You’re listening to Unite and Heal America with Matt Matern. I’m your host for today, Julia Cottrelll filling in Matt Matern. And our guest today is Alfred Fraijo, who is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Friends of Hollywood Central Park. Welcome, Alfred.

Thanks so much pleasure to be with you today.

We’re happy to have you here. Why don’t you start by telling us a bit about the organization Friends of the Hollywood Central Park,

Happy to have Friends of the Central Park, was started with the simple mission of building a park in Hollywood, over the one on one freeway. It is a coalition of professionals, business owners, community activists, and civic leaders in Los Angeles that have bought into this incredible idea of building open space green space and a much needed part of Los Angeles. We’re all volunteers.

Organization has been around for some time, we focus on building awareness, advocating for green space and the development of our park and also working on recruiting support from the federal, state and local level for funding the construction and operation of the park.

That sounds great. Now I know you’re a lawyer in land use real estate and environmental law and a partner in it in an international law firm. I imagine that you come across these types of projects quite frequently. Why this project? In particular, why why are you putting your name to this, this this project?

I appreciate the question. I am from Los Angeles. I’m an Angeleno at heart born and raised. And I’m passionate about our city. I’m also passionate about the value of green space, and the health benefits that it produces to the neighborhoods where it’s located. And this particular community is one of the most hardcore communities in California.

And so we started with that basic need of wanting to improve the built environment for the benefit of the 44,000 children that live within walking distance of our project. And so it would be an A great amenity for that. And we were committed to doing something that is also a green infrastructure project.

LA is built around key infrastructure, the freeway being one, and we wanted to be able to convert this resource into something that was more beneficial. That would capture the emissions from the freeway, turn it into clean air, and also produce the recreational space for all the children that live in the area.

Oh, I’m curious to hear a bit more. How about how it captures this, this, turning it into green air? What is the project? Tell us about the project what it is what you’re proposing. Right?

Well, the project itself is to build a Cat Park. So it would be a park that would be built over the 101 freeway, starting at the Santa Monica exit all the way to Hollywood Boulevard. And that section of the freeway actually goes below grade. So it would be building of park add grade that would connect to this portion of Hollywood, east and west. And it would consist of a mile long linear park. That would be approximately 38 acres.

Yeah, so just to kind of visualize it, then it would be a sort of roof over the graded the graded freeway, which kind of goes into the ground, and the park would sit on top of that roof.

That’s exactly right. When when we talked about it, we talked about capping the park with the P as opposed to a tee. It’s not a park for cats in the park for people though we welcome cats as well. But it would be designed to connect those that urban fabric of Hollywood at the ground level and cover the freeway.

I see I see. So effectively right now it’s unused, unused space. It’s just kind of the top of the freeway.

That’s correct. That’s a brilliant aspect of this that we’re creating something out of thin air so to speak. We’re creating it above the freeway and using the airspace above the freeway to build this incredible green amenity for the neighborhood.

And has this been done before? Is this the first park of its kind or can we find this in you know other areas of Los Angeles, California?

Can yes you can find it in other parts of the country for sure. California also has similar parks and at smaller scale. So the technology that you need to build this park is definitely in practice throughout the country. There’s over 200 Cat parks throughout the United States.

So what are some of the benefits of the park?

So tremendous benefits. One thing is that we know that, from the data that we’ve seen from various organizations, that green space actually produces a lot of great health outcomes for the residents that live near it, and also use it both in terms of the air quality, so the improvement in the environment is tremendous.

We know that there’s a lot of incidents of asthma and other health conditions in the area, having the ability to have passive and active recreation would have a tremendous benefit, as well. We know that green space promotes healing in communities and and individuals that have a particular health condition, it actually improves outcomes health outcomes in that regard, as well.

We have, as I mentioned, a lot of children that live within walking distance of the bar bar Park, we also have the high school that would be right next to the park, and they would have this the opportunity to use the recreational spaces and amenity for the high school as well.

What type of amenities recreational space, so we talking about what what are you proposing to have in the park.

