As downtown Los Angeles undergoes a massive redevelopment, the major concern is not whether it will be another New York, nor if its public spaces will improve, but rather how much worse traffic will get, writes Sam Hall Kaplan.
"To be sure, Downtown Los Angeles is not yet Manhattan. It has a long, long way to go before it achieves a cosmopolitan urbanity, whether modeled after New York or wherever, or, as I hope, evolving into something unique that speaks to L.A.'s distinct culture and climate."
"I personally envision a diversity of Downtown neighborhoods, as varied as the Arts and Old Bank districts, linked by engaging streetscapes, actually more in the mode of San Francisco and perhaps even served by a streetcar system as has been proposed recently in these pages by Homer Williams and Dike Dames of the South Group."
"Grand Avenue may not be our faux Fifth Avenue, nor will L.A. Live become a wispy Times Square West, as a gaggle of commentators have contended. I have labeled these cliché, cluttered, simplistic constructs 'urbanphobia.'"
"Interestingly, the paramount concern of our persistent urbanphobes is not about making these developments more accessible and pedestrian friendly, nor how to provide more housing choices, nor how to offer more inviting parks and public spaces."
"Rather, what apparently worries them, and many others in Southern California, is the ogre of traffic."
Read the full story: The Trouble With Defining Our City in Comparison to New York
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