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What is distressing in all of this, however, is not the

bickering but the total lack of intelligent public discourse

over the stadium proposals from the perspective of urban

planning. This is partly by design. AEG, for example, hasrefused to disclose the exact location of the proposed

stadium site and has yet to complete a formal design.

Hahn has not exactly pressed the company to do so. The

assumption seems to be that all development is good

development, that anyone willing to invest large sums of

money in a decrepit downtown neighborhood should begreeted with heads bowed in appreciation--or at least get a

supportive pat on the back.

Such an attitude toward a pro- ject that would have a

significant effect on the physical shape of downtown would

be understandable if a big development company could be

trusted to create an original, thoughtful alternative to thekind of sports-retail-entertainment centers that are

sprouting all over America. But AEG's proposal is nothing

more than a generic formula--one unlikely to spark the kind

of urban renaissance that its planners have promised.

Downtown Los Angeles, meanwhile, has been searching

for a new identity since the mid-1920s, when its importanceas a vibrant urban center first began to fade as the city

expanded westward. Its revival will require the highest

levels of planning, and an injection of bold, new ideas.

Anything short is unlikely to turn around an area known

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largely for its dilapidated buildings and empty parking lots.

The stadium proposal should be understood as part of a

much bigger plan, all of it currently controlled by AEG.The first phase, Staples Center, was completed in 1999.

Last fall, the city approved the second phase of

development, a 40-acre retail, entertainment and housing

complex just to the north of Staples. It would include a

7,000-seat theater, a 1,200-room hotel, several blocks of

retail along Olympic and Figueroa and 800 units of

housing. (AEG has yet to set a date for groundbreaking onthis phase of development.)

The football stadium would cover roughly 20 acres just to

the east of the retail complex. And although the developer

has refused to disclose its exact location, most reports place

it between 11th and 12th streets around Hope Street. AEG

has unveiled a very preliminary stadium design by the L.A.office of Seattle-based NBBJ Architects.

Nonetheless, the thinking behind the plan is relatively

clear-- and somewhat predictable. It embodies the kind of

"pedestrian- friendly" planning formula that has become

the norm among major developers in recent years. In a

nutshell, the idea is to create instantly the kind of vibrantstreet life that exists in older, denser and more traditional

city centers. The tactics are simple enough: Replace large,

monolithic structures with a more varied, small-scaled play

of forms and build lots and lots of retail along the street.

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But the impact such a development would have on the

surrounding urban fabric is more dubious. Sports retail-

entertainment complexes are largely introverted, self-

contained organisms. As such, they are unlikely to spur thekind of broad revitalization that the developers have

promised. This is especially true of the football stadium.

No amount of retail shops will disguise what it actually is:

an enormous void that, the developer admits, will remain

empty 320-plus days a year.

There are other options. The most obvious would be torenovate the existing L.A. Coliseum, a landmark structure

at the edge of Exposition Park. One of the city's oldest

historic districts, the area was originally designed as a

series of monuments set around a formal Beaux Arts park.

It includes the 1920s-era Armory building-- currently being

transformed into a science school by the Santa Monica-

based architectural firm Morphosis--and the NaturalHistory Museum, which is in the midst of hiring an

architect for a major expansion.

Renovating the Coliseum stadium would not only bolster

such redevelopment efforts, it would add another element

to what is slowly becoming a more genuinely rich and

democratic public forum. It would also serve to strengthenthe identity of an existing community of mostly lower-

middle-class homes.

The more essential problem, however, is not where the

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stadium should go, but how such decisions are made.

AEG's decision to build the stadium near Staples has

nothing to do with urban planning issues but with the logic

of corporate tie-ins. It is intended to guarantee that, afterpaying the price of admission to a football game, visitors

could then wander out and buy a T-shirt and steak dinner at

an AEG retail mall or see a show at the AEG theater.

That experience might be slightly less disturbing if AEG's

proposal were more daring. The robber barons of an earlier

age were often driven by greed. But they were also apt topromote bolder, more original visions. The original

"Miracle Mile," for example, which was conceived by the

realtor A.W. Ross, was an architectural response to L.A.'s

nascent car culture that was radical for its time. In New

York, Rockefeller Center was more than a money-

generating office complex; it became a symbol of

capitalism's relentless drive. Whatever the motive--a senseof civic pride, outright vanity or fear of death--these

developers were driven to reach beyond the average and the

mundane.

Thus far, AEG's plans for downtown have yet to show such

ambition. They are safe, formulaic, somewhat soulless.

They embody an age of corporate gigantism in whichdecisions are made by committee, and the only real concern

is the bottom line.

If these corporations insist on offering up tired old formulas

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as the future of our cities, then it is the government's

responsibility to hold them to a higher standard. Hahn

could begin by acknowledging that effective city planning

requires more than just spending bails of money. He couldstand up to developers who try to strong-arm the city into

accepting gargantuan urban proposals even before they

have been adequately thought through.

Of course, some developers will tell the city to get lost. So

what? No development at all may be a better option than

selling off the city's soul.