[ThreeHundred]

We all have our ideas and opinion's on how we want downtown to be. But never have we heard detailed ideas. So in terms of skyscrapers, park space, retail, transportation, or otherwise, how would you mold the hood?

[Tanster]

First thing would be to make the sidewalks interesting walkable. Cleaning the sidewalks adding trees and lighting. Mainly on Broadway but also on most of Downtown.... I would mold the Historic Core.. (work with what we have) clean the old building facade... Restore all Broadway theaters....Retail but not just normal everyday retail but encourage unique stores and something you don't just find anywhere.. Also I would encourage business in the historic core.....
From their I would move to the fashion district..... add some more upscale stores.... not completely taking out all the cheap ones but having a balance....I would want to try to make the fashion district "Global" get some top designers... I would encourage all that.... or would want that.....
South Park
I would want more glass towers... get some unique towers crazy architecture... Just make South Park into a High class district.
An Urban Beverly Hills.......An Interesting thing I would want to see in south park is a dense Urban Neighborhood.... but modern style. Like have rows of building wall to wall like but instead of having the old brick style.. Have the more modern look steel and glass......
Bunker Hill
I would want that area to become an extremely inspiring place..... A place you can go and be inspired... A place of artist.... have that area have artistic elements.

And to add into all the mix lots of small parks scattered around the city. Urban School.... Top of the line learning centers MORE Museums.....
More Taxis... and better transportation....Street car trolley... maybe even a new transportation invention...... also I would Downtown to attract more business.. so I would encourage that...basically cram everything southern California has spread out into one Downtown..

[DominicanLou]

I'm sorry my response won't be very comprehensive. If I was an urban planner...or whatever I would try and bring some development to the LA river. Can you imagine mid and high-rise projects lining a refurbished LA river? That's a fantasy of mine.

[dlbritnot]

I think eventually as downtown grows and develops, a mass transit ring line may be functional as connecting many parts of downtown that aren't currently walking distance from the red or blue lines. Something that could hit the Pico station by the convention center, and loop around hitting the fashion district, new development along the river, arts district, chinatown, dodger's stadium, and city west. It could be LRT or HRT. LRT would be cheaper but HRT would have a higher capacity.

[DowntownCharlieBrown]

In the LA Downtown thread when this idea was proposed, we were given a 100 billion dollar limit. Now there is no limit? Awesome!

1). The Grand Park is finished with the county buildings tore down and Hill and Broadway tunneled under the park. But this is still too small to be the "Great LA Park"

2). The "Great LA Park". Since most of the significant development currently ends at Los Angeles St., the land between LA St and Maple is purchased between the 101 and 10 freeway, creating a very long park that is accessible to most of DTLA. Since we have an unlimited budget, all businesses are paid relocation fees, plus any lost income due to the disruption. Due to the greatness of the park, high-rise living develops on both sides of the park and families start moving into Downtown.

3). Schools are now needed to accommodate all the families moving in. Due to the architectural praise of High School #9, all schools are built to the same architectural standard and are built plentiful throughout downtown.

4). One of the new high-rise buildings built along the park provides free housing to all homeless people. In this structure, counseling, job counseling, support and psychiatric evaluations are provided for all. Those requiring permanent care are move to an appropriate facility and well taken care of.

5) Plant a lot of trees, add a lot of fountains, and add cutting edge public art where ever possible.

6). The downtown connector is completed and a new line running from Union Station under the new Great Park between Los Angeles St and Maple, curves onto Pico under South Park, with a stop at Staples, into City West before it turns on Alvarodo and joins up with the Red Line at MacArthur Park.

7). A streetcar that loops from Broadway to Pico to Figueroa to 3rd to Hope to 1st and back to Broadway.

8). Parking requirements are dropped and parking podiums are banned.

9). After that, most development will take care of itself. However, since development in DTLA will now be so desirable, international design competitions are held for all new developments. LA stops playing it safe, and spurs new and inspired architecture that covers every last remaining parking lot.

