VOICES-There is a myth that accepts the premise that continued growth and expansion is the solution to a city’s problems. But growth brings with it the need for more housing, schools, freeways, clean drinking water, fresh air and a connection to the sewage system for every resident and business. Those who advocate unbridled growth fail to recognize one basic fact: A city can sustain only a finite number of people and provide each with a decent quality of life. This principle is known as the “maximum carrying capacity” of a region.
While it is possible to physically jam millions more people into Los Angeles, as is done in Manhattan, Tokyo, Hong Kong or London, these cities have not dealt effectively with the impacts of growth. There is little open space, their water and air quality is poor, residents are jammed into subways, trains and high-density housing. In a word, those residents endure a constrained quality of life. Most dream of owning an automobile, not a bicycle.
The Los Angeles City Council has a duty to protect its citizens from the impacts of growth. The thrust behind growth limits is not to halt progress. Rather it is to stabilize neighborhoods and maximize the city's services. Los Angeles is badly in need of infrastructure repair. Before the city allows a developer to build an enormous project, such as the Il Villaggio Toscano 325 unit apartments at Sepulveda Blvd. and Camarillo, it must provide a safe and sound environment for its current residents.
There are thousands of buildings in Los Angeles that need to be made earthquake resistant. There are miles of sewer lines and water lines that need to be replaced or upgraded. There are bridges and overpasses that require reinforcing and miles of city streets that need repaving, maintenance, or widening. There are unplanted parkways, poorly maintained parks, and economically depressed neighborhoods that are in need of help.
Los Angeles residents have few options. They can ignore the lack of infrastructure, the traffic jams, the rising cost of utilities, and the environmental problems. They can sell their homes, abandon businesses, leave friends and families and move away. Only one viable alternative remains. The Los Angeles City Council, planners and developers must rethink their growth strategy and seek a higher quality of life for Los Angeles residents.
Residents must insist that they are unwilling to be jammed into less and less space, forced out of their cars, pay higher utility rates, simply to allow unbridled growth to continue. The City must stop permitting high-rise apartment buildings in Los Angeles and high density mixed-use commercial residential developments on Ventura Blvd. These projects are giant magnets, bringing in more people, without the supporting infrastructure, a course that is unsustainable.
Politicians and bureaucrats who are not willing to protect our neighborhoods should be replaced with decision makers who respect the environment and carrying capacity of the city. Los Angeles is a unique place. It can offer an unsurpassed quality of life if the city’s decision makers and planners do not abuse or misuse its finite resources.
(Gerald A. Silver is President of Homeowners of Encino. He served on the Citizens Advisory Committee that helped craft the Ventura Blvd. Specific Plan. He can be reached at [email protected].)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 99
Pub: Dec 10, 2013