the day though, there is the story that holds water, and the one that is all wet. Guess which side is which.
With the City Council and Metro Board again revisiting the merits of a true BRT along Wilshire, including Brentwood and the Condo Canyon, the time has come to stop ignoring the transit needs of the tens of thousands of Angelenos who rely on the Wilshire bus on a daily basis.
A Wilshire Blvd without dedicated bus lanes is no longer an acceptable way to treat commuters including our most vulnerable. It's time for the Council and Metro Board members who have been fighting for the Condo Canyon and Brentwood cutouts to stop dissing the riding public.
Yours in transit,
Joel
Blogging (in) LA: Green LA Girl (blogging.la)
May 22, 2011 at 6:00 pm in Blogging (in) LA, LA
This post is part of the Blogging (in) LA Series.
Los Angeles, with its vast geography, smog, traffic, and challenging mass transit options, might not be the place one would most expect to find an eco-blogger living and thriving. But Green LA Girl is someone who does just that – lives and thrives in Los Angeles seeking to incorporate eco-friendly principles in her day-to-day life and keeping record of her experiences doing so on a blog that offers a variety of insights and solutions both for Angelenos and for those not fortunate enough to live here in our great city. Covering a wide range of topics–from consumables (fair-trade organic coffee or chocolate) to fashion (eco-friendly panties) to eco-friendly item giveaways (yoga mats, coffee mugs, etc.) to reducing home energy use–Green LA Girl provides a wealth of knowledge of information that can help us strive to live in better harmony with our environment.
Green LA Girl was kind enough to take some time out of her Sunday afternoon to answer some questions for us, and here is what she had to say:
B.LA: You earned your PhD in Literature and Creative Writing here in LA at the University of Southern California. Did you have any inkling as you plotted out your education that you would end up being a blogger?
gLAg: No – and in fact, the blog started when I was in grad school because I felt like working on my degree was so removed from real life. Not that literature doesn’t have relevance in real life, but especially in the academic setting I just felt like there was a disconnect between day-to-day living and the things I was thinking about most of the day. It sort of became a way of connecting what I was thinking about to things that are actually happening in real life. And in my life, specifically.
B.LA: Well that’s a nice segue to my next question, about the subject matter of your blog: can you tell us about how you were inspired to become so passionate and involved in eco-awareness and activism?
gLAg: Well, the first post I wrote, I wrote because my DVD player broke, and I knew it was a bad idea to just throw it in the dumpster, but I didn’t know where I could actually recycle it. To figure that out, I ended up having to do a lot of research, and after I did it I didn’t just want that to let that information disappear. Surely there are other people who, if it were a little bit easier to recycle their DVD player, they actually would. So that ended up being my first post, and it sort of went on from there. A lot of the posts are just about me trying to deal with things in my life, whether its just like finding organic fair trade coffee—which was actually a lot tougher 6 years ago—and things to simplify living and make living more fun, doing that research and putting in on the blog that way other people—I mean, it helps me document my own life, which I find fun for personal reasons, but it also helps other people who might be interested in the same things find information that they want.
B.LA: Right, kind of a public service…
gLAg: Sort of, although that’s more a side benefit. I don’t know that my reasons for doing it are particularly altruistic.
B.LA: For many, Los Angeles isn’t the first city that comes to mind when thinking of eco-friendly living. As a city filled with people who seem always to be busy, on the go, and short of time, there are surely many people living in LA who would like to be more eco-conscious but convince themselves they don’t have time or energy to do so. Short of encouraging people to read your blog (which we do encourage), what would be your top three suggestions to people to reduce their impact on the environment?
gLAg: Well, I guess if you’re just going to pick the top three things that anyone can do, I would always recommend the low-hanging fruit. [One] Having a reusable bag that you have with you all the time—if you’re a woman the kind that is collapsible and fits into your purse is really convenient. [Two] Making sure you recycle. Even in LA you can recycle. Even when you live in an apartment—something you couldn’t do when I started the blog. [Three] I guess the third one would be trying to get to work in a more sustainable way, whether that’s biking, car-pooling, or taking the bus.
That said, those are all very small things and also things that can seem a little bit like a burden to someone who’s just starting out. It’s hard for people to see a personal benefit to doing those three things. Where living a green life becomes more fun and beneficial on a personal level as well as on an environmental level is when you actually make the bigger changes. For example, like moving closer to work. Or moving to a place where it’s just one straight rapid bus line to get to work. That one choice can make so many aspects of your life better, as well as more environmentally friendly. From saving you tons of money on gas and parking and maybe even getting a cash payout from work for not using the parking garage, to brightening your mood because you don’t have to fight with traffic to getting to know your neighborhood better because you’re out and about, walking to work, not in your car going from one garage to the next.
