Xavier de Jaureguiberry
I can't find any updates on the 16th Place story--I'd hope that the "wall" has been ordered removed, but won't hold my breath--but I will say that suggestively describing the old downtown core as "inhabited by teeming masses who neither care nor appreciate the skeletal remains of what was once a vibrant [place]" seems outdated, frankly.
Most Angelenos couldn't care less about downtown, and at least half of the population seems never even to have been there. But from what I've seen, it has become the Williamsburg of L.A. And let's not forget that if Bunker Hill had survived, it's possible that most of the old commercial buildings below it would have been replaced with mediocre glass & steel. The point has been made here before--while we all lament the destruction of Bunker Hill, the survival of the old structures of the office core is some consolation. The mid-years of fantastic street life, Broadway bustling in the 70s-80-90s just as it did in the '20s, the incredible wedding-shop display windows--is now augmented by 20-40-year-olds who appreciate urban energy. As much as I might moon over lost Bunker Hill and the noir era and sometimes wish it was still 1925--or '35 or '45--no amount of nostalgia is going to bring it back. End of editorial.