Photo: Diane Edwardson, Red Tailed Hawk. January 14, 2013.
Friends will gather
at the Grace Simons Lodge in Elysian Park tonight to honor the life and legacy
of Peter “Pete” Lassen who passed
away August 8, 2018.
I am personally
saddened by Pete’s passing as he was a mentor and friend for nearly 25
years. I always looked up to Pete. As a community activist, I learned so much
from him and we always had a great time talking about things not related to
whatever community issue was at hand. He
was charismatic, friendly and had a mellifluous deep voice. He put family first. Pete was an inspiration to so many. Most of all, he was a good person.
Weeks later, my
hands are shaking as I write this and I still can’t adequately sum up the decades
of friendship and activism. So I’ll just tell a couple of stories.
A few years
ago, while sharing lunch at HOME Restaurant patio, on a beautiful winter day
with blue skies and fluffy white clouds, over the din of Riverside Fletcher intersection
and the 5 Freeway, while discussing a nearby development proposal, Pete
suddenly exclaimed, “Whoa! A huge hawk just took off from that power line
tower! Wait there’s another one!” In the
afternoons the updrafts created by the roads and topography makes it an ideal jumping
off place for hawks to soar. Naturally, the
hawk led into a long discussion of our enormous hawks and other wildlife in our
neighborhoods. In the last ten years, we
actually spent more time talking about other stuff than the issue at hand.
As fellow city planning geeks, we often talked about the built environment, topography, history,
native landscapes and urban wildlife. Pete always looked at how the minutiae
fit into the big picture, not just how it affected immediate neighbors.
Pete was willing
to explain complex and esoteric issues to community members trying to genuinely
understand the technical plans on boards at community scoping meetings and how
it related to the neighborhood. When
neighbors were attending 2 Freeway Terminus meetings, I told them, find Pete, hang
out behind him and you’ll learn what’s important. That’s what I did. He later said “I thought there were a number
of people from your neighborhood asking me questions, and asking good
questions.”
When we were involved
in the SR2 Freeway Terminus Redesign, I would call him up and say things like “Am
I insane? Or is this the first time
sound walls appeared on a map or at all? In 16 years, they never even discussed
sound walls anywhere other than the immediate terminus.” Pete’s response was “Yes,
you are insane, and, no, those sound walls were not in any previous plan or
discussion [prior to the Draft EIR].” He
knew the teasing didn’t bother me. Decades
earlier, I’d learned from Pete, the importance of the details on a proposed map
even if they’re not mentioned in the written portion of a proposed plan.
I remember Pete
from the first community meeting I ever attended for a development proposal on
the Red Car Property in the early 1990s. He was someone I often consulted, particularly
with large complex issues in the community. As community activists, through countless
community meetings, small meetings and lunches, we volunteered our time fighting
in the community’s interest on the Silver Lake - Echo Park - Elysian Valley Community
Plan, SR2 Freeway Terminus Redesign, Glendale Blvd Corridor Plan, Neighbors of
Dodger Stadium, Red Car Property, Menlo Property, Semi Tropic Spiritualists’ Tract,
just to name a few things affecting our immediate neighborhood.
In his death, Pete
joins more of my mentors, Virginia Adams and Rey Dominguez of Elysian Valley,
Alicia Brown of Solano Canyon and Judy Raskin of Echo Park. Pete, and all of them, not only made our
community a better place, they made Los Angeles and the world a better place.
Rest in peace Pete.
Diane Edwardson
Read more about
Pete Lassen: The Eastsider
