LA City Council Approves Closing 11th Street from Figueroa to Georgia

South Park residents and small business owners - 54.7% opposed the closing of 11th Street through LA Live, 32.1% supported the closure, and 13.2% were undecided.

The LA City Council voted to permanently close 11th Street/Chick Hearn from Figueroa to Georgia at their November 22 meeting. SPNA (South Park Neighborhood Association) submitted a letter to the City Council noting 11th Street is a direct route to the 110 for a neighborhood of 20,000 residents and future residents from 9 new residential units in progress. However, there was no discussion at the City Council meeting, the vote was combined with other measures on the agenda, and the vote was 10 in favor of closing 11th Street/Chick Hearn and 0 opposed. LA Live Properties LLC is now in the phase to satisfy various conditions of approval.

Questions remain unanswered: (1) what is the impact on traffic with the closure? With one-way streets, closing a block snarls traffic even on non-game/event days. What is proposed to avoid traffic backups into South Park? (2) Other than a brief sentence on Crypto.com Arena website – “create a tree-lined public plaza as well as a glass-walled club — known as the ‘Tunnel Club’ — in the arena so patrons can watch players file out of the locker room,” little is known about the “public plaza,” how will it be used, is it for the neighborhood as well as visitors to LA Live and Crypto.com Arena, will sports celebrations be allowed in this space vs. in the streets of South Park? SPNA requested a meeting to learn about the project, have questions answered, and to share the values of the neighborhood.

When South Park residents and small business owners were polled - Are you in favor of permanently closing 11th Street from Figueroa to Georgia Streets? – of 53 respondents, 55% did not want the closure, 32% supported the closure, and 13% were undecided.

         Comments against the closing focused on “local neighborhood access will become more restricted” while comments supporting the closing mentioned, “It’s closed 85% of the time anyway. Might as well get something better out of the space.” One resident said, “we are a neighborhood; we need to be included in decisions to take-away public space.” We hope to have more answers soon.

By Debra Shrout