Dystopian? LOL....That's a bit much.....
I don't know how you get "all cities are doomed" from my original post. Some....many.....are doing fairly well.
But a "full swing" recovery in DTLA? The entertainment district around Staples is nice. And some of the loft redevelopments have been successful. When you throw enough money at something your are bound to get some results. But don't expect any new office buildings for.........a very long time. Grand Avenue is dead.
DTLA is doing better than 20 years ago, true. But it will never be a commanding downtown in the sense of a Midtown Manhattan or San Francisco or Chicago - or even attain the status it once held, pre-war. Those days are over. The LA Basin has too many other options. Not the least of which is Hollywood, where a lot of new money is being funneled. And speaking of money.....that's being squeezed. The CRA well is running dry.
DTLA will do OK. A destination for events. (As I write this a friend and her mother are en route to Disney from Fullerton for a concert.) And a home for a relatively small - but stable - percentage of LA's workforce. (Impressive skyline notwithstanding, DTLA houses a smaller percentage of the total metropolitan workforce than most other top-tier U.S. cities - and about on par with a Dallas, or Houston, or Phoenix.) Which makes sense, considering all came of age in the Automobile Era. And it's not a new development, by any means. The trend reaches back to the 50s and 60s.
But let's be honest: Venture a mile or two outside DTLA and you ARE in Plisskin-ville.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GaylordWilshire
Meanwhile, in the midst of the dystopian fantasies of some, apparently spawned by old movies, a DTLA revival is in full swing.... Which, it seems obvious, is signified by the restoration of the Chocolate Shoppe. To assume that cities are doomed is as mistaken as assuming that all suburbs are thriving and that rural places are like Mayberry. (If they are, what's with some American small towns seeming to have become nothing more than meth labs and some disappearing altogether? From what I read, cities are full of energy and the 'burbs and rural areas are not, and it's the way things are going these days. Thank God for those half my age.
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