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Originally Posted by edluva
The lack of transit in this case merely *ensures* that DTLA has no chance of improving, because it ensures that all this prosperity remains locked in the westside, OC, south bay, and other parts of the basin. So your theory that DTLA should be doing well with its (ineffectual) transit "network" doesn't apply. If we had NY's system, for instance, and DTLA remained a shithole, then you would have a point.
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You have to keep in mind that the origins of LA today were influenced by the huge rail network of the early 1900s known as the Red Car. Even before that system was being dismantled around the 1950s, DT already was feeling the effects of burbanization, as more & more ppl wanted to move as far away from the oldest parts of LA as possible.
I've read that Bunker Hill, originally where all the ppl with $$ in LA lived, started to fall apart as long ago as the 1920s, way before the Red car system lost its popularity.
If I had a magic wand & could change ONE of only 2 things about LA today----either its transit system or the way LA is built----based on an assumption of what would have the most positive impact on the city, I'd transform the type of devlpt throughout & around DT. IOW, if we had a first class transit system but still had the same old hoods, with deadzones & all, I bet that wouldn't give as much a lift to LA as having the same transit system that we live with today (& which is piddly) but one that would be serving really nice hoods. Hoods without a ton of deadzones & fuglieness.
And you may ask why did old Bunker Hill, since it was supposedly a nice hood to begin with, fall apart over 70 yrs ago & before the car became king in LA? Even that hood wasn't as nice as it could have been, as old pics of it indicate there was alot of junk mixed in with some nice old mansions. IOW, DT has been stuck with too many deadzones since the beginning of time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ladowntowner
But rather than adding to our problems of increasing environmental degradation and resource depletion, which will surely result from encouraging ever more immigration and population increases by any means, I was suggesting that we should increase the density (without increasing population of the region as a whole) of the urban core and improve mass transit while ripping out the idiotic, inefficient, auto-centric fringe suburbs (of which many are already on their way to becoming foreclosed wastelands, anyway) and return the land to it's natural state or other more productive uses.
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Most of the ppl from outside of LA or CA who are moving to LA are immigrants, with a huge majority of ppl from the US choosing to live elsewhere. In fact, if it weren't for immigration, LA's population would have dropped----perhaps by alot----assuming native born ppl, as what happens when there's a vacuum, wouldn't have made up the difference.
And "immigration" is too general a term. For instance, if most of the immigrants to LA are engineers, doctors, architects, dentists, accountants, fashion designers & artists, that's one thing. And if someone, in that case, has a problem with immigration, then that's another thing.
OTOH, if most of the immigrants to LA are uneducated & likely to remain that way, regardless----& worse of all end up adding to our problems with crime----that's another thing. And if someone, in that case, has a problem with immigration, then that's another thing too.
As for immigrants & DT, when I read that a lot of buyers of condos in some of the new highrises going up in Koreatown or a proj like Parkfifth are of Asian descent, & when alot of other ppl in LA, inc native born, still want to live in the burbs or hoods like SaMo or Pasadena, then I say the city isn't gonna move to the next level if it has to depend on native born ppl only.
BTW, I read that the city that has the largest population of Japanese outside of Japan is
Sao Paolo in Brazil. Sao Paolo, its slums notwithstanding----& which has so many highrises you'd need a calculator to count them all----makes LA look like Barstow or Fresno, on a Monday night.
Sao Paolo, from wirednewyork.com
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