Grand Avenue Project

[JDRCRASH 53]

Yesterday marked a possiblly big milestone in the Los Angeles City Council meeting.
In it they gave the Grand Avenue Project a green light to start building in October.
The first phase will be completed by 2011.
But the whole project is projected to be finished by 2018.
www.grandavenuecommittee.com has plenty of information on this landmark undertaking for the city of Los Angeles
I personally feel its a risk, but bold move by this city of 4 million to try to revitalize Downtown L.A.
So what does the community of Simtropolis think and feel about this project?

[HuskerDude 12]

It could be a good idea, downtown LA needs something at draw people down there, or at least to stay once their workday is over. That place empties out pretty quickly right now in the evenings.

[JDRCRASH 53]

Yeah, and thats where the homeless problem comes in.

[villagemayor 0]

Interesting project. However, just because you have a series of residential towers (thus bringing in people into the community), its not a guarrantee that the place will be busy at all hours.

[JDRCRASH 53]

Correct, I'm afraid thats the way it is in most Downtown cities these days.

[HuskerDude 12]

The thing is, if this goes bad, it could go really bad. If the nightlife doesn't come down there and keep people on the streets after dark, that big nice park is going to be a great place for bums and drug dealers. And when they move in, people will move out of the new fancy condos all around, turning it into more empty buildings.

[gradonacelnik 0]

My apartment is actually shown in the master plan on the website. I've been here for 4 months. I can't convince my wife to walk around at night so we have to drive to anyplace at night.

If I have to drive might as well go to established areas like Old Town Pasadena and the like because 99% of friends and family live in the burbs.

I would love to have someplace to go nearby but it won't matter to me if it does or does not turn out to be the case. I live downtown so that in the morning I can fly to work at full speed outbound.

If they want us to live 24 hours in downtown LA they have to offer a better alternative than what they have now. Everywhere there is a problem of dealing with the homeless but downtown LA has an acute affliction. At night the only people downtown are the people cleaning the offices, the cops and the homeless.... and of course the few hardy individuals who purchased tiny lofts at Whilshire Blvd prices next to homeless shelters, these sophomores of downtown LA are severley outnumbered.

[JDRCRASH 53]

A report released yesterday showed that the prosperity in SoCal is likely to continue for another decade or so.

Apparently at this rate, by the time the boom is over, L.A. might overtake Hong Kong as #3 in the status as the city with the most High-rises in the world, behind New York City and Chicago.

Cities like Tokyo and Toronto could count too, but their mostly made of Mid-Rises.

Also, other studies have shown that because of the Mid-Rise and High-Rise boom in L.A., more and more homeless people have been moving out of the City to places like North Long Beach, Pasedena, Glendale, and other areas surrounding downtown.

@gradonacelnik: Almost all of your family and friends live in the suburbs?!  Sheesh, you must have to deal with traffic every time huh!

[mustafabb 0]

a+++ cool

[JDRCRASH 53]

What do you think of these shots?

[hawkpride147 1]

LA should look to NYC or even Ft. Worth, TX for how to do a downtown with a night life. Ft. Worth has Sundance Square which is the top night life in north texas (except fri and sat night when deep ellum in dallas competes closely with it.) Southlake TX has taken a page out of Ft. Worth's book and is becoming a tourist hotspot with their town square. and of course everyone knows NYC has the best night life.

[JDRCRASH 53]

Yeah that would be helpful hawkpride.........

Hey, speaking of New York City, is anyone seeing what I'm seeing as a vision for a possible new headquarters for an NBC "TODAY" West Coast Edition in the Grand Avenue project?!!

[siso43 13]

Looks good, i hope they make it for a great City, i mean LA city of Movies

[cammo2003 20]

Originally posted by: villagemayor Interesting project. However, just because you have a series of residential towers (thus bringing in people into the community), its not a guarrantee that the place will be busy at all hours.quote>

Seems to have worked in Sydney. Then again, Australian cities always have seemed to have some 'life' about them.

[david1314 44]

It looks like some kid was playing godzilla and never picked up his blocks when he was done....though, oddly organic

[JDRCRASH 53]

I have just learned on Los Angeles Development News that construction of Phase 2 of L.A. Live, including that 55-story Ritz-Carlton, will break ground on April 30...Finally!

Crews are taking apart the crane that topped out the Nokia Theatre, so they're probably going to start moving it to the hotel site pretty soon here..

With the suburbs starting to expand north into the desert, and the inner city redeveloping, i've been thinking about starting a thread here on Simtropolis on the development in Southern California 

Kinda like the one you can find on the forums of www.Skyscraperpage.com 

The thread's called LOS ANGELES: Downtown Project Rundown 2.0.