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I disagree completely. LA has much more density and older buildings than Miami. Parts of Downtown LA pass for NYC and Chicago in movies and tv, you couldn't do that in Downtown Miami. At the street level I think Downtown LA is more urban and vibrant than Downtown Miami;there is nothing in Miami that has the look and feel of Broadway. Downtown Miami is much smaller as well.
Because of nearby Coral Gables and Miami Beach, Downtown Miami is very underrated in it's vibrancy.
But do you realize how small the vibrant part of DT Miami is compared to the vibrant sections of DT LA? Not to mention, from my personal experience and from the pictures, DT Miami does not have as much of a big city feel as DT LA.
But do you realize how small the vibrant part of DT Miami is compared to the vibrant sections of DT LA? Not to mention, from my personal experience and from the pictures, DT Miami does not have as much of a big city feel as DT LA.
How does it not have as much of a big city feel? And those Google Streetview pics that I showed were only 2 streets. There are other vibrant parts of Downtown Miami.
I've been told by people who live in LA that downtown is pretty dry and dead, especially considering a city of its size. I noticed there are SOME pics where there are lots of people, but I hear that is the exception to the rule. What is the truth?
There are two parts of downtown Los Angeles in my view.
There is the newer but very sterile Grand Avenue. The sidewalks are very, very narrow. It is interesting but seems kind of barren for a city of its scope...but then L.A. is not downtown-centric.
Then there is the elegant but worn Broadway. Broadway is teeming with mostly Latino shoppers in the Jewelry District...and there are other shopping districts as well there.
Pershing Square is neat during the weekend. I enjoy downtown L.A. in the daytime for what it is.
But at night...get the heck out of downtown L.A. Apart from a few bars and L.A. Live on the perimeter...downtown L.A. is not a nightlife mecca.
Downtown Houston is more sophisticated than downtown L.A. with its complement of performing arts culture districts, some shopping, the underground tunnels and still thriving nightlife (though it is not what it was circa 1999-2004 when it was the HOT nightlife zone of Houston...now Houston's nightlife is more balanced throughout its sprawl, from City Centre to Midtown to Washington Ave to Uptown Galleria to downtown).
But there are similarities between downtown L.A. and downtown Houston. Pershing Square, Market Square and Jones Plaza have similar intentions.
Smith St. is a more stunning version of Grand Ave.
Broadway is a grittier, more bustling (daytime) version of Main St. But Main St. in Houston does offer some good nightlife whereas I would not be anywhere on Broadway at night in L.A!
There are two parts of downtown Los Angeles in my view.
There is the newer but very sterile Grand Avenue. The sidewalks are very, very narrow. It is interesting but seems kind of barren for a city of its scope...but then L.A. is not downtown-centric.
Then there is the elegant but worn Broadway. Broadway is teeming with mostly Latino shoppers in the Jewelry District...and there are other shopping districts as well there.
Pershing Square is neat during the weekend. I enjoy downtown L.A. in the daytime for what it is.
But at night...get the heck out of downtown L.A. Apart from a few bars and L.A. Live on the perimeter...downtown L.A. is not a nightlife mecca.
Downtown Houston is more sophisticated than downtown L.A. with its complement of performing arts culture districts, some shopping, the underground tunnels and still thriving nightlife (though it is not what it was circa 1999-2004 when it was the HOT nightlife zone of Houston...now Houston's nightlife is more balanced throughout its sprawl, from City Centre to Midtown to Washington Ave to Uptown Galleria to downtown).
But there are similarities between downtown L.A. and downtown Houston. Pershing Square, Market Square and Jones Plaza have similar intentions.
Smith St. is a more stunning version of Grand Ave.
Broadway is a grittier, more bustling (daytime) version of Main St. But Main St. in Houston does offer some good nightlife whereas I would not be anywhere on Broadway at night in L.A!
There are two parts of downtown Los Angeles in my view.
There is the newer but very sterile Grand Avenue. The sidewalks are very, very narrow. It is interesting but seems kind of barren for a city of its scope...but then L.A. is not downtown-centric.
Then there is the elegant but worn Broadway. Broadway is teeming with mostly Latino shoppers in the Jewelry District...and there are other shopping districts as well there.
Pershing Square is neat during the weekend. I enjoy downtown L.A. in the daytime for what it is.
But at night...get the heck out of downtown L.A. Apart from a few bars and L.A. Live on the perimeter...downtown L.A. is not a nightlife mecca.
