Hello everyone.
Thank you for being here.
Please help yourselves
to coffee and brownies.
I am really happy to
welcome Mia Lehrer here
for one of our last talks
of a very busy year.
Mia Lehrer came to the
GSD and graduated in '79
and opened her own firm,
Mia Leher and Associates
in Los Angeles and has
practiced her entire career
in L.A., which I find really
interesting because she has
been able to develop very
specific forms of practice that
are very rooted in the
conditions of the Los Angeles
landscape and its
metropolitan area.
I am a huge fan of Mia.
She is in my mind the
complete landscape architect.
And what I mean by somebody
who is the complete landscape
architect is that she
is a fantastic designer.
So you look at her
built work and these
are designs that are
well-articulated, legible,
ecologically sensitive, but
they have a very strong material
and spatial presence.
This is not just stuff that
she puts in these sites.
These are very well-calibrated
expressions of culture.
But in addition to that, and I
find this really interesting,
she says that when
she was studying here
and was exposed to
the work of Olmsted,
she realized that he was
first and foremost almost
an advocate for
public landscapes.
And she became
fascinated by that.
And in parallel, as
she is developing
the work of her firm,
working for private clients
and institutions, she is also
doing great work of advocacy
for the L.A. River
and, in fact, has
been working for
the last two decades
on educating people and making
proposals on the L.A. River.
And as she talks to communities,
and these are all as
you know contested
landscapes, she
understood that, in fact, she
has a great vocation for this.
And she calls-- I
love her quote when
she says that she
uses design to open
mental gridlocks with people.
OK, so remember this as a
lot of you that are here
are graduating and
design is something
that you can share with people
to open mental gridlocks.
This is an incredible image
that she gives in her--
this is in her interview
in Metropolis magazine.
I don't want to take any
more of your time, Mia.
Thank you of your time.
We need to hear from
you, not for me.
Thank you for being here.
And also, I have
to say she just--
first thing she told me is, "Why
wasn't I invited for Friday?"
Mia is from El Salvador, so
she is also a Latin woman.
And it must be because she's
been here for such a long time
and so grounded and rooted
in L.A. That we often forget.
Next time.
Thank you.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
Wow, awesome to be here.
Periodically, I've been
back and obviously the place
is wonderful.
And I'm in awe of
the exhibit outside
and the walls that
actually did introduce me
to landscape architecture.
I didn't know what it
was, like many people
in the world don't
know what it is.
And I am [FOREIGN LANGUAGE].
OK, and I still
hold two passports.
I may not be able to tell
somebody in Washington D.C.
that I do that.
But I always say that I've spent
this much time in Los Angeles
and in California and
really rooted myself
because I was joined by
a few million immigrants
from all parts of the
world, but many Latinos.
And I felt that they
needed my voice.
Also, as a woman with
a family and competing
with well-established firms
or this was my domain,
I always say that if Los Angeles
hadn't been so screwed up
over decades that there
wouldn't have been as much--
it wouldn't have been as great
a laboratory as it turned out
to be.
So I do have a small
office in Sao Paulo
and now a small office
in San Francisco.
So with that, I'm going
to take you on a journey.
And I'm going to go fast.
So that I can share
with you our process.
I am the founder now
of three nonprofits.
And you'll start hearing
about one of them
and that is called Alma.
And that's because we've been
working on the North Dakota
pipeline in a way that we
can continue operating.
You'll start seeing articles
and interviews with some
of the people in our team.
It's not assigned to MLA.
It's just basically people
doing work for the tribe
and working with other
firms across the country
on that work.
So let's see if I can now--
I'm just scrolling right?
OK, no.
Yes.
So again, I'm just going to
share the context of our work
and how I operate and
how we operate as a team.
And I'm sure that we'll be--
we are now located where
this little yellow star.
Decided to bring my passion
for infrastructure and rivers
to the river and
also was invited
by a woman who's curating an
area called the Makers District
and invited a number of us women
to actually dare to invest,
which is having a renewed
respect for developers
actually for the
risks they take.
And so here we are
a stone's throw away
from the Arts District and
Union Station in downtown.
And here we are too six rail
lines away from the river.
And you could see
what the river looks--
what the river is
really meant to do,
which is to carry water, which
it does when it's raining,
but also when water is released
from reclamation plants.
And our team, a
really great team,
and we're working
hard on many projects.
And I will start sharing.
Now, am I going to--
I'm just going to do this.
And this is what we get to see.
Graffiti is alive and well
in many of our cities.
So this is a warehouse that
used to distribute hookahs
and now there's 40 of us.
So we do get accused in the
general area of gentrification,
but I'll just say that
it went from 4 people
to 45 people operating
the space, many of whom
live in Boyle Heights.
So it's a great place
to work and to--
we also-- wait, go.
Sensitive.
We also hold a lot of
events in our space.
And this happens to be
a political fundraiser
for the last set of elections.
We thought we were going to
be celebrating that night,
but it was a difficult night.
But people hung out
together on the fire.
So Advocacy by Design--
and actually we're in the
process of writing our book.
I want to offer just some of
the environmental and climactic,
and infrastructural,
and political context
of California.
So we can understand where I
come from and the perspective.
Remember, I was in school
here when [INAUDIBLE]
was being born at the school.
And we were guinea pigs for Mr.
Dangermond, which was great,
and for Carl Steinitz
along the way.
And at the same
time, Pete Walker
was here doing high design.
So making sense out of that
is a whole other story, which
I've shared at the school.
But that's just something
to keep in your own minds
as students that you are
influenced by the faculty
and then you create
your own voice.
But California's amazing.
Aside from blue sky, by the way,
it's just a place of invention.
And it's the sixth, seventh,
or eighth economy in the world
depending on who you listen to.
And there's just so much
richness in what goes on.
And this is L.A. Despite what
many people like to think
is that there is no
downtown, but there is.
There's one and
then many others.
And about 40,000 new
residents in the downtown that
have come in over
the last 10 years.
But we also have a real crisis
of homelessness, about 40,000
people in the county area.
So we think of
our cities and you
think of many cities
as neighborhood suburbs
and excerpts, not a
single vast landscape.
And what we see here
and we call this--
this is actually a map
that we extrapolated
that was about ethnic
diversity in L.A. In the 1940s.
But Los Angeles is
a city of villages.
And people make
their own villages.
And they live in this
large metropolis,
but they basically
experience the city
whether it's for school or work
or family in different ways.
And this is Los Angeles.
You have this incredibly
rich texture of communities,
with vast flat
areas, but also areas
with very beautiful
views, all of which
have been harnessed
and developed.
On the bottom, you
see the Arts District
as it's developing too.
