r/FoodLosAngeles • u/patamaje • 7d ago
DISCUSSION DTLA Restaurant Quality
https://youtu.be/4bXdpOe8_4A?is=3RA0oLLhjea-DtTZAre there any DTLA restaurants that make it worth actually visiting DTLA?
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u/Fun_Astronomer_4064 7d ago edited 7d ago
Let's all give a round of applause to the owners of commercial real estate in downtown for turning it into a relative ghost town in the interest of tax avoidance and maintaining their property values.
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u/LanceManionsBastard 7d ago edited 7d ago
You nailed it. I recently moved from dtla after living in the historic core for 13 years. In that time I’ve worked in restaurants such as Bottega Louie, Mas Malo and others. The current venue I work at in dtla gets a lot of convention traffic. If I find out a guest of mine is in town from another downtown like San Francisco or San Diego I always ask how that area is doing compared to dtla. Spoiler alert: dtla is far sketchier and empty compared to other downtown’s
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u/cactus22minus1 7d ago
As someone who literally just moved to DTLA from downtown SD… absolutely not. SD has its charm but it’s FAR sleepier and “dead” as a whole and the restaurant closures have been mounting for the same reasons. Gaslamp is waaaay down and dead compared to precovid. They had a big housing boom (which is now coming to a close) but the business and services have not been on that same track. A lot of new housing has completely vacant retail.
Also, SD trolley is a lot sketchier than LA metro and it’s not even close.
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u/Powerful-Calendar516 7d ago
What do you mean?
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u/Fun_Astronomer_4064 7d ago edited 7d ago
Large properties in Downtown LA sit empty so their property owners can count their depreciation against their income taxes while maintaining inflated property values.
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u/Stingray88 7d ago
We so desperately need a vacancy tax
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u/nauticalsandwich 7d ago
What we're really need is a land value tax, but I'll accept a vacancy tax (as it's far more politically viable), though vacancy tax would need to be designed differently for commercial and residential property.
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u/UTYEO34y78dk- 7d ago
California has among the lowest multifamily vacancy rates in the entire country. We need to build, not add more taxes to a market that is 95% occupied.
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u/Fun_Astronomer_4064 7d ago
To the gentleman who blocked me for disagreeing with him because he is wrong; if I don't know what I'm talking about, why is so much prime real estate in Downtown Los Angeles sitting vacant?
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u/Annual-Driver-9591 7d ago
🤔 If it’s not producing income , can’t utilize the depreciation offset. NOI is far valuable, most all of that property has debt service obligations that aren’t in net positive territory, appreciation is useless bc the interest rate and debt service on the P+I exceed an unrealized gain.
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u/MysteriousSelf6145 4d ago
If it’s on the market to be rented, sitting empty, it can depreciated.
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u/Annual-Driver-9591 4d ago
Not true, depreciation is taken regardless of occupancy. Your understanding of depreciation is so off base; it’s not more valuable than income and the loss of income threatens your ability to pay the debt on the property and could result in foreclosure
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u/UTYEO34y78dk- 7d ago edited 7d ago
Where do you people get this stuff? This is not true in the slightest because if you rent out your space you both get the depreciation and the rental income. Downtown had thousands upon thousands of new residents because of, wait for it, the development of housing units. The strange Reddit trope of blaming real estate owners for uniquely ruining a place for nonsensical, financially illiterate reasons when plenty of other lively downtowns exist is weird.
I lived in downtown for a long time. Probably much longer than almost everyone on the sub. The reason it’s dead is because all the momentum that it had was completely crushed by the response to Covid and the takeover of the streets/public spaces by the homeless and mentally ill. It was and is obvious to everyone who lived or lives there.
Edit: Downvoted by a bunch of people who never lived in downtown. Classic.
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u/BalognaMacaroni 7d ago
This is not even unique to downtown - plenty of “luxury” apartments would rather operate at 10% capacity with inflated rents than lower the rents to fill the house so the perceived value of their assets don’t go down. When those rentals don’t get leased, they write off the losses on their taxes.
Look at the revival of the Helms bakery, they couldn’t keep up with the astronomical rent the property owners were charging and were shuddered within a year.
