LA Mayor Pitching for More Parks

Banana Grass and Pampas Grass, Los Angeles Postcard from here

Los Angelos Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and other officials in charge of the environment are seeking to set aside money for more parks.

"The era of pavement and concrete is an era of the past," Villaraigosa told a news conference along a stretch of the river choked partly by dead brush and trash. "We want to grow smart. We want to grow green and we want to enhance the quality of life for our citizens."

Just setting aside funding for greenspace doesn't mean that green will sprout around the city. I hope he works to gather the support of the DOT and transit folks as well as the land use and economic development folks while he's at it. Touring around L.A., I always got the sense that the lack of parks was a side effect of being blindly in love with private transportation -- e.g. pavement -- so much. There seemed to exist a very limited sensibility about how different public spaces could relate to each other and how to provide access to such places by the city government. It was such a shame that in a place with such perfect outdoor weather I had to spend so much time in the car.