terra non firma

grand stand by the la daily news

two pieces of interest in today's LA Daily News on grand ave:

first, the Grand Ave Authority has finally began to question what exactly the public is getting in return for the massive subsidies eli broad and the grand ave committee have been granted for their $1.8 billion subsidiy. gloria molina, jan perry and others are finally beginning to ask if $50 million is really enough to build a public park with a proposed bandshell, lake and pavilion.

the opinion section answers that question: hell no. the editorial calls it a classic bait-and-switch and calls for city officials to protect what little has been promised to the public in this deal.

the lear center, who with the latimes, has been instrumental in opening up the public discourse about the park, recently indicated there may be a charette for the park and the size of the park may be far larger than originally envisioned. so there seems to be a preponderance of conflicting information, rumor and conjecture. let's hope that the efforts of all of these organizations - the lear center, the latimes, and the la daily news - all serve to not only democratize the development of the park but also ensure that this development doesn't follow in the footsteps of so many other development projects in this city and yet again wind up betraying the public trust. I will step off my soapbox now.

posted by marissa @ 6:16 PM