Quote:
Originally Posted by Flavius Josephus
Beach-related hyperbole aside, Long Beach's openness to development is what may well allow it to compete with the Westside as a vibrant neighborhood. SaMo is nice if you already live there, but its rabid anti-growth politics mean that it is essentially off-limits to everyone who is not very rich (or moved into a rent-controlled place 30 years ago and will never move out).
Sure, being next to a megaport and its associated pollution isn't good. But in a housing market as constrained as SoCal's, if you build a bunch of housing in an increasingly walkable area with moderately good transit near some stores, bars, and restaurants, people will live there and a vibrant urban lifestyle will spring up. There are hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people in the AV and IE who would love to have an urban lifestyle closer to LA if only they could afford it. If Long Beach understands this and increases supply while Santa Monica fights to keep new people out, perhaps some day in a decade or two we'll be talking about how all the Post-Millennials are moving to the trendy south.
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i won't completely negate the positives DTLB has. its near water. it's got walkable bones. there's transit. attractions too.
but to your point, fundamental gentrification in DTLB is going to occur on the scale of decades, not years. DTLB attracts primarily weekenders of the middle-lower socioeconomic spectrum. the restaurants, bars, even the type of "redevelopment" targets patrons from the gateway cities and the IE. it completely lacks the sophistication of santa monica, DLTA, and pasadena. think jersey shore. for this reason, there is still a long long way to go for it to become a national or even international destination in its own right, excepting the demographic it currently serves.
santa monica does have its problems. especially rent control and the SMRR, and to some degree it's become a victim of its own success. but all in all, santa monica has an enviable list of positives that DTLB could only dream of ever possessing.