LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 6.0

[JDRCRASH]

I went by the bridge today, and wow, just wow. Definitely a new “LA” landmark, albeit with the transmission lines sticking out as ever like sore thumbs.

Originally Posted by caligrad

Interesting. I just noticed that. I knew the bridge looked different than the renderings but couldn't pinpoint it. I wonder if it was because of a cost thing or structural thing since engineers said the soil under the bridge is horrible.

I recall reading somewhere on UrbanizeLA’s articles comments that it also had something to do with ADA compliance. I may be wrong about that.

[Radio5]

Originally Posted by Nyc1986

Wouldn’t have been better to spend this kind of money building a mental health hospital with beds to clean up the whole city from all the mentally ill homeless /drug addicts?

It had to be replaced. It was decaying and not safe.

[ocman]

Originally Posted by Nyc1986

Wouldn’t have been better to spend this kind of money building a mental health hospital with beds to clean up the whole city from all the mentally ill homeless /drug addicts?

No, because you need to replace the bridge anyway before it collapses with people on it. The cost was $588M, but something tells me if they just went with non-designed freeway overpass, it would have been the same cost anyway, because this is LA. The Taylor yards bike bridge cost nearly $30M, for comparison (400 feet and 4 years to build).

[ocman]

Originally Posted by caligrad

Interesting. I just noticed that. I knew the bridge looked different than the renderings but couldn't pinpoint it. I wonder if it was because of a cost thing or structural thing since engineers said the soil under the bridge is horrible.

Even the feet of the bridge were somewhat value engineered. They’re much more dynamic in the renderings. You can tell the engineers couldn’t figure out how to translate the renderings to reality, that they struggled with non-straight lines. There was also supposed to be a smaller bridge on ground floor to cross the river, but that’s absent and there’s no word on whether it’s still included.

I once saw a documentary on the world’s best modern architecture where an architect interviewed said that the US just doesn’t produce the skilled craftsmen that you see in Italy who have a tradition and apprenticeship of building grand infrastructure to an architects’ specifications, meaning certain designs that would pull off on-budget and true to rendering in parts of Europe would need to be compromised and expectations lowered to American skill-level in terms of construction.

[ocman]

Originally Posted by citywatch

A lot of the lighting & surface areas of the bridge will be a never ending task for city maintenance crews. If they can't keep up with the work...& the future park under it too...6th St will end up making LA look bad. Same thing for how the new connector line in dt & the subway down Wilshire blvd are maintained & protected too.

the way LA city hall is headed, if it ends up mimicking what's going on in cities like chicago or seattle, SF, the road up ahead may be very bumpy.

Maybe it was foresight on the part of the design or a silverlining that the bridge is made of run-of-the-mill freeway concrete. If it were painted white, LA would never be able to maintain it in the long run.

[caligrad]

Originally Posted by ocman

Even the feet of the bridge were somewhat value engineered. They’re much more dynamic in the renderings. You can tell the engineers couldn’t figure out how to translate the renderings to reality, that they struggled with non-straight lines. There was also supposed to be a smaller bridge on ground floor to cross the river, but that’s absent and there’s no word on whether it’s still included.

I once saw a documentary on the world’s best modern architecture where an architect interviewed said that the US just doesn’t produce the skilled craftsmen that you see in Italy who have a tradition and apprenticeship of building grand infrastructure to an architects’ specifications, meaning certain designs that would pull off on-budget and true to rendering in parts of Europe would need to be compromised and expectations lowered to American skill-level in terms of construction.

I honestly thought it was because the gov rather waste money on nonsense rather than things like beautification and etc. with the mentality of "whatever is cheapest but will last long". But it's not even a government attitude alone, I've argued with people about this exact bridge who said, "why go all out? they should have just used precast segmental bridge construction, would have been plain but simple" (The same technique used for freeway bridges/ stack interchanges). Thats coming from my father-in-law who helped build the Rams stadium and also complained about how "there was nothing wrong with the coliseum or rose bowl". The point is people with this mentality vote and screw the rest of us

[Lovely1993me]

Some of you on here are just loud and wrong! First of all. LA has been spending literal billions of dollars on the homeless issue for the past few years, and yeah it’s gotten worse, but a lot of that has been due to Covid. During Covid the city stopped cleaning up encampments for fears of the virus spreading, and so yes the encampments got larger and out of control. It was the absolute worst last summer actually. Secondly Los Angeles is a city that people come to from all over the world, so we deal with on average a greater number of transients coming into our city. Lastly we angelenos actually care greatly about this issue. We see it everyday day. For people to constantly act as though we nor the city cares, simplifies this issue of homelessness down to something that negates what’s actually going on. It’s complicated, and still I’m optimistic we will get it together. It’s definitely at a breaking point.

I think we can just continue to support Dtla, the businesses, showing our presence and continuing to put pressure on our politicians to continue to build the services these people need.

