Inner city L.A. (specially downtown), is undergoing a transition, no question about it.  Some may call it “gentrification“, others may call it “revitalizing development”, others may simply call it “making it look nicer”, and others will say that it’s kicking low-income families out of their homes.  The reality, as with anything else in the world, is not materializing in absolutes but is rather falling somewhere in between: all those things are taking place, and for better or for worse, they will continue.  The neighborhoods are undergoing a deep change: where before you would not even see people walking around at night, there is now a burgeoning art scene taking place, spearheaded by the Downtown L.A. Artwalk but more often than not driven by underground-like art exhibition events plopped in the middle of old warehouses.  I have been to these underground art exhibit events and not-so-underground ones but nevertheless cool and hip (like last year’s Festival De La Gente) and what strikes you sometimes are the vestiges of a past in L.A. that was more pedestrian-friendly.  As you walk through empty streets, sometimes you run into old abandoned rail lines that dead-end on random walls or are paved over in the streets and you can’t help but try to picture what L.A. used to look like once-upon-a-time (thanks in part to memories from the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit). 

Nevertheless, Downtown L.A. has been showing signs of a resurgence in its pedestrian appeal and by extension, in building the feel of a cosmopolitan community that is uniquely L.A.-ish and will continue to do so in the coming years thanks to many innovative plans.  Perhaps one of the coolest revitalizing projects in the pipeline for downtown is the so-called “Figueroa Cap Park”, which would be a park on top of the 110 Freeway and would be developed by the CRA/LA (they currently have secured Prop 1C money for a feasbility study).  One of their publications describes the vision in detail:

Located along the Figueroa Corridor, this site offers a creative and visionary approach to generating 9.5 acres of new park space.  By “capping” the Harbor 110 Freeway, the Cap Park would include public pazas that will connect nearby St. Vincent’s church, Southern CA AAA, Mount St. Mary’s College, the Orthopedic Hospital and the Flower Street Expo Line rail station as well as active open space that will be bisected by pedestrian paths.  A large pedestrian path will connect the rail station to the corner of Figueroa Street and Adams Boulevard, facilitating pedestrian access to the station.

There are many other projects and tranformations taking shape in the surrounding communities of downtown.  For example, the neighborhood I just moved into is quite an interesting case.  It is considered to be a “Historic Preservation Overlay Zone“, mainly because of its grandiose Victorian houses.  As wikipedia explains, the area is currently undergoing redevelopment, in large part due to CRA/LA’s Pico Union Area 1 & Pico Union Area 2 plans and to other local community-based projects.  I say that this area has a “unique” identity because the appeal of downtown and neighboring communities lies precisely in its richness in immigrant culture.  From Latinos to Koreans to white and Indian young professionals to rising environmental activists of all shapes, colors, and ethnicities.  I put “white young professionals” in this category of immigrants because in a sense, they are also immigrants in this community as well: a lot of them come from either Northern California, Ventura County, or as far away as India (via USC and other nearby colleges and not-so-nearby ones like Santa Cruz).  This is particularly interesting because it is following a similar pattern that has already been going on for a longer period of time in communities such as Silver Lake and Echo Park that is starting to be seen in neighborhoods closer to downtown as well: (previously seen as) “outsiders” venturing out into the area, attracted by cheap rent (you can find $650.00/month single apartments with its own kitchen and bathroom, something unheard of in most of L.A., in old Victorian houses that have been converted to apartment complexes), cheap and easily accessible Latino food and/or Korean and other richly ethnic food, a centralized location, an ever-increasing system of public transportation, and drops in crime rates thanks to the LAPD’s efforts to become community partners rather than enemies. 

