We hear of many governmental projects which go awry with all sorts of unintended consequences which result in financial disasters or threats to the residents who are in proximity to those projects, however there is a renaissance occurring in the West San Fernando Valley and I think this resurgence of foot traffic is the best of all worlds for our community combined with an opportunity to do more for the area including creating jobs and a better life. I use Canoga as a route to my Chatsworth home almost every day and in the last few weeks, I have noticed that while Metro puts the finishing touches on the Orange Line Extension from Warner Center, there are literally hundreds of individuals, families, and pets already using the line as a path to better health and perhaps a way of keeping their families and friends together. You can see people walking with their children and pets, jogging, and biking down the lanes which are marked, separated, and paved paved parallel to the bus line. The paths are soon to be lit with LED's making the bike lane and walkways illuminated into the night. There are landscaped areas to provide places of tranquility in the middle of the Canoga Corridor.
I suspect we will be seeing either mounted or bike police patrols along these busways when they are scheduled to open on June 30.It also seems to me that the apparent success of these human transport lanes could be used to establish some businesses along the route giving some life to previously depressed or unused areas of Chatsworth and Canoga Park as the line goes southward. The most obvious location is at Canoga and Roscoe, where an entertainment center and food court could be built. The location is near the Topanga Station, so you could also have an array of city services also which could be accessed at this site for the benefit of the residents. There is also an opportunity to revamp a similar area in Canoga Park along Sherman Way where the walkers could go to stores and speciality eateries, resulting in a better sense of pride in that community. I think Chatsworth could also do well to take one of the unused and faceless industrial sites north of Nordhoff, and convert it into an entertainment and social center which could boast restaurants, community services, and an outdoor movie or two. It would be a shame to let this opportunity for rebirth go without some investment by the new agency renamed by the City Council for our west valley community. One only needs to see the numbers of locals using the Orange Line pathways for better health and as a safe passage through the communities of Chatsworth and Canoga Park. I guess the one better avenue that they did not add would have been a bridle path from Chatswoth to Balboa Park. So to Council members Englander and Zine, perhaps the Orange Line will give both of you an opportunity to be job creators and community organizers for a better West San Fernando Valley by supporting community enterprise centers that could include a farmer's market, food court, entertainment zone, and a place where the community could gain information from government agencies and perhaps have discourse with community leaders and agencies such as LAPD, LA Sheriffs, and the fire department with special 'Meet the Community,' nights and community festivals featuring food trucks and the like..
