My take:
DTLA does have a lot way to go and in a lot of ways is still extremely rough around the edges. In the year my wife and I lived there, her safety walking home at night was definitely one of my big concerns. She is 90 lbs soaking wet, and there are characters that wander over from Skid Row that can be aggressive. She got followed more than once. I'm not a sheltered suburbanite either- I've lived in Northeast DC and East London. I'm just being realistic.
That being said, I love downtown. The reason we moved to Ktown wasn't for safety, but because we're saving to buy a place in DTLA because we like it so much. I've lived through enough gentrification to know when a neighborhood has crossed the threshhold, and is going to keep getting better and better. We will be back downtown, hopefully within a year
As for the comments on this board about DTLA's failings, I think they're just being realistic, but I agree that it gets tiresome. I come here to get excited about downtown's future, not obsess about its warts at present. And I have to say, these are exciting times. Now more than anytime since I got here, it feels like all of DTLA is under construction. Its thrilling to think that this boom is just getting started. So its not like we don't have positive things to talk about here.
Rant over.
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