I think it’s when you make those bigger changes, living for example, somewhere that has a lot of the amenities around y ou that you can walk to in a pleasant way and have fun doing it as opposed to, say, breaking your back trying to take a bus long distances to haul extremely heavy organic groceries that cost you a whole lot more in your reusable bags. When you make the bigger changes, the smaller changes come sort of automatically. It is hard to convince people to make those sort of changes unless they get on the bandwagon by making the small ones like toting a reusable bag.
B.LA: So it’s sort of like getting people to think more strategically about how to live in environmentally-friendly ways…
gLAg: Well, and I think making the small changes really becomes a catalyst to thinking about your life more holistically. Say your commute gets a little bit longer because you take the bus—that can be a great catalyst for you to consider, “well maybe I should change where work is,” or “maybe I should change where home is.” Things you never would have considered when you owned a car, or when you drive a car.
B.LA: I know you’ve been active in the blogging community, not just here in LA but throughout the US with involvement in BlogHer, WordCamp, and other blogging-related activities. Based on the breadth of your experience, what observations would you make about the blogging community in Los Angeles?
gLAg: Wow… I’m not sure. Because I’m not sure of the blogging communities in other places, I’m not sure that I can necessarily compare/contrast to other cities. I do think the blogging community in LA tends to reflect the geography of LA itself. There will be bloggers I see a lot, and bloggers I see extremely rarely. And there are bloggers along specific topics I see a lot that don’t necessarily co-mingle. I think that’s sort of the reason I like events like Blogger Prom. As commercialized as it is, it’s a fun place for me to see a whole lot of other bloggers that I may not run into, but who I may have read about, whose work I may have read online. Or, whose work I may be interested in covering. I sort of wish there were more events like that. I feel like there were a few other mixers that have happened, but there haven’t been that many. And there are blogging-related parties all the time, but not so many that are inclusive of all types of bloggers.
B.LA: That’s a good thought—Blogger Prom is great, but more is always better.
Many thanks to Siel for taking the time to share her eco-friendly thoughts with us as part of the Blogging (in) LA series. Please go check out her blog here.
Can a transit line transform South Los Angeles? (wattway.org)
Can a transit line transform South Los Angeles?
By Anita Little
Link: http://wattway.org/blog/2011/05/crenshaw-light-rail-provides-path-for-urban-development/
In the opening scene of the film Crash, one of the characters laments on how there is “no sense of touch” in Los Angeles. “In L.A. nobody touches you, we’re always behind this metal and this glass.”
The prevalence of driving in Los Angeles is one of its most identifying characteristics. Everyone here drives and in order to survive in the City of Angels, you need wheels to be your wings.
However, some low-income and minority segments of Los Angeles do not own cars. For decades, this has denied them access to goods and employment in other parts of the city. City planners and urban advocates have pushed for the development of more viable mass transit in Los Angeles and with the building of the Crenshaw Light Rail, disenfranchised communities are now on the verge of greater mobility and, perhaps, an enhanced quality of life.
At a relatively short 8.5 miles, each one of the route’s miles carries high expectations that go beyond simply providing people transit options.
“It will have long-term impacts on the community including improved accessibility to other parts of Los Angeles and a connection to the rest of the transportation network,” said Roderick Diaz, the Metropolitan Transit Authority senior planner for the light rail construction. “People who formerly couldn’t get to where jobs are will be able to reach those places and also have better access to recreation and possibility better health care through the new line.”
The Crenshaw Light Rail would run along Crenshaw Boulevard and connect with the already-existing Metro Green Line and the Expo Line. The rail is only one arm of the city’s master plan to make Los Angeles’ public transportation more cohesive. Though it will significantly benefit the neighborhoods and cities south of downtown specifically, this rail can affect everyone, according to Diaz.
“There is no one beneficiary to this new transit corridor,” said Diaz. “Communities in South Los Angeles and Inglewood, commuters trying to get to work without dealing with traffic, people trying to get downtown, to the West Side, to the South Bay, to LAX[...] This rail will mean a lot of things to a lot of people.”
The light rail is being primarily funded through Measure R, a voter-backed $40 billion initiative to fund traffic relief and aid transportation upgrades and also through an anticipated $20 million loan from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The Crenshaw Light Rail costs $1.7 billion and will stretch from the Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw area to Los Angeles International Airport. The high-price tag project faced fierce opposition from city planners who felt a Crenshaw bus line instead of a rail line would be more cost-effective.
