Just got back from Mayor's press conference where and he Councilwoman Jan Perry congratulated Bruce Karatz of KB homes and Tim Leiweke of AEG for teaming up with now free agent Lew Wolff (Apollo Capital having now departed) to constuct the new convention center hotel.
So with the home town team that is already building out the rest of the LA Live Project and a good chunk of South Park now at the helm - the long awaited convention headquarters hotel will shortly be a reality.
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Hooray....I suppose. Downtown has incredible potential to finally become a true urban center, but even with all the loft, hotel, and mixed-use hoopla, without the following happening, you'll never have a real city atmosphere there:
- a real, expansive green space...not a mall, not an "event venue", not another plaza...a real friggin' open space. A series of public pocket parks would help too.
- a real center-of-gravity type urban neighborhood...an honest-to goodness city street lined with trees and rows of shops, cafes, small businesses. Not a mixed use retail center, not another mall, not a 9-5'er.
- emphasis on the pedestrian in city and traffic planning...a retreat from the automobile-as-god mindset.
- a focused, effective, humanitarian response to the homeless problem...not a band aid, not a legal crack down, not a concentration camp...a public/private effort that LA could be proud of (however, since LA can't even run a decent zoo, I suppose this is out of the question)
- a fast, easy-to-use, cheap (to use and operate), good looking tram system...a next-generation DART (?) that would be a "signature" for downtown.
- more power, muscle, legal authority for the LA Conservancy and other historical groups to prevent further destruction of LA's early 20th century buildings
Good luck!
All I can say to you, Anonymous, if that really IS your real name, is the following advice: patience, patience.
It seems like now, (almost) everybody wants these things that you mention, from residents, to developers (that is, the big bucks people), to the politicians. True, there are a few people against "gentrification." Let's hope the rising tide lifts all boats, but let's make sure to keep an eye on the poor.
Cafes: check, more coming. shops: again, more are slowly opening. Large green space: well, maybe the Grand Avenue project will give us this. But maybe not. Fingers crossed. Tram system: they're looking into it. (Tram is a streetcar, DART in Dallas is not, it's interurban light rail.)
I see progress, but it's not happening ovenight.
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