In response to some mumblings and rumblings—bumblings? somethings—over at Curbed LA, I thought I'd send Atwater Villagers home for the weekend with a short update on some of the work CD13 has been doing in that community.
First question: why do asphalt streets have more repair work done than concrete streets, and why have some streets been paved more than once in recent memory? (I'm paraphrasing.)
The recent "repaving" that the curbed.la reader saw was actually a slurry-seal treatment, not a full repaving. The existing streets got a thin layer of petroleum "slurry". This extends the life of the street by an average of 7 additional years, delaying the need for a full, expensive repaving.
Concrete streets are more difficult. Since it's pretty much cost-prohibitive to repair them to their original state, the Bureau of Street Services (BOSS) prefers to fix them by paving them over with asphalt—which many residents, fond of the concrete streets, object to. Federal and state dollars that could be used for concrete street repair become available annually, but there is heavy competition between worthy neighborhood projects for those funds.
Second question: Why are we doing temporary street sweeping on certain blocks of Atwater Village when we could just add a few signs and have regular street sweeping?
Sadly, I can't add city services simply by placing a sign on a street. The addition of new blocks to the street-sweeping route requires an allocation from resources that are already very scarce. The writer mentions a temporary program, probably the one we conducted between Atwater Street and Silver Lake Boulevard. We were able to persuade the BOSS to extend the six-month program for a second six months, but they had to end it after the first renewal. I continue to keep an eye out for new funds that could address this problem.
There's more to Atwater Village than street cleaning and slurry sealing, though! Here's a short taste of some of our recent and ongoing work in the neighborhood:
- At Chevy Chase Park and by the Red Car River Park, we've found funds to raise the wattage on the lights and install security cameras that will be monitored by the LAPD. These cameras have been very successful at preventing crime elsewhere in CD13 and throughoutthe city.
- My office is assisting the nascent Fletcher Drive Business Watch by producing new Business Watch District signage, complete with LA Municipal Code citations.
- You may have already seen the recently completed lighting improvements in South Atwater Village, not to mention the long-awaited Glendale Bouelvard streetscape project