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LA’s Future: Gotta have Heart |
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Voice in the Cheap Seats
By Charles Tarlow
To build a good life requires integrity, a good plan, the strength to execute that plan, and the compassion to consider others as you navigate through the challenges of life. To build a good city requires those same qualities.
The future of Los Angeles is not set, it is still being determined.
The challenges are daunting to be sure, but if we can come up with a good plan that considers all the people of Los Angeles; if we have the integrity and strength to execute that plan; we can build a city to be proud of, a city we will all want to live in.
Accelerated growth is at the core of our problems. It is pushing
traffic to the brink of gridlock and straining every public resource.
The actions proposed to date are either short term band aids like the Olympic/Pico plan or selfish misappropriations of public resources like the “Congestion Pricing” plan. What we need are long term solutions that will service all the people of Los Angeles ... in other words, a plan with “Heart”.
The first step to solving a problem is to acknowledge it. Let us take that first step and acknowledge that the unbridled building of businesses, apartments, and condominiums is exacerbating our traffic and resource problems. We need to slow down our growth to allow time for our infrastructure to catch up. First the infrastructure, then the new growth. The road to a better city is paved with a plan born of practical thinking. We can't just continue to build and hope everything will turn out OK. We have to build smart.
We also have to acknowledge that there will always be a need for cars in Los Angeles. Mass transit can eliminate the gridlock commute and most of the small trips we make on a daily basis, but there will always be a need for personal cars as well. Cars can go where mass transit can't.
While we should be making every effort to put a mass transit
system in place, we have to require new businesses and new housing to provide the parking we need now.
For areas where properties have limited space, parking structures should be built that provide the needed parking for the business and housing projects in those areas.
Until a viable mass transit system is actually in place, the majorityof people in Los Angeles are dependent on buses and cars to get around and for most of us, a car is the only viable means of transportation.
Freedom of movement for the people is essential for their quality of life and our city's economy. Without parking, both will suffer.
And by “the people”, I mean “all the people”. We have to reject the Federal “congestion pricing” plan because it does not serve all the people. It abandons the working man and services the wealthy. It ismorally corrupt and divides us into two classes of people; those who can afford to use the best public roads and public parking, and those who cannot. We need plans that bring us together, not drive us apart. We need plans with compassion.
Do you know what kind of city you want Los Angeles to be in ten years? I know what I want. I want a city with “personal mass transit”, computerized cars that affordably take people non-stop to their destinations. I want a green city that encourages builders to use ecology friendly technologies. I want a compassionate city that considers quality of life with every decision. I want a greater Los Angeles that is truly great. I want a city with “Heart”.
(Charles Tarlow is a community activist and a member of a neighborhood council in the mid-city area. Tarlow is a regular contributor to CityWatch. He can be reached at:
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