Annual Urban Lecture Examines Housing and Environmental Issues
LMU Loyolan
February 19, 2003
By Jesse Amos, Staff Writer
HOUSING IN LOS ANGELES versus the state of the environment was the topic of the Thursday, Feb. 13 lecture presented by the Center for the Study of Los Angeles in the annual spring urban issues lecture series in University Hall 1000. From 5 to 7 p.m. four speakers addressed housing issues in Los Angeles from an environmental viewpoint.
Heal the Bay member Mark Gold, Wetlands Action Network president Marcia Hanscom and Rally for the Ranch’s Tsilah Burman defended the environment’s position in the debate on housing in Los Angeles. Director of USC Sustainable Cities Program, Dr. Jennifer Wolch, provided a collegiate look into the conflicts between developers and environmentalists.
The lecture consisted of LMU professors directing questions towards the panel as the speakers expressed their concerns regarding development in Los Angeles, particularly in regard to specific development sites. Two sites in particular took most of the concern due to their relationship to LMU. Playa Vista, the new debarment located directly below the LMU campus caused a heated debate as did Ahmanson Ranch. The Ahmanson Ranch site is planned to be a housing development located off the 101 freeway near the border of Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
The panelists expressed ideas on how to protect the environment in Playa Vista, Ahmanson’s Ranch and other such areas. Gold said that Heal the Bay is opposed to the Ahmanson development at all costs. Regardless of whether or not the housing will be for low-income families or an expensive community, Gold said that the land is too precious to be built on. He explained that one reason he is opposed to development is because of particular species of frog and flora that are only found in the area. Some students in the audience were disturbed by this view and during the question and answer session at the end of the program many asked Gold why he would choose preserving a frog over housing a human. He responded with the fact that the development not only hurts the area, but also the neighboring areas of Malibu, as the Malibu beaches that draw in revenue for the city will be polluted due to the Ahmanson’s development up north.
Hanscom expressed the same feelings, but toward Playa Vista. In answering why she wanted to stop development there, she described the land before the developers bought it, explaining it contained a flowing supply of water which made it a home for many animals and was a beautiful view for LMU students. Hanscom said that the Wetlands Action Network is actively trying to buy Playa Vista land using state-issued bond money. The group will use the land to recreate the original view that Playa Vista had. However, Playa Vista is only selling land that they cannot develop and this is not really the land that the wetlands group desires to purchase.
The final portion of the lecture was a question and answer session with the students. Shannon Ramirez, a sophomore psychology and political science major, said that she believed overall the panelists “weren’t energetic,” explaining that in the end they were passionate about their responses, but it was an “aggravated passion.”
“They need to give a better solution than not building at all,” said Mike Youssef, a senior biology and political science major. He referred to the lecture on Thursday, Feb. 6, which featured Steve Soboroff, Playa Vista president, saying that Soboroff made his case clear, but this week’s panelists “didn’t have [as much] empirical evidence” as Soboroff provided.
The LMU audience was not alone in this debate on housing in Los Angeles. Wolch mentioned that her campus’ students have also done exercises in attempting to solve this problem, showing a similar range of responses as LMU’s students.
In this series, five classes from political science, American cultures, Chicano studies, sociology and urban studies meet every Thursday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in University Hall 1000 to discuss housing issues in Los Angeles.
Fernando Guerra, a Chicano Studies professor and associate director of the center for the study of Los Angeles, said that these lectures “show the complexity of any kind of activity.” The panelists this week, according to Guerra, posed the question: Are we “willing to live with the impact to create housing?”
Mara Marks, a political science professor and associate director of the center for the study of Los Angeles, said that the group is also doing a joint-research project along with the lecture series. They conduct research on housing issues by surveying nearby communities. They have yet to survey Playa Vista residence until the occupancy level rises.
The lectures and discussions are open to anyone from the LMU community. This Thursday Feb. 20, the group will be meeting with their individual classes and will not hold a lecture. However, the following week, on Thursday, Feb. 27, Zev Yaroslavsky, politician and supervisor for Los Angeles county, will speak in University Hall 1000.