Editor's note: Mr. Supernaw, who is part of this news story, is separately an LBReport.com community correspondent.
(Sept. 12, 2009) -- ELB/Los Altos neighborhood residents gathered across from the CSULB pyramid on Atherton St. @ Snowden Ave. for groundbreaking on the second (completion) phase of a project to cover the detested Atherton St. Ditch.
LBReport.com photo
Photo by Daryl Supernaw
The chronic ELB eyesore, now slated for final burial, was part of the original tract development of the area, stretching from McNab Street under Palo Verde Ave. and eastward to Knoxville Ave. where a pump station dumps its contents into the Los Cerritos channel; the portion of the ditch east of Palo Verde Ave. was covered in phase 1 of the project.
Years ago, City Hall covered other open drainage ditches in the area (including one along Stearns St.)...and when officials said the money ran out, promised residents City Hall would come back and finish the job.
Decades of dilatoriness followed, including partial-measures floated by City Hall that further riled residents. Neighborhood area resident Daryl Supernaw documented the history of the ditch and City Hall's promises, founded the "Atherton St. Ditch Adjacent Neighborhood Ass'n" and amplified the grassroots pressure.
LBReport.com photo
The 2004 election of 4th dist. Councilman Patrick O'Donnell brought a more helpful attitude from city management, producing an engineering remedy elegant in its simplity: an underground drain will be installed parallel to the ditch to carry the runoff...and the ditch will be covered and landscaped.
Image source: City of LB
Image source: City of LB
Image source: City of LB
For video with comments from the event participants, click image below.
At today's event, Assistant City Engineer Phillip Balmeo briefed the crowd on the construction schedule...which anticipates completion in mid to late January 2010 [caveat] if major rains don't interfere.
Photo via Daryl Supernaw
Councilman O'Donnell said the day's events are fifty years in the making. He said he's delighted to see the demise of the Atherton St. ditch...and swung a concrete-busting hammer to make his point.
Photo by Daryl Supernaw
Photo via Daryl Supernaw
Councilman O'Donnell said the project involved his advocacy combined with work by city staff and management (particularly Gov't Relations Mgr. Tom Modica), his 4th dist. Council office staff, Los Altos area residents and the late Cong. Juanita Millender McDonald.
Funding came from a combination of sources including federal taxpayer dollars inserted in Capitol Hill legislation [at the urging of city management] by Cong. Millender-McDonald.
The Atherton St. ditch was a neighborhood sore point, home to mosquitoes, trash, odors....
...and sometimes vehicles landed in the ditch (as in October, 2005).
Archival photo source: Daryl Supernaw
Neighborhood advocate Supernaw says that when the ditch is finally completely covered, the neighborhood group he founded plans to change its name from the "Atherton St. Ditch Adjacent Neighborhood Ass'n" to the "Atherton Corridor Neighborhood Association."
The chronic ELB eyesore, now slated for final burial, was part of the original tract development of the area, stretching from McNab Street under Palo Verde Ave. and eastward to Knoxville Ave. where a pump station dumps its contents into the Los Cerritos channel; the portion of the ditch east of Palo Verde Ave. was covered in phase 1 of the project.
