There's a ghost town behind LAX! The old Surfridge community dates as far back as the early 1900s, but as LAX arrived and expanded, Los Angeles World Airports (which operates the airport) "began buying up properties and tearing down homes," according to the Daily Breeze. There are still old roads and streetlights scattered on the 302 acres, but now the California Coastal Commission is considering letting LAWA pull out "abandoned streets, curbs, gutters, sidewalks, retaining walls, foundations and above-ground utilities, along with non-native plants that once adorned the former residential area." They'd also plant about six acres of "native coastal dune and coastal prairie vegetation." The plan covers 48 acres on the northern part of the property, running south from Waterview Street, Rindge Avenue, and Napoleon Street down to Imperial Highway. If everything goes according to plan, work could start in August and last eight months. On the downside: "LAWA has no plans to open up the area for public access." Update: Important literary footnote: There's a weird/sexy encounter in an abandoned Surfridge house in Thomas Pynchon's LA-at-the-end-of-the-'60s novel Inherent Vice.
· 'Ghost town' area west of LAX would be restored under LAWA proposal [Daily Breeze]
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