Weekly Calendar

Weekly Calendar

Latino Urban Forum

Meetings, activities and events that promote our mission as of  

June 18, 2007

 

1.      LA Green Building Workshop

2.      Save Elephant Hill

3.      Sustainable Transportation Forum

4.      Southern California Planning Congress

5.      LA Botanical Panel Discussion

6.      Strategic  Planning with Ron Milam

7.      FOLAR'S LA River Tour

8.      LA Housing Update

9.      The Greening of Century City

10. NY Times: Taco Trucks

11. Downtown News: Walkable

12. ART: Pavement Paradise : American Parking Space

13. ART: Landscaping America : Beyond the Japanese Garden ,"

 

 

PLANETIZEN NEWSWIRE - Jun 18, 2007

 

L.A.'S ONE WAY PROPOSAL THE WRONG WAY

While there's no doubt Los Angeles has a traffic problem, it's

a mistake to put congestion relief ahead of neighborhood

revitalization.  http://www.planetiz en.com/node/ 25128

 

James Rojas

 

Visit www.latinourbanforu m.org  or  Myspace.com/ LatinoUrbanForum

http://latinourbanf orum.blogspot. com/

____________ _________ _________ _________ _______

 

Tuesday, June 19, 2007, from 1:00-4:00 PM

LA Green Building Workshop

Please join the City of Los Angeles for a conversation and workshop about a proposed private sector Green Building Program. This workshop will provide the opportunity to share what we heard and learned from the April/May Focus Group series. We hope you can join us for this important discussion about the City's draft Green Building program. Please have prospective attendees RSVP to  claire.bowin@ lacity.org

 

Location:

LADWP John Ferraro Building,

111 N. Hope Street, Level A, Los Angeles Room Los Angeles , CA

 

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ ________

 

Wednesday, June 20, 2007 @ 10:00 a.m.

SAVE ELAPHANT HILL

Huizar Calls for More Environmental Review for Elephant Hill !!

Motion Goes to Full Council on June 20^th

At the June 12^th PLUM hearing, Councilmember Jose Huizar voted his conscience and introduced a motion requiring the developer of 24 luxury homes on Elephant Hill in El Sereno (Tract 35022) to undertake a Supplemental Environmental Impact Report (SEIR)!  This is a tremendous victory for El Sereno and Northeast Los Angeles as a whole.  Councilmember Huizar was moved by testimony regarding the significant changes in the development and the need for equitable environmental protection under the law for the low-income residents of El Sereno.  Environmental legal experts indicated that the City does have the ability to require an SEIR for Tract 35022. Citing ambiguity regarding the allowability of a SEIR, Councilmember Huizar rightfully decided on the most cautious approach—requiring additional environmental review for the public' sake. 

 

As you will recall, Tract 35022 was illegally expanded from 16 to 25 acres since final tract approval in July 2004.  Two years later, a sinkhole created by workers provided significant new information about a natural underground water system that was not identified nor could have been foreseen in the original environmental impact report (EIR).  The EIR for Tract 35022 was started 23 years ago and was approved in 1993; the shoddy engineering plans for the original development have only gotten worse. 

 

Once again the developers of Tract 35022 are using the threat of a lawsuit to bully the City, this time into sidestepping environmental oversight of a gentrification- inducing development of million dollar homes in a community that once provided working people affordable homes.  Residents must call on City Councilmembers to follow Huizar's lead; support his motion based on the facts; and, compel the developers of Tract 35022 to undertake additional environmental review.

           

What You Can Do:

 

1.      Attend the City Council hearing on Elephant Hill at 10 a.m., Wednesday, June 20, 2007, in Room 340, City Hall, 200 S. Spring Street (enter on Main).  The File Number for this item is #04-1413.