Downtown Houston is more sophisticated than downtown L.A. with its complement of performing arts culture districts, some shopping, the underground tunnels and still thriving nightlife (though it is not what it was circa 1999-2004 when it was the HOT nightlife zone of Houston...now Houston's nightlife is more balanced throughout its sprawl, from City Centre to Midtown to Washington Ave to Uptown Galleria to downtown).
But there are similarities between downtown L.A. and downtown Houston. Pershing Square, Market Square and Jones Plaza have similar intentions.
Smith St. is a more stunning version of Grand Ave.
Broadway is a grittier, more bustling (daytime) version of Main St. But Main St. in Houston does offer some good nightlife whereas I would not be anywhere on Broadway at night in L.A!
Im not even sure where to begin to point out the crazy inaccuracies and nonsense in your post.
First of all, Grand and Broadway are 4 blocks apart - those two streets come nowhere near representing the scope and range of downtown LA. Grand and San Pedro - maybe. But Grand and Broadway? That makes me feel like you have no idea about downtown LA.
Also, your comparison of downtown LA and downtown Houston are downright laughable. Downtown LA is another level or urbanity and vibrancy.
Here is the visual evidence - walk around in both and tell me which one feels more like a city:
Downtown LA is really big in area, one of the biggest downtowns in the country. Yes, its very patchwork, but it offers a lot of distinct urban environments, much more than Houston or Miami.
Last edited by overunder12; 02-26-2011 at 05:57 AM..
Im not even sure where to begin to point out the crazy inaccuracies and nonsense in your post.
First of all, Grand and Broadway are 4 blocks apart - those two streets come nowhere near representing the scope and range of downtown LA. Grand and San Pedro - maybe. But Grand and Broadway? That makes me feel like you have no idea about downtown LA.
Also, your comparison of downtown LA and downtown Houston are downright laughable. Downtown LA is another level or urbanity and vibrancy.
Here is the visual evidence - walk around in both and tell me which one feels more like a city:
Downtown LA is really big in area, one of the biggest downtowns in the country. Yes, its very patchwork, but it offers a lot of distinct urban environments, much more than Houston or Miami.
Call me crazy, but Broadway just looks like a wider version of Flagler St. in Miami. They both have the same wholsale vibe, heck, Flagler St even has a similar looking multi-floor foodcourt/plaza as that Carl Jrs on Broadway that you just posted. It doesn't look that much more different than Miami's Flagler street. Heck, Flagler even has public transit(Metromover) that can move you to different parts of Downtown Miami right in-front of the foodcourt. But I like Broadway. It is vibrant.
The buildings that give downtown LA its character are majority pre-1930.
Here's a picture of downtown in 1930, with the historic core looking almost exactly like it does today:
In 1930:
LA had 1.2 million people. Miami had 110,000. Houston had about 300,000.
In 1940, LA was largely centralized, with high densities only in and around downtown:
http://www.lewis.ucla.edu/special/metroamerica/LAPOPDEN/density30.jpg (broken link)
Although the borders of LA extended far beyond the central core in 1930 (they included almost the entire extent of the nearly-empty 260 sq. mile san fernando valley and the sparsely-populated hollywood hills all the way to the ocean), the great majority of people lived in and around downtown.
Since most other cities at the time didn't have such gigantic municipal boundaries, it's hard to make comparisons to other cities of the era.
I would venture to say that at least half to two-thirds of LA's total population in 1930 lived in the high-density ring around downtown. That would be 600,000 - 800,000 people living in the urban core area that had downtown as the focal point.
BTW, here's a map of the streetcar network (the yellow cars) from the 40's, showing the urban core area I'm talking about:
Since most other major cities of the time had borders that were roughly contiguous with their central urban cores, I think we should be able to come up with a good analog for LA's urban core at that time.
St. Louis (821K), Baltimore (805K), Boston (781K), and Pittsburgh (670K), SF (634K), and Milwaukee (578K) all probably felt similar in size to central LA in 1930.
So, LA's downtown in 1930 was likely at least somewhat similar to the downtowns in the cities listed above.
I'm thinking that Boston, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh are too 19th century, and St. Louis and Milwaukee (and Cleveland) had so much of their historic downtown fabric demolished to be comparable, so SF is probably the most comparable to LA at least in terms of historic downtowns.
Again, I'm sticking to my assertion that downtown SF and downtown LA are pretty damn comparable, at least in the general size and age of buildings. Immediately outside of downtown, the comparison falls apart, due to the fact that the nearby residential areas in SF are so intact. LA completely demolished bunker hill, so you have to go all the way to westlake or boyle heights to find a historic near-downtown residential neighborhood.
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