Glassell Park River Trails
A new urban trail system connecting the local hills to the River will provide the Glassell Park neighborhood with a valuable amenity to enable residents and visitors to access their immediate natural resources. This network will increase access, pedestrian activity along existing streets, and a more viable local economy to businesses throughout the neighborhood. Community members will have a more enriched experience traversing between natural realms, while local businesses will benefit from their proximity to the adjacent trail network and take advantage of increased pedestrian traffic by supporting places for outdoor gatherings, rest stops and points of interest.
The multi-use public trail system will extend from the Los Angeles River funneling streams of pedestrian traffic via Division St. up to the hills of Mount Washington, with secondary paths weaving through the neighborhood of Glassell Park, followed by new pathways moving through Cypress Park connecting to existing trails in Elyria Canyon Park.
The two most challenging portions to make the connection from the hills to the River include: 1) crossing the two major North/South street corridors - Cypress Avenue and San Fernando Road and 2) implementing a vertical grade separated crossing over the rail corridor to access the Eastside embankment of the River. Currently, it is difficult to traverse this area as a pedestrian or cyclist.
The urban trail proposes to utilize a "pedway" and a "bikeway" to support a safe walkable and bikable route to the River by redesigning the public right-of-way (shoulder of road, utility easements, road bridges) to accommodate active transportation. The neighborhood trail network would feature a way-finding system to navigate to regional and local parks and feature selective locations for streetscape enhancements including tree and landscape plantings, distinctive paving, and interpretive signage to distinguish the varying local biomes.
These biomes exist as a series of topographic plant communities that include the existing Pine stands topping the hills, Oak woodlands in the transitional foothills, Sycamore groves in the canyons, and Poplar and Willow drifts that fill the riparian plains of the River. Ecotones, or transition between biomes, will be highlighted along the trails distinguishing species from the local California plant communities.
Along major arteries and other appropriate regions in this greenway system, stormwater filtration strategies (stormwater bump outs, stormwater planters, and rain gardens on larger swaths of land) will improve the overall stormwater quality as it makes its way to the River. In addition to providing a unique asset to the neighborhood, the trail network will provide an enhanced safe access to schools, encourage residents to walk or bike to school, work or connect with transit, and support the revitalization and heath of the greater Los Angeles River ecosystem.