A Destination, Not A Pass Through: Venice Beach

[Metro Jacksonville]

A Destination, Not A Pass Through: Venice Beach



Metro Jacksonville takes a visit to one of the most vibrant and eclectic areas of Southern California: Venice Beach

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2012-feb-a-destination-not-a-pass-through-venice-beach

[John P]

Like south beach proximity to the beach is half the draw. Many of the street vendors are about to get the boot. http://www.npr.org/2011/12/21/144087068/l-a-votes-to-limit-vendors-on-venice-boardwalk

[Ocklawaha]

Ever wonder how such cool places happened? Welcome to the world of the Pacific Electric Railroad... oh and YES I DO remember it!

From the Hill Street Subway Station a turn onto Venice Blvd.



Off the street on 'The Venice Short Line' a special piece of the PE



Racing on the high speed line at La Cienega Blvd, built elevated to handle 4 tracks, 2 express and 2 local lines... torn down for FREEway's in 1960.


Venice Station


Typical PE Station interior, VENICE


OH AND NOW GUESS WHAT?



What were we saying about "Jacksonville Stupid?" Here is the new rendering of the UNDER CONSTRUCTION so-called EXPO RAIL LINE, LA CIENEGA STATION, and it's elevated again! What goes around - comes around?

[thelakelander]

Is the Expo Line utilizing the old Pacific Electric route?

[Ocklawaha]

GIFT SHOP ON SUNSET BLVD.


A contemporary Light Rail train in LA, saluting the colors of the old PE.

Is the Expo Line utilizing the old Pacific Electric route?

Yes, for some of phase 1, and most of phase 2. What we 'southlanders' called "The Big Red Cars" seems to be making a smashing comeback, sorry to say though, the GM people were so good at killing rail that in many places we will pay to restore a cheap-fast food version of the PACIFIC ELECTRIC. Light rail was absent from the LA basin for only 20 years but within weeks of taking up the last of the PE passenger trackage (much of the freight trackage is still operated by Union Pacific) the citizens groaned, that slowly became a roar!  Los Angeles went on to try the "FREEway" experiment after beating General Motors in court, the need for the PE was real, and as it turned out, it was a short interlude.

From Wiki

The westernmost station of Expo Phase 1 is Culver City station, in a location previously known as "Culver Junction". From here, Phase 2 heads west along the old Pacific Electric Santa Monica Air Line right-of-way (ROW). It passes first through densely populated Palms, and then under the 10 freeway into Rancho Park, a quiet, affluent suburban neighborhood just south of busy Pico Boulevard. Through Rancho Park, the ROW borders Cheviot Hills. This part of the ROW is a shortcut through street grid with few crossings, allowing it to run at higher speeds. (A video of this segment is found on YouTube.)
Coming out of Rancho Park, the route crosses Sepulveda at a location once known as "Home Junction". The route then follows the ROW under the 405 freeway and across West Los Angeles. Near Olympic and Cloverfield, the ROW passes Bergamot Station art facility and the Watergarden. The Exposition ROW ends at 17th St in Santa Monica. Finally, the corridor will follow the median of Colorado Ave to 4th Street in Santa Monica.

[obie1]

love these old rail photos makes me think every train everywhere should be required to be red.

[Tacachale]

^I always thought Jacksonville should have multicolored trolleys, like the bridges. Or in the very least, blue like the Main Street Bridge (the best bridge because it leads from my house to Downtown).

[Captain Zissou]

Another notable citizen of Venice beach is Neil Everett, the Sportscenter anchor. 

Maybe if we spruce up downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods, our local celebs will venture out from Queens Harbor to settle down in the core.

[John P]

"Local" celebrities and important people have. Even some national ones.

[iloveionia]

Venice Beach is still considered a bit rough, but even as a local I love going there; extremely ecclectic. What you see on TV is pretty true to life.  They recently re-did a LARGE skate park there on the ocean, closing the ever popular totally graffited one.  There are a lot of old homes in Venice, particularly bungalows that are lined on the canals and the side streets.   Surfing is killer there, let me tell you their waves HURT.  LOL.  Lastly, they are one of the cities that also took ownership of their alleys, utilizing them to expand their businesses and beautifying them. 

[Ocklawaha]

^I always thought Jacksonville should have multicolored trolleys, like the bridges. Or in the very least, blue like the Main Street Bridge (the best bridge because it leads from my house to Downtown).

WE DID!

ACTUALLY, the Jacksonville Traction Company created a "COLOR THE TROLLEY" contest for the local schools. There were several winners named, and they each had a streetcar painted to match their picture.  We have not located a photo of any of the trolley's so the memory of this is just about lost, but it must have been amazing. The Florida Times-Union warned the citizens on the day of the first roll-out to "wear your darkest sun glasses" and "your not having hallucinations!"

We can hold out hope that somewhere, in some proud family photo album there is a photo or two of the EXTREME TROLLEYS OF JACKSONVILLE. Anyone who might know an aging citizen or streetcar employee, or with a lead or a hint, please take one step forward.

OCK

[Tacachale]

^That's so cool! Certainly something we should resurrect when we bring the streetcars back.

[Ocklawaha]

OMG! What a cool LRT video, if this video doesn't light your fire, your woods wet! This is the Expo line... er...uh...The Pacific Electric reincarnation towards Venice mentioned above.

There are people over at our JTA, and in our City Hall, that will watch this, slap their knee, and exclaim BUS IS BETTER! I mean after all, everyone knows that "BUS RAPID TRANSIT is just like rail only CHEAPER!" (Slogan of the National Bus Rapid Transit Institute and Movement). ...And I agree with them.

dictionary.com comments:
Cheap, and inexpensive,  agree in their suggestion of low cost. Cheap  now usually suggests shoddiness, inferiority, showy imitation, complete unworthiness, and the like: a cheap kind of fur. Inexpensive  emphasizes lowness of price (although more expensive than cheap ) and suggests that the value is fully equal to the cost: an inexpensive dress.  It is often used as an evasion for the more specific cheap. 4.  paltry, low, poor, inferior, base.

Gotta love watching that overhead catenary swing right-left-right-left-right... its hypnotizing. (This is done BTW to prevent wear on the pantograph wiper or contact bar, it is NOT done with streetcar lines using a simple trolley wire and pole contact).

http://www.youtube.com/v/BA4kZXPuaCM?version=3&hl=en_US