Something about me: I like downtown Los Angeles. For most people, downtown LA is just one of those places you pass by on the way to work; to others, it's just one of those places that you vaguely know exists somewhere within 50 miles of where you live. But many people would be surprised to know that beyond existing, there is actually life in that area to the near east of the 101 freeway. For those who are unfamiliar, here’s the quick and easy about downtown:
Other than having a few freshly renovated and theoretically exciting residential and commercial zones, downtown LA is largely wrought with abandoned warehouses, condemned apartment buildings, and empty theatres. Fortunately, gentrification – one of those things which, apparently, white people like – has sparked what is now considered the second era of active redevelopment since the city's short-lived attempt in the 1980s.
So here’s the big news: A couple weeks ago, plans were approved for redevelopment of the Wilshire Grand Hotel on Figueroa and Wilshire Boulevard. The project – whose profile resonates with those of New York’s Bank of America building and yet-to-be Freedom Towers (following the newest, coolest trend of shiny glass skyscrapers in modern architecture) – is one of many current, billion-dollar, years-in-the-making proposals to revamp a ghostly downtown. The new hotel and office building will splatter the skyline with repulsively bright digital lights smeared across its facades, depicting either over-sized advertisements or dynamic images of nature.
City councilmen call these lights, for no understandable reason, "art" and "culture." The optimistic might call them "lively" and "unique." The rational mind would call them, at best, gaudy eyesores that pose no semblance to art whatsoever. No matter your disposition, in the end, everything in Los Angeles ends up running over-budget and over-due, so I can promise you that by the time these buildings become realities, no one will really care what the lights look like as long as construction is complete.
Of all about which I could have written, why did I choose to feature a currently non-existent, shiny hotel for this inaugural post? Because I wanted to make a potentially relevant, absolutely cliché metaphor about the Wilshire Grand becoming something new, symbolizing what Los Angeles is all about – hope. Hope is that nebulous stuff which thrust our current president into the White House. Hope is that foolishness which emboldens the mediocre to attempt something extraordinary, even if they are destined to fail. But, hope is also that force which causes us to believe in the possibility and the beauty of renewal. To spare you the trouble of reading endless, inspirational rhetoric, and because it is my bedtime, I’ll just end with this: Hope for a better city is what keeps Los Angeles alive and changing every day.
Just kidding. Los Angeles is a mess. But I love it, anyhow.
Here’s the other big news: I’m finally starting this blog.
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