Los Angeles. Love/Hate Relationship. SPECIAL SERIES: A Tale of Two Cities. 2021. Part 7. Downtown LA. Did COVID kill the emerging new lifestyle?

Downtown Los Angeles is a "district" which is rather small, only encompassing shy of 6 square miles of the 503 square mile city boundaries. Basically, a little more than 1%. When I first moved to Los Angeles in the late 90s I would joke with visitors that the skyscrapers in Downtown were there as a stage set really so that you could have an easily identifiable location shot. Unless you needed city hall, had to go to court or went to see the opera (and some theatre), there was little other reason to go there unless your job was there. You might have well packed your own lunch or nosh as restaurants were hard to come by as well. Then, as LA moved into the 21st Century and the city adapted some new laws to allow repurposing of abandoned buildings that had been sitting for decades, things began to change. 

The 2000 Census found that 27,849 people lived in Downtown. City estimates that the population grew to about 35,000 in 2008. Census data moved that number to over 40,000 by 2010. It is safe to estimate that the population neared or even exceeded 100,000 as the pandemic hit. In addition to repurposing buildings and creating near 15,000 housing units, 115 new buildings were constructed in DTLA between 2010 and 2017. The construction has continued since, including throughout the pandemic. There are many proposed projects as well, many of which are taller and larger than the ones preceding them.  

The demographics of Downtown LA changed over this period as well. The 2020 Census showed DTLA Latino 36.7%; Black, 22.3%; Asians, 21.3%; whites, 16.2%, and others, 3.5%. Mexico (44.7%) and Korea (17%) were the most common places of birth for the 41.9% of the residents who were born abroad, about the same ratio as in the city as a whole. In a comprehensive study by the Downtown Business Improvement District in 2013 they showed the population had shifted to 52.7% Caucasian, 20.1% Asian, 17% Latino, and 6.2% African American. They showed that 80.1% had completed at least 4 years of college and median household income at $98,700. This would make DTLA among the more affluent neighborhoods in LA whereas Census and other studies earlier placed Downtown LA among the lowest income and highest poverty rates in the city. In reality, both are true. DTLA is home to LA's greatest shame, Skid Row. 

Homelessness continues to grow, not only on Skid Row, but throughout LA County with Skid Row being an epicenter known not only nationally, but among audiences worldwide. A red light district in a city like Amsterdam is decadent and intriguing, whether you want to partake or not. It has to muster some curiosity for most. Skid Row also musters curiosity mostly because it seems so unfathomable. The growth of DTLA has made communities nearby often defensive. The biggest concern is that more homeless will move their direction. What they, and most of the city and county do not want to accept, it is all of their problem and going to be, at the least, inconvenient. 

For most of my nearing 25 years here, I have often referred to Los Angeles as the world's largest suburb. I have also heard how we are a city with multiple micro-cities like Century City, Westwood, and Woodland Hills among examples within city limits, not to mention micro cities poking holes and taking bites out of the city of LA, like West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, and Santa Monica. It's only been in less than the last decade that DTLA has become a major player in the LA scene. The question now is whether the pandemic may have killed it faster than it had grown?  

Shortly after Los Angeles shut down just in time for St. Patrick's Day in 2020, they repaved 7th Street, among other streets in Downtown. It provided some solace to see streets being repaved at a time when we had to be off them anyway and there wasn't anywhere to go. At least something was getting better in the interim. 7th Street had become Downtown's Restaurant Row and new establishments were appearing almost monthly. As we emerge out of COVID-19, it does not seem many are returning. The homeless population has multiplied. The streets are far dirtier. More is for lease. But life is not showing any signs yet of returning to normal...

One 5th of LA new housing in DTLA

Lots of cranes, but still behind the curve