Where’s the Vision for Downtown?

Where’s the vision and the passion for a more grand and wonderful downtown Los Angeles? That question has prompted me to speak up on behalf of the proposed sports arena near the Convention Center.

My ultimate goal isn’t just a new sports arena, but an energetic and vigorous downtown Los Angeles that continues to expand and build new facilities to attract people into the area. I envision a downtown with a wide variety of opportunities for all our citizens: enhanced cultural events and activities, expanded shopping and restaurant sites, new sports venues, and yes, a new cathedral.

I am so excited about the prospects for downtown Los Angeles that at times I can hardly sit still. I have lived at 2nd and Main streets for 12 years now and have witnessed downtown’s deterioration. But within the past two years, new voices and new energies have surfaced that point to a bright and vibrant future.

Mayor Richard Riordan, the business and professional community, organized labor and others have stepped forward to give spirited leadership for a renewed Los Angeles, and they have pointed us in a direction that could give us a new downtown by 2000.

This new spirit convinced me that the archdiocese’s new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels belonged downtown. Our new site at Grand Avenue and Temple Street is striking; formal ground blessing takes place on the afternoon of Sept. 21. We hope to dedicate our new cathedral on Sept. 4, 2000.

But I am not content with just building our new cathedral. I have asked the city and the Community Redevelopment Agency to take a look at Grand Avenue, which is anything but grand. It is pathetic, devoid of any warmth, style and features to attract people to it. Why can’t we redesign and redo Grand Avenue, from the Hollywood Freeway on the north all the way to the Central Library at 5th Street on the south?

A new and vibrant Grand Avenue would then pass by the new cathedral, the Music Center, the new Disney Concert Hall, the new Colburn Music School, the Museum of Contemporary Art and California Plaza, ending at the library. With a much widened and inviting pedestrian walkway, with new landscaping and lighting, Grand Avenue might actually live up to its name.

World renowned architects Frank Gehry and Rafael Moneo, now working respectively on the concert hall and the cathedral, have agreed to help in the design of a revitalized Grand Avenue.

But even that is not enough. My commitment to improving downtown Los Angeles compels me to plead “why not?” to a wide spectrum of possibilities, to dream dreams for our city and to support all of our downtown leadership in creating a new Los Angeles that all of us can be proud of. Why not a great sports arena for downtown? Why not an enhanced Memorial Coliseum for a world-class city?

But where, on our City Council, is the vision and the passion? Where is the energy and the drive to make things happen, rather than to discourage and to oppose initiatives that hold so much promise? Thank God there are several council voices willing to give us both vision and passion. But I look to every council member to articulate this vision for a dynamic new Los Angeles, one that will excite us by the time the century turns. We do need wise and prudent leadership for our city and its resources. But we also need bold and imaginative leadership determined to overcome obstacles--not overseers that keep creating new ones.

I may not have the total vision for a fulfilling and dynamic new downtown Los Angeles, but I surely know where to look: up, at all the possibilities before us, not down, at petty bickering and obstructionism.

Together let’s envision a 21st century downtown we can all take pride in--one to enjoy and share with our many visitors. Let’s create the passion that moves us over obstacles and gets the job done. And let’s start today.