LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Starting today and for three days, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) and the Coalition to Preserve LA will run a series of three-inch square Sticky Note advocacy ads headlined ‘Save Parker Center’ on the front page of the Los Angeles Times. The ads urge City Hall and Mayor Eric Garcetti to save the former police headquarters and renovate it to repurpose it to house some of L.A.’s thousands and thousands of homeless people.
Each of the ‘Save Parker Center’ ads offer a different statistic or fact on the adaptive reuse proposal put forth by the two groups including that Parker Center could house 732 homeless individuals just through renovations and that it could come online sooner than any housing project funded by Measure HHH and save lives.
Last week, AHF and the Coalition to Preserve LA also announced plans to mount a City of Los Angeles ballot initiative allowing City residents to weigh in on preserving and reusing Parker Center to repurpose it to house some of L.A.’s homeless before Mayor Garcetti and the City Council can tear down the structure and build a 27-story luxury office tower for city workers.
The groups also proposed renaming the former police department building Tom Bradley Center for the highly regarded former L.A. Mayor. Bradley was L.A.'s first African-American mayor, serving five terms. This seminal leader of L.A. boldly championed the underserved and faced down personal and societal discrimination. In the late 1980s, he also faced growing homelessness in L.A. and in 1987, he mandated a temporary, sixty-day “urban campground” be set up for homeless people as an alternative shelter.
“For five years, Parker Center has stood empty. Now, we respectfully ask Mayor Garcetti and the City Council not to rush plans to demolish it and erect a $483 million luxury office skyscraper for city workers,” said Jill Stewart, Executive Director of the Coalition to Preserve LA. “Meanwhile thousands and thousands of men, women—and children—remain living on our streets, in shelters, under tarps, while a same old, same old bureaucratic response from elected and city officials continues to fall short. Failing to convert Parker Center into homeless housing is unacceptable amidst our growing humanitarian crisis.”
