Why are LA freeways so ugly? (Los Angeles, San Diego: neighborhoods, income, income tax)

[wehotex]

I just spent about four hours driving from wood hills to San Diego today and noticed how unkempt the freeways are. There was trash, untrimmed palm trees,etc. why don't they clean this up, use the jail prisoners or illegals to clean it up? OC and SD counties were much cleaner. Why can't Los Angeles get it together?

[moonsparkle]

Concrete can only be so appealing. I noticed LA has a lot of faded curbs too, usually the red is cracking/peeling.

Sort of adds to the noir effect, somehow. LA is magical =)

[Count David]

*LA freeways have character.

Leave them alone. I'd hate for them to become sterile like everywhere else.

[sprint100]

Originally Posted by wehotex

I just spent about four hours driving from wood hills to San Diego today and noticed how unkempt the freeways are. There was trash, untrimmed palm trees,etc. why don't they clean this up, use the jail prisoners or illegals to clean it up? OC and SD counties were much cleaner. Why can't Los Angeles get it together?

Too many knuckleheads that junk it right up after cleaning.

[quixotic59]

Originally Posted by David Aguilar

*LA freeways have character.

Leave them alone. I'd hate for them to become sterile like everywhere else.

^^^^^^
This!

[Charles]

If you took I-5, you would have been driving on a 60+ year old highway (back when the I-5 freeway south of LA was US 101 to San Diego) through some of the older (and in some case rougher) neighborhoods. If you took I-405, there is some graffiti zones a lttle north of LAX.

Another thing, the freeways Los Angeles County weren't upgraded as were the freeways in Orange County (this is extremely evident when you cross the county border). Heading south in to OC on the 5 all of a sudden you go from three lanes to about six wide, modern lanes. LA County is in the process of widening I-5 on the south side of LA County. This is going to be a huge job.

Finally, it's all about money. The state is in a "financial crisis" (whatever that means).

It would be nice having "Cool Hand Luke" jail guys out there cleaning up - of course pedestrians on freeways, not matter who, is risky.

You can (and I do all the time) call in to report graffiti, trash, illegal signs, broken infrastructure, etc to Caltrans on this easy to use website:

http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/maint/msrsubmit/

[jm1982]

I had a relative that moved out of la and hadn't been for a while
She noticed that the areas around the highways and medians of streets don't look maintained

When you live somewhere daily it's sometimes hard to see the changes
But I do think they used to spend more time maintaining and seeing crews cleaning up was common.

Now it seems the city has given up.

Some might think of this as a small thing , but it's a form of blight.

I was in oc recently and noticed again how nice they maintain highways and streets.

Also I believe in the broken window theory that when people see trash and litter , graffiti etc they are more likely to not care and do the same thing.

Hopefully once this big freeway projects are done they will also clean up too, who knows though.

[RaymondChandlerLives]

A) L.A. has some of the oldest freeways in the nation. Many of them are antiquated, both in look and in function. This is why they have a funky shopworn look.

B) It is the most heavily used freeway system in the country, by far. As such, the wear and tear will be more pronounced. Same with our surface streets. The L.A. region has a higher population than most states, nevermind cities. With that size comes unique infrastructure issues. That's just how it is.

[Jonah1979]

Originally Posted by RaymondChandlerLives

A) L.A. has some of the oldest freeways in the nation. Many of them are antiquated, both in look and in function. This is why they have a funky shopworn look.

B) It is the most heavily used freeway system in the country, by far. As such, the wear and tear will be more pronounced. Same with our surface streets. The L.A. region has a higher population than most states, nevermind cities. With that size comes unique infrastructure issues. That's just how it is.

I can understand the roads but what about the palm trees that haven't been trimmed since the 70s and general lack of landscape? I'd like to know where my state income taxes are going that I pay into while I'm working in California?

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by Jonah1979

I can understand the roads but what about the palm trees that haven't been trimmed since the 70s and general lack of landscape? I'd like to know where my state income taxes are going that I pay into while I'm working in California?

Yes, I noticed that too! But even OC had some of those as well. Maybe they should introduce some drought tolerant plants. Maybe put some barbed wire around the murals? and clean those overhead exit signs once in a while. OC's were clean.