Why did Downtown LA begin to revitalize so much later than other major US cities?

[badrunner]

The problem arises from trying to make these one-for-one comparisons between cities in the first place. Particularly when you're comparing cities that are in many ways on opposite ends of the American urban spectrum. Yeah it's kinda fun, I could see some of the similarities. But the area described - everything from DTLA to Santa Monica, north of the 10, up to and including hilly residential neighborhoods like Beverly Hills, is something like 100 square miles. It's a bit of a stretch to call something that large a city's "core," especially when it incorporates other independent cities within it that have distinct local identities of their own. It just feels a little bit forced.