LOS ANGELES, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- Los Angeles' mayor wants to take the city from concrete and scattered small buildings to a planned community of high-rise buildings and plenty of parks.
Antonio Villaraigosa told the Los Angeles Times he has a vision for the city's future where neighborhoods are connected by an enlarged subway system, where the concrete channels that used to run storm water to the ocean will be torn up and replaced with park space.
He visions more museums, restaurants and shops, high-rise offices and apartments and what he calls "stylish density" for the people living in the country's second most populated city.
Not everyone agrees with Villaraigosa's plan for L.A.
Author Joel Kotkin said the mayor's vision isn't practical and too similar to one 30 years ago "when we all thought L.A. was going to be Manhattan west."
Kotkin, who writes on Los Angeles, doesn't think the business community will be able to support the construction Villaraigosa proposes. But the mayor said construction plans are up for the type of high-rises he envisions.
He's looking to state and federal coffers to fund the subway expansion too.
