Contrary to the downtown districts in most cities, downtown Los Angeles (DTLA) is not the heart of Los Angeles. It’s in a central part of the county, houses City Hall and much of the homeless population, and has gone through renaissance and revitalization just in the last five years.
Parts 1 and 2: Forces
Force 1: Fashion and Jewelry Districts
Downtown’s many areas are all in wildly different states of development and gentrification. The Fashion and Jewelry districts are representative of what DTLA used to be in the early 20th century: a hub of commercial growth largely due to banking and rail development. These days, these districts still house specialty stores that sell wholesale goods, but they are distinctly behind the times—you won’t find too many Instagram influencers walking around here. They have become old and weathered, and turned into the slightly more unsavory parts of downtown. Walking around, it’s likely you’ll witness all those parts of city life you’d rather not, like feces in the street and likely mentally unstable people shouting at nothing.
Force 2: Public Transportation
As I have begun to explain in previous exercises, public transportation is another force that drastically affects DTLA. Downtown is the hub of the LA Metro. Union Station connects the underground metro, Amtrak/MetroLink trains, and Metro light rails. There are rapid transit buses that connect many cities to DTLA, like the Silver Line that runs from San Pedro in the south to El Monte in east LA. Metro rail lines run from the 7th/Metro station downtown to Long Beach and Santa Monica. Public transportation not only allows people to move more easily between various regions in LA, but also provides refuge for homeless people in LA. In downtown LA especially, you can see that people congregate in or outside metro stations to rest, recharge their phones, or just exist. Development also pops up around metro stations, driving up property value.
Force 3: Skid Row
Of course, downtown LA is also where Skid Row is located, containing one of the largest stable populations of homeless people in the country. It’s a sobering area to pass through, and one that people unfamiliar with the area are often surprised to find in such close proximity to the wildly gentrified Arts District and Little Tokyo neighborhood, and next to City Hall. In the rest of LA, you can generally find homeless encampments on some sidewalks, in underpasses, and in less-trafficked areas. In Skid Row, sidewalks are lined with tents and tarps, trash is piled up in the streets, and people who live there walk on roads ignoring cars as if they own the place (which they do). Skid Row is where local governments around LA and OC cart their homeless populations to, as if when they ship them away they disappear. It is a visual reminder of the failure of our society, and most people stay away.
I am lucky to know people through work that have created outreach programs bringing music to Skid Row. Major arts institutions like the LA Phil, The Broad contemporary art museum, The Music Center, and my own place of work are just a stone’s throw away, full of the kinds of privileged people that come to LA to “live their best lives” and never think about homelessness. These outreach programs bring some of those people down to Skid Row for community performances and classes, and I had the opportunity to attend one of their concerts this past week.
Force 4: Arts Institutions
The arts institutions of DTLA are another major force in the area, bringing
revitalization, culture, and tourism to the city. Walt Disney Concert Hall, designed by Frank Gehry, has become a landmark for the city, as has The Broad. Rich people and philanthropists tend to like high-class culture, and this is the hub that shows where the money is. My own workplace is trying to up its profile and contribute to the redevelopment of the area by announcing a campus expansion project with public spaces and music venues to serve the community, also designed by Frank Gehry. Of course, it’s going to cost a lot of money.
Force 5: Luxury Developments
DTLA has historically been a drive-in, drive-out part of the city filled with workers during the day and empty at night, since no one wanted to live in the derelict part of town. In the last 10 years, the Los Angeles City Council passed a measure that made it easier for developers to convert old, vacant office and commercial buildings into renovated luxury apartment complexes. As a result, more people are starting to live in downtown, and development is continuing to build around those complexes. Hip restaurants, coffee shops, and other new businesses are now standard in those parts of town, creating a relatively safe bubble for new residents.
There are so many forces that affect DTLA that it is hard to separate them from each other and pick them out. They are all interrelated in creating the diverse, disorderly mish-mash of land that exists today as downtown Los Angeles.
Part 3: Forces, Combined
Arts Institutions and Development
Are artists to blame for gentrification? Probably not. But gentrified areas are more likely to have art, and you can see that in DTLA where new developments and arts institutions are clustered in the same area.
Public Transit and Development
At the same time, most new developments are clustered in the South Park neighborhoods at the lower left hand corner of the map, along the path of the Expo Line light rail, depicted in light blue. There is a common pattern in Los Angeles where new metro stops spur development and drive up the price of land and rent in the immediate area.
