LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 6.0

[BrandonJXN]

You do know that the Arts District was warehouses and storage 70 to 90 years ago and not some thriving middle class neighborhood. It was only until the late 70s to early 80s where artists and Hollywood folk would move into the vacant warehouse space, convert the space into studios and live/work spaces.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by BrandonJXN

You do know that the Arts District was warehouses and storage 70 to 90 years ago and not some thriving middle class neighborhood. It was only until the late 70s to early 80s where artists and Hollywood folk would move into the vacant warehouse space, convert the space into studios and live/work spaces.

Exactly. This guy has no idea what he's talking about. The aesthetics of the Arts District are not a product of the era in which it was developed, but rather the original land use: light industry. Such areas are common in cities throughout the developed world, and they are almost always less visually appealing than residential and commercial areas.

[caligrad]

I was in the Arts last night for a party. There's nothing remotely sketchy about it. I'll Argue that LA needs more of what the Arts is serving. I'll be happy if Onni decides to build their Arts district project next.

For some reason, when covid hit, it became trendy for Transplants to point out the flaws of LA, specifically downtown, for likes and views on social media to try to build some form of influencer base/following.

There is a girl on TikTok from Germany whose been here for a full year and had nothing but positives things to say in videos. Those clips only got a few hundred likes and views.... She posted a video Friday about how she's leaving, with a power point presentation as to why. Its already sitting at 1 million likes and 2.6 million Views. When she was called out for the extreme backpedal in the comment section, her response was to delete all of the other videos as if they never happened.

[Illithid Dude]

And European cities have formally industrial areas that have been converted into thriving residential areas as well. I'm not sure what Citywatch is going on about but it's completely wrong. The idea that LA didn't create vibrant neighborhoods until recently is also inaccurate. If anything, we have lost the lessons we learned 70-90 years ago!

[ed21x]

Originally Posted by craigs

Exactly. This guy has no idea what he's talking about. The aesthetics of the Arts District are not a product of the era in which it was developed, but rather the original land use: light industry. Such areas are common in cities throughout the developed world, and they are almost always less visually appealing than residential and commercial areas.

I LOVE the fact that there are warehouses and parking lots in and around DTLA because they represent so much potential still. They're like placeholders for easy future redevelopment. If they were SFH, we would all be screwed in terms of redevelopment. Outside of detroit, austin, and houston, i can't think of many other US cities with so much available land downtown to work with.

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by caligrad

I was in the Arts last night for a party. There's nothing remotely sketchy about it. I'll Argue that LA needs more of what the Arts is serving. I'll be happy if Onni decides to build their Arts district project next.

Even before the recent development boom in the Arts District, I wouldn't say it was ever really "sketchy", more like "empty." Same as the Fashion District. The Skid Row spillover was mostly to the west and north.

[craigs]

I mean, it's a big city so you always have to pay attention to your surroundings, but yeah--the Arts District has never felt notably "sketchy" to me.

[Blesha13]

https://la.urbanize.city/post/onni-p...-arts-district

[Quixote]

Originally Posted by Blesha13

https://la.urbanize.city/post/onni-p...-arts-district

Nice! Two towers, one 30 stories tall and the other 19 stories, is a much better use of that site. And nice to know that SCB will be behind the design rather than Chris Dikeakos.

[HusBy]

The cool thing about the Arts District is it feels completely different to any other part of LA. The new developments there have both higher quality public spaces and higher quality design and execution than the rest of the city tends to see. And the mix of historic buildings and new buildings is excellent. The scale of the streets is very humane. Especially once the 6th St bridge park is complete I think it will feel even more tied together as an urban neighborhood.

Alloy is looking pretty good, the street level hardscape and landscape is nearing completion. Can't wait for the fences to come down. I believe they've begun pre-leasing as well.

[/url][/url]

[homebucket]

citywatch has been suspended for 90 days, effective immediately, for repeated city vs city trolling despite multiple warnings. I also took the liberty to clean up some of the side discussion that stemmed from his posts, to facilitate more seamless continuation of the recent more relevant and on topic discussions about DTLA P&Cs.

As a reminder:

City-versus-city activity is flat-out banned from being posted here in all its forms.

City vs city trolling sets up a rather nasty and personal fight between forumers from one place and forumers from another place, potentially affecting hundreds of members any time it breaks out. Nothing good comes of versus-trolling, but long after the insults and mockery have been removed, bad feelings between individuals and between groups tend to linger, oftentimes popping up in unrelated threads for months afterwards.

Thus, when it comes to 'versus' trolling, a line must be drawn--sharply. Anyone who crosses that line shall be disciplined, up to and including suspension and even summary banishment without warning. Forum moderation and administration shall be the arbiter of what constitutes versus-trolling, so if you think your post might be perceived as an unfair attack on an entire city that will upset residents there, tread lightly or reconsider how you intend to express your opinion. No forumer shall successfully claim ignorance of our policy against versus trolling, and no forumer should believe he can get away with it.

The ban on versus activity applies to all posts and all threads, even ones that are not initially set up as city-versus-city.

If you see any troublesome posts please report them using the "report a post" icon - in the upper right corner of every post on the forum.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by HusBy

The cool thing about the Arts District is it feels completely different to any other part of LA. The new developments there have both higher quality public spaces and higher quality design and execution than the rest of the city tends to see. And the mix of historic buildings and new buildings is excellent. The scale of the streets is very humane. Especially once the 6th St bridge park is complete I think it will feel even more tied together as an urban neighborhood.

