What is wrong with Reseda?

UPDATE: After giving it some thought I've decided that the large parking lots behind the buildings along Sherman Way need to be redeveloped with housing. Parking for the commercial uses can be integrated into the new development. For sale or rental housing. A first apartment for a local kid, a place for a downsizing senior who wants to be able to walk places rather than drive, a condo for a young family just starting out.

Reseda is a neighborhood of Los Angeles in the San Fernando Valley. The population is about 75,000 which is approximately 11,500 people per square mile. The commercial center of the neighborhood is the intersection of Reseda Boulevard and Sherman Way. The area seems to have so much of what urbanists insist are essential to a vital, thriving, livable community. Yet Reseda doesn't seem to be performing as might be expected from a place with so many physical assets. The local councilman recently remarked that it had the area had the potential to be the "next hot night spot." I'm not sure what that means. Maybe just that it could have a more vibrant dining scene? I recently took some pictures of some of the physical assets in the area, which are below.

 

 Stores built to the sidewalk, street trees, on street parking, metered parking.

  

Buildings at the corner and opening to the corner, two story with office on the second floor, cross walks clearly marked.

 

 Streets are not excessively wide, crosswalks clearly marked, landscaped center median, retail windows open to the street.

 

On street parking, landscaped center median.

Charming "pedestrian level" lighting at bus stops. 

 

 

 Two examples of the more than adequate supply of free parking that was empty or nearly empty on  Sunday afternoon.  

That was the good. And now the bad.

                                                     

Vacant store front on Sherman Way 

 

Two separate churches in what should be revenue generating commercial spaces.

 

 

Vacant movie theater. (Doesn't every failing downtown have an empty old movie theater?) 

 

This didn't help matters. A Walgreen's set back form the street with a parking lot fronting the street. Exactly the opposite of what they should be building here.  They could have very easily brought that store to the corner and put the parking behind it.

Why, in spite of so many great assets, is this district do down and out? I did a Google search for "downtown Reseda plan" and the first hit was an LA Times article from 1990 "Revised Plan for Downtown Reseda Draws Mixed Reviews." Basically, the business owners and residents opposed mixed-use development, insisted on a two story height limit, and wanted to ensure that auto oriented uses such as repair and upholstery could open and expand in the area. It just seems like an odd place to want to concentrate those uses. But having read some of the comments in that article, I'm not surprised that downtown Reseda is in the state it's in. I'd love to learn more about this area and understand why it's struggling so badly.

Related: Review: A New Streetscape for Burlingame Avenue

Playa Vista Seating

This is just a little piece of the Los Angeles neighborhood of Playa Vista. This lovely space lines a park that is the center of a small commercial/residential mixed-use neighborhood surrounded by medium density multi-family and single family homes.   What I like about this space is the double rows of trees, the decomposed granite path, the movable table and chairs, and the proximity to a coffee shop, market, and yogurt store.  There are often families with young children playing at the park or just sitting in the grass enjoying the typically beautiful weather. The day I took these photos I spotted a group of people stepping off distances and taking pictures and I guessed correctly that they were planners who had come to see the place for themselves. They had come all the way from Australia to tour this and other similar developments across the United States. This space definitely has appeal. It's small, simple, and a quiet refuge from the traffic and less than attractive built environment just a couple blocks away. It's a place we make a point of stopping for coffee and sitting for a few minutes or walking through the neighborhood whenever we are in the area. For the folks who live here as well as people like me who like to stop buy for a coffee and a brief visit this neighborhood is a place worth caring about.  

Related: This post from Better Cities  - Walkable is good, "sit-able" is better - suggests that sit-ability is as important an urban concept as walk ability. 

 

Old Urbanism

A few shots of Old Towne Orange, California. This downtown reflects many of the ideals of today's "New Urbanism." It's not a perfect place. There's a lot of cut-through car traffic and not too far from the center it peters out into typical auto oriented southern California land use patterns. Orange's downtown is large enough, however, to be a good reference point for the city's residents when developers or planners want to convey any idea. "Do you like downtown? That's what we want to replicate." Or conversely, "We intend for this to be nothing like downtown." My favorite picture is the one of the circle with the fountain in the center. 

 

Seaside

The resort town of Seaside in Florida is an early example of "New Urbanist" ideals. There are many criticisms of the place such as it's supposed artificiality. It is a resort town so it's fair to question whether or not these ideals work in the "real world." Traditional town design exemplified by Seaside seemed to work well in North America for at least 300 years, but is it possible technology such as teh automobile and Internet have rendered this model of human habtitat obsolete? Big question. One I don't dare attempt to answer on a blog like this. 

A post at Better! Cities and Towns provides some thoughts and shares the video I've included below.

But the story is so much more good than bad.  One has to remember, as the video below reminds us, that the compact, 80-acre town was conceived over 30 years ago, when almost no one was building walkable communities.  If it wasn’t sprawl, it didn’t sell, or so people thought.  Seaside may have been built on decades-old premises, but it was downright radical for its day.