I recently started working at Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Located downtown by Union Station, the District's headquarters has a great cafeteria. Quality, dependable food at affordable prices. When I interned at Met seventeen years ago and was running the CA data collaborative a half decade ago, it was cool to see the many people from many walks of life who'd come to the Met cafeteria for a meal. It was right across a nice plaza from Union station.
Today that cafeteria requires going through building security and the plaza adjoining Union station is walled off with security. I can get why. Increases in homelessness, urban disorder and decreased downtown foot traffic after the pandemic make such measures rational safety precautions. Yet walling off civic spaces offers an individually rational but collectively disastrous response. It's sad to see symbols like the Union Station plaza or LA State historic park down the street walled off.
Such places once offered the promise where everyone and anyone could enjoy a bit of fresh air. LA has a rich history of cafeterias. A few blocks down Broadway, Clifton's cafeteria opened in the thick of the Great Depression and included a bright "pay what you wish" neon sign. Black and white patrons shared Clifton's cafeteria long before desegregation became the norm. Encouragingly Clifton's recently reopened this June after fits and starts with the pandemic.
I went there a few years back and enjoyed the food. I love the spirit of solid food at not crazy prices -- something increasingly important in this inflationary environment. And providing places for people of all walks of life to come together is increasingly important in this crazy mixed up world. There's something deeply affirming to places where its ok to pull up a chair on a long table next to a stranger and make a new friend. Here's to hoping for a revitalized and reinvigorated Los Angeles.
