Jesus Sanchez's Eastsider LA blog has zinged LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne for living in a single-family home in Eagle Rock, even as Hawthorne writes about neighborhood resistance to a condo project in Echo Park. Eastsider's point: Should Hawthorne, an advocate of smarter density in LA, live by example?
While you wonder if Eastsider's point is a tad simplistic or completely relevant, it's worth pointing out this related older LA Weekly article (written, ironically, by David Zahniser, Sanchez's partner), that revealed that seven out of the city's then-planning commissioners lived in single-family homes, some in suburban situations, and far from transportation. The upshot of that story is that, yup, many planners, architects, and politicians who push density still prefer to live in leafy neighborhoods, and, like Hawthorne, in single-family homes. Why? Likely because they prefer to, and because they can afford it. From the Weekly: "Of course, there’s nothing inherently bad about living in a single-family neighborhood, or an L.A. County suburb, or the Inland Empire — the archetypal center of five-bedroom homes with four-car garages. But smart growth is at its heart a movement that is asking Americans — including Los Angeles residents — to change their behavior, by giving up cars, backyards and single-family homes."
· People who live in glass, single-family houses shouldn’t throw stones [Eastsider LA]
· Do As We Say, Not As We Do [LA Weekly]
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