Dear Market Lofts

that made me laugh 1 thousand times

What are you talking about? Engrish lofts! It’s the new hip thing to come to downtown…

Shouldn’t this be located in Little Tokyo?

)

Wow! Unbelievable…

“First supermarket in downtown Los Angeles since the 1950’s.”

It’s just not true. There’s three markets in Little Tokyo, one is actually the size of a small Ralphs. And they even sell groceries that are not specifically Asian!

How about “first supermarket in downtown Los Angeles since the 1950’s that won’t intimidate frightened white people?”

Market Loft make good living downtown. The city belong to us!

The only time I think that terminology makes sense is when referring to a quantity within an item… such as “a 1,000 mile long river” or “a 1,000 person crowd”. A 1,000 places… maybe they are all in the “history district” along the Los Angeles River which the small scale photo on the post seems to show to the WEST of something called “Center Street”… Ohhhh, this is real ugly. Good call. A decent map isn’t that hard to come up with. What’s next? Skid Row referred to as the Tenderloin? Now that would be REAL bad.

Ok, so it IS “Center St”. I had to click on the pic to see what it really said. As you mention in your caption though, the river is on the wrong side, unless Alameda St. has really been changed around! LOL!!!

Central Library (entrance anyway) is on Fifth, not Grand.

The building at 6th and Los Angeles was last a Greyhound Bus Terminal over 20 years ago!! (Before that it was a Red Car platform…)

Macy’s Plaza appears to be on 8th street. It kind of is, but the entrance is really on 7th Street. (It takes up the whole block…)

LA Convention Bureau is about a block too far north. It’s really closer to 7th.

you guys and gals are just jeolous that you can’t afford to own there…ha ha.

Come on now Joe… I am hoping you really meant that as a joke… I can buy just about anywhere in this city if I want to… and so can a whole lot of “lofties” around here. Market Lofts is cool, but I prefer a more diverse, grittier, edgier location, like in the Fashion District where I am. Besides - the map really sucks. Gotta get the maps right - we’re a tough group Downtown!!! LOL…!

Well, it is a novel defense of crappy cartography. Joe seems to be saying because he has more money that the other people involved in the discussion, their concerns are without merit.

But, I wonder is it a compelling defense? I’m not sure how he assesses our collective socio-economic status compared to his. He doesn’t present any evidence to support this claim. Simply imputing negative motives to critics tends to be a weak rhetorical device.

Is his argument witty? Since I have to think about it, I don’t think so. Perhaps my colleagues are more kind in this regard.

One thing his case does do effectively is give us a sense of his values and the worth of his opinions. At least for that we can be thankful.

I do wonder if Joe thinks that people with more money than he has are entitled to disregard his points of view. I wonder if he will be so gracious and meekly accept their moneyed prouncements. Time will tell.

Try going in there and inquiring about the condos. They want you prequalify prior to a tour.

They are very unfriendly about everything.

LOL David!

Michael…

Yes, it is frustrating to get the “prequal” issue thrown in your face, but a lot of for-sale places want that before they’ll let people tour the units. Maybe Market Lofts didn’t handle it very well.

downtown lofts + yuppies = more congestion on the 4 level.

no thank you. stay on the west side!

Rhea…

LOL!!!

Westside being a place with less traffic… than where? Manhattan maybe?

Who says loft dwellers are all “yuppies”????

Sounds like a case of the pot calling the kettle black to me.

Enjoy your gridlock over there!

UM…. actually more loft folks walk to work Rhea. But enjoy the $4.00 per gallon gas!

actually, Kenarch, i said nothing about the state of traffic on the westside, nor was i comparing the eastside traffic to the westside. i know the traffic on the westside is pretty terrible. no, not all loft dwellers are “yuppies” but the idea of posh downtown lofts do attract the “yuppy vibe”.

and Walking …

i’m sure that loft dwellers who work in the area are able to walk to work if they choose to. but have you noticed the increase in traffic coming into downtown on the weekends? my husband and i were in gridlock this past weekend coming in. traffic has worsened. i can only imagine what it will be like once L.A. Live is up and running and the housing projects are completed, in a couple of years it will be as bad as Manhattan.

Rhea, I’d caution you against assuming the congestion you’ve experienced getting into downtown is related to the residential development in downtown. I’d really like to see some empirical data analyzing the impact of residential development on traffic patterns. It is really easy for each of us to assume there is a direct connection between all this development and some traffic pattern which is inconveniencing us.

As a heavy-duty commuter in and out of downtown for over a decade to all points of the compass, my sense of the congestion in downtown (for what’s its worth) is actually related to traffic flowing through. For example, the bottlenecks which occur regularly on the 5 northbound or on the 10 westbound just east of downtown are more about traffic pushing through and often forced into fewer lanes. Similiarly, the 110 northbound at the junction with the 10 and at the four level is all about traffic passing through. I suspect little of it is residents heading in and out of downtown. But, for a westsider like you, it is easy to assume those construction cranes have something to do with it. Color me very skeptical.

I also think it is difficult for westsiders to understand how congestion downtown is much more easily managed because of the dense street grid and the very many freeway connections. As a relocated westsider, the 10/405 nexus doesn’t give you many options. The number of major throughfares on that side of town is actually quite limited. In downtown, there are so many ways to thread the needle, so to speak. If a street or a freeway is jammed, it is very easy to bail out and quickly reroute around it. There were a few tricks I found useful on the westside. Downtown is chuck full of them.

What westsiders end up doing is projecting their gridlock experience onto places like downtown and they assume development is the harbringer of the traffic congestion apocolypse. Given their typically limited awareness of their traffic options downtown (and if you don’t live here, how would you accumulate this knowledge?), westsiders just reflexively assume development is bad. On the contrary, and I think I speak for the majortity of downtowners, we say bring it on! I’m very confident that all the forthcoming development will be accomodated for the reasons I mentioned and also because of the burgeoning public transit system. You can help by contacting your Democratic congressman and get the Purple Line to Santa Monica extended.

As for Kenarch’s quick defense, he’s a good guy. We just tend to get a lot of snide westsiders clicking through who like to do the equivilent of a drive-by insult (e.g. “Downtown sucks! Westside rules!” Yes, it really is that sophmoric.) They show up, say nasty things with great arrogance and then summarily disappear. Yeah, I know. Plenty of downtowners can be pretty self-congratulatory and that can be aggravating in its own way.

Hang around. The conversation tends to be pleasant and genial. The company is good. You’ll probably gain some insight into this most interesting place we are building down here.