Jeff, while I agree with you that homelessness is a serious problem in LA, I am not exactly sure why you feel that it is the problem of this student to solve. While I suppose that a landscape architecture student could choose the subject of homelessness as a thesis project, it would also be "idealist dreaming" as homelessness is a serious social and political problem. Instead of shooting down the work of a student who chose to consider the environment as a serious issue (urban heat island effect is serious problem, don't you agree?), why not direct your energy towards the Los Angeles City Council, the State Assembly, US Congress, or someone else who should really be addressing the issue of homelessness. While your point is taken in regards to acknowledging the issue as part of a project that uses downtown LA as a site, you must also realize that this is a school project - undertaken in one semester. A project that takes on too many challenges is simply bound for a bad grade, a college drop out, and another homeless person on the street... just kidding. Perhaps you have been working on some design solutions... if so, we would love to see them. Contact us.

Jeff was not knocking the student's work! He is commenting on the fact that millions if not billions of dollars are getting poured into downtown LA hoping for it to turn into Manhattan or downtown San Diego at best. Ya ya there are more problems with Mother Earth BUT downtown LA is hardly Manhattan or San Francisco where the rich and poor coexist in relative harmony: it is a VERY dangerous area after dark. Jeff is only stating the obvious... yes people WORK in downtown LA but why would anyone LIVE there with such a problem?? All this money is getting poured into downtown in the last few years but the homeless/crime problem has worsened. So just because Jeff and I are saying homelessness is a major problem in downtown LA, DOES NOT MEAN WE DONT ENJOY LISTENING TO PROPOSALS ABOUT HOW TO IMPROVE DOWNTOWN nor does it mean we dont care about starving kids in third world countries. If we cant clean up our own cities how can we care about people in other countries??? Bottomline: Sure many people are going to live downtown LA, but it is only going to be out-of-towners who THINK if it smells & LOOKS like a downtown it must be just like NYC, DC, Chicago, San Francisco or San Diego. Until the homelessness & crime is addressed, people will eventually see the light and move out to the WestSide or Beach Cities =)

LA is not like any of those cities you mentioned but more because people tend to have an excessive anxiety about crime and what constitutes a bad neighborhood. Chicago and New York used to be riddled with crime rates much worse than they are now, though many people were still making choices to live there because it offered something other places didn't. The difference is LA's superficiality feeds into how people actually judge neighborhoods. This is the city of personal security services and gated enclaves in the best neighborhoods. I'm mot just talking about Downtown, but other neighborhoods that people percieve as being 'crime ridden' or dingy, maybe because there isn't enough oranged folks. I'll take downtown over traffick-chocked West LA anyday, and definitely over the beach cities....er "threes company" urbanism.

"Ya ya there are more problems with Mother Earth BUT downtown LA is hardly Manhattan or San Francisco where the rich and poor coexist in relative harmony: it is a VERY dangerous area after dark. Jeff is only stating the obvious... yes people WORK in downtown LA but why would anyone LIVE there with such a problem??" I lived in San Francisco, and I can tell you the statement "the rich and poor coexist in relative harmony" is far from true. This is a big city with major problems, just like any other. Take a walk down Mason or Polk Streets if you don't believe me. I now live in LA, and would love to live Downtown if I could find a place I can afford. As for people not wanting to live there, this tells me you haven't paid much attention to DT for several years. People are paying top dollar to live downtown, crime is down, and the streets are cleaner than ever. The problems of homelessness and drug addiction are very real, and must be addressed. But creating places that can't be used by anyone is not a good solution. For too long Downtown developers have chosen to design their projects with that one consideration in mind. This is why so many spaces in DTLA are so unfriendly, why Downtown has so many gated, trash-strewn vacant lots. Hooray for any landscape designer that is willing to create spaces that are meant to be used, not just gated up.

The project shows the heart of the student, her thoughtfulness and good intent, particularly evident in the love-labored graphic images. However, the blight, crime, politics, legal barriers... of L.A. downtown or any downtown ARE beyond the solution of any student project. Please be realistic and honest to yourself. Vision, creativity, and a heart for social change in a designer are priceless indeed, but there ARE hard pragmatics, policies and far larger forces than the power of these images and other proposals by any individual design talent out there reading these threads. Accepting limits and working upon the tengibles are more than often a paradoxical advantage to all of us who design for the public realm. True activism is never about a mere academic posture and spewing "Yes, one could argue that ,... But one could also argue that..." Go argue around with that attitude at any public meeting will likely to end your cute little entry level design career. Jeff's stipulations here are comparably kind, yes?! The recreational proposal here is not "foreward thinking", but instead, a clever and opportunistic temporary urban land-use proposal. It's not unprecedented, and that is acutally a plus to Veenu's scheme here. I was at her final review and her class indeed worked hard, under great studio leadership. And Stephen, I DO appreciate your lyrical description of L.A as a city of people. But remember, it still remains as a far more deadly and blighted urban center in the U.S., lagging behind other metropolis that have soared and recovered more gracefully in the recent decade. Dave, "The difference is LA's superficiality feeds into how people actually judge neighborhoods." Good point.

Starving children in Africa? AIDS? Come down to my world and check it out. Every heard of "think globally, act locally?" I think that shouting down someone for attempting to address my communities issues is pointless, and honestly the kind of attitude that got us in Afghanistan and Iraq. Maybe?

I've never been to LA, so I'll freely admit the potential ignorance at display here, but. . . if LA residents think of downtown as a dump with little of interest, and never go there, what's the likelihood that the homelessness problem will get solved? If proposals like this entice more people into spending time there, then more people will have seen the problems and have an incentive to do something about it. Obviously, this isn't a cure for the problem, but it's better than nothing.

I am a 60 year old woman who due to the economic conditions may be forced to live in my disabled husband,old, leaking van with 2 animals. Due to no part of my own I lost my employment and with no income I may be foced to do this to have a roof over my head. There are numerous issues this country needs to address that are critical but this is also one of them. Would you rather have me park in front of your house?