“The rail was chosen as opposed to a less expensive bus option because of the connection it would make to other rail lines and the synergy it would have with the airport connection,” said Diaz in response to detractors. “More bus lines wouldn’t be as time-saving.”
The new transit corridor, a vision conceived shortly after the city’s 1992 riots as a way to serve transit-dependent residents in South Los Angeles, was the result of a nearly 20-year effort by urban advocacy groups like the Los Angeles Urban League, the South Los Angeles Neighborhood Council and the Urban Land Institute of Los Angeles.
View Map of Crenshaw Light Rail by Anita Little in a larger map
The project was then picked up city officials after studies found that there was a substantial loss to the Los Angeles economy stemming from the geographic mismatchbetween where jobs were available and where the unemployed or underemployed lived. The light rail has the potential to increase employment by putting people where the jobs are. Despite these studies, some experts doubt the Crenshaw Light Rail will ever live up to the lofty expectations set by the MTA and advocacy groups.
“There is no evidence that these system do anything for the community. The Blue Line, Green Line and Gold Line light rails have been in operation in L.A. for some years, and I’ve seen very little in the way of serious development impacts,” said Dr. Peter Gordon, a professor at the USC School of Policy, Planning and Development and an expert on urban economics.
“These systems are hugely expensive, and MTA has been shutting down bus service to pay for these rails. As a result, we barely have as many transit riders today as we had back in 1985. Could it be any worse?”
In the face of criticism, the project has still been funded and approved and is now in a stage of environmental review, meaning that the MTA is doing a full environmental analysis of the upcoming project to ascertain what impact the construction could have on the surrounding community. Once the review stage is over, the MTA can break ground on the new line, which most likely will occur in late 2011.
“It’s part of a broad approach to increasing quality of life in South Los Angeles and stabilizing communities,” said Carolyn Hull, the South Los Angeles regional administrator for the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles.
“Over the next twenty years, South Los Angeles will have a completely different transportation system. The light rail will allow people in communities without cars to connect and turn South Los Angeles into a more walkable community.”
Just the mere construction of the rail will create more than 7,800 jobs, according to the MTA; officials expect even more job creation as a result of the economic boost the rail will provide.
“Not only will it create jobs and provide long-term accessibility along with new opportunities for people to get around, it will continue to be an economic asset after its completion,” said Diaz, who studied urban planning and transportation efficiency at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“Projections show that additional development would also accompany the new lines. Residential and commercial development occurred along other lines like the Hollywood line and we expect a similar effect here.”
The new rail has a projected completion date of early 2016, and MTA officials expect an initial ridership of 13,000 to 16,000 people a day. The ultimate goal is increased mobility in South Los Angeles; some residents expect that will happen.
“It has the power to make my life easier and the lives of my neighbors easier,” said Danita Blanco, a hairdresser with no car access who lives in Greater Crenshaw with her five-year-old son, De’Ante. “I’ll have more choice of where I want to work, what food I want to buy and where I want my son to play. He needs to know a world exists beyond this block.”
More Nimbyism: Bus-Only Lanes Are A Bad Idea West Of Beverly Hills (http://www.westsidetoday.com)
By Guest Editorial by Ray Klein, Nancy Freedman and Lauren Cole | May 20, 2011
Link: http://www.westsidetoday.com/m3-5175/bus-only-lanes-are.html
In 2005, LADOT said: “The Department’s field observations and data collection have confirmed that traffic has diverted from Wilshire Boulevard. Eastbound traffic on Wilshire Boulevard normally destined for the northbound 405 Freeway appears to have diverted up to Sunset Boulevard to avoid congestion and delays resulting from the reduced capacity on Wilshire Boulevard.” An attached table said that the eastbound 4-7 PM travel time in the car lanes from Centinela to Federal increased 53%.
Metro and LADOT’s current answer to the prior failed experiment is to widen Wilshire to create an additional eastbound lane between Barrington and Bonsall (about midway between Federal and the 405). This won’t work. Even after widening, LADOT estimates that bus lanes would cause a 30% increased delay in year 2012 on Wilshire at Bundy going eastbound at 4-7PM. In 2020, the increased delay caused by bus lanes would be 45%. This increased delay at Bundy will motivate more traffic to get off Wilshire and go north through Brentwood streets to Sunset and the 405.
