Blogudrama? Bloggertainment? Ugh.

indeed, i was hoping you’d ignore this. if enough of us ignore howard leff, perhaps he will go away. he’s the joel stein of the downtown news.

It just go’s to show Eric, you don’t need traditional media to get an audience.

l.a. live is a bad thing, yes it is. all its doing is ‘hollywood-izing’ what we have left of what makes downtown. it attracts all these hipsters and fame-hungry douchebags which is destroying what little l.a. culture we have. its crazy how just even 5 years ago things were so damn different in l.a.- wayyyy less traffic, lower rents… l.a.’s going to shit because of this+ l.a. live is just pushing this further with the allmighty dollar. i think once clifton’s cafeteria becomes a denny’s is when i’ll get the hell out of here. im thinking- 1, 2 years? whats ironic is that id probably move somewhere woodsy, or like a farm that was previously occupied by someone who actually moved to l.a. to follow “the dream.” boo fucken hoo.

“what little l.a. culture we have”?

“wayyyyy less traffic” five years ago?

“l.a.’s going to shit”?

Are you serious?

L.A. Live should not be compared to Times Square, IMO. Not because it won’t be “as good as” Times Square, but because it’s just not Times Square! I don’t want it to be Times Square. I want it to be L.A. Live! It will be vibrant in its own right without needless comparisons to something that it shouldn’t be compared to (the developers have a huge part in this senseless crap). Can’t we get over the whole NY thing already?

“it attracts all these hipsters and fame-hungry douchebags which is destroying what little l.a. culture we have”

Not to throw salt on your wounds, “EF”, but in case you haven’t noticed - “fame-hungry douchebags” - IS LA Culture. Like it or not, the whole hollywood glamour / elitist scene is what defines LA to the world. If you want to “keep it real” you should move to brooklyn.

I’m not saying this is necessarily a good thing, but you can’t argue that this is what makes LA different. For good or worse this city is all about appearances and superficiality and I have no pretenses of living in “the hood” or somewhere that’s “all original” now that I live in DT LA.

Who’s Howard Leff? I do read the Downtown News but honestly don’t regularly & have no idea who any of these people are.

Seems to me if I want to know something relatively new I find out from folks like yourself or CurbedLa or something like that.. things get blogged a lot quicker than they do get put in print.

btw: looking forward to LA Live (and I don’t see South Park becoming Times Square) the more folks coming downtown to events the better. Now if they can just get some Hawaiian BBQ to open up in the empty retail downtown! (not to mention a TJ’s)

feel not too hip in Downtown =)

I have to admit dtmike is right hollywood glamour / elitism is LA culture. I once won a gift basket from the Downtown News for an entry to their contest to suggest attributes for a sport team. My theme was glamour/L.A. politics of elitism–the team would be the LA Fakers (I borrowed this from a story I was told about a malfunction that displayed during a game at the Staples Center), cheerleaders would be followed by Paparazzi, Riordan and Tom Haydens were the owners with the slogan “We know how to Play the Game”, etc.

I agree. The correct response would have been to ignore the column. I’ve never been clear on the virtures of Mr. Leff and his column. Presumably, he regularly meets his deadlines and his ‘wise-guy persona explores the world’ does fill an editorial hole. Both are welcome from a publishing standpoint. This column comes across as more of the same. Lively in an empty way, but not really worth reading. Yes, it is a confusing read.

Next time, avoid the fray.

I too am impressed that Eric posted 224 pics. Action, fellas! Not talk!

I agree w. Mr. Roderick that L.A. Live, when it opens, will not be analogous to N.Y.’s Times Square. The differences between L.A. Live and Times Square are so large that any meaningful comparison is useless. The only similarity is that they both are situated in the middle of a big city. (Well, L.A. Live will be: it isn’t even open yet.)

The biggest obvious difference between the two sites is their historical contexts. Times Square has been a critical crossroads in NYC for over a century. L.A. Live is a brand-new venture. Something comparable to Times Square cannot be does not happen overnight.

At this point, I part ways w. KR. I think the potential is certainly there for the L.A. Live area to become an entertainment focal point and develop its own history. From Kevin’s pessimistic point-of-view, this is not possible. For him, L.A. is incapable of authentic urbanism, which seems to be why he compares L.A. Live to CityWalk. To me, this demonstrates Mr. Roderick’s lack of imagination, and is, frankly, insulting.

There’s definitely an anti-capitalist streak in this pessimism, as well. Roderick sees the introduction of corporate capital as the poison that kills “authenticity”. Apparently, he doesn’t realize that Times Square is named after the N.Y. Times, and that TSq has always been about raking in the bucks.

Finally, Kevin R. brings up the traffic issue. Blah blah. Yet another reason to build more grade-separated rail. A city should not stop trying to grow just because it’s afraid of traffic.

Let’s not forget that Time’s Square was turned into a corporate mega-mall a few years ago. New Yorkers mourned the passing of the ‘authentic’ experience at the time. Maybe the comparison is more apt than not. LA Live will be a controlled environment with a single ‘manager’ at some level.

The question is; is there enough life downtown to subvert the desires of the out-of-town owner for LA Live to be a clean and predictable experience for suburbanites to enjoy on their big night out. I hope that there is the resident energy to spill out into the surrounding neighborhood and let the chaos shine through. Big cities are only useful, culturally, as long as one can’t proscribe the experience of residents and visitors. Real culture is always a surprise. That is what draws us to it. Hollywood and the rest of mainstream media wish this weren’t so, but they still can’t predict what will be a hit.

there is a hawaiian bbq place inside the international food court, between los angeles st. and santee alley and 9th and olympic. i just had lunch there today.

they also deliver until about 6pm, if i remember right.

^Jim: OMG thank you.. didn’t know this.. (and you know hubby & I are downtowner’s thanks to you, C* and Eric o’ course for suggesting we do the BID housing bus tour..)

A couple nights ago, we had ordered & ended up bringing home ourselves Hawaiian BBQ at a place on 3rd street over in K-town I think.. (we were driving home from the 3rd & La Brea TJ’s so it was ‘on the way’ home) but while we waited for our dinners, we once again were lamenting that there wasn’t anything closer to us. I am addicted to the mini meal. ;)

Definitely will have to take a walk over there and check out the place you mentioned, anything local like that serves downtown (and is good) is worth patronizing. Thanks again..

feeling like a newbie on Hope..

Aw, Jim, come on. Stein’s funny, at least on occasion. Leff’s columns read like a high school journalism assignment.