Quote:
Originally Posted by destroycreate
What reasons led Hollywood, CA to become so grungy and sketchy? Given it's glorious past, you'd think it'd have experienced some sort of resurgence way sooner than it has. I know now that luxury condos have been going up left and right, but still, it's not nearly as nice as other parts of LA. It's dense, walkable, connected well via transit and has the bones to really be a chic urban destination. Is there a reason why it has remained so rough around the edges?
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Times Square in NYC came to mind immediately. From Wiki, (read the irony)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Square
"From the 1960s to the early 1990s, the seediness of the area, especially due to its go-go bars, sex shops, peep shows and adult theaters, became an infamous symbol of the city's decline...In the mid-1990s, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani led an effort to clean up the area, an effort that is described by Steve Macek in Urban Nightmares: The Media, the Right, And the Moral Panic Over the City...Detractors have countered that the changes have homogenized or "Disneyfied" the character of Times Square and have unfairly targeted lower-income New Yorkers from nearby neighborhoods such as Hell's Kitchen.[53][54] The changes were shaped in large part by the actions of The Walt Disney Company, which bought and restored the New Amsterdam Theatre's after several attempts at redevelopment had fallen through. As part of a contract with Disney, officials from the city and state evicted the pornographic theaters and contracted with Madame Tussauds and AMC Theatres to move onto 42nd Street. This spurred the construction of new office towers, hotels, and tourist attractions in the area..."
So a LA based icon, Disney, helped turn Times Square around, but apparently ignores the grittiness in its own back yard.