We need permanent employment with good wages, healthcare and local autonomy, not just construction jobs, LA congestion and street crime. We can't afford to waste city-owned land on another typical boondoggle. Midway is an opportunity for great public value--we need parkland, open space, an educational campus, research and even manufacturing.
Why is this important?
Midway is a wake-up call for local and state governance. After decades of development motivated by budgets of state and local governments, and by short-term profits of land developers, we are dealing with wildfires, floods, volcanos. earthquakes, drought, poverty and homelessness. Our infrastructure is overburdened and overwhelmed. We have low-wage employment, poor healthcare and education and unmanageable housing cost. Midway is the poster child for bad land-use planning. We must begin to plan and develop with respect to needs, priorities and vulnerabilities of communities. Midway is a moment of truth.
