Can North Fig Rise Again?

HIGHLAND PARK-Mayor Eric Garcetti a few weeks back designated 15 L.A. “Great Streets.” I so want to believe this is a good thing. 

Under the Great Streets program, one street in each of the City Council’s 15 districts has been singled out. And the mayor has found about $800,000 to make improvements on each one of them. 

He says his program will fundamentally change “how we perceive, interact and build around us.” 

I, for one, am completely in favor of fundamental change. It is what opens our minds and makes us grow as a society. 

The mayor says he has most city departments on board, from Sanitation and Cultural Affairs to Street Lighting and Engineering.That will come in handy. 

But I wonder: Can you simply throw money at a street and make it “great?” That is what I wanted to know, way before I ignited the Prius and took to the 15 streets. 

How can the city turn, say, nearly impassable traffic-choked Venice Boulevard from Beethoven Street to Inglewood Boulevard into a Great Street? 

So I threw an imaginary dart at a map of the city to determine where I would go first. 

I settled on North Figueroa Street between Avenue 50 and 60 in District 1 – Highland Park, mostly. 

Besides, as a native of this great town, I had never before been there. 

The street has seen better days. 

North Fig, as everyone who lives or does business there calls it, has a quaintness to it, and if you could forgive the empty storefronts, check-cashing and fast-food joints that populate it now, it could be mistaken for the main drag in Any Town, USA. 

Someone – I am guessing around the turn of the last century – actually put some architectural thought into the buildings that line the wide street that once housed car dealers, furniture stores and mom & pop businesses.

(Read the rest here)  

-cw

 

 

 

CityWatch

Vol 12 Issue 50

Pub: June 20, 2014