A Curbed reader (ok, once again, us) wants to know about the pretty green highways on Riverside Drive near Echo Park/Los Feliz. As it turns out, pretty=dangerous. "The roots are growing into the concrete," Gary Iverson, senior environmental planner at Caltrans, tells us. "It's not ideal." Besides weakening the roads, the ivy could fall below, terrifying drivers and causing havoc. Clippers, please! "We have to trim it so it doesn't fall and cause a traffic incident," says Iverson.
These Riverside plants are just renegade ivy--not part of Caltrans' foliage program that puts plants (such as Kangaroo Ivy, a good ivy, according to Iverson) on highways and sound walls around Los Angeles to discourage taggers. Notably, Caltrans has planted quite a bit of foliage along Route 5 in Paramount as part of its "taggers-no-more" program. Is the strategy working? "In most cases, yes, but in other areas, the plants don’t have a chance to get established before the graffiti people tag," says Iverson. Think of the little plants, taggers!
· Technology Recruited in War on Graffiti [No Graffiti]
· Kangaroo Vine [San Diego Zoo]