Stephen Box, a bicycle advocate in Los Angeles, reviews the famous TOD project at the intersection of Hollywood and Western 10 years after it opened. Is "It's Not As Bad As It Used To Be" enough?
"The Hollywood & Western neighborhood boasts a dozen motels, bearing witness to the tremendous value of the most significant neighborhood "brand" on earth, Hollywood! Once here, these tourists, a captive audience, find themselves requiring the quotidian amenities that should be found in the immediate vicinity of the TOD. Instead, they are basically limited to the merchants found in the "strip mall on steroids."
There are some exceptions to this dismal evaluation. For example, Angel'z restaurant is a great place for breakfast or lunch and there are so many Thai restaurants of note that it would take a couple of vacations to visit them all. Why, we've even got a Sizzler!
But the brutal reality is this, even the Dapper Cadaver closed up and left the neighborhood. The local business with the greatest staying power is "The X Spot," a 24 hour porn shop. As for other offerings, the selection gets better the farther east or west you move, not a strong testament to the significant positive development that we are promised is the residual impact of New Urbanism."
FULL STORY: Hollywood & Western's TOD - A Neighborhood Betrayed
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This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
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