Radcliffe Street, between Haverford and Bowdoin, which is well-traveled route for students attending Palisades High School has received an F.
Streets with D and F Grades Will Be Repaired
At the Santa Monica Canyon Civic Association annual meeting on May 14, Councilman Mike Bonin said there’s money in the upcoming city budget to begin repairing streets.
“The City gave up on streets that had a D and F,” Bonin told the SMCCA. But in the upcoming City budget, “We’re giving Adel an investment of money for the streets.” (Adel Hagekhail is the new director of the Bureau of Street Services.)
According to a May 2013 L.A. Times Story (“Grading Los Angeles Streets”–visit: graphics.latimes.com/la-streets-map/#13/34.0717/-118.5354), 23 percent of the streets in Pacific Palisades (175 out of 769) received a grade of F. (Overall the average for the streets here was a C-.)
According to Street Services, streets are rated using the Pavement Condition Index (PCI), which rates the physical condition of the street by considering the pavement’s structural and surface operational condition and is based on a 0 to 100 scale. An F grade means the street condition is poor, with the following characteristics:
- Type of Maintenance Required: resurfacing and/or reconstruction (6 to 12 inches of asphalt concrete.).
- Physical Condition: major or unsafe cracking, 36% to more than 50% of base failure.
- PCI Range: 0 to 40
The Street Services website reported that overall in the City, as of July 1, 2017, 55 percent of the roads are in good repair, 20 percent in fair condition and 25 percent in poor condition.
Visit their website (bss.lacity.org) and click on the Road Surface Condition Map, then click on Street pavement condition, and you can find the streets in Pacific Palisades and how they are ranked.
Sunset Boulevard, for example, is a major thoroughfare, and is rated poor for much of its length. The L.A. Times gave the road an F.
Other major streets in the Palisade receiving Ds and Fs from the Times—and also ranked by the City as poor–include Temescal Canyon Road, La Cruz Drive (in front of the Post Office), Los Leones, Bashford and Embury.
The three neighborhoods where streets are generally good are upper Marquez, the Highlands (and Palisades Drive) and streets in the Huntington Palisades.
The map does not list the 39 vacated Palisades streets, which are not rated nor given a grade.
In 1935, California passed a law allowing cities to pull “municipally owned” property out of public use. The City of L.A. started withdrawing streets in 1936 because a city engineer told lawmakers it would prevent claims against damages arising from defective streets.
According to the original ordinance, those vacated streets were supposed to be outfitted with barricades and warning signs, but many of them are still being used today.
A May L.A.Times 2018 story (“Some L.A. Streets Aren’t Being Repaved Because of a Law Dating from the Depression”), said the state code had been repealed. “And in the decades since, city attorneys have advised that L.A. still bears legal responsibility for such damages on withdrawn streets, according to city records, including a 1988 engineering report and a 2014 motion made by a city councilman.”
Residents living on one of the vacated streets below may not be able to find their street graded because, according to the City, it “doesn’t exist.”
Palisades streets withdrawn in 1937 included Giardino Way to Tramonto; W. Livorno Drive (Ida Street to Salerno Dr., Salerno Dr. to Marquez Ave. and Marquez to Bollinger Dr.); Marquette St. (Bienveneda to 400 feet east of Las Casas); Alta Mura Road (San Onofre Dr. to Alta Mura);San Onofre Drive (Alta Mura Rd. to Terminus); Bellino Drive (Tranquillo Road to Sabbiadora Way and Quadro Vecchio Drive to Tramonto); Tranquillo Road (Sabbiadora Way to Tranquillo);Monte Grigio (Sabbiadora Way); Monte Grigio (Tramonto Dr.); Notteargenta Road (Sabbiadora Way to Tramonto); Coperto Drive ( Tramonto Dr.); Via Nicolas (Paseo Miramar); and Fermo Drive (Romany Road to Rustic Canyon Road).
In 1948, 11 streets off Paseo Miramar were “vacated” (Vista Pacifica to Alondra Dr.), (Alondra to Resolano Drive), (Resolano–2), (Resolano to Catalonia Avenue), (Catalonia to Lucero Avenue), (Lucero Avenue via Nicolas), (Via Nicholas to Florence), (Via Florence to Sunset Blvd.), Via Maria (Via Florence) and (Florence via Maria to Paseo Miramar).
In 1957, Via las Olas (which transverses the bluffs over PCH) was vacated from Mt. Holyoke to Friends Street.
In 1958, two more roads that feed into Posetano Road (Stretto Way and Revello Drive–both directions) were vacated.
The last street vacations in the Palisades came in 1963 when streets that fed into Tramonto Drive were “let go,” including Revello to Coperto and Coperto to Quadro Vecchio. Also, on that list were Casale Road to Capri, Castellammare Drive to Stretto and Stretto Way to Breve Way.
Contact the Bureau of Street Services by calling: (800)996-2489 or email: bss.boss @lacity.org or by visiting:bss.lacity.org.
Streets that have been vacated are not given grades and are not repaired, such as Via de las Olas.