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For those not familiar with LA's private property rights, they are some of the strictest in the nation. The 710 freeway, originally designed and intended to go

For those not familiar with LA's private property rights, they are some of the strictest in the nation. The 710 freeway, originally designed and intended to go all the way from long beach to pasadena, has successfully been litigated for fifty years to prevent it from ever doing so. heavy truck traffic has to exit to surface streets to continue to the city or route around it using the 101. trucks are prohibited on the 110. And the residents standing in the way of this project? not even very powerful residents. Just backed by a handful of attorneys well versed on property rights.

HillaryBriss 8y ago
> not even very powerful residents Maybe this understates the wealth level of South Pasadena, which would have been significantly affected by that final leg of the 710. South Pasadena is relatively well off compared to many other areas of the county, has a good school district, some rather nice craftsman era homes, a little bit of old money, attractive retail zones, convenient location to downtown, nice hillside geography, etc. Though not Beverly Hills or Santa Monica, South Pasadena is an independent city with a largely middle to upper middle class population. So, in a way, it's not surprising that it succeeded in killing that final leg of the 710. Personally, I wish the 710 had been completed. It would have benefited a lot of people.
zjaffee 8y ago
Why are you saying this like it's a bad thing? Transportation development has time over time been proven to work best when decisions are made by consensus rather than by letting central authorities and monied interests do whatever they think is right. Had this never happened, LA would have far worse pollution problems than it does today, and NYC would be completely overrun with highways.
- quotemstr 8y ago
  Has a consensus-based approach been proven "best"? New York would be much worse off today if not for Robert Moses ramming through much-needed and innotative infrastructure. Consensus, in practice, amounts to giving everyone the power to veto massive projects, and widespread veto power leads to paralysis and weakness. You need strong central authority to actually make decisions and get things to happen.
  - zjaffee 8y ago
    The entire premise of things happening cannot in this day and age be something that involves screwing over the working class as has been the case with the vast majority of urban planning decisions historically, abet is also something that is starting to get better now. I cannot understand how so many of my fellow Americans love to talk about the merits of democracy, but when it comes to large scale capital projects, either public or private, people suddenly hate democratic decision making. Moses sized power completely ignoring the democratic process, and had musk built these tunnels, he'd have done the same.
gamblor956 8y ago
Trucks are only prohibited from the 110 freeway on a portion north of Downtown LA.

HillaryBriss 8y ago

> not even very powerful residents Maybe this understates the wealth level of South Pasadena, which would have been significantly affected by that final leg of the 710. South Pasadena is relatively well off compared to many other areas of the county, has a good school district, some rather nice craftsman era homes, a little bit of old money, attractive retail zones, convenient location to downtown, nice hillside geography, etc. Though not Beverly Hills or Santa Monica, South Pasadena is an independent city with a largely middle to upper middle class population. So, in a way, it's not surprising that it succeeded in killing that final leg of the 710. Personally, I wish the 710 had been completed. It would have benefited a lot of people.

zjaffee 8y ago

Why are you saying this like it's a bad thing? Transportation development has time over time been proven to work best when decisions are made by consensus rather than by letting central authorities and monied interests do whatever they think is right. Had this never happened, LA would have far worse pollution problems than it does today, and NYC would be completely overrun with highways.

quotemstr 8y ago
Has a consensus-based approach been proven "best"? New York would be much worse off today if not for Robert Moses ramming through much-needed and innotative infrastructure. Consensus, in practice, amounts to giving everyone the power to veto massive projects, and widespread veto power leads to paralysis and weakness. You need strong central authority to actually make decisions and get things to happen.
- zjaffee 8y ago
  The entire premise of things happening cannot in this day and age be something that involves screwing over the working class as has been the case with the vast majority of urban planning decisions historically, abet is also something that is starting to get better now. I cannot understand how so many of my fellow Americans love to talk about the merits of democracy, but when it comes to large scale capital projects, either public or private, people suddenly hate democratic decision making. Moses sized power completely ignoring the democratic process, and had musk built these tunnels, he'd have done the same.

gamblor956 8y ago

Trucks are only prohibited from the 110 freeway on a portion north of Downtown LA.