Downtown's Community Conversation

By Eric Richardson
Published: Friday, June 01, 2007, at 06:05PM

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — I have a guest op-ed piece in this week’s Downtown News in which I make the case that Downtown’s blogs and online community are taking over the process of shaping our neighborhood.

Today’s groundswell of community-generated media represents the opposite end of the spectrum from past master planning efforts. Instead of taking on the grandiose, focus is given to the average and everyday. The master plan yields to a pedestrian perspective, a human-scale view of the real events and developments. Individually these posts and discussions have no grand theme, but collectively they help weave the fabric of who we are as the population of Downtown Los Angeles.

It was a fun piece to write, and I’d like to thank the Downtown News for bringing the topic to me.

Conversation has become the key word in my vision for blogdowntown. At the very bottom of this page you’ll get a one line description of what the site is about:

The goal was and is to start a conversation about Downtown life with those who live and work here.

I echoed that same sentiment in the recent post where I intro’ed Dave and Ed. This site is at its best when the stories we post cause you to engage the issue and chime in with your opinions. I think that’s powerful stuff, and a vital part of how we’re going to define the neighborhood in which we live.



Comments

1
celia writes:

first!

# on Jun.01.2007 AT 07:47 PM
2
celia writes:

seriously, though, i really liked your op-ed piece. you especially nailed it when you wrote:

"There have been many attempts to define Downtown over the years. Usually the defining party has been the City of Los Angeles, attempting to paint in solid lines what it wanted Downtown to be. Community plans and redevelopment projects represented attempts to create our neighborhood from the top down. Planning was done via the big picture, with broad strokes of zoning and urban planning expected to yield the desired outcome. The media was a partner in this definition, passing along the vision of Downtown as the city wanted to see it. Ultimately, though, none of these efforts ever stuck, as each attempt at redevelopment ended up less than what it set out to be."

in the 16 years i’ve lived downtown, this time it really does feel like this revitalization is going to stick and the conversations are a huge part of that.

eric, i think one of the reasons i like this blog and participate in the conversation is the tone that you set and your perspective. it’s all-inclusive and very welcoming and yet an old-timer like me can find new and interesting things about a part of the city that i know well. and the addition of dave and ed is a very welcome one.

# on Jun.01.2007 AT 08:06 PM
3
David Kennedy writes:

I couldn’t agree more with the sentiments of Eric and Celia for underscoring the key passage. Part of the pleasure of this blog is that is it a very civil place. Part of the pleasure of living downtown is helping build a most interesting place from the ground up.

A major problem downtown has had over the past couple of generations is that the city is run by people who live in the suburbs and they don’t understand urban life. The dominant paradigm for life in post-war America was the suburb. Downtown has suffered for years because the people tasked with planning and managing the area have been utterly clueless in how to proceed. So much of the Financial District is a testament to this incompetence. Check out the intersection of Flower & Third to see their handiwork.

Major media institutions like the L.A. Times are perfectly clueless as to what is going on in their backyard. When I pick up my Sunday paper I’m confronted by a profile of Paul McCartney(!). Clearly, these people are not talking to me. Alas, our own Downtown News is clueless in its own way. It adheres to its old media model which keeps an imperious distance from its readers. The fact of the matter is voices like Eric have to be given permission to grace its confines. Interestingly, I wrote a letter to the editor last week commenting on some article. Where did it go? Perhaps, the editor did not like it? I have no idea. But, the thought of having to wait a week or two to possibly voice an opinion tends to diminish the impulse to participate in their endeavor.

The great pleasure of this blog is that all can participate. If I wish to say my piece, I’m free to do so. Whether anyone pays any attention is not really important. What is important is the fact is I can be heard. Hopefully, some of the powers that be are listening.

# on Jun.04.2007 AT 08:49 PM

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