AskDowntown: How Would You Prioritize Parks?

Find the biggest dang Sycamore (Aliso) that can possibly be moved. Box it out and truck it on down to where the Council Tree grew, across the freeway from Union Station. Plant it with some grass around it. Sort of back to the future, ya know? Shut down the freeway for a couple of hours so people can run and ride bikes on it - cause that’s where YAAngna was located. (Yes, YAAngna). Get the Philharmonic out there too, to play the New World Symphony - when the big tree arrives.

Build a replica of the Wolfskill Adobe where the original stood at the northwest corner of Fourth and Alameda. Rip up all that asphalt and surround it with fruit trees and grape vines. For it was Wolfskill who commanded one of the earliest wagon trains from Franklin in Missouri Territory, headed to Taos. And on board was an 18 year old Christopher ‘Kit’ Carson, running away forever from his mother and siblings. In the Taos pueblo, Workman and Wolfskill operated an outfitters shop and employed Carson as a cook. After Wolfskill emigrated to Los Angeles and established his ranch, Carson most likely stopped to visit and overnight with his old friend whenever he was in L.A. We should put up a statue of both of them; wouldn’t that make the hip westsiders snort…. And play Stravinsky when the bronzes are unveiled. They’d REALLY have a cow about that! Rite of Spring? And oh what I could tell them about Ms. Carson. They’d howl all night long.

I think that the city should use its power of eminent domain more aggressively to transform parking lots into parks. As the city grows more dense, the value of lots increases. The amount of money wasted by buying land with a building on it, tearing the building down, and replacing it with a park it much higher than starting with an undeveloped piece of land like a parking lot. Parks last for 100s of years. Lets invest in a greener future by buying 1/20 of the downtown space devoted to parking lots and replacing it with green space.

A nice park in the parking lot across the street from my loft would be great….I don’t want to lose my view!!!

ok losing parking to parks is a good start. Downtowners need to learn to breath air and walk the dog and take the bus.. maybe you can’t get everywhere without a car but there’s plenty of places you don’t need a car downtown.

Also, what about all these dogs the loft dwelling folks have? They’ve been encouraged by the BIDs to bring their dogs to live with them.. LA IS DOG FRIENDLY??

well let’s show it by getting some dog runs or some dog parks too??

Any other ideas??