Local News in Brief : Panel to Help Plan Downtown’s Future

Mayor Tom Bradley announced on Monday the formation of an advisory panel to help the Community Redevelopment Agency prepare for future downtown Los Angeles development.

But while the mayor said it is “not only essential, but achievable,” that the downtown area provide a “24-hour living environment” in which people can live, work and play, he may have left advocates for one of those activities off the committee.

Nowhere among the 27 community leaders appointed to the Downtown Strategic Plan Advisory Committee was there an “obvious housing advocate,” Deputy Mayor Mike Gage said.

So just a few hours after the panel was first convened, the mayor’s office began the search for four new community leaders who could “more adequately cover that base,” Gage said. The new members will be selected soon, he said.

The committee’s job is to prepare a revamped blueprint for redevelopment of the central business district, bounded by Main Street and the Hollywood, Santa Monica and Harbor freeways. The new plan is to carry the city through the year 2010.