 

2.      Call or email the following City Councilmembers and urge them to follow Huizar's courageous lead and vote IN FAVOR of the motion for a SEIR for Tract 35022.  (File Number #04-1413.)  You can find email addresses the Council website: http://www.lacity. org/council. htm

 

Ed Reyes (CD 1) - (213) 473-7001

Wendy Gruel (CD 2) - (213) 473-7002

Dennis Zine (CD 3) - (213) 473-7003

Tom LaBonge (CD 4) - (213) 473-7004

Jack Weiss (CD 5) - (213) 473-7005

Tony Cardenas (CD 6) - (213) 473-7006

Richard Alarcon (CD 7) - (213) 473-7007

Bernard Parks (CD 8) - (213) 473-7008

Jan Perry (CD 9) - (213) 473-7009

Herb Wesson (CD 10) - (213) 473-7010

Bill Rosenthal (CD 11) - (213) 473-7011

Greig Smith (CD 12) - (213) 473-7012

Eric Garcetti (CD 13) - (213) 473-7013

Janice Hahn (CD 15) - (213) 473-7015

 

3.      THANK Councilmember Huizar for voting his conscience and the motion requiring a SEIR for Tract 35022!  Email: councilmember. huizar@lacity. org or Call 213-473-7014.

 

4.      For ongoing information about Elephant Hill check out these blogs:

http://www.saveelep hanthills. blogspot. com/  and  http://latinourbanf orum.blogspot. com/

 

For more information contact: saveelephanthills@ yahoo.com           

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ ____

 

Wednesday, June 20, 2007 Time: 12:00 to 1:00 pm

Sustainable Transportation Forum

Metro's Tim Lindholm, Director of Capital Projects, Facilities and Operations will give a presentation on "Metro Sustainability and Energy Efficiency Programs."  The discussion will focus on sustainability from an operations perspective and how methods used in design, material selection and construction processes aim to meet innovative building efficiency standards. One of Tim's examples will include a recently implemented operation project, Metro's Division 9, San Gabriel Valley Service Sector Operations building in El Monte , and how it has achieved a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver standard.

Location: Metro Headquarters Board Overflow Room on the 3rd floor.  (Cafeteria is located across the hall)

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _______

Wednesday, June 20, 2007 from 6:30 PM, with 7:00 PM Dinner

Southern California Planning Congress

You are cordially invited to attend a Meet and Greet with the recently appointed Director of Regional Planning, Bruce W. McClendon for the County of Los Angeles, and Director of Planning, S. Gail Goldberg for City of Los Angeles. Please RSVP on or before June 14th by 12 noon to Michael Besem at (323) 881-7058 or e-mail at     scpcrsvp@msn. com.  Mail your payment postmarked by June 14th.     Make checks payable to SCPC.

 

Mail payment to Attn.: Anna M. Vidal

6716 Clybourn Ave, #122,

North Hollywood, CA 91606. 

Cancellations must be received 48 hours prior to the event.   

 

Where: The Tam O' Shanter Inn

2980 Los Feliz
LA, CA.  90035

 

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________

 

Thursday, June 21, 2007 @ 7:00 p.m.

The Cultural Values of Weeds in LA

Panel Discussion

 

The invasive nature of weeds has increasingly made them a much maligned but ubiquitous fixture of the LA landscape.  However pesky, though, there exists meaning and history to these invasive plants, many of these weeds are edible, medicinal and have cultural importance.  These uses, meaning, and history are precisely what Joyce Campbell attempts to reveal and document in her recent work.   LA Botanical features 39 of Campbell 's photographs of Los Angeles weeds and attempts to explore the reasons why it is important to the city.

 

Join us for an evening of investigation into the scruffier side of the Los Angeles .

