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Sooo what's his excuse for the largest US city, NYC and 3/4 of the island of Manhattan being a sh**hole for the 1970s, 1980s, and most of the 1990s?
LA's DTLA revival only started about 15 years ago with the completion of Staples Center and has only accelerated in the last 10 years.
LA's pride and joy for tourists was never DTLA -- Leave that for the beach cities. DTLA has only attracted some tourism with LA live, but mainly residential opportunities with new apartment complexes and converted lofts.
Saying that DTLA is all garbage is almost the same analogy as NJ is all garbage as well. Yes parts of both areas are junk, but most of it is in fact, quite nice. Both are easy targets.
Spot on. Living in DTLA but having grown up in the NYC metro, I actually see a lot of parallels in terms of gentrification. DTLA right now feels very much like a combination of Times Square and SoHo circa the late 80s/early 90s. Its certainly not squeaky clean like 2014 Manhattan, but its certainly no longer the sh**hole that Manhattan was in the 70s. I'd put DTLA's gentrification around 25 years behind Manhattan's. There's a lot of uber-Hipster high end establishments popping up, but there's also still cheap eats, cheap digs, and whole sub-neighborhoods (e.g. Skid Row) that are yet untouched by gentrification. Its gritty, artsy, and doesn't feel like the culture has been whitewashed away yet.
And you know what? That's fine. If this place was already at Manhattan level gentrification, I couldn't have afforded to buy a loft here. But in its current transitional state, I was able to grab a piece of DTLA before things get out of reach. So now I'm pretty content with the state of downtown. Sure I get excited about the glassy highrises being built and slated for the future, but I also know that the positive change is going to come at a cost as DLTA inches closer to being a super-polished, super-wealthy, exclusionary place like Manhattan or San Francisco. So I'm in no rush to get there. Easy does it, DTLA.
Sooo what's his excuse for the largest US city, NYC and 3/4 of the island of Manhattan being a sh**hole for the 1970s, 1980s, and most of the 1990s?
LA's DTLA revival only started about 15 years ago with the completion of Staples Center and has only accelerated in the last 10 years.
LA's pride and joy for tourists was never DTLA -- Leave that for the beach cities. DTLA has only attracted some tourism with LA live, but mainly residential opportunities with new apartment complexes and converted lofts.
Saying that DTLA is all garbage is almost the same analogy as NJ is all garbage as well. Yes parts of both areas are junk, but most of it is in fact, quite nice. Both are easy targets.
I'll only add that Hollywood, the Hollywood Hills, and Beverly Hills are tourism magnets in addition to places like Venice, Santa Monica and Malibu.
The downtown LA tourism market is expanding...always see tourists taking photos of Disney Hall. The Ace Hotel and its revived theater is drawing in more tourists. Also, the newly opened Grand Park, with the big labor day concert coming up, is bringing in visitors from all over the state. I know someone who works at a local downtown hotel and they told me they are getting lots of business from that.
I don't disagree that DTLA is a bit on the disappointing side for tourists
Why? Except for those curious urbanites aware of its very recent ascendancy, who anticipates hanging out "downtown" when contemplating a trip to Los Angeles?
Here's a [recently proposed] enhancement to Detroit's core:
Quote:
DETROIT - Detroit's new arena and entertainment district planned by the Ilitch family for the northern edge of downtown promises to be the city's boldest and most significant development since the Renaissance Center of the 1970s — creating as many as 2,000 new residential units, dozens of shops, walkable European-style streets and perhaps the nation's most innovative multipurpose arena.
(the entire article has a lot of good details, just read the whole thing at the usa today link)
Among the new details
-Sidewalks and streetlights: Saying "you can't build a world-class district on top of broken-down infrastructure," Ilitch said his FAMILY PLANS to spend millions of dollars to replace aging and often broken public infrastructure in the district with new street paving, sidewalks, streetlights and other infrastructure, working with the city and utility companies to make that happen.
-Bridging I-75: Conceptual plans call for building new structures to span I-75, even on the Woodward Avenue Bridge, so that the below-ground freeway is no longer such a barrier separating downtown and Midtown.
-Trend-setting arena design: The arena itself, still unnamed, will be built in a "deconstructed" fashion with the souvenir shops, team offices, restaurants, ticket offices and similar spaces being built outside the arena but linked by a glass-topped interior street that will serve as a year-round venue for events (see sidebar).
-Home-grown labor: The Ilitches plan has committed to a goal of buying 80% of construction materials from Michigan suppliers when possible. This is in addition to their previously announced goals of hiring 51% of all construction workers from among Detroit residents and getting 30% of all subcontractors from among Detroit-based firms.
-New neighborhoods: Ilitch outlined a plan to create five distinct "neighborhoods" in the district, each with its own special character. Those neighborhoods will be walkable, intimate and, in some cases, modeled after European streets.
-Internships: To help the broader community, the Ilitches have committed to starting an internship program for Cass Tech High School students to work in the family's BUSINESS NETWORK, and to lend its development expertise to groups working elsewhere in Detroit's neighborhoods.
Why? Except for those curious urbanites aware of its very recent ascendancy, who anticipates hanging out "downtown" when contemplating a trip to Los Angeles?
Good point. I think there are actually many people that assume LA just doesn't have a traditional downtown. Others think Century City is the downtown.
Good point. I think there are actually many people that assume LA just doesn't have a traditional downtown. Others think Century City is the downtown.
I'm just reluctant to buy into the frame being out out there: "disappointing for its size". There's little expectation. On a related note: a person CANNOT be disappointed with Hollywood at this point in history. Few American locales have had more dismissive crap written about it.
Sorry, but the 2nd biggest city in the world's most powerful nation should not have a downtown that's spun positively by locals as a "work in progress." The downtown is disappointing. Deal with it.
I would agree with you for the past few decades. It's much better now and it's arguable how much of a disappointment it is now. I understand it's not nearly as good as one would expect for a city of LA's stature, but it's way better than what anyone who has visited a decade ago would expect now.
I'm just reluctant to buy into the frame being out out there: "disappointing for its size". There's little expectation.
Completely untrue - as a kid who'd been to Chicago and other downtowns, my expectations of LA's downtown were rather lofty, and I'm sure this is a fairly common/shared experience across the board.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OyCrumbler
I understand it's not nearly as good as one would expect for a city of LA's stature, but it's way better than what anyone who has visited a decade ago would expect now.
Yup, that's all I'm saying. Locals are too touchy to accept this fact, which is ludicrous. Everyone outside LA agrees that DTLA doesn't live up to the city itself. I haven't been downtown in a few years, so next time I'm there I'll make it a point to check out the new developments!
Completely untrue - as a kid who'd been to Chicago and other downtowns, my expectations of LA's downtown were rather lofty, and I'm sure this is a fairly common/shared experience across the board.
Yup, that's all I'm saying. Locals are too touchy to accept this fact, which is ludicrous. Everyone outside LA agrees that DTLA doesn't live up to the city itself. I haven't been downtown in a few years, so next time I'm there I'll make it a point to check out the new developments!
Right, because Milwaukee after all is a Alpha + world class city
You need to get out of that cornfed mentality, sir.
Completely untrue - as a kid who'd been to Chicago and other downtowns, my expectations of LA's downtown were rather lofty, and I'm sure this is a fairly common/shared experience across the board.
Why? You have the internet. If you confused downtown Los Angeles with Westside affluence, that's entirely on you.
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