LOS ANGELES | Downtown Project Rundown 3.0

[fridayinla]

^Broadway's gentrification (and whether you guys agree or not, it's already taking root) seems to be happening in a natural order to me. The fact building owners (primarily theater building owners) are willing to invest in cleaning their buildings' facades speaks volumes of intent, but the retail change will take time. I believe that's a more complicated issue to tackle. Landlords need to maintain their cash flow, they're not going to shoot themselves in the foot.

[reno]

Re: Changes along Broadway ... it looks like some early changes will come just off Broadway. The new Tower Theater owner (Deljiani, right?) has kicked out all the shops on the south side of 8th Street on Tower Theater property, except for the sandwich shop right on the corner. The folks at the Chapman say he's trying to get more "high-end" shops in there, potentially a newsstand. Right now, there are newly painted brown shutters over where there once were a series of stores. Sorry, didn't have camera to take a photo.

[fridayinla]

Originally Posted by reno

Re: Changes along Broadway ... it looks like some early changes will come just off Broadway. The new Tower Theater owner (Deljiani, right?) has kicked out all the shops on the south side of 8th Street on Tower Theater property, except for the sandwich shop right on the corner. The folks at the Chapman say he's trying to get more "high-end" shops in there, potentially a newsstand. Right now, there are newly painted brown shutters over where there once were a series of stores. Sorry, didn't have camera to take a photo.

This photo was taken on Saturday Aug 25th:

[LongBeachUrbanist]

Obviously everybody here has their opinion of what retail they'd like to see on Broadway. For each person, this opinion is driven by some mix of taste and ideology.

But like it or not, the Broadway of the future will be driven, primarily, by the open market.

For my part, I care less about the retail mix than and more about the general atmosphere. If you replace the current visual noise with an attractive storefront, people will want to live in and visit Downtown. Regardless of whether the store is selling video cameras or Franklin Covey day planners.

So unless the residential market Downtown collapses, I predict the profit motive will lead to a cleaner Broadway. It's just a matter of time.

[Easy]

Workers were installing a chain link green fence around the LA Central site this afternoon. I was on the blue line and saw them working on the 12th street side. The new fence is immediately outside the existing wooden fence "parts" that have been up for a couple of weeks.

[JDRCRASH]

Thanks for those earlier opinions guys!
I still have lots of ideas where this one came from in this creative brain of mine!

Yes siree, having billboards, both plain and digital, are both creatical to making L.A. Live a success.


Even the Grand Avenue Project includes a few billboards if you look closely at the scale model!

[DTLA]

^^^"Creatical" is that even a word?

I think most of people's problems with bilboards is that current billboards are just slapped on existing buildings. However, with LA Live having been planned with billboards in mind, they should blend in nicely with the building and not like they were put there 70 years after the building was built

[petescafe]

As I was driving down Los Angeles St. I caught a glimpse of the new spire for St Vibiana.

The re-mounting ceremony will be tomorrow.

Any one going?

[BrandonJXN]

Originally Posted by DTLA

^^^"Creatical" is that even a word?

I think most of people's problems with bilboards is that current billboards are just slapped on existing buildings. However, with LA Live having been planned with billboards in mind, they should blend in nicely with the building and not like they were put there 70 years after the building was built

Creative + critical = creatical.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by Echo Park

We both agree the way the city runs things that its best to be patient with these projects and realize that downtown's new glory days are still 20, 30 years down the road.

You're a more cautious estimator of the hood's future than I am. Perhaps that's because I'm more aware of just how bad it got, that the improvements over the past few yrs, & some of the promised ones in the next few yrs, make me believe there will be some "glory" well before 20 or 30 yrs from today.

The city needs to start being a little more proactive and demand a little bit better from some of the more clueless developers. re: Broadway, it only seems like i give it a lot of leeway because you guys give it so much criticism. You say its raunchy but really whats more uglier/depressing, all the deadzone parking lots + warehouses around downtown or the bustling dense thoroughfare of broadway? its the only truly urban corridor in downtown right now, so lets work on other places and allow broadway to evlolve naturally. if it is true that broadway is losing its working class clientele then lets let that change naturally instead of developers being mean spirited and giving kickbacks to corporate chains to move in.

By the same token, I feel I have to say that cuz you give the devlprs of new projs, inc the faux Euro ones, so much criticism, that I have to give them more leeway. And, in turn, I then have to say the city needs to be more proactive & demand better from the clueless store owners & property owners on Broadway.

One reason I feel that way more today than before was because of the pics of DTSD posted by Upward:


Upward

I found myself surprised by how impressed I was by what they showed. The crowds at night, the many (many!) bldgs, old & new, floodlit at night, the classic historic bldgs mixed in with the newer ones, the busy sidewalk cafes. And your comment that "gaslamp kicks DTLA's ass by a mile!...just give us about 3, 4 or uh 50 years and we'll be there" certainly made me sit up & take notice even more.

As for the raunchiness of Broadway (& Main St, & Spring St too) & how that compares with the deadzones in other parts of the hood, I think they're ALL bringing down the entire hood. And if the sales volume on Broadway has been dropping for awhile now, as mentioned in that article & based on what LAB has been told by leasing agents, then I really don't know why that corridor has to evolve naturally, as you say, while other parts of DT deserve a proactive treatment.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by petescafe

As I was driving down Los Angeles St. I caught a glimpse of the new spire for St Vibiana.