It's just interesting to see,
of course, how it compares
to New York, Mexico,
and Sao Paulo,
both in terms of the extent
of the land that it takes--
and what you see
here is the extent
of only the city of Los Angeles,
not the metropolitan area
of Los Angeles,
which is actually
much-- it's more like 24 million
people, including the other 88
cities.
And obviously, we all know--
I don't have-- this
is a slide prepared
for people that don't know
as much as GSD students know.
But by 2050, 75% of
the world population
is going to be living in cities.
So, hence, I think
that Los Angeles
is an incredible laboratory.
And the light green is,
of course, just the city.
So the mayor of Los Angeles
only controls that area,
but has an influence
over the other 88 cities.
He's the person that NDC thinks
manages this larger context
of the metropolitan
area, but he doesn't.
So I'm getting used to--
so these are the 88
cities and all of them
incredibly different.
You have Santa Monica.
You have West Hollywood.
You have Beverly Hills.
Each of them managing
their land uses,
managing their
transportation, schools,
in a very different way, but all
having this big brother around
and having--
so for example, when the expo
line goes through Los Angeles
into Santa Monica, it goes
through three other cities.
And it has to get approvals.
And there are many of those
like Beverly Hills that
don't want the people
from the wrong part
of those area or the county
to come near to them.
Of course, they lost the battle.
And we have five
watersheds that we manage.
And many of the agencies--
actually, the water agencies
and the school district and
the transportation district,
the MTA, all do collaborate
and manage those systems
across all five watersheds.
And often, it's
hard to understand
but the river and
all the waterways
are subsumed by freeways
and encased in concrete.
So it's sometimes
hard to figure out
what's a highway,
what's a river,
and just conceptually
how do we address that.
And then we have
these giant basins.
People don't know.
We have a lot of aquifers.
We also have a lot
of reclamation plants
and we have reservoirs.
So what you actually see here
is how the sewer lines actually
connect to the rivers
and how actually we
have very clean water
going into the rivers.
So that's one lesson we
can take internationally
is that reclamation plants
make a difference early
on in development.
And so, this complicated
jurisdictional system
also addresses aquifers.
We have incredibly deep,
but very rich aquifers.
And fortunately, though--
people haven't figured that out
and know they're very protected.
But we know that probably the
governor whenever he declares
emergencies keeps
that in mind in terms
of how it can be controlled.
I don't know why I'm going in--
OK.
So Los Angeles
used to be a region
of centers connected by rail.
The red car provided
1,100 miles of service,
more than New York's current
metro system of 842 miles.
And unfortunately,
the car came along
and they figured out how to
basically build freeways.
They had the Collier-Burns Act
in '47 and the Federal Highway
Act.
And there was a lot
of money for all
this incredible infrastructure.
And obviously, the
red car rail line
started getting
erased and demolished.
And this is what we
end up with today.
Of course, by 2030, we
hope we're going to be at--
so we started out with
1,100 miles and at best,
we hope to end up with
600 miles of rail.
But we have a very
efficient system
that is starting to
really work and starting
to make a very big
difference in our lives.
Next, I want to talk about the
environment and everybody's
perception that because actually
palm trees and cactus do really
well in our weather.
And we're part of the
Mediterranean biome.
And hence, we share a
lot of weather related,
climate related issues with
the Mediterranean biome that
includes, of course, the
Mediterranean countries,
but Chile, Australia,
and South Africa.
And we're always addressing
these issues of perception
and trying to correct the
myth of what Los Angeles is
and isn't.
And if anything, basically,
what the climate change has done
is made us focus on what's the
authenticity of [INAUDIBLE]
and how to search for
authenticity in our landscape.
So we want to--
this is the desert, but
this is Los Angeles.
It's very different.
We have the chaparral.
We have sycamores.
We have these
river environments.
And of course, we have
these iconic landscapes
that we have
imported, some which
don't do a lot for
the environment
just in terms of the benefit,
but from a cultural emotional
perspective, this is akin
to one of my clients said,
"It would be like taking the
Eiffel Tower out of Paris
if you started removing
all the palms because they
don't belong."
And so, obviously,
there's a movement
to address environmental
factors as you
do new developments
and new landscapes
across the miles and
miles of streets.
I always have enjoyed reading
every few years Reyner Banham's
analysis of Los Angeles.
It helps me stay grounded.
So basically, the flatlands,
the hillsides, the ocean,
and the freeways is what he saw.
What he didn't
really see, and it
was because I watched
some of his documentaries,
was that the sky was
really gray at the time.
And it was gray because
there was incineration
in everybody's backyard.
They were incinerating garbage
all over the L.A. basin.
It's a good news
story for all of us
as we're trying to reverse
environmental ills is that laws
were passed in California and
we do have a very strong ethos.
And incineration went
away and consolidated
in all sorts of dump sites for
garbage and garbage collection.
And the blue sky came
back 30 years later.
It revealed itself.
So at some point, I'll do
the fifth ecology of Banham
as an article.
And so, we are always thinking.
And again, some of
these slides that you
see are slides that I've used
to communicate with elected
officials, stakeholder groups,
and community members who
are smart and
interested and engaging.
So this is where I
start talking about how
we can't think of single
purpose infrastructure.
You can't just
harness the waterway.
You start thinking about how
water transportation land
use and the environment
work together.
And this-- I'm
sorry to tell you,
but this is 360
days in California.
So you're all welcome.
I know at least one
Californian here.
And it does-- when I left the
East Coast after having been
here for 10 years, it really
made it clear to me that not
only was forever a Latina who
came from a country where there
was this kind of sky,
but that it really--
that the weather
and the sky impact
your soul and your
attitude about life.
So California and the
Hollywood sign that we--
look at what the Hollywood
sign really looks like.
Everybody always
thinks when they see it
on that it's this-- has
incredible gravitas, right?
It's like this big sign with--
but it's really was temporarily
built and been temporary
for 70 years.
And one of the
things that we have--
really, I would like
to talk now about four
seasons, earthquakes,
drought, fire, and flood.
So we do have to address
the issue of the seasons
and try dealing with it deeply.
Our infrastructure is
incredibly fragile.
And the urban
infrastructure has not
been cared for over the decades.
And so, we have
urgent conditions
that we're trying to address.
More recently, there was a
big gas leak at Porter Ranch.
And it was really
kind of calm-- it
brought this issue to
everybody's attention
across the world.
And then with the
incredible-- with climate
change and an unusually
rainy winter, which
confused everybody about
the drought, of course,
we actually also had some
issues with our dams.
And by the way,
we, in our world,
meaning in the environmental
world, in the landscape
architecture, in
the planning world
do not think that the problems
are over with the drought.
