But a lot of the increase in traffic coming through Sunset Park in the last 20 years has also been a result of the 1984 General Plan, which encouraged development of large office buildings with millions of square feet of commercial space in what are now referred to as the "Industrial Lands"-- MGM/Yahoo, MTV, the Water Gardens, the Arboretum, the Lantana campus, etc., along Colorado and Olympic. The city estimates that between 115,000 and 165,000 people come into the city each day, and they're not all going to SMC, which had an enrollment of 33,566 in the spring semester of 2006. (The percentage of students taking online classes also seems to have increased, but I can't find current data on the college website.)

The college has developed several satellite campuses (the Airport Arts Campus on Airport Ave., the Bundy Campus on Bundy Ave., the Academy of Entertainment Technology on Stewart/28th between Olympic and Colorado, and the Performing Arts Campus on Santa Monica Blvd. and 11th), and tried to make those campuses either self-contained or connected by shuttle buses, but we're not sure how successful that's been.

One of our members came to an Friends of Sunset Park meeting in August and was very concerned about the schedule of the new Sunset Ride bus route, which connects several campuses. It seems that her son had enrolled for classes beginning in September and she was concerned as to whether the shuttle bus would get him to class on time at the various campuses. When I saw her again in November, I asked how the shuttle buses were working. She replied that everything was fine because she had purchased a car for her son and he was driving from campus to campus.

The college considered a plan to put 500 parking spaces underneath Corsair Field, but the entrance/exit would have had to be on 16th or Pearl, close to John Adams Middle School. The current proposed project puts 500 parking spaces underneath a new Student Services building on Pico Blvd. but, unfortunately, the entrance/exit is right behind multi-family dwellings on the west side of 20th St. That number of parking spaces would generate 2-3,000 daily car trips, so we're asking the college to move that entrance/exit from the east side to the west side of the new building, away from residents who already have 20,000 cars and 100 Big Blue Buses going past the front of their homes each day.

When the SMC shuttle parking lot on Airport Ave. was torn up to construct Airport Park, the college needed to replace that parking, and the city offered a beach parking lot to them on a temporary basis. The beach shuttle system ended when the new SMC shuttle parking lot on Stewart/28th between Olympic and Pico was opened in September 2007. The college paid the Big Blue Bus to start a new route, the Sunset Ride, to serve the new parking lot as well as the Bundy Campus. This has been very successful for the college, but it posed a problem for residents because dozens of students were waiting for buses and talking/smoking/leaving trash at 20th and Pearl, about 4 feet from a home. BBB has now told students to wait for the shuttle bus at Pico and 20th, but there are still 3 BBB routes (Sunset Ride, SMC Commuter, and Crosstown) all running on 20th, which is very narrow between Pico and Ocean Park Blvd.

The SMC Commuter route was created by analyzing where SMC students live and developing a route that runs from, I believe, Robertson and Venice through West Los Angeles and Mar Vista. Students and staff ride free. It runs several times in the morning, and then again in the afternoon. Residents have stated at community meetings that they would rather that the Commuter and Sunset Ride buses stick to major arterials such as Pico and Ocean Park Blvd., rather than running past homes on 17th and 20th Streets.

Traffic calming -- The speed humps, islands, medians, and extended curbs were added to protect pedestrians, especially school children, from speeding drivers cutting through the residential neighborhood, in a hurry to get to and from work/freeway/college. Before they were added, drivers would go through crosswalks near Grant Elementary School, for example, while crossing guards and children were IN the crosswalks; parked cars were demolished by speeding/drunk drivers; people drove down my street at 50 mph while I was trying to back out of my driveway with my daughter in her carseat (which was required to be in the back seat) -- it was a nightmare; the noise from cars and motorcycles "flooring it" past our house kept my daughter awake at night; a young man in the neighborhood, trying out a new motorcycle, was smashed into a nearby car and killed by a service van trying to "beat the light" at Ocean Park Blvd. and 23rd.

I think the current congestion is caused not by the so-called "calming devices," but rather by an increase in daily car trips, now up to 24,000 a day on 23rd/Walgrove, a street designed for no more than 15,000 daily car trips.

Another problem for Sunset Park is that there has been tremendous growth in West Los Angeles, from Playa Vista Phase I, the 9-story Marina Pointe condos on Lincoln and Maxella, Costco on Washington Blvd. just west of Walgrove/23rd, and thousands of lofts/condos being built on Redwood and Glencoe between Washington Blvd. and Maxella (just east and west of Walgrove/23rd). This has caused a lot of congestion on Centinela, Lincoln, AND Walgrove/23rd. We still have residents complaining that they can't cross 23rd south of Ocean Park Blvd. to take their kids to Clover Park because drivers won't stop for them or keep the intersections clear, medians or no medians.

There are no medians on Walgrove, but the southbound traffic is jammed up there in the afternoon also. While the daily traffic count on 23rd has increased from 20,000 to 24,000 in the last decade, Bundy/Centinela has reached about 48,000 per day, and Lincoln Blvd. has also seen a tremendous increase in daily car trips. I don't think the medians on 23rd are causing any of this congestion, they're just discouraging drivers from careening around at 50 mph when traffic is light.

The revised General Plan -- While we're waiting for the General Plan to be revised, there are lots of large projects in the works for the Industrial Lands, and these will probably bring more commuter traffic through Sunset Park.

--The two new Lantana buildings, totaling over 200,000 sq ft, are under construction on Olympic and Exposition between Stewart/28th and Centinela, with hundreds of parking spaces;

--a 3-story development with hundreds of parking spaces is being proposed for the SE corner of Colorado and Stewart/28th, across from Evergreen pre-school;

--the Village Trailer Park on Colorado between Stewart/28th and Centinela is going to be replaced with a large development with hundreds of parking spaces (while current residents are offered 250 sq ft single-room-occupancy one-room apartments at $1,000 per month);

--the Papermate factory at Olympic and 26th will be replaced with a 300,000 sq ft development project with hundreds of parking spaces; and --the city of Los Angeles has approved a 250,000 sq ft medical center at Olympic and Bundy, with hundreds of parking spaces.

That's why the FOSP Board joined other neighborhood organizations last spring in asking the city for a moratorium on new construction (with the exception of single family homes) until the General Plan is finally adopted.

My comments are probably longer than the original article (and not nearly as well written), but this is what FOSP has been hearing from Sunset Park residents concerning the issues Peggy raised.

Zina Josephs

Ed. Note: I am beholden to Ms. josephs for correcting my factual errors as well as amplifying on and clarifying some of the issues, and providing all of us with data that should give all of us pause.

My factual errors are inexcusable, and can only be attributed to my extreme sympathy for the beset residents of Sunset Park.

PC