LAX Airport question

November 6, 2006 3:36 PM

What's this [Google map] webwork of streets between LAX Airport and the beach?

It's an odd web of streets as if possibly a neighborhood was here. Now I see just random trucks parked all over the area. What was there, and what are they doing there now? And does anyone frequent that particular beach? Looks awfully desolate.

posted by rolypolyman to Travel & Transportation around Los Angeles, LA (13 answers total)

I drove by that several times last time I was in LA. I can tell you that people do use the beach. As for the streets, it looks like someone had planned a housing development there, but never got around to putting up the houses.
posted by split atom at 3:41 PM on November 6, 2006

I go to LA a lot on business and a local guy told me that it used to be a high-end neighbourhood, but then LAX started having the planes take off over the ocean and so they had to buy up the land from the residents and demolish all the houses as the plane noise pollution was too much.

It's a shame, the views would have been beautiful, and within walking distance of all the bonfires they have on the beach.
posted by sonicgeeza at 3:42 PM on November 6, 2006

Scroll a little to the north and you'll see a similar pattern in the finished sub-division there.
posted by dazed_one at 3:42 PM on November 6, 2006

I believe that is the former community of Surfridge, which was demolished as a result of an expansion of LAX.
posted by bac at 3:49 PM on November 6, 2006

Scrolling down on that map a bit shows that is Dockweiler State Beach, googling for that phrase shows an address for Dockweiler Beach RV Park at that location.
posted by InfidelZombie at 3:49 PM on November 6, 2006

Yup, that's Playa del Rey. My Dad lived in a house on the circle visible here when he was a kid. (Big-ass picture here if you want it.) If I remember what he told me right, it was expropriated in the mid-'60s when LAX expanded, and why bother demolishing the streets?
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:46 PM on November 6, 2006

The dunes west of LAX -- and their vestigial roads -- are desolate for a reason: the endangered El Segundo blue butterfly (Euphilotes bernardino allyni).
posted by rob511 at 6:07 PM on November 6, 2006

It's a shame that conservation came too late for Glaucopsyche xerces.
posted by ktrey at 6:10 PM on November 6, 2006

Eminent domain at work...that area was indeed Surfridge, part of Playa del Rey. The residents were forced out in the '60s and '70s due to noise and safety concerns caused by the airport. There have been successions of plans drawn up for the land, but the only one implemented is the butterfly reserve previously mentioned.
posted by sLevi at 7:08 PM on November 6, 2006

wow, thanks for pointing out this LA ghost town. :)
posted by ruelle at 5:09 AM on November 7, 2006

I used to live in Playa del Rey (and El Segundo) and did some work with the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Committee—as well as a few other groups concerned with the area—and I can confirm that rob511 is correct.
posted by terrapin at 6:13 AM on November 7, 2006

The beach bike path goes right past it. That is the only reason I ever saw that area.
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 6:59 AM on November 7, 2006

Following a link from these aviation safety forums, I found what may be before and after photos of Surfridge homes/empty lots. If it's not Surfridge, it's somewhere in the LAX noise abatement zone.
posted by Jaie at 7:30 AM on November 9, 2006