Los Angeles | Pedestrians Fill The Streets Once Again!
 

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This is super exciting because it's almost like a big secret that more and more people are finding out that LA is becoming more and more of a pedestrian oriented city (at least around the central core/downtown which is the district that most cities are judged by right?).

I took this video during the Downtown LA Art Walk and it gives us a glimpse into the exciting future of LA as a city with energy, pedestrians, and beautiful architecture restored and reused.

Is this video and idea of LA becoming more walkable shocking or impressive to those who are unaware of the great efforts the city has put in to make this happen?

We're still not embracing a more pedestrian-friendly urban design. Even the most dense and walkable hoods lack marked crosswalks. Sidewalks need to be widened as well. Spring Street caters more toward pedestrians than autos, yet it's clear in your video that the width of its sidewalks is insufficient.

Who died and made you edluva?

I do not think LA is as bad as people make it out to be.

I really enjoyed my trip to LA, and is much more urban than people make it out to be.

The pedestrians do not shock me at all, as there was tons of pedestrians around when I was there.

The missing link, is more public transit. But that seems to be coming on line.

But overall there are tons of pedestrians: Downtown LA, Hollywood, Santa Monica, Venice Beach, etc.

Better-Designed Streets for Walkers and Bikers Are Coming to L.A.


http://www.good.is/post/better-desig...coming-to-l-a/

^ I could look at that plan all day. That's the kind of bold vision that has been lacking in LA for so long. It's that lack of leadership and creativity (along with NIMBYs) that has kept LA from evolving into a more mature city. I feel like we're 30 years behind where we should be.

I'm excited about where LA is headed. I think it is due to undergo an unprecedented wave of urban revitalization these next few decades. I think we finally have it right.

30 years? that's it? I was thinking like 50 or more.

And to make matters better, after nearly three years of this curse-like recession, we're almost out of the tunnel.

how cute, LAB, for referencing me in that way. too bad you find the image of a walkable la more convicing than the truth.

Truth is, 96% of these pedestrians in your video will end up walking to a dtla parking lot one their way home.

but hey, enjoy your land of make believe. subway and bus ridership is about a teaspoon more consequential than it was 5 years ago. if dtla dies down you could always retreat to old town pasadena to bask in the glory of urbanism make-believe there (although you would officially be outside of your make-believe "west-central")

I'm glad you find a negative reference about yourself "cute." :)

I know the truth because I am a part of it. DTLA is growing up and it's an important part of LA's evolution. I am optimistic about its future and I have been closely part of its revitalization (working for the DCBID and being involved with the community) and I am always very glad to see these steps toward a more exciting and energetic urban core.

Artwalk is certainly amazing but what's really surprised me is the amount of pedestrian traffic downtown on a daily basis. Especially weekends. It's still less than it should be but I can remember walking around downtown just 6 or 7 years ago and on a Saturday afternoon you would hardly see non-homeless pedestrians outside of broadway or the fashion district. Downtown isn't "there" yet but it's closer than I imagined that it would be.

How come no one has posted the recent article in
the nyt about downtown la claiming it is a pedestrian urban paradise. It is like the most emailed article right now after the one about breast biopsies

good for you for being optimistic.

let's see, oh yeah, about 96 percent of those pedestrians in your video still have to stop at a nearby parking lot on the way home. nope...your optimistic make-believe hasn't changed anything.

Any city can have an impressive number of pedestrians with crowded/lively streets during a special event or festival of some kind. When the streets of LA look like they do in that video on some random Tuesday then we'll have something to talk about.

^shhhhh!!! don't ruin losangelesbeauty's moment of make-believe urbanism!

he's walking down a substantively urban sidewalk in downtown west-central (widely known as "LA's manhattan") as we speak!

see all those cool hipsters in his video? they're pouring out of subways and buses, and group fixie-rides, all of which which converge in downtown west-central, the happenin' place at the moment! before long they'll be ridin the 2am train back to their chic urban lofts, studios, and condos in upper west-central for beer and cheese, old nintendo, and backgammon! berlin ain't got nuthin on west-central!

I'm glad you like the name I coined for LA :) Don't get too happy over it though! BTW, you do live in West Central yourself, so R-E-S-P-E-C-T it son! LOL

Interestingly, LA and Berlin do have a bit in common. They are both going through revitalizations of their historical inner-cities and adjacent hoods (Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg, Kreuzberg, etc.; Downtown, Ktown, Westlake, etc.) which includes an influx of the young, various ethnics, artsy types. Each has a look somewhat different from the other major cities of its continent: Berlin has more open spaces, wider streets, relatively little truly historic (medieval, renaissance, 18th century) street patterns; easier movement of cars; it is not reminiscent of the cores of Paris, London, Rome. Similarly, LA is basically a product of the 20th century, with an emphasis on the possibility of light and air coming into even central districts and an emphasis on mid-rise rather than high-rise (again, similar to the plan for Unter den Linden and the Mitte shopping core). LA is missing transit, but several lines are under construction.

Of course, Berlin is a national capital and has huge amounts of money to speed its development, and it shows in the spectacular architecture, the cleaned and repaired Mitte and many other ways. LA is not even the capital of its own state, so it depends more heavily on private investment for its renovation. This will presumably be a much slower process. But I suspect that the results will be surprisingly similar: medium-rise with plazas; substantial edgy, artsy populations with relatively little connection to the NY, London, Paris "official" culture scenes; relatively lower prices; less finance and corporate, but more arts.

And, no, I am not arguing that they are identical (there are big differences in income, population, demographics, geography, weather and other things), or that they are better or worse than any other city.

I love Berlin...lived there for awhile. It would be a great place for LA to look at as far as building its infil. Human-scale urbanism and great transit. I love Berlin transit!

Berlin is not like other European capitals because of its history. The "nation" of Germany as we think of it now, with Germans having a national identity, only came about in the mid-late 1800s, with the establishment of the German Empire in 1871. Prior to that, the German-speaking peoples lived in small principalities, or became part of the umbrellas that were either the Austro-Hungarian Empire or the Prussian Empire (to put it in a nutshell). So in terms of Berlin being a grand European capital, it has a short history as such, relative to other European capitals. And then of course, Berlin was divided in half for half of the 20th Century, so different halves of it developed differently, which is why it's so decentralized now.

But even Europeans say that Berlin and Los Angeles compare with each other in terms of not having a dominant center and being spread out.

The city's public transit still has an average weekday boardings 1,385,083, albeit down from 2009 figures (probably in part because of unemployment) so like it or not LA has probably one of the largest pedestrian populations in the country. As far as that LA art walk I would say probably about 20% of the attendees live Downtown and maybe another 20% got there by mass transit. It would be really interesting if somebody attempted to document how people got there.

The forum members either fall onto one end of the spectrum selling the city's pedestrian experience way too short or over promoting it for more than it is.

http://www.metro.net/news/

based on your use of county ridserhip data to represent city public transit usage i'd probably put you into the over-promotion camp.

that figure you quoted is for the entire mta system, which covers a population of 10 million (la county). not so great after all is it? that trasnlates to roughly 14% of the county (probably sustantially less because it measures total boardings, not unique riders) - the majority of whom are latino immigrants and blacks, not the suburban hipsters you see in that video.

i'm positive your numbers for LAB's art walk patrons are optimistic by a similar degree.

so yeah, i'm here to bring this thread back to earth. you're welcome.