Top: Kester and Victory slum mall.
Bottom 2: Barcelona, Spain
Barcelona has mountains, palm trees and many Spanish speaking Catholics. Sound familiar?
Mayor Villaraigosa has never announced a plan to take the wide width of Van Nuys Boulevard and transform it into “Las Ramblas”. That’s because Los Angeles would never build five to eight story apartments, with ground floor retail shops, along a tree lined promenade. It would be “an unprecedented attack on suburbia” to quote one of our distinguished urban theorists.
If Van Nuys Boulevard, between Victory and Roscoe, looked like Barcelona, it could cause feelings of inferiority in Hummerland, a.k.a. Calabasas. We must not let that happen. The Daily News might scream about how Van Nuys is getting the advantages of a real life promenade while Woodland Hills only has a mall called Promenade.
Keep the parking lots, wooden utility poles, cobra lamps, auto repair shops, mini-malls, and ten lane asphalt roadway. Preserve the historic plastic signs, the litter, shopping carts and billboards. That’s the best we can hope for. We are a very poor city without the resources or imagination to do anything bold or innovative or……human.
Here in Van Nuys 
Los Angeles Investor Girl wrote: “Who needs 5-6 story buildings? Can you imagine the population density?”
Sure, and most of the world can. Remember, American land use is an aberration in the world. Much of the world’s cities support a population density that is higher than even New York’s.
“I say, no growth, crowd ’em out, and eventually they’ll leave.”
Yes, and once people leave, not only are people not going to want to move in but the economy leaves as well. I’d imagine that Detroit, St. Louis and Pittsburgh would love to see a population increase again.
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Who needs 5-6 story buildings? Can you imagine the population density? Where are we going to expand the roads to support such an increase? The answer is, the roads are never increased enough to keep up with all the building permits that are handed out, and the streets of LA just get worse and worse. I say, no growth, crowd ’em out, and eventually they’ll leave.
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Of course mom and pop stores don’t need to be forced out, but they certainly would be. The Kirby Vacuum Cleaner repair shop and the numerous micro-churches and bazaars would be no match for high tax revenue Ventura Blvd-style boutiques. I agree there should be a more common sense approach to the use of space. Crowded areas like Van Nuys Blvd would indeed benefit from housing above those one story shops.
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Well we all like market based solutions— especially when the government can help out with tax breaks. One of the great boosts for creating this would be to RELAX the zoning laws that separate residential from commercial areas. We need stores amidst our living areas, and if it done correctly, can spur our economy forward and provide a environment of healthy urban life.
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While I would prefer a market-based solution, I like the idea. We need housing. There’s space over those stereo stores. There’s a market for it, especially for small developers IF the city would get out of the way and let it happen. Allow the product to be built and if the developers are allowed to build to the level of market demand, prices will remain affordable.
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Um, feel free to be content.
The fact is, even if higher density and better designs are brought to the area, mom and pop stores don’t need to be forced out. “gentrification” does not have to overwhelm. It’s about whether the residents want to share a vision together.
Oh, and don’t even think that would be anywhere close to “utopian European Knock-off”. Puleeese.
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This tiny strip mall can hardly be called a slum. And if Van Nuys Blvd. between Victory and Roscoe looked like Barcelona, not only would be terribly out of place, but the attractions would draw higher income residents causing some to complain about the dreaded scourge of gentrification. Besides, there’d be an awful lot of mom and pop stores to kick out in favor of satisfying some eutopian dream of a European knock-off. The city’s resources are not the problem. It’s those nagging little issues like getting the people who live there to approve it.
Sure the Daily News might scream, but that’s arguably better than being altogether ignored by the Times.
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Now you are talking! Think being a designer for this city….
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