And so, we just need
to address them head on
and continue to operate as
though we have to be more
responsible with water, period.
OK, why-- so, again, we
had a sinkhole that was--
I was actually on this
road like three hours
before this happened.
And I think everybody is
coming to terms with-- we still
get calls almost every
week from a garden club.
Can you tell us what
this really means?
So we send them to the arboretum
so that they can get a class.
And so, again, these are the
conditions just last year
and now this year
with the water,
so you can imagine
the confusion.
Is the drought over?
Is the governor going
to lift his sanctions?
And I think all of
you know basically
the water we have now is
the water we're always
going to have.
We're not going to have more.
So how we use it
is the question.
And our goal in California is to
use salt water the least amount
possible and to try to just
use the freshwater that's
in California three
or four times.
So you use it and
reuse it and reuse it.
So most of the water
is in the north
and the demand is in the south.
That's the basic premise here.
And of course, we beg,
borrow, and pay for water
not only from Colorado,
but from the northern parts
of the state.
And it's basically
a mess because we
created these infrastructures.
And this is a lake.
We didn't do anything
to the water.
It's basically boron in the
water that's so much more
denser or there's more boron
for the amount of water
that there was when
it was a lake that
was 10 times the size.
So we have denuded a lake on
behalf of Southern California.
And we are dealing.
We have really great resources,
obviously, with the sun.
And there are those who
feel that we're bringing
other ills into the desert.
There's tortoises at great risk.
Birds that are learning how
to fly amongst these crazy,
but beautiful wind turbines.
So we're addressing
these issues.
And it's not easy,
let's put it that way.
So this is, of course,
our young mayor
who I've known since
he was a councilman.
And he's at the
forefront, of course,
of all the environmental
and water related
issues in California.
He's a smart guy.
And the climate change
and the conditions.
And you could see
California there and how
it's sharing in [INAUDIBLE].
This is a slide we did for a
national group called the One
Water Alliance to help them
understand graphically, simply,
instead of 10 engineering
slides, 1 slide that tells
the story about where
water comes from
and how we can work with water
and reuse it 10 times over,
like I'm trying to say.
And then, of course, I
describe here the topography
of California through
the lens of Banham
in terms of the beaches,
flatlands, foothills,
and valleys.
So this has been an
interesting process
interfacing with these
large engineering groups.
And really, pushing the agenda
that I think all of you here
are just taking
as a given, which
is going from monoculture to
polyculture and multipurpose
infrastructure.
So I think what's
important to know
is that you engage
in these practices
and you're not necessarily
making an for dollar income.
So just be prepared that even
if you have a for-profit firm,
that when you're doing advocacy,
you're doing volunteer work.
And it has to--
I think in the long run it pays
off in many different ways.
And one of them is just
doing the right thing
and advocating for
landscape architecture
and for the kind of education
that we've all gotten here.
So the themes that
we talk about is
to think holistically
across disciplines,
to move from fragile,
single purpose systems
to multipurpose
systems, to [INAUDIBLE]
small decentralized,
overlapping systems that we
have to sometimes, and
especially in California,
but other places
too, is to reframe
people's perception of beauty
because people are used
to azaleas and ficuses and
coral trees, which all come
from the tropics,
because they grew
when people weren't thinking
about how much water they
were using.
We have to stop conquering
nature and working with nature.
That we have to keep
environmental justice in mind.
And how we allocate our
resources is really important.
That people have to
have access to parks
and to clean air and clean
water everywhere that we live.
And that we have to think
beyond our lifetime.
And this is that we--
so we advocate to
Spark Projects.
It's funny because
on the bottom left,
you see Mayor Villaraigosa,
as an outgoing mayor, Mayor
Garcetti coming in.
And I think they're both
going to run for governor.
So that's kind of the
life of California.
And a group of women that
have been working together
on the left.
And this is a small park project
we built along the L.A. River.
And then the way we work with,
for example, the Green L.A.
Coalition.
This group down at
the bottom, which
is an advocacy
group in California.
And we're training young people.
Writing editorials,
they had decided
in the Department
of Water and Power
to take out all the gardens
and water consuming plants
and give people funding so
they could put gravel down.
So we got up and actually
did an op-ed piece
that had tremendous impact,
made it a lot of enemies
along the way also.
And so, now, I'm going
to share a few projects.
And so the river.
And, yes, you can go-- if
you know where you're going,
you can go on the river.
And we did the
revitalization master plan,
two forces that came together,
both a grassroots effort,
a poet from Berkeley
who came down
to live in L.A. and was
teaching at the University
and created the Friends
of the L.A. River,
and then the Federal EPA
Mandate for Clean Water being
delivered to the ocean.
So we worked as a team with
three landscape architecture
firms and Tetra Tech,
the engineering firm.
The watershed is 834 miles.
And then we were dealing
with the results of the work
of the Army Corps of Engineers.
And this is in Virginia
where they actually
built what they thought
the river would look like.
And you'll start seeing it.
But basically, the reason they
decided to harness the river
is because the city
was starting to grow.
There was rail.
There was industry.
And there was some
major flooding events.
And they're there to protect us.
So this is a typical
condition of the river.
Then after a rain storm.
And this is how the river is
perceived across the world.
And why I always
say that maybe we
gave a passport to many
other cities or countries
to actually do whatever you
wanted with the infrastructure
and just to use concrete.
This was the first time
that concrete was being
used at the scale, by the way.
And just to wake
you up a little bit.
This was also our governor.
And that's the model that you
just-- that confluence of two
creeks.
And people in my
office used to think
that this was crazy
I was doing this,
but they don't let me cut
it off before the explosion.
So you're going to
wait for the explosion
because it's really
important to everybody here.
We are actually working
on a 12-mile bike
way along this
stretch of the river.
Don't worry [INAUDIBLE], Anita.
They'll survive.
He became a governor
afterwards, remember?
So anyway, and then what I
like to show is all this crap--
oh, good.
OK, I'm glad.
I'm glad.
So anyway, OK.
But you know this
is also the LA river
and this is Kat Superfisky.
She's a Michigander who
came to work with us
and we founded a
nonprofit called
Grown in LA, which
actually is starting
to grow plant
material that is, can
survive with reclaimed water.
So here is that
same location again.
This is one of the dam areas.
There was beauty in a lot
of this infrastructure.
This is some of the residential,
and the studio areas.
This is what the river--
How many of you have
been to Los Angeles?
Have all of you
been to the river?
Yes?
Most of you have been to the
river, so I don't have to--
To the river or in the
river, is the question.
So by the way, the
reason why this,
we have plant material
here, we did a master plan.