10). Oh....and world peace. :D

[JDRCRASH]

^
This is going to be fun!!!:hyper:

One, and most importantly, eliminate Zev Yaroslavsky!:D

Two, create at least a dozen new subway lines.

Three, tear down and rewrite countless ordinances for development.

Four, Encourage Low, Middle, and High income High-Rise Development.

Five, encourage development on top or around Historic Landmarks. )Example: The Hearst Tower in New York City.)

Six, create a more efficient Taxi and Bus service.

Seven, build more schools around Downtown.

Eight, greatly increase amount of Police Officers on the streets.

Nine, give the homeless an opportunity to get a good paying job and a place to live.

Ten, allow Companies to start, or greatly increase the number of non-digital, and Digital Billboards around buildings in South Park.

Eleven, provide more open-space, such as Plazas, Parks and recreation areas for breathing room.

Twelve, connect more light-rail lines in and around Downtown.

Thirteen, provide more Homeless shelters with Psychiatric care, along with compensation for those that are disabled.

Fourteen, create more environment-friendly standards for builidings.

Fifteen, quicken the pace of completion of the L.A. River Revitalization Project.

Sixteen, revitalize Broadway, along with it's theatres.

Seventeen, tax the rich of a certain income and higher more than Middle and Lower income families.
_________

Hope all of that made sense!:D

[DowntownCharlieBrown]

^those are good!:tup:

I like your #14. I wish I would have included it in my list.


But the the last one. (#17 Taxing the rich). Why would you tax the rich more? You have an unlimited budget. Just give everybody a raise. :banana:

[JDRCRASH]

^those are good!:tup:

I like your #14. I wish I would have included it in my list.


But the the last one. (#17 Taxing the rich). Why would you tax the rich more? You have an unlimited budget. Just give everybody a raise. :banana:

Thanks, I know it may sound a little unreasonable, but I would like to make all developments reach a "certified" LEED level! In my mind, it is a critical step in making Los Angeles the "greenest city in America", though I don't know if that will ever happen.:rolleyes:

As for taxing the rich, well, I guess...but they should still pay they're fair share.

[ThreeHundred]

If I were in charge, downtown would be totally different.

DEVLOPMENT

- One of the first things I would do is white wash every single building in downtown Los Angeles. Alot of building espically in the Historic Core and the OBD are beautiful but dirty. We'll need a whole lot of turtle wax.

- Revamp Broadway to the ninth degree. Replace a majority (not all) of the current retail with numerous home grown restraunts, cafe's, clubs, clothing stores, and such. Throw in a Starbucks in there too for the fuck of it. It would be stupid not to.

- Each of the theatres along Broadway would be updated (seats, sounds, lighting, and so fourth) but retains it's exterior design.

- Underground parking would be mandatory throughout downtown.

- Each and every new devlopment in downtown would be LEED certified.

- Destroy the county buildings lining Grand Park. Erect a visually stricking 70 story office/county building on the site of Cal Plaza 3.

- On the corner of 4th and Hill, a 50 story tower would rise and it's sole purpose would be to help the homeless. It would provide housing, medical care, psychiatric evaluations, job training, and life skills for all homeless free of charge.

- All throughout the Civic Center, if there is a small building surrounded by parking lots, destory the building and erect Washington DC sized office buildings. But if there is a large building surrounded by a even larger parking lot, build around it. If you've ever been to DC, you know that their building's are short, but huge. For example: http://www.1331lstreet.com/images/photo_T.jpg

- The Arts District would be turned into the largest neighborhood in all of downtown Los Angeles. It's boundries would be the 101 to the north, the LA River to the east, San Pedro to the west, and 6th Street to the south. I would convert existing empty wharehouses into lofts, condos, apartments, offices and affordable housing. I would also build on top of existing wharehouses more units. A 7 story limit would be in place for all new development in the Arts District. Ultimately, I want lots of Barker Block style buildings in the Arts District but with extremely cutting edge designs. Picture this all throughtout the Arts District: http://www.weknowurban.com/highrise-loft-buildings/Tempe/Campus_Edge/renderinga.jpg Now imagine that the street there is San Pedro and the downtown skyline is in the backround and you have the Arts District.