Panelist include Joyce Campbell the artist; Daisy Tonantzin, project coordinator for Projecto Jardin and facilitator for Cultivating Roots; Rufina Juarez, South Central Farm Organizer; Mia Lehrer , landscape architect; and Jay Babcock,

Editor of Arthur Magazine.  Panel will be moderated by gallery co-founder/urban planner James Rojas

 

Date:               Thursday, June 21, 2007

Time:              7:00 p.m,

 Location:       Gallery 727

                        727 S. Spring Street #12

                        LA, CA.  90014

 

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ __

Saturday, June 23, 2007 from 10 am - 3 pm

STRATEGIC PLANNING WITH RON MILAM

What's your community's mission?  What's your vision?  Values?  What will you do to make your vision reality?  Knowing the answers to these questions plays a key role in your nonprofit group's success, whether it be a shared house, cohousing group, ecovillage, or other type of co-op living or working situation. READ MORE AT http://laecovillage .org/strategicpl anningmilam. html

 

Fee:     $75 (sliding scale available)

Pre-registration required:  213/738-1254 or crsp@igc.org

 

Location:        L.A. Eco-Village,

117 Bimini Pl, LA 90004

 

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ __

 

Sunday June 24, 2007 from 10-~4:30 .

FoLAR river tour

The tours starts at the River Center (near the 5/110) to form carpools. We'll then start the tour in Sepulveda Basin in the Valley, where the river is at its wildest; go to the verdant Glendale Narrows across from Griffith Park to see the new mini-parks; stop at the Arroyo Seco confluence, near where LA was founded; go to the Cornfield in Chinatown to see the huge new State Park project; and head downriver to talk about the visions for downtown.  We'll stop at a riverside cafe for lunch or you can bring your own. If you'd like to come but need to leave after lunch (at the Arroyo Seco stop), we can arrange that.

 

Cost is $20/$25 (members/non- members). Kids 18 and under are free.

 

Sign up on the FoLAR website at

http://www.folar. org/rivertours_ 2006.html - and just e-mail me with any questions.

 

 

Wednesday, June 27th, 9-11am. 

LA City's Housing Task Force Meetings Subcommittees

 

The City of LA is updating its housing element for the general plan and is looking participants.  At last week's meeting on May 30th, we discussed the Housing Element and your role in working with City staff to identify housing issues and needs, and to suggest policies and programs to address those issues and needs.  All input will be gathered for consideration by the City Planning Commission and the City Council. 

 

The work of this Task Force will be carried out through several meetings of the Task Force as well as through subcommittees.  Members of the Task Force will serve on one or more subcommittees.  It is important that each subcommittee also include additional representatives and stakeholders to participate in the subcommittee discussions.  Staff are identifying persons to include, but your help is essential as these subcommittees are an important means to accessing broader participation and assistance.

 

The full Task Force will meet once a month for the next 3 months, on the last Wednesday of the month, 9-11am.  The subcommittees will meet in between, as frequently as needed (determined by the subcommittee members).  The subcommittees will address policy and program questions in detail.

 

To assist with the organization and work of the Task Force and subcommittees, City staff will establish a website for the posting of all information.  Many of you made suggestions for providing more detailed information regarding the purpose and required content of the Housing Element.  Staff will present this information to you.  Staff will also make copies of the existing Housing Element more readily available in hard copy and as a pdf on the website.  In addition, staff is gathering information on policies and programs of all City departments related to housing issues, and will provide that information.

 

Next Steps:

1.  Please sign up for one or more subcommittees by informing me and the point person for the subcommittee.

2.  City staff will work with each subcommittee point person to establish a schedule of subcommittee meetings for June, to be distributed to all Task Force members and all other interested persons.

3.  Please plan on attending the next Task Force meeting:  Location to be determined.

 

 

Naomi Guth

City Planning Department

City of Los Angeles

200 N. Spring St. , Room 721

Los Angeles, CA   90012

Tel:  (213) 978-1363 (direct)

Fax: (213) 978-4656

Email: Naomi.Guth@lacity. org

 

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ __

 

Wednesday, June 27, 7PM-9:30PM
The Greening of Century City : Presentation and Discussion

The Greening of Century City Pedestrian Connectivity Plan calls for Century City to be transformed into a sustainable, walkable neighborhood in the heart of Los Angeles , easily accessible through public transit to downtown and greater Los Angeles . Century City will become a model of truly sustainable living by incorporating new high-density residential and retail projects within its vibrant commercial center, by providing an interconnected network of pedestrian walkways, bicycle paths and public transit, and by connecting this renewed cultural and commercial district directly to downtown Los Angeles and the rest of the city.  
The Plan calls for sustainable materials and techniques as well as providing transit and services within a walkable distance.  Residents, workers, and visitors to Century City will be able to access restaurants, shops, jobs, and transportation without getting into their cars.  An innovative streetscape design, open space network, and art programming will give Century City a new, updated identity that will transform this quintessential mid-twentieth century commercial district into an integrated, sustainable, walkable community for the twenty-first century.

