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0 pointsunabst8y ago0 comments

No... SM is a bit wack. The prices are so high, only big businesses can afford to be there. So most stores are big franchises. And it's too touristy for any culture. Main St is better, and towards Venice.

I would also nominate DTLA. Downtown is lit. Parking is wack though.

Consumers are no longer interested in old retail chains. They follow influencers and their original brands, but they're mostly direct to consumer, and everything arrives in two days anyway.

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Balgair8y ago

SM is loud and very touristy. Buskers are allowed amps for their guitars and I can't count the number of languages spoken. It's more of an airport terminal than anything approaching 'local'. God have mercy on you at the pier. I'd go Culver City, as a better 'local' kinda thing, but even then you need to get up to SB to really stand a chance of a quiet coffee on the street.

> Parking is wack though.

Literally all of LA is like this. Pro-tip, in SM, park at the library. Cheaper and easier to get in/out.

unabstOP8y ago

Even Beverly Hills has great parking. The major bottleneck downtown is parking right now and has been for a while. SM moved fast to build multiple parking structures... and that's where all the foot traffic comes from. Not sure why DTLA is so nonchalant about this. Don't see any construction whatsoever.

tomjakubowski8y ago

You don’t see any construction in DTLA? Are we both living in 2017?

It seems like every other day a new 40+ story mixed-use tower, with requisite parking structure, is breaking ground around here.

The thing that baffled me about downtown’s parking situation was how so many otherwise undeveloped parking lots managed to stick around given the opportunity cost of land downtown. That was until I realized a production crew can’t set up base camp in a parking garage.

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wutbrodo8y ago

> Not sure why DTLA is so nonchalant about this. Don't see any construction whatsoever.

Presumably because LA finally managed to make a section of the city livable and they don't want to hasten its demise. Parking has pretty massive costs for quality of life and the livability of a city.

LA is just in a weird transition point right now, where even a furious pace of transit building isn't going to remake the car-centric infrastructure overnight.

Gargoyle8y ago

Downtown LA has a fantastic parking situation compared to almost any other major city. Tons and tons of cheap parking.

Parking is not DTLA's problem.

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