- I would put a cap on the MetroRail yards and turn it into a park.

- Developers couldn't build anything less than 20 stories in Bunker Hill and South Park.

- South Park would be turned into the family friendly area of downtown LA. Ultimately I would use the Pearl District in Portland as a model because that's the perfect example of how I would want South Park to look like: http://i.cnn.net/money/.element/img/1.0/sections/mag/moneymag/bpretire/2007/gallery/pearl_district.jpg
http://ti.org/StreetcarPearl.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y222/Hype_won/TheMet.jpg
http://pics4.city-data.com/cpicv/vfiles5383.jpg
^ Doesn't that pic look like the corner of 11th and Grand?

- My LA Live would be gigantic. Towers everywhere. It's boundries would be the 110 to the west, Pico to the south, 8th Street to the north, and Hope Street to the east. One of the things I would do is implement a ordanience that all new construction would have lively ground floor retail, have a Met Lofts like design, and have interactive lighting displays. My LA Live would include:

A 65 and 40 story towers on the corner of 9th and Fig.
A 50 story tower across from the Ritz.
A broad 30 story hotel on the NW corner of Georgia and Olympic.
At least 5 towers ranging from 30 to 70 stories between 9th and 8th Streets.
A 30 story tower on the corner of 11th and Fig.
And all other structures converted to offices, residential, and retail.

- City West would build no higher than 8 stories (1100 Wilshire would remain the tallest building in City West). But in terms of office space, a 30 story limit would be implied. Like the Arts District, City West would have long, broad towers but in a much lively design. City West is easily a diamond in the rough. I mean look at these pictures:

http://l.yimg.com/www.flickr.com/images/spaceball.gif
http://l.yimg.com/www.flickr.com/images/spaceball.gif
http://l.yimg.com/www.flickr.com/images/spaceball.gif
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3256/2402081601_dd8467f368.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2139/2403112332_7569a0aeb5.jpg

- Parks would be everywhere. Pershing Square would turn into a extremely lush, organic, quiet area. The Grand Park would be filled with trees (euclyptst..can't fucking spell, jacaranda, palms, roses, oak, pine), and eating spaces. It would totally be cut off from traffic. Hill, Broadway, and Spring Streets would be cut off.

- 3am last call for bars/clubs.


TRANSPORTATION

- My downtown connector would be 3 lines. Line 1 would start at Union Station and turn right onto 1st Street. It would then travel west until it would split on Broadway. Line 1 would travel down Broadway until it reaches 8th Street where it would turn right. From 8th Street, it would turn left onto Flower, then right onto Figueroa. From Fig it would make a right onto 6th Street. From 6th it would turn left onto Broadway and back to Union Station.

- Line 2 would travel west on 1st Street alongside the Grand Park, then it would turn left onto Grand. It would travel down Grand until it reaches 6th Street where it would follow Line 1.

- Line 3 would start on Flower and 8th (Macy's Plaza). It would travel south down Flower to Pico where it would turn right. From Pico it would turn right onto Fig. From Fig it would travel north to Wilshire. From Wilshire it would turn left. From Wilshire, it would travel into City West where it would turn right onto Lucas. From Lucas, a quick right onto 6th Street where it would follow the route of Line 1. Could someone make a map of that to see if looks plausable? Please?

BEAUTIFUCATION

- Pocket parks everywhere.

- On the blank side of 611 Place, a mural would be painted. It would change every 3 months.

- The 3rd Street tunnel would be completely lined with LED's.

- The moat at the DWP Building would change color.

- City Hall, the US Bank Tower, 777, and Fig @ Wilshire would change color according to the seasons and city events. Or just randomly.

- Replace every street light with Xeon light bulbs.

