ALPERN AT LARGE - As Times columnist Jim Newton states, the Downtown Convention Center and football stadium proposed by AEG is going to happen, and the best thing we can do about it is to focus on what we get back in return. Expect the wish-lists to come out, and it’ll be up to all of us to choose whether those lists are repugnant, pragmatic, or a bit of both.
So let’s get the platitudes and truisms out of the way, shall we?
1) It’s lousy that the approval/review planning process for this project is so rushed, but it’s pretty great that a private source of capital is going to be thrown into LA’s economy at a time when most of the so-called “1%” is sitting on its money.
2) It’s troubling that the push to get a football team into LA might not benefit as many sectors of the City as would be hoped for, but there would be a prominent local fan base … and this effort, while potentially risky, is as burden-free for City taxpayers as anything ever conceived in recent times (and probably something other cities wished they’d had).
3) The parking and traffic impacts of the new Convention Center are of great concern to all (or at least SHOULD BE of great concern to all), but Los Angeles’ current Convention Center is just not the income source this city needs to be competitive with most other cities that desire the sort of cash flow that comes from hosting conventions.
So what do we push for? How do we make AEG effectively stand for “And Everyone Gets”?
First, let’s not kid around as to where Downtown is going. For decades, money has been poured from both the City and County to reverse the trends of Downtown becoming one gigantic Skid Row, and now there is serious, serious traction being made as LA Live and other Downtown renewal projects attract the rich to live and work. There can and should be concerns as to where the homeless and poor will go as sales continue to rise at the Ritz-Carlton and other high-income condos.
This will be a similar phenomenon as to what happened in Downtown Long Beach, which now a place to go to rather than a place to shun. Poor and homeless individuals will and must be displaced in order to create a vibrant economy that will hopefully be the tide that lifts all boats. The best we can and should hope for is that those poor and homeless who are able to work can get jobs to finally improve their lives.
Adjustment to a vibrant Downtown LA will take years to get used to. For example, how many of us still view Downtown LA as a place to shun because the perceived seedy and potentially dangerous nature of some of its neighborhoods? Clearly, businesses and families are rethinking Downtown, and we will all be better served to have Downtown as a sort of “Manhattan of the West” instead of what we now have. So expect the homeless problem to be shunted to the suburbs.
But the traffic and parking is what we should focus on with respect to a Downtown project that has Citywide (if not Countywide) impacts on our regional infrastructure, so the LA Times editorial board has it just right when it recommends a focus on a stadium that will help create a better LA.
With San Diego and other Downtown stadiums as a model, AEG should be an active partner in our developing mass transit system. AEG is probably more aware of (and willing to be a cooperative partner with) Metro and Metrolink than most developers, and this should be exploited, with the City of LA should be at the head of the line for these mitigations:
1) Parking: This City sorely needs it, and if those decrying parking lots as the anti-Christ of urban planning can get over their short-sighted selves, we can all achieve the recognition that parking structures are necessary for construction and enlargement at or adjacent to current and future Expo, Crenshaw/LAX and Wilshire Subway Line stations. AEG can and should be the perfect private-public partner to create and operate these structures at a profit to the City of Los Angeles.
2) Sidewalks and Related Infrastructure Repair: This City sorely needs this as well, and the need to do this in a comprehensive manner versus the need to immediately fix the most urgent problems, will be hotly debated should AEG throw money at the City for this effort. Arguably, those sidewalks near the current and future Expo, Crenshaw and Wilshire Rail Lines should get first crack, but perhaps a discretionary amount to each council district would be more politically expedient.
3) Water and Power and Related Infrastructure Repair: Anything that can mitigate the increased water and power burden that the Downtown Convention Center and Stadium will inevitably have would be entirely appropriate for AEG to pay. A transparent process to have AEG pay for some of the LADWP’s infrastructure repairs would go a long way to relieving any future rate increases for the residents and businesses of LA.
4) Parks and Open Space: This is a segment of “infrastructure” that is sorely ignored by City budgeters and planners, and it is also appropriate for AEG to help pay for projects such as the Expo Parkway and Bikeway in the Westside, as well as other long-overdue projects to better the lives of Citywide residents throughout LA.
In short, no one should consider “rolling over and playing dead” with respect to giving in to AEG’s Downtown plans. However, no one should avoid the potential that this major project has with revitalizing the City of Los Angeles into becoming a major urban thoroughfare for the 21st Century.
(Ken Alpern is a former Boardmember of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently co-chairs its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 74
Pub: Sept 14, 2012