kernals12
Banned
1930
Los Angelenos were realizing that their city was on the way to greatness. In the last decade, its population doubled and it was now the 5th largest city in America. But if their city was to be truly great, it needed to be a pleasant place to live.
Olmsted Associates, an architectural firm founded by the sons of the great urban planner Frederick Law Olmsted, drew up plans for an extensive system of parks for Los Angeles County. In total, 163,000 acres of green space were to be added. Mostly along rivers. This all made LA a much more attractive place.
In 1938, a series of dams were placed in the San Gabriel Mountains to control the floods of LA river. This opened the river's banks to park development. The part that ran East of Downtown soon became a tourist magnet and just like the areas surrounding New York's central park, it became the most desirable part of the city. Luxury high rises became home to most celebrities in the area.
With the war and its aftermath, LA grew even bigger and its streets were becoming snarled with traffic.
The solution came in 1946 with a system of elevated walkways downtown. This would allow 2 extra lanes of traffic to be added to each street by moving parking fron the curb to the ground floor of each building. And it would enable pedestrians to cross streets without having to wait for signals or worry about being hit by oncoming traffic. Initial plans to narrow the sidewalks were scrapped due to safety concerns.
It was implemented in a vast portion of downtown.
In addition, LA implemented a highly unique system known as the "Bus Subway", tunnels underground where only buses could travel. Compared to a traditional subway system, it was much less expensive, and the buses could leave the tunnels to serve ordinary city streets.
The plan was approved by LA voters in 1950. They were swayed by advertisements showing how all the passengers in cars in a jammed city street could all be accommodated in one bus.
At first, the system was modest, with only 4 lines.
But over the years, it proved extremely popular and was expanded.
Los Angelenos were realizing that their city was on the way to greatness. In the last decade, its population doubled and it was now the 5th largest city in America. But if their city was to be truly great, it needed to be a pleasant place to live.
Olmsted Associates, an architectural firm founded by the sons of the great urban planner Frederick Law Olmsted, drew up plans for an extensive system of parks for Los Angeles County. In total, 163,000 acres of green space were to be added. Mostly along rivers. This all made LA a much more attractive place.
In 1938, a series of dams were placed in the San Gabriel Mountains to control the floods of LA river. This opened the river's banks to park development. The part that ran East of Downtown soon became a tourist magnet and just like the areas surrounding New York's central park, it became the most desirable part of the city. Luxury high rises became home to most celebrities in the area.
With the war and its aftermath, LA grew even bigger and its streets were becoming snarled with traffic.
The solution came in 1946 with a system of elevated walkways downtown. This would allow 2 extra lanes of traffic to be added to each street by moving parking fron the curb to the ground floor of each building. And it would enable pedestrians to cross streets without having to wait for signals or worry about being hit by oncoming traffic. Initial plans to narrow the sidewalks were scrapped due to safety concerns.
It was implemented in a vast portion of downtown.
In addition, LA implemented a highly unique system known as the "Bus Subway", tunnels underground where only buses could travel. Compared to a traditional subway system, it was much less expensive, and the buses could leave the tunnels to serve ordinary city streets.
The plan was approved by LA voters in 1950. They were swayed by advertisements showing how all the passengers in cars in a jammed city street could all be accommodated in one bus.
At first, the system was modest, with only 4 lines.
But over the years, it proved extremely popular and was expanded.
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