Thoughts on Proposed Playa Vista Project

The proposed Playa Vista project has created two of the more interesting bedfellows in the discourse between developers and environmentalists: Nelson Rising of Maguire Thomas Partners and Ruth Lansford of Friends of Ballona Wetlands.

Lansford, in her wish (and mine) to save the wetlands will not strenuously object to Playa Vista as long as some wetlands acreage is set aside. If the massive project is built, I wonder if the birds will want to return to the wetlands within sight of a mass of buildings, roads and noise from Playa Vista, and with thousands of cars loudly passing by. One of the current beauties of the wetlands is their relative isolation, which will be obliterated by Playa Vista.

The wetlands would become a gilded cage surrounded by a noisy, congested development. The rest of us will live in congested, polluted noisy Los Angeles while wetlands critters live protected. Is it impossible to save the wetlands and a decent way of life in Los Angeles?

On the other hand, Nelson Rising touts the brave new world of development of Playa Vista with traffic mitigation and other amenities. Again, I wonder, once the 47 intersections within the immediate area are “improved” to avoid certain gridlock, what happens to all of those cars once they leave the Playa Vista area? Certainly, they do not just disappear. Many will probably end up adding to the crawl on the 405, or on the area’s already-crowded streets.

Though Rising thinks this development is a new concept, a student of Los Angeles will find that many developers have ridden roughshod over Los Angeles, leaving it as a prime example of how not to build a city. Playa Vista is one more example on how not to create a livable city.

MATTHEW HETZ

Los Angeles