We'd like to think that
we were responsible,
but really, the water
table was too high
and the concrete never stuck
to the bottom of the river
in about seven
miles of the river.
So we'd like to take
credit, but not really.
So here we are.
This is actually the
Sixth Street Bridge,
which is getting rebuilt.
People who still go fishing
and photographing and
enjoying the river
and as it reaches Long Beach.
This is the poet.
And he chained himself
to those, the protocol
for the Army Corps
was to actually,
every year in the summer to
cut down all the vegetation.
Because they were afraid
that the city would get
flooded if they didn't,
because of the coefficients
of the vegetation
slowing the water down.
Of course, he convinced
them, like only a poet would,
to take a risk.
And they did and we
never had a flood
and this is what
it is like in 2007.
And the plovers who squawk
when you come nearby.
Master plans lead
to master plans.
And after the
master plan that we
did with [INAUDIBLE]
and Tetra Tech,
we went on to produce
additional work
with the Army Corps
of Engineers, which
is their next set of protocols.
Which is the ecosystem
restoration study.
And amazingly enough it's
incredibly complex, very rich,
very thorough study to
deepen information knowledge
and solutions for
specific areas,
so that they can
then move forward
towards congressional
appropriations.
And fortunately or
unfortunately for us,
that funding is of course
now, it made it to Congress
like in the last six months.
So we don't know
what it will be.
But we looked at
opportunity areas,
and the opportunity
areas that we looked at
had basically many
different criteria.
And so everything
from affordable living
to jobs to tributary
confluences to the creation
of open space connectivity.
And that led to the studies
that Army Corps did.
We, of course, always had in
mind not just the waterway,
but how open space would start
knitting across this system,
and how the urban network
would come together.
And this is kind of
how we divided up
the work between three firms
and it worked really well
from a collaborative standpoint.
We also had a 186
community meetings.
So you got to brace yourself.
And each neighborhood,
the meetings
were sort of adjusted to
react to the community
we were dealing with.
And in some areas, of course, we
were dealing with the studios.
And in some areas we were
dealing with community.
And in other areas we were
doing it with industry.
So this is all available online.
And it's a plan that's
now 10 years old.
And because it's
10 years old, we're
actually looking to refresh
some of what we did at the time,
to sort of bring forward
some of our solutions.
These were the parts
of the guidelines
that the planning department
actually has taken on.
So if you are now a
developer or a community who
wants to have some
funding and wants
to implement a project like
our 12 miles of bikeways
in the upper San
Fernando Valley,
you know some of the parameters.
So we do have a river unit,
both in the mayor's office
and in the planning
department addressing
the hundreds of projects that
we propose based on the master
plan.
We also created a series of
guidelines associated with all
the edges of the river.
So both conditions that
were sort of parallel
to the river, but also that
intersected from the river,
through the river.
So you know, this
seems like no big deal
because you guys know
montages really well.
But these were
the first montages
that were used that the
Army Corps had ever seen.
And it was the first montages
that our friends were
doing 10 years, 12 years ago.
And making them climate
appropriate and also culturally
appropriate, if
you start looking,
you realize it's not just
what I'm talking about.
But also, the Army
Corps accepted
the fluvial jur morphological
conditions of the river.
So they were saying,
OK, you can do this.
You can widen the river,
you can plant in the river.
And maybe what you
will do is have
some ways of letting people know
that water is coming if there
is a big flood event condition.
Actually by coincidence, my
building is to the right here.
But you know, I didn't
do that at the time
knowing that I would be there.
And this is a condition where
you have an industrial area
that's going to hit the river.
So we've made a lot of progress.
I have to add three more
years, I guess here.
Here we are with a group of
people who had decided to,
in order for the
funding to come forward,
the river had to be
declared navigable.
You go to Washington DC
with a picture like this
and say this is a river,
and they say, yeah right.
You must have had something
to drink or smoke yesterday.
So there was two
years of advocacy,
not just, really I
wasn't leading this.
The city at this
point is advocating
and what you see here is
a documentarian deciding
I'm going to take my kayak,
I'm going to go down the river
and I'm going to prove to them.
Because there is a low
flow channel there.
So that water's always running
from the reclamation plants.
And it's 12-feet
wide, and 8-feet deep.
So you actually can drown.
So that's what led to this,
this is the former head
of the EPA and mayor Garcetti
at the time, just turned mayor.
And so that was the
day that we celebrated
that the river was navigable.
And this is now, remember
now it's navigable
and now the plants are
not being cut back.
And even though we
have a lot of arundo
that we have to get rid
of, we have this condition
where for five months
out of the year,
people are fighting
to get on kayaks.
And people are fishing
and have been fishing.
And this guy's
gotten pretty old.
He is a Salvadorean
that I now know.
I know his whole family.
And he goes there every weekend,
comes back to MacArthur Park
and basically
barbecues the fish.
And it was a pretty
big one, look.
And this is one of the
confluences, the Arroyo Seco,
connecting to the LA River.
Some of the projects
that we've started
the activation on the river.
This is the Frog Spot, which is
from friends of the LA River.
This is a group of
artists who actually
did a playing card, 52
playing cards for the 52 miles
of the river.
And it's important
to note that we only
studied 32 miles because
of governance issues
- Balkanization.
The mayor at the
time, Villaraigosa,
was probably going
to run for governor
and the county
supervisors didn't
want to give him the ability
to go beyond the city line.
So we only studied LA.
We didn't study the
bottom eight cities.
So here you are, which is what
the project is on the table
right now.
And so here you are, the
kinds of interventions
that make the river
sort of manageable,
and where people
really kind of start
getting a sense that
this place exists
and it becomes a
part of their life.
And though right now we
have 40,000 homeless that
are allowed to live on the
streets if they have tents,
it's kind of hard to now show,
of course, the tent camping
that happens along the
river that is actually
more for people who
could afford to camp.
And Placemaking Plan,
this was a HUD project.
Again, taking a plan to
another level of detail.
And this is helping
people understand
how new development can
change their neighborhoods
and how we actually can start
understanding and influencing
the developer world.
People who live in the
neighborhood, in the center
is Helen Leung.
She's now the
co-director of LA Mas.
And LA Mas was created by
a student here and myself.
And she's Elizabeth Timme
and I created LA Mas.
Mas as in more in Espanol.
So more for Los Angeles.
And so we've been doing
work with this community
for a while, helping
them understand again,
the potential.
And then the Piggyback Yard,
totally an advocacy project.
We were called to action
by Friends of the LA River.
You have this big
sort of parking
for trains that
makes no sense,--
Because it's really constricted
in the middle of the city.
What else could it be?