So we anticipated being primarily green space. So imagine having a great lawn, like Central Park in the middle of Hollywood, we also will have some other amenities for active recreation, whether it’s biking trails, playgrounds for the children, we hope to also engage the community in urban farming, we would have also the ability to stage events, there’s going to be a number of built facilities that would allow for music performances and other types of gatherings and activities for the community.

And so we’d have a whole array of activities, outdoor activities, primarily for the community in that area and for the region as well. We hope that by building these facilities that will generate revenue and also finance the operation of our park long term.

Okay, so you bring up a good question about, you know, revenue and costs, how much is it going to cost to build a park like this.

So we anticipate that the cost, drumroll base would be about a billion dollars to build on just under a billion dollars. And for a project, this scale and complexity, we think it’s the the estimates that we have are pretty reasonable, we expect that a portion of the funding for it would come from the federal government, another portion would come from local and state resources.

And in another part of it would also be from private individuals, foundations, and donors as well, to support the both the construction and also the operation long term, the actual airspace would be conveyed to the nonprofit. So really, all the money would go into the hard costs and soft costs of building the actual project itself. And then we hope the facilities will finance the long term operation of it.

I see I see. And so um, where are you in terms of getting that funding?

We are right now in the process of completing our environmental studies, we want to be able to have a shovel ready project in the next year or so to be able to qualify for some of the monies that are being made available. We’re also obviously monitoring some of the infrastructure initiatives that are being proposed by the Biden administration around connecting communities.

And we think that our project is also very much eligible based on the criteria that’s been promulgated by the Biden administration around the need to heal communities through the investment of community serving uses and facilities. So we have a project that is shovel worthy, not yet shovel ready. But we’re looking at getting the local approvals to make it ready for built for for building.

Okay. So when when you mentioned the Biden administration, and getting funding from the federal government, are you expecting that a large portion of the funding will come from the infrastructure bill that that the Biden administration is, is trying to push through?

We certainly hope so. There’s a number of existing programs with the Department of Transportation with HUD and other various federal departments where there’s already money dedicated for Our urban communities like Los Angeles, so we already qualify for some pools of money. But we think that the infrastructure and proposal from the Biden administration presents a unique opportunity to really add some rocket fuel to our fundraising initiative.

So we certainly are excited about that. Like I said, Our project is perfectly in alignment with some of the criteria that’s been issued by the White House around building green space building infrastructure.

Okay, well, we have to take a break. You’re listening to KABC 790. Unite and Heal America with Matt Matern. I’m your guest host for today. Julio Cottrell. We’ll be right back after the break.

As you may know, your host Matt Matern of Unite and Heal America is also the founder of Matern Law Group, their team of experienced employment, consumer and environmental attorneys are dedicated to leveling the playing field by giving everyone access to the highest quality legal representation contact 844 MLG for you, that’s 844 MLG for you, or 84465449688446544968.

You’re listening to Unite and Heal America with Matt Matern. I’m your guest host for today Giulia Cotterell. filling in for Matt Matern. And our guest today is Alfred Alfred Franco, chairman of the Friends of the Hollywood Central Park. Now Alpha before the break, we were talking about funding and we covered federal funding. I wanted to pivot a little bit and talk about local and state funding and where you expect that to come from.

Yes, thank you for the question, Julia. We have, you know, a very audacious project requires some audacious ideas and how to finance it. And I think we’ve certainly hit the mark on on creative solutions. I will share with you that one specific initiative and tool that we’re using for the development of our park, the financing of it is a local tool. It really was designed by the state legislature, it’s called infrastructure, enhanced infrastructure financing district or EIFD for short.

It is a tool that was created to allow projects at the local level to capture some of the tax increment that is generated in a specific district and be able to channel those additional additional revenue that’s created to an allocation of tax increment for the development of infrastructure. And so we’ve actually completed several studies that have estimated the ability to actually collect significant revenue from what we know to be an increase in tax in that area of Hollywood, and dedicate that to the construction of our park.

That fund that would be created through the increment tax is probably enough to be able to finance the construction of our amazing Hollywood Central Park. We’re not relying on that exclusively, as I mentioned, we’re definitely looking and and finding resources at the federal level. But we want to be able to put on the table, a set of tools that really allow us not only to build it, but also operate it.

