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What was a solution to prevent graffiti tagging on soundwalls became a problem as transients moved in. When Metro's Orange Line opened in 2005, the bike path walls had little growth around them, leaving them as a blank canvas for graffiti. Landscaping was planted to discourage tagging and it was a success for the most part, but when you have space and shrubbery, it also become shelter. As seen here, many have made it their home.
LAist Editor Zach Behrens works with the LAPD Van Nuys Division Senior Lead Officer Transiet Committee, which seeks long term solutions homeless problems in the division, as a volunteer
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I guess now we know where all those unhappy campers moved to when they got herded out of skid row.
It starts getting gnarly east of Sepulveda. I have to be careful not to ride through broken glass, and one afternoon I biked around a guy sleeping in the middle of the path. I think he was sleeping, anyway...
Even without the bums, the Orange Line is the shittiest bike path in Los Angeles.
I really hope those chains are for drying clothes...
Nice one MTA! Who is supposed to take care of that bike path?
Certainly not the City of L.A. - which went to the state supreme court to fight for its right to not fix dangerously designed and un-maintained "paths" (not the same as a sidewalk or a road).
Seriously, who can be contacted and what can be done to clean up that brush and regularly maintain this path?
The City of Los Angeles is actually responsible for the Orange Line bike path. In fact, the LADOT Bikeways staff take great pride in the Orange Line Bikepath and actually have a little powerpoint presentation entitled "Orange Line Bike Path: Integrating a Bikeway within a Bus Rapid Transit Corridor" that they love to take on the road.
As for the maintenance of the Orange Line, ah well, they can't be at conferences educating the world and here in town taking care of business. It's one or the other.
Paul Meshkin is the new head of Bikeways and his number is 213.972.4959
Tim Fremaux is the Bikeways engineer responsible for supervising the contractor responsible for the Orange Line Bikeway landscaping and maintenance and his number is 213.972.4957
The engineers who plan these facilities have a hard time understanding that a bike path separated by a fence and then decorated with significant landscaping is a dangerous place for cyclists because there is no escape and there are too many hiding places.
The LA River path, the Orange Line and Ballona Creek are all examples of poorly engineered and maintained facilities that are best suited for secluded campgrounds.
Of course there's always the Expo Line coming up and we'll see what the Bikeways team can come up with to let the cycling community know just how important we are in the grand scheme of transportation!
My wife and I use the orange line bike path for recreation on the weekends, between sepulveda and White Oak, and pass by the area a couple of these photos were probably taken. There are basically two areas in that range where it's likely that vagrants are living. 1.) immediately west of where the path crosses under the 405 freeway, and 2.) amongst the trees where the path slaloms along Victory. I have seen only one site along the 2.5 mile section of path we use where a vagrant was clearly living, however.
All that said, I would venture to guess that the orange line bike path is an example of a SUCCESSFUL bike path project. If we surveyed all the bike paths in the county, I would bet that the orange line path falls near the bottom of the list in terms of paths needing funds for beautification and repair. How about the L.A. River bike path or the Ballona Creek bike path, for example?
To be honest, I'd much rather the money be spent to build MORE bike paths throughout the county than to somehow make it harder for vagrants to live in the wooded area along the orange line bike path. Maintanence is important, no doubt, and the plant life should be trimmed to not intrude on the path, but having plant life along the path is better than having graffiti-covered walls, in my opinion.
So this is where all of the laid off LAT writers have gone.
Show me the alley, show me the train,
Show me a hobo who sleeps out in the rain,
And I'll show you a young man with so many reasons why
There but for fortune, may go you or go I -- you and I.
babamoto