Yesterday was a great day in Downtown with all of the activity generated by sports fans. A few observations. I met a friend on the EXPO line and took the train into Downtown. So great to have this link into Downtown. Mostly full of King's fans from the Westside...but also families exiting at the museums across from USC. The ride into Downtown was painfully slow, expecially from USC to Pico. The article in the LA Times today talks about the potentially unsafe rail just south of the Pico Station. The ride back was much faster.
LA Live was vibrant. Outside beer halls were busy, the Amgen Bike race was awesome, bike valets outside Staples were full. They say 10,000 cicylists took advantage of the route prior to the Tour of Calif teams.
We walked up to Bunker Hill to get a better look at the race. Very quiet up there...few spectators compared to the thousands near LA Live. Took a peek at the new Civic Center park. It looks great with a lot of full grown trees. I am very excited about it. The other notable find was the Broad museum. Wow, it is really taking off.
The Yard House was packed during the King's game. They really do well when LA Live has events. The Sunday Times has an article about how Downtown is just like LA in general. A lot of different neighborhoods that are disconnected from each other. Let's hope for better connections in the future.
The traffic seemed minimal. So many rail lines leading into Downtown..there is absolutely no reason to drive. The kids on the EXPO line were loving it. As a kid who grew up in Redondo Beach, I never had the opportunity to take rail because there wasn't any. The next generation is very lucky to have an alternative to the auto!
One last comment. I absolutely believe the best way to connect the Downtown neighborhoods is to support the LA Streetcar. The Streetcar almost follows the route of the Downtown loop during the Amgen race yesterday...except that the Streetcar will go down Broadway instead of Hill. To me, this connection is one of the many missing links for Downtown.
Last edited by LA/OCman; May 21, 2012 at 2:03 PM.
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