Self Taught Planner Or Gadfly?

In a bit of an insult to planners, the L.A. Times devote a full-page profile to a "self-taught planner and historian" who is trying to save the city from development.

1 minute read

July 16, 2002, 7:00 AM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen


"His real name is Ross Shockley. He was born in Silver Lake and spent his boyhood hanging out around his father's law office at 3rd and Spring streets. He took to using the Westwater name when he was at UCLA studying to be a screenwriter. For years, he made a living writing for Hollywood. More recently, he worked as a Malibu real estate agent until health problems forced him to quit.He now works out of borrowed Pasadena office space, writing treatises on such Los Angeles planning issues as redevelopment of the Ambassador Hotel site, development of a Little Tokyo gymnasium, redesign of the county art museum and use of the Los Angeles River's banks."

Thanks to Francie Murphy

Monday, July 15, 2002 in The Los Angeles Times

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