Tuesday evening the downtown Los Angeles neighborhood council had a board meeting. Skid Row Housing Trust was there to have their new genesis hotel approved for a letter of recommendation.I was there because I wanted to see what was meant by conditions that were referenced in the meetings agenda that had been sent out to the public. My largest concern was the issue of HVAC and how this new building would incorporate this into the project. The answer was straight forward- every unit will have air conditioning. I was so excited to hear this that I jumped up and gave the executive director of skid row housing trust Mike Alvidrez and his cohorts big sloppy kisses on the cheeks. You see, the struggle has been convincing these low income housing organizations that putting poor people in buildings without proper ventilation and protection from heat and cold was inappropriate. This project will cost 16 million dollars according to the website at Killeffer Flammang Architects. It will be well worth it. Not only was there talk of air conditioning, but Mike Alvidrez and his cohorts told me that the Pershing Hotel only half a block away , the tenants would have opportunity in the future to have a place where they could congregate besides out on the sidewalk in front of the building. I posted on this blog the many conflicts that could arise on main street between business owners and tenants who live in these buildings and need to be outside because the buildings rooms become hot boxes. Apparently if you make a big enough stink people listen. Another interesting item of note is that the New Genesis will also incorporate artists lofts and one of the conditions was that there be store fronts at street level on main street. It is a huge project and it won't begin groundbreaking until late 2009.