Despite the progress downtown L.A. has made over the last decade in becoming a vibrant, day-night, mixed-use community, "block-killing blight" remains a stubborn presence in the area's landscape. Ryan Vaillancourt calls out the worst offenders.
Updating a list of the “10 Worst Eyesores in Downtown” that the Los Angeles Downtown News compiled nearly three years ago, Vaillancourt identifies the sites with the most room for improvement. "Even as a number of older dilapidated buildings have been turned into housing, a host of properties, including several that would seem to be natural candidates for renovation, sit derelict."
Among the properties he identifies are a pair of buildings ravaged by fire five years ago, a vacant art deco icon, a city-designated Historic-Cultural Monument, and a vacant century-old fire station that's on the National Register of Historic Places. For a developer with an appreciation for the benefits of adaptive reuse, it would seem that opportunities to jump into the downtown renaissance abound.
Vaillancourt also makes note of properties that seem to be heading in the right direction and success stories since the publication of the last list.
FULL STORY: A Look at Downtown's Worst Eyesores

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Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

San Francisco Suspends Traffic Calming Amidst Record Deaths
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Opinion: What San Francisco’s Proposed ‘Family Zoning’ Could Really Mean
Mayor Lurie is using ‘family zoning’ to encourage denser development and upzoning — but could the concept actually foster community and more human-scale public spaces?

Jacksonville Launches First Autonomous Transit Shuttle in US
A fleet of 14 fully autonomous vehicles will serve a 3.5-mile downtown Jacksonville route with 12 stops.
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Heyer Gruel & Associates PA
JM Goldson LLC
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
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Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
Jefferson Parish Government
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