LOS ANGELES | METRO Project Rundown 2.0 (non-downtown)

[dktshb]

When I first moved to Hollywood in 1997 in was pretty bad shape then too although things were starting to change for the better. Unfortunately change came at a snails pace for many years. Hollywood really started booming in the last couple of years right when I get up and leave.

[KEVINcredible1226]

I love Hollywood and Highland! Its so nice when lit up at night. They should do projects like Hollywood and Highland in LA Live, maybe adding a mall. LA Central was suppose to do a 100,000 SQ FT mall right? But the project is dead now.

Can anyone post any new Koreatown Projects PLEASE?
Im so interested with KoreaTown. In the Wilshire Area, it is just so Urban, Specially the Wilshire and Western Area, it is just great. There are also so much foot traffic in K-Town.

Thanks

[LosAngelesBeauty]

Originally Posted by pesto

Easy: Can't speak for 1989, but in 1980-83 I worked on Hollywood and walked from La Brea to near Whitley and back daily. There were still the remains of the great book district (second only to London is number of book stores) but dying; there were war surplus, wig-shops; head-shops; two magic shops and low-grade t-shirt shops, which might have carried a few postcards; Frederick's still had their HQ store but it was almost empty.

Zero tourists is an exaggeration, but it was so close that it might as well have been. Mann's Chinese courtyard was empty Monday to Friday, all day. I know, because we rented out the empty auditorium for occasional meetings. The t-shirt stores changed owners and their line of merchandise regularly. They were aimed at military, bikers and hard drug users (not tourists) who were coming down to get booze, dope and hookers (hookers on Sunset, drugs just off Hollywood and on Yucca). Typical t-shirt: a skull and the motto "Kill 'em all; let God sort 'em out" or "187th Airborne: Death From the Sky".

As long as you got me started: On Yucca, drug dealers and their clients were essentially the only people. Mostly hash, acid and other hallucinogens. I suppose they had coke and other stuff if you asked. Shooting up in the doorways of the beautiful old buildings. It was really quite sad, young painfully thin girls with that dead, heroin look.

Women in our office would refuse to walk alone, so security escorted them down Hollywood Blvd. in the middle of the day. Panhandlers and derelicts; guys on violent trips, attacking light-posts, screaming and cursing. Car radios were routinely stolen out of the guarded parking lot; we covered windows with cardboard on the inside so at night the druggies wouldn't know who was inside and gather by the doors waiting. Mace was universal among the women (always carry in your hand, not in your purse).

Wow! Thank you for posting your experience of Hollywood back in the early 80s. It really makes me appreciate the Hollywood of today with a new W Hotel, Space 15-Twenty, Madame Tussauds, Zara, and a future FLAGSHIP store of West Elm furniture store at the corner of Hollywood/Orange.

[sopas ej]

I remember the Hollywood of the 1980s. When I turned 16 and got my drivers license in 1986, that's when I would be driving to Hollywood/WeHo often. Back then it was all about Melrose, which had a fun scene, and lots of Japanese tourists as I recall. I would frequent La Luz de Jesus and Drake's, hehe, and I remember Boy London and Retail Slut. Hollywood Blvd. was seedy but fun, I thought. I guess I was lucky, my car never got broken into. I remember going to Grauman's Chinese (back then Mann's Chinese) Theatre and seeing "The Lost Boys" and "The Witches of Eastwicke" with my best friend. I do remember CC Brown's, it was a totally old school ice cream PARLOR, with the embossed tin ceilings and the old school wooden booths, it was fun. I would also hang out at Hollywood Memorial Park (now called Hollywood Forever Cemetery) because I love celebrity grave sites. When I was 19 I had read a biography on Rudolph Valentino and I became obsessed with visiting his old haunts, and I even saw the Lady in Black who would visit his grave. Of course she wasn't the original Lady in Black, but it was still cool nonetheless to bump into her randomly while going to Rudolph Valentino's grave. Ahh, memories.

[dachacon]

Originally Posted by Kingofthehill

I'll never understand the people in LA who are staunch advocates of tearing down what little skyscrapers we have -- even if they are 'ugly' -- in favor of another one, when there are literally tons of adjacent lots...as if a block or 2 over is going to make a big difference; since most of the traffic to these new towers will be automobile (i.e don't have to worry about the building being too far from mass transit), an additional minute or 2 isn't going to spell the end of the world. All those underutilized/empty parcels and they want to go after the one with a fully-functioning, *historic* building...no wonder why this city has no history left!

And the touted successors for the CP building....2 more impersonal glass towers? yawn.

the only way that i can explain it. is LA is the between point of two very different cultural neighbors. one being San Francisco, who deems every building historical and preserves everything it sees, and Las Vegas. Vegas is all about the new glitz and glam. try finding a building older than 10 years old that is still relevant and not having a demolition date in the near future.
most of the people moving out, and in general traveling go through LA so we get both extremes of preserving for preserving's sake, and desires to build new glitzy modern buildings to show off. as a result we have a sort of middle ground where if a building has outlived its useful life then its destroyed, unless it has some very important historical status.

[pesto]

The funny thing is, back then it was no worse than Greenwich Village, 42nd St., much of Berkeley and south of Market in SF. The great age of the hippie leftovers turning to druggies and ruling the streets.

