Design Observer :: Join the Discussion http://places.designobserver.com/feature/no-more-play/26888/ en-us Design Observer Group 2011-06-08T00:16:29-05:00 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0
The numbers tell the story: 23 June 2006, Woodland Hills, California -- a high temperature of 119 degrees Fahrenheit. Summer 2010, downtown Los Angeles -- a high temperature of 114 degrees Fahrenheit.

"When Obama took office, he appointed some of the country’s most knowledgeable climate scientists to his Administration, and it seemed for a time as if he might take his responsibility to lead on this issue seriously. That hope has faded."

New Yorker article "The New Politics of Claimte Change: Storms Brewing," 13 June 2011, Elizabeth Kolbert.

Newsweek article "Are you ready for more?" 29 May 2011, Sharon Begley.

"Picture California a few decades from now, a place so hot and arid the state’s trademark orange and lemon trees have been replaced with olive trees that can handle the new climate. Alternating floods and droughts have made it impossible for the reservoirs to capture enough drinking water. The picturesque Highway 1, sections of which are already periodically being washed out by storm surges and mudslides, will have to be rerouted inland, possibly through a mountain. These aren’t scenes from another deadly-weather thriller like The Day After Tomorrow. They’re all changes that California officials believe they need to brace for within the next decade or two. And they aren’t alone. Across the U.S., it’s just beginning to dawn on civic leaders that they’ll need to help their communities brave coming dangers brought by climate change, from disappearing islands in Chesapeake Bay to dust bowls in the Plains and horrific hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. Yet only 14 states are even planning, let alone implementing, climate-change adaptation plans, says Terri Cruce, a climate consultant in California. The other 36 apparently are hoping for a miracle."

From the calitics blog:

...L.A., like the rest of the state, has no time to lose in building out a mass transit network that can handle the travel needs of its population. As oil prices rise later this year, part of a long-term trend upward that will lead to a sustained price of $175 a barrel by 2017 according to Deutsche Bank analysts, the LA economy will grind to a halt unless more effective mass transit options are provided.

Source: "Why Antonio Villaraigosa's 30/10 Plan Matters," by Robert Cruickshank, 3 April 2010.

Between Peak Oil making Southern California's "happy motoring" infrastructure unsustainable, and global warming drying up the water from the Sierra-Nevada snowpack that Los Angeles depends on, Angelenos are looking at 135 degree Fahrenheit temperatures while they bike to work. If you think that's going to work, you may need to get a toxicology workup, because that suggests evidence of hallucinogens in your bloodstream.

The Anazsazi people built tremendous cliff dwellings in the Chaco Canyon region hundreds of years ago. Those vast cliff dwellings now stand vacant. Drought rendered the Chaco Canyon region uninhabitable.

Southern California, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico will all slowly empty out as the Death-Valley-like temperatures in the 130 to 140 degree Fahrenheit range and sustained oil prices above $180 a barrel make life their impossible.

Affection is one thing: reality's another. The reality remains that Los Angeles offers a classic example of post-war radical unsustainability built on a now-vanished mild climate, dirt cheap oil, and plentiful water.

Not only is Los Angeles clearly and provably NOT the future of America, it now belongs to a distant and vanished past of cheap oil and one-person-per-car freeway culture and suburban sprawl we must now characterize as exemplifying a dead way of life as permanently vanished as Aztec human sacrifice, Deep South plantation slavery, Viking longboat raids, or the harvesting of trees by the inhabitants of Easter Island.

]]> mclaren http://places.designobserver.com/feature/no-more-play/26888/#comments 2011-06-08T00:16:29-05:00 donald barnat http://places.designobserver.com/feature/no-more-play/26888/#comments 2011-05-30T13:00:23-05:00 LA Bound http://places.designobserver.com/feature/no-more-play/26888/#comments 2011-05-27T02:11:41-05:00 tom http://places.designobserver.com/feature/no-more-play/26888/#comments 2011-05-26T14:20:32-05:00
How does one acquire it?]]> KBKBKB http://places.designobserver.com/feature/no-more-play/26888/#comments 2011-05-26T10:58:55-05:00
I think that contemporary Los Angeles needs to embrace and develop its identity as a place of exciting urban experimentation. Right now, LA seems like the perfect place for change to be pursued through things like student design competitions. Seems like a worthy (and charitable - good for the PR!) endeavor for architecture, planning, and development firms to put up even a small amount of reward money to encourage talent and innovation to come up through the woodwork. In this economy, it WILL come up through the woodwork. With the plethora of unpaid internships and volunteer hours being the only way to currently 'get your foot in the door,' students and other entry-level candidates in the field are already working for free. But design competitions should be part of a larger effort to engage and involve the public through the facilitation of community visioning charrettes.

