GETTING THERE FROM HERE-It's pretty easy to become disillusioned by the zombies, creepies, and sleazies that have crawled out from under the rocks after the taxpaying residents and workers of the Westside, Mid-City and Downtown fought like hell to create an Expo Line. Overdevelopment and neighborhood transformation in the disguise of "transit-oriented", "affordable housing" and "smart" development wasn't fooling anyone...but now there's some hope.
After seeing a proposed development next to the future Olympic/Bundy Expo Line station get the royal grilling from the West LA. Neighborhood Council and Mar Vista Community Council last Tuesday night, it was pretty clear that--after the hellish experience that the Westside went through at the hands of the Casden/Sepulveda team and their incredibly potent and politically-connected web of City and County politician enablers--things will be a bit different.
Inasmuch as former Mayor Villaraigosa and some current and outgoing pols placed a real sneaky poison pill of an oversized and environmentally unsustainable Casden/Sepulveda project at/next to the future Exposition/Sepulveda station, the battle royale (which took a piece out of a lot of us, both Expo proponents and opponents), it appears that more thorough vetting, transparency and common sense will occur in large Westside developments.
The planned Olympic/Bundy-adjacent development, planned for the current Martin Cadillac site, had a host of transit-oriented mitigations for rail, bus, bicycle and other commuters to the Expo Line. Details such as the number of affordable housing units and the "right size" of the project, were debated (rather vigorously, as they should be), but the intent of the developers was clearly better than the political smashmouth strategy of Casden and Villaraigosa.
It's anyone's guess as to what will be built at the Olympic/Bundy-adjacent site, but this new vetting process is almost "anti-Casden" in its nature--which is of itself a major sea change in City politics and planning, but ...
... I've now learned from West LA Neighborhood Council chair Jay Handal (who's pretty politically-savvy and connected himself, but as a neighborhood elader) that Mr. Casden's financial partner is pulling out of the Casden/Sepulveda project, and Mr. Casden is selling his property and entitlement rights. Jay has allowed me the ability to let this info go public, so here it is.
Yes, Virginia, there will be no Casden/Sepulveda project at the Expo/Sepulveda/Pico intersection.
Coupled this with the news that Google will set up a major job/industrial operation in Playa Vista, and the potential of a coherent planning/transportation and economic strategy for the Westside is beginning to bear fruit:
1) The Casden/Sepulveda development is no more, and it is certain that the person that buys this property will have to figure out what to build next to the I-405 freeway (More Silicon Beach industrial? More Expo Line parking?), but perhaps it won't be more of the prima facie garbage that Alan Casden was expecting us all to swallow.
2) Whatever is built next to the Olympic/Bundy and other Expo Line stations, it has to have the right size, transit-related amenities, and neighborhood compatibility to make for good economic and environmental neighbors to those already living and working in the area.
3) If densification makes so much sense next to the Expo Line stations, perhaps a vigorous and hard "hands-off!" is in order to keep LA City Planning, deranged do-gooders, and those non-profit-social-groups-covering-up-for-disgusting-and-sleazy-developers from destroying single-family residences--which still have meaning and benefit to hard-working families and neighborhoods within our city.
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4) "Silicon Beach" is the way to go, and Councilmember Mike Bonin (photo) should be commended for lionizing this type of development in the Westside. Proper transportation and planning to create REAL transit-oriented development (and which passes the smell test) is in sore need of seeing the light of day after an era of unbridled, credibility-destroying faux "smart growth" being rammed by City Hall down our collective throat.
5) A true nexus of affordable housing to decreased car trips (students, seniors, and low-wage workers with NO cars living strategically near their daily destinations) will also help make the goal of mass transit one that is worth the investment that we're putting into it.
The blatant lies continue to persist, and some of those elected and paid to protect us against them (but who are the originators and advocates of such lies) still have a lot of power in City Hall.
Yet it's hoped that those politicians will learn that working WITH the citizenry, instead of crushing the citizenry, will be a much better way to get things done in the years to come.
(Ken Alpern is a Westside Village Zone Director and Board member of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at [email protected] He also does regular commentary on the MarkIsler Radio Show on AM 870, and co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.
-cw