The Cancer Eating Our City From Within : Los Angeles: Rather than keep on building enormous projects, shouldn’t we regain the quality of life that is slipping away?

As longtime community activists, we are frequently asked, “Why are you people always against everything? How come you are never for anything?”

Our answer is simple: Citizens form a homeowner association because they are troubled by their neighborhood’s problems. Few start up organizations to celebrate how swell things are.

We activists are criticized because we raise the issue of limits on development and are deeply concerned about the impact of unbridled growth on our city. Some people, mostly developers, can’t understand why we are unwilling to accept unlimited growth. In fact, they claim we can build ourselves out of the mess created by their runaway construction. But growth brings with it the responsibility to provide jobs, housing, schools, freeways, clean drinking water, fresh air and a connection to the sewage system for every resident.

Those who advocate unlimited development fail to deal with a basic fact: An acre of land can sustain only a finite number of people and still provide each of them with a good quality of life. While it is physically possible to cram millions more into Los Angeles, as is done in Manhattan, Tokyo and London, cities with high population densities cannot effectively deal with the consequences of growth. They have already run out of open spaces. Their water and air quality are already abominable. They are jammed into subways, trains and buses like so many sardines.

Government and public agencies have a duty to protect all citizens, including those just gaining a foothold on the economic ladder. The thrust behind the no-growth movement is not to halt that kind of progress. Rather, it is an effort to stabilize our neighborhoods and maximize services.

Los Angeles is badly in need of repair. Before we allow developers to move ahead with plans to build such enormous projects as Watt City Center, Porter Ranch or Farmer’s Market Mall, should not we concentrate on providing a safer environment for all residents?

There are thousands of buildings in the city that need to be made earthquake-safe. There are thousands more that need fire-sprinkler systems. There are miles of city streets that need widening and repaving. There are treeless parkways, grassless parks and economically depressed neighborhoods that require immediate attention.

Yet Angelenos have come to the point where it is us vs. them: On one side are the homeowners, residents and community activists struggling to hang onto a rapidly disappearing quality of life; on the other, a horde of lobbyists, expediters, developers, bureaucrats and, worst of all, elected officials.

We who live, work and play in Los Angeles have few options. We can ignore the crumbling infrastructure, the worsening air, the traffic jams, the polluted water and bulging landfills. We can collect our belongings, sell our homes, abandon our businesses, leave our friends and families and move away. None of these options is palatable.

Only one viable alternative remains: We must regain the quality of life that is slipping away. Possibly the only way to achieve this is to change the system to make elected officials more responsive to our interests instead of those of developers.

Toward this end, Angelenos must forcefully declare that they are not going to be jammed into less and less space, forced out of their cars into mass transit, required to take shorter showers and flush their toilets fewer times so a developer can enrich himself by building to meet the housing demand. Specifically, we must give up the insane plan to enlarge the size of LAX by 50%. We must never allow the double-decking of our freeways. We must not allow Metro Rail to grow beyond current construction, and the light-rail system must not be extended.

These projects will not only increase the city’s capacity; they will also act as a giant magnet, generating jobs that, in turn, will bring a demand for more housing, more people and more infrastructure. And so the cycle goes on.

Politicians and bureaucrats unwilling to rebuild our city from within and protect our low-density neighborhoods should be replaced with decision-makers sensitive to and understanding of the natural balance between man and the environment.

Los Angeles is a city that could offer an unsurpassed quality of life for those who do not misuse or abuse its finite resources. But the cancer of unlimited growth is eating the city from within, and unless it is stopped, it will destroy Los Angeles as we know it.