Los Angeles herald., 1910-05-06
MAKE STREET ALL F..
BUT COLD PAVED
Improvement Association viii Try
to Carry Out a Beauti-
full Dream
WIDEN SUNSET BOULEVARD
Would Extend Grand Thorough
fare from Boyle Heights
to the Seaside
WIDEN SUNSET BOULEVARD

A beautiful boulevard, extending
eventually from Boyle Heights to the
ocean, 100 feet wide, palm-fringed and
paved, with ornamental electric lights
and parked curbings, passing through
the heart of Chinatown and the old
slum district, is the dream and am
bhion of the North-Northeast and
Northwest Improvement association,
which held it's semi-monthly meeting
in the Chamber of Commerce building
yesterday to discuss the Improvement
of Sunset boulevard.
The plan of the association is to
open, widen and pave Sunset boulevard
to a uniform condition. At present
Sunset boulevard is 100 feet wide and
paved and improved at cost of $780,
900, from Marian street, at the Sisters
hospital, to the city limits. From Mari
an street to a point near the old Ford
mansion it is but S21a feet wide, and
from this point to San Fernando street
it narrows to about 60 feet.
It is desired to cut the boulevard
through from the juncture one block
north of the tunnel to the Plaza on
Main street, Strengthening it and wi
dening it to a width of 100 feet to con-
form with the boulevard beyond Mari
an street. This would cause the pre-
sent portion of the boulevard from the
old Ford mansion to San Fernando
street to be abandoned, and the as
sesSment of property In the district
through which it is desired to extend
the proposed cutoff to the Plaza has
been very unsatisfactory to the prop
erty owners on the lower end of the
thoroughfare. So confusing have be-
come the problems of assessment in
volved, that two assessment districts
were created.
ABOLISH EYESORES
The proposed cutoff of the boulevard
would cause a number of old eye
sores to be torn down, would cause
the removal of many old adobe build
ings and slum structures, and also
necessitate the destruction of several
more valuable and modern structures,
the cutoff extending so that one cor
ner of the parochial cottage by the old
Mission church, opposite the Plaza,
would have to be torn down; the
church, however, would remain intact,
beside the boulevard. After this cutoff
is completed, 1t is said, it is desired
to run the street on into Marches
sault street, through Chinatown, to
Boyle Heights.
Four years ago the residents on Sun
set boulevard paid 100000 for the i'm
provement of the boulevard as far
west as Marian street, at width of 821a
feet. The good roads commission
has provided for the improvement of
the boulevard from the city limits to a
point nearS Beverly, where Sunset
boulevard connects with Wiltshire bou
levXard.
OWNERS JOIN DISCUSSION
A committee of the property owners
from lower Sunset boulevard, which
embraces the unpaved section, east of
Marian street, conferred with the as
sociation yesterday, and the question
of damages, inequitable assessments,
ETC., was thoroughly threshed out by
the property owners. M. l.. Wicks,
chairman of the committee, appeared
before the association and requested
that the association help to produce
a more equitable assessment, and COM
planned that the district was too small
to raise the amount desired without
seriously imposing on the property
owners in the area involved. As
result of the investigation yesterday,
a Joint committee was appointed by
the association, composed of Joseph
Mesmer, Victor Ponet and H. c.
Thompson, who will cooperate with
a committee of lower Sunset boule
ward property owners and go before
the city council, the comittee to be
permitted to participate in the proposed
reassessment of the lower district.