Citizens and Planning
Regarding to Sam Hall Kaplan’s rather futile support of grass-roots groups for city planning:
Planning, for a growing area such as Los Angeles, is a process governed by economics and performed by developers, investors, and nameless politicians. The economics arise from what the populace does--not from what the populace says that it wants.
Therefore, grass-root groups of today, as those that worked with the Los Angeles Planning Department in the mid-70s, are not going to change the planning resulting from growth motivated by populace-behavior and economic gain.
The populace that says what it wants has little or no power. The populace that changes what it does, has complete power. Such a populace does not exist in the nature we observe.
Urban design can be governed by a media independent of developers and architects. If Johnny Carson can make David Letterman a star, Sam Hall Kaplan can make the Munselle/Brown Partnership at least as famous as Frank Lloyd Wright.
KEN JEWETT
Playa del Rey
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
