Thinking Locally

Thinking Locally
by Martell

Last night, my wife and I went to our first community meeting since we moved to Los Angeles. It was sponsored by the Los Angeles Neighborhood Initiative (LANI) and the topic was some improvements that are scheduled to be made in our neighborhood. The meeting started at 7:00pm, with refreshments served at 6:30. Originally I was going to go alone, but my wife called at 6:20 to let me know that she was done with work and would like to go with me, but that she was starving. (This was not a surprise--the starving part, that is. The part where she actually wanted to go to the meeting was a surprise.) I suggested we get a little something to eat there and then grab some dinner afterward, which was okay with her.

My wife got home at 6:50 and we shot out the door, hoping that we wouldn't miss the refreshments. We got to the meeting right about at 7:00 and I went to sign us in; you know where my wife went. Looking around, I saw there were between 20-30 people there, many of them in their 50s or 60s. There weren't too many people in their 30s, but there were a few. I jotted down our info and headed over to get some food.

Looking back, I guess I'm not exactly sure what I expected by way of "refreshments."

MENU
A bowl of tortilla chips
A bowl of Pace Picante salsa (mild)
An assortment of cookies (including vanilla wafers and those long, thin ones that taste like styrofoam)
Strawberry Shasta
Water

We should have taken that as a sign, but we didn't.

The meeting started with a representative from LANI introducing a few different people. She then moved on to explaining the planned neighborhood improvements. The focus of the improvements is a business district called Little Ethiopia, which is adjacent to our neighborhood. As we learned, there are some planned facade improvements, removal of tree grates, new street banners and a new covered bus stop waiting area. (The bus stop issue was quite important to Anonymous Woman #1, as she pumped her fists above her head when it was announced, like she had just won the heavyweight championship or something.) All of these improvements will take place on Fairfax between Olympic and Whitworth.

For those not from the area, this constitutes one block. The whole point of this meeting was to discuss some superficial changes to ONE BLOCK?!? We were less than five minutes in and I was ready to leave. But I hadn't finished my cookies, so we stuck around.

Next up was a fellow from Studio One Eleven, a Long Beach company responsible for the final facade designs. He had a PowerPoint slide show set up to project on a big screen, which allowed the whole group to follow along with him. He explained to us that the project had very limited funds, so they had to carefully choose which facades they would improve. After six months of deliberation, they finally selected the four businesses they would work on. Yes, you read that right. This was bureaucracy at its finest.

The facade designer then began showing depictions of the planned improvements. He noted that the colors in the slides weren't necessarily the exact colors that would be used, but that there were paint samples along with the designs on a board at the front of the room. I must say that all of the designs looked like nice improvements to the selected buildings.

The first slide was of a curved building that opens onto a street corner. It's going to be painted an olive green with a white racing stripe that follows the curve of the structure. This was clearly depicted on the slide, as well as clearly described by the designer. At this point, Anonymous Woman #2 stopped the show to ask the designer to describe the color scheme to her. He patiently repeated everything he had just said and reminded her about the paint samples. She appeared to write down everything he said.

We then went on to the next slide, after which Anonymous Man #1 asked why they hadn't decided to do more improvements. The designer again explained that there were limited funds, and that this was all they could afford to do. Was nobody listening when he said that before?

By the time we got to the third slide, the designer was getting the hang of it, thoroughly explaining the color scheme on the slide as well as noting up front that they couldn't do more due to limited funds. Of course, that didn't stop Anonymous Woman #2 from asking him to explain all the colors in detail to her, which she once again recorded on her notepad. Evidently, she failed to write down the part about the paint samples the first time around.

During the fourth slide, things went about the same, with the designer explaining that they chose to paint some details rather than build them due to limited funds. This comment was immediately followed with another question from Anonymous Man #1 about why they didn't add some additional improvements. I think at this point I sprained an eye from rolling it too hard.

The designer closed his presentation with an explanation that they chose these buildings based on which ones needed the most improvements. If that was the case, I wondered, then why did it take six months to choose them? Wisely, I kept my mouth shut. Anonymous Man #2 asked, "Then why wasn't 7/11 chosen?" This was actually a valid question, as the neighborhood 7/11 is pretty much an eyesore. The LANI woman explained that they contacted 7/11, but that they were not interested in being a part of the project.

Then the fun began. The next question was from Anonymous Man #1 again. "But why didn't you guys do something to the 7/11?" The LANI woman explained that 7/11 was contacted, but they declined to be a part of the improvements. The third question was from Anonymous Woman #1. "But why didn't you plant some trees or something in front of the 7/11?" I kid you not. It looked like the LANI woman was about to lose it, but luckily the designer jumped in and fielded this question. That mercifully ended the Studio One Eleven presentation, at which point someone began applauding, which inspired my wife to comment, "There's one in every crowd."

Next up was the street banner presentation. I don't know how that went, because we left.

I imagine it will be a long while before we waste our time like that again. LANI woman, if you are reading this--I think the meeting would have been more productive if you had spiked the strawberry Shasta with Ritalin. Just something to consider.

Martell can be reached at martell@babblog.com.