Lakers fans and Los Angeles Downtown News readers,
Though we write this essay due to unfortunate circumstances (the Suns submitting in defeat to the Lakers), it has given us time to think about the similarities between our two fair cities.
Los Angeles is sometimes viewed as the bigger brother to its copycat younger sibling, Phoenix — indeed, it’s a bit older, a bit bigger and much more influential — but when it comes down to it, our city cores share many of the same traits, for good and for bad.
Different yet similar: Downtown LA should be used as a cultural blueprint for Downtown Phoenix.
For cities of our respective sizes, we have relatively small skylines despite having large, semi-walkable downtown areas. We find LA’s downtown districts more distinct than Phoenix’s — for example, the trek from Pueblo to Little Tokyo offers a stark change, whereas walking from Roosevelt to Evans Churchill in Phoenix offers little more than a change in foliage and city zoning standards.
We have spent some time in downtown LA, mostly as side trips to other Southern California adventures, but we keep going out of our way to stop and see how it continues to evolve. LA’s adaptive reuse ordinance is of particular interest, as Phoenix struggles to really figure out how to properly encourage reuse of its many historic buildings around the downtown area. LA’s downtown is a beacon of hope, with some 15,000 residential units created under this ordinance. What does that spell? Life in the neighborhoods that were in decline for decades. Phoenix could learn from that. Large loft buildings have been constructed anew here, and the level of success, amount of expense and measure of improvement (or perhaps decline, depending on who you ask) to the neighborhoods has been discouraging. The reuse of LA’s architecturally interesting skeletons is something that Phoenix should desire to imitate.
We look to LA’s Arts District, the warehouse district, lying just west of the LA River. It’s sadly in similar shape to our own — industrial, once fueled by rail, now in a sort of a paradoxical existence as a semi-arts hub and semi-run-down neighborhood. The similarities are astounding, bridging the 370-mile gap between the two neighborhoods.
Then we see the confluence of arts venues in the core, much like Phoenix. There is still much work to be done here, but LA seems to be getting it right. The magnificent Disney Concert Hall packs so much modernity into its block just from a sidewalk view, but the fantastic acoustics, impressive (albeit extremely short) history and near-instant change to this block of Grand Avenue cannot be understated. Phoenix’s Herberger Theatre, currently under renovation, should take some notes.
And we can’t help but think of downtown LA’s cultural mix. Sure, Phoenix is somewhat of a melting pot, but our neighborhoods haven’t been broken into ethnic districts for quite a long time. We love Ramen Row in Little Tokyo for a salty fix, but then there’s Philippe the Original and that 100-year perfection on the French dip sandwich. It’s that kind of diversity that just makes you smile and say, I love LA.
So thank you, LA, for offering some insight and inspiration to us Phoenicians. We hope you’ll stop by and say hi sometime to marvel at our ever-changing city center, just as we’ll continue to do in your neck of the woods.
Your friends at Downtown Phoenix Journal (and die-hard Suns fans!),
Catrina and Si