- Widen every sidewalk and add small trees and bushes.

- A gimassive New Years Celebration would happen at LA Live. It would have a mostly dance/rave/techno theme. At 12 am, the US Bank would light fireworks and bathe itself in color.

SAFTEY

- Security cameras everywhere.

- Police everywhere. Under cover and uniformed.

- Selling drugs gets you 10 years. Grafitti is 5 years. Murder is life.

[Tanster]

Wow you have some crazy plans for L.A... I like most of them

[tujunga]

Yeah removing bad elements would be a good start.

[Carioca]

If I were in charge...
- On the corner of 4th and Hill, a 50 story tower would rise and it's sole purpose would be to help the homeless. It would provide housing, medical care, psychiatric evaluations, job training, and life skills for all homeless free of charge.


Granted the intent is right, but I think that this will create a vertical skid row. It is really important that the homeless get help in the comunities that they come from. Almost none of the homeless in DT are from here. By spreading care facilities all over the county and state will allow them to return back into family and community.

Otherwise, I love all these ideas...

[DominicanLou]

If I were in charge, downtown would be totally different.

DEVLOPMENT

- One of the first things I would do is white wash every single building in downtown Los Angeles. Alot of building espically in the Historic Core and the OBD are beautiful but dirty. We'll need a whole lot of turtle wax.

- Revamp Broadway to the ninth degree. Replace a majority (not all) of the current retail with numerous home grown restraunts, cafe's, clubs, clothing stores, and such. Throw in a Starbucks in there too for the fuck of it. It would be stupid not to.

- Each of the theatres along Broadway would be updated (seats, sounds, lighting, and so fourth) but retains it's exterior design.

- Underground parking would be mandatory throughout downtown.

- Each and every new devlopment in downtown would be LEED certified.

- Destroy the county buildings lining Grand Park. Erect a visually stricking 70 story office/county building on the site of Cal Plaza 3.

- On the corner of 4th and Hill, a 50 story tower would rise and it's sole purpose would be to help the homeless. It would provide housing, medical care, psychiatric evaluations, job training, and life skills for all homeless free of charge.

- All throughout the Civic Center, if there is a small building surrounded by parking lots, destory the building and erect Washington DC sized office buildings. But if there is a large building surrounded by a even larger parking lot, build around it. If you've ever been to DC, you know that their building's are short, but huge. For example: http://www.1331lstreet.com/images/photo_T.jpg

- The Arts District would be turned into the largest neighborhood in all of downtown Los Angeles. It's boundries would be the 101 to the north, the LA River to the east, San Pedro to the west, and 6th Street to the south. I would convert existing empty wharehouses into lofts, condos, apartments, offices and affordable housing. I would also build on top of existing wharehouses more units. A 7 story limit would be in place for all new development in the Arts District. Ultimately, I want lots of Barker Block style buildings in the Arts District but with extremely cutting edge designs. Picture this all throughtout the Arts District: http://www.weknowurban.com/highrise-loft-buildings/Tempe/Campus_Edge/renderinga.jpg Now imagine that the street there is San Pedro and the downtown skyline is in the backround and you have the Arts District.

- I would put a cap on the MetroRail yards and turn it into a park.

- Developers couldn't build anything less than 20 stories in Bunker Hill and South Park.

- South Park would be turned into the family friendly area of downtown LA. Ultimately I would use the Pearl District in Portland as a model because that's the perfect example of how I would want South Park to look like: http://i.cnn.net/money/.element/img/1.0/sections/mag/moneymag/bpretire/2007/gallery/pearl_district.jpg
http://ti.org/StreetcarPearl.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y222/Hype_won/TheMet.jpg
http://pics4.city-data.com/cpicv/vfiles5383.jpg
^ Doesn't that pic look like the corner of 11th and Grand?