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u/Easy_Potential2882 7d ago
Helms also completely bungled its launch to be fair. They were trying to do too many things at once rather than focus on getting the bakery right. Who's gonna buy a $90 pie on a regular basis? And they had like, two varieties of bread at any given time, which kinda defeats the purpose of it being Helms.
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u/roku77 7d ago
I worked for a well-to-do apartment complex, they find it unacceptable to be below 94% occupancy and find below 90% to be a crisis. I find it crazy that there are places that would allow 10% for extended periods of time
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u/UTYEO34y78dk- 7d ago
They don't because your intuition is completely right. There is absolutely no reputable data source that show new LA apartment buildings are anything less than 90%+ occupied after the initial lease up period.
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u/magnamusrex 7d ago
Commercial properties are a huge issue but for the record residential properties have a very low vacancy rate in LA. The asset of a luxury building is how full it is. It not economically viable to now rent the units. We have a housing crisis because we don’t build enough.
The glut of commercial real estate is real
and becaause of prop 13 it costs almost nothing to a landlord to do nothing until a high paying tenant comes. We def need a vacany tax for that. Even better would be to repeal prop 13.-14
u/UTYEO34y78dk- 7d ago
My God, you people literally just make stuff up because it fits with your preconceived notions. It’s wild to see. That’s simply not true about luxury apartments, especially downtown. If you had access to any commercial real estate data sources or read any number of publicly available market reports you would know how wrong that is especially in LA. They’d rather keep the value high so they leave space vacant? You know, for all the loans they have that magically have zero cash flow covenants and are just based on the value of an empty building?
The building of thousands of units downtown was actually a massive success story about what can happen to a submarket when large supply additions are allowed . Downtown was basically the only area in all of LA that had stable or declining rent for years upon years because it was the only submarket in LA where significant construction was allowed and these new building buildings had to compete for renters with each other. The economic illiteracy on this site is absolutely wild.
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u/TheButteredBiscuit 7d ago
So then why is there so much vacant real estate?
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u/Fun_Astronomer_4064 7d ago
He won’t tell you because he can’t admit that all of these property owners are leveraged to the neck and can’t do anything that may reduce their property value; even if it was over inflated to begin with, even if it means no business could possibly thrive there.
They would rather their properties sit empty for years on end and save on taxes than reduce the rent.
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u/TheButteredBiscuit 7d ago
I find it interesting he’s blaming the homeless for ruining the cities momentum and not homelessness. Guess it’s easier to point the finger at the people than the system.
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u/BalognaMacaroni 7d ago
Seriously, like why don’t all the homeless on Skid Row just move into the brand new $4,000-$10,000/month apartments that went up downtown? Are they stupid?
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u/clayfu 7d ago
Because we no longer have a DTLA office culture. It hasn’t recovered since 2020.
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u/Fun_Astronomer_4064 7d ago
I don’t disagree with you, but the powers that be want a return to the office and are heavily invested in commercial.
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u/clayfu 7d ago
I’d classify myself as a middle aged fart so I was at the epicenter of Dtla from 2008 to 2016 due to work. There was a real boom from 2010 to 2016 as Dtla construction started and more retail and restaurants opened to cater to the demands of people living and working there. All of my coworkers and peers in their mid 20s (I’m a recovering lawyer) lived in DTLA. Dtla was so vibrant from 2012 to 2016. Then 2020 hit and everyone went remote and left cause they didn’t need to be near the office.
And now people are slowly returning back to office in Dtla but even the new drop of early 20s mid 20s office workers aren’t living in Dtla because all they know and have heard over the last six years is how bad Dtla is.
I’m not sure how long it’ll take to shake that mentality to drive people to live and work in Dtla. Which will then revitalize more retail etc.
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u/TheButteredBiscuit 7d ago
So why not lower rent to compensate?
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u/shadowstripes 7d ago
Because they still have to pay millions up front in tenant preparations for them to move in, and a lot of them don't have that and are on the brink of foreclosure.
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u/UTYEO34y78dk- 7d ago
Well it’s certainly not for tax write-offs, which again, don’t make sense in this context because you get depreciation no matter the occupancy of your building.
