DRY RIVER: Arroyo Seco Access

The Dry River project was born from my own experience in the Arroyo Seco riverbed. Please click here to view the original report.

Riverbed Bikeway

The Arroyo Seco Bikeway is several miles of pedestrian and bicycle exclusive roadway that runs from South Pasadena through North East Los Angeles. This unique form of bike infrastructure serves as one the the safest and healthiest transportation corridors in the entire region. Access to the bikeway, however, is very limited since it is mostly blocked by chain link fences. Even though the majority of the bikeway is surrounded by public green space, access points can be more than a mile apart. Evidently, the bikeway is not optimized for pedestrian access.  Consequentially, Arroyo Seco visitors have made their own access points by cutting and bending back the fences for easier access. These means of accessing available and healthy community assets are completely inappropriate, so I set out to campaign the removal of these fences.

Campaigning with Mapping

The original maps I designed describe the legal and clandestine access points along the entirety of the Arroyo Seco Bikeway. I wanted to demonstrate exactly where people could move between the parks and the bikeway as well as the striking quantity of holes that were cut to increase that access. Probably the most striking lapse in pedestrian planning was the blockade between the stairways that led directly from the bikeway into the adjacent parks. Perfectly sufficient stair sets led to solid chain link fencing completely void of a gate to open. With these maps is became clear that access to the Arroyo Seco was insufficient. 

Community Event, Media Coverage, and Fence Removal

I organized a walk through Los Angeles Walks that featured speakers from the Arroyo Seco Foundation, City of Los Angeles Homelessness Coalition, and the Audubon Center at Debs Park. We advertised the Dry River project through the walk to educate the community about a problem in the community and request the removal of these fences. The project gained media attention through news stations KPCC and KCET, who both covered the topic and further advocated for the removal of the unnecessary fencing. 

Within one month of the walking event and news articles, the City of Los Angeles removed the fences atop the stair sets and cut the distance between access points by more than half.