City Councilmen Tom LeBonge has been kicking around an idea for some time now that would connect the Southern California Institute of Architecture to the Arts District located just south of the campus using an existing rail line that has been previously abandoned. This idea didn’t gain much support from the Mayors Office when it was first introduced four years ago. So when LaBonge was asked by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to sit in on the Feb. 25 Metro board meeting in the place of Councilman and Metro board member José Huizar, LaBonge made his pitch again.

Lebonge commissioned a feasibility report to be completed by Metro Staff. The report would include the environmental impacts of adding a service car to the Red and Purple Lines that would service a new station at Sixth Street near Santa Fe Avenue. Lebonge wanted to make it clear that no new track would need to be constructed and a platform could easily be erected either there or near Third Street.

LaBonge envisions the line extension as a way for people to get to and from SCI-Arc and the Arts and Industrial districts, and possibly as an opportunity to reduce congestion at Union Station’s Patsaouras Transit Plaza.

“If I can use a baseball analogy, a lot of times you try to get a hit and maybe you get a hit to the outfield but you don’t score,” LaBonge said. “I didn’t hit this one out of the park, but we’re at least in play to get around the bases.”

Looks like Anschutz Entertainment Group is not done with their multi million dollar development at LA Live. The Community Redevelopment Agency is considering a request from AEG to develop the South Park entertainment district. Their intentions are to create a more business oriented development that will provide customers for the existing restaurant tenants.

Today, January 21, 2010, the CRA is considering the request to add office and production studio space to the site, while reducing the number of hotel rooms that were part of the original LA Live master plan. This doesn’t come as a surprise since the hotel industry is still hurting the recent recession. More hotels have gone out of business in the last 3 years compared to the previous 10 years combined.

This would allow for AEG to add approximately 600,000 square feet of office space. No timeline has been provided. In addition the above mentioned project, the City Planning Commission separately considered plans for AEG to develop a 269,182 square foot broadcasting studio at LA Live that could accommodate a nationwide cable television network.

Living in Los Angeles has proven to be an existence in various shades of tan, brown, acrid yellow and if we are lucky to be missing the notorious smoggy grey haze a scientific blue. I ask, in this perfect climate where is the green?  I am sure our extreme lack of “green” space does not help with the production of the much needed supplemental oxygen and room to wiggle our toes. Los Angeles is considered to be the most park poor major city in America, with a sparse 7.8 % of its city space allocated to parks.  It seems that other Angelinos might be feeling the lack of green these days and perhaps find more value in parks and recreational areas, because the “Green Alley Movement is gaining momentum:The city of Los Angeles has officially committed to an innovative proposal to transform some of its neglected alley ways, typically used for dumping, trash bins, slumbering quarters for the occasional drunken bar hopper unable to make the staggering trek home and just good old fashioned crime.  This transformation comes by way of “green space”The proposed green alley project will use existing spaces in a new progressive way.  It is creative ideas using mostly existing infrastructure that will quickly transition urban areas to sustainable pedestrian havens.  Most of the existing alleys in LA are in dense single-family residential neighborhoods, and the majority of these are in South Los Angeles.   The goal is to give these spaces back to the public for recreational use, and in turn increase the green space of the city. The City Council approved recommendations advancing the proposal of the Green Alley Project. It included provisions for developing design guidelines, determining cost, building a detailed map of alleys and identifying pilot project sites.  The first pilot project site to be Cosmo Alley and slated for completion the summer of 2010.This alley runs north and south from Hollywood Boulevard and Selma Avenue between Cahuenga Boulevard and Cosmo Street and has been gated for many years.   Adjacent businesses have used the public alley for private purposes and the public has been denied access to the alley.  This canker sore of a street and eclectic mishmash of dumpster valet is soon to be reborn as a pedestrian mall as City Council with Garcetti’s motion has declared this alley to be returned to the public and require business’s to apply for revocable permits for the use of the public space.What does this mean to business’s and local property owners? Simply, more pedestrian traffic and opportunity to increase business and revenue.  What does this mean to residents and tenants in the area?  A well maintained relaxing space to enjoy lunch alfresco, and a great place to take a stroll and wiggle your toes.

It seems as though the developer, Related, is in the process of trying to get a smaller portion of the project approved, rather than moving forward with the original plan. This of course is the result of the current economic climate. In recent months, lenders have pulled back financing on previously approved projects. Only the most seasoned developers are able to successfully negotiate with their lenders to be able to push some portion of their project through.

The Grand Ave Project was originally going to include a 48-story Mandarin Oriental Hotel & Residences with 295 hotel rooms and 266 condominiums, a 19-story tower with 126 market-rate apartments and 98 affordable residences, a 250,000-square-foot retail pavilion and a 16-acre Civic Park. Subsequent phases would bring more than 2,000 additional housing units, a grocery store and health club, and would nearly double the amount of retail in the project. The entire development is slated to occupy 3.6 million square feet of space across from Walt Disney Concert Hall.

“I’m looking at one of the parcels for a short-term project,” said City Councilwoman Jan Perry, whose Ninth District includes the Grand Avenue site. “It is a more immediate project.”

Perry would not divulge any details about what the new project would encompass or even who would develop it. More information will likely be revealed at a meeting of the Grand Avenue Authority (the city-county agency overseeing the Grand Avenue development), tentatively scheduled for Dec. 14, Perry said.

I believe whatever will be approved, even though it wont be the original plan, will only add tremendous value to an area that is in desperate need of it. This might mean a short-term development strategy as well as a long-term plan.

Today marks the grand opening of eight new MTA stations along the Gold Line.  The six miles addition cost the city $898 million.  With such a high price tag many have asked weather the cost was worth it.

The new stops on the Gold Line incorporate downtown Los Angeles, Little Tokyo, Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles and the banks of the L.A. River.  While the benefits of the extension may take some time to develop, the city has great plans for many of these areas.  The L.A. River has a city plan for redevelopment which will make the surrounding areas more desirable than in the past.  Just the fact that most of this particular extension is above ground allows train commuters to see these areas on a regular basis bringing the rejuvenation of these areas a visual representation on a daily basis.

This extension is not the end of the line, with a 24-miles long extension already moving forward through the San Gabriel Valley, downtown and the rest of the city are closer to one another than ever before.  As the expansion of the various MTA rail lines continue and more forgotten neighborhoods and landmarks are incorporated their connection to the city is reestablished and allows us to see the surrounding areas in a different light. For more information on the Gold Line’s future plans visit www.metrogoldline.org