And what we decided is that to
really, it could be knit back
to the city, it
could be given back,
it could be allow us to work on
the fluvial jur morphological
aspects,--
Hold water and start
really generating energy
in a part of the city
that's totally industrial,
but also across
from Union Station.
So this project eventually
caught the attention
of a nonprofit.
He's actually one of my angels.
He's funded a number
of studios here.
And we did some additional
environmental and additional
economic work to understand
would this project pay off
if this land cost
a billion dollars.
The answer was
actually yes, and it
is being used in the possibility
that we will get the Olympics,
as one of the potential
venues for the artists
for the athletes' village.
Just to say that sometimes
this level of advocacy
can actually pay off.
Doesn't mean we will
get the contract,
because there's certain
big firms that we all
know that have a relationship
to the GSD, who actually usually
do all the work
for those projects.
But we can have the satisfaction
of having done work that
has a big impact in the city.
I don't have show you
all these diagrams.
You know what
we're trying to do.
We're trying to connect,
clean and make a place.
And in order to make it more
real, we did do a model.
That seems to help.
And we then, beyond
that work, we
did some additional
work in areas
where the river touches
a couple of institutions
across Griffith Park
or across studios.
Try to inspire the
studios to take part,
because they've taken over
the edges of the river.
And we've succeeded in taking
on these opportunity areas
and moving forward.
I'm going to go
further, but this
is, for example, Warner Brothers
as it touches Griffith Park.
And our notion of inspiring them
to think about what it would be
like for their community
to actually have access
to the river, and
to have perhaps
a residential
development in that area.
So you can live, work, and
play in the same place.
And the same thing for
the Verdugo Juncture,
where you're actually
connecting Glendale
and several
institutions, including
the Autry Museum to the zoo and
then to Griffith Park again.
And models and work.
Then this is Union Station.
Just to prove that Union Station
is actually a happening place,
it's actually right
next to the river.
When we first started
the work, the MTA
did not want to acknowledge
that the river had
anything to do
with their property
because it was 500 feet away.
But with some advocacy and
sort of convincing and things
started enlivening,
we actually got them.
And by the end of the
two-year project, the master
plan with Grimshaw and Gruen,
the river started appearing
and the MTA bought
some property.
So they're going to be, and this
is the forecourt of the river.
And then finally I'm going
to show, Vista Hermosa Park,
there's 40,000 new residents
in downtown Los Angeles.
And one of the things
that's really important
is to actually address, we
don't have a master plan
for parks in Los Angeles.
Because there's
15 councilmen who
decide where parks are
going to go and how
money's going to be spent.
And there is a needs assessment,
but anyway, this project
was harnessed out of
leftover land from a school.
200 homes had been
expropriated, but they
didn't calculate how much
land they really needed,
so they only used half of it.
So politicians and the Santa
Monica Mountains Conservancy
came together to
create this park, which
is a 10 acre park adjacent
and overlooking the city.
Where there is soccer and
play and my first experience
with three gangs operating
around a site that I worked on,
which I befriended and they
keep the place safe now.
This is Ivan, and I tell him
that I show this all the time.
He's very proud of himself.
And we had to also convince
him that we couldn't
have fancy exercise
equipment in this park,
because this park was
meant to really show
the potential of the
mountains in the city.
And this was the agency and
the bond money they had.
Not be for fancy equipment, so
we have to create everything.
So he found a way
of doing exercise.
And this is the data they
opened the park and just
to note, that there's
Mayor Villaraigosa.
He had just taken office
about 12 years ago.
And he had nothing to do
with making this park happen,
but he was there
to open the park.
Just so you know that parks
make a big difference.
Using the large scissor to open
a new park has a lot of value
to community.
South LA Wetlands,
in terms of water
and the way we are addressing
water in Los Angeles,
there was a proposition, Prop
O, to do experimental projects
throughout LA County.
In this one, we
took basically what
was on the top, a rail car, old
rail car, basically maintenance
yard, that became a school.
And then also became a wetland.
And what we did was, we--
Basically took the
stormwater pipe,
unleashed it into a wetland,
and then put it back
into the stormwater system.
And the idea was that
we're tracking about 50
of these projects to
see the overall metrics
and impact in terms
of the water quality
throughout the LA basin.
And finally, I'll leave you.
If I had done what
some of the people
say is that you have to have
some kind of a business plan
to keep going, to keep the
door open, to pay your bills,
in my life would I
have thought that I'd
be doing three stadiums.
And I did have sort of a stomach
ache about what are stadiums,
I had never been to a
football game to be honest.
I did grow up with
soccer, and I have
been going to
baseball because we've
been working on Dodger Stadium.
But this is an interesting
project in so many ways.
It's an old racetrack, which
was very much at the heart
of the Hollywood community.
But also it's in Inglewood, one
of the cities within the city.
It's basically run
by an amazing mayor,
who used to be a police chief.
And these 300 acres that
then became 600 acres
were, and we still got to go,
by the way, to the racetrack.
And it was amazing.
You can see it's under
the flight path for LAX
and it's an amazing
infill project.
4,000 New units in
a community that's
in desperate need of
good news, Inglewood.
A lot of gang activity, a lot of
poverty, and now what you have
is the opportunity of
residential, commercial jobs.
And the stadium, which
working with HKS,
is going to be a community
asset in more ways than one.
Meaning that the site will be
available not only the 30 days
of the year that are games.
And actually we're getting now
two teams, so it's 60 days.
But it's going to be
available to the community
for many other different
types of events.
In addition, we also
created a series
of gardens that are
demonstration gardens,
but we don't we don't
say that in public.
We just, it's
cheaper to do gardens
than to actually do
plazas and concrete
and walls, which is good.
So we could argue for it
in more ways than one.
We're actually capturing all our
water, reusing all our water,
doing geothermal energy,
creating 25 acres of parks,
connecting the place to
the rest of the community.
And also the entertainment
venue, which is the Forum.
So here you see this
giant new development
in what was a racetrack.
And by the way,
the lake is right
where the original lake
was for the racetrack.
So when I'm saying I'm
in California or Southern
California,--
I mean you can imagine
these projects come up
and of course,
knowing what we need
to do to really bring
parts of the city to life,
this becomes really important.
And we worked with
the community,
because gentrification's,
of course, an issue.
So this mayor is incredibly
cognizant of the fact.
So throughout our, even
our construction project,
we're being asked, who's
going to be on the site.
Are you training
some young people
from the neighborhood
to understand?
We have two students,
high school students
from Inglewood High
School going to be with us
this summer to just learn what
landscape architecture is.
And again, this is
the idea, the venue
had to be 80 feet the ground
because of LAS and FAA
regulations.
