LOS ANGELES | Countywide Project Rundown Megathread

[SoCalKid]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

I have a few mixed feelings, but overall I think it won't hurt the touristy part of Hollywood Boulevard too much. If anything, the businesses near the Dolby Theatre will probably be relieved; it's often mentioned on the local news that during the Oscars, those businesses lose business because of the full-on security street and sidewalk closures; and even in the days leading up to the Oscars, foot traffic goes down for those businesses because of the street closures. The Oscars are just one event of many for the film industry, and as far as I know, movie premieres are still held on Hollywood Boulevard. The Oscars leaving Hollywood will be just one less thing for the tourists to look at. I know that the Oscar preparations would be a tourist attraction in itself, with people taking pictures of the red carpet being rolled out and the media risers and fan bleachers being set up.

I know the Oscars have been taking place in Hollywood for nearly a quarter century now, but if anything, instead of the Oscars abandoning Hollywood, it's more like the Oscars are RETURNING to downtown LA. For many years, the Oscars were held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, so downtown is no stranger to the Oscars, even pre-televised era---the Biltmore Hotel was one of 2 Oscar venues during the 1930s and early 1940s (the other venue being the Cocoanut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel), and even in 2021 during the COVID pandemic, the Oscars were held at Union Station.

This is definitely a win for L.A. Live and the Academy---the expanded plaza at L.A. Live can serve as a huge red carpet area for the press as well as more bleachers for film/celebrity fans (the fan bleachers at the Dolby always looked small to me compared to when the Oscars were at the Dorothy Chandler and Shrine Auditorium). Even though the Dolby was specifically designed with the Oscars in mind, the seating capacity was never large enough. Academy membership has grown to over 11,000 people; the Dolby only seats around 3,400, but the Peacock Theater seats 7,100. More Academy members will be able to attend the awards ceremony.

Well said. I do still think losing the Oscars takes away the tourist selling point of "This is where they have the Oscars!!", but good point on the street shutdowns hurting business.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by LA21st

Uhh, there has been a TON of infill in downtown since 2010.

I didn't say there wasn't...but I was referring to this date right now, as of March-april 2026. I even mentioned the erehwon proj at the NE corner of Hill & Olympic. But other than that & the Colburn & Broad expansion projs, I don't know of any other new devlpt in dtla....again, right now.

The highrises in Miami are being supported by ppl moving from South America...or investing outside their home countries, & ppl from the NE US moving to the SE. Toronto has a lot of ppl from Asia moving there...it has been the fastest growing city in North america....but I read it has overbuilt its towers of small condos. Cities in China have seen the same thing.

Also, right now, more of LA's entertainment industry is moving or occurring elsewhere. London & the UK are grabbing a lot of today's movie productions & TV shows...some of it is moving to the southeast. Which is why the LA forumer who posted in the city discussions page about being impressed by the amt of infill in Atlanta, where some TV shows & movies are being filmed, got me to wondering what trends are affecting SoCal the most? The govt, the economy, the fires, post covid, online shopping, work from home, things like the mansion tax, high cost of living, negative press, etc?

This used to be the headquarters of Union Oil in dtla...corporations like that for the past 30 yrs have moved out of LA, so owners of commercial space are forced to work harder to fill their bldgs.


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[ReDSPork02]

Mixed feelings as well, about the Oscars leaving Hollywood.

Maybe LA City officials can take notice....Maybe start that project to close Hollywood Boulevard permanently. While the Oscars are away.....they can make improvements. There are great ideas out there. 10 years time.

heartofhollywood.la

https://beverlypress.com/2020/02/its-called-the-walk-of-fame-for-a-reason/

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by ReDSPork02

Mixed feelings as well, about the Oscars leaving Hollywood.

Maybe LA City officials can take notice....Maybe start that project to close Hollywood Boulevard permanently. While the Oscars are away.....they can make improvements. There are great ideas out there. 10 years time.

heartofhollywood.la

https://beverlypress.com/2020/02/its-called-the-walk-of-fame-for-a-reason/

Honestly, any attention given to make Hollywood Blvd more inviting is more important than the Oscars. I like the Oscars, but Hollywood Blvd needs to be in better shape.
Its crazy it's been pushed to the side for this long, and city leaders shouldve taken note after NYC cleaned up Times Square.

