Beach Cities Greenway

The Beach Cities Greenway in Manhattan Beach and Hermosa Beach, California is a 3.9-mile (6.3 km) rail trail.[1][2] The greenway is a linear park on the median between Valley Drive running along the west side and Ardmore Avenue on the east.[2]

Hermosa Beach chip trail

Northern trailhead of the Beach Cities greenway is Sepulveda Blvd. and Valley Drive opposite the Manhattan Village shopping center in Manhattan Beach; southern trailhead is Herondo Street and Valley Drive at the Hermosa Beach-Redondo Beach municipal boundary.[1] (Note: Manhattan, Hermosa and Redondo are collectively called the Beach Cities.)

Hermosa's section is officially named the Hermosa Valley Greenbelt.[2] Manhattan Beach's section was called Manhattan Parkway until 1988[3] when was renamed Veterans Parkway.[2][3]

The Manhattan Beach section is approximately 21 acres (85,000 m2)[3] in area and 2 miles (3.2 km) long. The Hermosa Beach section is approximately 19 acres (77,000 m2)[4] in area and 1.9 miles (3.1 km) long. The boundary between the two municipalities is approximately the 1st Street crossing but technically occurs “mid-block.”[3]

Popular with joggers and dog walkers, amenities along the trail include quarter-mile markers, outdoor fitness equipment, public art installations, benches and drinking fountains.[5][6] For those who seek an extended workout, two blocks from the southern terminus of the greenway, down Herondo Street, is the Strand, part of the larger 22-mile (35 km) Coastal Bike Trail along the Pacific Ocean.[6]

Bicycles are not permitted on the greenway.[6] The route is unpaved; locals sometimes call the route “the wood-chip trail.”[6]

Past
California Central Railway 1888

The Beach Cities greenway is located on a median where the Redondo Branch[7] of the Santa Fe Railroad line once ran from Redondo Junction past Inglewood Depot to Redondo Beach. A depot at Ardmore and Pier Avenue was demolished in the 1960s as the rail route was already languishing, and local residents began guerrilla gardening trees along the easement.[8] The railroad officially abandoned the line in 1983.[2]

Manhattan Beach purchased their section of the right-of-way in 1986; Hermosa Beach did the same in 1988.[2]

Present

Hermosa Beach is planning to make sections of the route more accessible to wheelchair users, initially by replacing wood chips with decomposed granite along a five-block stretch between Pier Avenue and Eighth Street.[9]

Volunteers are working to replace opportunistic vegetation such as ice plant with California native species like sea cliff buckwheat, which is the food plant for the caterpillars of the endangered endemic El Segundo blue butterfly.[10]

See also

References
  1. Fleming, Charles (2016-01-09). "L.A. Walks: Grassy Stroll in Beach Town". Los Angeles Times. pp. F6.
  2. Gnerre, Sam (2019-11-25). "South Bay History: The beach cities greenbelt, where joggers took over from railroad trains". Daily Breeze. Retrieved 2022-07-17.
  3. "Veterans Parkway Landscape Master Plan Guidelines by Mia Lehrer and Associates". City of Manhattan Beach. June 2013. Retrieved 2022-07-17.
  4. "We All Need Parks: City of Hermosa Beach Study Area (PDF)" (PDF). 2016. Retrieved 2022-07-17.
  5. "Veterans Parkway Best of the South Bay". Retrieved 2022-07-17.
  6. Jhung, Lisa (2015-02-27). "Trail of the Month: Veterans Parkway, California". Runner’s World. Retrieved 2022-07-17.
  7. "The Redondo Beach Branch - Abandoned Rails". www.abandonedrails.com. Retrieved 2022-10-25.
  8. "Green Belt". hbhs-website. Retrieved 2022-07-17.
  9. Hixon, Michael (2022-06-01). "Hermosa Beach to make section of greenbelt more accessible". pp. Daily Breeze.
  10. "Hermosa Valley Greenbelt Trail Restoration". South Bay Parkland Conservancy. Retrieved 2022-07-17.

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