- My LA Live would be gigantic. Towers everywhere. It's boundries would be the 110 to the west, Pico to the south, 8th Street to the north, and Hope Street to the east. One of the things I would do is implement a ordanience that all new construction would have lively ground floor retail, have a Met Lofts like design, and have interactive lighting displays. My LA Live would include:

A 65 and 40 story towers on the corner of 9th and Fig.
A 50 story tower across from the Ritz.
A broad 30 story hotel on the NW corner of Georgia and Olympic.
At least 5 towers ranging from 30 to 70 stories between 9th and 8th Streets.
A 30 story tower on the corner of 11th and Fig.
And all other structures converted to offices, residential, and retail.

- City West would build no higher than 8 stories (1100 Wilshire would remain the tallest building in City West). But in terms of office space, a 30 story limit would be implied. Like the Arts District, City West would have long, broad towers but in a much lively design. City West is easily a diamond in the rough. I mean look at these pictures:

http://l.yimg.com/www.flickr.com/images/spaceball.gif
http://l.yimg.com/www.flickr.com/images/spaceball.gif
http://l.yimg.com/www.flickr.com/images/spaceball.gif
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3256/2402081601_dd8467f368.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2139/2403112332_7569a0aeb5.jpg

- Parks would be everywhere. Pershing Square would turn into a extremely lush, organic, quiet area. The Grand Park would be filled with trees (euclyptst..can't fucking spell, jacaranda, palms, roses, oak, pine), and eating spaces. It would totally be cut off from traffic. Hill, Broadway, and Spring Streets would be cut off.

- 3am last call for bars/clubs.


TRANSPORTATION

- My downtown connector would be 3 lines. Line 1 would start at Union Station and turn right onto 1st Street. It would then travel west until it would split on Broadway. Line 1 would travel down Broadway until it reaches 8th Street where it would turn right. From 8th Street, it would turn left onto Flower, then right onto Figueroa. From Fig it would make a right onto 6th Street. From 6th it would turn left onto Broadway and back to Union Station.

- Line 2 would travel west on 1st Street alongside the Grand Park, then it would turn left onto Grand. It would travel down Grand until it reaches 6th Street where it would follow Line 1.

- Line 3 would start on Flower and 8th (Macy's Plaza). It would travel south down Flower to Pico where it would turn right. From Pico it would turn right onto Fig. From Fig it would travel north to Wilshire. From Wilshire it would turn left. From Wilshire, it would travel into City West where it would turn right onto Lucas. From Lucas, a quick right onto 6th Street where it would follow the route of Line 1. Could someone make a map of that to see if looks plausable? Please?

BEAUTIFUCATION

- Pocket parks everywhere.

- On the blank side of 611 Place, a mural would be painted. It would change every 3 months.

- The 3rd Street tunnel would be completely lined with LED's.

- The moat at the DWP Building would change color.

- City Hall, the US Bank Tower, 777, and Fig @ Wilshire would change color according to the seasons and city events. Or just randomly.

- Replace every street light with Xeon light bulbs.

- Widen every sidewalk and add small trees and bushes.

- A gimassive New Years Celebration would happen at LA Live. It would have a mostly dance/rave/techno theme. At 12 am, the US Bank would light fireworks and bathe itself in color.

SAFTEY

- Security cameras everywhere.

- Police everywhere. Under cover and uniformed.

- Selling drugs gets you 10 years.
Grafitti is 5 years. Murder is life.



what about designated areas for grafitti? Like those areas off of downtown, in Venice, and in NoHo?

[sopas ej]

By spreading care facilities all over the county and state will allow them to return back into family and community.

Hehe, dream on. This is the United States, not Sweden. ;)

[Echo Park]

what about designated areas for grafitti? Like those areas off of downtown, in Venice, and in NoHo?

did you really need to quote his entire post just to ask this

[Martinx07]

We need to make LA more green, it looks very gray and dull from satellite. Pershing Square should turn into a similar NY Central Park, and add more modern buildings like Chicago. Also, add more parks, make the LA river super clean, and add a few buildings that over 65 stories. Good thread.