I think that this approach to planning is applicable and necessary for Los Angeles right now more than any other urban area because, as the article points out, (1) LA is a hub for all kinds of creativity and (2) LA defies nearly all of the "traditional nomenclature" that has been prescribed to cities. Get UCLA involved, get USC involved, get programs such as VISTA Americorps involved. There are some great sources of cheap, enthusiastic labor that can be re-envisioning streetscapes, planting trees, starting gardens in public schools, and doing other things that would raise quality of life in LA while the state scrapes together funding for large behemoth projects such as High Speed Rail. A place that supports exciting ideas and the 'Creative Class' will attract the young people that are declining numbers-wise in this area! Though we have overused many resources in the Greater LA area (such as water), we have many underused resources here in Los Angeles. I'm just saying, it might be young people and ordinary people who can truly change Los Angeles for the better - they are the ones with the knowledge of what is going on on the streets every day. As Mr. Maltzan points out very skillfully:

"Intuition, phenomena, perception and experience are necessary tools to make sense of this place. In many ways, the real task is to take on the challenge to move beyond traditional nomenclature and to understand the nuances of the form of Los Angeles in a case-by-case manner. "

Los Angeles can and will become a better place to live and work. It is (culturally, geographically, naturally, etc.) an AMAZING place that is begging to be lived in more correctly and efficiently by its human inhabitants. We need to start "case-by-case", neighborhood by neighborhood, to build civic identity and pride piece-by-piece until the region comes together as a more coherent, livable whole. Let's get thinking. Let's get creative. Let's get even a tiny bit of money behind innovation by sponsoring contests and encouraging new and exciting urban ideas.

-a recent college grad, and LA native]]> Emily Laetz http://places.designobserver.com/feature/no-more-play/26888/#comments 2011-05-26T02:45:20-05:00
An anti-social urban environment based on communicating thru the intermediary of 4,000lbs machines and plastic surgery works great when there are bombers to build and movies to be made, but its unclear what way is forward when Lake Powell is running dry, oil is going off the charts, and the populace's demand for 1/4 acre buffers become increasing liabilities as the sprawl climbs into the desert.

An instructive feedback mechanism for those brave enough to suggest, god forbid, multi-family housing or, heaven help us, 20ft wide lots without side yards, would be the stats from U-Haul on the balance of their fleet's exodus from the City of Angels; hello Idaho! Hello Favelas of Tijuana!

Best of luck from a former SoCal resident.

]]> Mr. Downer http://places.designobserver.com/feature/no-more-play/26888/#comments 2011-05-25T23:02:54-05:00
Mr. Cavanaugh's views are founded in reality but I think they ignore the aspirational aspect of this essay. I believe that only by embracing the experimental nature of our city can we overcome the challenges he outlines. I don't see this essay as an explicit endorsement of CRA-style development, either.]]> Damon Seeley http://places.designobserver.com/feature/no-more-play/26888/#comments 2011-05-25T18:25:39-05:00 a. http://places.designobserver.com/feature/no-more-play/26888/#comments 2011-05-25T04:25:49-05:00 Neil http://places.designobserver.com/feature/no-more-play/26888/#comments 2011-05-25T03:23:07-05:00
Los Angeles By the Numbers-

Los Angeles is not one single place. It's the amalgamation of many. To share the vastness of its spirit in only eight photographs is about as impossible as writing an eloquent novel using only the letters A through F.

As a city, we are 498 square miles with an elevation ranging from sea level to 5, 080 feet. Yet, as a region (and when you refer to Los Angeles, you really are referring to the whole place - not just the City of Los Angeles), the urban area extends beyond the city limits to include a population of 17.8 million people. We are the third largest economic center in the world with a gross metropolitan product (GMP) of $831 billion. If we were a country, we'd have the 15th largest economy in the world, placing us just below Australia's GDP and above such nations as the Netherlands, Turkey, Sweden, Belgium, and Indonesia.

Perhaps, most importantly: we have an average of 3,265 sunshine hours per year with a daily mean temperature of 66.2 degrees fahrenheit.

Immigration Reform-

As the "Creative Capital of the World", Los Angeles imports diversity and exports creativity. We speak 224 different languages and we are home to the largest population of numerous ethnicities outside their own home nations. In tandem with that rich tradition of cultural import, we also host the challenges of a growing population demanding immigration reform, job creation and economic growth. Our growing population demands better infrastructure, better healthcare, more schools, more public facilities and more social services.

The Issue of Homelessness (Skid Row)-

Los Angeles also hosts the dire challenges facing our nations most chronic homeless population. Skid Row alone, an area just east of Downtown Los Angeles, has an estimated population of 7,000 to 8,000 homeless citizens. The image you see here is from a recent initiative called Project 50 led by our local newspaper, The Los Angeles Times. Project 50 was a progressive (if not controversial) social program that gave access to housing to 50 of the areas most at-risk, and didn't tie that housing to any restrictions (such as psychiatric medicines or 12-step meetings). The premise was that access alone to clean, safe housing might be enough to stabilize their lives.

