Breeze Coverage of the Scoping Meeting
Read the whole enchilada here. Sounds like they blew it on this one. Based upon what I've seen from the article, heard on the streets and read elsewhere, it looks like the plan is so laughably bad as to be capable of pleasing no one, let alone inspiring any measure of vision.
Almost all of the 25 speakers derided the plan. Among the more colorful project descriptions hurled at Tuesday night's meeting: B.S., a "drive-by" waterfront, piecemeal planning, a subsidy for the cruise ship industry, urban planning without imagination, a cookie-cutter version of other ports, absurd, disjointed, superfluous.
In what seemed like an impossibility, objections to the new plan were so widespread that they drew together former adversaries in a rare show of unity. Low-density and high-density proponents at this week's public hearing all appeared united in their disdain for the new plan, though perhaps for different reasons.
"Some people have dreams, but it looks like someone had a nightmare here," longtime San Pedro resident Ray Patricio said of the plan.
Labels: LA Waterfront, meeting, planning, Port of Los Angeles
4 Comments:
yeah, I attented the meeting and every speaker was against this latest plan. BUT the one major theme and criticism was of the new cruise ship terminals, and that this is planned for the cruise ships, not the community. Also, connected with this, another criticism was of the continued port pollution and the inadequate measures being taken to combat this. The former competetive swimmer mentioned in the article said she has a 4 year-old daughter who she fears for because of the crappy air.
And if Janice Hahn thinks this means people want higher density & more development along the waterfront, she badly misread this meeting.
Now I almost wish I had gone, just for the satisfaction of watching Janice Hahn finally come out of the closet as a megamall supporter. She wants the world to know! Got to let it show!
No surprise to anybody who has observed her off-mike behavior at previous meetings, but still.
Redrider is having trouble posting due to the blogger 2.0/Gmail hurdle, so I'm throing this comment on for her.
Janice Hahn was not there. PapaDoc (George) was, and he was the most outspoken opponent of the new plan. Aside from the fact that he took personal credit for the old plan and did not want to see it discarded, the major criticism seems to be that not enough new commercial development is included (the huge megamalls that many objected to with B2B). And then others cried foul with "Piecemealing!!" Personally, I think it's great that POC development is postponed for awhile, until someone has a really good idea what to do with the space. Asking the Port to come up with a master plan, instead of allowing for an organic, long-term growth process, is counterproductive if we want the ultimate development to be community-centered (instead of tourist-centric), complex and character preserving (instead of a bland, generic design). Let the Port build us a walkable downtown waterfront, with a pier at the end of Seventh Street, and new harbor cuts in place of those big parking lots east of Harbor Blvd. This is their current plan, EXCEPT FOR ONE BIG HULKING DETAIL - a new cruise terminal in our Outer Harbor/Cabrillo Bay!!!
If you don't know what's wrong with that, go walk out on the sand of the inner Cabrillo Beach, or out along the breakwater, and see the swimmers (OK, maybe not this time of year), the fisherman, the kayakers, and small craft entering and leaving the marina, and experience that beautiful bay in a holistic way. Imagine placing a huge cruise terminal on the north rim of this bay, and the equivalent of a 15-story highrise in front of it (the cruise ship itself). Imagine a large part of the bay roped off for security reasons. If that picture sounds fine to you, then there is something wrong with your head...
redrider
That deserved to be a post in its own right, rather than just a comment...
(Hahn wasn't there? Did the paper get it wrong or did I read it wrong?)
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