25 WAYS TO FIX L.A.

No one in Southern California is untouched by the sprawl that is Los Angeles: the downtown commuter with gridlock jitters; the Orange County homeowner anxious about galloping Los Angelization; the San Diegan who hears the hoofbeats, too, just a bit more faintly. Southern California is changing so profoundly, and so fast, it’s no wonder everyone’s a little nervous.

If, when this regional anxiety attack strikes, we could all go en masse to a shrink, he or she might say: Take a deep breath, get centered and think about taking a few “baby steps”; when a problem overwhelms you, break it down into smaller, manageable parts. That’s the idea behind these 25 quick fixes for Los Angeles.

What needs fixing is a dreary litany: Violent crime is a daily given; cars strangle the streets and the freeways while isolating us from one another; only the privileged haves can buy homes while have-nots homestead the sidewalks; pollution and trash threaten to engulf us, and a court-side season ticket for the Lakers costs $15,050. And still the population swells. Sometimes the solutions seem so bureaucracy-bound and complicated that it’s tempting to simply give up.

But enough hand-wringing. If we feel powerless to stop drive-by shootings or lower the cost of housing, what can we do, relatively inexpensively and easily, to make Los Angeles a more livable, human place? Look back to the summer of 1984, when dressing up the streets with those magenta, teal and yellow Olympic banners made people a little prouder. That was a quick fix. For more examples, we picked the brains of the people who are most intimately involved with solving Los Angeles’ most challenging problems: urban planners, designers, architects, preservationists, academicians and artists.

Because these are thoughtful, dedicated experts, the most common answer was: “There are no quick fixes.” But some, such as Robert S. Harris, dean of the USC School of Architecture, saw merit in the madness: “What quick fixes might mean depends on scale,” he said. “A wonderful quote from Buckminster Fuller comes to mind: ‘To think globally and act locally.’ The point is that it empowers you to take actions you can actually accomplish. The reverse thought is not possible, and even a bit scary.”

In that spirit, most went along with the game, and brought their imaginations. In the process, the definition of a “quick fix” stretched into the fanciful but not beyond the possible. Suggestions were as prosaic as “more public bathrooms” and as elaborate as building an island in Santa Monica Bay. Half a dozen people had big plans for the Los Angeles River. Among those surveyed, many of whom will chart the course of Southern California into the year 2000 and beyond, there was a common thread of affection for Los Angeles and environs. But that love was tempered by frustration at the complexity of Southern California’s problems and a perceived lack of leadership and creativity in combatting them. Here are 25 of the best suggestions:

Man-Made Island in the Bay

DAVID HERTZ, architect / artist, Syndesis

“Los Angeles needs some 24-hour outdoor activity. With our weather conditions, it seems like we should be out more; our lives shouldn’t be limited to an enclosed, air-conditioned mall. To a great extent, our beaches are unused recreational areas in the evening. If we relight the beach areas to make them safe to walk and create a focal point where people could come together, it would be great. We could create a man-made island in the middle of Santa Monica Bay and extend the pier out to it, or have ferries from the pier shuttle people to and fro. It could be a wonderful destination without cars where people could enjoy walking, skating, biking and dining out in small cafes.”

Cul-de-Sac Villages

ALBERT C. MARTIN, architect, Albert C. Martin & Associates

“By reorganizing our surface streets, we could easily cut down much of the city’s congestion. The street system was originally laid out so that if, for example, you traverse west on 6th Street from downtown, every 300 feet you meet a stop sign or a signal. If we close off many of the small residential streets that feed into the main thoroughfare and turn them into cul-de-sacs, then autos running east and west on 6th might go two or three blocks without an intersection. Not only would the traffic improve tremendously, but the cul-de-sacs would become very desirable residential streets because they’d create a neighborhood.”

Outdoor Cafes

RAY BRADBURY,writer

“We need to change our antiquated health-code rules to allow more outdoor cafes. After all, a little dust never hurt anyone. In Paris, there are between 2,000 and 3,000 outdoor restaurants. We’re all hiding out now; what we need is a reason to go out on our streets. We need at least another thousand outdoor cafes. We could start by putting 60 of them on Hollywood Boulevard. But first, of course, we need to tear down Hollywood Boulevard and start over to get all those dreadful people--the pimps, prostitutes and hustlers--off the street.”

Replace the Triforium

MERRY NORRIS, president, Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Commission

“Replace the Triforium with a public sculpture that would demonstrate Los Angeles’ role as a world center for contemporary art. You can’t just rip it out; it cost a jillion dollars, and, after all, it was a piece of art done for the city of Los Angeles. What would be more intelligent is to find another place to put it. Perhaps we could donate it to a neighboring nation.”

Places to Sit

EMMET L. WEMPLE, landscape architect

“While walking down Larchmont Boulevard one day, I asked myself what made this a better street than most. It’s tree-lined; there are small tables and chairs outside of stores and small, inviting benches where you can rest. In contrast, in downtown Los Angeles there are two things you cannot do--sit down or go to the bathroom. We don’t have public amenities. Once in a while you need to have a nice, quiet place to sit and rest under a tree.”

