The goal of the recently launched Experience LA web portal, viewable online at www.Ex-perienceLA. com, is to help residents and visitors alike to discover and experience the diverse culture of the Greater Los Angeles region, while simultaneously encouraging more people to use public transit.

“experiencela.com is the first regional web site to marry culture and transportation in such an integrated fashion.”

Officially launched in con-junction with the opening of the Los Angeles-to-Pasadena Metro Gold Line on July 26, 2003, ExperienceLA.com is unique in that it is the first regional web site to marry culture and transportation in such an integrated fashion— in fact, all destinations and attractions featured on ExperienceLA.com web site are accessible via public transit. The site is also unique in the breadth of multi-agency and regional collaboration that brought it into being.

A REGIONAL VISION
In the mid-1990s, the Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles (CRA/LA) received a Federal planning grant to work with community-based groups in order to identify and overcome structural impediments to cultural tourism. While put-ting the grant into place, the participating groups uniformly stated what they really needed was for CRA/LA to help market cultural tourism within their respective areas. With this goal in mind—and using public transportation as a hook—CRA/LA pursued a grant from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). In its application, the CRA/LA promoted the bold idea that one could visit Los Angeles without having a car.

The MTA responded positively, but encouraged the CRA/LA to develop a more regionally focused concept. The CRA/LA therefore expanded its vision across city boundaries, approaching Long Beach and Santa Monica, communities that are both intimately connected to Los Angeles via public transportation. With these modifications in place, the MTA approved funding and partnered with CRA/LA to create Experi-enceLA.com.

COLLABORATION: THE KEY TO SUCCESS
To translate the ambitious proposal into a working web site, the CRA/LA contracted, through a competitive bid-ding process, with Civic Re-source Group (CRG), a technology solutions company based in Santa Monica that specializes in civic and public sector technology solutions.

As development for ExperienceLA.com got under way, the project’s importance quickly grew as it embraced three key goals: promotion of Los Angeles area culture, encouragement of the use of public transit; and stimulation of economic activity related to cultural tourism. CRA/LA Board Chairman David Farrar highlighted the project’s vital role when he noted that “Experi-enceLA. com was originally conceived as an economic tool to promote cultural tourism within ten CRA/LA redevelopment project areas. It has evolved into a major regional partnership,involving more visible transportation options and cultural and tourism destinations.”

Altogether, more than 20 agencies actively participated in the conceptualization and design of the Experience LA web site. Some, such the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau, Los Angeles World Airports, and the cities of Long Beach and Santa Monica, were included in the original grant proposal. Others, like the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, local universities, and community-based organizations, were brought on board later in order to broaden the web site’s base as a community and regional portal.

Managing the diverse interests of these agencies, groups, and organizations has been by far the project’s biggest challenge. During the design and development process, weekly working group meetings were conducted, aided by monthly management meetings. The process was kept on track with very tight project deadlines— and the fact that all partners knew that, if a deadline were missed, the project could fall far behind. Ultimately, though, collaboration was the most important factor in the project’s success, transforming what could have been just another Los Angeles web site into the truly innovative regionally based portal that it is.

LOOKING AHEAD
Since current MTA promotional strategies revolve around destinations, the Experience LA web site fits nicely with the over-all MTA marketing plans. Roger Snoble, the CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, has strongly supported this concept: “By providing web-based transit information and tying it to specific cultural attractions in this unique way, [Experience LA will] increase use of Los Angeles County’s public transit system for cultural tourism, as well as for festivals, conventions, celebrations, and Staples Center events”.

The web site will continue to evolve as new cultural attractions are added via the Community Partners Network, an online application through which officials at other Los Angeles area cultural destinations and attractions can apply to list themselves on the web site and submit content, events, and related information.

ExperienceLA.com has been online only since the end of July, so the next step is full-fledged marketing and promotion of the web site—some-thing that will be greatly aided by the growing network of public sector partners and private sector supporters. But the project’s overall goal remains the same: to help both residents and visitors realize that, thanks to the region’s world-class rail and rapid bus system, they can experience the cultural wonders of the Los Angeles area—without a car.