Recently the City held a public meeting to describe the recent acquisition of a former Union Pacific Railroad and MTA service yard, sandwiched between the Drake Park neighborhood and the Los Angeles River. The purpose of this acquisition is to create a new urban park. Taken on its own terms, this is welcome news indeed. However, when seen in the context of multiple planning efforts that have taken place in recent years (efforts coordinated by City staff, but with significant community input as well), a bigger picture emerges. The latest acquisition represents around thirty acres of new open space, but could end up as part of a great urban park over 100 acres in size. Such a grand front lawn is the missing ingredient for a growing downtown, a potential great benefit for all its residents, workers, and visitors.

Imagine a new park, fourth largest in the city (behind El Dorado Park, Heartwell Park, and Recreation Park), spanning from Anaheim Street to Ocean Boulevard and from Golden Avenue to the Los Angeles River, filled with neighborhood recreational activities. At its foundation would be Cesar Chavez Park, running parallel to the I-710 Freeway as it comes over the Los Angeles River into the downtown area. Some might argue that the soul of this grand new open space would be Drake Park, where Ninth and Tenth Streets end near the river. Almost every remaining component of this new park is currently under-used or vacant land.

The Pacific Union Railroad property and MTA service yard acquired by the city (under the leadership of Vice Mayor Bonnie Lowenthal) could form the needed link between Cesar Chavez Park and Drake Park. This idea originated in 2003, as the result of a community planning project called Riverlink, led by landscape architecture students from California State Poly Pomona. This proposal spanned the entire length of the Los Angeles River in Long Beach and included over two hundred acres of new open space for neighborhoods that currently lack recreational opportunities.

On paper, Cesar Chavez Park appears larger than what most would regard as its usable recreation area. This is because the area between the northbound and southbound portions of the I-710 freeway on the east bank of the Los Angeles River is considered part of Cesar Chavez Park, despite the fact that one would have to cross a freeway to access this area, and as a result it is not legal to use this portion of the “park.” This unusable area is simply held by the city in perpetuity as public land (it was originally received in exchange for the land used to develop the Pike). Other local publications have done a thorough job of covering this topic.

In 2004, the City of Long Beach, drawing upon significant community input, developed a Locally Preferred Strategy for expanding the capacity for the I-710 freeway. This strategy responded to an earlier design for freeway expansion that had a potentially negative impact on nearby neighborhoods. Many aspects of the new design strategy focused on alternatives to expanding the freeway capacity, alternatives that were thus less detrimental to adjacent residential neighborhoods, but another highlight of the new design strategy was to “Redesign the Shoemaker Bridge and realign the ramps into downtown Long Beach to expand Cesar Chavez Park.” Such a realignment would potentially add another twenty-five acres of open space to the existing park, doubling its capacity.

To take this realignment even further, consider an idea shared by a visionary within the city to transform the character of the freeway. Imagine what would happen if the 710, as it comes over the Los Angeles river into the downtown area, became a multi-lane boulevard along the lines of the Embarcadero in San Francisco, which was designed for transit, bicyclists, and pedestrians, as well as cars. This would not only create even more open space, but would allow for a stronger connection between Cesar Chavez park and the Los Angeles River; transforming it into a waterfront park.

While the Riverlink plan takes advantage of the interstitial space along the Los Angeles River, it does not focus on the natural resource that is the river itself. There seems to have been a purposive effort to avoid navigating the bureaucracy of Army Corp of Engineers in relationship to flood control management. The City of Los Angeles addressed this issue with their version of Riverlink, the Los Angeles River Revitalization Plan, which explores ways to bring life to this concrete moat that is a river in name only.

All that would remain to realize this vision would be acquiring a few industrial properties that are already finding themselves incompatible with surrounding residential uses. The end results would be a waterfront park that is over three times the size of the current open space available to local residents.  As the downtown area continues to evolve into a vibrant mixed-use core filled with residents, workers and visitors, the civic gesture of acquiring such properties to create a grand urban park would be embraced by all.