Now that Mayor Villaraigosa has selected Michael LoGrande to become director of planning, we've asked activists from around the city to give LoGrande advice: How should he approach the job?

Next up: Neal Anderberg, Palms Neighborhood Council

Los Angeles is obviously a growing city. The population is forcing the metro area to continually expand, and transform the urban environs into denser and denser population hubs.

We should examine the successes of medium-sized cities and the failures of other modern large cities. After all, Los Angeles truly is a collection of small towns with different types of ethnic populations, socio-economic backgrounds, business districts, transportation bottlenecks, and valued histories.

Across the city, developers' interests have re-shaped some residential neighborhoods completely. Let's prevent blight by designing effective business districts, zoning adjacent residential areas appropriately for projected growth, and providing strategic transportation solutions.

Limits on developers should be decided neighborhood by neighborhood, and held fast — variances and zone adjustments relinquish the city's ability to plan at all.

The goal of any city planner should be to create an infrastructure that limits segregation of certain populations, encourages creative design, provides a visual link to the historical development of individual neighborhoods, and articulates a vision for the future of the city.

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