Crossing the Freeway: An Epic Production!
by Tony Chavira
(a little background music while you read this post)
The Los Angeles Times had an interesting article this weekend about the way that Orange County views the tranportation planning process versus the way that Los Angeles views the process (and allocation fo funds). Being Southern California, these issues naturally revolve around driving and freeway use:
Orange County's plan to widen a traffic-clogged stretch of the 405 Freeway is facing unexpected opposition from some residents along the route and has generated new debate over the divergent transportation priorities of L.A. and Orange counties.
The plan targets one of the region's biggest traffic trouble spots, where 300,000 cars travel each day between Irvine and the L.A. County border. [...]
But critics say the project is a prime example of a lack of regional coordination between Orange and Los Angeles counties. L.A. County officials have no plans to widen their portion of the 405 beyond the county line, and some worry about creating a bottleneck near where the 405, 605 and 22 freeways merge. [...]
The situation underscores a basic philosophical difference between the counties. L.A. has focused its transportation money on opening new rail lines: the Gold Line Eastside extension, which opened over the weekend, and the Expo Line from downtown to Culver City, which is under construction. Orange County doesn't have light rail and has focused its resources largely on improving freeways and surface streets.
But we've known about these contentious transportation planning coordination efforts for a while now. Generally speaking, Orange County's always been a little more interested in planning for drivers, just check out the way that communities like Irvine and Laguna Nigel were planned. On the other hand, areas like Downtown Santa Ana and Downtown Anaheim really could benefit from the surge in public transportation accessibility, and a lot of the reason people move to Laguna Beach is that they're able to walk around there. Yes, walking has become a luxury, and unfortunately not one that everyone in Orange County can afford. Although from the looks of things, it may get more unaffordable to drive as the century blazes forward... the Dutch are already catching on, and you never know how far behind we are.
Appropriately (although sorta tangentially), the Times also reported on the L.A. Opera's new production themed around another North/South freeway, the 110 from Pasadena to San Pedro:
According to L.A. Opera, "The 110 Project" tells the story of four central characters as it travels through 70 years of L.A. history starting with the birth of the space program in Pasadena's Arroyo Seco in 1939 to downtown Los Angeles at midcentury. It concludes at the port of San Pedro in the present day.
Although I personally wish the L.A. Opera put a little more about the San Pedro and Harbor areas, it seems like a production that most people should be able to relate to... the tragedy of traffic, as seen through the melodramatic monumentality of opera. How many times have you been cut off on a bumper-to-bumper freeway and exploded in emotional frustration?
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