-Visioning Program For 2020-
Chapter 2
Creating An Interesting Place to Live

This aspect of the volunteer effort reinforced one of the primary goals of the youth partnership - creating positive community-wide connections for young people to complement and reinforce the life-affirming aspects of the neighborhoods. In the minds of many people this meant making West Covina both a more self-contained and an interesting city in which to live. This stemmed from the recognition that many young people feel disenfranchised and isolated from the larger community by the design of suburbs that do not offer a place and a role for young people outside of their schools and homes. Lacking access to a car, many kids had to rely on a parent to chauffer them around the city. Even where young people could get around, there were too few public spaces and activities within the city where they could participate in and enjoy the broader spectrum of community life.

In an effort to create a more interesting and self-sufficient city, a core element of the strategic plan was the creation of a central gathering place for the entire city. Like the town squares and main streets of the past, this was seen as a way to integrate the various facets of the city - the varied ethnic cultures, the young and the old, newcomers and long-time residents - enabling people from all the various neighborhoods and visitors from outside the city to come together to meet and mingle in a large pedestrian oriented environment. However, people did not want to see the development of a high density, crowded downtown like those in more urban communities. Instead, they wanted to create a people-friendly place that would have the vitality of a thriving downtown but which would retain the sense of openness and safety associated with more suburban environments. This also meant working with existing infrastructure as the foundation for this new urban village by enhancing and redesigning it rather than building from scratch.

The City's initial success in this respect began with the revitalization of Glendora Avenue completed in 2008. The purpose of this project was to integrate Glendora Avenue with the adjacent The Lakes of West Covina by creating a plaza, walkways, and other linkages between existing and new businesses along Glendora and the nearby theaters and entertainment complex. This redesign of an existing street and building complex was a tremendous success. Occupied by new restaurants and fine shops, it created a lively "uptown" atmosphere that attracted both residents and visitors to the city who enjoyed strolling along a people-friendly streetscape that offered outdoor dining, cafes, and music as well as a great place for meeting friends. After adding a band shell, a new summer concert series was launched, drawing a festive crowd on evenings and weekends that further enlivened the spirit of the place. As a result of these many positive changes, this new venue proved to be the catalyst for further changes to come.

Using the newly created "old town" atmosphere along Glendora Avenue as its model, the community-wide partnership began to envision an urban village that would encompass not only Glendora Avenue and The Lakes but which could eventually extend to other adjacent areas of the city, including The Plaza, the Civic Center and the old Wescove Plaza area. All five of these separate, distinct elements were to be redesigned into a single, integrated destination connected by pedestrian walkways, electric shuttles, and even horse-drawn carriages for the romantically inclined. While people might use their cars or the ever-present community-shuttle to reach this central gathering place, within its perimeter the pedestrian was king. Care was taken to make the place accessible to all members of the community by using textured walkways that were easy to negotiate by anyone using a wheelchair. People did not expect this new people-friendly urban core to emerge from the suburban heart of West Covina overnight. Rather they wanted to slowly nurture it over time by carefully adding one small element after another, making sure that each part was compatible with the overall concept they had envisioned and that the necessary financing had been arranged to support it.

As part of this gradual transformation, The Plaza shopping center was redesigned to face outward, with shops and restaurants opening directly onto the street, rather than inward. This enabled the center to become an integral part of the larger streetscape and public plaza emerging around it, rather than remaining an isolated island. New parking structures were built nearby so the vast amount of land previously devoted to parking around The Plaza could be used for more human-scaled shops and offices, new multi-family housing, and green open space. The new housing was similar to other units being built in districts away from existing single-family home neighborhoods. It was designed to accommodate a wide range of incomes and provided many with an opportunity to own their first home. This housing also allowed many new residents to live and work within the emerging urban village without even having to use a car. Pedestrian linkages were also created between the Civic Center and The Plaza making it safe for walkers and bicyclists to move between the two adjacent areas.

In an effort to make West Covina a more interesting and self-sufficient city, many West Covinans had long felt a need for a performing arts center. Given the growing success of the "old town," urban village emerging along the I-10 corridor, i.e. the integrated, central gathering place extending from Glendora Avenue to the Civic Center, many believed this was the ideal location for the performing arts center. Eventually they settled upon the property across from the Civic Center, in what had been Wescove Plaza. Those vacant stores and buildings were torn down to create a new park that included an outdoor amphitheater for concerts and plays. Later, the old Wescove Theater on this site was redesigned and transformed becoming the performing arts center. By providing theatrical and musical performances by both national touring groups and local artists and musicians, the center soon became the cultural jewel of not only West Covina but also the entire San Gabriel Valley.

The performing arts center also included a cultural museum detailing the history of the San Gabriel Valley and West Covina and provided exhibit space featuring the many diverse ethnic groups now living in the city. In partnership with the local school districts, the performing arts center also developed a cultural and theatrical arts school for the young people of the community, fulfilling the overall mission to better serve the needs of the youth of the community.

All of these changes were not only making West Covina a more interesting place to live but also making it a more self-sufficient city, enabling residents to meet all of their work, shopping, recreational, and entertainment needs within the city. This meant there were more places and activities within the city where the larger community could come together, enabling people of different ages and cultures to interact and learn from each other. In the process it was creating a stronger community where people, especially the young, felt more connected to the world around them.

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