Moreover, widening Wilshire between Barrington and Federal should not, and probably cannot, be done. There are 5 trees in the sidewalk area on the south side of Wilshire and 4 trees on the north side. There are 3 bus bench and kiosk areas on each side (total of 6), and the distances from the back of the bus bench to the building line is as little as 4’3” and no greater than 5’6”. Tens of children from Uni waiting for a bus after school already spill over into the 7-Eleven parking lot (an even more narrow sidewalk will create an extreme safety hazard). There is a medical office building at the SW Federal corner and another at the NE corner of Barry (halfway between Barrington and Federal). Even if legally possible under Federal and State laws governing access by disabled in wheelchairs, narrowing these sidewalks would create an unsafe and unattractive condition for a major Boulevard such as Wilshire.
Councilman Rosendahl supports contiguous bus-only lanes in the 5.4 miles from the MacArthur Park area to the east side of Beverly Hills. That is a worthy project. The surrounding communities support that project area, and Federal dollars could be used to fix the curb lanes.
Under Metro’s proposal, the bus-only lanes west of LaCienega would not exist in 3 segments (Beverly Hills and two areas in Westwood), they are not supported by the surrounding communities, and the fragmented, on-again-off-again bottlenecks would result in delays, unsafe conditions and more pollution at each squeeze of the bottle.
You can make a difference. City Council will hear this matter on Tuesday, May 24, at 10:00AM, Room 340 at City Hall (entrance on Main Street between 1st St. and Temple). Small but organized and vocal groups from other areas will lobby for bus lanes in Brentwood for misguided reasons based on faulty assumptions. The Brentwood Community Council, the Brentwood Homeowners Association, and the South Brentwood Residents Association support bus-only lanes that are only east of Beverly Hills (Alternative A-2) - - the alternative with the fewest significant adverse impacts on traffic. Sign a “speaker card” at the hearing and make your voice heard. We all complain about traffic - now is your chance to do something about it. If it is not possible for you to be at City Hall, state your position in an email to councilman.rosendahl@lacity.org with a copy to info@brentwoodcommunitycouncil.org.
Biggest Transit Project in L.A. History Still on Hold for NoHo, but Financing Prospects Have Improved (http://northhollywood.patch.com)
Biggest Transit Project in L.A. History Still on Hold for NoHo, but Financing Prospects Have Improved
Announced in 2007, the $1 billion development is still in the works for the North Hollywood Metro area.
Planners are “on the cusp of getting it going,” said Roger Moliere, Chief of Real property Management and Development for Metro.
It stopped moving forward when the financial market froze up. “Every project in the country was unable to borrow,” Moliere said. Though the real estate market had bottomed out, it is on the upswing, he said.
The NoHo Art Wave was designed for construction at Lankershim Boulevard and Chandler Boulevard near Metro’s North Hollywood Station, with an aim of attracting more riders to the Orange line bus and Red line train. Such projects are planned so that people can live, work and shop in one locale, and use public transit to get to their other destinations, Moliere said.
The $1 billion development is slated to feature 562 housing units, three office towers, 1.72 million square feet of retail, a new YMCA community building and 6,200 parking spaces over 15.5 acres.
The property includes a historic train depot that may be reconstructed as part of the project, potentially as a Metro Customer Service Area, Moliere said.
The development contract was awarded by Metro to Lowe Enterprises, based in Brentwood. Under the agreement, the developer get the financing and builds and operates on a lease with Metro, Moliere said.
A timeline for the project has not been announced. “We do not have an update on that project at this time,” said Jann Diehl, Vice President for Lowe Enterprises.
The scope of NoHo Art Wave is substantially broader than the city’s most expensive Metro development to date, which is the $500 million Hollywood and Vine station, Moliere said.
While the land is in the city’s redevelopment area, it is owned by Metro, redevelopment officials confirmed. North Hollywood’s redevelopment, the NoHo Commons, started in 2004. It includes residential properties at the Gallery at NoHo Commons, and commercial and residential space at the Lofts at NoHo.
The most recent additions to NoHo's redevelopment projects include the reopening of the historicPhil’s Diner in April and the 7-screen Laemmle Theater, which broke ground May 10, according to Margarita De Escontrias, Regional Administrator for the East Valley and West Valley Regional Areas.
Though NoHo Art Wave is owned by Metro and NoHo Commons was financed in part with the city’s redevelopment funds, spokespeople for both projects expressed similar goals: to bring about a renaissance in the NoHo Arts District, to revitalize what were previously blighted areas, and to create an attractive, transit-oriented community.