By the way, it's
the only project
that I'll ever be able
to see in construction
or oversee construction
from the airplane.
I always have to be on the
right side of the plane.
And there are 200
bulldozers, mega bulldozers
working as we speak.
The hole is dug,
structure's coming up.
And we've deployed every
kind, in this specific plan
we worked on,
everything is actually
going to get built as designed.
Because of what a high
profile this project
is, and because the mayor
is really committed.
Again, we developed
this strategy
of dealing with a Mediterranean
biome as part of the work
that we do in
Southern California,
because it's too late to go
back to just the California
landscape.
So going and doing
these explorations
and planting these
huge urban forests.
And finally at the
Natural History Museum,
where we're also working
on the Lucas Museum,
we finished a project
seven years ago that'll
be in some tours during ASLA.
Urban ecology, the
term urban ecology,
was not a term that
anybody and certainly
Natural History
Museum had really
kind of come to terms with.
They knew that they preferred
to change and open themselves
to the world and
the exposition line,
but we turned parking
lots into gardens.
And this will be
the last project.
Performative
landscapes, which was,
I called my meetings
with all the scientists,
my ologist meetings,
because there
were 22 different
scientists and I
stopped understanding the
nuances of what everybody did.
You know, herpetologist
was as far as I went,
and then there were three
levels of herpetologists.
But they loved the notion
of performative landscapes.
And so this wall,
for example, has
no concrete on the
foundation and is basically
defying gravity.
Because we have cables kind
of holding it together.
So the day that
there is actually
a snake going through
the stone wall
is the day I'll have
completely succeeded.
I'm not sure everybody
else will think so.
And this is the
end of the river,
which is the dry river
from the [INAUDIBLE].
We have a series of
sort of stories we tell.
And again, more of the same.
And this is actually
a celebration to bees.
A pollinator garden, which we
finished about two years ago
at the edge of the site.
So I think with that, I want
to really kind of leave you
with the notion that you
can make a difference.
And you can create
a team that really
cares about similar things that
you do and has similar values.
And that you don't
graduate knowing
what you want to do exactly.
I think that the
experience as you
move through different projects
in a firm or different jobs
has tremendous value.
I had no choice about
creating my own firm
because I wasn't treated very
nicely after I had babies.
But I think that the world
has changed since then.
So for all of you who are
as fathers and as mothers
that are starting
careers now, I think
the world is a bit different.
And obviously, working remotely
or time at home to do work,
all those things work out, too.
But we need you in this world.
And one of the
saddest things for me
is when I see people leaving
the profession because they
can't figure out how to fit
in a conventional practice.
My practice is not
the kind of practice
that you're going to have the
cover of landscape architecture
every other month, I
will tell you that.
Because a lot of the
projects are messy.
The budgets are not humongous.
But they are
incredibly satisfying.
They make a
difference and I think
we owe it to cities to just
contribute in the best way
that we can.
So with that, I want to
open up the questions.
[APPLAUSE]
Yes.
First of all, thank
you [INAUDIBLE].
My name is Paula
[INAUDIBLE] at the GSD.
And a lot of the work
that you talked about.
I direct an initiative called
Blue Cities at the Charles
River Watershed Association.
At the Charles River?
Uh-huh.
So I could relate to a lot
of aspects of this work.
I do a lot of advocacy
in my own career
and I don't come from a
landscape design background.
However, I see the
need that you're
fulfilling in your practice.
And my question to
you is, if we can't
afford to have [INAUDIBLE]
in every single state
or for every single
river, what does
the future hold in our
current political environment
for rivers that don't have
people who are invested in them
because they live those context
in their everyday lives?
And as these professionals
who are graduating and looking
to adopt rivers in
other ways, what would
you advise for the
Trinitys of this country
and other rivers that are
sort of out there, vulnerable,
looking for planning
practices to shape them
in ways that are
beyond the aesthetic
and the consumptive quality?
Great question.
The Trinity has
advocates, I'll say that.
OK, so in the big picture,
we try, for example,
at ASLA to have every year
four or five people up
on the dais about the
rivers they're working on,
so people get inspired.
I will say that there
are many nonprofits
start to try to
engage with they have
national presence, like the
Trust for Public Land, who
basically has been working
hard and in several cities,
including Atlanta.
But what I am concerned
about are the smaller rivers.
Rivers that reach the borders.
And there are national
trails conferences.
I mean you have to look for
partnerships or opportunities
like these national trails
or national parks conferences
and find, and just find
people presenting projects
that are associated
with parks or they're
associated with water.
And find ways to merge.
There is and was out of Berkeley
a national or maybe even
international rivers
organization that I
haven't tracked for a while.
There is room for that.
I think that's a challenge that
I would pose to you as a Loeb
Fellow, to create a convening.
But to inspire people in cities
who may not know or have not
been trained as
landscape architects,
I think articles in
newspapers or sharing
of these experiences,
like the poet and others,
are ways that perhaps we can
communicate across boundaries.
But that's why I say
that landscape architects
and planners who come
out of these universities
hold the responsibility
to really engage.
So we've been working on a
river that ends up in Mexico,
a small little river.
And it was from a
trails conference.
We went and made a presentation,
the guy got all excited.
And sometimes it's about
even clean-ups and bridges,
and that already does
a tremendous amount.
But it renewed respect.
Anything we could do
with documentaries.
I know ASLA did one documentary.
I'd love to see documentaries
about how rivers can be
brought back to everyday life.
People, a lot of immigrants
come from countries
across the world that have
memories of streams and rivers
that grew up around.
And I think we just have to,
we have a river day I guess.
I think there is a river
day, so maybe the river day
has to be expanded.
Anybody?
Nobody has a question?
Yes, I had a logistical
boring question,
but how do you staff
your nonprofits?
How do you fund them?
Because we have
many students that
are very interested
in this kind of work.
I think what you're
saying, and that's
why I introduced you as a
complete landscape architect.
You do design and you're very
busy with the nonprofit work
as well.
So how do you combine the two?
OK, initially we depend on
internships, paid internships
but internships.
The for profit funded LA Mas
for a year and gave it a home.
And printing and
everything else, phones.
I mean it made some
people in the firm uneasy.
But I say that I pulled
the president's card, which
is I'm the president.
I pull the president's
card when I want to,
and that's one place
that I pull it.
The second one is
relying on grants.
And the person that you
saw in the river, only
she would go into
the river actually,
even though it's clean.
But she operates, basically she
has to have 50% billable time--
And the other 50%
of the time she
has been managing
on billable work,
she's been writing grants.
And she just got $45,000 grant
from the Nature Conservancy
for a really
interesting project.
