Los Angeles Gets Serious About Its Downtown-WSJ ARTICLE (for sale, rentals)

[jm1982]

OR we could always tear down some homes and build retail...then unwalkable areas become walkable.

[munchitup]

Originally Posted by GatsbyGatz

I will always stand by the opinion that the ultimate tragedy in the US was that LA was built during the rise of the automobile. If there were any geographic location and climate that warranted a city built as dense as Paris/NYC/London/Tokyo, it is the location where LA/SM/Long Beach/BH rests now. Instead of urban centers, LA has urban boulevards extending westward from Downtown.

While LA's urban planning might appeal to some, I always wished that it had been planned more akin to older cities.

Alas, we can only press forward. The revival of DTLA is excellent and I hope that density spreads down LA's boulevards at the same rate.

LOL I can think of a few instances that are slightly more tragic. Slavery, Japanese internment, Civil War...

Besides, most of LA was built during the rise of the street-cars, not the automobile. You can see pretty large differences between cities build during the auto-era and those like LA which were retrofitted for the automobile. Sure LA highly influenced those cities but they do have some big differences in DNA.

[yby1]

Originally Posted by GatsbyGatz

I will always stand by the opinion that the ultimate tragedy in the US was that LA was built during the rise of the automobile. If there were any geographic location and climate that warranted a city built as dense as Paris/NYC/London/Tokyo, it is the location where LA/SM/Long Beach/BH rests now. Instead of urban centers, LA has urban boulevards extending westward from Downtown.

While LA's urban planning might appeal to some, I always wished that it had been planned more akin to older cities.

Alas, we can only press forward. The revival of DTLA is excellent and I hope that density spreads down LA's boulevards at the same rate.

LA was built around the street car, then they retrofitted around the car. The street car system was massive.

[munchitup]

Originally Posted by jm1982

OR we could always tear down some homes and build retail...then unwalkable areas become walkable.

Honestly I don't think this is necessary inside the basin area of LA. The grid of boulevards in the basin side of LA creates a woven fabric of commercial areas - in a manner that nearly everyone is a 1/2 mile walk from a commercial area in each direction. The issue is that a great deal of these arteries have business and buildings that are a huge turn-off for pedestrians.

Here is a great example: http://goo.gl/maps/g52T3 - Santa Monica, Melrose, Beverly, 3rd and Wilshire provide walkable E-W corridors that are about a half mile apart, while Fairfax, La Brea and La Cienega provide N-S corridors that are about a mile apart.

In the Valley this "weave" is looser, with the commercial areas more spaced out, plus some of the arteries have large single-use apartment buildings. I think perhaps some of the apartment buildings could be torn down and replaced with mixed-use, which would improve the walkability of the quiet SFH neighborhoods the Valley prides itself on.

Other areas like Elysian Valley, Cypress Park, etc. could use a little more retail as they seem to be almost 100 percent residential, which forces residents to drive or take the bus for even the simplest of errands.

[UB50]

Originally Posted by Bunjee

I know, right? That's the DTLA I know, always active, and I'm not even into shopping much less wholesale shopping. What I'd like to see is those districts evolve into better versions of themselves rather than something new. Here's an empty building on Los Angeles Street, for example: Grether & Grether Building. Instead of more condos/apartments, could they not open the first three floors to showrooms? The top floors could still be residential. The rooftop could be for runway shows. It's L.A. With our weather we need to use the rooftops of our lowrises, of which there are so many.

I love all the shopping downtown! If you go into the Jewelry district, you would find that those 8 story buildings have 8 floors of retail/wholesale shopping! Putting residential on top of retail is cool too. I just don't like the idea of driving all those businesses out. That's part of what makes LA so vibrant!

[UB50]

Originally Posted by munchitup

Honestly I don't think this is necessary inside the basin area of LA. The grid of boulevards in the basin side of LA creates a woven fabric of commercial areas - in a manner that nearly everyone is a 1/2 mile walk from a commercial area in each direction. The issue is that a great deal of these arteries have business and buildings that are a huge turn-off for pedestrians.

Here is a great example: http://goo.gl/maps/g52T3 - Santa Monica, Melrose, Beverly, 3rd and Wilshire provide walkable E-W corridors that are about a half mile apart, while Fairfax, La Brea and La Cienega provide N-S corridors that are about a mile apart.

In the Valley this "weave" is looser, with the commercial areas more spaced out, plus some of the arteries have large single-use apartment buildings. I think perhaps some of the apartment buildings could be torn down and replaced with mixed-use, which would improve the walkability of the quiet SFH neighborhoods the Valley prides itself on.

Other areas like Elysian Valley, Cypress Park, etc. could use a little more retail as they seem to be almost 100 percent residential, which forces residents to drive or take the bus for even the simplest of errands.

Putting the commercial along the boulevards also makes it easier to have mass transit where nearly everyone is 1/2 mile walk to a transit stop.

The Valley is a little too spaced out in areas.

[sargentodiaz]

Actually, when la Puebla de Nuestra Señora de la Reina de los Angeles del Rio Porculina was founded, it was supposed to follow some very strict reglamentos as to the size of each lot and block.

What created the sprawl was the land grants given out by various governors to retiring soldiers or others who had gained political favors and/or paid someone for the grant. Wikipedia has a list of those land grants and going over them makes the various suburbs make sense.

[pwright1]

[Marv101]

If you can afford to live on those downtown condos which start around $500K for the one-percenters and go straight up from there, then why not?

[ProjectMersh]

The condo market is under supplied in downtown right now. New supply will come in and prices should correct.

That shot in front of the new ACE hotel is insteresting. A woman carrying an Acne bag (from the Swedish retailer which just opened nearby). Yes, Broadway is changing...