Spotlight on streets: Fellow villager Miles wants the pale concrete avenues re-done as often as the darker asphalt roads. Curbed LA gets graciously involved, and LA Council President Eric Garcetti's office - which made a good showing at the AV street fest this weekend - responds, suggesting some of it comes down to aesthetics:"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."
Fondness for concrete? I see what Miles sees. Compare two areas of Atwater Village - like north and south of Glendale Blvd. - and it's like day (smooth streets, manicured yards) and night (concrete cracks, lawn jalopies).
Might there be a connection between public property caretaking and private propety pride?
It extends to graffiti, too. What's the incentive for a business to repaint walls when it's next to a riverbed or bridge that's perenially tagged?
1 comment:
But if we weren't dogging each others' neighborhoods, what would half of LA talk about?
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