Elliot Gonzales has been working for years to revitalize the rooftop of the downtown Civic Center.
9:57am | You heard of the president’s State of the Union address. You attended the mayor’s State of the City address. Well, Saturday’s your chance to learn about the State of the Civic Center.
Some of you might be asking: “What is this so-called ‘civic center’?” Others might realize that I’m referring to the city hall/main library complex and yet wonder what there is to say about it.
Elliot Gonzales has news for you. He wants you to come out Saturday at 10:00am sharp to take part in My City Hall, a two-hour program of talk, music, tours, and more, all of which Gonzales says is designed to “engage people in the experience of what we would do if we had access to the rooftop,” along with educating the public about the less-than-fully-tapped resource that is Lincoln Park, the official name of the Civic Center grounds, an area that includes the rooftop park, which hasn’t been officially open to the public for 15 years.
That the rooftop was built in 1977 to be a central public space but has long been allowed to go to seed is a pet peeve of the 23-year-old Gonzales, who started regularly going to city council meeting four years ago simply because “I just really wanted to be involved in something green” on the city level but didn’t know how to go about getting involved.
Before long Gonzales became aware of the rooftop park, and since then he estimates that over 60% of the many times he’s spoken to council has been about this issue.
“Everyone from our city, and everyone from L.A., and everyone else who visits [the Civic Center,] that’s what they see of our City Hall? That’s the message you want to send them?” Gonzales asks with incredulity. “We’re telling people: ‘This is the condition of our city.'”
The sheer dogged enthusiasm that Gonzales displays whenever he talks about this type of issue did not go unnoticed by Mayor Bob Foster, who asked Gonzales to stay after a late-2009 city council meeting so they could discuss how Gonzales might be officially involved with the City. The mayor appointed Gonzales his “Commissioner of Sustainability at-Large” and asked him to put together a plan for what he’d like to see done with the rooftop. Gonzales says Mayor Foster has expressed a particular interest in this issue, having formerly put together his own plan for a $9 million refurbishment. “The mayor says that he looks down at [the rooftop] every day, and he’d love to see something happen with it.”
But Gonzales is concerned that perhaps because the mayor’s own plan didn’t go anywhere, he may not really believe any plan is feasible. Yet he aims to show the mayor and the rest of city staff1 that not only is it feasible, but that investing in a “green roof”—Gonzales envisions solar panels, native flora, and rain barrels—would far exceed paying for itself by contributing to stormwater retention, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, regulating building temperature, reducing urban runoff, and increasing roof life, among other benefits.
That, of course, is to say nothing of the less fiscally tangible—but no less real—benefits of turning the Civic Center into a true gathering place for residents, especially as an arts center. To that end, Gonzales has founded Our Urban Paradise to “create a community rooftop garden and parks to provide a space for the community to engage in learning about sustainability, as well as provide a central location to experience the arts.”
“It was built for that! It’s not like it was my idea; it’s not some crazy idea I came up with,” says Gonzales of the rooftop and his desires for it. “We built this thing. We paid for all of it […] and it’s just sitting there, our investment. […] We talk about all these great ideas, [but] start with what you already have. […] You see [the civic center] every day. How can you talk about all these great ideas you’re going to implement in the city when what you see outside of your own window looks terrible? It’s not like there’s a plan or money for a new Civic Center. We should do things with the resources that we already have.”
Saturday’s your chance to find out more about what we already have. Come out for music by artists such as Lowly Lisa and the Rollie Pollies, tours of the Main Library’s art galleries and the general environs, and open discussions of the current and future state of the Civic Center, including the rooftop park. Fun, educational, community-oriented—oh, and free. Not a bad combination.
My City Hall takes place Saturday, February 12, from 10:00am-Noon. For more information, visit Our Urban Paradise on Facebook.
Footnotes
1 Worth singling out here is Councilmember Suja Lowenthal, in whose 2nd District the Civic Center is located, making her the most important player on the council regarding the rooftop. Gonzales politely notes his feeling that Lowenthal’s office has been less than encouraging of his efforts on this front.