Fine-tuning Santee Alley
In a $1.4 million project spearheaded by the Los Angeles Fashion District, Santee Alley will start to look a little spiffier.
Kent Smith, the district’s executive director, said streetscape designers will start meeting with property owners soon to discuss how the area can be made to look better, with funds coming from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the city and the Los Angeles Fashion District Business Improvement District, which covers 90 blocks and comprises more than 700 property owners.Santee Alley is an alleyway between Olympic and Pico boulevards where inexpensive clothing, purses, shoes and a hodgepodge of other goods are sold to bargain hunters.“We’ll be redoing the alley in terms of the surfacing [of the pavement] and some embellishments to the intersections in the alley and maybe some better markings like gateways and shading structures to let you know you are finally at the alley,” Smith said. “Drainage and resurfacing of the alley will be our No. 1 priority. Even when you wash down the sidewalks, the water collects.”
The Fashion District applied for the MTA funds in 2001, Smith said. It has taken the transportation authority—which is responsible for running the buses, subway lines and light rail in the area—several years to award the money. “It has been a long, long time coming, for sure,” Smith said.
The Santee Alley project was on hold until a storm-drain project on Maple Street between 11th and 12th streets was completed.The city’s Bureau of Street Surfaces has already started penciling out some of the design possibilities. This is the same group that was responsible for putting in the brick crosswalks at the intersection of Ninth and Los Angeles streets, where the California Market Center, the Cooper Design Space, The New Mart and the Gerry Building are located.
Construction on the Santee Alley project is expected to start by the end of the year, with construction possibly happening in the evenings so daily shopping is not disrupted. “It will definitely transform your experience in the alley for the better,” Smith said. —Deborah Belgum
