Blogs

One of the things prominently on display at this year's California Chapter, American Planning Association conference was the evolution of the City of Los Angeles from a gargantuan suburb into a true "big city."

New mixed-use and adaptive reuse projects are located all around the conference site in Hollywood, often within easy walking distance of a Red Line subway station. Conference attendees who ventured onto the Red Line encountered a bustling public transit system no matter the time of day.

A breakout session on Tuesday explained the city's adaptive reuse ordinance and related programs.  But what the session highlighted was the re-birth of downtown Los Angeles as a desirable place to live for more than 10,000 people.

Can California and its communities fit together regional plans, local plans, state housing requirements, and new state requirements on greenhouse gas emissions reductions?

Probably not, according to panelists speaking this morning at the California Chapter, American Planning Association conference in Hollywood.

It' s understandable that California planners will focus at their Hollywood conference this week on "planners in tinseltown" – as evidenced by everything from the conference organizers' spoof of "The Office" to the chapter's "Lights … Planning … Action!" motto for the conference.But Hollywood has a many-layered 120-year history that dates back before the invention of the movies and includes a series of real estate booms and busts that have shaped the urban district that planners will see this

Only three weeks after insisting that California should encourage dense development near transit lines, state lawmakers have approved a budget that yanks funding from transit and redevelopment.

And that might be the nicest thing that anyone can say about the spending and revenue plan approved after last call on Monday night (Tuesday morning, actually).

Metrolink is one of California's true public transit successes. But it's cobbled together from old freight lines – many of which are out of date operationally. Can we afford the upgrades necessary to make a truly 21st Century system? Can we afford not to make them?

The proposal by Anschutz Entertainment Group to install the equivalent of a football field in signs and lighted billboards in front of the LA Live development near the Los Angeles Convention Center is a glaringly bad idea. AEG's proposal is over-reaching and garish.

The state budget stalemate may get handed to the new Legislature that is seated in December. In the meantime, lawmakers could pass a series of emergency resolutions authorizing the state to pay its bills.

Last week, people were whispering about this scenario. Now, they are speaking out loud about it. After the 21-13 defeat of the Republican budget proposal in the Senate on Monday, it's clear that lawmakers and the governor are no closer to a budget resolution today than they were in June.

John McCain had even less to say about cities and planning – absolutely nothing -- in his acceptance speech than Barack Obama did one week earlier. But, like Richard Nixon before him, he's got a vice presidential candidate who's long on local government experience but a short record as a governor. Why do local electeds rarely wind up in the presidential race? 

Sacramento city and county officials are congratulating themselves  – and getting congratulated by editorial writers and others – for cutting a deal to share sales tax revenues from auto dealers. But the deal's not the result of enlightened regional cooperation. It came about because both jurisdictions are threatened by auto malls elsewhere in the Sacramento region.