In fact, recently at a Halloween party in Pico/Union, I was discussing this very same topic with my fellow partiers regarding the phenomenon of “outsiders” coming into these communities and someone made a joke about how “in the past, if you saw a white guy in the neighborhood, you were suspicious because no white person would venture out into these neighborhoods unless they were running a major drug operation.”  Nowadays, it seems that hardly anybody raises an eyebrow at “newcomers” and it’s just become second-nature.  Not everything is “hip” and idyllic, though; sometimes these neighborhoods still look and feel a bit sketchy.  In fact, I got my car broken into just a month after I moved into the neighborhood.  Nothing was taken (that I could tell), but it was nevertheless a bummer.  However, after talking to others, I realized that this was not an uncommon experience.  I’m hoping this was a random act but I am definitely taking precautions.  I no longer park on that far-away isolated empty space (even though parking in this area is a major hassle but yet again what big city doesn’t have this problem) that I parked on that ill-fated night.  One of my environmentalist colleagues told me the other day “yeah I had my car broken into a few times; that’s why I no longer drive” … and he doesn’t, he actually gets around on his bike and public transporation with no problems (and the bike lane issue in this area is another topic of discussion, something that the L.A. Bike Coalition is trying to tackle).             

Yet, I can’t tell you how many times I still hear about how L.A. “doesn’t feel like a real city” from friends and acquaintances that just can’t help but to compare it to New York or Chicago.  The most obvious reason why L.A. doesn’t measure up to these and other cities is because “L.A.” is really more of a bunch of clustered urban centers spread out over massive freeways from the coast to the vallies and basins of Southern California.  Another major reason why L.A. is so disjointed and has an almost bipolar identity is our lack of subways and lightrail lines. Blame this on the myriad of social complexities and battling powerful special interests that make up L.A.: from the big auto industry to the bus riders union that opposed lightrail from even before the time Villaraigosa was mayor.   In the past, the bus riders union offered a particularly interesting position: arguing that lightrail would give inner city residents second-class transportation status and so instead the investment should go towards the creation of more bus-only street lanes (which I personally think would make L.A. traffic even worse than what it already is: in the long run, taking a lane away to use it for buses-only does not solve anything).  In addition, the union had been arguing that the construction of lightrail would favor business and suburban use rather than inner city residents, which in reality was an oversimplification of ridership patterns.  Ironically, the union did not realize that for the longest time, lightrail was also opposed by racist residents of more affluent neighborhoods, fearing that connecting communities through rail would facilitate an ease of transportation that might bring “undesirables” (meaning, the poor, black, and brown) to their “pristine” communities. Then there is the neverending short-sighted view of extremes where people will pit good projects against one another. Point in case is the recent debate that was reported on the L.A. Times over whether to have a high speed rail line built through L.A. or to “instead” have the revitalization of the Los Angeles River.  The state of the river, by the way, was recently lampooed by Conan O’Brien:

(2009) Riding down the Los Angeles River from Robert Ashe Jr. on Vimeo.

The O’Brien spoof video caused a furor in L.A. because it ignored the plans that are underway to beautify the river. 

Personally, I am rooting for the revitalizaton of the L.A. River but I am hoping that these should-we-have-Rail-OR-L.A.-River people consider that it would be best to actually aim to have both, not one over the other.  I am a big supporter of Transit Oriented Development, as I have argued in this previous blog post of mine because it helps connect communities.  Thankfully, there’s some people out there that have a more reasonable stance, such as Joe Linton, author of the blog LACreekFreak, who recognizes that the projects could compliment each other and in so doing, the integrity of the L.A. River would be left intact.  Even with all these ongoing short-sighted disputes, it seems that Downtown L.A. will continue to rise.  Recently, Mayor Villaraigosa recently announced that he wants the building of commuter rail lines on a fast-track and frankly, I can’t praise him enough.  Subway lines are currently being built as I type this, and the hope is that eventually L.A. will have a more widespread network of commuter rail lines that other cities already enjoy.  So will Downtown L.A. continue to rise from its 80’s ashes of decadence?  Sustainability is key here: ways to connect projects and events is paramount if we are to have a seven-day a week Downtown L.A. life, rather than isolated ones once every so often.

Update: I’m looking into forming a group of local activists based in this neighborhood as part of Project Economic Refugee.  If you live nearby, please shoot me an e-mail at economicrefugee@hotmail.com