Does This Sound Familiar?
The 1940 classic film the Grapes of Wrath opens with Henry Fonda walking down a country road in the midst of farmland. Few people realize that scene was filmed on Sawtelle Boulevard, near National, in West Los Angeles. In the ensuing 66 years, we have poured cement over some of the best farmland in California. We have created a huge concrete channel through which the Los Angeles River flows. We have built thousands of miles of freeways that criss-cross Los Angeles. All of this has helped to create the heat waves and humidity that have grown increasingly brutal. William Patzert, a climatologist with the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, predicted hotter, harsher summers if we continue to build in the same manner that we have. In the Los Angeles Times recently, the city of Cerritos was heralded for turning cow pastures into thriving auto malls and shopping centers, all drawing heat into the area.
The Face of Culver City
In Culver City, if Fredrick Smith gets to build his Conjunctive Points Entertainment Complex the way he envisions it, the plant will sit like a huge griddle in the middle of the neighborhood. When Best Buy built its huge complex on Washington Boulevard a few years ago, trees, grass and a Sizzler Restaurant in a charming Spanish- style building were ripped out. The big box store was allowed to pour cement right up to the sidewalk, without setbacks. Recently, the owners of the Culver Center descended on a quiet Madison Avenue neighborhood. The idea was to convert a one-story medical building, an adjoining parking lot and a nearby vacant lot into a giant condo, storefront complex. Buildout would be to the sidewalk with no setbacks. Fortunately, the entire neighborhood showed up at the Planning Commission meeting. Commissioners heard their protests loud and clear.
A Little Nevada Problem
It isn’t only Los Angeles that’s getting all the heat. Recently, I stayed overnight in an exclusive Oceanside residence. My hostess brought bottled water to my bedroom. She warned me that if I grew thirsty during the night that I should avoid the tap water in the bathroom. It was downright nasty, she said. There is a severe water shortage in San Diego County. County and city officials have their eyes on the water coming into Los Angeles from Sacramento. My brother lives in Nevada. He informed me that Las Vegas discourages setbacks on their newer buildings and is encouraging homeowners to rip out their grass and replace it with rocks and sand. “If you think it’s hot in Las Vegas now, he told me, wait till next summer. When you step outside, you’ll think you’re in a blast furnace.
A Few Suggestions
Is there a way to improve our situation and turn our cities into more livable communities? First, we can get input from the community before a developer brings a project into the Planning Commission and/or the Redevelopment Agency. Before any big development gets a green light, the developer should be required to create green space around the property. Planning should take into consideration the whole community as well as neighboring towns and cities. Rapid transit should be expanded in place of widening the freeways, pouring more cement and tearing more people out of their homes and businesses. One of the key solutions to creating more livable communities is to discourage absentee landlords and fast-talking developers, who put up a complex and then get out of Dodge.
From This Distance, Who Cares?
This was brought home to me a few years ago when I was working in Hollywood. In 1973, I was sharing an office with another wannabe producer on Hollywood Boulevard. Our next door neighbor was a wizened old white-haired man who collected all the rents on the street. The whole boulevard was owned by the grandchildren of the original owners, and he would mail them their checks in Mexico, Hawaii or the Bahamas. They didn’t care that the street had deteriorated into a jungle of fast food restaurants, massage parlors, and novelty shops. In candy stores, the stuff sold in the back room was nastier than the candy sold over the counter. They just wanted their monthly rent checks so that they could continue to live in the fashion they were born into.
One Mans Cynical Response
A few years later I worked for a marketing company in Burbank . The owner’s brother-in-law was the developer of those ugly little mini-malls that stain much of Los Angeles proper? “Why do you guys build this junk? I asked. Don’t you know, you’re screwing up Los Angeles?” My friend shrugged and smiled. “Los Angeles is already screwed up,” he replied. “But you have to live here!,” was my reply. Another big smile. “No, I don’t, he said. In five years, I’ll retire and move to Vermont where they don’t allow people like me to do what I do.” Is that the way we want to leave it? In 50 years, we’ll be dead. It won’t matter that L.A. has turned into Soylent Green-land. But what about our children and grandchildren? Do we care what we leave them as our legacy?