More Trees and Better Parking Lots

ROBERT S. HARRIS, dean, USC School of Architecture

“Los Angeles has always had a wonderful tradition of planting trees. The palm trees that line many of our boulevards are a legacy of the 1932 Olympics. During Los Angeles’ bicentennial in 1981 and the 1984 Olympics, more than 100,000 new trees were planted all over the city. Most of the trees have survived and in another five to seven years from now will be a tremendous asset. If every resident and merchant would plant a tree in front of their home or business, little by little it would enhance the city both in terms of beauty and better air quality.”

“If we continue to think of parking lots as storage dumps for cars, the city will continue to get worse and worse. Every place for cars should be treated as an entrance. When you park your car, you have arrived at the beginning of your destination. Car parks need to be treated as people-friendly places; the parking lot at Colorado Place (in Santa Monica) is a good example. When you enter, you have natural light, plants and good ventilation. There are good, memorable markers so you can remember where you parked and, most important, how to find your car again. We need to start treating places for cars as proper places for people as well.”

Block Parties

SHEILA LEVRANT DE BRETTEVILLE, graphic designer; chairwoman, Department of Communication Design and Illustration, Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design

“Today, as more and more people are working out of their homes, there is a danger of becoming isolated. We need to look for ways that people can get together and meet one another. Bringing back the old-fashioned block party would be a start. Very often when people get together, it revolves around an issue--like protecting a neighborhood. People only mobilize to grumble. But we also need to think of positive and just-plain-fun reasons for people to come together, like the Garlic Festival in West Hollywood, which is a street party arranged around garlic. It’s a wonderful example of people celebrating in a public space, around a positive issue, and just having a good time. How about having these kinds of block parties happening in neighborhoods all over the city at one time? We could also declare it a no-cars day and clear the streets.”

A Town Square

FERNANDO JUAREZ,president, American Institute of Architects

“In Los Angeles, we’re always in our cars. How can we ever meet anyone? We need a town square, like Brussels’ Grand’ Place or Venice’s St. Mark’s. We could dam the Los Angeles River, creating a beautiful water feature backdrop and have an enormous square with restaurants, music and vendors. Now someone (Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Panorama City)) has suggested that we put a roadway in the L.A. River, which is not bad! But we could still have a town square. You see all that space along the river and you say, ‘Wow! Wouldn’t that be a great place for people to meet, to stop our rat race for a few minutes, relax, talk, sip coffee and get to know each other?’ ”

Revive the Diamond Lane

KEN TOPPING, planning director, city of Los Angeles

“Someone has got to bite the bullet on the freeway issue. We need to introduce more high-occupancy vehicle lanes. In the ‘70s, this was attempted with the Diamond Lanes. There was a tremendous hue and cry against them at the time. Well, the traffic wasn’t as bad in the ‘70s as it is now. Maybe the time is right to refocus once again on these types of lanes.”

Signage Standards

JAY ROUNDS,executive director, Los Angeles Conservancy

“Establish reasonable and enforceable signage standards for the city. In the historic theater district on Broadway, for instance, there is an incredible amount of garish, inappropriate signage, especially on the street level where everyone walks. Right now, there is no way of coping with this visual pollution, even in one of our nationally recognized historic places. At the Roosevelt building on 7th Street downtown, there are easy, readable signs done in a consistent fashion from store to store. You go one block east and find signs plastered over each other, advertising all the things for sale in the small electronics stores. These streets downtown can be beautiful places. The architecture can be enhanced by the signage.”

Ban the Mini-Mall

THOM MAYNE, architect, Morphosis

“Eliminate corner mini-malls. They are totally inappropriate and make the city look like a cow town.”

Create Neighborhoods

BRENT SAVILLE, designer, Saville Design

“With most great cities, a great grid was laid down in ancient times by a central authority, and within that grid, there were public spaces--the main street and the parks--and those things were added to continually over time. But anyone trying to emulate ancient cities in Los Angeles is on a fool’s mission. The bus of history came and went and we didn’t get on. The air quality is hopeless, traffic is hopeless; at this point, regional planning is mostly disaster control. The only way to make it better is in smaller units of improvement. Fix up your block, plant trees, tear down a building and build a park. We should encourage local groups to create neighborhoods with their own regional identity. There are many unique neighborhoods: Marina del Rey, Little Tokyo, Angelino Heights. You could assist this diversity by developing street graphics, banners, signposts with a particular typeface and appropriate street furniture (lighting, benches).”