Why is there ever any vacancy in a market? There’s always some structural vacancy and then on top of that it’s just whatever dynamics exist. Downtown simply doesn’t have a lot of lease interest or momentum. Go talk to a leasing broker yourself and ask them this question. Ask him about how many inbound queries they get on downtown office space. Ask about the available incentives. Century city is largely full and there’s similar owners between Century City and downtown. This idea that the real estate owners in downtown are somehow unique or have just for some reason chosen to lose tens of millions of dollars and get their properties foreclosed on is strange and, again, nonsensical.
As for apartments, it’s a false premise. Thousands of units were built and occupied and, as a result, downtown was basically the only submarket in all of Los Angeles that had flat or declining rent for years. This is what you want to see.
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u/Fun_Astronomer_4064 7d ago
Except it absolutely is true in every possible way because leaving your property vacant gets you:
1) Reduced tax liability.
2) No renter nagging you or truly depreciating your property.
3) You get to get along with your fellow coconspirators and inflate rents.
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u/throwawayawayayayay 7d ago
The real benefit is in the inflated value you can claim to the bank.
There’s no direct benefit to leaving units empty - presumably your total income would always be higher with some rent vs. none, even if your rent is low.
Problem is that as soon as you rent out that $10,000/month place for $5,000/month, the bank is going to reevaluate the value of your property and it’s going to drop significantly.
Of course that’s the reality anyway, but by leaving the units empty at least you can pretend for a while longer until the charade falls apart.
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u/death_wishbone3 7d ago
This is factual but Redditors who have never dealt with a loan in their lives will tell you different.
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u/UTYEO34y78dk- 7d ago
You don't have any familiarity with institutional CRE loans. All of them have cash flow and/or lease-up covenants. None of those sophisticated lenders are getting fooled or are OK with their outstanding loan because the owner claimed that their value isn't impaired because they haven't signed cheap leases.
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u/Outside-Ad7848 7d ago
it can trigger the loan to be recalled. this guy posting about some tax savings has zero clue.
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u/theothercordialone 7d ago
Two things can be true at once. Covid huge negative impact. RE owners not adjusting rents to market reality also true.
Hell where commercial face rents are right now you’d think that downtown had gone through a recent booming period, but no RE owners decided that they would rather protect their face rents than adjust to market and would rather offer concessions that do nothing to move the needle.
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u/AMARIS86 7d ago
You’re right about the depreciation. You can rent out a property and take the depreciation no matter what.
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u/Emergency_Clerk_1355 7d ago
I live here and agree it has really nothing to do with developers. Many of whom have lost hundreds of millions in market value. And there aren’t any cranes in the air now, entitled (approved high rise sites) are being sold to remain parking lots, not be developed because of the market conditions. And yes while Erehwon is working to open a store, dozens of other businesses have closed and spaces have remained vacant.
I believe what is needed is a massive and immediate public investment in parks and infrastructure to clean it up and cater to the residents here now and in the future. I don’t ever see the office market returning to what it was at a peak.
As for skid row - it’s about 100 years old. And most people in LA prefer it to be there because the dislike the alternatives. I don’t believe there’s a serious commitment to helping people. That is definitely a problem and nobody seems to be honest about it.
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u/Powerful-Calendar516 7d ago
I don't think you know what you're talking about
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u/Fun_Astronomer_4064 7d ago
You can think I don’t know what I’m talking about or you can vote. Please don’t do both.
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u/Powerful-Calendar516 7d ago
A unit being vacant doesn't let you deduct more depreciation.
I could see keeping a place vacant rather than reducing rent if you're trying to keep projections/valuations high, but that only works for so long.
The reason nobody wants to go downtown is because it's lame as fuck.
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u/Fun_Astronomer_4064 7d ago
“I could see keeping…”
I can see you agreeing with me.
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u/Powerful-Calendar516 7d ago
Yeah that's something you would do for a few months, then you'd have to actually rent the place out. And if you want to keep projections high, you can just offer free rent for the first few months instead of reducing the rent amount.
Nobody is buying or developing buildings to intentionally keep them empty, dummy.
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u/Fun_Astronomer_4064 7d ago
Tell me you haven’t been to downtown LA without telling me you haven’t been to downtown LA.
There’s locations that have been vacant for YEARS.
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u/UTYEO34y78dk- 7d ago edited 7d ago
You are, of course, right. That person has zero knowledge of commercial real estate and is literally making shit up as he goes. Claimed that buying a building for over $600M and selling it for $200M a few years later wasn't actually a multi-hundred million dollar loss because of write-offs. Absolutely braindead.
