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APRIL 22 PROGRAM - Free Admission - Open to Everyone                             Street Closure Information               

Since 1970, "Earth Day", a day set aside internationally to recognize and formulate solutions for our planet's environmental issues and problems, has been celebrated each April 22nd.  On April 22nd from 10 am to 5 pm , the Wilshire Center Business Improvement Corporation (WCBIC) will host a Wilshire Center "Earth Day" event during which Wilshire Boulevard between Western and Harvard will be closed to all vehicle traffic (a map of the street closure area).  The day will highlight Wilshire Center as a great place to work, live and shop, include discussions concerning the future of our area, and conduct tours of selected landmarks. Events will include:   live music performances, demonstrations, green information, a street bike raffle, and a reuseable grocery bag give away.  

The City of Los Angeles has declared April 22, 2008 as a Car Free Day in Los Angeles.   How can we all help make our community and planet better environmentally?   Encourage workers on this day to use public transportation, MTA, carpool, alternative fuel cars, bike and walk - a car free day exception would be carpools and electric and hybrid cars.  We have asked Congresswoman Diane Watson to get a resolution passed by Congress to declare April 22, 2008 as a car free day nation wide.

WCBIC represents a District of over 33 million square feet of residential, office and retail space/users and has been working diligently to improve our community for the past 11 years. These 33 million square feet is bounded by Wilton Place, Hoover, Third Street and Seventh Street. It is time to take the next steps in reducing our community’s greenhouse gas emissions, our carbon footprint, by at least 2% per year over the next 20 years.

The WCBIC Board approves the Wilshire Center Cool District Four Step Program. The WCBID “Cool District” is a pledge which is the first step towards curbing global warming and pollution in our district. The District Board signed on to a 2% Solution Climate Reduction Pledge. This pledge sets the goal of reducing the district’s global warming carbon dioxide (CO2) by 2% a year for each of the next 40 years.

We must begin to "Think globally, act locally". "Earth Day Wilshire Center" is not seen as a one-day event but rather as a catalyst toward building awareness before and after April 22, 2008 to encourage a green life-style change.   On that day, Wilshire Center will host organic food vendors, offer tours of the Rapid Bus, have booths set up to disperse information concerning sustainability, ecology, alternative fuel cars, new green urbanism discussion (livable, walkable, and mixed-use and pedestrian friendly communities), green architecture, solar and wind power, going carbon neutral, global warming, climate change, reused-recycled materials, and reducing our dependence on oil.   We hope to have a showing of the film "An Inconvenient Truth" and review our discussion of the problems and solutions (go to www.wilshirecenter.com/future). There are things that can be done right now to improve our environment such as banning the use of incandescent light bulbs in your buildings; this simple act collectively adds to big environmental savings.   Compact fluorescent bulbs use only a third of the energy of an incandescent bulbs.

We propose to showcase Wilshire Center as a concentrated community that looks back to the smaller, urban neighborhoods of the past with mixed-density, mixed-uses and mixed-incomes that is creating denser, more convenient, 24-hour, work/shop/live districts within the City of Los Angeles boundaries.   Wilshire Center is addressing the community's needs as a whole - housing, jobs, transportation, shopping and entertainment. The goal is to create more livable spaces and provide what people seek in a specific area and a place that is promoting green urbanism.

"Green urbanism means recognizing that our actions have long-term impacts on the natural and human environment and that we should plan development as if our children's and grandchildren's lives depend upon it - because they do". "Our longer term goal is to use a broader "Healthy Neighborhoods" policy to set forth the CRA/LA's vision for balanced, energy-efficient, well-designed communities that provide residents with parks, open space and other amenities, increase the canopy cover in our neighborhoods by expanding the urban forest, offer employment opportunities in clean growth industries and that feature pedestrian-friendly centers of transit oriented development". Quotes from CRA/LA Goes Green - Cecilia V. Estolano - Chief Executive Officer