Posted Nov 11, 2007, 9:21 PM
|
 |
Registered User
|
|
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 6,610
|
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by ladowntowner
LAB,
I remember as a young child driving through downtown Pasadena (now Old Town) with my family. It was a very dingy, scary place with abandoned, crumbling buildings and homeless everywhere. Ditto downtown Long Beach, even more so. (The rise of Suburbia pretty much killed off downtowns all across North America) Both have significantly turned around and have a great (albeit, somewhat manufactured) pedestrian experience today. Given time and much, much infill with a major effort towards the pedestrian experience, downtown L.A. would outdo them both with a more "organic" feel to boot. There are many things being done in this direction - with some major missteps and squandered opportunities as well. An expanding residential base and being the regional transit hub, nascent as it is (also expanding) adds to the potential for success. Too bad, as we appear to be running out of time before we can realize the dream - I hope I'm wrong here. Downtown L.A. may have reached it's zenith back in the 20's-40's in this regard, never again to see such activation at the street level. Wish I had been there to witness it.  |
I agree ladowntowner. That's what I meant in my post above too.
"unfortunately, it has arrived very late in the game of any established retail [presence] when material/labor costs are on the trend to skyrocket further up."
|
Threaded Mode