Right, right. And how much will it costs to operate?

So we were now we’re we don’t have the exact numbers on that Giulia, in terms of annual operation we’re currently under, we’re doing some studies for that. We of course, want to make sure that we have enough capital to have a robust public engagement and public programming for the park.

Being able to manage green space is something that, of course, our technical committee that we’ve created through our organization or nonprofit is working on. And we’ve been able to do some estimates on that, but they’re still preliminary.

See, what type of support do you currently have?

Right now we have both local support meaning from the city of Los Angeles to fund several of the studies that are underway, primarily focused on the environmental the potential environmental impacts of our construction, namely, preparing an environmental impact report comparing studies that support the engineering and technologies that are going to be used to construct it. That funding is coming from local government.

And in addition to that, we also have a funding from local organizations and local individuals as well. We have an annual we have an annual gala, and we have a fundraisers that we do throughout the A year to support both the operations of the nonprofit and also dedicated funds to be able to support some of the work that we’re doing around the actual building of our, our amazing park.

Okay, great. You mentioned, you know, a number of studies around the environmental impact of the park, can you speak to, you know, the the impact it will have?

Sure, absolutely. So under, under, as you may know, under California law, any project, especially a project at this scale has to investigate the potential impacts associated with construction, we are going to be building a park, and one of the busiest highways in the nation, the 101 freeway. And so we’ve really spent a lot of time thinking through how we would stage construction to minimize the disruption of the cars and Angelenos that are riding on the 101 freeway.

So a big part of our environmental analysis has been focused on that. Another piece of it has been, as I mentioned, the engineering, both in terms of the subsurface meaning under the green space, the experience of the vehicles, the capture of some of the emissions that are going to result from capping the freeway, how those get reside, recycled and clean, which we caught, of course, from our standpoint, will be a net positive for the residents there. In addition, we’re also doing some studies around the long term operation demand on parking, for instance, how folks are going to use the, the streets and sidewalks that connect to our park.

And we think of course, all of that is going to result in a really incredible asset for the community in terms of access, in terms of opportunity for, as I said, for healing, and some passive and active recreation as well. One of the really exciting early aspects of our park is the fact that we’re going to have a bike blue. So we’ll have bikers be able to access a park and cross the different segments of it. There are several bridges currently, that bisects the one to one freeway, those bridges would be connected by our car.

And so making sure that both pedestrians and bicycle riders and others could access the entire 38 acres safely is a priority for us to make making sure that we have that. And we’re really excited for the plans that we have. And those are available online. If you search the Hollywood freeway Central Park, and go online and you Google it, you’ll see some of the incredible limited images that we have. There’s nothing more impactful than to be able to see the before and after pictures that we have available that show a very busy freeway that we’re all familiar with.

And then we have images that show kids playing on much needed park space over the 101 freeway. We think it’s a beautiful story for the city of Los Angeles. And of course, it’s also when we talk about healing and the benefits of the green space. Julia, we also think about the communities that were separated when the freeway was constructed.

So having an opportunity to connect the community and heal this sort of gash that you see this infrastructure gash is going to be really an incredible part of the story of LA. We’ve thought about the Olympics, of course, as well, and how our park could actually support the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. So there’s a lot of incredible opportunities for staging or special events for some of the competitive events as well, that we hope to be able to introduce when the park is built.

Yeah, I mean, I agree, it certainly sounds like a very, you know, an incredible project an audacious one. How long does a park like this take to build How long can you know los Angelenos expect construction to go on for.

So right now we have an anticipated construction schedule of about four years. That’ll take the the first part, of course will be to be able to build the pylons or the pillars that are going to support the cap above the freeway. And we expect it that will take a course of several months, and would consist of staging as I mentioned, the closure of some portions of the freeway, all of that would be done in the at night without with minimal interruption of people using the freeway, but that will be a big chunk of it.

And the rest of it through the rest of the construction would really be at the surface of the proposed Park. And that if you imagine folks building on top of a platform we’ll have minimal interruption for the folks that are actually using the freeway Hmm.