So that for a nonprofit
could mean nine months.
So in the third one was
nighttime, weekends,
because it came
out of the passion
of people in the office.
I barely engaged,
but in November
everybody was so desperate
and they were watching
and this is like the month
before actually, they
were watching the tribes
suffer and trying to--
They realized and made a call
to, wrote to their lawyers.
Found their lawyers and
said, you guys have maps.
And they said, what
are you talking about.
Maps that show where
all the waterways that
go through the reservation
are, and how they might get
impacted if the
pipeline goes in.
And they didn't have any.
So imagine the power of that.
Getting the base information
and getting all the information
that you could trust
was the next piece,
but it was all done
after hours, weekends.
Now we have the
public TV station
doing a series of pieces.
And now they're going
to pay that group
to do, and through
this third nonprofit,
is going to do a series
of studies on the border.
The public TV, KPPC
is just is loving it.
And they want to,
so they're going
to unveil about 10 stories
about the pipeline.
And then they're going to
pay for some additional work.
So it's not a, grants
are the best way to go,
and the fact is that
we, to be honest,
we've been a little messy.
I mean a little like
infantile at times.
But LA Mas, for
example, is starting
to get really serious grants,
like $150,000 and $200,000
grants.
And they have a capacity
grant, which is a huge deal.
To get a grant for
capacity building
for the directors that are
there now, they got $150,000.
That's huge.
And they have a mentor and
they have a, they have really.
And so we're not housed together
anymore, but I'm on the board.
So I get to just
observe and enjoy
and basically critique with
a great group of other people
who are on that board.
So there's a young woman who's
interning there this summer
from Princeton, architecture.
So those opportunities
are there and I
think they're there
to take advantage of.
But if you're in our
office, it's confusing.
The Grown in LA's over
there, the Alma's everywhere,
and then everybody is
supposed to be somehow
productive at least a
percent of the time.
And there are protocols
to get your certification
as a nonprofit.
It's not just easy.
And then you have to keep good
books, or else you're audited.
But what I have been advocating
for in terms of my groups,
is that they have
to get to a place
where they pay themselves at
least as healthy, maybe 10%
less, a salary as if they would
be in a conventional firm.
And then that's viable.
And there are a lot of
foundations that are
very interested in this work.
Acupuncture, all
the project you know
all those urban sort
of projects that spark
urban renewal or urban energy.
There's just a lot there.
I have a funny story
which is about insurance.
Because when Mas started
building a lot of furniture
in the studio with
saws and nails and then
it was all going to go
on in a public street.
And then I woke up in
the middle of the night
and said, oh, God, what do we--
It's like nobody's going
to give us a pass, right?
If somebody impales themselves
or I mean they were beautifully
built, they have
beautiful craft,
it was beautifully
built, but things happen
and they get eroded.
So we had to develop
a strategy for that.
But I think that in LA we
have quite a few nonprofits
building projects.
And there's really a
great deal of energy.
And I think it's happening
across the country.
In Detroit, I know in Atlanta.
I mean there's just, in San
Francisco these projects are
kind of growing through these
non-conventional programs.
I guess now I have
two questions.
In response to that,
I wonder if you
think if that's sort of
dangerous for the field
if nonprofits are getting
these projects, if that makes
it difficult for for-profits?
And then the second
question that I
had was if you ever get
any pushback for being
too political?
Whether it's from
others in the field
or from the city or
communities or clients?
I don't know, anyone?
Really good question.
I quite honestly,
most of the time
the projects that are
going to the nonprofits
are not the same projects
that go for for-profits.
You know, I think it's a
little bit of a problem.
But I at this point feel
that competition is healthy,
and that it's given an
avenue to some people who
don't feel they belong in
a conventional practice.
And so I'd rather, I mean I
have two women, went to the GSD
in the 1980s and
early 90s who left
the field because
they couldn't find
the right form of practice.
For me it's about how to
keep the guerrilla action
going, everybody.
Whether you're
doing conventional
or an unconventional
delivery methods.
I've resented it.
I have competed at times
with certain nonprofits
and then we don't get the work.
So the answer to the
question is it's hard,
but you have to,
that's why insurance
and all those
conventional issues
have to come into play also.
But you have foundations
who are very interested
in that kind of work.
So capitalize on
that opportunity.
The other thing is I
would say, more of you
should go into the
Army Corps of Engineers
and to public
practice, because we
need good people, good clients.
And we rarely get, I'd love to
canvas people in the next five
years--
Who actually applies to a
job to a coastal conservancy
or to a state park agency or
to the Army Corps of Engineers.
I mean they can be really,
we worked on the ecosystem
restoration study with
a landscape architect
who had gone to school
at Georgia Tech.
She was our client.
She was awesome.
And she was 32 years old
doing amazing projects.
So don't underestimate
those opportunities.
So just explore.
It's going to be hard
to explore in let's
say in the federal
government, but I
think otherwise there's going
to be, there's still work.
And the other one
was what was it?
What was the second?
Do you ever get pushback
for being too political?
Pushback for being
too political.
It's interesting to me
that some of the younger
people in the firm that are
your age or a little older say,
you gotta go fight.
Like you got to go fight, why's
Frank Gehry in the LA River?
And I look at them and
I say, why aren't you
guys going to fight?
Right?
You're here because
you like what I do.
You care about it because
what we represent.
So it's been interesting for me
to watch how that mantle gets
taken, and it does.
Like Alma happened.
Yeah, I'm conscious.
There are a number of elections
that I can weigh in on,
but I'm basically usually
a part of coalitions.
I'm not on my own.
So the Green LA Coalition,
there's a series,
I mean it's a stupid name,
but it's really strong.
And at a state level, we
make a difference with regard
to water, with regard to
transportation, housing.
It's like 50 of us we've known
each other for a long time.
Right now I don't even
go to the meetings.
Two other people from the
office go to meetings.
We write, we go to
Sacramento, we go to DC.
It makes a difference.
So I'm part of coalitions.
It's not like yeah,
and yeah, sometimes I
would say most people
think I'm a trouble-maker,
but the mayor will
say to somebody.
Like I sent a few
people to a fundraiser
that he was having for a cause
of his and so people went.
And the mayor took a
picture, a selfie of himself
with this young man who went
and said, you guys are amazing.
You're doing amazing work in LA.
And then they
tweeted the picture.
And I think people
care that you care.
And you're not
always, and sometimes
I just have to stay
quiet for a while
when I watch other people
take the trouble on.
So that's what I
would say is, speak
your mind because
otherwise, what's the point?
And stay engaged.
Make sure, because we would
have a very different situation
right now.
People need to vote.
I mean can't tell
people who to vote for,
but people need to vote.
