Proposed ‘vertical
village’ reaches for sky, falls
Austin
Lewis
Tear
down a parking lot. Build a seven-story
building that will be used as a 3,500-space
parking structure. Provide living space
for 1,300 new residents. That’s
exactly what a developer is planning
to do, according to an article published
in the Long Beach Press-Telegram earlier
this month.
So, where exactly will this structure be built? On the Puvungna burial grounds?
By The Walter Pyramid? At the north end of Lot 11, next to the new parking
structure? Try downtown Long Beach.
That’s right. A development company wants to build two residential towers,
one 45-stories tall and one 55-stories tall, and a parking garage just behind
the World Trade Center. The towers, with a proposed design that would make
them look like wind-filled sails, would be built with the intention of breathing
new life into downtown Long Beach.
There are a few places in the United States where the majority of people who
work in the city also live in the city. It works in New York, but not in the
Los Angeles area.
Sure, people crowd Sunset Boulevard night after night, but they all eventually
pack up and go home — even if just for a few hours in the late night
and early morning.
Why wouldn’t we want to have our own mini-Manhattan on the California
coast? The fact that New Yorkers live and work within the same few blocks gives
the city a feel of a smaller, close-knit community. A residential project like
this would bring a slice of the Big Apple to Southern California.
To a lesser extent, this residential complex would improve downtown in the
way that more parking and dorms on campus would improve Cal State Long Beach.
The school would become a place where people want to be, instead of a place
where they have to go to.
A similar change would be just as good for the city. The people who come to
Long Beach for work would stay in Long Beach; they wouldn’t come and
go as they please via the 710 or 405 freeways.
Living only a few blocks away, Long Beach residents would be able to walk to
work. The development would revitalize downtown. The development includes room
for 10,000 square feet of retail space. The new commercial activity would also
attract attention to older businesses already in Long Beach. Todd Pilgreen,
the project’s head designer, said he sees the potential for a “vertical
village.”
It’s a good idea, but it just doesn’t seem to fit in with its surroundings.
The proposed residential complex has its own negative effects.
It would obviously increase traffic downtown. The increase in local pedestrian
traffic would be expected, but the opening of new stores in the area would
bring in more outside traffic. The development includes plans to widen Broadway,
but will that be enough?
Also, the development team says the towers would cover nearby Chavez Elementary
School with a shadow for a few hours each day in the fall. Yeah, the complex
would sure look cool, but is it really worth losing the sun for that school?
There is demand for a new residential complex. The people living in it would
bring tax dollars to the city and increase business at local retailers. And
downtown can always use more parking spaces. But sadly, this plan to develop
part of downtown Long Beach just doesn’t seem to work. Something needs
to be done, but even the best ideas don’t seem quite right.
Austin Lewis is a senior journalism major.
|
