So here's a crazy idea. Anyone that works in the Industry will remember that gas station that all the PA's, Utilities, and under appreciated transportation guys would stop at before returning trucks to Galpin down the street after a grueling 16 hour day - well it closed awhile ago. It's quickly been replaced by one up the street on Cahuenga but it's still missed. The word on the street is that the land got sold to a hotel developer (Curbed LA) But here's a radical idea that hit me after I had lunch at the lovely Solar De Cahuenga on that corner and I was walking back to my apartment and I passed the fencing and all the rubble on the street - wouldn't it be nice to have a green space there instead of another hotel/club/apartment building.
Now don't get me wrong - i'm all for developemt and building density in the area. However that stretch of hollywood is already very dense and many more large projects are going up very close to this corner (Broadway Hollywood, The W Hotel, Hollywood/Vine Lofts). Everyone in the area already complains about lack of green space - so much so that there is a real proposal to put a roof on the 101 and build a park on top of it (hollywood central park).
I've read a lot of talk about how a very low percentage of LA youngsters can walk to a park while the majority of people in NYC can. So, imagine what would happen if LA somehow got it's act together and claimed this corner as green space - put in a fountain and some grass. Plant some trees that will grow, put in park benches, maybe a fountain on the corner or some memorial. Imagine a sunday of walking down a friendly Franklin into that cafe on the corner and walking back across the street with a warm cup of coffee to read the LA Times next to a bubbling fountain.
Or perhaps LA teams up with a developer to create a large green space and also put in a food stand of some sort. For inspiration just turn to Madison Square Park in New York
which manged to put The Shake Shack in the middle of the park.
I know - it's a very busy intersection and probably not the best place for kids to play - perhaps not the best plot of land - it is pretty small. But maybe this is the evolution of parks in LA. Instead of putting in large massive parks focus on smaller, neighborhood parks. Isn't that what the recent park(ing) day LA was trying to prove?
2 comments:
I agree in theory, but there's a mini park right next door to me at Franklin and Sycamore that is nice, but overrun by homeless.
Like most parks in L.A., the moment you put up a decent patch of grass it becomes a campground for transients.
That said, maybe a dogpark there would be a sweet idea... and I don't even have a dog.
I agree with david. a small plot of land like that, in a busy traffic area, would best be used as a dog park. Since it would be fence in there wouldn't be any threat of kids or dogs running into traffic AND we would get a small green space we so desperately need here in L.A.
Just my two cents...
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