It’s fascinating to me how little people even in LA get and appreciate about DTLA. Yes we have work to do, and it’s a shame what the city has allowed to happen over 5 years, but the concentrated history, architecture, culture, food, and entertainment is absolutely worth saving.
So many outsiders watched “500 Days of Summer,” the movie where Zooey Deschanel repeatedly betrays Joseph Gordon-Levitt while toying with his naive emotions and luring him in with her fake appreciation of the Smiths, and thought that was the Real Downtown Los Angeles.
No. The real DTLA is courthouses and parking lots with angry owners of indeterminate ethnic origin and like one lively street where they sell knockoff branded luxury goods.
That’s it.
If Los Angeles has a downtown (it does not), it’s either Century City or The Grove courtesy of Rick Caruso.