[citywatch]

^ meanwhile, the young woman who had a confrontation in dtla...during the afternoon...with a homeless guy is all over the news. That's putting a damper on news about the 6th st bridge & pr on the opening of the conrad hotel.

btw, I believe that youtuber...his name is kenneth...has been a major regular presenter of the nyc scene. So he was sort of an influencer. The way he describes his hometown can be applied to dtla too, even more so given what happened yesterday to that former olympic athlete. I posted a link to another youtube influencer, a guy originally living in the UK, who pretty much said the exact same thing earlier this yr about LA.

With office vacancy rates still above 20% in Downtown Los Angeles, some landlords and their tenants are coaxing workers back to the office with elaborate renovations and highly amenitized Class A space.

But as a possibly permanent shift to hybrid work pushes companies to downsize their cubicle and conference areas, others, advocates argue, should consider other uses entirely, like housing.

“I really don't think there's any doubt that the demand for office space is now diminished significantly,” said Hal Bastian, former executive vice president and director of economic development of Downtown Center Business Improvement District (DCBID). “Which begs the question: What are we going to do with all this empty space?”

Carol Schatz, founder and president emeritus of DCBID, who introduced office conversions in the late 1990s and 2000s, said she finds it exciting to see money in the state budget allocated for commercial to residential conversions.

“It was really transformational in our downtown revitalization,” she said. “Staples Center [now Crypto.com Arena] made a huge difference because it gave people a reason to come downtown, and [an] adaptive reuse ordinance gave people a reason to live downtown, to experience not only Staples Center but the restaurants that started to come. But the key is housing. If people just come in and out of downtown, you can’t really revitalize it. It requires a population, living there and working there in many cases.” Schatz said 75,000 people reside downtown, a number that was “unheard of” when she started DCBID.

Year-to-date net absorption for offices downtown rose from minus-319,000 in the first quarter of 2021 to minus-15,000 in the beginning of 2022, according to DCBID, with 2.7 million square feet of office space under construction. But despite rising absorption, companies are expected to downsize as they return to office, leaving floors of previously leased buildings vacant.

CBRE reported 21% overall office vacancy in Downtown L.A. in Q1 2022, and 47% overall office vacancy in East Downtown.

[citywatch]

4:50 involves the MTA proj most directly connected to dtla...still 2-3 yrs into the future....


• Video Link


Some have questioned the value of youtube vids when dealing with a subj like dtla....LA. But it's vids posted there on transit found in cities throughout the world that run home how something is really wrong with LA....like we can't walk & chew gum at the same time. It's almost like a city building its first stoplight.

[citywatch]

this segment of that vid makes me think of the phrase, 'this is why we can't have nice things':


https://youtu.be/sPWxgluhJQw?t=1031


^ Everyone comes off bad in that part of the vid...from the homeowners in bel air to the youtuber himself...he doesn't seem to realize the use of transit in LA is down partly because of ppl being turned off by their experience, including issues with crime & poor maintenance. knock, knock, hello, is anyone home?

Next up: ppl nitpicking about what's posted to this forum....in a way, we're all versions of bel air homeowners.

[citywatch]

This is from the LA area compilations thread, but 2 stores in dtla...in business for several yrs...both in little tokyo...are affected.

Originally Posted by homebucket

Here are the LA locations that are closing. I've never been a fan of Starbucks anyways. Hopefully this opens the door for some small, independently-owned coffee roasters to set up shop. Or maybe boba shops. You can never go wrong with more boba.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/starbucks-closing-16-stores-across-181508972.html

^ along with that woman in dt yesterday...around lunch time.....getting a big gash along the side of her eye (good thing she wasn't blinded), there's an ongoing theme here. dtla has long had issues, including when the city & landowners allowed much of it to go down the drain, so a return to the past isn't going to be all that good. If it does, not sure if a lack of a redevelopment agency in today's times will have no affect or make things either better or worse.

[ucla_engineer]

Is there any hope for getting rid of citywatch's relentless demand for murdering homeless people, or whatever other reactionary bullshit he's spewing these days? Getting deeply, deeply old.

[NIMBY Slayer]

Originally Posted by ocman

Even the feet of the bridge were somewhat value engineered. They’re much more dynamic in the renderings. You can tell the engineers couldn’t figure out how to translate the renderings to reality, that they struggled with non-straight lines. There was also supposed to be a smaller bridge on ground floor to cross the river, but that’s absent and there’s no word on whether it’s still included.

I once saw a documentary on the world’s best modern architecture where an architect interviewed said that the US just doesn’t produce the skilled craftsmen that you see in Italy who have a tradition and apprenticeship of building grand infrastructure to an architects’ specifications, meaning certain designs that would pull off on-budget and true to rendering in parts of Europe would need to be compromised and expectations lowered to American skill-level in terms of construction.