And we need to care in
the next four years.
And we need to be active.
And it's not just, and
it's pretty serious.
Yes.
Thank you for your presentation.
I'm wondering-- it feels like
in California the drought really
propelled Southern
California across the state
to think about One
Water, to think
about resiliency measures.
Similarly in Miami with
flooding and New York
with Hurricane Sandy.
How much do you think or
how much acceptance is there
in these types of
measures, whether it's
storm water or renewable energy,
these decentralized overlapping
systems thinking about things
holistically for climate?
Yeah, I just wonder if you could
speak about how that's accepted
and how much more we
have to go in terms
of advocating for that work?
Or is it already there?
Well, you continue advocating,
otherwise you get lax.
But in California
it's like a done deal.
I think where we are right
now is we're carbon trading.
And we're so
successful and we don't
know how to spend the money.
They can't figure
out what to do.
And it's really crazy.
So they're trading,
there's a lot of bonds,
carbon trading happening
internationally
with carbon trading
from California.
It's crazy, I don't
understand it exactly.
But no, we're, I mean that's
not to say that the homeowners
or the developers.
For example, in Irvine that has
been very forward about water,
I went to with Green
LA, we went to a series
of listening sessions.
And they said just
charge me more.
I don't want to
change my landscape.
And I mean developers
of large tracts of land
or institutional developers.
I don't care.
I'll just pay more.
So do you give them that option?
Well, we all came out of that
meeting just like stunned.
Because they're at the
forefront of graywater,
they're at the forefront
of all sorts of policies.
And they have a great
system of purple pipe
water for irrigation.
And that's what they're saying.
We don't want to change
what it looks like.
We like the verdant
sort of Mediterranean,
not even Mediterranean,
tropical.
And that's work that
these guys from Green LA
are trying to do is, do
you give people that option
to pay 15% more for
water just so they
can have what they want?
So tricky, really tricky.
But in general I
think we're better off
than many parts of the country.
But you can't fall asleep.
So we have organizations like
Tree People, Heal the Bay,
TPL, the National
Resources Defense Council.
All those are people that are
really doing important work,
just keeping things alive.
And people who, we
all need to support,
whether it's with letters
or small memberships
so that things can move forward.
In LA, I've known
most of the founders
of those organizations,
which is really interesting.
And then now at the Institute
of Environment at UCLA.
So I think it's a good time and
we can operate independently
in California.
But it's at the same
time, a difficult time.
Because we're not going to
get federal transportation
dollars like we thought
and other things probably.
Hopefully we're wrong.
You spoke of LA as this
laboratory or testing ground.
Can you speak of
discoveries or failures
that you came across
in your practice?
As a testing ground.
Well, the planting of native
plants has been a bit bumpy.
Many of the plants that
we all like to bring back
are not used to the heat,
the heat island effect.
So you end up with
a lot of plants
that you thought were going
to do well that don't do well.
Because it's much hotter.
There's more smog.
And we're using, in many
cases, reclaimed water,
which has salt content.
So that was really hard.
So we worked on the Rand
Corporation headquarters
with one of the first
purple pipe water systems.
And we had to go back in
and do a major replanting.
We had followed the city of
Santa Monica's guidelines--
And we ended up having to, the
trees had to be watered with
potable water for five years.
And it was just a
little bit of a mess.
So there's a lot
of experimentation.
And from people in the
world of, in our world
across the country,
the resurgence
of whether it's in the prairies
or the Midwest or other places,
is we have to experiment with
plant material significantly
to be able to get to a
pallet that actually survives
and works.
And, of course, we're going
to be changing the, hopefully,
the heat island effect by
the numbers of trees and so.
So things will improve.
But that's one thing that we
learned at the Natural History
Museum.
Fortunately, we didn't
take out, for example,
we had Chorisia speciosa,
which is a tree from, not
from California.
And they're enormous.
They're 70 feet tall.
And they're laden with tropical
parakeets that actually
go from Exposition Park,
which is in the center of LA,
to Malibu every day.
So they fly back and forth,
which is really bizarre to me,
because I grew up
in El Salvador.
That's when you knew it
was 6:00 AM or 6:00 PM.
Because they would be
going back and forth.
But the point is, we
just have a new world.
We're not going to
kill the parakeets.
This is just a new life
and in the plant material,
that was a good question.
But that's something
we deal with a lot.
Hey, Mia, thank you
so much for your talk.
You mentioned during
your presentation
that LA does not have a
unified master plan for parks.
And I wonder with the challenges
that are coming forward
with water and climate change
and political challenges
nationwide, do you think
that that will ever happen?
That the councilman will
present a unified front
as to how to deal with the
city's park infrastructure?
And do you think
that the river could
be a catalyst for
that in some way
because it unifies the city
in so many ways already?
Thank you.
Ellen was a wonderful
intern with us last year.
I think there's an
opportunity for a master plan
to come together,
largely because we now
have three funding
streams that got
passed in the last election.
One is for parks, the other
is for transportation,
and the other is
for homelessness.
And believe it or not,
it's all tied together.
Because many parks are taken
over at this point by homeless.
So I was at a
conference last week
and this conversation
was going on.
How, on the part of nonprofits,
asking elected or staff
from electeds, how are
you going to make sure
that the funding is properly
delivering solutions
that are more holistic.
And I brought up a master
plan the whole time.
Like the whole day
at every, the notion
that you don't have to do a plan
that's for the whole, obviously
this is now 88 cities.
But that you can maybe
do district plans
so that you can actually see
three or five years ahead,
which is where those
funding measures are coming.
I mean they had there the woman
who leads the Minneapolis park
system at the conference,
and it was amazing.
So I was able to, they've done
amazing work over the decades.
And they've improved
the parks and they
have incredible usage
and satisfaction
over the park system.
And so I was able to ask,
do you have a master plan.
Of course we have a master plan.
So I think it's going to happen
in some way, shape or form.
That there's going to be some
form of strategic planning,
if nothing else.
Maybe they shouldn't
call it a master plan,
but a strategic plan.
But again, it's about
communities staying engaged
and doing pressure.
So what happens is
communities that
have more advocates or
wealthier communities
get more parks faster, better,
because they're more active.
I don't think I need
this, but thank you, Mia.
This was really fascinating.
I think it ties really well
with Kate's lecture back
in February.
Another fantastic woman that is
both a designer and an advocate
and knows everything.
The law, the politicians
and the plants.
This is fun.
For those of you that
are here next year,
she's going to give
an [INAUDIBLE] studio.
For those of you that
are graduating, sorry,
but you can go work for her.
And thank you again, Mia.
This was great.
[APPLAUSE]