I see. And you also mentioned that capture of admissions from under the cap. And I was just sort of thinking that, you know, is it safe for people to, you know, be playing, you know, above a freeway, which I guess traditionally is considered, you know, properties around freeway a generally considered a flow of value because of the particle particles that are flying around in the air. Is it safe for people to be playing in a park above a freeway?

Absolutely. So, in fact, it’s going to be much safer and healthier than it is now, right is our hope is, and the way that we’ve designed the park is to be able to create filters and create special systems that actually clean the air, that is, and the emissions, be able to the particulates that are emitted into the air as a result of the exhaust from the vehicles, all of that exhaust and emissions is going to be captured on through a special system under the park and then ultimately released from the top of the park as clean air.

So one of the things that we’ve been exploring is actually getting some carbon credits as a result of the cleaning of the air that we’re going to be producing, and actually emitting some clean air into the neighborhoods that where the park is located.

In addition to that, Julia, we’re talking about the development of an actual park with many trees, hundreds of trees throughout the 30 acres that we’re proposing. And so having the ability to be able to plan the trees that actually clean the air is going to be another important resource for the neighborhood.

That That sounds fantastic. And I think I had read somewhere that you know, 1200 trees were going to be planted within the 1000. Trees. Right. We have to take a break. But I’d love to chat more about carbon capture and carbon emissions. When we come back.

You’re listening to KABC 790. Unite and Heal America with Matt Matern, we’ll be back right after the break. You’re listening to Unite and Heal America with Matt Matern. I’m your guest host for today, Julia Cottrell filling in for Matt Matern. Our guest today is Alfred Fraijo, who is the chairman of Friends of the Hollywood Central Park.

Alfred right before the break, we were talking about carbon capture. And, you know, this new technology that that the park anticipates having, capturing, you know, creating filters capturing the carbon emissions and then emitting clean air. Tell us a bit about that, that technology, how you plan to utilize it, and and what what type of carbon credits we’re talking about?

Yeah, sure. So as as you know, we do have a mandate in California, to ensure that we have carbon neutral solutions for some of our infrastructure. Obviously, the promotion of electric vehicles, is a direct result of that initiative to ensure that we have less emissions of carbon into the air. But that’s going to take some time. We think that with the development of our park, and once Well, soon, we’ll have a air cleaning mechanism in the heart of Hollywood, to help us address the emissions that are coming out of the 101 freeway.

As I mentioned earlier, the idea of capping a active freeway is not a new thing. You think of Boston, you think of places like Houston and Dallas as well, you think of the Great Park in Chicago, all of those consist of one form or via or another of capping an active arterial transportation node for the city. In LA, this would be the first of its kind. And so we’ve taken very a lot of care and thinking about how we’re going to introduce this technology that’s implemented another app parks to Los Angeles to great benefit for the residents that are there.

The actual system itself. And there are several alternatives that we’ve been exploring of what to do. Mostly, it’s a combination of great design and architecture, to be able to create those systems underneath the freeway, and then be able to release the air the clean air to the you know, above the park as well. So the actual technology itself is pretty straightforward. And we’re hoping that we obviously get an opportunity to partner with the companies that are currently building those systems.

One thing that we have been exploring of course is the the introduction of the trees that you mentioned over 1200 trees are going to be planted on the surface and around the perimeter of the park. So air quality is a big priority for us. But there’s another tremendous benefits Julia, as you can imagine, from having green space, in the area, there’s a lot of noise that gets emitted from the freeway currently, when you walk the perimeter of our proposed project area.

You it’s palpable, how the noise also has a direct impact in the way and the well being of the residents there. So being able to attenuate that noise by producing a park over the freeways can be a tremendous benefit for the children and the adults that live that are going to be living right next to the park.

Yeah, you mentioned similar parks are capped parks in Boston and Chicago. Do they have do they currently have the cleaning mechanism that you’re proposing for the Hollywood Central Park?

