Want to see something really insane? Check out the location of the Gold Line Extension stop at Pico / Aliso (the little red “A” on the map below):
Can you figure out why I hate the placement of this station?
Here’s a hint: Look at the use of the land on the north side of 1st St., stretching to the east. See how it’s playing fields? Look to the west… it’s a huge LAUSD school.
Who the hell wants to walk by 1/4 mile of playing fields or school buildings to get to the metro? Imagine doing that walk at night… it would be absolutely terrifying.
As developers, we’re always looking to find cool, little, walkable neighborhoods where you can create distinctive places to live. In some ways, the western part of Boyle Heights fits the bill. It’s really close to downtown, has a metro stop that takes you right into the Arts District in two seconds, and has some relatively cheap buildings you could potentially buy and turn around.
Sadly, whoever chose the location of this Metro stop pretty much guaranteed that no one would be able to do anything interesting around it. Just a text-book case of bad transit planning.