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Home  Random Letters The World According to Dick
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The World According to Dick |
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Random Letters
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Monday, 23 June 2008 |
Published 6/26/08
Sue,
You and James Allen are the reasons why San Pedro stays pretty much the same - dirty and sick and well behind the curve of better towns. You both are still very myopic and still always seem to be getting it wrong. And, if you and James could actually read and totally understand the plan I have up for 6th Street Creek, all you'd see is a rather simple change in the traffic pattern and an extraordinary landscaping plan..which includes getting rid of cars, asphalt and parking meters of a few ugly blocks in downtown. Saving this street from cars and drunks is what I'm trying to do.
Fortunate for many others who live and work here in San Pedro - and who totally agree with me - it isn't up to you and James Allen what happens next around here. We'll see in the long run whose ideas are best for this town. James is a jealous condescending type of person,
who is trying to keep his little turf with his rag, and his subjects in line. His power of the press has been challenged and his has a tough time of it.
And BTW, I DO live in San Pedro and SPM made a typo - I didn't write. I do have a PO box in PV.
Again, where's YOUR plans so we can all SEE it? All mouth and no action - describe you two.
Richard Pawlowski
San Pedro, Calif.
Richard,
I appreciate the energy that you put into special Designs & Solutions for San Pedro, but think that personal attacks will not help us figure out the best direction for our downtown. No single one of us has all of the answers, and it will take a community sharing concepts and working together to make sound decisions that will lead to a more attractive, economically viable and lively downtown. So let us not waste valuable inkspace on boasts and accusations but instead talk about some basic concepts.
• Sixth Street is not just "a few ugly blocks" - it is a real street and our principal west-to-east downtown corridor from Gaffey to the Maritime Museum. It has many strengths and gems in the rough (and quite a few polished ones as well). Despite the iron security gates, the graffiti, and the aging pavements, a lot of people feel that Sixth Street has great energy and scale, and does not need to become a pedestrian-only shopping mall to be a great place. Instead of attempting a total “makeover,” think in terms of preserving what is valuable and making incremental change opportunistically. It is all too easy to design and build something that future generations will judge as “a really big mistake."
• Make sure that when you spend the big bucks, you get big results. What are our priorities? Perhaps these might include getting downtown property owners to enhance and lease their storefronts, increasing real and perceived safety, maintaining and enhancing the art scene, and making it easier for folks from other parts of San Pedro to come here. I do not think that pouring a huge amount of capital into an expensive landscaping scheme would work as well as funding support for cleaning up the streetscape, redeveloping eyesore sites, adding some security, subsidizing the art and entertainment scene and maybe providing some significant transportation solutions.
• Build more housing and bring more people to downtown, along with their buying power. People are already moving here in good numbers because they love our authentic waterfront urban-village character.
• Nature is wonderful thing and pieces of it embedded in our cities could refresh and replenish us on a daily basis. But faux nature is hard to design (well) and hard to maintain. If we want water features downtown, consider that there are natural flow lines for rainwater running through San Pedro down to the waterfront. It might be interesting to locate a sequence of small water features (drinking fountains, decorative fountains, and greenscape) along these lines within small plazas and pocket parks associated with new construction and site redevelopment. I would just ask that we don't disrupt civic-defining circulation patterns or install expensive “decoration” over major utility lines (that must be unburied periodically) in the process.
Sue Castillo
San Pedro, Calif.
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