Yes, many of them do. Some of them have actual are not only partially capping these infrastructure systems, meaning the freeways, and so they have the natural attenuation of air circulation, because they’re partially capped. Others are fully cap like ours, for that segment of the freeway. And they are using technology successful technology to protect it. For us to protect the air.

For us, you’ll hear what we’re trying to do is say, hey, if we’re going to have a net positive contribution to the air quality in the region, we should benefit from some of the initiatives at the state level that gives you those carbon credits. Or we could also potentially create a program where other folks that need the carbon credits could purchase them from the Hollywood freeway, Central Park. And so those are really sort of on the vanguard of what we think is possible in relation to clean air and carbon credit programs in California.

Because it’s a first cap part of its scale in the state of California, I think the sky’s the limit, we need to think creatively about how we could take advantage of the cleaning qualities of the systems that we’re going to introduce for the park, but it is a bit of a blank slate. We are constantly thinking about creative ways that we could produce additional benefits, and also claim the credits for the development of the park.

Right? Well, it certainly sounds like you’re at the cutting edge of of, you know, environmental eco friendly parks, which really should be what we’re all kind of aiming for. Does California have any carbon credit programs right now?

Yes. So there were several that were passed about three years ago, that were designed to allow for the banking of credits, and the exchange of credits as well. Some of those programs were that were actually designed for a low income minority communities to be able to finance some of the amenities that we’re proposing for the development of the park.

So that initiative, the carbon credit program that’s managed through the Air Resources Board is already in place. And they was produced with an agenda to try to restore a lot of the communities that were disproportionately impacted by some of these emissions. When you think about where freeways were built in California, and especially in Los Angeles, a lot of those, those freeways were built around communities that are low income, and minority communities, communities that were underrepresented in the city hall, and other places of power.

And as a result of that the freeways when they were built, cause displacement. And after they started operating, of course continue to cause disparate impact as it relates to air quality. And so these poor programs around carbon credit and other initiatives on environmental justice, are designed to support the development and construction of the green spaces like the Hollywood Central Park. So we’re very much in alignment on that.

And especially since a good percentage of the families that are in this area of Hollywood, are low income, are minority families, diverse families, and we think that they’re the ones that should benefit the most from having this tremendous amenity within walking distance from their homes. I mentioned the number of children that live in the area.

We’re definitely factoring the opportunities that come with having green space at this scale. meaning 38 acres of recreational space for an area of California that is the Park Forest, according to the studies that have been published by the decision makers and policymakers in Sacramento.

Yes, 38 acres certainly sounds like a very large park. Is there a comparable park in Los Angeles right now?

Well, of course, we have Griffith Park, and other major parks in the area that are not as accessible to the residents of, of Hollywood, but they’re certainly areas of Los Angeles have comparable acreage, but nothing that is really as close to the urban core of Los Angeles, Grand Park. And next to City Hall is another recent development a couple of years ago.

And that’s, of course, a fraction of the park that we’re proposing. That’s in several acres, we’re proposing 38 acres, and even the development of that park generated so much buzz and so much interest in activity, people that were hungry, to be able to lay out and sunbathe and relax and play with the fountains that are there you see on the weekends, so many children taking advantage of that amenity.

Imagine that multiplied by 30. Right. Imagine that at a grand scale, at a scale that’s really honoring the ambition of Hollywood. And it’s imagination is really what we’re proposing. And in Los Los Angeles.

Yeah, that sounds that sounds really an incredible project, who’s expected to maintain the 30 acres?

Great question. So the way that we have it right now is proposed is that the state of California would convey the air rights to the city of Los Angeles, and the nonprofit that we created would be the one that would store both the construction and long term management of the park itself. So it would be operated by the nonprofit.

Okay. So it’d be the nonprofit would be responsible for maintenance ongoing, I guess upgrades etc.

Yeah, that’s exactly right. One of the things that we have kept, we’ve we’re really mindful of is we did some benchmarking and went to other parks around the nation that are similar. And one thing that they shared with us is that what they had not anticipated is the amount of green lawn that needs to be replaced because of the use of the park areas and grassy areas of a park to park of this scale.

