The long-standing Vision for Pasadena targets major residential and commercial growth to the center of the City, the Central District. Without a doubt, it has been enormously successful. Yet, the livability and walkability of the district have been over-promised, but under-delivered. Walkability makes density work and reduces the need for a car. In the 2004 Central District Specific Plan, City policies envisioned the district as the “hub” for major pedestrian activity. The Specific Plan’s goal was to make walking the “mode of choice” for short trips by providing a “safe, convenient and comfortable place to walk.” We are now in year 2022 and only modest, ad hoc pedestrian improvements have been made since the Specific Plan was adopted nearly 20 years ago.
Pedestrian improvements have not kept up with the tsunami of development in the Central District. Funding is available – in fact, it is being generated by the very development that creates the need. In July 2017, the City Council amended the Traffic Reduction and Transportation Improvements mitigation fee ordinance to include pedestrian and bicycle improvements. Since that amendment was passed, an estimated 85% of the $6.5 million or $5.5 million in mitigation fees have been generated by developments in the Central District; but, for the most part, these fee are spent outside of the Central District, the epicenter of traffic impacts.
To cope with these developments and to reduce the use of cars, the Central District needs a robust and safe pedestrian network. Reducing traffic impacts outside of the Central District and increasing walkability within the Central District are not mutually exclusive goals. In fact, they work together to reduce the City’s carbon footprint. If you are walking, you are not driving.
INVEST IN THE CITY WE WANT
Our task as Pasadenans is to invest not only in the City we live in, but the City we want to live in. On May 2, 2022, the City of Pasadena City Council approved the FY 2022 – 2027 Capital Improvement Program Budget (CIP). To achieve the City’s Vision and used strategically, the CIP can be a transformative investment to improve the City’s urban physical landscape as well as its economic health. However, of the $16.7 million appropriated in the FY 2023 CIP for streets and streetscapes, street lighting, and transportation projects, only $30,000.00 or 0.02% is specifically earmarked for Central District. Importantly, these appropriations reflect the recommendations of the City’s recent draft pedestrian plan, PasadenaWalks! (January 2022). Although this plan says the Central District has the “Highest Potential” for walkability in the City, only one (1) project of the recommended 154 is earmarked for the Central District. The primary reason is that the plan’s objective at the outset was to reduce the number of pedestrian injuries and deaths at pedestrian crossings along major north-south and east-west traffic corridors in the City. This effort is to be applauded; however, it misses the “walkability” mark in the Central District – the densest area of Pasadena. Simply having buildings adjacent to one another does not guarantee walkability – it only sets the stage.
WALKABILITY IN THE CITY
The primary purpose of a city is to maximize choice and minimize distance. For this reason, walkability within urban geographic areas is critical. Pedestrians walk in a “grid” pattern in denser multi-use, multi-purpose areas. A safe and amenable walking environment is the key to making it work. Running across intersections should not be the way to get from one side to the other. A grid pattern makes it easier for pedestrians to access various designations – to take shortcuts through an area. Importantly, pedestrian connections better “knit together” Pasadena residents and visitors with the major downtown commercial areas of the City – Old Pasadena, Civic Center/Midtown, Playhouse Village, and South Lake Avenue. The Central District has more than the highest potential for walkability in the City – people walk now in the district and will in the foreseeable future. We should make it easier and safer for people to get around without a car. In a contest between horsepower and foot power, horsepower always wins. Drivers who cause pedestrian accidents rarely suffer the physical consequences, but pedestrians always do.
The Central District has the highest concentration of in-town residents, employees, businesses, hotels, cultural and entertainment venues, offices, educational institutions, services and public buildings in the City, with more on the way. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, there are approximately 25,000+ in-town residents in the Central District, with upwards of 30,000 by 2025. Importantly, the district has an estimated workforce of 50,000. This concentration of uses and the increasing in-town residential density requires walkability to make the district work – to be a “15-minute city” where people can ”circulate without a car”. We are falling short. According to the Local Government Commission, 75% of vehicle trips in California are less than one mile. In communities that have a pedestrian-friendly compact environment, the Commission found that people are four times more likely to walk to their destinations than to drive.
