Broadway Theaters and Broadway Marches

Dave Bullock

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Jose Huizar has been active on the City Council in pursuing Broadway theater issues. A few months back he made a pair of motions relating to parking for the theaters, particularly looking at how the City-owned Pershing Square garage could help in the effort to bring the old gems back to life.

The other day another theater motion (PDF) slipped right past me. Jose's trying to bring back the theaters but has also seen how Broadway is the go-to spot for any protest or march in Downtown. He's a bit concerned those two might fall into conflict.

Downtown is the civic center of Los Angeles and the site of City government. For that reason, it is a popular destination for marches, demonstrations and protests for participants to exercise their freedom of speech. The route of these marches and demonstrations often include the Historic Broadway Theater corridor, which is currently the focus of concentrated revitalization efforts.

These events result in street closures which negatively affects their customers. The ability to access shops, parking and public transportation is critical to maintaining the customer base on Broadway. When they are met with repeated street closures, particularly on weekends and holidays, the customers tend to choose to shop in neighboring areas outside of the City where such inconveniences do not occur. Ensuring that the retailers and customers along the Broadway Corridor are not adversely affected during high volume business periods is critical to maintaining the economic growth of this area.

I might suggest that more closures occur as the result of filming than of protests, but it's always good to see thought being put into Downtown.

Photo by eecue.