Framework

Capturing the world through photography, video and multimedia

November 1926: Corner of 7th and Broadway in Los Angeles.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Keystone

April 1958: Pedestrian traffic at 7th and Broadway about noon. According to a short Los Angeles Times article on April 16, 1958, the movies "The Brothers Karamazov" and "The High Cost of Loving'" opened at the State Theatre that day.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Los Angeles Times

July 9, 1974: Pedestrians around noon at 7th and Broadway. This photo was published in the July 10, 1974, Los Angeles Times.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Larry Sharkey / Los Angeles Times

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Declining pedestrian traffic at 7th Street and Broadway

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Declining pedestrian traffic at 7th Street and Broadway

Declining pedestrian traffic in downtown Los Angeles is documented by similar photos at the corner of 7th Street and Broadway taken in 1926, 1958 and 1974.

In a July 10, 1974, article, Times Urban Affairs Writer Ray Hebert reported:

Pedestrian activity has dropped about 30% in downtown Los Angeles since 1961, City Traffic Engineer S.S. Taylor reported Tuesday.

He said 1,118,900 pedestrian movements were counted at 274 mid-block points in a new central business district study compared to 1.7 million 13 years ago.

The downtown pedestrian survey, the first of its kind since 1961, showed that Broadway and 7th St. still ranks as downtown’s busiest intersection, a role it has held for many years, Taylor said….

And as expected, the survey of downtown pedestrian characteristics shows that the greatest concentration of sidewalk activity occurs between noon and 1 p.m……

As an example of downtown’s declining pedestrian activity, Taylor displayed photographs taken in 1923 and 1958 at Broadway and 7th St.

Each was taken about noon, with the 1958 photograph showing about 220 persons at the intersection. Twice that many were in the 1923 picture.

Photographs taken at the same location Tuesday showed another sharp reduction in the number of noon-time pedestrians.

All three photos in the above photo gallery accompanied Hebert’s article in the July 10, 1974, Los Angeles Times. The first photo, originally identified as taken in 1923, was actually taken between Nov. 12 and 19, 1926 – the week the movie “Syncopating Sue” starring Corinne Griffith played at Loew’s State Theatre.

2 Comments

  1. February 11, 2013, 9:31 am

    LINK

    It would be interesting to see air quality data for these same dates.

    I rode the Red Car in the 50′s and remember horrendous smog events in the 60′s.

    Cheers.

    By: Gmann

  2. February 11, 2013, 2:56 pm

    LINK

    An interesting difference between each pictures is how much cheaper the street lights designs become as the pics age. They look real ornate on the first one, they look less ornate on the 2nd picture (one light looks new, one looks to be the old style still) and they look like the one's we see now in the 1970s picture. As less people walk, less is spent on the street lighting quality? This is too bad, as the ornate lights from the 1st pic surely would look much better today.

    By: Gaucho420

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