Impact

When determining the impact of freeway development it is observed that the political and economic forces that make freeway placement and construction possible have direct consequences for local communities and the environment. For example, though freeway routes are planned at the upper echelons of city government, local municipalities must still finance the infrastructure (i.e bridges, on- and off-ramps, etc.) for the section of the freeway that passes through their districts. Money that could have been used for public resources like housing or parks is therefore funneled into projects that bolster private companies.

Furthermore, freeways like the I-710 are planned by middle to upper class city officials who are sometimes if not always removed from the communities (often lower-income) and environrment which they send freeways through. This leads to community outrage and criticism of the insensitivity of urban planning and renewal since many of these communities are divided if not destroyed, their residents displaced, by freeways.

Construction of the Harbor Freeway divides an African American community south of Santa Barbara Blvd., 1956.

The East Los Angeles Interchange where the Santa Ana, Pomona, and Golden State Freeways intersect. On one side, the freeways divide the Mexican American residential district at the top. On the other, the bottom freeway buffers against any advancment of the Los Angeles River industrial zone.

The I-710 reached the CMD in the 1960s when it connected with the Santa Ana (5) Freeway. The CMD housed several intermodal railroad yards such as those belonging to Union Pacific, Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe and in East L.A., bridges had to be built over some eighteen railroad tracks, using 1,100 parcels of real estate. The freeway cuts through fifteen cities with a population of around 1,000,000, most of whom are low income or minorities. Nearly 11,000 residents were displaced by construction of about 7% of total land area.

Los Angeles was once a remedy that physicians might have recommend their patients for a heart condition or similar malady. The Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden might have been one reason. The garden was established in the 1930s in a residential neighborhood in Pasadena by Ellamae and Charles Storrier Stearns, when "Japonisme" was riding out its peak. The Storrier Stearns commissioned Kinzuchi Fujii to design the garden., but the project was halted when Fujii was sent to an internment camp at the outbreak of World War II.

Ellamae and Charles Storrier Stearns in front of the entrance to their garden

A footbridge in the orginal Pasadena Japanese Garden.

The Storrier Stearns estate passed on to the Haddad family in 1950 after Ellamae and Charles passed away. The Haddads maintained the garden until Caltrans procured a large parcel of land by eminent domain for the 710 Freeway project in 1975. With the prospect of their estate soon to be dersacinated by freeway construction, the Haddads stopped tending to the garden and the garden fell into decay.

Location of Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden. Note gap in the 710 Freeway, the subject of an ongoing debate over the freeway's extension into residential areas.

The rejection of above ground proposals has stymied any progress in extending the 710 Freeway. In 2005, the Pasadena Japanese Garden was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also listed as a California Historical Landmark. Recently, the garden has been the subject of a massive revival project headed by Jim Haddad in order to once again open the garden up to the local community.

Thought to have been lost to the I-710 Corridor Project and therefore neglected, the Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden in Pasadena has since been revived by the efforts of Jim Haddad and others in the local community.

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Still, the garden is not entirely in the clear. Though construction of the I-710 has stalled for the time being, proposals for a tunnel parallel to Pasadena Ave. continue to threaten the area with complete devastation.

Freeways also threaten air quality, and the health of residents in nearby communities by extension. Consider the Bandini community in the City of Commerce, located next to the city's rail yards. Division of Highways planners mapped the I-710 over the Bandini residential zone rather than have the freeway wind around the community and through local industry. Moreover, three stories of dirt was laid down to create a land bridge for the freeway to pass over the rail yard to the north. The entire western portion of homes was sequestered from the rest of the Bandini community as a result. It is worth mentioning that various types of trees and other flora grew along the land bridge until the entire dirt structure was converted to concrete.

Aerial view of the I-710 as it passes through the Bandini community in the City of Commerce. Note isolated western side (middle); rail yard (upper middle); local industry/commerce (middle left).

Dirt land bridge overgrown with various flora; from isolated western side looking east, 2009.

Land bridge with no overgrowth and overlaid with concrete and sound wall; from isolated western side looking east, 2014.

As a, if not the, major commercial artery for the greater Los Angeles area, the I-710 is frequented by diesel trucks carting various cargos between the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the central manufacturing district in East Los Angeles. With peak diesel traffic at 40,000 for any given day, not counting return trips made or commuter vehicular traffic, pollution and smog control are concerns.

Traffic on I-710 as it passes the Bandini community in the City of Commerce. Note the number of diesel trucks even during a "slow" hour.

Peak hour traffic on I-710 at Washington Blvd. (near the Bandini Community).