GUEST OP-ED
A recent article from Time claims Downtown Los Angeles is undergoing an attempt at "Manhattanization." It has riled up Angelenos. Dennis Smith, a Historic Core resident and East L.A. educator, also has something to say.
Every once in a while, the East Coast media make an attempt to interpret life here in Los Angeles for their national readership. Invariably, for those of us who actually live here in the city, the analysis rings just a little false.
The latest attempt by Time Magazine, Jens Erik Gould tries to explain the ongoing “Manhattanization” of downtown Los Angeles.
What the article actually describes is the apparent success of the development of the L.A. Live restaurant and entertainment complex and the potential future plans for the adjoining convention center and football stadium.
This seems to me to be more a sad commentary on the ongoing sanitization of Manhattan by corporate franchises than an honest attempt to describe the real changes going on in downtown Los Angeles. Beyond L.A. Live, the only downtown nightlife venue mentioned in the article was the recently reopened Belasco Theater, maybe only because the British royals had visited a few weeks previous.