So that’s one thing that we’ve actually budgeted. And in thinking about the replacement of the turf, that’s going to occupy a good chunk of our park. We obviously one wanted to be used. And we wanted to be, you know, worn d own by all the small feeds that are going to be running around our park, from the kids that are there.

Thank you, Alfred. Well, we have to take a break. You’re listening to KABC 790. United and Heal America with Matt Matern. We’ll be right out. We’ll be back right after the break. You’re listening to Unite and Heal America with Matt Matern. I’m your guest host for today Julia Cottrelll filling in for Matt Matern. Our guest today is Alfred Fraijo, Jr., who’s the chairman of the Friends of the Hollywood Central Park.

Alfred before the break, we were talking about the turf in the park. And that raises a question of what are the water needs of you know, 38 acres of green space? And how would you sort of respond to someone who says, Well, this is a great idea, but we’re in the middle of a drought, California is facing, you know, a water crisis. How would you respond to someone who has concerns about the water needs of 30 acres of park?

That’s a that’s a great question and one that we think about often, particularly in Los Angeles, as you mentioned, one of the key strategies that we will deploy for the maintenance of our lawns and our green space is going to be water capture, making sure that we capture rock runoff, we’re going to create an additional surface over the freeway, which will allow us to capture a rainfall over time. That’s one of the key strategies.

The other is reclaimed water, having the opportunity to work with our utilities and work with our city of Los Angeles to think creatively about how we might use reclaimed water for the irrigation of our landscaping is going to be key as well. And certainly the city has already introduced those kinds of measures for other great park areas of this City. So we want to adopt the same strategies for our parks.

Right. I want to pivot slightly and, you know, touch upon the issue of homelessness, which, as you know, is a growing problem in in LA. What would you say to someone who, you know, thinks that parks are just another public space that will attract, you know, a homeless population?

Hmm. Sure. And it’s a it’s an important question. And I would start, if the answer to that question, I think, for me would start with the values that we have for the development and operation of our park, we think this park is going to be available and accessible and should be enjoyed enjoyed by everyone. So access and equity is an important mandate for the development of our park.

We want it to be accessible, we want it to be open, we want it to be connected to the fabric of the existing community there. And so Angelenos experiencing homelessness and who are they are experiencing housing insecurity are residents of Hollywood, and they should also have access to our parks. In terms of camping, and folks living in the park, certainly that is a security issue for us. But it’s one about having relationships with our local elected officials, with our local business leaders. with folks that are thinking about security in Hollywood, we’re definitely going to be partnering with them with them and thinking about that now, because the park itself will be operated by a nonprofit.

We also have strategies that we could use that are not necessarily ones that the city could use, for example, we’ve been thinking about how we can be more creative and partnering with nonprofits and social services organizations so that together, we can anticipate some of these issues and some of the concerns that either are going to be raised by the residents that live there, and also raised by individuals that might be experiencing homelessness. But access inequity is a very important part of the park ethos. And we hope to convey to everybody that this will be a part for all Angelenos.

Yeah, you bring up a great point about, you know, security and its security issue. I imagine, you know, some of the listeners may be thinking about, you know, safety in the park. You know, when you say Hollywood, Central Park, it conjures up images of New York Central Park, and perhaps people might be thinking, you know, well, what about issues of theft, violent crime, drug use vandalism, how would you address that? Or there’s concerns?

Those are, those are valid concerns. And what I would say is they, that’s not a new issue and not a new concern. In any public space. Those are the kinds of things we need to be thinking about. We have certainly explored how we partner with organizations that would help us keep the open space, the facilities, I mentioned earlier, Juliet, that we’re also proposing to have performance spaces and other spaces for congregation, all of those facilities will have a safety and security program in place that ensures that everyone can enjoy our great part.

I will say that, for us, it’s not a concern. And that cannot be managed and could not be addressed. What we are really concerned about is making sure that we are able to build this park in time for the young people that live there to enjoy it. It is, as I mentioned earlier, is a tall order. It is a major project. It’s an audacious project, but we have the whale, we have the political support. And we have the commitment from our board to invest the resources and the energy and time to get it done.

