Communities Under Siege

From Windsor Village to Rancho Higuera, neighborhoods are challenging the developer friendly hegemony. Frequently at the center of the rancor, the latest planning fad or mandate: density along transit corridors. Familiar sounding mantra, sometimes paired with transit village, density appropriate, and smart growth.

Of course, transit corridors often ring neighborhoods with detached single family housing. Many, even well-to-do addresses like Windsor Square, are being encircled by scale disrespectin', shadow casting boxominiums and the like.

But wait, haven't we gone this route before? All those ugly dingbats built to the freeway's edge in neighborhoods like the West Adams Avenues and Sugar Hill. Density near transit, that was the idea then too. Only it contributed to the destabilization of those neighborhoods; non conforming "improvements" at the expense of established home owners; encroachment not rapprochement.