Tomorrow and Sunday: Downtown Living Weekend

the collision of this and the protests against hr 4437 are going to be a lot of fun. protests are killing the downtown renaissance!

Doh!!! bad time show off downtown it would appear. Yikes.

actually, the ufw is supposedly going to also be protesting hr 4437 today. but i don't think that quite the same turnout is expected.

Actually, I think the collision of the Downtown Living Weekend and the demo points out a key fact of downtown life, which most new downtowners are loath to acknowledge: the Broadway retail corridor is vibrant Latino enclave and it is a vital part of downtown. Unlike Skid Row, which provokes seemingly automatic and thoughtlesss reverence (e.g. "Oh, those poor homeless people. If only we'd spend enough money to fix their problems . . ." etc., ad naseum), Broadway elicits abject contempt from its new neighbors. Unlike Skid Row, Broadway has no defenders. I can't tell you how many times people dismiss Broadway as some blighted area which ought to be bulldozed/improved and the denizens who throng it; clueless, lacking good taste and rudimentary hygiene. At minimum, the area is to be avoided until sensible gentrification makes the area more hospitable to the well-heeled and hip lofties.

I think this collision just pointed out the existence of Broadway to all those prosepective new downtowners. "Ignore us. Avoid us. But, you can't deny we are here." You sure couldn't miss it on this day.

One more thing, I'd love to know how the organizers and marketing types responded to this collision. I suspect they'd just chalk it up to an act of God and soldier on continuing to ignore Broadway.

David Kennedy makes an excellent point. I remember one year attending a L.A. Conservancy Last Remaining Seats screening where Linda Dishman (the top banana at the Conservancy) with fanfare announced their Broadway Initiative to save Broadway. And I remember thinking "save it from what?"

And this is a vibrant district. One year when MTA had a strike they were running lifeline service with non-union personnel. But initially they didn't intend to run service weekends. Until the Broadway merchants yowled that they needed their patrons from east L.A. to have a way to shop there or they'd have empty shops. And lo and behold MTA ran 4 routes (including line 40 from the eastside).

Eric: I'm not arguing with you. I agree with you on each and every point you raise. There's actually very little that separates us. I, too, want Broadway to be all it can be.

I think what divides us here is that your viewpoint is functional and utilitarian. You look at the street and see physical connections and how things can be re-arranged and re-organized to maximize the social value of a space (criteria which I agree with). My comments are more rooted in history and symbols. Think of Chavez Ravine or how the freeways ploughed through various neighborhoods. Think of how Bunker Hill was cleared. I'm sure the proponents of improvement had sound, perhaps high-minded, reasons for their actions. Those on the ground, directly impacted by these improvements, might have thought otherwise.

I remember once having some friends visit. As we drove up Broadway to Third, their comment was chilling: "There's nothing here." This despite the fact there are thousands of people walking the streets. Just this past Saturday at the bank, I overhear someone describing their new home at Broadway & 4th as on top of those "*hitty shops".

When well-educated people of means talk casually like this, I worry about the collision of the new downtowners with the people who already live and work here. The disparity in power is pretty stark. When people can't acknowledge the existence of people or the dignity of their labor, it just makes me uneasy.

That said, I'd still love to hear what the marketing types had to say about Saturday. Or even better, what a prospective new downtowner had to say. That would be interesting.

As one of those "well-educated new residents" of downtown, I have nothing against Latino people, businesses or culture. The thing that bothers me is that we have absentee landlords who don't maintain the buildings. I really would rather NOT see Broadway overwhelmed with Starbucks, Applebee's and so forth, but so many of the buildings on Broadway have crumbling facades, peeling paint and trashy looking signs and banners. Many (but not all) of these buildings are very attractive 1920's architecture which deserve to be both maintained and spiffed up. Most of the landlords (who are not the same as the store owners) don't seem to be interested in doing this, but it seems like the situation is changing S...L...O...W...L...Y. Once more people actually LIVE right on Broadway, perhaps this we can get the area looking nice again. More stuff like the Broadway Bar, a few more restaurants, and maybe actually operate one of the movie theatres as a movie theatre. The stores selling inexpensive clothing don't have to go...hell, I shop there at times. But the place should look better. That would actually help the businesses too.