[Illithid Dude]

The Oscars have been held in a million different places over the year, from the Biltmore to the Shrine Auditorium. I'm not upset. It's just how it is.

[plinko]

I'm not normally a fan of closing streets off but Hollywood Blvd between Highland and Orange almost screams needing to be. The pedestrian counts through there (I drove through there on Sunday evening) is pretty incredible. Almost theme park like. Honestly you could do something similar to Fremont Street in Las Vegas.

The Oscars moving downtown is a push for Hollywood.

[Illithid Dude]

I actually like the autombile life on Hollywood Blvd. The lowriders, the ATVs, the for rent Ferrari's. It has a unique quality that I'd prefer preserved. But I do agree the sidewalks should be widened.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by Illithid Dude

I actually like the autombile life on Hollywood Blvd. The lowriders, the ATVs, the for rent Ferrari's. It has a unique quality that I'd prefer preserved. But I do agree the sidewalks should be widened.

We agree!

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by SoCalKid

What does everyone think about the Oscars' move to LA Live?

It will obviously be good for DTLA, as this is effectively getting a very large convention booked for 10 years. The upgrades to Peacock Theater could also help it compete for more events throughout the year. This should have a small but meaningful positive impact on hotels/restaurants/bars/retail, and a large impact on the value of signage in the surrounding area. For example, this should give a boost to the value of Oceanwide's giant LED screen, which should help the project move forward. And overall, it increases the tourist cache of LA Live.

On the flip side, this is bad for Hollywood Blvd which was already struggling. It loses not only a big event, but one of the things that brought it national attention. I think Hollywood's prosperity is really important to the city at large, as it represents LA in the public imagination.

So overall, I have mixed feelings.

Im in the same exact state of mind on this

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by OakAngeles

As someone who hasnt lived in LA for 10+ years and hasn't seen the changes in person, what do you think Hollywood's prospects are of shedding its tourist trap image and becoming a more viable residential neighborhood?
Obviously things like the walk of fame will continue to be a draw, but Hollywood Blvd has basically been a museum of the 20's film era for a long time and I think in many ways it has outlived that purpose even before more recent changes.
With good transit options and proximity to the West Side which is seeing a bulk of the new projects atm, is it time for the city to just give up the ghost and just make it a livable neighborhood rather than a place to visit?

In my opinion, Hollywood outside of the middle stretch of Hollywood Blvd is doing quite well. Large portions of Sunset from the 101 to highland as well as the side streets, fountain, etc have been or are being redeveloped. If we could get some of the larger projects going, it can be transformative

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

In my opinion, Hollywood outside of the middle stretch of Hollywood Blvd is doing quite well. Large portions of Sunset from the 101 to highland as well as the side streets, fountain, etc have been or are being redeveloped. If we could get some of the larger projects going, it can be transformative

Agreed, Sunset east of Vine looks awesome now. And all that infill towards Hollywood blvd. There's also a ton of new small infill developments south of sunset towards Melrose or so on all those residential streets. If you walk around, its really noticeable. They aren't 7 stories or anything, just small scale 3-5 story buildings that look nice. Some are the small lot townhomes that are just going up everywhere in the city. Kinda reminds of of Chicago's infill with their version of small lot homes.

Hollywood gets — because people want to focus on parts of Hollywood blvd, but it's actually a pretty nice neighborhood in general.

[OakAngeles]

Originally Posted by LA21st

Agreed, Sunset east of Vine looks awesome now. And all that infill towards Hollywood blvd. There's also a ton of new small infill developments south of sunset towards Melrose or so on all those residential streets. If you walk around, its really noticeable. They aren't 7 stories or anything, just small scale 3-5 story buildings that look nice. Some are the small lot townhomes that are just going up everywhere in the city. Kinda reminds of of Chicago's infill with their version of small lot homes.

Glad to hear the city's focusing on a missing middle approach. I feel like big, transit oriented projects get the headlines, but those infill projects can be crucial. I'm currently in a spot in Chicago with a lot of those small lot homes around and they do a better job at making a livable neighborhood than bigger towers and especially compared to "units above a pedestal garage" type developments

[caligrad]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

In my opinion, Hollywood outside of the middle stretch of Hollywood Blvd is doing quite well. Large portions of Sunset from the 101 to highland as well as the side streets, fountain, etc have been or are being redeveloped. If we could get some of the larger projects going, it can be transformative

Its that weird stretch between Las Palmas and Ivar. The cheap touristy souvenir stores, — shops and sad looking restaurants all inside those sad looking buildings all need to go ( not all buildings, some of them are gems).

