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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.
[...]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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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
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