The 710 signs are not coming down anytime soon on Ave. 64 (Kristin Yinger/Neon Tommy).

On a sweltering Sunday in November, Susanne Vaage sits outside on the wide front porch of her green, wood-paneled Craftsman style home while her small terrier Mallory patrols the porch in a bright orange sweatshirt. The porch offers a vantage point of the quiet neighborhood along Avenue 64 in northeast Los Angeles. Glancing up and down the street, there is no sign of a battle for the land—no ravaged landscape or camped-out protesters. But there are, literally, signs. “No 710 on Avenue 64” signs are in front of every house on the block. For as long as Vaage can remember, the life-long Avenue 64 resident says the threat of the 710 expansion has been in her life. “30 years ago it was a good idea [to expand] but not now,” Vaage said. “How much money have they spent on prospects and studies? They’re wasting millions on millions of dollars. They haven’t moved the freeway two inches.” 

The “they” in this situation is the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, or Metro, the caretaker of local freeways. The fighting spirit of residents along Avenue 64 and other areas threatened by the potential freeway extension have for decades prevented Metro from following through on extension plans. Two blocks over on Avenue 63, avid neighborhood walker Janice Constancio’s “No 710” sign sits in the front window of her 1914 Craftsman home. She too remains skeptical of Metro’s plans. “I have a feeling that Avenue 64 was smoke in mirrors for the actual route because they wanted to get everyone riled up,” Constancio said. In August, Metro announced 12 route options, including one through Avenue 64 either as a highway or below as tunnels. Outraged residents attended meetings, started online discussions and wrote letters to the mayor, governor and city councils. Both Pasadena and Los Angeles City Councils voted unanimously against the 710 extension options proposed in their cities in August. By the end of that month, Metro’s 710 Environmental Study team recommended only five viable options, none of which included an Avenue 64 route. Metro officials said the route was one of the build alternatives that was “seen as low-performing and/or most environmentally damaging,” and that further study of these alternatives “is not merited.” The route being taken off the table coupled with the city council votes were seen as signs of the plans’ defeat. 

Now that Metro has eliminated the Avenue 64 route, the neighborhood’s focus has shifted to a ‘no build’ stance and helping other communities still on the line for the 710 expansion. Now, “for Avenue 64, it’s a joke to bring up the route,” said Constancio. “Most people have shifted to ‘no build,’ which seems to be the winning theory now. Everyone is focusing on that, no matter where you live. No freeway to run through here.” 

Also known as the Long Beach freeway, which runs north-south, the 710 was built in the 1940s along with other Southern California highways; it was never completed, leaving a gap through Pasadena to Alhambra. People now use Avenue 64 as a connection to the east-west-running 134 or 210 freeways in lieu of an actual freeway connection, if they are familiar with these neighborhoods. The street serves as a route from Pasadena to the Highland Park and Garvanza areas of northeast Los Angeles. Metro and pro-710 leaders contend that by finishing the freeway and thus connecting the port in Long Beach up to the 210, it will be easier for trucks carrying goods from the port to get elsewhere in California. Sensitive environments nearby such as the Arroyo Seco, a seasonal river and canyon, led to the route being discarded because of concerns about air pollution and unstable soil. Historic areas and buildings on both the city of Los Angeles and the city of Pasadena sides of Avenue 64 also would have been affected. 

Avenue 64 “was a low performing alternative in terms of providing positive transportation benefits, and had the most community impacts,” said Metro Media Relations representative Rick Jager. “Many of the comments received during scoping pertained to seeking solutions that did not involve freeways. This feedback led to the development of a broad range of multi-modal alternatives and potential solutions.” 

