710 Freeway

This is what I consider a very important issue for La Canada and something we need learn more about. While it is possibly decades away, if it becomes a reality it will adversely impact the city, our schools (LCE is almost on top of the freeway) and our real estate values. Tomorrow night (Friday, February 26) the City of South Pasadena is holding a City Council meeting to discuss the proposed 710 tunnel (thank you Carol Liu!). Our mayor Laura Olasso will be there with Anthony Portantino as well as Ara Najarian, a Metro Board Chair from Glendale and an outspoken opponent of the tunnel (ie: friend to La Canada). Registration starts at 6:30 and the meeting at 7:00. It will be held at South Pas High, 1401 Fremont. If you attend, please post information on the blog.

Comments

[Scott Piotrowski]

My understanding is, through the use of Measure R funds, that MTA is already researching public / private partnerships to construct this monstrosity. It may not be decades away. It could be decade (singular) away, or at the very least, construction could be much sooner than anyone realizes. This is definitely an issue that all throughout the region should be aware of, and those directly affected should be very intimately involved in.

[Gillan Abercrombie Frame]

Hi Scott-

I have left a message for Anthony Portantino regarding the outcome of last Fridays meeting in South Pasadena. We are working on putting together a meeting that will be held in a La Canada home on Wednesday. Please check the blog for confirmation and location. I do think that the La Canada community needs to band together and join with La Crescenta and the Linda Vista area of Pasadena to defeat this proposed freeway extension.

[Sean]

Why are you opposed to progress? Do you think the traffic jam and dangerous congestion on valley blvd is fair to homeowners as drivers navigate to S.Pas? Are you telling me you don't use the freeway system and only take side roads? I highly doubt that!

Just so you understand it's called "eminent domain" and it's a law; the right of the state to take private property for public use; the Fifth Amendment that was added to the Constitution of the United States requires that just compensation be made.

If your whole case is based on real-estate values and "schools" in just your community, then you really don't care about the greater good for the city. If it's about money, better infrastructure makes LCF worth more as it increases access. Just as I would like to see the completion of the 2 all the way to the 101.

Please post all of the horrors this highway will bring? Personally, I think it should be above ground, and they should remove the homes in it's path. When you bought you knew it might happen, so deal with it.

[Gillan Abercrombie Frame]

Whoa Sean! Everyone has a right to their own opinion and I do not want to have more noise and pollution in La Canada. What about a greener alternative like high speed rails. It is 2010 and extending the 710 with a tunnel to funnel trucks through La Canada, La Crescenta, Pasadena and South Pas is hardly for the greater good of those cities. Wake up and smell theemissions Sean. It stinks...

[Sean]

"I do not want to have more noise and pollution in La Canada."
If this is a fear about trucking routes; we need to consider the cost and un-green alternative trucks are using today to get goods to La Canada. Maybe, we need a rail to move the goods from the port to an inland area eliminating the local trucks all together.

"What about a greener alternative like high speed rails. It is 2010 and extending the 710 with a tunnel to funnel trucks through La Canada, La Crescenta, Pasadena and South Pas is hardly for the greater good of those cities."
Rail will never work in LA due to the design of the city. You need to fix the rail/bus/local transportation issue. I am all for rail having liven in San Fran, but the design of San Fran is different. And if they can't build a 3 mile tunnel for the 710, I don't know how they will ever dig enough tunnels to create something like BART in San Fran.

"Wake up and smell the emissions Sean. It stinks..."
I agree, but most emissions are from idling cars. (except hybrids) So the other 99% crawling through side streets are far less green than a highway. And dangerous.

Maybe there isn't a solution that will make everyone happy. But something needs to be done to fix the traffic issue in that area. Even if it's side streets, timing the lights better, anything. It's currently a horrible mess getting to South Pas. And the 110 is a freeway of death. There are so many accidents due to the design and short entrance ramps.

If there is a alternative that fixes the congestion then I am for it, until then the extension of the 710 is the fix I see. (And ban trucks from 6P-6A.)