Avoidance of Historic Districts and Skid Row
It’s pretty obvious that new developments would avoid the “undesirable” parts of downtown, but it’s even clearer when you can see it laid out like this. There may be zoning or historic preservation issues involved, but it’s more likely that developments cluster around each other because it’s more profitable to do so.
Everything, All at Once
DTLA is booming, there’s no question about it. What will it look like in the next 5-10 years? Will city planners and developers do anything to alleviate the housing crisis, or will DTLA become even more segregated in its dichotomy of nice/not-nice areas? Only time will tell.
Hi Clara,
I frequently go to LA but still don’t quite know my way around it and your final map truly helps break down downtown LA in an easy digestible way.
I find it interesting that the largest cluster of art institutions are located around the metro station. I feel that placing these institutions near public transport makes them more accessible as they don’t require much walking to get to. It also makes me feel that this area is a bit safer with more people and festivities, and of course, a lot of art attractions. I would imagine there to also be quite a few tourists around this area.
Beyond just knowing where the art institutions are, I feel that your map is valuable because it helps me figure out the safest route to go on if I wanted to visit, for instance, the fashion distract from the subway. Instead of stumbling into skid row territory, I would instead walk through the jewelry district. As a woman who has been mugged on the street before, I realized I am not safe everywhere I go, so knowing a safe route is of utmost importance to me and I’m glad your map helps me do that for myself.
In addition, it’s fascinating to see how much of LA is under development. Looking strictly at your final map, I can’t exactly tell what type of “development” you’re indicating (so perhaps you could be a bit more specific on that). Regardless, development in general makes me think of gentrification, which makes me think that this area will become more expensive to live in in the future, so I have to act quick if I want to live in DTLA! It’s actually somewhere I would ideally love to live, but the prices are going up more and more as demand to live in LA continues to rise. I wonder what this means for skid row, as more development occurs and the area becomes wealthier overall. Will those living in skid row in DTLA eventually migrate or disperse elsewhere? Where would they go? Or will that area just be left alone? Makes me wonder.
Clara,
Great job! I like how you placed the overall area in context of the larger area and framed it. I also like how you placed the images of the maps themselves within each force within the blog post, I think both of these create reference for the user.
For your out of bounds overlay, does the green have any significance and is it the best color for this? Also, I noticed there isn’t a legend or a key available.
Thanks John! The frame is actually the freeway (and the LA River, which spoiler alert, is not actually a river). I should make that more explicit.
The green isn’t really specific to anything. Do you think it would be better for me to just clear the outside section of the map and leave it as white space? I’ll definitely add labels and a key to my final map.
Hey Clara, for me the area out of focus adds value for context, it just feels like it makes sense. but I think of Jesse’s email; it may be a cool shape to use on its own or put it in a circle or something.?
Clara,
I think you perfectly captured the feelings, visual landscape, socioeconomic classes, and character of Downtown LA. At first, I wasn’t a big fan of DTLA, but it’s grown on me over the last year. It really is so different from every other area of Los Angeles and I think you really hit home on some of the reasons why.
When I think of DTLA, I often think of the arts scene. I was surprised to see how little of the map was covered with purple. I also was fascinated by the fact that the Skid Row area of the map in yellow and luxury apartment areas in pink area are almost identical in size. I had no idea that both areas had an equal presence. I’m excited to see you put all of the layers together for the final assignment. I think I’ll be able to fully visualize how everything correlates together.
I think it’s really important to understand the parts of LA that haven’t been scrubbed clean for the transplants (a group which includes me, of course).
It surprised me too to see it laid out like that. There’s definitely also smaller galleries away from Bunker Hill, which I’ll have to include on my final map, but the big players with money are all up here. I guess that’s a reflection of wealth inequality in general, heyo.
There are more luxury apartments under construction than I can even count. I don’t even know how they’re going to fill all of those buildings, because you know they’re going to be studio, 1, and 2 bedroom apartments that go for like $3,000+.
I like how you isolated the area so we could focus on the map and the forces you were highlighting. Overall, I thought you picked good colors except for the luxury developments force. The pink is really faint and difficult to distinguish from the map. The other colors you chose jump off the map and are easy to follow with my eyes.
Thanks for the feedback, Daniel! I’ll make the pink stand out more on my final map.