Yesterday, I had the privilege of meeting with a Los Angeles City Planning Department Community Planning Official. He had written me an email: “The city is just beginning the process of updating the design guidelines and standards for the commercial areas along Van Nuys Boulevard.” Would I want to meet with him to discuss any ideas for improvements?

I went over to the Marvin Braude Government Building in Van Nuys, and had an informative and interesting talk with him as he unfolded a map of Van Nuys Blvd. with colored sections denoting the area of improvement: roughly stretching from Oxnard to Sherman Way.

Most of us know this street as a speedway bordered by pawn shops, discount stores, porn palaces, and bank, government and utility offices which cater to the largely working class, Hispanic residents.

There are plans to improve this street which may or may not include better signage on buildings, suggestions for street trees and benches, decorative lighting, etc.

This long, wide boulevard encompasses all of the hopes and dreams as well as the disastrous post-WWII widening of the street that destroyed any sense of a community shopping and gathering place.

A consensus, especially among planners these days, revolves around the idea of density, and public transportation. Perhaps the Busway will become a hub of thriving restaurants, shops, and apartments and the prosperity will fan out from there.

Or the more likely scenario is that local businesses, and the Van Nuys Community Council will oppose any attempts to rezone Van Nuys Boulevard if it “threatens” the character of the area. Meaning that no imaginative architecture will be built, and that change will involve the opening of a new McDonalds, such as they celebrated on Kester and Victory five years ago. If Burger King or Taco Bell opens across from the government center, expect a ribbon cutting and a marching band.

Van Nuys is a sick place and I mean that with compassion. It is a microcosm of all the public policy decisions that are being debated today. How we rebuild and redevelop Van Nuys Boulevard will become an architectural testament to a city struggling with illegal immigration, obesity, overcrowding, traffic, gang violence. We cannot simply propose new design concepts without attacking the root civic behavior that so degrades this section of the city.