A Wish for Downtown LA

We’ve had a lot of conversations in my home about the Christmas Spirit.  That’s a necessary conversation when Santa somehow finds you even when you’re traveling, or when you’ve never lived in a house with a chimney, or when most of the places you’ve lived have actually had restricted access elevators, security cameras, or even watchful doormen. Yet for 10 years, Santa has arrived unimpeded by traffic or the logistics of completing the job, and mostly unquestioned. 

Three years ago, when our move from Vancouver to Los Angeles occurred before Christmas Day, Santa’s gifts arrived at our unfurnished condo long before we did. When our weeklong slow drive down the Interstate 5 finally ended in Downtown Los Angeles on Christmas Eve, I arranged a distraction so that I could borrow the Christmas tree from the South Park BID office and set it up in our temporary living room.  The trail of tinsel down the hallway of Level on Olive, was enough for Santa to find us on the 11th floor and leave more gifts than my road weary kids had any business expecting. 

I think I’ve become an expert at creating holiday magic, thankfully with a willing co-conspirator who makes sure details like carrots for the reindeer are left on the plate with cookies for Santa, and that gifts are plentiful, strategically sized, and not just techy, expensive, and inevitably confiscated for my own personal enjoyment!  She makes sure we watch Elf, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and A Christmas Story a sufficient number of times. My co-conspirator also encourages us to see every additional holiday light activation within a 30 mile radius of the ice rink and Christmas tree at L.A. LIVE. 

As parents, the last thing we try to figure out is what each of us might want for Christmas, and whether we’re even doing that this year.  For better or worse, we’re all only a few taps on a touchscreen away from a quick delivery of whatever it is we imagine in the moment we really want. And therefore, downtown streets aren’t filled with holiday shopping crowds the way of years past. Instead, buildings email residents that package rooms are full and kindly requests if you borrow a cart to claim your haul, and that you return the cart so that other residents can repeat the same routine.  

But this season, I don’t want anything that can be delivered with the help of Blitzen, Fed Ex, UPS, or even Rudoph. And I wouldn’t have moved from Vancouver to Los Angeles if my dreams were of a white Christmas.  No, this year, I dream the same gift I wanted last year, and the year before.  I want an investment in the Oceanwide Project that transforms that blight into a real community asset!  I want the three ghosts from a Christmas Carol to visit anyone capable of moving this project forward, and for the public and private sectors to wake up unscrooged with renewed optimism about these three lumps of coal that form the backdrop out my window behind my Christmas tree.     

I remain grateful for everything I’ve already received; it’s been a long and challenging, but good year. Maybe Christmas came early with the expansion of the Los Angeles Convention Center.  But if anyone deserves more than one gift, it’s Downtown Los Angeles. And I believe in the same Christmas Spirit my kids do. The one that pays attention to what we really want and finds a way through a mix of magic and strategy to make it all happen. So may you find mistletoe, may your schedule be as full of loves and lights as mine, and may we all make whatever magic we can for others. And let’s hope to wake up soon to a Christmas miracle of reason for optimism that we’ll finally have a win for Oceanwide in the New Year.