The debate is still ongoing, but one thing is for certain: at a time when our State's budget-crisis is continuously pulling from local resources, we truly are at a crossroads.

As a transitional city, we must take our next steps wisely and yet with full resolve.

The Food Truck Economy-

Our transition is apparent by the growing prevalence of temporary, yet regularly occurring (intermittent) programing of our public space with weekly Farmer's Markets, street fairs like Sunset Junction, initiatives such as Ciclavia, or Park(ing) Day LA. Or, probably most vibrant is the ever increasing popularity of our food truck economy and events such as the LA Street Food Fest, where literally thousands come out to sample from small business enterprises that are serving unique dishes, such as tamarind duck tacos and korean bbq. There's even a food truck called Coolhaus that serves ice cream sandwiches named after famous architects.

Bicycle Activists-

The possibilities abound: whether it is with private, grassroots initiatives such as:

The Los Angeles Guerilla Gardeners, The Los Angeles Urban Rangers, Fallen Fruit (the inspiration behind celebrating our edible landscape), or the growing popularity of bicycle advocacy groups such as the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition and the Bike Writers Collective, which are transforming our city streets and helping to update the transportation element of our general plan to encourage more multi-modal forms of mobility and advancing the Cyclists' Bill of Rights.

The Los Angeles River-

Or whether it is with the formal, public initiatives such as the River Improvement Overlay District master plan for the Los Angeles River - which we hope will revitalize over fifty miles of the Los Angeles River. This picture here is of river activist Joe Linton canoeing down the LA River less than four miles north of Downtown (just east of the 5 freeway).

Urban Parks and Open Space-

Or whether it is with the emergence of a strong network of newly created urban parklands such as Vista Hermosa, the Civic Center Park, Spring Street Park, and Los Angeles State Historic Park, or one of the numerous efforts to green our streets and alleyways, one aspect is for certain: the possibilities abound.

The Map of the 30/10 Plan-

One such solution for how to move forward is our region's 30/10 Plan, which will (if approved) expedite thirty years of transit improvements into ten years, fostering overall cost savings and enabling quicker connectivity moving forward.

So what will the Los Angeles of tomorrow look like? Probably much as it does now. We will continue to have a vibrant urban tapestry of eclectic single-family neighborhoods laced intermittently with dense commercial nodes and corridors, strategically channelling our growth to areas of the city near transit. But what will the Los Angeles of tomorrow feel like? What will become one's future experience of Los Angeles - that is the much more interesting question and it is up to us to figure that out as we take our next steps forward.

Los Angeles is experiencing an era of transformation evolving from its former self to what it will someday become. Bluntly put, you could say we're a rattlesnake shedding its skin. Or, perhaps more accurately - we're a caterpillar that is experiencing a deep metamorphosis. Even though our region is withstanding unprecedented fiscal challenges, now more than ever Los Angeles is buzzing with emergent opportunities. As a world-class city, we are at a crossroads. It's a make it or break it moment. A transition that will either propel us ahead of the curve or leave us choking in the dust.

-WrW

]]> Will Wright http://places.designobserver.com/feature/no-more-play/26888/#comments 2011-05-24T19:59:42-05:00 Michael Lejeune http://places.designobserver.com/feature/no-more-play/26888/#comments 2011-05-24T16:48:51-05:00
Do they actually form suddenly? I thought they were built by developers, nearly always (and absolutely always in the case of the new urbanist behemoths we're talking about) through crooked, taxpayer-robbing deals involving the Community Redevelopment Agency, the City Council, and the unions. It's also funny how those "empty lots" just magically seem to happen in places where the legitimate owners have been eminent domained by the CRA.

But you know what are not forming suddenly? People who want to rent, buy, patronize or in any other way fill these transformed spaces.

Has the author of this article visited Los Angeles in the last five years? There's barely a block in L.A. County where you don't see multiple for sale and for lease signs, and that goes for rich neighborhoods and poor. I challenge anybody to find a shopping center that is close to 100% occupied. (In my part of flat Hollywood, there are several that are close to 0% occupied.) Enrollment in LAUSD drops every year, the city's child population is declining rapidly, and there's a net out-migration of working people.

As for "mass transit hubs," are you kidding? The only mass transit hubs in L.A. are along Vermont Ave. in the morning, as hundreds of people wait for buses because MTA has gutted its bus service in order to pour more money into the rail-centered delusions of Eli Broad and his useful idiots at the L.A. Times. At 10am on any given weekday, Union Station is a morgue.

When people in L.A. County have any choice in the matter, they choose to live in detached homes with yards. That may seem like poor taste to the daytime dreamers who can't accept that the city will never be New York. But the big transformation right now is that the big-dollar-big-labor-big-complex development model has been revealed as a complete sham. ]]> Tim Cavanaugh http://places.designobserver.com/feature/no-more-play/26888/#comments 2011-05-24T13:44:23-05:00