The last significant pedestrian improvements for the Central District were made in Old Pasadena some 25 years ago, prior to the Central District’s major population growth.
KEY PEDESTRIAN IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED FOR THE CENTRAL DISTRICT
The five-minute citywide e-mail survey conducted for the Pasadena Walks! plan could not have and did not identify the fine-grained, nuanced pedestrian improvements needed to make the Central District a more livable and attractive urban space. Reinventing urban spaces for people requires a different mindset – when you focus on place, you do things differently. Well-recognized “pedestrian tool kit” elements are necessary to turn locations into places. These elements are illustrated in the PedestrianWalks! plan, but few were recommended for funding.
The fine-grained nature of the pedestrian experience requires fine-grained pedestrian improvements. Those who live and walk in the district know the area best and should play a major role in deciding what is needed. Some fine-grained pedestrian improvements that need to be funded in the FY 2023 – 2027 CIP Budget include: (1) heavily stripped and illuminated crosswalks; (2) pedestrian ”scramble” intersections; (3) embedded lighting (“LEDs”) in crosswalks; (4) warning signs and flashing yellow pedestrian lights; (5) synchronized traffic signals timed to slow down traffic; (6) raised crosswalks; (7) more canopy streets (8) extended times for pedestrians to cross intersections; (9) pedestrian-scale lighting, signage, trash receptacles, etc. (10) traffic calming; (11) pedestrian wayfinding signs … and many more. Compared with system-wide measures to “tame the car”, including rail transit and improved vehicle corridors, most fine-grained pedestrian improvements can be implemented in the very near term, are of modest cost and can be phased-in to match funding availability. These modest investments can leverage important economic benefits for the City as a whole. As the noted land use economic strategist and author Christopher Leinberger said, “…all the fancy economic strategies…whatever the current economic development ’flavor of the month’ might be, cannot hold a candle to the power of a great walkable urban place.”
AND NEEDED NOW!
If not now, when? The Central District is growing by leaps and bounds because of the in-town housing boom and continued commercial development. The number of people who will be living in the Central District in the next five years – upwards of 30,000 – is nearly three times the population of the City of Sierra Madre. Compared with other cities, Pasadena is behind other cities in planning and funding pedestrians improvements. Simply having in a dense, compact area does not guarantee walkability – the spaces between buildings must be “knit together” to work for pedestrians. These spaces matter the most because that is where people gather and experience community.
For the most part, Pasadena’s transportation studies and funding priorities are viewed through the lens of the car, resulting in a very narrow (and predetermined) set of recommendations. There recommendations can prevent bad things from happening, but not ensure good ones. Pedestrian plans should focus on pedestrians first and foremost – making it more inviting, easier and safer to walk in dense, compact “urban villages” like the Central District. William H. White, the famous urban designer and author of the Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, said of designing urban spaces, “It is difficult to design a space that will not attract people. What is remarkable is how often this has been accomplished.”
THE CENTRAL DISTRICT BELONGS TO ALL OF PASADENA
The City Council must pay attention to the livability and walkability of the City’s center – it belongs to all of Pasadena. The betterment of the whole Central District should be the goal, not only individual districts. By getting our four Central District Councilmembers to “think outside the district”, progress can be made. As Albert Einstein said, “Politics is not about good ideas; good ideas are obvious. Politics is about forming coalitions to take action.” Can the City Council form coalitions to support and improve the city center’s urban physical landscape and its economic health? For the most part, the City Council focus is on private development, not the public spaces between. But, together, private developments and public spaces create valuable places. Pasadena and its city center are valuable places – how long can we keep it that way?
Marsha Rood is a Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners and Vice President of the Downtown Pasadena Neighborhood Association. She served as the City’s Development Administrator from 1982 – 2000 and is a 20-year resident of the Central District.
Get our daily Pasadena newspaper in your email box. Free.
Get all the latest Pasadena news, more than 10 fresh stories daily, 7 days a week at 7 a.m.
