(Originally
appeared in the July 1, 2004 edition of the Century City News)
I’m sitting in the living room of the Katz’s. The view is
spectacular. As the sun goes down the lights of Century City begin to glow and
the view goes from spectacular to breathtaking. Harold begins to thumb through
albums that he has carefully prepared over the years for occasions just like
this. He reminisces about his role in the development of Century City and I
feel the love he has for the people and the buildings that have become such a
Mecca for business.
The whole theory of the Centers mode was to have public
transportation. The Beverly Hills Freeway and the Subway were supposed to be
built to support the Century City. The Beverly Hills Freeway was killed by
Beverly Hills because they wanted it cut and covered. Harold suggested that
they issue a bond to pay for the cover and Caltrans would pay for the cut. The
state had bought most of the right of way from the Hollywood Freeway and had
torn down most of the homes. In the end Ronald Reagan killed the project
sighting the protection of Beverly Hills’ property values as the reason.
The subway didn’t fare much better. The metro was going to
come down Wilshire and Santa Monica then it was going to angle into Century
City then it would angle back to Wilshire to catch Westwood and then follow
Wilshire Blvd. to the beach. A bill was passed in the United States Congress
that forbids the Metro to extend west of Vermont. If the subway is every going
to connect with Century City it will now take an act of Congress.
Century City was originally intended by Alcoa to be a city
where everybody walked to work. The
executive the secretaries, the mailroom clerks. What happened is that the land
values escalated so quickly that none of the workers could afford to own
property.
“Life is what happens while you are making plans”, says
Harold, quoting Jon Lennon. People were going to walk to work and that didn’t
happen. There was going to be a Beverly Hills Freeway and that didn’t happen.
There was supposed to be subway stations and that didn’t happen. Traffic
steadily worsened and the solution was a few “well placed” Traffic Control
Officers that really improved the traffic. The Officers would direct traffic
through a red light if it improved the flow. The job those Officers did has
been replaced by computer assisted signals.
Harold’s wife Jan reminisces about her time in Century City.
Jan remembers Jerry Asher showing her a mock up of Century City that was in the
first building built – one of the Gateway buildings. Her business (Janway
Staffing) now resides in West Los Angeles around the corner for Century City
but many of her clients are still located in Century City. Jan was the founder
of the “Women’s Network” which later became the woman’s council.
It all began when Alcoa bought the land from Fox so that
they could prove buildings could be built with aluminum. Alcoa built the two
gateway buildings, the shopping center and the two 1901 buildings. In 1969 I
began with Bob Hatfield. I went to Hatfield and told him it was time to have a
chamber of commerce. He assigned John McComb to me and it began as the Century
City Civic Council which later became the Century City Chamber of Commerce. In
’72 Harold became the president serving two consecutive terms.
They welcomed Harold into the Alcoa family and listened to
his advice and guidance. They sold off the east side of Century Park East to
developers. Here we find very little space around the buildings. The Alcoa guys
were top notch. “Look at the setbacks on Avenue of the Stars - look at the
fountain, and the greenery. These guys just wanted a showplace.” Says Katz.
During Katz term as president the chamber sponsored “Girl
Watching Week” which stirred the following response from the Los Angeles
Chapter of NOW:
Mr. Harold Katz
Century City Chamber of Commerce
In these days of social awareness it’s regrettable that
responsible professional women and men must still take time from their busy
schedules to protest remnants of social injustice such a remnant is Century
City’s laughingly outmoded but none the less outrageously offensive girl
watching week. We protest Girl Watching Week because it invades the privacy of
women who must work or shop in Century City. It invades the privacy of Century
City Girls your terminology not ours by forcing them either to remain indoors
for a week or submit meekly to the unwanted leering scrutiny of girl watchers.
Since you remain unaware of the fact that women
deplore being unwitted participants in a vulgar circus please expect
that we will use all means available to us including economic pressure to
enlighten you to the damage that girl watching week does to your civic image
and to the bitter resentment that it inspires in the majority of your shopping
public.
With all sincerity,
Virginia L. Carter President
Los Angeles National Organization of Women
Century City Officials have defended the celebration as a light hearted tribute to the beauty and
charm of the women who work and visit the new city complex. We’ve had constant
comments from people all over the world that Century City was unique as a
location for seeing lovely women, stated Harold Katz, and every one refers to
it as girl watching consequently we decided to stage an annual girl watching
week. We certainly did not consider the event in any way to be offensive or a
vulgar circus as the women’s lib advocate insists on describing it. It’s a good
humor tribute to women and the fact that men love looking at beautiful women.
It must be time to go the Hyatt has just turned off their
lights.