For all of the apparent unsound reasoning behind the Avenue 64 route, everyone in the area who would be affected felt that the plan was a real concern—and the residents waged a battle against it. At the end of July, residents heard about the possibility of an Avenue 64 route being researched. The Pasadena City Council voted on August 13 against routes proposed through the city. Other meetings followed, including a meeting held on the lawn of the historic Church of the Angels on Avenue 64 in early September and a 710 Forum with a panel of experts, organized by a Pasadena Councilman on September 18. The sudden possibility of the neighborhood’s consideration shocked and spurred residents to action. “They had it in writing,” said community organizer and Garvanza Improvement Association co-chair Tina Miller. “It came from Metro. This was the real deal. No one would know it was smoke in mirrors. We took it very seriously.We wrote letters to Jerry Brown, to the mayor. People lost their minds over this.” Councilman Jose Huizar, whose district includes the areas of Garvanza and Highland Park and also serves on Metro’s Board of Directors, faulted Metro on “a process that creates more concern and alarm than anything,” he told The Los Angeles Times in August. 

Much outrage stemmed from the little outreach done by Metro about the planned routes, to the residents of the areas around Avenue 64 in Highland Park and Garvanza as well as in Pasadena. So Miller and her husband Charles decided they would start the community outreach themselves. In August, they started a Twitter feed and three Facebook groups—two in English and one in Spanish—to use as discussion forums and information sources. Currently the ‘No 710 on Avenue 64’ Facebook group has 613 members and the regional group ‘No 710 Freeway Expansion’ has 743 members. Their Twitter feed, @Metro710PR, has 253 followers so far. “Metro thought ‘we’ve got the head of a beast we didn’t expect,’” Miller said. “We bridged a lot together and we connected people. We started organizing the outreach because no one else was doing that.” At a recent art show titled ‘Que Te Vaya Bien,’ which means good riddance in Spanish, Miller unveiled a No 710 altar. Combining her passion for defeating the 710 with her love of art, she exhibited the altar, which held photographs, newspaper clippings, skulls and signs donated by people on the Facebook page. She felt the altar was a creative way to show what was happening. 

In August, the “No 710” signs also appeared on people’s lawns along Avenue 64. Down the block of North Avenue 64 from Church Street to Burleigh Drive, every home has a sign protesting the 710 expansion, even on the lawn of the Church of the Angels. Billy Jenkins, a teacher at Pasadena High School, has lived four years on Avenue 64 across from the church. “There was this period of July, August and September, this three-month period, that’s when people were going to meetings and it was getting intense,” Jenkins said. Now that the meetings have ended, though, the signs will not be coming down. “Everyone is so irritated with Metro that they are keeping their signs up. They left such a bad taste in our mouths,” said Jenkins. “It says something that [Metro] retreated. No one has taken their signs down to make Angelenos more aware.”  Jenkins lives a few houses away from the oldest house in Garvanza, a blue 1864 Gothic Revival-style cottage lifted from its original place in Chinatown by preservationist Brad Chambers. This house as well as a few more historic homes line this side of the street and receive protection under the Highland Park Overlay Zone. 

Across the street, the 1889 Church of the Angels, founded by the Campbell-Johnston family, sits on three acres surrounding the church that it has owned for generations. Its brownstone exterior and stained glass window have made it an ideal location for movies and television, like Heathers, The Office and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The rector, Father Robert J. Gaestel, known as Father Bob, remembers the September meeting at the church clearly. “There were 350 people in attendance for an evening rally and meeting,” Gaestel said.  “Some members of the congregation attended the early information meeting and others have been writing to Metro since they made their plans public.” The church’s website also features a news page with links about the 710 expansion.

The disappointment about outreach and “bad taste” left by this battle between residents and Metro now fuels activist-residents to continue to fight 710 expansion through offering their voices and support to other areas. The alternatives being considered further in the next stage are no build, transportation system improvements like traffic signal and street improvements, a rapid transit bus line from downtown LA to Pasadena, light rail alternatives from East LA to Pasadena and a freeway tunnel from the stub of the 710 north of the 10 to the 710 stub south of the 210 anfd 134 interchanges in Pasadena. All options are being refined and Metro is exploring what combination of alternatives would be the most effective. 

None of the highway alternatives were deemed to perform well and are not being investigated further. 

“We got our message across. This is still an ongoing problem even though these routes are off the table,” Miller said. “The life of the Facebook page is not going away because the life of the 710 is not going away. The conversation will still keep going.” Residents of Avenue 64 agree: their No 710 signs remain up. 

Reach Senior Arts Editor Kristin here.