TIME Asks 'Can Downtown Los Angeles Be Manhattanized?'

Photo by Albert's Canon Photography | L.A.° via LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr

Slowly, the rest of the country is catching on that Downtown Los Angeles is no longer a post-sunset ghost town of tumbleweeds and closed businesses.

According to TIME:

[...]downtown L.A. has traditionally been the laughingstock of the city's nightlife, while N.Y.C. has a concentration of nightlife in Manhattan. Now that is changing. Downtown L.A., which used to be dead after working hours, is striving to become a hub for entertainment, sports, dining and housing, in addition to continuing as a daytime financial center. Some are calling it the "Manhattanization" of downtown.

Really. Who is calling it that? The story goes on to dissect a recent Saturday night in DtLA as "Hummer limos cruised the streets," party goers raced the sidewalks, hopefuls stood in front of nightclubs, drunk people climbed signs and took stupid photos of each other as the Nokia Theatre prepared for the Espy Awards and the Ritz Carlton tower watched over the city like an all-seeing shard in the sky.

The story wraps up with the assessment that even with the changes, L.A. is unlikely to become another N.Y.C. because of our cars and multiple hubs and urban centers of activity. There you have it.

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By Lisa Brenner in News on August 2, 2011 11:59 AM

Comments [rss]

Charles B

I'd prefer the Shanghai-ization of LA over a Manhattanization of LA. Manhattan is too sterile and corporate, no truly organic edification. Some outer area of Manhattan would even be better, like Brooklyn, but downtown LA is too industry driven and could never obtain the colors and flavor of a real entertainment/business/residential district.

Rebecca Echevarria-Velazquez

We don't want to be them, they don't want to be us. Both cities have great qualities about them. Yet they are always comparing the two, and the comparison usually comes from a NYC based publication. I think they protest a bit too much.

Kenneth Tong

Place is dangerous and unpleasant at night, Los Angeles will always play second fiddle to New York City.

Rebecca Echevarria-Velazquez

Are you saying NYC isn't dangerous at night? I lived there 20 years, many parts are also unpleasant during both night and daytime hours.

Sullivan131

The two are really an escape from one another.

Sullivan131

Amen. I'm glad LA IS NOT NYC and Vice Versa.

Javier

And why would we want to be? Oh great, another outlet is speaking on how wonderfully like Rome NYC is. What next, they tell us that "We ain't got no culture out here"?