Please assist our community in protesting the destruction of the
Historic LA Subway site at 1304 W. 2nd street.

The subway station and tunnel, which was constructed in 1925, was purchased by Meta Housing Developers.  They intend to build 276 loft-style apartments on this land, which is at the northwest entrance to downtown Los Angeles.

The site, known historically as the Toluca Subway Yard, has been an informal neighborhood park for the past 30 years since the subway ceased operation.  The surrounding area is a high density residential community with no open space within walking distance.

Local residents and community groups are urging the city council to  preserve the subway yard as a sanctioned urban park that celebrates the history of downtown Los Angeles.

There will be a hearing regarding the development THIS FRIDAY (tommorrow) at City Hall.  The developers are lobbying city council for easements to build their compound closer to the street and to change the zoning from mixed usage (store fronts AND apartments) to apartments only.  We do not feel that Meta Housing has the best interest of our community in mind.  They have not asked for input from local residents, nor have they posted any
information about the upcoming hearing with City Hall.

We need to act quickly! The hearing is this Friday. Please read the
following for information on how you can help:

Send emails protesting the development to:
info@belmontartpark.com

These will be forwarded to the City Council.

Attend the City Hall Hearing. It will be held at:
Los Angeles City Hall
200 North Spring Street
10th Floor Hearing Room
10AM Friday August 6th

Submit letters to:
The Los Angeles City Planning Department
Community Planning Bureau
Room 667
City Hall
200 N. Spring Street
Los Angeles CA 90012
Case # APCC 2003-9929 SPE SPP

Here are some informational websites about the subway yard and tunnel:
http://users.snowcrest.net/marnells/toluca.htm
http://www.westworld.com/~elson/larail/PE/tunnel.html
http://www.erha.org/pelines/pewst.htm

Go to www.belmontartpark.com for more information about this project and see our proposed designs for making this an historic urban park.

Thanks for your Support!!
--


Robin Nelson
Post Production Manager
World of Wonder
(323) 603-6300 x335
(323) 899-7694 mobile
rnelson@worldofwonder.net

While Robin Nelson stated some of the facts correctly, there are some glaring errors which make the whole of the piece "Help Save the Belmont Graffiti Art Hall of Fame from Developers!" misleading.

The property is located at the intersections of 2nd and Lucas in the Westlake community plan area, just south of where Glendale comes down from Echo Park and becomes 2nd St leading downtown.

The property was part of the Pacific Electric railway system, where the streetcars coming down Glendale entered a tunnel that took them to the Subway Terminal Building. There is a building on the site that was used as a power transformer station - the cars leaving the tunnel switched to overhead power lines at this point in their journey away from downtown.

The property was purchased about 2 years ago by Meta Housing, a developer of affordable and workforce housing as well as housing for the elderly. Meta is going to build 276 units of rental housing on the site. There will be hearings.

That is pretty much the part Robin Nelson got right. The parts that were mistated are:

1. They are not going to be "loft-style apartments" but standard apartment flats.

2. The area has substantial open space within walking distance and will have even more upon completion of the public park improvements adjacent to the new Belmont High School (now called Central Area High School No. 11 or Vista Hermosa - for more information see http://www.laschools.org/vista-hermosa/) , and the new Central Area High School No. 10, which will have extensive athletic resources and sports fields immediately south and adjacent to this site. There is also the Echo Public Pool about two blocks to the north and the Echo Park with the lake about four blocks to the north. Of course MacArthur and Lafayette Parks are about one mile to the west.

3. Meta Housing has the best interests of the community and its future residents in mind. The new apartment building under construction on Lucas adjacent to this site has a waiting list of 2,000 people who want to live there. Meta is going to provide new homes for 276 families who cannot now live near their jobs downtown, and 57 of those units will be rent restricted so that families with incomes below 50% of the area median will be able to afford to live in this new community. There will be an after-school tutoring program operated by Century/LIFT (for more info see http://www.centuryhousing.org/century_lift.htm).

4. Meta respects the historic resources. Meta has already agreed as a condition of their permits, and as documented in the Mitigated Negative Declaration for this project, to preserve the transformer building and the tunnel mouth (the tunnel is no longer useful for transit since it no longer extends to downtown - it was blocked off by construction of the Bonaventure Hotel decades ago). These are the only resources identified in the Specific Plan adopted by the community for this area (see the Specific Plan at http://cityplanning.lacity.org/complan/specplan/sparea/ccwpage.htm).
5. The "Hall of Fame" - the transformer building - is considered by the Police Department to be an attractive nuisance and is currently being used as a toilet by the "artists" who have been vandalizing the building and the tunnel. If these two facilities or any other part of the site are declared to be historic landmarks, as has been proposed, the penalties for this vandalism will become much more serious that the current trespassing, littering and vandalism would warrant. And, as public resources, the Police would be much more interested in imposing those penalties than they are in protecting this private property.

Finally, the many hundreds of paint cans the "artists" are leaving on the site are considered by environmental agencies to be "Hazardous Waste" and they cannot be simply dumped in the trash. The paints contain heavy metals and other poisons which, if they enter the groundwater system, can poison drinking water wells. They have to be disposed of safely, not just dumped on the ground or cleaned up once a year or so by the "artist crews" and taken to the nearest dumpster for disposal.

Meta Housing's new housing complex will allow as many as 1,000 people to live near their jobs paying rents they can afford, near to extensive open sports fields and parks. It is pretty selfish of a few to wish to deny them that opportunity after they have vandalized the historic resources and other parts of this private property for nearly 50 years. If the "artists" wanted this property to be a public park, they have had 5 decades to raise funds, convince the City to acquire the site and accept the responsibility for maintenance, and put that plan into effect. Meta Housing has been working 2 years to finance this workforce housing complex and protect the historic resources, and it is inequitable for anyone to try to stop it in the final 2 months.