The Piggyback Yard Group joined a growing number of river-related organizations in hosting an informational table on Thursday, Feburary 23 at the livey Los Angeles River Update Meeting (RUM). 

The RUM is a repeating public forum to discuss progress related to the Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan.  Held this time at the LA River School – a pilot school of the Sonia Sotomayor Learning Academies – Dr Carol Armstrong from the Bureau of Engineering’s River Office emceed the evening, which prominently featured Councilmember Ed Reyes and Army Corps Planner Dr Josehpine Axt. 

The focus was on projects and policies IN PROGRESS, those which we may all be able to experience in the near future.  While these first efforts may be relatively modest in scale, the sheer number of them is exciting – from pocket parks to pedestrian bridges to educational events – and the energy was palpable. 

A bonus of the PBy group was seeing the Piggyback Yard / Mission Rail Yard publically listed by the Army Corps as a study site for their LA River Ecosystem Restoration Study.  The shortlist of study sites to pursue further is due out later this year, and it would be a windfall is Piggyback was one!

JOSEPHINE AXT EXPLAINS WHERE WE ARE IN THE CORPS PLANNING PROCESS

“Our Study is Ecosystem Restoration”

Josephine Axt: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ ARBOR [Alternatives with Restoration Benefits and Opportunities for Revitalization] Study, which covers the nine mile stretch from just upstream from the Verdugo Wash at the border with Glendale to 1st Street in downtown L.A., is looking at ecosystem restoration. This is our primary mission area.

Right now Tetra-Tech is writing up our planning charette, held in late winter 2010, and putting together a working list of all the alternatives and different ideas we considered. We will be looking at regional economic development and other social effects. We’ll have some preliminary alternatives that will be refined, some conceptual designs that we’ll analyze for the costs and benefits, then we will come up with a final array of alternatives – five or so – and bring in the Corps’ Division and Headquarters to get their take on our analysis, and then determine which plan we propose. (more…)

ROBERT GARCIA THINKS ABOUT COMMUNITY

You have variously described some of the goals of the Piggyback Yard as water detention, open space programming, and the connectors between parks and neighborhoods, I recommend in the strongest possible terms is that there also be a goal , a theme that explicitly talks about people – focusing on four areas: Jobs, Housing, Heath and Culture. (more…)

IRA MARK ARTZ ANALYZES PIGGYBACK YARD HYDROLOGY

Providing Channel Capacity for River Revitalization

The Piggyback Yard is one of the most valuable land areas in the entire City for river restoration because of its immense water storage potential compared to other single-owner parcels of land.

This is where the Piggyback Yard Project provides its most significant contribution to the hydrology of the River: By storing peak flow, the volume of water in the channel is reduced. This in turn allows additional space in the channel for habitat plantings and related revitalization features, both adjacent to the Piggyback Yard and downstream. (more…)