Development Plans for Taylor Yard

Re “River Parks, Shops Proposed,” March 1: As someone who grew up in Cypress Park, I understand the importance of the L.A. River to the neighborhoods as well as anyone. I can honestly say that along the stretch of land that includes Taylor Yard no one has advocated for creating a relationship between the community and the river and backed it up with funding more than my office.

Today we see the development of a bike path ($1.1 million) along both sides of the river with access to key parcels of land (valued at $1.5 million) along the bank; funding is secured for a community bridge ($2 million) linking neighborhoods on either side of the river, not to mention a community arts program ($175,000) that was designed specifically to depict Taylor Yard and its relationship to the L.A. River.

Also, we have constructed an access road ($1.7 million), making any future development near the river easier and, thus, a San Antonio-like River Walk more possible.

What we cannot lose sight of as we go through this process is the neighborhood-driven Taylor Yard Development Study released in 1993. Conducted over two years, the study listed community priorities in the Taylor Yard development. Included in that list were job creation and the preservation of the river.

Nothing is set in cement. However, I would urge that we not be so quick to dismiss two years of community work, however outdated one may believe it to be.

MIKE HERNANDEZ

1st District Councilman

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It seems that in considering what to do with the Taylor railroad yard, we are presented with two opportunities. One is to put up yet another row of gigantic concrete shoe boxes, to be rented as studio space by production companies too poor to afford a “good address”; the other, the plan promoted at the River Through Downtown conference, is to create a real community, one that people would actually want to live and work in, and that would provide housing, jobs and parks to an area desperately in need of all three.

So what’ll it be, folks? Sell off yet another chunk of our dwindling open space to build-’em-cheap real estate speculators, or commit ourselves to an effort that would do more to revitalize the central city than a thousand once-a-week, traffic-jamming stadiums?

Our city is a worldwide symbol of civic planning imbecility. Here’s a chance to prove that we really do know how human beings should live--if the speculators will let us.

RICHARD RISEMBERG

Los Angeles