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I had no idea LA even had an African enclave...Interesting. Btw, isn't there another ethnic enclave within Koreatown known as Little Bangladesh?
Yep, but it's only a half-block on Fairfax in Mid-City. And yes to your second question.
And yeah streetview is worthless for DTLA. Hopefully they shoot new views in the next year or so (I saw the google car in Los Feliz today) - they shot new satellite views recently.
The hippest areas of DTLA are, as Jamills said, around 9th and Broadway is blowing up with the Ace Hotel providing significant momentum, and the Arts District is also sort of a quasi Meatpacking District. And as mentioned before the Old Bank District on Main and Spring have been improving at a rapid pace for the last 5 years or so.
Los Angeles by a decent margin. Downtown LA isn't at the level of downtown SF, but at this point there are pretty easy means to get to many other parts of LA that are great without too much trouble and that part of the equation is certainly swinging closer towards LA at a greater pace. You have to realize that getting to many of the sites of the Bay Area or just SF proper isn't that much easier (mass transit or car-wise) than it is in LA while LA offers a great multitude of things spanning out from all directions that SF does not offer. Even with living an urban lifestyle, I'd put LA in there as a better "investment" to grow with in the coming decade and a pretty comfortable place to be in for now. Of course, this depends on personal circumstances such as the occupation you have, the salary that comes with it, and where that job is located. I wouldn't really consider living in the metro for either place (except parts of the East Bay for the Bay Area or immediately adjacent municipalities for LA such as Santa Monica and Culver City) and my preference is for LA under most conditions.
Yeah, I'm with you on this. I would never move to LA to live in some gritty loft next to post-industrial wastelands or something, and then get around everywhere by bus. There are much better places to do this in the U.S.
I think doing this in LA would be like moving to Paris and living in a Orange-County style gated suburban subdivision. It could be done, but, to me, would miss the point of living there.
But why live in some wasteland? Why not live in an urban part of LA that isn't a wasteland--that very well exists now, and there are certainly parts of that which can be done via just walking, bike, or rail rather than buses (though I have nothing against buses as long as there are good amount of options to get to where you need and you have something like a smartphone to know when and where to take them).
That's unfair as LA's streetview is old so a lot of the street retail that is there now is not on google.
But here are some spots.... though again most of the vacant retail spaces on street view have been filled & there has been significant infill (Especially in the Arts District):
South Broadway & 9th
This area has seen the most change and pretty much every retail location has been filled. It is actually crazy to see this street view thinking about how it looks now.
Spring & 5th.
This intersection is even crazier because you can see them building buzz wine and beer, Aqua Lounge (a high end champagne bar), & The Down N' Out isn't even built out yet. DAMN DTLA HAS COME FAR!!!
I wasn't trying to be unfair, just asking for the links to see what it looks like currently, I haven't been in 3-4 years, did not know it wasn't updated. If DT continues to gentrify and add retail, I'd definitely put it over Seattle (if that battle is still going on) It's quite a bit bigger and I prefer the LA architecture. There are definitely some looks in there that remind me a bit of Chicago layout.
^ The Ace Hotel area in NYC is pretty cool, do they have the side venues/restaurants/serve the Stumptown Coffee in the LA version?
I wasn't trying to be unfair, just asking for the links to see what it looks like currently, I haven't been in 3-4 years, did not know it wasn't updated. If DT continues to gentrify and add retail, I'd definitely put it over Seattle (if that battle is still going on) It's quite a bit bigger and I prefer the LA architecture.
Wanna See Gentrification? This is 9th & Broadway...It was derelict 3 years ago. Now it starting to Look like this:
I wasn't trying to be unfair, just asking for the links to see what it looks like currently, I haven't been in 3-4 years, did not know it wasn't updated. If DT continues to gentrify and add retail, I'd definitely put it over Seattle (if that battle is still going on) It's quite a bit bigger and I prefer the LA architecture. There are definitely some looks in there that remind me a bit of Chicago layout.
3-4 years is quite a while for downtown LA because of the amount of interest and investment that the previously nearly decimated downtown of America's second largest city has attracted. It's certainly moved at a really quick pace in many ways--even the glacial pace of transit construction in the US has seen LA receive an extension of one previously existing light rail line, the creation of an entirely new one, and a multitude of new bus services and much of all of those emanating from downtown LA; it's also added a very large number of retail and services in the last few years which have filled out DTLA quite well. I definitely think anyone who hasn't visited LA recently give it another go, because it's incredible what's changed as well as what having a smartphone with location-based apps will allow someone to discover. I took a visit back to LA this winter after a half-year span of being away and it was good to see that the positive (in my view) changes have continued. I think if people are living in places where the coming summer or the next winter is a bit much to handle, and they haven't seen LA in a while or ever, it's definitely worth a visit now.
I completely agree with this. I sometimes laugh at people sitting in these double decker tour buses and vans going past the stars homes or people taking pictures on Rodeo Dr next to a fancy store. Oh brother! There are so many cool parts of LA that tourist very rarely see. And why do tourist flock to Century City Mall and the Grove?
What's wrong with The Grove? It looked charming to me even though we didn't strolled up and down it. We did went to that really nice Farmer's Market next to it. Best Brazilian food I ever had so far!
I love both, but will go with LA. LA has better food IMO and I like the culture more.
Now that's an interesting toughie. Which one has the better food?
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