The pacific theater needs to be rehabbed for comedy/stage shows for similar acts or rehabbed for a Cosm. Similar buildings rehabbed for boutique hotels, but the rest single story buildings need their owners to rehab or give them up.

And that stretch between Gower and the 101, i know there's plans for condo towers and etc. If i remember correctly, but the other big parking lots and rundown buildings need to make way for new theaters for productions.

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by caligrad

Its that weird stretch between Las Palmas and Ivar. The cheap touristy souvenir stores, — shops and sad looking restaurants all inside those sad looking buildings all need to go ( not all buildings, some of them are gems).

The pacific theater needs to be rehabbed for comedy/stage shows for similar acts or rehabbed for a Cosm. Similar buildings rehabbed for boutique hotels, but the rest single story buildings need their owners to rehab or give them up.

And that stretch between Gower and the 101, i know there's plans for condo towers and etc. If i remember correctly, but the other big parking lots and rundown buildings need to make way for new theaters for productions.

Agreed. Boutique hotels along the middle stretch of Hollywood would be ideal. Bars, restaurants, rooftops that area activated plus event space like cosm, theaters, and live studio space.

[citywatch]

Robert Gauthier/LA Times

Hal Bastian is known to many as “Mr. Downtown L.A.” for cooking up many of the real estate deals that led to the DTLA renaissance. He helped the efforts to bring back Angels Flight. “I kind of think of myself as the butler of downtown,” said Hal Bastian, 65, who has lived in the neighborhood for three decades and is known to many as “Mr. Downtown L.A.”

Some of the old downtown buzz remains, partly because while much of the commerce has cratered, roughly 90,000 people still walk the streets. Even at the height of the downtown L.A. renaissance, there were issues. But the problems are bigger now, and I had a question for Bastian. On the subject of whether downtown survives, there’s always been the question of “who cares” among some people who don’t live or work there, or don’t go to the sports arenas or cultural institutions, and wonder why there should be so much of a focus on downtown when every neighborhood has problems. “Downtown is for everybody,” Bastian said. “It’s for people in Northridge and it’s for people in Chatsworth and it’s for people in South L.A., because it’s an economic generator.”

The pandemic delivered a big blow, Bastian said, followed by widespread damage during demonstrations that followed the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. And more recently, federal raids hit merchants and their customers. But Bastian said the biggest reason for the current struggles is that before COVID-19 hit in 2020, about 500,000 people worked in downtown L.A. He and others estimate that roughly half of them never returned.

Bastian led me up Bunker Hill to California Plaza, where office workers were enjoying the sunshine. But Bastian noted that at 12:38 p.m. in early 2020, twice as many people would have been out there. The butler of downtown took one look at the grounds, by the way, and said that if he were the property manager and the grass was as brown as it was, he’d expect to be fired.

Heading south, we came upon the shuttered Daily Grill, near the shuttered Cafe Primo, across from the shuttered Limericks Tavern. We checked out two intersections that used to have two drugstores each, and all four of them are closed.

Windows on vacant buildings were scratched by vandals. We passed a restaurant on 7th Street where four people had been stabbed on Sunday, and peering through the window at Bottega Louie, half the tables were empty, as Bastian had predicted. Along the way, he kept stopping to pick up trash.

Cassy Horton of the Downtown L.A. Residents Assn. is as die-hard a true believer as Bastian, and she went on for several minutes about music venues, farmers markets, dining, diversity and the sense of community. She also said that on her daily 10-minute walk from home to office in the historic core she routinely sees people reeling from the use of fentanyl, and one reason she’s committed to living downtown is to bear witness and demand action. The top concerns in a survey of residents were homelessness and addiction, Horton said. The group sent a letter to the county Board of Supervisors on March 17 rejecting “a system in which open drug markets and untreated psychiatric crises operate unchecked on residential sidewalks, without sufficient coordinated, accountable, and effective institutional outcomes.”