Alloy is looking pretty good, the street level hardscape and landscape is nearing completion. Can't wait for the fences to come down. I believe they've begun pre-leasing as well.

[/url][/url]

If I had to live in LA, I'd probably pick Ktown or the Arts District. The vibe of the Arts District is a lot more appealing to me than say South Park. I agree that the mix of historic, retrofitted industrial light buildings, with its more human scale and an overall more quiet and relaxed vibe compared to the rest of DTLA is appealing. The only problem is it's in a bit of a transit desert, especially if you live further away from the Little Tokyo/Arts District Metro station, as well as the lack of sidewalks in some areas, but I'm sure that will come as the area develops further.

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by ed21x

I LOVE the fact that there are warehouses and parking lots in and around DTLA because they represent so much potential still. They're like placeholders for easy future redevelopment. If they were SFH, we would all be screwed in terms of redevelopment. Outside of detroit, austin, and houston, i can't think of many other US cities with so much available land downtown to work with.

Old maps actually show quite a few SFH neighborhoods in what is now the Arts District and Fashion District. It sucks to lose any historic neighborhoods like that, but it's a good thing that they were bulldozed to make way for more industrial/commercial uses, before the NIMBYs took over.

[craigs]

Speaking of the Arts District, here's a shot from LA Reddit taken a couple blocks west of Alloy, showing the impact Olympic + Hill is making on the skyline from the east:

[scania]

Such a cool pic.

[BrandonJXN]

I'll repeat what a lot of what people have said but the Arts District would be my first choice in terms of living in LA with a unlimited budget. It's probably the only part of DTLA that feels like a distinctive neighborhood. I don't even know if it's there anymore but I would always hang out at Novel Cafe which was adjacent to a brick building with a huge mural of some old person.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by BrandonJXN

I'll repeat what a lot of what people have said but the Arts District would be my first choice in terms of living in LA with a unlimited budget. It's probably the only part of DTLA that feels like a distinctive neighborhood. I don't even know if it's there anymore but I would always hang out at Novel Cafe which was adjacent to a brick building with a huge mural of some old person.

I would go there occasionally; it's now a Groundwork Coffee. But at least that's a local Los Angeles chain.

[caligrad]

Originally Posted by Blesha13

https://la.urbanize.city/post/onni-p...-arts-district

They must have heard us talking about them ha-ha. This to me is amazing, everything along the river needs to be rezoned, upzoned and pumped full of residential units or live/work units. Would be cool if developers incorporated the old warehouses for the base of their buildings. Here's hoping Onni buys up more land on that side. You would think with the new 6th street bridge. Developers would be buying up land left and right in the vicinity.

Originally Posted by badrunner

Even before the recent development boom in the Arts District, I wouldn't say it was ever really "sketchy", more like "empty." Same as the Fashion District. The Skid Row spillover was mostly to the west and north.

Same. Granted I was a teen back before the new stuff moved in, but I've never felt unsafe on that side of town, even with the impromptu warehouse parties I was chased out of by the cops.

Originally Posted by homebucket

The only problem is it's in a bit of a transit desert, especially if you live further away from the Little Tokyo/Arts District Metro station, as well as the lack of sidewalks in some areas, but I'm sure that will come as the area develops further.

Speaking of transit desert. I know metro is still trying get the redline station worked out over there. With Onni building furth down by the 10, wouldn't it be smart to add a station down there just south of the 7th street bridge? i know the stations would techinally be very close but i feel it would be worth it.

[dktshb]

Originally Posted by BrandonJXN

I'll repeat what a lot of what people have said but the Arts District would be my first choice in terms of living in LA with a unlimited budget. It's probably the only part of DTLA that feels like a distinctive neighborhood. I don't even know if it's there anymore but I would always hang out at Novel Cafe which was adjacent to a brick building with a huge mural of some old person.

The only issue I have with the Arts District is it needs to build up the pedestrian infrastructure. Too few crosswalks sidewalks and too many cars, which is strange to say because 20 years ago you could walk down the middle of most those streets.

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by caligrad

I was in the Arts last night for a party. There's nothing remotely sketchy about it. I'll Argue that LA needs more of what the Arts is serving. I'll be happy if Onni decides to build their Arts district project next.

For some reason, when covid hit, it became trendy for Transplants to point out the flaws of LA, specifically downtown, for likes and views on social media to try to build some form of influencer base/following.

There is a girl on TikTok from Germany whose been here for a full year and had nothing but positives things to say in videos. Those clips only got a few hundred likes and views.... She posted a video Friday about how she's leaving, with a power point presentation as to why. Its already sitting at 1 million likes and 2.6 million Views. When she was called out for the extreme backpedal in the comment section, her response was to delete all of the other videos as if they never happened.

Because a certain group eats that crap right up. NYC and SF get the same treatment, its not just LA. NYC has one of the bigger youtube "NYC is dying' channels, and SF has their own version of this. People walking around and filming only the flaws. I think the NYC and SF guys are the worst and get more views and they're very active trying to spread a narrative.

Austin is starting to get this backlash too, believe it or not. Miami as well.

These influencers are gonna run out of content if all they do is bitch though.

On a related note, I was in Venice for 2-3 days this weekend and it is packed like pre covid. And full of Europeans. So whatever these influencers are trying to do, it isn't working.
Probably the same for NYC. And I bet it makes them angry as hell.