[ozone]

No downtown can succeed unless or until it has vibrant neighboorhoods adjoining it. So that would be my first priority. I would deconstruct downtown LA and look at ways to reassemble and repackage areas in order to "discover" (or create) new smaller urban neighborhoods out of the existing downtown matrix. Then find or create the neighorhood center and start building public places/spaces around the center.

"the Nickel", AKA Skid Row, is a large area in Downtown LA that could become a great urban neighborhood -ala NYC's East Village or SOMA -but it will not happen without a definite plan and a new identity.

I would super engage the Hispanic community to truly make downtown the heart and soul of the entire LA area Hispanic community. I would make this a big (but certiantly not the only) focal point of a revitalized downtown. I would encourage new public gathering spaces and educational, recreational and interactive facilities which cater to and encourages the Hispanic community to invest. I would start by creating a zócalo and turning the busy heart of Broadway into a sort of La Rambla with very wide sidewalks featuring Latin craftwork, double rows of trees on each side, benches, kiosks, etc. and building a Mexican-American Museum.


I would also:

Build a new Dodger ballpark downtown.

Build an elevated skytrain (monorail system) from the Union Station through downtown to LA Live/South Park and ending in Exposition Park/USC.

Build a indian casino next to Chinatown with a uber hip bowling alley/nightclub and a retractable roof. Cut a deal with the casino that in exchange for city support a portion of the annual revenues would have to go to help fund the ongoing construction of affordable, mixed-income and senior downtown housing and rehab and transitional housing/shelter for the homeless.

Convert the on again, off again Angels Flight funicular railway into a landscaped "Italian" staircase -keeping the pink archways of course.

Redo Pershing Square - huge billboards with changing art/messages, lots of real orange trees, a outdoor "sit-in" movie theater (screen and sculptured car seats), and a (Mid-Century) Armet & Davis style cafe.

[edluva]

my plan on how to revitalize dtla (no particular order):

1. wilshire subway to the sea
2. red line hollywood to purple
3. goldline eastside extension
4. downtown connector
5. vermont subway
6. expo line to sea
7. silver line to sgv
8. metrolink service/safety upgrades
9. express rail to LAX
10. CAHSR
11. city wide hail-a-cab

[JDRCRASH]

^ Good ideas nonetheless.....except most of those aren't in DTLA.....

[ThreeHundred]

But most if not all of them affect DTLA in one way or another.

[i-215]

Revitalize downtown?

Easy: Just add extra lanes to all the viaducts!

j/k

[Suffice]

I liked most of the things mentioned, except the for the security cameras. I've been to London and HATED the security cameras everywhere, it's really uncomfortable when you know you're being recorded constantly.

Aside from the things already mentioned, I would designate either Broadway, Hill, or Main St. as a place for public performances. This would encourage lots of pedestrian traffic and liven things up, rather than just making commercial/residential developments. There should also be a huge urban park, something at least 2x2 blocks, perhaps between 9th and 7th, east of main st. or better yet instead of the parking lot in front of the Staples Center.

Besides this, i really think there needs to be something really unique about DTLA, since LA is the second biggest city in the U.S. and definitely lacks the uniqueness in its urban core. I would try to develop further what LA is already known for - entertainment - all over DTLA. One thing that could be done is extending the Downtown Art walk from Spring and Main into Little Tokyo and further into the Arts District. Broadway could house numerous museums for cinema, Entertainment, Music, etc, aside from revitalized theaters. There should also be a big public square similar to Union Sq. in San Francisco for free public performances of different genres, but the location is a bit tough to choose. on one hand, it would be nice to put something like this closer to disney and city hall, but there is no residential development there. Something like that could also work somewhere between South Park and Historic core.

