Play Dates: Not Just for the Suburbs
Ed Fuentes
Young residents enjoy the pumpkin patch at the "Halloween Party for Downtown L.A. Kids," held at Grand Hope Park on October 31.
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Since the 1999 Adaptive Reuse Ordinance breathed new life into our once-sleepy urban center, Downtown has become quite the booming neighborhood. Our streets no longer go to sleep at 6pm, and new restaurants, bars and lounges are now keeping us up late. Instead of hiding our residences in shame, Downtowners can now be proud of our neighborhood and invite friends to come gawk at how much Downtown has changed.
Those changes are rapidly including more and more families. Hang out around one of our plentiful coffee shops and you're likely to see a neighbor walking by pushing a stroller.
Downtown is an enticing place for young couples, even after the bundle of joy comes knocking. You get to live amongst historic buildings with beautiful architecture. You get to expose your child to an urban environment. Perhaps best, you get to stay late at work and still get home at the same time as you would living in the suburbs -- or leave at the same time and get more hours at home.
Young professionals have long been the legs of Downtown redevelopment, but many of them will soon settle down and have children of their own. City officials need to sharpen their planning skills to make it easier for parents to retain their residence, income, and capital in Downtown.
Those involved in Downtown revitalization, including the Business Improvement Districts, need to realize that they now have a new constituent to serve - my toddler.
First off, she needs a good elementary school and a proper space to meet other kids and play in a safe, shaded and inviting park. She wants kid-friendly events year-round. She’d be especially happy if new ventures such as the Grand Avenue Project would take her into consideration when designing their developments. And what she really wants to know is whether Pershing Square will ever be a place she can hit up with her newfound buddies and furry four-legged friends.
Play Dates are a necessity to any parent living or working in Downtown. They are prime opportunities for networking, a rich resource for finding daycare, help around the house, a part-time babysitter, or for just enjoying a cup of coffee while sharing the latest news in Downtown. Yahoo groups such as DTLA Kids and CityKidsLA are emerging and inviting parents to meet each other and form a sense of community. The groups and outings provide a medium to de-stress from the woes of child-rearing and share experiences about urban parenting.
The Downtown Center BID says that it wants people to “Live, Work and Play” in Downtown L.A., but do they realize that the only place my toddler can really play is Grand Hope Park? Its foreboding high black iron-fence, lack of shade in the playground and couples that frolic romantically in the grass nearby do not make it exactly kid-friendly.
This is an ABC soup of ideas for parents to mull over and contribute what they would like to see in Downtown L.A.. Whether everyone likes it or not, kids will soon be a dominating issue in the question of which amenities need to be brought to Downtown.
In a few years many of the Downtown residents will be cruising Main street with a Bugaboo and baby in tow. Hopefully by starting this conversation sooner rather than later, those future parents will have a good school, kid-centric entertainment, and more green space waiting for them. Then they can set the stroller brakes for a moment and contemplate staying in Downtown for good.
Susana Benavidez lives in South Park and is the mother of two 3-year-old girls. She will be writing weekly about life Downtown with children.
Kari on December 12, 2008, at 10:21AM – #1
What a great blog. I'm 8 months pregnant and about to move downtown. I completely agree with you and hope we can find a way to make downtown more kid friendly so we can stay for a long time!
Cindy on December 12, 2008, at 10:50AM – #2
With all the changes going on Downtown it is great to see that someone is bringing up this issue now. I appreciate the positive tone of your blog. Much better than waiting until your children are grown and then complaining about how you had to move out of the city because it wasn't kid friendly. Good job!!
Ok City Officials, what's next on the drawing board?
Brian on December 12, 2008, at 12:24PM – #3
Great piece ... It's something my wife and I have talked about since moving to downtown - how the area is building at a rapid pace but not taking into account the demographics of people moving into the area. There are already plenty of people with kids, and more on the way yet there isn't many places to take them for the day, or even a few hours here in the core.
I hope the city and BIDs jump on this quickly and not think 5-10 years out.
Ruby de Vera on December 12, 2008, at 12:56PM – #4
In response to the article on Play Date, it's time we look into the needs of the children who are now residents of Downtown LA. There should be more amenities for them especially parks where they can not only get the exercise but also meet new friends. LA has always been park poor and having parks in the urban setting would definitely provide the recreation for the future of our City.
Matt on December 12, 2008, at 01:39PM – #5
This blog article was great. I would definitely like to see a lot more articles from you, Susana. Keep up the good work. You're such a great advocate for this very important issue! If we ever want Downtown L.A. to be in a position where we can seriously compare it with downtown centers in San Francisco, Chicago and New York, this child services issue is something we need to address now. Getting a conversation started about the problem is a good start.
Li on December 13, 2008, at 10:12AM – #6
Great article, Susana! I'm looking forward to hearing more from you.
karin Liljegren on December 14, 2008, at 11:27AM – #7
Thanks for adding a children's segment to blogdowntown. My son is 6 and my personal experience is that there are a ton of things to do downtown within walking, short bus or a scooter push. For his age, it's been amazing, BUT we have had a terrible time finding any kids his age. I hope your segment will also note fun kid events - especially for downtown locals - it's really the best place to meet other residents! Welcome to Blogdowntown!
Downtowner on December 15, 2008, at 07:53AM – #8
Land for parks is not cheap, so new parks don't get built, and even if you can buy the land, you have to build a park and irrigation systems on whatever is there right now, whether a building that needs to be demolished, or a parking lot - also expensive.
Nothing except existing parks is zoned for "open space" downtown, which means the city (or private parties -- this is possible for private citizens to form park foundations and raise money by the way!) would have to buy expensive commercial zoned property and make it into a park.
Governmental agencies can't just down zone a commercial property to open space unless they already own the land -- that's illegal and removes the value from someone's private property because once it's zoned open space it is no longer developable. You have to buy the lot for whatever the value is of a developable lot, rezone it, and then build a park. All the Quimby fees downtown would get maybe one decent park built.
Pershing Square used to be a wonderful inner-city urban park. Maybe they can just undo everything they did to it in the last couple of decades and give us back an actual park, with grass and stuff. The ice skating is nice though. A lot of kids have been ice skating there this year.
townie on December 17, 2008, at 11:09PM – #9
Pershing Square has kids shows every Saturday at 1 & 3pm during the ice rink. They also have kids shows with bouncers sometimes during the summer. If the community wants more children's activities at the park they need to tell the Park Advisory. I think these are the people who put on the events at Pershing Park. Pershing Square has a web site for event information.
Susana Benavidez on December 18, 2008, at 09:06AM – #10
Pershing Square does have a website but their events are poor on kid-friendly events at convenient times. A lot of the events occur during the week (including at the Central Library)during lunch time or 2pm. Most of us living in downtown work full-time and can't make it during the work day. I've been wanting to go to the story time events at the library but I can't get off at work in the middle of the day to take my children. I will definitely contact the Children's Librarian at the Central Library (she's great) and inquire about offering more Saturday kid events.
vatay on December 18, 2008, at 10:02AM – #11
Great article: I'm starting to notice more children downtown, and that's great to see.