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[LA21st]

Originally Posted by OakAngeles

Glad to hear the city's focusing on a missing middle approach. I feel like big, transit oriented projects get the headlines, but those infill projects can be crucial. I'm currently in a spot in Chicago with a lot of those small lot homes around and they do a better job at making a livable neighborhood than bigger towers and especially compared to "units above a pedestal garage" type developments

Agreed. After living and visiting places with alot of highrises, it doesn't always mean much. Yes, if you're new to it, the highrises can seem cool and big city to you, but it wears off like anything else.I worked in the middle of downtown Chicago and you soon realize after work hours, it's kinda boring. Everything is closed, there isnt a ton of interesting places, nobody else is around etc...

I prefer lowrise or midrise neighborhoods with retail because they're more walkable, in general. Some highrise neighborhoods in Chicago aren't that interesting to walk around. Same for NYC, althought NYC is an exception for this.

[OakAngeles]

Originally Posted by LA21st

Agreed. After living and visiting places with alot of highrises, it doesn't always mean much. Yes, if you're new to it, the highrises can seem cool and big city to you, but it wears off like anything else.I worked in the middle of downtown Chicago and you soon realize after work hours, it's kinda boring. Everything is closed, there isnt a ton of interesting places, nobody else is around etc...

I prefer lowrise or midrise neighborhoods with retail because they're more walkable, in general. Some highrise neighborhoods in Chicago aren't that interesting to walk around. Same for NYC, althought NYC is an exception for this.

Agreed. Don't get me wrong, i still love a tall building, but too many in a row can get monotonous and impersonal. I think having clusters of high rises around transit hubs & along major boulevards with medium density housing inbetween is the best of both worlds. It's something Tokyo does well, with dense corridors but where many people live in 3-4 story buildings. LA will never be a forest of skyscrapers, but i think having a city of dense nodes with this kind of middle housing between them is a good look for the city's future, especially with new transit expansions tying it all together

[SoCalKid]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

Agreed. Boutique hotels along the middle stretch of Hollywood would be ideal. Bars, restaurants, rooftops that area activated plus event space like cosm, theaters, and live studio space.

Don't expect to see any more hotels built in Hollywood until city policy changes. City Council crushed the economics of hotels by 1) mandating higher minimum wage for hotel works than other workers. This includes workers in a hotel's restaurant, who now have a much much higher minimum wage than a standalone restaurant across the street, and 2) requiring that hotels require a conditional use permit. This was very clearly a way to allow Unite Here 11 to make signing a union agreement a condition of getting approval. This hurts beyond the minimum wage, because Unite Here 11 demands more workers at each hotel. They do thinks like banning workers from serving multiple roles, so instead of having a guy who can open the front door, bring bags to rooms, and staff a desk at different times of the day (just a random example), you have to have multiple people do that, with each of them sitting idle for large parts of the day.

If you want more hotels built in Hollywood and the city in general, vote out the people making these policies.

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by SoCalKid

Don't expect to see any more hotels built in Hollywood until city policy changes. City Council crushed the economics of hotels by 1) mandating higher minimum wage for hotel works than other workers. This includes workers in a hotel's restaurant, who now have a much much higher minimum wage than a standalone restaurant across the street, and 2) requiring that hotels require a conditional use permit. This was very clearly a way to allow Unite Here 11 to make signing a union agreement a condition of getting approval. This hurts beyond the minimum wage, because Unite Here 11 demands more workers at each hotel. They do thinks like banning workers from serving multiple roles, so instead of having a guy who can open the front door, bring bags to rooms, and staff a desk at different times of the day (just a random example), you have to have multiple people do that, with each of them sitting idle for large parts of the day.

If you want more hotels built in Hollywood and the city in general, vote out the people making these policies.

Isnt that policy only for LAX hotels?

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by SoCalKid

If you want more hotels built in Hollywood and the city in general, vote out the people making these policies.

The squeaky wheel gets the grease....the dtla alliance had better start using a bullhorn. But lots of other ppl instead stay mainly quiet or move on with their lives, both literally & figuratively. Woman interviewed in the 'zombie" video said she recently moved to dtla but now is planning to move out.


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Ongoing negative news stories out of dtla discourage street life, which hurts businesses, customers, residents, stores, tourism, which new devlpt depends upon.

Same thing is happening to other cities throughout the US & Europe too.....major cities in China got really hurt from bad trends started by Covid, but more of a downer for dtla since it started finally getting revived from around the 1990s to before 2020.

"It's Zombie Land"