Elysian Valley House Party
On Saturday, I had the pleasure of meeting with a small group of constituents from Elysian Valley for a house party. Elysian Valley is a small community of about 8,000 tucked between Atwater Village and Silver Lake.
The questions from the group varied from public safety (speed bumps to slow down traffic, an expanded bus route that would pick up kids walking home at night, more police on the streets…) to whether the neighborhood council can pay for a full time staffer and if there’s any way to incentivize markets to move into the neighborhood so that residents don’t have to drive or take public transportation every time they want to buy food.
We spoke about local land development and I told them of an early lesson I learned as councilman: the value of listening to the community when it comes to development and allowing new developments to spring up from communities, not be imposed on them by the bureaucracy. I learned this during the development of a park on Marsh St. in Elysian Valley a couple years ago when the loudest voices I heard from the community were in favor of installing a skate park, which was not part of the original plan. We listened and now instead of being just another pretty space that never gets used, it’s a vibrant hub of activity for young people and one of the skate park’s most vocal champions at the time is now directing it.
As for improvements to Elysian Valley moving forward, I told the group that we’re working with the city-owned properties in Elysian Valley to see what we can do about turning some of the city industrial properties, the sanitation testing yards, etc. into green spaces in the future. Also, we’ve been looking into how we can make Elysian Valley a real model for co-existing with nature. One example: the water restoration we’ve done in the L.A. River has actually brought safe edible fish back to the river. This was met with disbelief from those attending, but it’s true!
Thanks to everyone who attended the house party. One of the most important things any elected official can do is listen to the people he represents, which is why I hold events like this whether I’m running for re-election or not. Please let me know in the comments if you’d like me to hold an event in your neighborhood and we’ll try to set one up.