The re-mounting ceremony will be tomorrow.

Too bad you don't have a good view of that bldg from your apt window, camera in hand. I've been waiting for Vibiana's tower to finally get its "crown" put back on top for several yrs. It's looked quite stubby without it for some time.

[k3d]

If the city could start with a little more lighting even. Some streets are just plain dark! Why would the city leave the downtown city streets so dark? Even the areas that have some lighting like Hope between 8th and 9th seems dark. The city should pick a style or theme of new sidewalk lighting for downtown and just go all out and light this place up. It would be a relatively low cost way to give DTLA an fresh look!

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by marc samuel

Can anyone tell us what's happening here? Are they making something new? Anything is better than an unused and very tagged empty building.

Come on, marc (& echo park & fridayinla too)! You posted the same question in the LA forum & someone (I believe it was kerry) gave you an answer!

At least based on the pic, the frank robinson bldg isn't one of the really bad ones in South Pk. In fact, other than some problems it might have with graffiti, it looks OK enough that I'd pick other bldgs to tear down before I'd choose it.

[LAofAnaheim]

And one other thing to notice in the picture above..........street parking! Why is there none on Broadway? Street parking adds to a vibrant street scene, NOT parking garages or anti-gridlock zoning. We need city officials to release anti-gridlock zoning is the biggest mistake of all time. We need to increase hours in which people are allowed to park as well. I don't want to see more parking garages in downtown.

[citywatch]

Originally Posted by LongBeachUrbanist

It's not a mystery how to make a place that people want to go to. Developers like Caruso (of The Grove) have figured it out. But somehow these simple truths still elude Downtown's planners, developers and conservationists, who seem to believe that cleaning up the gargoyles fifty feet above Broadway is more important than improving the street-level experience.

I agree with most of what you say. However, I think you're getting ahead of the story when it comes to the meaning of the cleaning of uppermost parts of bldgs on Broadway & other streets, gargoyles included. That's assuming the owners of such bldgs don't intend to stop there, but right now are limited in improving the spaces rented out to stores because of legal & contractual requirements.

IOW, if you were renting an apt from someone, & that person didn't like the type of furnishings you owned, he couldn't use his pass key & enter your apt & throw everything out. Or he couldn't go in & totally repaint everything without your approval. I figure the same situation applies to the owners of bldgs on Broadway & the ppl they lease ground floor areas to.

[Tanster]

Downtown L.A really need to do something with its historic core its all there. And no I dont think its going to take 50 years WTF it does not take that long. It could if no one steps in. A paint job here and there is not going to do it . Im talking about a fucking vision for the historic core.


This can easily be the best downtown ever .!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pic from ChrisLA

[fridayinla]

We just had a Vero HOA meeting. Regarding the retail spaces, Coffee Bean has backed out , but Mitaki Sushi, Subway and Yogurberry have signed leases and should start building out soon. Also, Famima and a "Korean bakery" are considering the location. If Famima moves in, all will be forgiven about the Coffee Bean loss.

[edluva]

am i the only person here who doesn't want dtla to become another gaslamp district? the gaslamp is vibrant and all, but don't you guys think it's a bit manufactured? it's nothing like for instance any given neighborhood of manhattan, where the hotspots are more organically distributed and reflect an ongoing evolution of the city as a whole.

the gaslamp is fun, but what real urban environment has door after door of themed restaurants with outdoor seating areas designated by city-blocks of steel perimeter fencing. it's little different from 3rd st promenade except with restaurants in place of retail, and thru-traffic. both are scripted pedestrian malls. there's something about these modern planning "successes" that make the newly gentrified downtowns really plastic. there's an irony in consciously designating retail centers and calling them "real cities" when they're almost entirely scripted. or for instance, erecting a self-conscious "little italy" gateway over a neighborhood which, like the rest of the city, is constantly evolving. what makes these any different from the caruso developments?

[ChrisLA]

Originally Posted by edluva

am i the only person here who doesn't want dtla to become another gaslamp district? the gaslamp is vibrant and all, but don't you guys think it's a bit manufactured? it's nothing like for instance any given neighborhood of manhattan, where the hotspots are more organically distributed and reflect an ongoing evolution of the city as a whole.

the gaslamp is fun, but what real urban environment has door after door of themed restaurants with outdoor seating areas designated by city-blocks of steel perimeter fencing. it's little different from 3rd st promenade except with restaurants in place of retail, and thru-traffic. both are scripted pedestrian malls. there's something about these modern planning "successes" that make the newly gentrified downtowns really plastic. there's an irony in consciously designating retail centers and calling them "real cities" when they're almost entirely scripted. or for instance, erecting a self-conscious "little italy" gateway over a neighborhood which, like the rest of the city, is constantly evolving. what makes these any different from the caruso developments?

No you're not the only one. There is a reason why Manhattan is so loved, especially many of the neighborhoods in lower Manhattan. Here are a couple of spots in NYC I took last year that I would like to see something similar in downtown LA historic district, and not so much something like the Gaslamp. Personally I think even Old Town Pasadena has a better mix than the Gaslamp.

[colemonkee]

^ The Old Bank District is slowly migrating in that direction, in tiny increments. Once the Rowan and El Dorado Lofts open, along with their retail, we'll see more of a concentrated, active neighborhood. Medallion will help in that regard as well (btw, that picture by viewfromaloft is amazing). Unfortunately, we don't have sidewalks as active as those pictures yet, save for Art Walk nights.