Posted Jul 1, 2016, 7:16 PM
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SUSPENDED
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Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 6,518
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Eagle rock
They are putting up green construction fencing around the site and there is a bulldozer and a couple of porta pottys on one of the lots.
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Driving through downtown Los Angeles has never been a breeze, but some frustrated commuters say waiting 10 to 15 minutes to travel a few blocks through the Central City is becoming commonplace.
After decades of relative quiet, downtown is teeming with commercial and residential life. The growth, coupled with a strong economy and a surge in construction, has sparked what residents and commuters say is some of the worst traffic they can remember.
Numerous high-rise towers are now under construction, including one that will be the West Coast’s tallest, as is another subway project that will snake between Union Station and the west side of downtown. Add that to regular construction and filming, and traffic really starts to back up.
But over a two-year period, the number of lane- and street-closure permits issued by the city rose by 147%, from 43 in March of 2014 to 106 in March of this year, according to a Times analysis. The increases were most dramatic for permits related to construction, which soared 181% over that period, from 32 in 2014 to 90 this year. Those figures reflect the growing popularity of the area neighborhood and the strength of the local economy, which has encouraged developers to resume long-dormant construction and start new projects, experts say. That includes the Metropolitan Transportation Authority subway project and several new skyscrapers, including the 73-story Wilshire Grand.
“From our perspective, traffic is good news,” said Carol Schatz, the president and chief executive officer of the Central City Assn. of Los Angeles.
At a recent City Hall function, a state assemblyman said he counted a dozen cranes towering over the skyline.
Traffic in downtown Los Angeles has been the subject of complaints and hand-wringing for nearly a century. For years, the dense area was the undisputed center of fledgling Los Angeles, drawing workers, shoppers and theater-goers on streetcars and, eventually, in more and more cars.
As downtown’s supremacy declined after World War II, traffic patterns shifted toward the morning and afternoon commutes. Now, the pattern has become more complex.
Much of the development boom of the last decade has been in housing, creating a new class of downtown residents that now number more than 60,000. And a thriving arts, dining and nightlife scene draws thousands more after work hours end, adding more cars and people to the mix.
Since 1999, when the Los Angeles City Council approved a policy that made it easier to convert former business and industrial buildings into apartments, condos and retail spaces, downtown’s population has soared. That boom appears to be continuing. More than 10,000 condos and apartments units are under construction in downtown, of which 4,000 are expected to open this year, Schatz said.
Other construction includes infrastructure investment: mainly, the Metro Downtown Regional Connector, a 1.9-mile subway project that will knit together three light-rail lines between Union Station and a rail hub at 7th and Flower streets.
“It’s just like this traffic sewer,” said Max Podemski, 32, who lives at 3rd and Spring and works in Pacoima. Until the city added traffic officers along the street, he said, he sometimes waited 15 minutes to drive two blocks.
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