Piggyback Yards—An Idea that will live or die in L.A.

A recent Zócalo event at the California Endowment has me thinking. How many people does it take to kill a good idea?

The event was called, “How to Imagine a More Integrated L.A.— Why transforming the Los Angeles River would revitalize the city and bridge east and west.” At the center of the discussion was a plan commissioned by FOLAR (Friends of the L.A. River) to revitalize a 125 acre site in downtown Los Angeles known as the Piggyback Yards. Imagine downtown having its own Millennium Park, connecting Lincoln Heights, Boyle Heights, Union Station, and places, like the USC Medical Center and the Brewery Arts district. At the center of the project would be a revitalized Los Angeles river—complete with Steelhead trout.

The projects architects and designers did a lot of ground work engaging in a bit of guerrilla planning by going to each agency with a stake in the project. The Army Corps of Engineers was on board. Union Pacific, the current owner of the property had been consulted. L.A. Metro was in on it. Leaders from the surrounding communities had been consulted. In the end the planners came up with a design that was not only remarkable, but also viable.

Great idea, right? Who wouldn’t want this? Turns out—everyone. In my post event straw poll no one believed that they would see this project in their lifetime. Because A. they we’re cynical about government bureaucracy, and B. they didn’t believe the community would provide support required to pull it off. Bummer.

I often think that for every one good reason to do something, there are one thousand reasons why not to do it.  In civic terms a massive park in this part of L.A. would be amazing for the city, but if no one believes the government can do it and no one believes it can be done with popular support—all the imagination in the world won’t make it happen. If all of us Angelenos put our heads together I’m sure we can come up with 10 million reasons to kill Piggyback Yards. But that doesn’t mean we should.

The act of attempting such an ambitions plan is an act of courage on the part of the project planners. The crowd in attendance was prepared to imagine living in a city where such a massive project could happen. So its some comfort to know that in L.A. good ideas will continue to integrate the city in ways that infrastructure never will. Kudos to Zócalo for providing a forum for this kind of thinking. As long as there are places where people can challenge assumptions there’s a one in 10 million chance that something truly great could happen.