Presented By:
Bob Hale, FAIA, Principal, Rios Clementi Hale Studios
Samantha J. Harris, ASLA, Senior Associate, Rios Clementi Hale Studios
Rita Haudenschild, Architectural Designer, Rios Clementi Hale Studios

 

Location: AIA/LA Offices
Wiltern Building
3870 Wilshire Blvd. Suite 800

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ ________

ART

 

"Landscaping America : Beyond the Japanese Garden ,"

June 17-Oct 21, 2007

This exhibition explores the history of Japanese American gardens and gardeners. The exhibit runs from. The opening day of the exhibit will be on Father's Day. We'll have live music and BBQ food vendors on the plaza.

 

Location:        Japanese American National Museum

                        368 East First Street .

                        LA, CA.

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ _________ ________

 

LA Botanical ;  A project by Joyce Campbell

May 18 – July 14, 2007

LA Botanical is an ongoing project, massive and perhaps unachievable in its full potential scope, to  document each plant that grows in Los Angeles for which there is a documented use - be it food,  medicine, weapon, abortive, analgesic, fuel,  stimulant, building material, deadly toxin or mind altering entheogen. The plants are documented as wet-plate Ambrotypes, an anachronistic photographic  form ubiquitous the 1850's-1890s, the period during  in which Los Angeles grew from a dusty town of 1400 inhabitants to a major metropolitan center.

The project is an attempt to reconcile Campbell 's own rural background with her life here in Los Angeles ,  one of the most sprawling and unsustainable  metropolises on earth.

LA Botanical operates simultaneously as map, inventory, and survival guide to the city of Los Angeles . It has the potential to reveal who lives  here, from where they originate, what they value, how  they eat, worship, heal, harm, travel, clothe  themselves, seek insight or achieve oblivion. It also serves as a tool or guide - enabling its audience to  see Los Angeles , not as a desiccated industrial  wasteland into which resources must flow, but as a  field of abundant life that might be harvested to  satisfy our needs.

            Joyce Campbell is an interdisciplinary artist working in photography, sculpture, film and video installation. She is a visiting lecturer at Scripps College and Claremont Graduate University in Claremont , California .

Joyce¹s recent work utilizes anachronistic photographic techniques to examine the collision of natural and cultural systems.

In October of 2006, Joyce traveled to the Ross Sea region of Antarctica for two weeks sponsored by Creative New Zealand and Antarctica New Zealand.

While in Antarctica she shot large format negatives and Daguerreotypes, an archaic and exquisite form of photography that predates Antarctic exploration.

 

Location:        Gallery 727

                        727 S. Spring Street #12

                        LA, CA.  90014

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ ______

 

Friday, June 1, 2007

Pavement Paradise : American Parking Space

Eighty-one percent of Downtown Los Angeles is covered with surface parking.  The average car is parked 95% of the time.  What are the consequences of devoting huge amounts of land to cars that sit empty most of the time?  Questions such as these are posed in the Center for Land Use Interpretation' s exhibit Pavement Paradise: American Parking Space.  This exhibit "about the liminal, substanceless, and static space of automotive transience" is on display at CLUI - Los Angeles .

http://clui. org/clui_ 4_1/ondisplay/ parking/

 

____________ _________ _________ _________ _________ ______

 

 

Articles:

NY Times June 15, 2007

Proposed Ban on Taco Trucks Stirs Animosity in a California Town

By CAROLYN MARSHALL

SALINAS, Calif. — Jose Martínez left Mexico around 1988 and toiled for years in a patchwork of fields here, harvesting berries and lettuce and barely making ends meet.

