DOT Looking At Music Center DASH

People cant walk 1000 feet?!

Once grand ave project opens, I am sure people wont mind the walk up the hill

I refuse to believe it. The northern Civic Center portal is literally one block away through a nice park and up a very few steps.

Wow.

Gentlemen, for the likes of you and I, the walk from the Civic Center Station to Disney Hall and the Music Center is no big deal. (Although try it pushing a baby stroller. Then you will break a sweat.)

However, my retired parents see it differently. I’d also add they are big proponents of public transit. They visit annually and stay for over a month. They don’t rent a car and they move about the city easily from Santa Monica to downtown to Pasadena to West Hollywood. But, they simply can’t make that hike. If there were a dedicated DASH route, yes, they would take it.

The developers of the Grand Avenue project need to be very aware of the physical isolation of their project is from the fabric of the city. Walking up Bunker Hill is a real issue to a significant number of people. If the developer doesn’t address this with a smart transit access plan beyond a big parking facility, their project will remain a drive-in/drive-out destination. That would be unfortunately because it is the antithesis of the urban destination it ought to be.

Grand Avenue ought to be a place which my family (including my parents) and I can hop on train or bus and get there easily. Everyone who lives downtown ought to be able to do that. If my only real option is loading up the car and navigating some damnable parking structure, chances are we will go elsewhere.

I’d like to think the developer of this project and the MTA are all over this issue. The planning for the downtown connector should definitely address this compelling need. There needs to be a true Bunker Hill station. Frankly, I ain’t holding my breath.

I’d also gently point out that simply asserting this isn’t a legitimate issue is a little cavalier. A better approach might be to examine the case the advocates are making and determine if it is comvincing. Your methodology seems a little rash. We are talking public policy decisions here. Let’s give the issue fair consideration since we will have to live with the results for a very long time.

I agree. A DASH bus is a decent interim measure. However, I hope the downtown connector doesn’t emulate the Universal City station for Universal Studios. That people mover wagon train hauling visitors up the hill is so cheesy. I hope that is not Grand Avenue’s fate.

I walk that everyday to work in a suit and dress shoes. No problem. (And I’m a big guy!) They should just jazz up the park and people won’t even realize they’re climbing.

Even still, DASH Route A already goes up First Street to Grand and Route B comes up Temple and onto Grand.

HBC: Remember, you do the walk everyday. So for you it is perfectly reasonable. However, it is not wise to assume everyone is as fit as you.

If you guys didn’t know there are little blue busses that park in front of the US Bank Tower Every evening that will take you to the Music Center. They are operated by macguire properties. When I have had to go to a concert at the music center or the theater , I have used them so I don’t sweat ll inside the nice clean clothes I was wearing trying to walk up the hill.

Pete’s cafe now has a free shuttle that will take you to the Music Center. There are lot’s of little options like that if you know how to look for them/ .

I do hope the DASH shuttles will be paid for by the companies that are using them.

It will be interesting to see the design proposed for the county mall, what is programmed to keep the place activated during the early evening hours when Music Center patrons will arrive. Imaginative use of escalators and elevators at the west end will be important. How about an escalator and elevator for the north end of the civic center Redline station set on the west side of Hill, so that patrons would have direct access to the mall and then up to Grand Avenue? That would be an easier/more interesting stroll than hikeing up First from Hill to Grand.

John: Something like you suggest is what is needed. I’d note there are escalators at the Hope Street Steps rising from Fifth Street near the Library. Of course, my heart is set upon a full-blown rail station. But, I don’t think the developers should count on that. Your suggestion is ultimately the most cost-efficient in the short-term.

Maybe I haven’t read the many comments thoroughly enough, but as with Artwalk, regular Dash service stops well before most Music Center events even start. And though I happily walk all over downtown during the day, it would be nice to have options at night…wearing heels! Increasing the available options, be they Dash service, more metro stops, like the regional connector, etc. make it more reasonable to consider not needing a car at all if you live downtown.

Easier still, but more expensive, would be a block long tunnel connecting to the Red Line station, heading east along First Street, and an escalator coming out at First and Grand. Okay, I guess that’s a two block long tunnel. You could have a security guy or two roaming around in there during Music Center events, in addition to security cameras, of course.

Might be cheaper in the long run, and sure would save gasoline compared to running a bus up and down the hill all night. How about a new funicular, like Angel’s Flight?

I think both of Scott’s ideas are good.

Definitely, once Angels Flight comes back on-line (Don’t worry. Jan Perry is on the case.), it becomes a useful option. At least the walking involved is not uphill.

I’m not whining, but I cannot walk up from Hill St to the Music Center in my heels. It needs a shuttle.

Eric, I think that the proposed tunnel might have had something to do with the Pacific Electric Terminal, an attempt to lessen the amount of pedestrians in that part of the Historic Core. Cars, trucks and trolleys combined to form so much traffic on Hill, Broadway, Spring and particularly on Main going way back to the rise of the automobile. Coincidentally, the tunnel would have been an express, Hula Route, for diners to get to the polynesian themed cafeteria on Olive after leaving the second floor boarding platform on the L.A. Street side of the terminal. Public escalators had been in existence following 1900.