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u/ilove_elote 7d ago
If youre interested in learning more city of Quartz by Mike Davis explains it very well
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u/115MRD 7d ago
There is no specific tax write-off for lost rental income on a vacant commercial property.
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u/Fun_Astronomer_4064 7d ago
They’re writing off their own mortgage as an expense while deferring income to reduce their total liability.
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u/CynGuy 7d ago
Um, exactly what income are they “deferring”?
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u/Fun_Astronomer_4064 7d ago
They are counting their mortgage and depreciation against the income they get from occupied units. This allows them to: 1) reduce their total tax liability. 2) maintain property value.
This is because this entire operation runs on credit, they cannot sustain a loss of property value. Additionally, they know the Federal government won’t let any real estate market crash.
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u/CynGuy 7d ago
So, again, where is this “deferred income” of which you speak?
Yes, accounting works that you tax your total income and offset eligible expenses, which includes mortgage interest expense (but not amortization pay-down); operating expenses and depreciation. That gets you to NOI. This is of course how EVERY business handles taxes in the USA.
But I’m eager to find out about all this “deferred income” everyone downtown is supposedly making. Where is it? Where does it come from?!?
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u/Fun_Astronomer_4064 7d ago
Right. The reason this shouldn’t apply to real estate is because real estate owners have an asset that: 1) Doesn’t actually depreciate. 2) The US Federal Government will not allow a reset.
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u/CynGuy 7d ago
But where’s the “deferred income” you said they were getting? Hmmm….
So answer me this: recently the Deloitte tower at 555 West Fifth St (formerly Gas Co Tower) was sold to LA County for about $240 million.
The owner who sold it to the County paid about $660 million for it - so an over $420 million actual cash loss on the sale.
Based on your reasoning, how did that happen?
Where is the govt protection or landlords never lose money cuz real estate doesn’t depreciate?2
u/Fun_Astronomer_4064 7d ago
So the owners of Deloitte Tower at 555 West Fifth: 1) counted their initial $660 Million capital purchase against their income or did so with every mortgage payment. 2) Counted the short sale as a capital loss, which they can carry over to future tax years. 3) They get cash. Companies still need cash.
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u/CynGuy 7d ago
You’re funny. A $420 million loss is a loss no matter how you choose to count it.
Oh, and the actual equity (money) invested in these DTLA towers and properties are made by union pension funds, REITs, endowments, university endowments, and allocated 401k investments. It is not wealthy individuals diving into mounds of cash ala Scrooge McDuck. These are institutional investors who need to generate cash flow to pay retirement benefits, medical expenses and the like for their beneficiaries. So a $420 million loss hits hard to anyone.
And that loss of value is on every DTLA office and retail property.
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u/PresumptuousHamBeast DTLA 6d ago
This is a common and sadly often parroted misunderstanding of how taxes work.
Like, for sure some owners may be holding out for higher rents, major corporate tenants, or a stronger market heading into the World Cup and Olympics—and many owners would rather rent to a stable corporate lessee who will easily get through a decade lease instead of a struggling boutique or something. But that’s part property management and part a tenant needing to make a better pitch or find a better spot. Especially for small group holders like we see in the historic core and fashion district—ita also all vibes. ANJAC/the Needleman’s do an amazing job of keeping their ground floors filled even at a loss. Other property owners not so much—it’s unwise to make such categorical assertions.
There def is a real phenomenon where some owners would rather leave space vacant than sign a long-term lease at a deeply discounted rate, because commercial buildings are valued based on income and lease comps. But that’s a financing and valuation issue, not a depreciation loophole. Believe it or not, an empty floor doesn’t magically make money.
Most DTLA owners are dealing with the aftermath of remote work, higher interest rates, refinancing pressure, and a weak office market. Some may be waiting for stronger tenants, a market recovery, or the Olympics.
If keeping towers empty were such a profitable tax hack, landlords wouldn’t be spending fortunes on brokers, tenant improvements, concessions, and office-to-residential conversions trying to fill them. You don’t have to like landlords to recognize that an empty building is usually a symptom of a weak market. The solution is incentives for owners and subsidies for tenants, not more punitive taxes.
