Fartquitecture’: How Developers Are Ruining The Cities and What to Do About It

If you live in cities like New York, Los Angeles and Miami, you are most likely familiar with the term gentrification, unfortunately, because we are all experiencing it to a certain degree. I got my first real taste of it the other day. I live in the beautiful community of Mar Vista, a neighborhood in West Los Angeles, mostly residential with many small businesses. What I love the most is that the area is not as crowded or overdeveloped as other areas in L.A. where Fartquitecture, (the term to describe buildings that have zero consistency with the original buildings of the area), has taken over. However, that is slowly changing, and it’s scary.

My son’s preschool is an oasis for kids in LA. It has a lovely backyard, full of trees the kids can climb. It is a sunny, happy place poured with love by the teachers who run it. So when I learned that a humongous six-story building developed by Robert Green, was going to be built next door I immediately got alarmed. Six stories are a lot of stories, and not even building on Venice blvd or Washington Blvd. (way bigger avenues than the tiny side street the preschool is on, Pacific Ave.) have those tall buildings. The city code in Mar Vista is four stories, but the developer wants an exemption. That would not only affect my son’s school but the Farmer’s Market that takes place there on Sundays and it’s one of the most iconic of L.A., and the whole community. So here I am, on a Friday evening joining a zoom call with the Mar Vista city representatives, the neighbors and the developer’s advisor to try to stop that madness. A truly invested neighbor, we are all grateful for, Elise, made that meeting happen.

There is a volunteer moderating the zoom, Drew Ruesch – MVCC Zone 5 Director, who warns us that in this type of meeting, profanity, and attacks can happen. “If those bother you, please turn off your volume,” he says. I’m thinking this is not Jerry Springer, but little did I know I would be the one wanting to scream those bad words at one of the Board Directors of the Community Council, but I’ll get there later.

We started the meeting with us, the neighbors, exposing our fears and worries; it is going to affect parking, it’s going to block the sun, the street is not ready for the over-influx of people, traffic will be a nightmare, the kids will be exposed to dust and other toxic materials for two years…and so on. Our goal as neighbors, by the way,  is to scale down the construction, not to not make it happen at all. We are ok with an apartment building being there, but taking into consideration that all the other buildings on that street are just two stories tall, we want something along those lines.

Then it is the turn of Stacey Greenwalt, from the board of Directors to speak up and she somehow misjudges the intelligence of the people in her community. Not only does she state that this is a great thing for the community (after the people who have been living there all their lives stated why it is not), but she even dares to say that this building, a six-story building is good for the environment! Her reasoning is that because that building only provides one parking space per unit (that you have to pay aside from the rent), it would incentivize people to only have one car. No, Stacey, that would incentivize people to park on the street and the neighbors have just told you there is no parking as it is already. At that moment, my blood is boiling and I can’t help to interrupt and say “let’s be real, we’re in LA, and everyone needs a car.” The Jerry Springer in me is getting heated.

Then the developer spokesperson, Matthew, said something even more bizarre “there are other means of transportation, such as buses.” Matthew, have you ever ridden a bus in LA? Clearly not, so let me tell you what buses look like these days; homeless shelters in wheels and only homeless and blue-collar workers, who by the way, are not the ones who are going to afford the $5,000 rent in Mar Vista, use them. Because unfortunately, LA is not a city designed to use public transportation. Unless you live within walking distance of a metro station (which there is no line in Mar Vista) and your office is also within walking distance of another metro station, it’s unlikely you will ever use it.

He even dared to say “You can bike too. We’re providing biking spaces so people can bike more.” Again, LA is not Amsterdam. Biking is not only dangerous with all this traffic and impractical but also, how are you going to bike through areas full of homeless encampments such as underneath Venice Blvd. and the 405? I bit my tongue though, I’ve already interrupted once.

Then someone who I suspect is siding with the developers calls in and asks a very random question: “is this going to be a non-toxic building?”

To which the developer responds: “of course! It is going to be built with the greenest of the standards.” Well, unless you guys are building a treehouse, or a building that runs with no gas or electricity, with plants intertwined in it, there is no such a thing as a “non-toxic” building. Here is what a green building looks like and that is not what the plans for 12124 Pacific Ave are. Speaking of green standards, this building poses a huge green energy issue. Since the building is intended to be much higher than all the other buildings, it will block all the solar panels many of the neighbors have and it would force them to go back to electricity.

The zoom meeting ended shortly after that with Jeff Khau from the office of Traci Park saying that they don’t support that monstrosity of a building but also saying that if the developer is getting the exemption there is not much they can do. So he focused on crappy consolation prizes from the developer to the community; “will you be providing filters to all the neighbors and noise-canceling headphones?” This is a nice gesture, but a completely useless solution for a preschool where kids need to play outside and need to hear what they are doing. So I felt very defeated after all.

However, there is a glimpse of hope and this is where I want to grab your attention. As an individual, you can feel hopeless and say, how am I going to beat the big-money people? Well, for one, what corporations don’t have is a community —and one should never underestimate the power of your community. So if you are in a situation like this, look for the Elise of your neighborhood and if you can’t find her, become her. Start talking to your neighbors, to your colleagues, and I can guarantee you that you will find so much support.  And even if the problem is not in your neighborhood and doesn’t affect you directly, you should help. As the Spanish saying states “Cuando veas las barbas de tu vecino pelar, pon las tuyas a remojar“ (when you see the beard of your neighbor lit on fire, start soaking yours), because you are likely to be next. Once you have gathered a group, go to your city representatives; email them, call them, and show up at their office. They need to hear you, after all, they work for you, and not the other way around. Remember that.

I don’t know if we will win the battle and will reach the happy medium we are aiming for; a four-story building as opposed to a six-one. But we will go to the end. As Dolores Huerta said, “Si, se puede!”

Here is the petition, please help us!