710 Freeway Fight Taken to the Streets

A 35-year feud between Alhambra and neighboring South Pasadena over the proposed extension of the Long Beach Freeway is spilling out of the courtroom into an all-out street brawl.

Beginning this morning, Alhambra city officials plan to divert traffic off their streets to relieve chronic gridlock around the unfinished freeway, Interstate 710, a traffic maneuver that South Pasadena leaders say might flood their streets with thousands of unwanted cars.

South Pasadena officials see the move as revenge for their city’s vociferous opposition to the 6.2-mile freeway extension, and are angry with Alhambra, which has long supported the project in the hope that it would siphon some of the traffic from its streets.

Alhambra’s mayor denied that blocking streets was a long-awaited payback.

“For more than 30 years, South Pasadena blocked the 710 extension, forcing thousands of cars onto our streets,” said Alhambra Mayor Mark Paulson at a news conference Monday. “Now, we apologize for the thousands of cars affected by these traffic measures. But you can thank South Pasadena.”

Paulson said there will be two main changes to decrease the number of cars coming into Alhambra: Southbound traffic on Fremont Avenue will be diverted west on Main Street between 7 and 10 a.m., and eastbound Valley Boulevard will be reduced from three lanes to one lane coming from the 710 terminus into Alhambra between 3 and 7 p.m. Paulson said the traffic changes will remain in effect until the Long Beach Freeway is completed.

South Pasadena officials and residents say they worry that such a scenario will force traffic to bottleneck on their city streets in the morning and on the 710 in the evening. One called the effort “the Alhambra blockade.”

“I think this is going to backfire,” said Joanne Nuckols, a board member of the South Pasadena Preservation Foundation, one of the freeway extension’s major opponents. “It seems like a stupid, petty stunt.”

Meanwhile, the fate of the Long Beach Freeway extension looked more in doubt Monday as a federal judge, reviewing a lawsuit filed by the extension’s opponents, issued an injunction against further construction and against further acquisition of homes along the freeway path.

In his decision, Judge Dean D. Pregerson said Caltrans and the U.S. Department of Transportation failed to consider alternatives to the project, such as improving traffic flow on adjoining streets. Although a serious blow to the freeway, the ruling did not come as a surprise because it echoed a tentative ruling made last month.

“The injunction is based on the court’s conclusion that South Pasadena has shown a likelihood of prevailing on the merits of the case,” Pregerson wrote.

South Pasadena officials have long contended that the freeway, in its path to the Foothill Freeway, would ruin cherished historic neighborhoods, increase air pollution and destroy a small-town atmosphere. Joined by environmentalists and preservationists, they held construction at bay for 35 years.

Construction of the Long Beach Freeway from Long Beach to Pasadena began in 1951 and stopped 6.2 miles from completion in 1965, a year after South Pasadena residents began protesting.

On Monday, they celebrated at a local community center.

“This is a historic day for South Pasadena,” said Mayor David Saeta. “It will be remembered in the series of events that will kill this freeway.”

Others reacted negatively to Alhambra’s last-minute announcement of the traffic modifications.

“This will seriously compromise public safety in the city of South Pasadena,” said City Manager Sean Joyce, adding that he was worried that emergency vehicles would have difficulty passing through the area.

Joyce said the city is considering whether to seek an injunction against the traffic changes, and may organize a boycott of Alhambra’s goods and services.

But Alhambra residents who live and work near the 710 terminus say the current traffic is unbearable and bad for business. While the freeway’s fate has been battled out in court, commuters have been pouring onto Valley Boulevard and Fremont Avenue in Alhambra.

“Shell remodeled this place because it thought the freeway was going to go through,” said Andy Sahgouni, owner of a garage that used to be a Shell station. “Then when it didn’t go through, they closed it down because it’s just gridlock.”

Alhambra officials have led the fight to finish the freeway, which would cut through El Sereno, South Pasadena and Pasadena. Last year, they sued South Pasadena because its newly updated general plan assumed the freeway would never be built.

Alhambra has now lost that round, but there is no foreseeable end to the fights in court, and some residents hope that the traffic diversion will give their northern neighbors a taste of old-fashioned Southern California gridlock.

Dora Padilla, a longtime Alhambra resident who served on the local school board for 20 years, has long complained that children at schools near the current freeway terminus end up wading through traffic to cross Valley Boulevard.

“I hope it’s an eye-opener for South Pasadena,” she said. “It’ll be them suffering what Alhambra suffers through all the time.”

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More Closures

The city of Alhambra’s Public Works Department is also imposing these traffic controls on weekdays from 7 to 10 a.m.:

* Right turn only for southbound traffic on Fremont Avenue at Main Street.

* No left turn for westbound traffic on Main Street at La Paloma Avenue.

* No left turn for westbound traffic on Main Street at Meridian Avenue.

* No left turn for westbound traffic on Main Street at Palatine Drive.

* No left turn for westbound traffic on Main Street at Hampden Terrace.

* No left turn for southbound traffic on Huntington Drive at Main Street.

* No left turn for southbound traffic on Fremont Avenue at Birch Street.

* No left turn for southbound traffic on Fremont Avenue at Grand Avenue.

Source: City of Alhambra