Introduction to Urban Planning

Encino urban planning long has been in the hands of anti-growth advocates such as Encino Neighborhood Council. Younger residents have tended to side with them on the assumption that growth is necessarily bad. This is a wrong assumption but it has taken on a reality of its own as it conjures up images of heavy traffic flow, pollution and noise. Well, we already have that!

As LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne wrote, "More and more, I am convinced that the gap between those who welcome additional density and crave mass transit and those who are on guard against such change is widening, and indeed will come to define the political landscape in Los Angeles for the next decade or two" (10/24/10).

We should hear more from the retailers along Ventura Blvd who have learnt the hard way that without pedestrian walk-in traffic, their businesses are solely dependent on by-appointment customers who drive there. Why aren't they giving the Chamber of Commerce more grief for this? It's no wonder the For Lease signs are always out. Encino resembles an Assisted Living facility with a freeway (Ventura Blvd.) right through the middle of it.

Cities and suburbs that don't adjust with the times stagnate.  Perhaps Encino is unable to recreate Paris cafe districts or Dutch bike paths because it lacks population density, but we need a more public debate about "urban villages," flexible zoning policies for retail, slow vehicle and bike lanes, pedestrian districts and alleyway redevelopment. We all have seen the Encino Commons project - the arch over Ventura Boulevard by Louise, the extra trees and the flowers and shrubs in the median strip, but it's just a beginning.

Here is a fun website where you can score the walkability of your home or apartment: walkscore.com. Here is the best green blog to follow on urban planning city-wide: Streetsblog Los Angeles.