I'm so wowed by that vid of an evening in london, including one part of it showing london's chinatown, that I had to look up the history of that section of London. Their chinatown dates back to the 1970s, so it's even younger than dtla's chinatown, which dates back to the late 1930s. So dtla's chinatown isn't any more of a faux-Chinese master business plan than London's chinatown is. Yet their Chinatown is booming....although I notice the demographics is heavily made up of....okay....white ppl.
But that same demographic makes up most of the nightlife in NYC too....which based on a recent comparison isn't as impressive as what London is all about. NYC's nighttime livelihood is interspersed with a lot of graffiti & metal doors....some of which cover vacant spaces. It's a bit more sporadic & way grittier...graffiti galore....than what London looks like. I notice London also has more middle aged ppl among the crowds, while NYC is mainly younger millennial types.
But NYC has way more skyscrapers & super talls than London has. Than dtla too, of course. But the major capital city of Europe IMO looks much friendlier, way more appealing than either NYC or LA.
I notice many of the 4-5 story bldgs that dominate the area of London's night scene also are flood lit at night. They're also uniformly fairly nice looking, few or none of them being too grungy....not like the swapmeets that exist in certain parts of dtla are.
Yes, SSP forumers are into highrise devlpt & want taller, taller, flashier, flashier. But London proves that skyscrapers aren't all that important when it comes to creating a great city. It's instead way more important that a downtown be physically nice, appealing & not overly gritty.
London seems more like a master planned grove in the mid wilshire area than a dtla broadway, dtla chinatown or dtla arts district is.
Beyond what other cities are all about, DTLA's biggest disadvantage has been that ppl with money & upward mobility starting leaving the center of LA over 60-70 yrs ago. London & NYC were never as much affected by that as LA was. The classic old bldgs of london show they've always looked like a part of a nice place. Just the opposite has been true of too much of dtla. That has made its road to revival even slower & harder.
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The first area in London known as Chinatown was located in the Limehouse area of the East End of London. At the start of the 20th century, the Chinese population of London was concentrated in that area, setting up businesses which catered to the Chinese sailors who frequented in Docklands....After the Second World War, however, the growing popularity of Chinese cuisine and an influx of immigrants from Hong Kong led to an increasing number of Chinese restaurants being opened elsewhere.
The present Chinatown, which is off Shaftesbury Avenue did not start to be established until the 1970s. Previously, it was a regular Soho area, run-down, with Gerrard Street the main thoroughfare.
In 2005, the property developer Rosewheel proposed a plan to redevelop the eastern part of Chinatown. The plan was opposed by many of the existing retailers in Chinatown, as they believe that the redevelopment would drive out the traditional Chinese retail stores from the area and change the ethnic characteristic of Chinatown. In October 2013 and July 2018, the London Chinatown Community Centre (LCCC) organised a one-day shutdown in protest of violent tactics by immigration officers from the Home Office.
On 25 July 2016, a new Chinatown gate on Wardour Street was opened by Prince Andrew, the Duke of York. It was made by Chinese artisans and assembled in London. The gate is in the style of the Qing dynasty. There was a Chinese-style pavilion at Newport Place from the 1980s which was a popular meeting point, but it was demolished in 2016 after more than thirty years, despite protests.
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