That Damn Fountain!
Just when you've forgotten about it, the Breeze had to go and remind me of that crazy fountain that's being built at the entrance of the cruise ship terminal. It's almost painful to see how much money is being spent on what seems to me an entirely inappropriate and misplaced feature. It puts me into full on curmudgeon role. 13.8 million dollars could go a long way in San Pedro, I can think of a half dozen cash hungry projects that could have brought far more benefit to the community than this - like say, building a much needed parking structure to serve downtown and the Warner Grand, funding the Angels Gate re-development, expanding the collection and facilities at the Maritime Museum, landscaping the hell out of the 22nd street landing brownfield, greening and landscaping the belt between the port and the community from Pedro to Wilmington, expanding and bettering the POLA High School, etc...
I know it's been approved and there's nothing that can be done about it, and that most of what I named above wouldn't be eligible for direct POLA funding, but it drives me crazy to watch good money be put to bad use. I'm not saying they shouldn't have feature there, or landscape the area, or make it more attractive - I'm just saying does that tiny plot of land really justify the expense, whether you like the design or not?
I know it's been approved and there's nothing that can be done about it, and that most of what I named above wouldn't be eligible for direct POLA funding, but it drives me crazy to watch good money be put to bad use. I'm not saying they shouldn't have feature there, or landscape the area, or make it more attractive - I'm just saying does that tiny plot of land really justify the expense, whether you like the design or not?
4 Comments:
Good points.
In general, the less landscaping, and the more actual public land use, the better.
Landscaping is inherently phony. It's supposed to give the visual impression of a park to somebody driving by, while actively discouraging (by the use of berming and the absence of such basic amenities as seats or shade trees) any hapless pedestrian who manages to get to it from actually playing or reposing there. (Come to think of it, that kind of sounds like our new Gaffey Street Welcome "Park," doesn't it?)
The hell with a bunch of landscaping, in other words. Give that "belt" between the harbor and the communities of Wilmington and Pedro to the people of Wilmington and Pedro, in the form of welcoming public spaces, and then let them surprise you with their ingenuity in figuring out what to do with it.
Whatever they (we) come up with, it's bound to be better than anything that a committee of well-paid douches are likely to dream up. The fountain is ample evidence of that, no?
The "fountain" at the harbor seems most misplaced. The rendering of it that I saw had it east of the traffic lanes into and out of the cruise terminal. If that's correct then someone made one helluva goof. To get to it (by the way that's at then end of the terminal building for Pier 93) you have to cross four lanes of traffic. Duh! And for $13Million? Who's looney, Janis Hahn?
Why would anybody other than a cruise ship tourist want to get to it in the first place?
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