Councilmembers Share Excitement for Downtown's Future
Ed Fuentes
Councilmembers Jose Huizar, Ed Reyes and Jan Perry pose with plaques given to them by the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council.
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — There was a lot of love in the Tower Theatre on Tuesday night. Councilmembers Jose Huizar, Jan Perry and Ed Reyes were warmly welcomed to a special meeting of the DLANC board, and each expressed his or her belief in Downtown's bright future.
The neighborhood council billed the night as a chance for the community to meet and greet the elected officials that represent Downtown on City Council. After a chance for mingling, the Councilmembers shared their vision for their respective districts.
Councilman Jose Huizar went first, giving remarks that focused on the revitalization of Broadway. "The cornerstone of this initiative and the anchor of this initiative are these beautiful theatres," he said, gesturing to the Tower's interior. "The idea is this, if we reopen these beautiful theatres, bring them up to their potential and provide the type of programming that would bring the critical mass back to Broadway, we will then see the rest of this corridor revitalize itself."
Perry's 9th District contains the majority of Downtown, and her remarks praised Downtown for its welcoming of growth and density. "This is the one part of the city where people will accept more density. This is the one part of the city where there isn't the NIMBYism there is in other parts of the city." At the same time, she promised to fight to make sure that affordable housing and homeless services are not solely concentrated Downtown. "I think you'll see me pushing far more to make sure that affordable housing gets built throughout the city -- which has not occurred."
Reyes' 1st District includes the area west of the 110 freeway and north of the 101. He talked of the opportunity presented by the Los Angeles River and city properties that can be pushed into better use. As for the challenge of connecting different parts of Downtown? "I think incrementally, we're going to get there," he said.
Don Garza on April 16, 2009, at 03:50PM – #1
hey , I gave ED some good light in that photo...keep up the goods work ED Fuentes
Caryn Ho on April 20, 2009, at 10:23AM – #2
As a new member of downtown and one who is very interested in her community I went to this meeting. I found it to be very disorganized and feel there should have been some sort of MC type person announcing what we will do now, here is tonight's agenda, etc. One of the people in the audience went up and got an agenda for a few of us. When I looked at the 3 pages I couldn't believe that they were going to attempt to discuss everything that was on there. That in itself was enough to scare someone away. But I stayed and waited and after awhile found it to be boring and with very little interaction with people from the community. I also did not see many people there and the people who were there were loading up on slices of pizza to go and sodas and seem to care less about the meeting. Maybe I didn't know what to expect but I thought it would be a good opportunity to get involved with the community so now I don't know what to think.
Eric Richardson (@blogdowntown) on April 20, 2009, at 10:27AM – #3
Caryn: Neighborhood council meetings can be intimidating at first. There is a lot for a board meeting to get through, and there's not a lot to be done about that. I'd highly recommend picking a topic that you're interested in and finding the committee that's dealing with that topic. Committee meetings are much easier places to get started.
Jon T on April 20, 2009, at 11:06AM – #4
Hi Caryn, what Eric said is very true, pick a topic of interest and come to the meetings for that particular committee. Currently the general DLANC website isn't very informative about when those meetings are taking place, but you can follow the yahoo groups http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=dlanc to find more information.
Caryn Ho on April 21, 2009, at 08:33AM – #5
Thank you Eric and Jon T for that advise. I appreciate the tips on getting around the DLANC and will act upon it accordingly since I do want to be involved and don't give up that easily after just one meeting. Peace and Blessings.
Russell Brown on April 22, 2009, at 06:52PM – #6
The neighborhood council is a collection of stakeholders from all neighborhoods, interests and experiences. There are many issues involved our diverse community.
I would agree that if you have never been to a meeting and did not know the agenda or format, it can be confusing. Add to that, that this meeting was a hybrid- part social reception, part townhall, part presentations and a rush through a large amount of business.
Try discussing every issue in every neighborhood by 45 folks in an hour. That is the challenge.
An example is our planning committee which meets once a month and spends 3 detailed hours on projects. It arrives to the board as a consent calendar condensed to 5 minutes. Multiply that times 10 committees, with 28 points of view and presentations and you can see the challenge. Also, the meeting is a board meeting with some public comment. It is not a townhall or community meeting. We try to make the committee meetings much more relaxed and free flowing.
Ideally the meeting you attended should have been a town hall forum with no business agenda. Two hours of just the city council.
However, our meeting was already set, and the reception/ short presentation was added to the meeting.
Pick a topic downtown that you are passionate and we can figure out a way to get you involved. There is no other neighborhood in the city that you can get as involved in and truly help create new and rebuilt neighborhoods.
Feel free to call or email at 213-999-0379 DLANC.jr2Brown@gmail.com Russ Brown President DLANC