I listened with some dismay and some enthusiasm at the Big City Forum on Wednesday evening. The four presentations and presenters were provocative and stimulating.
And I certainly plan to attend the next Big City Forum at the Pasadena Armory Center on April 4th. Wouldn't miss it for the world!
As the evening unfolded, I listened and being polite, I didn't leap up and start arguing about social engineering in land use and 1960s left wing biases that seemed to flood from a couple of the presentations. The legacy of the late Mayor Tom Bradley, who wanted to transform L.A. into New York, certainly was apparent.
Here, however, are some things I wanted to challenge:
The speakers and many in the audience seemed to express regret about Governor Brown's recent defunding of Community Redevelopment Agencies (RDA). My response: Applause for the Governor! RDAs have been around since the 1960s and their time has come and gone. They began as a perceived solution to the fact that people were abandoning city centers and fleeing to the 'burbs. The idea, then, was to sweep away old buildings in city centers and hand the land over to developers to build something new which would lure people back downtown. More inmportantly, the new downtown buildings would have higher assesments and generate more taxes for the city to spend! Over time, the RDAs became a big, fat subsidy for developers (members of the 1%, of course!) who profited enormously by obtaining valuable land for cheap.
The next is a small item, but irritated me: one speaker asserted that people who live in gated communities are bigots. Not true. I've lived in a gated community and can confirm that they are no better or worse than any other community with a homeowners' association that has power over residents. One fact the speaker overlooked is that homeowners' associations do not decide who can and who cannot buy into the community. Only co-ops--a type of home ownership which is very rare in California--can make those kind of yes/no decisions.
Another topic mentioned in passing: the bankruptcies of cities. Again, one speaker (the same one!) deplored the fact that cities were going bankrupt. I spoke up on this topic and said that it is the big spending city governments that are going bankrupt; the cities will still be there after bankruptcies. The speaker's answer: "But they would have to cut social programs." My thought was : "Well, maybe they should rethink their priorities."
And then there are single family homes which seemed to be regarded with distain by almost everyone on the panel. And they also deplored the fact that people in India and China are following L.A.'s model. I couldn't control myself and defended single family homes as great places to raise a family. For god's sake, not everyone wants to live in an apartment or condo! Especially with energetic young children.
Rather than go on and on with this rant, I would like to applaud Jennifer Varner, an architect, professor and writer, who spoke about how L.A. is not at all like the image she had of the city before she arrived from the mid-West, via Yale. Among other things she mentioned: she can walk to work and walk to the grocery store. Since arriving here 3 years ago she has compiled/written a book of oral histories about people living in the city and their experience of Los Angeles.
Okay, the next Big City Forum will be on April 4th at 7 p.m. The topic is Socially Engaged Aesthetics. Sounds as if it is about contemporary public art. The location is the Armory Center for the Arts at 145 N. Raymond, Pasadena. It's about one block west of the Memorial Park Gold Line Station.
For more information visit
www.bigcityforum.blogspot.com
