Smart Growth and DnA’s Visit to Mayor-elect Garcetti’s “Green” Home

It’s not every day that a mayor’s home is featured in Dwell magazine! Throughout his political career, Eric Garcetti has spoken of his commitment to “smart growth” and sustainable development.…

It’s not every day that a mayor’s home is featured in Dwell magazine!

Throughout his political career, Eric Garcetti has spoken of his commitment to “smart growth” and sustainable development. In fact, in our recent LA Grows UP outreach, a listener who is concerned about overdevelopment in Hollywood responded by saying: “We hear about “Smart Growth” but the term has proven to be a meaningless placation device. Does Eric Garcetti live in one of these bland glass and steel high rises he touts so constantly? No, he doesn’t. He lives in a nice home on a tree lined street in Silver Lake.”

And before that in Echo Park. It so happens that DnA visited Eric and his wife Amy Wakeland– back in 2008 when the mayor-elect was working on Barack Obama’s Presidential Campaign — in their previous “nice home,” an unshowy, hillside residence designed in the early 1950s by architect Daniel Dworsky. I wrote about it then for Dwell magazine and after describing the architectural and energy-saving features of their remodel, I asked them whether it would be, “even more sustainable to reside in a multifamily dwelling in Garcetti’s district or downtown and walk or bus to City Hall.” As reported then, both Garcetti and Wakeland said this is an issue with which they grapple.

“I would say that the truth is that everyone living in North America could be more green,” says Wakeland, “and it’s important that when people start doing this work they focus on what they can accomplish without getting too guilty. People need to feel like they are making positive contributions moving forward.” Pointing out that a public transit line is just three blocks from their house, Garcetti concludes: “I think L.A. offers a way to live with nature while living green so it doesn’t have to be either-or. I think we can live in harmony with both the city and the topography and lifestyle that has always defined Los Angeles.” Read more here.