LA’s crazy Metro system
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.
You are right about that station. In fact, I heard that it was the least used station in the entire system.
Given that, I do think it is a pretty big future positive to be near a Metro station going forward in LA. In the past not so much as the system was small and generally used by just the poor and carless, but now the system is growing fast and will be pretty comprehensive in 10 years. Given high oil prices, the younger generations embrace of transit, and the city encouraging building development around transit my bet is it is going to be much more of a value driver in the future similar to how it is in other cities around the world.
Matt
07/17/2012 at 10:03 am
I’m 100% with you on the overall sentiment. Love the idea of transit oriented development. It’s just that the locations of the stations tend to be terrible.
Even the one on 1st and Boyle, Mariachi Plaza, is terribly located. You have to walk by the whole, empty plaza to get to the station from the east.
Locating a station next to playing fields, parks, municipal buildings, schools, etc. is nuts, because no one can develop directly on top of, or adjacent to, the station. That means that you’re not getting the full benefit of the investment in mass transit.
mjkagan
07/17/2012 at 12:56 pm
If anything validates your comment it’s that it’s near a joint called “Purgatory Pizza.”
CF
07/20/2012 at 5:08 pm
Indeed!
mjkagan
07/20/2012 at 5:11 pm