Fillmore Station Plaza work

[rubbertoe]

All,
I read a few weeks ago that the Fillmore station plaza to the West of the station was going to be redone. Drove by today and they have it completely torn up. This really needed to be redone. They actually had a traffic circle that went right up to the station when it was first completed. Then, when they put in the parking garage that is next to the station they blocked the street off completely. This is the third try, and by the looks of it they are putting in the effort to do it right.





There is what looks like an almost abandoned building on the North side of the plaza being rebuilt. It is the low brick building in the background to the right:



And then when you cross over Raymond to the West there is a entire lot that is empty. You would think that something will eventually happen there too, though the area is zoned industrial I believe. There used to be an old car junk yard where the new station and medical plaza is. If you then go another block past that empty lot, you are at Huntington hospital, which is an entire block and always expanding.



I'll post some pics when they are done with the work.

RT

[Jason Saunders]

The new plaza will include: new landscaping, pedestrian lights, bike racks, seating, information kiosk, and some new design elements like an “overhead structure with integrated lighting” and a new “ackerstone paving band” pathway from Raymond Ave to the station.

The project commenced Jan 11 and is scheduled to take 6 weeks.

brighamyen.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/gold-line-fillmore-station-getting-makeover/

[rubbertoe]

Fillmore Plaza grand opening this Saturday...

[rubbertoe]

Here are 3 short videos from the opening ceremony. The walking tour is the last of the 3 and probably the most interesting. One of the others caught two trains going by while they were speaking

Trains in background:


Ribbon Cutting:


Station Walkaround:


Not quite sure about the video quality, the Droid did a good job, but the YouTube rendition is lacking. Maybe the HD option on YouTube will look better once the encoding is available

Enjoy
RT

P.S. Najarian (sp?) said something about it being his dream to have the Gold Line leave Del Mar station, and then head over to Glendale. Haven't heard much about that.

[bobdavis]

That's Ara Najarian, he's a member of the Metro Board (I think he's chairman this year) and he's been doing a lot for the Gold Line Foothill Extension. The proposal to have the Gold Line extend from Pasadena westward to Glendale has been discussed over the past few years. As of right now it's in the "I should live so long" category, but with the 30/10 program gaining support in Washington, one never knows. The big problem with going to Glendale is the rather rugged terrain in the Eagle Rock area--there's no pre-existing rail route to follow. If the line went at-grade on Colorado (a small segment in Eagle Rock was used by the #5 LA Railway streetcar line up until 1948 or thereabouts) it would probably be rather slow going, more like the East LA section, rather than the South Pasadena-Pasadena section.

[trackman]

^^^ Such a line on a map would look really cool. It would depict another step forward in a grid-like rail system that would seem to really expand network transportation options for users.

But, it's not as easy as it might seem, not withstanding your comments either.

In the next 10 years, perhaps as early as 2017 or 2018, the Regional Connector will change everything. All trains from Long Beach will run through downtown and out to Pasadena and the Foothill extension. Likewise, the under construction Expo Line will have all trains from Santa Monica run out to East Los Angeles.

The best service these two lines will run will be 5 minute headways, or 12 trains per hour at peak commute times.

The question for this hypothetical line to Glendale, "where do those trains come from?"

If those trains come from downtown Los Angeles, if no other changes are made, what does that mean for service east into the San Gabriel Valley? Do Glendale and Foothill become 'branches' of the Blue Line and split those 12 trains per hour into 6 and 6? And service is never better than every 10 minutes? Maybe that is fine.

If those trains come from the San Gabriel Valley, while the Blue Line continues to run out there too, does that mean 12 trains an hour on the Blue Line plus however many run to Glendale, such as 6 or 12 an hour, end up serving the San Gabriel Valley with 18 to 24 trains an hour at commute times?

If this ever unfolds into something more real, I'd like to see a scenario having a line run down Colorado Blvd in Pasadena, all the way to Pasadena City College. Of course, underground is the only possibility. Although, in order to provide a transfer between a Glendale Line at Memorial Park the alignment should swing at least one block north. On the west end, after leaving Old Town Pasadena area, it would be doubly good to somehow serve the Rose Bowl, although lets face it, there are few events or activities there that require everyday light-rail service. But it does offer possible park-and-ride lot opportunities should the locals support traffic inducing impacts.

[jdrcrasher]

I would rather see the Yellow Line (DT to Glendale and Burbank) built before a rail connection from the Gold to Orange Line is built. In the mean time, why not create direct bus service between the Lankershim and Memorial Park stations?

Jun 6, 2010 8:22:51 GMT -8 @trackman said:

The question for this hypothetical line to Glendale, "where do those trains come from?"

I think this is where a second downtown connector would be useful, connecting the Washington and Little Tokyo stations and have the Blue Line bypass the financial district and instead head straight to Union Station via Alameda.

And this way, you can connect more rail lines and open the possibility for new ones, like DT to Venice, DT to Glendale, or perhaps even DT to Eagle Rock (via Eagle Rock Blvd, and old PE ROW IIRC.

[rubbertoe]

I was up early today and stopped at the Starbucks by Fillmore Station. Took a walk around the area that was landscaped last year, not quite the 1 year anniversary. Everything still looks great.

The bigger news is that there is finally some retail in the ground floor of the Fillmore Station parking structure. They left the ground floor perimeter available for small retail establishments. They had room for I'm guessing 4-5 businesses, depending on size. The corner spot is now open, not sure how long, and called Fillmore West Station. Did a web search and came up with this, since the place wasn't open till 6:30am:

www.yelp.com/biz/fws---fillmore-west-station-coffee-and-sandwich-shop-pasadena

It has the look of a family owned place, and serves sandwiches, coffee, bagels, and Fosselmann's ice cream too. I'll have to stop in some time and ask how they are doing and throw them some business. They have free Wi-Fi too.

RT