We just completed our trip to Washington DC a few weeks ago. And I am always energized by the amount of support that we get from our congressional delegation in in DC over the funding and support of the project. And so I am very enthusiastic, and feeling hopeful that in the next couple of months, we’ll have a stronger commitment from our elected officials to be able to finance the construction of this great amenity.

No project of this scale is immune to challenges and difficulties. But we think that the benefits and the opportunity that will come from this incredible resource in Los Angeles far outweigh the challenges that we have that are short term.

Yeah, and perhaps you could speak It’ll speak to the current status of the project where, where are you right now.

So right now we’re in the middle of our permitting process with the City of Los Angeles. We are completing our environmental impact report EIR. We should have that out and published in the next couple of months. We also will initiate a set of hearings for the approval of a new zoning designation for this portion of Hollywood that would be designated for the development of our Central Park.

So we are in the thick of the local entitlement process, Giulia, but as I mentioned earlier, we do have tremendous support from our elected official from council member Michel Ferro, and also from the leadership in the mayor’s office, of course, with Mayor Eric Garcetti prioritizing our project as an important catalytic project, both for community benefits as well as economic benefits for the Los Angeles.

Sounds like a lot is happening. How far off are we from beginning construction?

We are about 24 months away from breaking ground.

Okay, great. And I imagine if you build this fantastic park, people will come right. Have you done any kind of traffic study around the project, I know the one on one freeway is notoriously busy on a regular day, will this park bring more traffic in to the area in the VA?

We absolutely have studied the potential for additional traffic in the area. And that is something that we’re thinking about closely, both in terms of providing needed parking, for accessing the park. But also we want to design it in such a way that it’s designed for it to be walkable for people in the neighborhood to walk to the park as well. We know that there’s plenty of parking structures and parking amenities in Hollywood, more work are being built.

And additional money is being invested in encouraging folks to use public transportation, our project will have those same strategies to encourage people to reduce reliance on the vehicle and ride metro ride buses, and use public transportation to access our park similar to other major venues in the city of LA.

And so that keys the multimodality. And transportation management plan is already in place for our park. And I think will ensure that residents in the immediate area will not suffer for additional traffic because of our park.

That’s great for the residents in and around the area. Speaking of residents, is affordable housing a part of the project.

That is such a great topic, Julia, thank you for raising it because as I mentioned previously, we’ve done a benchmarking trips to try to evaluate the effects that green space has. And we know that as a result of this incredible amenity, there will be a demand in real estate and, and potentially a need to ensure that the residents that live there can afford to live there longer term.

And so in addition to thinking about housing preservation, and neighborhood stabilization strategies, we’re also looking at potential sites next to the park that would be candidates for the development of new affordable housing. That is one piece of the puzzle for a healthy community access to affordable housing.

And we are we want to partner with nonprofits that are going to be doing the the housing development itself. So that is a key strategy that we plan to deploy as part of the successful management of our incredible part.

Well, thank you, Alfred. That’s about all we have time for if our listeners want to get involved and they want to support this project, what can they do and how should they get in touch? Thanks,

Julia. Well, we hope that they do. We hope that they are as enthusiastic as our board is about this incredible vision for Hollywood. If they’re interested in getting more information, they’re welcome to visit our website at HollywoodCentralPark.org. That’s HollywoodCentralPark.org.

They can donate, they can volunteer, they can give us their input and their ideas on how we can make our park even better. We welcome their partnership and their support. There are many ways that they can get involved and we look forward to having them visit our website and be engaged and reached out. Reach out.

Thank you so much, Alfred. That was Alfred Fraijo, chairman of the Friends of the Hollywood Central Park. You’re listening to Unite and Heal America with Matt Matern. I was your host, Julio cultural filling in for Matt, Matt and we hope you join us next week for another chat with one of our guests.

As you may know, your host Matt Matern of Unite and Heal America is also the founder of Matern Law Group, their team of experienced employment, consumer and environmental attorneys are dedicated to leveling the playing field by giving everyone access to the highest quality legal representation contact 844 MLG for you, that’s 844 MLG for you or 8446544968446544968.