Finally, what is probably one of the most important parts of all, is parking. Underground parking should be encouraged heavily in new developments. if public transportation like light rail, buses, and taxis become more prevalent, this would, coupled with more underground parking, make DT much more enjoyable to walk around, and there wouldn't be dead blocks that bore you to death. The thing i always found frustrating about LA is that all the commerce is always centered on a single street, and if you walk a block away, there is absolutely nothing to look at, do, or see. It's very limiting, because once you walk the strip, you have to walk back on the same street. It's kind of idiotic, in my opinion. Downtown, as it stands, is kind of like this, aside from a few blocks around the jewelry district. Have you ever walked around the Civic center? it's so freaking boring! Nothing but parking lots and huge monolithic blocks with no first-level commerce.

[Westsidelife]

Revitalizing Downtown Los Angeles begins with improving mass transit on a regional level. What good is it if Downtown isn't even accessible?

[202_Cyclist]

Suffice:

Finally, what is probably one of the most important parts of all, is parking. Underground parking should be encouraged heavily in new developments.

It looks like you're new to this forum but I encourage you to read "Parking, People, and Cities," by Donald Shoup from UCLA to find out why more parking is exactly what is not needed to revitalize downtown LA. Here is the link:
http://shoup.bol.ucla.edu/People,Parking,CitiesJUPD.pdf

[yeah215]

Couple of thoughts.

The MOST MOST MOST important part of revitalizing downtown is addressing the concentration of homelessness in skid row. It makes the area very uncomfortable and magnet for other harmful activities like prostitution and drug dealing. In turn those bring more crime. I think people would be much more willing to move Downtown if those issues were being successfully addressed. Part of the problem is that services for homeless are centralized in one specific neighborhood. Building a huge building with all of those services and in effect centralizing it even more, may make the problem worse.

That said, I do like the idea of a huge county office tower at the California Plaza 3 site. I never thought about that before and it could be very interesting. A huge amount of the county offices could be moved there, and so could the civil courts, hall of records, etc. It could really be an iconic structure for LA.

I would move the criminal courts too to make room for the park that would run the entire width of the current county mall. A new iconic courthouse could be built on the LA Mall site. It could make a little judicial corridor there.

Transportation is key. The Metro system could be expanded to make all parts of downtown accessible.

Now for a more controversial point, I would rezone the industrial section. I don't mind some light industrial uses (like the fashion district) but I don't think there needs to be heavy manufacturing downtown. This area should be replaced with new office, residential and retail uses. The scale should be somewhere inbetween the Pearl District in Portland and Downtown DC. These new neighborhoods should be based around central squares, circles and other block size parks.

The fashion district and toy district should grow up a bit. I like the the idea of clustered retail and related light manufacturing. However, the are should be denser, include neighborhood retail, related office use and lots more residential.

Many schools and other services will be need to support the increased population. These should clustered and compatible uses should co-located. For example, instead of school libraries, LAPL and LAUSD could partner to build "learning libraries". These could be staffed be located on school campuses. They would be MUCH bigger than normal school libraries and be open to the public as well. However, they would also include specific elements for students and would be staffed with librarians who also are especially trained to help students. Similar efforts can be made for recreation facilities. LAUSD and the Parks Department can partner to make sure these facilities are used more effectively and open to the public. By sharing resources, perhaps they can develop higher quality facilities. In Downtown this will be especially important because of the high density. There simply won't be the space for both the Parks Department and the schools to operate separate, at grade soccer fields in the same neighborhood.

Broadway would become the shopping center of downtown and the historic core, centered around a revised Pershing Square, will function like somewhere in between Union Square in SF and Washington Square in NY.

Also, the city would engage in a comprehensive Downtown public realm project. The sidewalks would be rebuilt and be wide and spacious with lots of shady trees. Much more street furniture, and new lighting based on the pedestrian scale. The public realm should be standardized. The street lamps should match throughout all of Downtown and so should the public landscaping. Deviations from the standard should be for only very good reasons. The one main exception would be the Historic core where the street furniture would all resemble LA in the 1890s-1920s. Within that area, it should be consistent. Landscaping should also include standard LA elements like palm trees, coral trees, and broad grassy lawns. There should be other natural plants as well, but I think the new landscaping plan should riff on the iconic themes of LA.