What does planning director have in store for L.A.?

Michael LoGrande, who replaced Gail Goldberg in August as L.A.'s director of city planning, remains something of an enigma to many Angelenos. Unlike Goldberg, a longtime planning director in San Diego who was brought here after an ambitious national search, LoGrande was rather quietly plucked by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa from within the planning department's substantial bureaucracy. Before being named to the top job LoGrande had been working as the city's chief zoning administrator; now he finds himself running the planning department of a city in major flux -- a city trying to negotiate a transition from its past as a private, car-dominated place to its future as a denser metropolis with an expanding mass-transit network.

In the spirit of introducing him to a wider public -- and to hear how he is adjusting to his new post, not to mention new initiatives he is working on -- I'll be joining LoGrande in an onstage conversation this Wednesday evening at Occidental College. The event, organized by The Times and Oxy's Urban and Environmental Policy Institute, begins at 7 p.m. at Johnson Hall on the Occidental campus. Prior to the onstage conversation urban planner James Rojas will be conducting an interactive workshop, beginning at 5:30 p.m., on creating a more livable Los Angeles. The UEPI also has prepared a letter to LoGrande urging his department to take a more active and far-sighted role in helping reshape Los Angeles for the 21st century.

More details on the Wednesday event, which is free and open to the public, can be found here. To RSVP, send an email to uepi@oxy.edu. And if you have suggestions for topics you'd like me to cover with LoGrande, or specific questions for him, please leave them in the comments.

-- Christopher Hawthorne

Photo: The W Hollywood, built around a Metro subway stop, is a symbol of a denser and changing Los Angeles. Credit: Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times.

Comments

[Carter R]

Christopher,

I'd love to hear if/how Mr. LoGrande plans to work with LADOT and Metro to better coordinate land use planning and transportation projects in Los Angeles.

Thanks,

Carter

[Mark]

Mr Hawthorne,

Any chance for a follow-up article for those who can't attend?

[Biker]

I'd like to know how the planning dept is integrating/will integrate the Bike master plan in future projects to include corrals and other biking infrastructure.

[Reanna Elliott]

My name is Reanna and I am in college right now and working in Switzerland. Yes you may wonder what in the world might I have to say about helping in Los Angeles. Well I was born in Orange County and love spending time with my brother in Los Angeles. We often would go up there for projects for him and his friend or drive my mom to work. Being stuck in traffic for 3 hours to get back home is no joke. Or driving down Wilshire Boulevard and sitting there in the lane the bus uses is no fun.

I recently read on the Los Angeles. Times the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board were working on a bus only lane. As some local residents may not like this. They have no idea how much it clears up traffic. I think one of the main reasons there is so much traffic is because of the buses. I think once everyone already understands there is a lane for buses they will not sit there in the heat of their car angry. In Switzerland I was surprised by the patience of the people when driving. Not that I am a patience person. But the bus only lane makes the public transportation run smoothly. Drivers have more respect for the buses and the fact that the buses are reliable makes them one of the top choices for public transportation. It is all over Switzerland that they have bus only lanes and zones.

In Europe there are so many great ways to travel by public transportation. I just hope we can study their transportation system and find a way to fix it into our lives. This could also give us better roads to drive on in Los Angeles, where the roads are so bad they mess up the cars alignment. Driving on the East coast in Baltimore city my friend once said it was a plan by the car companies and the city that we should have to fix our cars because they will not fix the roads. My friend did not have a nice car or a lot of money. I think she is a person that would take public transportation if it was available. But our countries public transportation is the worst and I so hope we can change it and clear the dark cloud over Los Angeles.

I miss California so much and look forward to coming back in two weeks. But it is two weeks too late to come to the meeting. I hope you guys will discuss the issue of public transportation. Also think since Michael LoGrande is coming from San Diego I think he knows a better public transportation system more than anyone else in the United States. San Diego has some of the nicest public transportation. The best public transportation I have road on and I have been in many different cities in the United states. I love the way the metro can get you to all the hot spots in San Diego without a lot of fuss.

I think maybe some sort of metro system like this that is safe and clean would be great. It would be a great goal for the different metros to eventually meet up in areas like Orange County, San Diego, and up Northern Cali to create a united transportation system in California. Nice seats are a must and little tables on the seats for people to work on laptops or eat is a must to bring in the community. There could be a business section with internet, first class, and the rest second class. Then yearly, seasonal, and other types of passes could be sold for the public transportation system linking it to not only the metro but the buses and other resources in the city. But people should also be allowed to pay on the public transportation system if they are in a hurry. So there would have to be a lot of people checking the different metros to ensure people are paying.

Also they should have an eating area on the metro and someone serving little snacks and coffee. This would bring a lot of business men and women to want and take a leisurely ride to work with some food in their stomachs instead of waiting in the drive through at Starbucks. It maybe could even be Starbucks coffee. This would also supply new jobs for the state of California. A lot of jobs are provide by the transportation system in Europe. There are many ways to make this a good job too. In Europe these workers sometimes look like a stewardess from an airplane. It is considered seriously and looks very professional. I often see them training younger applicants and they seem to enjoy the job even though every once in a while they have someone give them a hard time. But I think they pay these people well since they travel all day.

Focusing first to get this successfully started in Los Angeles would help put Los Angeles on the spot. And so many people would be happy. But being that Los Angeles is so large the transportation system needs to be worked on in each individual area. Like the bus system needs to be fixed so people actually want to take the bus and there should be lots of advertisements to pull in new customers. Leaving the car at home and having nothing to worry about on your way some where is the greatest peace of mind. Not because I am lazy but because I know the public transportation system will take good care of me. I know I wrote a lot and I hope whoever reads this will read the whole thing.

Have a beautiful sunny week!

[david]

And now, maybe, this planning director will finally get it right. We can only hope. Adequate public transit, that makes sense (actually GOES somewhere) and isn't an embarrassment; urban fill design; and the renaissance of the beautiful Downtown city center. I long for the days of a bustling, populated city center, where the beautiful ruins come alive again. The majestic Hall of Justice is thriving; the May Company building is restored (and isn't a swapmeet); the Broadway theaters are restored and reopened; The United Artists building is no longer a ruinous decay. I'm 32 years old-- I know we can do it in my lifetime. This guy, if he's worth his bloated salary, will help. Let's see...

[marcus]

I think a priority should be to pay more attention to making traffic participation for bicycles and motor bikes/mopeds safer.
Those signs '3' of distance for bikes' are a nice start but a far cry from actual bike lanes.
What angry car enthusiasts forget, every person on a bike means one car less on the road.
So we should all behave in a matter that makes people feel safe and enjoy their bike ride.
Also for that topic, if cops paid as much attention to speeding cars as they do to people riding bicycles on otherwise empty sidewalks, LA would be a safer city.
I hope you can bring up this issue at the meeting.
Thanks

[Disgusted]

We used to have a bus lane only on Spring Street (downtown).
It was a one way street for cars...they could go South and only the buses went North...including the Dash (which no longer runs North on Spring...BIG mistake LADOT!)... this made for a much smoother flow and convenience for those who use public transporation as well as life in the area...now it's like one big parking lot!!!

City Planners / LADOT...bring this back.