The Los Angeles Wheelmen, a bicycle club, touts it as having a 35% grade when it conducts an annual leg-pumping, heart-pounding bike climb along Fargo's lengthy Allesandro-to-Alvarado segment in Echo Park. The city lists it as 32%, however.
According to the city, the steepest section of public roadway is on 28th Street in San Pedro.
For about 50 feet between Gaffey Street and Peck Avenue, it climbs at a 33.3% angle. But other portions of the street aren't so steep.
"It's like San Francisco for me," said Mario Diminic, whose home is above the steepest part and has a stunning view of Los Angeles Harbor.
(Actually, San Francisco's steepest drivable streets -- Filbert, 22nd and Vicksburg -- each slope at a 31.5% angle at their steepest parts.)
"I like it -- this street is too steep for kids to play ball in. But some people hate it. They won't park on it. They park down below and walk up," Diminic, a 64-year-old retired baker, said Tuesday.
One motorist wishes he had parked elsewhere about a year ago.
His new Mustang rolled backward down 28th, jumped the curb at its T intersection with Peck and crashed into bushes and a fence above a home, Diminic said.
Despite the ups and downs of living on streets that resemble ski slopes, residents of Los Angeles' steepest roadways say they wouldn't trade the views, privacy and unique character that come with their territory.
And that's on the level.
