Have Your Say in the Future of Biz and Travel in the Neighborhoods Tonight

Highland Park will be hosting a pair of public meetings tonight that those who are interested in the future of neighborhood's travel and business infrastructure would be well advised to attend.

Unfortunately, both meetings will be taking place at exactly the same time, from 6 until 8 p.m., at exact opposite ends of the neighborhood.

One of those meetings, which will be held at , and will be focused on gathering community input for Councilmember Jose Huizar's "new York" vision plan.

Business owners and community member from across Highland Park have been since December to discuss both long and short term goals for the York Boulevard business corridor between Ave. 50 and Ave. 56.

Huizar has stressed that  any changes made to the Boulevard will be directly informed by community suggestions, so attending these meetings offers an excellent opportunity for Highland Park residents to play a part in shaping the future of their neighborhood.

At , from 6 until 8 p.m., officials from Los Angeles Metro will be on hand to discuss alternatives to the long proposed State Route 710 expansion project.

For decades, Metro and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) have identified "the gap" between SR-210 in Alhambra and SR-710 in Pasadena as the source of major traffic congestion in the San Gabriel Valley and Northeast Los Angeles, and have endeavored to relieve that pressure by proposing to connect the two freeways with a multi-lane surface freeway, and more recently, through an underground tunnel.

One of the proposed tunnel routes (see box on the right) would run directly beneath the neighborhoods of Highland Park and Mount Washington.

Metro has been holding community meetings throughout the San Gabriel Valley as part of the scoping process in their latest attempt to earn an Environmental Impact Report for a SR-710 extension project.

Tonight's meeting in Highland Park will be the last of those public input sessions, but community members will still be able to submit their comments online through Metro's website.

Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch will have reporters at both of this evening's meetings and will be providing full reports tomorrow.