At the time you just lived with it, but 25 years older, I don't think I would work in a place like than now. For sure, you left the area immediately after work.

Santa Monica Blvd. was gay and straight porn mixed in with an almost small town mix of dry-cleaners, flower shops and the usual stuff. Melrose was starting to develop a used-clothes district, which has since become legendary.

Sunset was surprisingly similar to what it was 5 years ago before the building boom hit. A lot of hookers, however; Cahuenga to La Brea had several per block except right after sweeps. Frequent violence at the motels along there.

BTW, sopas, that's very cool about Valentino and the Lady in Black.

[dktshb]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesBeauty

Wow! Thank you for posting your experience of Hollywood back in the early 80s. It really makes me appreciate the Hollywood of today with a new W Hotel, Space 15-Twenty, Madame Tussauds, Zara, and a future FLAGSHIP store of West Elm furniture store at the corner of Hollywood/Orange.

Really? West Elm furniture store at the corner of Hollywood/Orange!

I know the CIM group owns that building and I was hoping it would be worked on soon. I suppose a furniture store would work there... perhaps the tourists will order stuff and have it shipped home.

[edluva]

west elm sucks. they have one at victoria gardens. but thats just my opinion.

[dktshb]

I personally never stepped foot in one of them or even heard of them. I am just happy because CIM usually does a great job sprucing up old structures, and furniture stores generally look appealing at street level with their display windows.

[sopas ej]

I've never set foot in their store either, but I've walked past the one in Santa Monica. It's a few doors down from that awfully overrated Border Grille restaurant.

Yeah, I guess furniture stores can be made to look appealing. But a lamp store, those always look tacky to me.

[pesto]

A furniture store surprises me. It just won't be Hollywood Blvd. if Z Gallerie, Restoration Hardware and Williams-Sonoma move in. I would have thought that some Melrose-style retail would be more likely.

[dktshb]

Originally Posted by pesto

A furniture store surprises me. It just won't be Hollywood Blvd. if Z Gallerie, Restoration Hardware and Williams-Sonoma move in. I would have thought that some Melrose-style retail would be more likely.

Yep this furniture store sounds more suited for Berverly Blvd, but I still welcome it to Hollywood Blvd. Hollywood Blvd is getting a good mix of Restaurant/Bar and clothing type retail so it would be nice to see a furniture store or two along the Blvd as well, although I would hoped for something a little more organic than all these chain type retailers.

[LosAngelesBeauty]

I'm not sure when West Elm will start construction since the economy sucks right now. These were plans for Hollywood/Orange that go back at least a year. Things do change. It's always possible that West Elm could have pulled out.

The building that CIM owns at Hollywood/Orange was supposed to be expanded by adding another 10 floors IIRC. CIM was planning on building a hotel there. I think it's way too far back to find a rendering of it.

I would have preferred that particular space to become more restaurants and maybe a few smaller retailers to complement the fashion row across the street (Zara, H&M, American Apparel).

I would have also preferred that West Elm, along with other retailers, would choose downtown LA to build their flagship stores. Preferably replacing all those nasty jewelry stores in the Jewelry District. I always thought the Jewerly District was just begging to become the new shopping district for Downtown LA.

[Kingofthehill]

Infill in Ktown:

[milquetoast]

I'll bet the neighbors'll appreciates that!

[dktshb]

Rolling Stone to launch restaurant chain in L.A.
By Roger Vincent
December 4, 2009

Entire article here:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...tory?track=rss

The magazine steps into a tough industry next summer with a two-tiered location at Hollywood & Highland Center.

Rolling Stone is about to take a leap into the entertainment industry, starting with a large-scale restaurant and nightclub in Hollywood.

Owners of the venerable magazine hope to leverage its status as a preeminent chronicler of the rock music world and pop culture into a new business built on food and drinks. The first Rolling Stone outpost is set to open next summer at Hollywood & Highland Center.

"We've been looking for the ideal opportunity to expand the Rolling Stone brand," co-founder and Editor Jann S. Wenner said.

[StethJeff]

Originally Posted by dktshb

Rolling Stone to launch restaurant chain in L.A.
By Roger Vincent
December 4, 2009

Entire article here:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...tory?track=rss

Should be a fun place to grab some nachos and beers.

[pesto]

StethJeff: I think you'll have to go across the mall to the Hard Rock. Rolling Stone promises to be upscale and clubby, so I'm guessing seared ahi, filet mignon sliders and $10 beers you have never heard of.

[StethJeff]

that sounds so cheesy! who wants to say "we're going clubbing at rolling stone tonight!"

[BrandonJXN]

Originally Posted by StethJeff

that sounds so cheesy! who wants to say "we're going clubbing at rolling stone tonight!"

It does sound a bit frat boyish. Although at least it isn't as bad as some of the names given to really hip and 'moderne' restaurants like 'Zen' or 'Bliss' or 'Nuance' or anything of that sort. I like those kind of places but they seem really pretentious.

In downtown Tucson (of all places), there are 2 clubs that are trying their HARDEST to be like Los Angeles: Zen Rock, and Centro.

I just go across the street to The Grill if I want beer and breakfast at 3 in the morning.