In 2002, Mr. Martínez took advantage of a city law created to help novice entrepreneurs start businesses related to the city's largely Hispanic cultural heritage. He bought a taco truck, one of 31 licensed mobile catering vehicles in Salinas , and built it into a modestly profitable operation.

But the City Council, responding to a business group and its most vocal members — the owners of Mexican restaurants — is poised to vote next month on a draft ordinance to ban taco trucks and other catering vehicles from Salinas, a farm town about 120 miles south of San Francisco.

The proposed ordinance, which is still subject to revision, is the latest round in a two-year debate that some say has created a rift in this community, placing poorer Mexicans who are looking to better themselves at odds with longtime residents whose families emigrated years ago.

Salinas is not alone. Taco trucks, cultural icons and social magnets in Mexico, have become a flashpoint in at least a dozen cities in California — including Santa Rosa, 55 miles north of San Francisco, and Gardena, 15 miles south of Los Angeles — and in other states, like Arizona, Oregon and Tennessee.

Restrictions are being debated in the Central Valley towns of Lathrop, Escalon and Lodi . In most cases, brick-and-mortar businesses resent the competition. Many observers say the taco truck issue illuminates far more complex dynamics, from the perils of rapid urban development to hidden resentments toward, and among, Hispanics.

"It's rarely if ever discussed, but there are obvious racial undertones," said David LeBeouf, a lawyer for about 100 food vendors here and in several Central Valley cities.

The ordinance would phase out mobile and stationary catering vehicles, most of which are taco trucks, by 2011, and would restrict how, when and where 240 pushcart vendors could sell cold prepared foods.

"Of course I'm worried," said Mr. Martínez, who at 36 is saving to buy a home. "It's my job, my livelihood."

Salinas officials say the proposed ordinance was not intended to shut down the vendors. "We don't want to put these people out of business," said the senior deputy city attorney, Chris Callihan. "We want to move them off the street and put them into brick and mortar establishments. "

Concern about mobile vendors escalated in 2005 when a trade group, the Salinas United Business Association complained about a proliferation of taco trucks, some run illegally, in east Salinas , a hardscrabble area that is slated for modest improvements, including new landscaping and a promenade.

The harshest complaints came from restaurateurs, who said that the trucks had an unfair competitive advantage, fostered urban blight, blocked traffic and were sometimes unsanitary.

"We all love Mexico , but once you jump on a plane you leave Mexico behind," said Antonio Campos, the owner of a Mexican restaurant here. "Once you are in America , you have rules, regulations and standards."

Taco trucks "should go to the fields and feed the agriculture guys," said Mr. Campos, 29, a Salinas native of Mexican descent.

Mr. Campos and others want taco trucks off east Salinas streets. "If they are mobile vendors, keep them mobile. We have way more overhead and the competition is not on a level playing field," Mr. Campos said.

Vendors pay $25,000 to $50,000 for trucks and about $1,000 for permits.

The vendors say critics are trying to undo the reputation of their businesses as clean, safe and respectable, known to provide a vital service to cash-strapped farm workers and to a growing legion of out-of-town food fanatics. The vendors have protested, circulated petitions and, as of May 31, hired Mr. LeBeouf.

Vendors "are very angry, very upset," Teresa Hernandez, a volunteer spokeswoman, said. "That group's whole argument is that the vendors are in the way of revitalization. "

Mr. Callihan said the city's main concern has always been on public health and safety, especially since an E. coli scare last fall when tainted spinach was traced to farms in this region.

"There is a huge concern around here because of E. coli," Mr. Callihan said. "It happened after the vendor issue came up. But it fed into it and our need to make sure food is safe."

City officials, though, note that no Salinas vendor has been linked to a health scare, prompting some taco truck advocates to call the rationale for the ordinance "a smoke screen."

"It really comes down to competition, " said Melanie Wong, a Salinas native and a frequent blogger on Chowhound.com. "Why should one class of merchant roll over for another class of merchant?"

