What should be done to develop sustainability in Los Angeles?

         

  
         Lack of public transportation and low density in Los angeles (L.A.) are continuous issues which have not been solved while climate change is having negative impacts on California such as draught and urban heat. California is a car society. California is the state that is the 2^nd largest producer of carbon dioxide. L.A. is the largest city in California and also a car-oriented. In order to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emission and to establish sustainable city, L.A. has to be planned as a pedestrian and bike oriented city which also can contain many residents. However, the problem of L.A. is not a simple to solve because L.A. is very different from other highly dense cities such as Manhattan and Boston and contains different people and cultures all together without a distinctive center and borders. Chris Hawthorne, the Los Angeles Times architecture and urbanism critic, states against a New York Times article which critiques L.A.'s lack of support for its major institution, "[r]ight at the beginning, Moore, as if to anticipate Lerup, reminds his readers that L.a. is 'altogether different from the compact old centers of Manhattan and Boston." Decision-making for developing L.A. is not a simple task because there are some follow up problems with the development plan. One solution does not solve any kind of different issues or fulfills satisfaction of people who have different lifestyles, culture, and background. Then, what should be done to develop sustainability of Los Angeles? 

Why does Los Angeles have a low population density?

         The number of tourists in L.A. was 47.3 million in 2016 while the population of L.A. in 2016 was 3.99 million. The main two causes of low density in L.A. are expensive housing cost, low safety which is caused by the lack of public transportation and existence of very different communities. L.A. has the second-most expensive housing market. There is a huge difference between the lives of wealthy people and people under the poverty line. The other reason why L.A. is not dense is because L.A. lacks various public transportation and lanes or sidewalks for pedestrian and bikes. Residents stay in their districts or move by their cars. According to Hawthorn, L.A. and Houston invested in freeways and other car-centric infrastructure. He also mentions that car centric roads are terrible place to walk. 

Current Sustainable plans

1. Metro Plan

          As the map below shows, the entire shape made with the existing metro rails and stations is not circular. This existing metro design might not be helpful for people who want to go to Washington station from Union Station because they need to go around the almost entire district while it is faster and easier to go straight toward Washington station by car. Currently, Los Angeles have to travel circuitous. I think that this existing network should have more connection between the rails. Otherwise, people may rely on their cars to travel around. In order to solve this issue and develop a metro more effective and convenient system, the L.A. city has two major kinds of plans to be implemented by 2021 to 2018 respectively.

Downtown Regional Connector

         The first plan is a downtown regional connecter. This plan suppose to be completed in 2021, and this connector will connect the Gold Line directly to the Blue and Expo Lines with three additional stations. The grey line represents the Downtown Regional Connector in the map above. This connector is an expansion of the Blue and Expo Lines and the Golden Line, so passengers will not need to transfer from the Blue and Expo Lines or the Golden Line to the Red and Purple Lines. The Downtown Regional Connecter will help people move more efficiently and cost-effectively because changing lines sometimes takes time and money. 

West Santa Ana Branch Transit Corridor

          The second plan is the West Santa Ana Branch Transit Corridor. This plan aims to be done by 2028 for the Olympics, but the exact locations of stations have not been decided yet. The green, orange, light purple, black, and greenish blue lines on the map are options of the planning lines. Setting the goal by 2028 may not be practical because they need to consider the environmental and social effects of building rails and establishing stations. Both projects of the Downtown Regional Connector and the West Santa Ana Blanch Transit Corridor would enable people to travel easier than the current situation and better for the environment rather than using their cars. However, we cannot say that Metro does not emit carbon dioxide nor pollutens and destroys environment. The construction of new rails and stations would destroy the environment and the existing community. Thus, developers and planners need to consider the environmental and societal effects and also to try to motivate residents not to use private cars. 

      2. Lanes and sidewalks for pedestrians and cyclists

Bridge across Marina Del Rey for Pedestrians and Cyclists

This image is Abramson Teiger Architects' ideal bridge across the Harbor in Marina Del Rey in L.A. This Harbor is made artificially and enables fishery to have more access for resources. However, this Harbor also breaks the connection into the North and South routes. People who do not have boat need to detour around the harbor. This situation is not friendly for pedestrians and cyclists. This pedestrian and bike bridge was designed by Abramson Teiger Architects in order to solve this issue and create a socially interactive space. This project has not been proposed yet by any governmental developer, but Abramson is trying to motivate the public to support this project.  

Sidewalk Lanes for Hollywood District

         L.A. is planning to make some bike lanes for residents in Hollywood District in order to reduce the number of cars. However, residents and the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council did not accept the plan which will make new lanes for bus and bikes. They argue that they are living in the place which has a hill, so they cannot live comfortably without cars. The president of the Hollywood Hills West Neighborhood Council said that they were concerned about gridlock caused by reducing lanes for cars. Bad traffic is also not good for the environment as well as the existence of lots of cars because the time for driving will be longer and emit carbon dioxide while they are driving. However, I felt that this is a good project if they could reduce the number of cars on the roads. If people can change their car habits, the number of cars on the car lanes will decline which means the gridlock will not occur. Now, I understand what Hawthorn means by saying "[a]s is the case in Los Angeles, the greatest thing and the worst thing about Houston are one and the same: Nobody cares what anybody else is doing." I think he may mean that the residents do not care about their environment or the activities for protecting the environment and developing their city if they have something which they want to do. I think the most important things that need to be made is to encourage residents care about the environment and not to rely on cars. 

New Issue related to the plan

Displacement Issue of the project of North Westlake Design District

      

         The government, developer, and planner should also care about new social issue caused by this solution. The city planning department proposed the project of North Westlake Designed District. Their plan was to develop pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use corridors and community in the South Westlake district. This area is actually historical Filipinotown. However, the L.A. Tenants Union reported that residents of Filipinotown were afraid of the project of designed district as it would displace them from the area. This designed district costs a lot so the city may increase the rent fee of housing in Filipinotown or displace current residents. This project may be good for the environment and pedestrian but not for residents in Filipinotown because it could eliminate Historical Filipinotown and does not consider the lives of the residents. 

         As the case of Hollywood's plan and North Westlake Designed District show the difficulty of L.A. to be developed in both environmentally and socially good ways, indeed, L.A. has many complex issues to consider. City, department of city planning, and some individual developers care about the sustainability of L.A. and try to improve it, but it is difficult to solve the issue with a solution. Therefore, the city has to encourage its citizens to involve in the issue, citizens need to consider about the issue from more than one perspectives in order to solve these issues. Readers of this blog can also consider multiple perspectives on these issues. 

- Yu Fujiwara

References

Abramson Teiger Architects. 2018. "LALA Bridge." Retrieved from http://abramsonteiger.com/lala-bridge/.

Curbed Los Angeles. 2018. Retrieved from https://la.curbed.com/. 

Department of City Planning. 2017. "North Westlake Design District Ordinance." Retrieved from https://planning.lacity.org/ordinances/docs/NorthWestlake/Ordinance2017.pdf

Hawthorn, Christopher. 2018. "Los Angeles, Houston and the appeal of the hard to read city."

Los Angeles Department of City Planning. 2017. Hollywood Community Plan. Retrieved from http://cityplanning.lacity.org/Cpu/hollywood/text/HwdCommunityPlan.pdf

Rothbard, Sarah. 2014. "Why Is LA Housing Really Really Ridiculously Expensive?"