A 1.25 mile stretch of Pasadena Avenue between Figueroa Street and Broadway in Lincoln Heights will soon see a $2.5 million makeover courtesy of Bureau of Street Services (BSS) and Councilmember Gil Cedillo.

$2.5 million? That’s a lot of money! Roughly $2 million per mile, to be precise. Surely there was a robust community outreach and input process, right? Not quite.

In June 2015, Gil Cedillo announced in a newsletter that there would be a meeting regarding some vague proposed “improvements” to Pasadena Avenue. The meeting was held on June 23rd, a Tuesday evening at 5:30pm. If you think it’s tough to attend a meeting at that time, you’re not the only one. Despite there being thousands of residents along and nearby the project corridor, less than a dozen people showed up. And those that were able to make the meeting were disappointed that there wasn’t much to provide input on.

After a confusing and hastily put together presentation, attendees were asked to choose their preference for street lighting and decorative sidewalk stamps. That’s all. What about the part that involved removing vital shade trees and on-street parking? Nope, that was a done deal as far as Cedillo was concerned.

Now, almost 2 years later, residents are being confronted with the ugly reality of this costly makeover. And once again, residents are receiving little notice.

One neighbor shared on social media that a number of maturing trees along Pasadena Avenue are slated to be cut down. The reason? The public notice doesn’t state why the trees will be removed but it’s being done to replace relatively functional sidewalks with decorative sidewalks and to install some lighting.

And this is just the beginning. Businesses and residents on the west side of Pasadena Avenue between Avenue 29 and Avenue 35 will see their on-street parking stripped from them to make way for bike lanes. Bike lanes are generally a good idea (the bike lanes on Colorado Boulevard and York Boulevard are great!) but removing on-street parking on a corridor like Pasadena Avenue to create space for bike lanes is bad planning. And to do so without consulting residents is wrong.

Cars routinely exceed the posted speed limit on Pasadena Avenue and removing parking will only make it easier to speed. Without parking on the west side of the street the southbound travel lane will be made wider which will further enable speeding. Why not instead narrow the traffic lanes to discourage speeding? Or why not consider removing the center turn lane if residents would rather keep their parking?

These questions, and plenty of others, were never open to discussion because Gil Cedillo was not interested in extensive community outreach. But when the City is spending $2.5 million, there should absolutely be more community outreach and input on design.

Lincoln Heights resident, and City Council candidate, Joe Bray-Ali raised similar objections to this plan back in 2015. Here’s what Bray-Ali had to say at the time:

“Why spend hundreds of thousands on lights and sidewalks when you can’t maintain what we’ve already got? I’d prefer to see more broken sidewalks fixed in the surrounding neighborhood rather than one super shiny, patterned, bronze-plaqued, strip of sidewalk with high priced fancy light posts. Save the deluxe treatment for a time when it will do some good. Right now, we need the basics. Who will walk on this fancy sidewalk when all the surrounding sidewalks are broken?”



Good question, Mr. Bray-Ali! As for now, Cedillo’s lack of concern for community input is causing a lot of frustration, and rightly so. If Gil Cedillo is re-elected on March 7th, we can expect 5 more years of neglect, hastily put together community meetings, and poor planning. This is one of several reasons why we at Walk Eagle Rock have endorsed Joe Bray Ali.