Mr. LeBeouf said the ordinance's rules on how far vendors must be from restaurants and that set hours of operation from 3 p.m. to 6 a.m., were unrelated to health and safety.

"It's a restraint of trade and you cannot do it," Mr. LeBeouf said. "The city may be banking on the fact that the vendors don't have the money or motivation to challenge it. That's not the way you make good law."

 

Downtown News

Paving the Way

Effort to Make Downtown More Walkable Takes Big Step This Week

by Evan George

When the city's Planning Commission  released a fiery memorandum in April, under the banner "Do Real Planning," one concern rose to the top. "Demand a walkable city," read its first sentence.

That's easier said than done. Many officials praise so-called smart growth, yet few planning regulations mandate it.

But on Thursday, June 14, in a presentation before the Planning Commission, city planners will unveil how they intend to actualize that demand, starting with Downtown. It marks the first official report for a project charged with implementing widespread design changes to Downtown streets.

If approved and adopted, the new effort, known as the Downtown Urban Design Guidelines and Standards, could mean that developers who are currently asked to widen streets for cars could instead be required to create wide, tree-lined pedestrian walkways and paseos for foot traffic.

Proponents say that would dramatically alter the city's one-size-fits- all street standards and spur developers to help create a walkable city.

Though still in a preliminary stage, city officials say this week's progress report is a culmination of numerous Downtown street studies, years of work and the input of multiple departments on principles that have never been officially implemented.

To say the guidelines are politically popular is putting it mildly.

At a Budget and Finance Committee meeting last week, funding to implement the Downtown project gained approval in less than 10 seconds. When one Downtown stakeholder rose to say he supported the project, Committee Chair Bernard Parks barked simply, "So do we."

The guidelines that will be presented this week include:

ï‚·  Minimum 15-foot wide sidewalks on average.

ï‚·  Street standards should be based on the context of the surrounding neighborhood rather than a single citywide formula.

ï‚·  Consistent street standards that don't change from block to block.

ï‚·  Development and maintenance of sidewalks with sustainable and pedestrian-friendly features by the property owners.

ï‚·  Any parking structures must be fronted by active uses.

Observers say it signals a push by the Planning Department not only to promote the pedestrian-friendly vision extolled by Planning Director Gail Goldberg, but to proactively affect development - and to remain relevant in the city's pursuit of smart growth.

Goldberg has repeatedly called for her department to consider projects with pedestrians, not automobiles, in mind. The move to establish new guidelines also represents a milestone for the Department's Urban Design Studio, launched late last year and charged with turning many of the talking points into action.

Meeting weekly with other departments, and drawing on past street surveys, the Urban Design Studio has helped finalize the standards and beefed up restrictions that city planners hope to make law by the end of this year. Though planners say some of the guidelines are already used when reviewing projects, the June 14 meeting will serve as the first formal stage to set them in stone.

"Recommendations and refinements really don't mean anything unless it's in the Community Plan," said Emily Gabel-Luddy, who heads the Urban Design Studio. "I don't claim I invented this, I just say, 'Wow, what a great opportunity to carry it forward.'"

Cementing the Rules

The difference between standard 10-foot sidewalks and the widened walkways that the city wants on most Downtown Los Angeles blocks can already be seen at the corner of Hope and 11th streets.

There, Portland-based developer South Group is finishing work on the mid-rise housing complex Luma and the ground-floor retail that opens up to both streets. Surrounding the building, and next door to where the company's Elleven building houses a buzzing Starbucks, the developer included designs that meet many of the new guidelines.

From an outdoor table at 11th and Grand last week, Luddy sipped coffee and gazed approvingly at a new curb extension that slopes outward into the road, gobbling up the first 10 feet of the parking lane. The result is a spacious crosswalk and a 24-foot rotunda of a sidewalk.

The sky was gray enough that steam wafted from Luddy's coffee cup, like a Seattle morning in South Park . The comparison was fitting, she said. The spaces that South Group set out to develop around the housing are unlike what any other Los Angeles developer has done for pedestrian traffic, Luddy said.

