With development commencing at full speed in the building and conversion of condo lofts downtown, the upgrading of Koreatown and the revitalization of Hollywood, there is a very real chance that this might create a city on the very land where Los Angeles now sits.
It seems hard to believe, that the vast acres of parking lots and empty lots downtown could be lost forever, like the orange groves that once dotted the Southland. Yet, before our very eyes, a vicious cabal of real estate developers, politicians and greedy homeowners, are salivating at the idea of a making a true city where one can ride a subway from Pershing Square to Santa Monica. (We can’t get a train to LAX yet).
I experienced first hand the appalling new Hollywood yesterday when I saw a movie at the ArcLight and then went next door to Amoeba records. There were people walking from their apartment to the gym, the bookstore and the bank. The demolition of Bernard’s Luggage to make way for more apartments and economic vitality on Hollywood and Vine is tragic. What kind of a city would allow the wanton destruction of a luggage store? New lampposts along Vine added insult to injury as if to say that aesthetics were important in upgrading a district.
Neighborhood associations, especially in the San Fernando Valley, are appalled that walking and parks may replace asphalt and car exhausts. There is even talk of tearing down the distinguished shopping center at Victory and Laurel Canyon, with its bubble gum upholstered cinema seats and ten story Wells Fargo tower with the giant mural.
Mr. Mayor, hands off my backyard! I don’t want to live a city like Portland or San Francisco, run by elitists who think global warming is more important than the World Cup.
I like Los Angeles just the way it is, with nowhere to walk at night other than my kitchen. Keep the light rail and dense housing around trains out of my city of endless mini-malls.
Tell the politicians that we can’t afford any big plans, any new taxes, any more money for the over-funded police and education special interests. We already spend $3.50 a gallon for gas and have $750 a month payments on our Hummers.
I don’t want to live in New York or Chicago with elegant apartments overlooking verdant parks. I don’t want to live in Miami with its thriving street life, or Denver with its new light rail. Keep LA as it was in 1965, when everyone had just moved out here from Michigan, and bought $80,000 homes with swimming pools in Sherman Oaks and ate French Toast at DuPars and thought it was the best thing in the world.
Here in Van Nuys 