Right of Way

Case 14: Urban Infrastructure

During the mid- and late-20th century, the city of Los Angeles funded infrastructure projects to support a rapidly increasing number of residents from around the US and world. These projects included new and expanded highways, roads, bridges, landfills, reservoirs, power grids, sewer lines, and other public works. Their construction resulted in spatial inequalities across the city, and precipitated numerous localized health hazards in several neighborhoods as air quality, environmental noise, pedestrian conditions, and more were negatively impacted.

Highways and interstates have been uniquely destructive infrastructures in Los Angeles as their construction often resulted in the elimination of schools, parks, open spaces, and residential buildings in many neighborhoods, especially in south and east Los Angeles. Power plants often add pollutants to air that may already be toxic due to freeway proximity, weather patterns, and more. Landfills can present a host of environmental risks including groundwater and soil contamination, among others. Decisions about river channeling and bridge siting can have dramatic and inextricable impacts on mobility and public health among affected communities.

On display in this case are maps of existing and proposed landfill sites in Mission Canyon, a letter from DWP employees who suffer from high cancer rates they attribute to landfill proximity, a draft report on the effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) from the city's power grid on Angelenos, photos of the 110's construction through downtown Los Angeles, a flyer from a community group that opposed running rail lines down the center of existing highways, and documentation of construction and expansion proposals for various freeways around Los Angeles, including a failed proposal to double-deck the 101 north of downtown.

Case 15, Water, is located to the right.

• 1

  Letter to Tom Hayden, 1999Tom Hayden Belmont Learning Complex Investigation Collection

• 2

  Map, "Location of Mission Canyon"Reseda Chamber of Commerce Collection

• 3

  Letter to City Councilman John Ferraro, 1995Juana Beatriz Gutiérrez Mothers of East Los Angeles (MELA) Collection

• 4

  Letter from City Councilman Hal Bernson, 1981Reseda Chamber of Commerce Collection

• 5

  Report, "Power Grid and Land Use Policy Analysis," 1999Juana Beatriz Gutiérrez Mothers of East Los Angeles (MELA) Collection

• 6

  A Petition from the Neighborhood, Parks and Rivers Coalition of Los AngelesSusan B. Nelson Collection

• 7

  Photographs of CA-110 construction and completion through downtown Los Angeles, circa 1955Homer A. Halverson Collection

• 8

  "Dedication of New Part of the Golden State Freeway," 1967Senator Thomas C. Carrell Collection

• 9

  Statement supporting construction of the 118 and Whitnall Freeway through the San Fernando Valley, 1964Albert Zoraster Collection

• 10

  "Ventura Freeway Double-Deck Study...Two HOV Lanes in Each Direction," 1988Tarzana Property Owners' Association Collection

• 11

  Coalition of Freeway Residents, "Fact Sheet," 1988Tarzana Property Owners' Association Collection

• 12

  "Major Sewers (18 inches in Diameter and Larger)," circa 1970Industrial Association of the San Fernando Valley Collection

• 13

  Basic Grid Map, City of Los Angeles," 1972Northridge Civic Association Papers

• 14

  "District VII, Freeway Progress," 1964West Van Nuys Chamber of Commerce Collection