[Small image via Squidoo]
Has someone gotten to ex-City Councilmember Jack Weiss? He starts his opinion piece in the Jewish Journal today by vigorously recanting his 2002 statement that "The NFL needs Los Angeles more than L.A. needs the NFL." His statement in 2010? "I was wrong to oppose an effort to build a stadium in Los Angeles." And his main point is that an NFL stadium in Industry will provide a communal experience for community-starved Angelenos. He cites the excitement in places like LA Live, the Coliseum, and the Rose Bowl on game nights, and he talks about his annual trip with friends to Green Bay for the Packers/Vikings game.
And then there's this:
[T]hat’s what intrigues me from an urban policy standpoint about an NFL stadium — it addresses what Bret Easton Ellis’ narrator was talking about in "Less Than Zero" when he said, "People are afraid to merge in Los Angeles." It fills the void in Paul Haggis’ opening lines from "Crash" — "It’s the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We’re always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something." If we build a stadium and bring an NFL team to Los Angeles, it won’t just be the players who’ll crash into each other.
But Streetsblog calls foul: "If you want to make more public spaces for Los Angeles, that is a noble cause and one that there are many people willing to support. However, an example of fulfilling Weiss' vision for everyone, not just he and his football buddies, would be to widen our sidewalks, create more public plazas, and increase our park space."
· Los Angeles Needs the NFL [Jewish Journal]
· Fmr. Councilman Weiss: We Need the NFL to Increase Our Public Space [Streetsblog LA]
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