A Dream Job in Encino

If you were given the job of LA City Planning Director, what would you do for Encino?

I would create a walkable pedestrian retail district based around Genesta Park. Here is what I would do:

(1) Block off Genesta and Paso Robles at Ventura Blvd., pave over as far as the alleyways; (2) License ice cream, coffee and other semi-mobile vendors to sell on the Paso Robles side (with chairs and tables); (3) License out Encino Women’s Club for entertaining seniors; (4) Begin a debate about redevelopment of the alleyways to make use of those empty parking spaces; (5) License a new Farmer’s Market in the weekend; (6) Create a weekend community shuttle bus (electric vehicle funded by a local business) that loops to Newcastle and back; (7) Connect the Park to existing bike paths to the north; (8) If people really would prefer a parking structure instead of a shuttle bus, then cut a deal with First Presbyterian Church to build a low-level parking structure.
What’s not to like? Unfortunately it will never happen.

Members of the near-death Encino Neighborhood Council would say it’ll increase population density (which is the point), just as they fought the condo plans for Balboa and Paso Robles. Would the Chamber of Commerce support it? Who knows what they even believe in?

There are, of course, “official” plans – the Ventura/Cahuenga Boulevard Corridor Specific Plan (which focuses on Balboa to Gaviota as a pedestrian-oriented area) and the Department of City Planning’s Business Improvement Districts (which focuses on White Oak to Balboa). But it’s unlikely any of these will come to anything, distracted as they are with budget cuts, billboards and NIMBYism. They have one thing right though: the costs for these infrastructure changes will have to be borne by the Ventura Blvd. property owners and that’s a good thing – they are the only ones with any money.