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I'm very interested in some of Detroit's downtown reinitialization. Anyone with any info?
I think Detroit and LA have quite a few similarities that most people wouldn't expect. Both cities are industrial heavyweights (though much more of LA's industry is benefited from being a major port on the coast), both cities are fairly auto-cententric decentralized metros and had pretty respective large pre-war metro areas. From 1930-1940, Metro Detroit and greater LA pretty much had the same size population around 2.5 million.
Here's a nice little blog post by a native Detroiter who visits at least once a year.
And another thing I really appreciate about Detroit is its street layout...as it's rebirth/renaissance gathers pace, I really think its uniqueness will lead it to become a major tourist destination. Not the same grid you find through most of the country.
I think Detroit and LA have quite a few similarities that most people wouldn't expect. Both cities are industrial heavyweights (though much more of LA's industry is benefited from being a major port on the coast), both cities are fairly auto-cententric decentralized metros and had pretty respective large pre-war metro areas. From 1930-1940, Metro Detroit and greater LA pretty much had the same size population around 2.5 million.
I agree. The big difference is that while white flight was rampant in both cities, Los Angeles was injected with an influx of vibrant Mexican, Central / South American and Asian immigrants, which kept the population stable (actually kept the population increasing). Meanwhile Detroit did not have that influx which is why you see such a huge drop in tax base and all those urban prairies as no one filled in the homes that were left behind. And of course there is the undeniable influence of having Hollywood based in Los Angeles, and of course its desirable climate and location.
Both have the first edge cities (Detroit the "real" first) with New Center and Miracle Mile. Both are relatively auto-oriented though not in the way of the 80s-90s Sunbelt boom cities. However I will say Los Angeles is largely street-car oriented with auto-oriented infill and retrofitting. I'm not sure what kind of streetcar system Detroit had back in the day - I'm sure having the auto industry based there and their undeniable influence made it tough to have the kind of extensive system Southern California managed to develop. But they look a lot alike in many places despite some very different residential vernacular.
I've never been to Detroit but popping around on street view I see way more similarities than differneces between DTLA and Downtown Detroit. Both have an array of mid-century high-rises and lots of gorgeous art deco buildings. These buildings are largely unoccupied in both cities as well (except for the ground floor). I know Los Angeles has taken great steps to revitalize these buildings - and luckily the demand was there. The adaptive reuse policy for residential units in DTLA completely changed the district, injecting a new residential population into the area. the issue now is the unused office space along Spring, Broadway and Main (among other streets) - which by some estimates totals 1 million square feet of empty office space. A similar adaptive reuse policy for office space has been passed for DTLA so hopefully we will see those buildings start to be revitalized as well.
One thing I think DTLA definitely has over Detroit is the great theater district of Broadway, decrepit as it may have been for the last few decades. This is probably the "hippest" street in all of Los Angeles right now, and much has been published about its rebirth. The Ace Hotel locating at South Broadway along with some high-end clothing designers, a high-end furniture design company, the Umamicatessan, Clifton's Cafeteria renovation, the conversion of a historic theater to an Urban Outfitters, the coversion of an old Woolworth's department store into a Ross (trust me a Ross is an upgrade over much of the past retail offerings), the downtown streetcar and the Broadway road diet has really transformed what was an extremely rough-and-tumble part of downtown.
Some of these posts are silly. So places like Denver or Austin are not real cities, because they aren't on the water? Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, etc are not real cities because they aren't on the ocean? What dumb logic.
I agree. The big difference is that while white flight was rampant in both cities, Los Angeles was injected with an influx of vibrant Mexican, Central / South American and Asian immigrants, which kept the population stable (actually kept the population increasing). Meanwhile Detroit did not have that influx which is why you see such a huge drop in tax base and all those urban prairies as no one filled in the homes that were left behind. And of course there is the undeniable influence of having Hollywood based in Los Angeles, and of course its desirable climate and location.
Pretty much.
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Both have the first edge cities (Detroit the "real" first) with New Center and Miracle Mile. Both are relatively auto-oriented though not in the way of the 80s-90s Sunbelt boom cities. However I will say Los Angeles is largely street-car oriented with auto-oriented infill and retrofitting. I'm not sure what kind of streetcar system Detroit had back in the day - I'm sure having the auto industry based there and their undeniable influence made it tough to have the kind of extensive system Southern California managed to develop. But they look a lot alike in many places despite some very different residential vernacular.
Detroit's streetcar/interurban system was pretty extensive. Probably no where near the size of LA's in sheer mileage, but much of SE Michigan was connected by rail seemingly. However, whether or not this rail system really affected the growth of the metro area, I'm not sure. Development is definitely older along routes that had a rail line, but not much seemed very transit-oriented. Pre-war multifamily housing is pretty rare in the suburbs of Detroit. Definitely less than a handful of suburbs have any amount of pre-war apartment buildings.
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I've never been to Detroit but popping around on street view I see way more similarities than differneces between DTLA and Downtown Detroit. Both have an array of mid-century high-rises and lots of gorgeous art deco buildings. These buildings are largely unoccupied in both cities as well (except for the ground floor). I know Los Angeles has taken great steps to revitalize these buildings - and luckily the demand was there. The adaptive reuse policy for residential units in DTLA completely changed the district, injecting a new residential population into the area. the issue now is the unused office space along Spring, Broadway and Main (among other streets) - which by some estimates totals 1 million square feet of empty office space. A similar adaptive reuse policy for office space has been passed for DTLA so hopefully we will see those buildings start to be revitalized as well.
Yea, Detroit seems only just now started to reuse these building within the last several years. Before that, it was demolition after demolition from vacancy and neglect. It's been kind of a hard place for preservationist.
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One thing I think DTLA definitely has over Detroit is the great theater district of Broadway, decrepit as it may have been for the last few decades. This is probably the "hippest" street in all of Los Angeles right now, and much has been published about its rebirth. The Ace Hotel locating at South Broadway along with some high-end clothing designers, a high-end furniture design company, the Umamicatessan, Clifton's Cafeteria renovation, the conversion of a historic theater to an Urban Outfitters, the coversion of an old Woolworth's department store into a Ross (trust me a Ross is an upgrade over much of the past retail offerings), the downtown streetcar and the Broadway road diet has really transformed what was an extremely rough-and-tumble part of downtown.
I'd agree there. Detroit has a lot of theaters, but for whatever reason they're scattered all over the place. So technically there's no central theater district. However, many theaters have unfortunately fallen to bulldozers over the decades.
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