Downtown L.A. spent the latter half of the twentieth century increasingly marginalized—businesses fled, homelessness boomed. But just over ten years ago, developers started transforming crumbling office buildings into luxury lofts, the Staples Center provided a family-friendly tourist destination, and now an NFL franchise and stadium are more or less a done deal. For all this activity and investment, locals continue to debate the sort of identity Downtown L.A. should have. Something diverse and functional, like Brooklyn? Something homogeneous and commercial, like Times Square? Five dwellers share their thoughts.
SodAMan (32), freelancer
5th and Broadway
“I think Mayor Villaraigosa should be ashamed, putting all this money into something and not creating any sort of opportunities for the lower-class people, the natives who were here before. Because the poor people five streets away aren’t welcome.”
Chelsey Debo (19), model-artist
7th and San Pedro
“The gentrification of downtown is almost becoming too much. It’s like it’s so super-diverse now that no one knows how to act around anyone else. ”
Calixto Hernandez (39), bartender-musician
La Cita, 4th and Hill
“I live one bus line away, in Echo Park, and when I go out at night, I find myself coming down here a lot more than I used to. I just wish public transportation would run later so people could get home from the bars safely, without worrying about DUIs.”
Eric Olsen (33) and Sarah Wright (27), actors
6th and Spring
“We bought here about eight years ago, after spending time in New York and Chicago. At first, the question we got the most was, Where do you buy groceries? Spring Street used to be a tent city; now it’s all starting to develop.”