Our View—Downtown’s Conundrum

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Once again, there are signs that downtown Los Angeles is reaching a kind of critical mass in its much-promised turnaround.

Seldom a day goes by without some report of progress. Most significantly, the Los Angeles City Council last week gave final approval for a $1 billion shopping, dining and entertainment district for an area just next to Staples Center that proponents say will serve as a kind of Times Square for L.A.

There also is the ongoing construction of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels and Disney Concert Hall as well as the elegant refurbishing of City Hall. Demand is high for downtown loft space and there’s talk of getting more stores into the area.

It’s an impressive roster of accomplishments that in two or three years will provide downtown with an urban veneer that skeptics (including this newspaper) would have considered unlikely two or three years ago.

But veneers do not a downtown make. For all the efforts by downtown lobbyists in getting stuff built or renovated, the real trick in making the place work is people. That means commuters visiting a downtown bar or restaurant after work; tourists basing their Southern California stay at a downtown hotel; middle-income workers choosing to live in a downtown loft or apartment; and non-downtown types who view the area as an appointment destination.

To some degree, this is already happening. Witness the number of upscale eateries that have opened in the last year or two not to mention the traffic generated by Staples Center events. Still, downtown remains vulnerable on several fronts, not all of which can be controlled by lobbyists and developers.

It starts, of course, with the softening economy, which has caused corporate travel to nosedive all summer and left many downtown hotel rooms collecting dust. For the month of June, the last figures available, occupancy of downtown hotel rooms stood at 64.3 percent, down 18.7 percent from the like period a year ago. Other parts of town saw steep declines as well though no steeper than the downtown numbers.

All downturns eventually end, but the numbers illustrate how much the downtown hotels need corporate business. It also points to the still-limited success in attracting non-corporate visitors to the area.

At the risk of belaboring the obvious, what attracts many tourists to Los Angeles (movie stars, beaches, fancy houses, palm trees) has little or nothing to do with downtown, which for all its increased bustle, is not that different from other large cities. In time this might change incrementally, but not fundamentally.

Also obvious but always worth remembering is the sprawling nature of Los Angeles a place where getting from Culver City to downtown can take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour. What that means is just because you build it doesn’t mean they’ll come, especially if what you offer is not considered unique enough to merit a trek down the 10 Freeway. (This is about to confront the developers of retail projects in Hollywood, whose success will depend on more than just star-seeking tourists.)

None of which is to minimize what’s happening downtown. It is, however, worth sprinkling a dose of reality into the current efforts. How else can investors and that includes taxpayers determine whether it’s worth their money.

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