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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.
[...]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.