Not much in the photo, is there? Just the backs of some small commercial buildings, a blank space set off by a fence, and a wide street in the foreground, all bathed in sunglare.

Yet what you’re looking at is a missed opportunity on a grand scale, in a SoCal community that claims to define grandeur, and glamour.

The wide street in the foreground is Santa Monica Boulevard where it approaches Century City after passing through Beverly Hills. The buildings in the background are some of the dozens of small shops that line Little Santa Monica–these are of course the back doors.

The space in between, fenced off on both sides, is an old Pacific Electric right of way, down which the tramcars of one of the world’s finest transit systems used to run. In Beverly Hills, it is still zoned for transportation–and used for nothing. Fifty feet wide, over a mile long, relegated to reflecting the sun’s glare from its gravel surface.

It does not abut the stores that back onto it; there’s a little space between them and the fenced-off strip. With a little imagination, much could made of this strip.

The only thing Beverly Hills can think fo so far is to grant a zoning variance and throw up a generic office building there–a plan that’s been proposed but only halfheartedly considered.

I’ll bet you and I could think of something better, right?

Here’s my idea: a separated bike path leading from the Golden Triangle to the edge of Century City, running along this blank little corridor. A footpath too. Landscaping and sculptures, why not? Kiosks selling coffee, drinks, and food, magazines and newspapers, innertubes and minor bike tuneups. A little fountain. Benches and chairs…make it a linear town square. Instead of dead space or yet another black-glass sugarcube office, a place for Beverly Hills residents and visitors to relax, build community, bike or walk, share a meal, make street life happen. String some lights up and keep it open at night.

A row of busy little shops and happy people, and another segment in the region’s bicycle network, connecting at the west end to the bike lanes running from Century City to Sepulveda, connecting on the east (with a little more extensive work) to the bike lanes in West Hollywood.

No parking hassles, none of the baggage of car-centric business-as-usual.

Could be a sliver of paradise…if they dare. It’s not a daring city, by any means, but one can hope….