The wide sidewalks hold park benches, double rows of trees and planters. The long block is intentionally cut short by a pedestrian alleyway. The project's parking structure is invisible from the street and set back so as not to pit dog-walkers against drivers.

Luddy called it the model of what she wants to see everywhere Downtown.

"[The South Group] came to me after their project had been completely approved and asked for a change in the standards," she said.

South Group Principal Jim Atkins said the city still wasn't immediately receptive, leading to a long, costly approval process.

"The Department of Transportation wanted us to build a wider street. We pushed back and suggested, 'Why don't we build an extra sidewalk instead of an extra lane of traffic?'" said Atkins.

Since Goldberg established the Urban Design Studio, Luddy and city planner Simon Pastucha have been charged with the tough task of bringing LADOT, the Bureau of Engineering and other departments to agreement on a vision for Downtown streetscapes, despite concerns that such designs could create traffic problems.

Luddy said the guidelines will not exile cars and will include traffic analyses.

"This is not the panacea. Smart growth is not going to mean everybody walking and taking transit, but the important thing is that it provides choice," said Luddy.

Planning Power

The new guidelines encapsulate much of what elected officials have talked up for decades. In fact, the specific standards the Urban Design Studio have been asked to implement are not entirely new. Many of the recommendations arose out of a study initiated by the Community Redevelopment Agency in 2004.

"The CRA has been using them for more than a couple of years when reviewing projects," said Pat L. Smith, a longtime consultant to the CRA on street issues.

But often that has caused more problems than it has solved.

Smith said it meant the CRA was picking up the Planning Department's slack, using their stricter standards on a time-consuming case-by-case basis.

That concern was high on the list at the first-ever joint meeting of the Planning Commission and the CRA's Board of Commissioners on May 31, partly to highlight the new coordination.

Planning Commission President Jane Ellison Usher called it the "age-old complaint" - that developers who bring projects before the Planning Department and the CRA hear very different things. Developers who might meet Planning Department standards can be ordered back to the drawing board by the CRA.

Instead, demands made of developers to encourage smart growth should be "frontloaded" and made clear from the beginning, many said.

"Those are conversations that should be very early in the process," said William Jackson, president of the CRA Board of Commissioners.

City planners see the urban design guidelines as just such a device.

"It's not going to be just the CRA doing these things, it's going to be all of the city departments speaking with one voice, all in agreement," said Smith. "Everybody's hoping, and I think this is what will happen, is that the Planning Department will step forward and take over more of the planning and urban design function so that the CRA doesn't need to."

If approved, the new standards will change how the city and developers interact on street level development, proponents say. However, change may be felt most acutely by those who live, work and walk by the projects.

Like at 11th and Grand, where commuters seeking coffee circle madly on a weekday morning for parking, finding only a plethora of places to walk.

Contact Evan George at evan@downtownnews. com.

 

Urban Eats:

 

Farmer Markets in the Hood!

 

Tianguis:  South Central Farmers Market.

Support Community Sustainable Agriculture (C.S.A.)

Music, high quality produce,

www.southcentralfar mers.com

 

Date:               First Sunday of every month (May 6^th)

Time:             10:00 am. to 4:00 p.m.

Location:         41^st and Alameda

 

Caracol Farmers Market

Date: Sunday June 24, 2007

Time:  10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

 

 

" East Los Angeles Farmer's Market" every Saturday from 9 AM TO 1 PM

Features fruits and vegetables grown locally by local farmers. In addition, you'll find one of a kind creations offered by local artisans and meet representatives from local community organizations.

 

Location: First Street (between Rowan and Ditman).

 

 

Homegirl Café!

1818 East First Street

LA, CA.  90014

 

Mama's Hot Tamale Cafe

7^th Street across from Macarthur Park

 

To post events, activities or meetings that promote planning, cultural or dialogue contact James Rojas at 213 892-0918 or email Latinourbanforum@ yahoo.com Please submit post in a word document.