Poem
2005 4th Annual ULI Urban Marketplace Poem
by Ed Rosenthal
Sourced and read by Councilwoman Jan Perry
If I was a mare
on a green hill
staring down
from the Santa Monicas into the LA basin
and the diverse 9th District in 2009
I'd see parents walk up silver escalators
and step off orange buses to
pickup their kids at new schools
by complexes with homes of all prices
and crowded family businesses on site.
I'll lift my head up
seeing the Hotel where we broke ground
to put life into our Convention Center.
The tumult of tourists
pouring from taxis trains and buses
to dash down To Galen Court
or up Fig to Seventh Street into
the burst of color of the Fashion
South Village and Broadway Districts
Starting evenings under historic facades
stepping back to Neon LA Live
When I look from downtown
to the blue pacific and see halfway
houses flanking the Westside canyons,
I'll raise myself on my hind legs
remembering the miracle of 2006,
when we got the LA basin to lift
this rock of Sisyphus
off our sore shoulders
standing in a yellow river of urine.
When we got sister communities
to share in the care of brothers
shattered by service to country
And the blessing from heaven
the new CRA approved in 2007
firming up the City Center
for the ladies in black dresses
and glowing necklaces
Surfing onto our nighttime streets
off the steel waves of Disney Hall
gliding down Grand past the brow
of the bronze Angel of Fashion Institute
to the Hope Triangle of care
Under the construction cranes
hovering like proud mother birds
over the new buildings bones
we'll be laying down for 2010.
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