Creating Livable Communities

To have strong and vital communities, we must renew our connections with each other, the natural environment, and our history. Our region’s rapid growth has weakened these ties. It’s now time to make some different choices to ensure a more sustainable future for everyone in the region.

The Arroyo Seco is the ideal place to begin to reweave the connections we’ve lost over the last hundred years. This 22-mile stream runs from Mt. Wilson in the San Gabriel Mountains to the Los Angeles River just north of downtown. Tying together diverse habitats and diverse communities, the Arroyo Seco symbolizes the problems and the opportunities facing all of Southern California. Learn more about the issues affecting the Arroyo:

Transportation

A good transportation system connects people and places. Over the last hundred years, our transportation system has tried to keep pace with Southern California's explosive growth. To meet 21st century needs, we need more options than just cars and freeways. More buses, trains, and bike paths can create a multi-modal transportation system that reduces the traffic, brings people together and responds to community needs.

The Arroyo Seco Parkway (otherwise known as the Pasadena 110 Freeway) is the oldest freeway in the American West. Its purpose in the 1940s was to create a safe and scenic route - a parkway - that would connect Pasadena to downtown Los Angeles. More than half a century later, modern demands have overwhelmed the Parkway’s original design. Today, the winding 110 slows to a halt during rush hour and its identity as a parkway has become worn around the edges. In 2003, MTA’s Gold Line will begin traveling up the Arroyo. By coordinating new bus service with light rail stations and extending a bike path from Pasadena to downtown Los Angeles, we can make this historic road safer, reduce traffic, and re-create a parkway that makes the community proud. The Arroyo Seco can become Southern California’s first truly integrated transportation corridor.

Environment

The environment is our home. With its mountains, beaches, and mild climate, Southern California is one of the most beautiful places in the world to live. But today, Los Angeles has fewer parks than any other large city in the country. Across our region, we’ve paved our rivers and use them to send precious rainfall to the sea, while in neighboring mountains and deserts some of the world’s rarest and most threatened wildlife habitat goes unprotected.

We need to keep our environment clean and to find wiser ways to manage our water. We need more parks, ballfields, and community gardens so people can enjoy the outdoors. And we need restored natural areas that connect habitat in and around the Southern California’s cities.

For thousands of years, the Arroyo Seco has served as a highway of a different sort for wildlife. The Arroyo connects the San Gabriel and Santa Monica Mountains and, through the Los Angeles River, links the mountains to the sea. In 1911, Theodore Roosevelt looked at the scenic canyon of the Arroyo Seco and said it should be a national park. By 1950, however, the lower Arroyo was transformed into a concrete flood-control channel that repels wildlife and rushes rainfall to the sea.

Today, local groups and government agencies are working to restore the creek, improve flood control, and create more parks and green space in surrounding communities. The Arroyo Seco can become a model for how to make our communities more livable for both people and wildlife.

History

Southern California has a rich history rooted in many cultures. In just over 200 years, Southern California has grown into a trendsetter for the 21st century. But along with this legacy has come a talent for forgetting our history and destroying the landmarks that tell us who we are as a people. Imagine making wise decisions about the future without knowing the past. Our rich history shows both the problems and the potential that occur when different cultures come together. We must find ways to keep the diverse histories of our region alive for future generations.

The Arroyo’s storied past speaks to the entire region. Its canyon was home to native Tongva villages and Spanish ranchos. In the early 1900s, the Arroyo Seco was at the heart of the arts and crafts movement in California and many landmarks from this era are still standing. The Arroyo has the largest historic district in Los Angeles as well as its first museum, the Southwest Museum in Highland Park. Knowledge and appreciation of this past, however, has faded over time. Local groups and museums are now working to highlight the Arroyo’s importance to the history of Southern California. The Arroyo Seco can again become an artistic and cultural centerpiece for the region.