Tear Down the Hollywood Sign

RICHARD WEINSTEIN, dean of Architecture and Urban Planning, UCLA

“Take down the Hollywood sign as a symbolic act. That would be a way of saying the days of instant gratification are over--a way to say, ‘Isn’t it time we grew up?’ This city is good at inventing life styles; it is not very good at changing them. A young city, like a child, is wrapped up with satisfying its wants. The unintended consequences create problems, and those problems require that everyone share the burden and take responsibility. The fantasy systems of Hollywood have had an effect on the way we conduct our affairs. But reality is showing us that we have to make choices, and we have to give something up. Not only are there no quick fixes, there are no easy fixes.”

Public Toilets; More Mobile Services

CRAIG HODGETTS, architect, Hodgetts & Fung

“L.A. has almost no public amenities. What we need is a public-bathroom competition sponsored by American Standard or Sherle Wagner.”

“One of the main things that needs to be done is to cut down the number of trips people take in their cars. If we had more services coming to us--dog-grooming vans, personal workout instructors, dry cleaning and laundry pickup--it would cut down on our random trips, saving our time and helping eliminate the congestion that is choking our freeways. You could almost bring a shoe store, clothing store or a convenience store to people’s homes. This idea could also work at the office--it would expand the roach-coach theory to the yuppie middle class. You could spend your lunch hour walking among vendors.”

Pooper-Scooper Vending Machines

ARNOLD SCHWARTZMAN, graphic designer, film maker

“We need enforced curb-your-dog legislation like they have in New York. In Germany, they have dispensing machines that sell boxes with plastic pooper scoopers that come with a plastic bag and a little wire twist-tie. I bought one as a souvenir. I think we should install pooper-scooper vending machines on every street corner in L.A.”

Design Hot Line

HARRY SEGIL,furniture designer

“Set up a design-help hot line. A support group consisting of interested designers could volunteer their time to offer design advice to distraught callers. It would be something like a suicide hot line; after all, you sometimes feel suicidal when renovating a house or building. In this way, designers could offer help to people who care, but don’t necessarily know how to make a difference, by giving them their creative input. And people need to know that it’s not the cost that matters, it’s the choice of materials. You can be Frank Gehry and choose the most common materials and still do something beautiful.”

Temporary Public Art

JOY SILVERMAN, executive director, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions

“Put up temporary public art all over the city, not just static works but performances as well. When it’s temporary, you can do much more experimental work because it doesn’t impose on the environment for a long period of time. And when the work is made on site, it demystifies the process of art; people can see it happen and evolve. They are less inclined to fight it than if it just plopped down among them.”

Pocket Parks

FRANK DIMSTIR, architect and associate professor of architecture at USC

“The idea that surfaced in the 1960s to create pocket parks is still a viable one. Vacant lots slated for buildings can still be used on an interim basis. In Holland, where land is at a premium, it’s totally acceptable that if you have a vacant lot, you can make a children’s park or neighborhood or what we used to call a pocket park out of it, even if for a limited time. You could design some mobile equipment for children and move it from one place to another. You could use it this way, instead of as a debris collector, until someone finds a parking-lot use for it. The problem, of course, is always the liability. What we need is a city ordinance that allows lots to be utilized for the benefit of the community.”’

A Waterfront Park

MARTIN ELI WEIL,restoration architect

“An influx of new immigrants accustomed to congregating in parks creates an urgency to better maintain the parks we have and to develop new ones. A good place to start would be to take the whole waterfront along the L.A. River and create a park where you could bike and walk and skate. Because it follows the breadth of the city, it could also serve as a conduit for tying together parts of the city. The river has the potential to be a wonderful resource.”

Rescind the Laws

CHARLES W. MOORE,architect

“Fifty years ago, Los Angeles was a beautiful and much easier city in which to live and work. Today, anytime things go wrong, we invent a new law to fix it. Take the question of energy efficiency, for example. We have energy laws that don’t save energy at all. I recently did a renovation for a beach home where the people had lived for 20 years. They had a wonderful fireplace. The energy codes no longer permitted the fireplace and stated that a furnace had to be added where they never needed one before. It’s ridiculous. What we need is to establish a Commission of Anarchists to remove the restrictive laws of the past 50 years. Every day in the paper, you could read the announcement of a different law that would be rescinded.”

Fountains and Flowers

SUSAN LARIS, publisher and president, Downtown News

“Turn on every fountain in L.A. They should stay on all day from 6 in the morning until midnight. One place to start would be the Department of Water and Power. During the energy crisis, the fountains were turned off except for the evening hours. But because the water recycles, it’s really more a show of savings than an actual one. It really seems a small expenditure to soothe downtowners’ tattered nerves. If we can’t have clean air, let us at least have a little water.”

“Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have hanging flower baskets like they do in Victoria, British Columbia? We could begin by placing baskets along 6th and 7th streets and down Figueroa, Flower, Hope, Grand and Olive.”

Turn on the Neon

AL NODAL,general manager, Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department

“We need to do projects that are economic environmentally by taking already-existing features and highlighting them. As part of the MacArthur Park Public Art Program, all the neon signs on the old hotels and theaters surrounding the park were relighted. I would like to see all the neon signs down the Wilshire corridor turned on again.”