I recently saw this Twitter thread called "The Danger of Minimalist Design (& the death of detail)" It was quite interesting and true.

https://twitter.com/culturaltutor/status/1538211892707086338?s=20&t=ITjGRzcNLvvoJZsqLucOWg

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by ucla_engineer

Is there any hope for getting rid of citywatch's relentless demand for murdering homeless people, or whatever other reactionary bullshit he's spewing these days? Getting deeply, deeply old.

When I watched that segment of updates on LA transit projs about the way that certain homeowners in Bel air are dealing with the idea of a tunnel under the 405....unbelievably irrational....I realize that Albert Einstein was correct when it came to his definition of insanity. In the case of transit in LA, that would be allowing fwys to be clogged during many hrs of the day over & over again & expecting less congestion.

[bhunsberger]

Sixth Street Viaduct





















































As you can see, the bridge is good, not great. I believe I saw a post recently mentioning shoddy craftsmanship, and after seeing the bridge, I'd have to agree somewhat. Tons of missing screws, fence panels that seem to just stop halfway, bike lane barrier that seems like an afterthought, gaps in the hand railings, the concrete looks splotchy and patched in many places. For $600M, these small details are unacceptable, imo. It's obvious the bridge is not fully complete. A news segment cited supply chain issues as the cause. We can hope some of these flaws are fixed, but I suspect only the missing barrier pieces and screws will be ultimately be the only things remedied. Nonetheless, it's a very beautiful bridge even if a little rough in the details.

[caligrad]

^^^ I have to agree. I got to check it out today. I'll even up the rating and say it's a GREAT bridge but not AMAZING. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy they were at least ambitious and didn't stick us with essentially 2 parallel freeway viaducts. But I loved it. My only beef is the utilitarian concrete couture color.

Originally Posted by ucla_engineer

Is there any hope for getting rid of citywatch's relentless demand for murdering homeless people, or whatever other reactionary bullshit he's spewing these days? Getting deeply, deeply old.

Sadly, the block button doesn't even work good enough.

[scania]

Originally Posted by citywatch

^ meanwhile, the young woman who had a confrontation in dtla...during the afternoon...with a homeless guy is all over the news. That's putting a damper on news about the 6th st bridge & pr on the opening of the conrad hotel.

btw, I believe that youtuber...his name is kenneth...has been a major regular presenter of the nyc scene. So he was sort of an influencer. The way he describes his hometown can be applied to dtla too, even more so given what happened yesterday to that former olympic athlete. I posted a link to another youtube influencer, a guy originally living in the UK, who pretty much said the exact same thing earlier this yr about LA.

It’s not putting a damper on anything. Just like crimes in Beverly Hills don’t put a damper in people going there or even changing their perspective. But if the life of some is to always find something negative…you only tell us what’s going on in your lives.

[scania]

Originally Posted by ucla_engineer

Is there any hope for getting rid of citywatch's relentless demand for murdering homeless people, or whatever other reactionary bullshit he's spewing these days? Getting deeply, deeply old.

I remember when this person was suspended…it was like wow, that chill, cool, fun vibe that people think of LA. Maybe the moderators will suspend that person indefinitely. I do feel bad that the person’s life must be miserable.

[Nyc1986]

Originally Posted by ocman

No, because you need to replace the bridge anyway before it collapses with people on it. The cost was $588M, but something tells me if they just went with non-designed freeway overpass, it would have been the same cost anyway, because this is LA. The Taylor yards bike bridge cost nearly $30M, for comparison (400 feet and 4 years to build).

Got it. Thanks for the explanation. Didn’t know the old one was in such bad shape!

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by scania

I remember when this person was suspended…it was like wow, that chill, cool, fun vibe that people think of LA. Maybe the moderators will suspend that person indefinitely. I do feel bad that the person’s life must be miserable.

I trust you didn't bother to watch the vid posted to youtube & linked above about the latest on MTA projs and its rail plans. If you did, you'd have seen the segment about homeowners in Bel air fighting attempts to dig a tunnel under the sepulveda pass. One of them runs the Bel Air homeowner's assoc & his claims and nitpicking would, by comparison, make even the head of the AIDS foundation, notorious for his nimbyism, feel embarrassed. The guy in bel air is threatening to litigate until the MTA gives up.

btw, dtla & its hotels, office towers & other things sure will be helped if ppl living north of the sepulveda pass can get south of the sepulveda pass, shoot through wilshire blvd & end up in areas like the new rail station going up west of the broad museum. You do understand that, right?

Incidentally, I just watched a news report of a woman who stopped briefly at a 7-11 across from the convention ctr, in a ground floor store in one of the newer apt bldgs on Fig, saw her car get jacked, apparently with her child still sitting in it. That just occurred today.

Whether ppl in the nitpicky, bellyaching bel air homeowners association...who troll & harness the pro transit crowd....or hard core types stealing cars, they all share the common thread of being the reason for the saying, 'this is why we can't have nice things'.