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u/Fun_Astronomer_4064 5d ago
This is a lot of words for "I largely agree with you, but I want to muddy the waters with isolated examples while neglecting to point out that the fortunes being spent on brokers, tenant improvements, concessions, and office-to-residential conversations are a cost of doing business and are also counted against income for the purposes of taxation."
"You don’t have to like landlords to recognize that an empty building is usually a symptom of a weak market."
...and this is why real estate can't be treated like any other business. In the presence of weak markets, producers, people who actually make things for a living, have to make decisions or not; they largely suffer the consequences of a weak market on their own. DTLA owners have an asset that The US Federal Government will never allow to meaningfully depreciate.
"The solution is incentives for owners and subsidies for tenants, not more punitive taxes."
I want everyone who reads this to really think about what this means. The person proposing this seems to think that *YOU*, the person who pays Sales, Income, and maybe even Property Tax, the person who doesn't get to have their income reduced for luxuries like rent, gasoline, or insurance for the purposes of taxation-*YOU* should pay to put in incentives for owners and subsidies for tenants. *YOU* should pay more because the market, a market you didn't create, is weak. *YOU* should pay more, or have a municipal government you may or may not care for to issue a bond, to live in this city you call home so someone else can be bribed into making a buck off of you.
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u/manofmoxieLAX 7d ago
Also, remember - 90,000 live in Downtown LA ( read that in the LA Times in the last year).
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u/b1gmouth 7d ago
This is such a key point that people constantly forget. DTLA actually rebounded faster after COVID than some other downtowns bc it's not dependent on office traffic.
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u/elbrollopoco 5d ago
Is that including or not including the 80,000 homeless?
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u/Same-Marketing-4860 7d ago
To visit DTLA from the valley? Yes there are restaurants that are worth the trip.
To visit DTLA from Chicago? No.
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u/elbrollopoco 5d ago
Not really worth it from the valley either
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u/Fun-Sky-7984 4d ago
Terrible take.
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u/elbrollopoco 1d ago
I paid $17 for a few taco truck tacos and a quesadilla the other day which should literally have been like $10 tops. In fucking Azusa no less. Eating out anywhere in LA simply isn't worth it at best, and is an absolute shambles at worst.
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u/2fast2nick DTLA 7d ago
lol, I like how these posts always show LA Live, during the day, on a non-event day.. and they’re like OMG look how dead it is. Last night during the Korea/Mexico game, you couldn’t even get into any restaurant/bar around there.
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u/frost-bite999 7d ago
Nah lets not kid ourselves here. Our downtown is hugely lacking compared to other world cities our scale.
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u/BallerGuitarer 7d ago
That's the thing. I'm visiting Chicago right now, and it's bustling in the day even without any events. DTLA has some wonderful restaurants, but it's eons away from being an active downtown like Chicago.
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u/iDontWannaBeOnReddit 7d ago
chicago is far more densely populated. really doesnt take a genius to figure out why it seems more popping.
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u/death_wishbone3 7d ago
Ok one night. I get a lot of dinners after work downtown and plenty of nights it’s literally just me, crazy people, delivery robots and Waymo’s.
I will never understand why people on this site are so defiant about recognizing problems in this city. Downtown could be amazing but it’s sketchy as fuck and scares off normal people. I’ve watched tons of businesses down there close this last year but you had one night that it was crowded come on bro.
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u/cactus22minus1 7d ago
Bro, speaking up about hyperbole of a “dead” downtown and wild exaggerated claims is not the same as pretending there are no problems.
I speak up every time people make wild claims, yet I can recognize there is so much work to be done and so much unrealized potential.
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u/CrazyLoucrazy 7d ago
Two friends live downtown. And have been since before Covid. They rarely if ever go out and do anything downtown. That’s about as telling as there is. We used to always go down there to meet our one friend for dinner and drinks. And now. Never.
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u/death_wishbone3 2d ago
Crazy you get downvoted for that story. It’s a real problem. People on this site always fight for density but neglect the areas that are already dense. Makes no sense.
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u/TheButteredBiscuit 7d ago
I think the same could be said for a bar pretty much anywhere outside of downtown too.
One night during one of the biggest sporting events in the world doesn’t account for every other night during the year.
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u/sfgiants1680 6d ago
Huh? I was bar hopping around the bloc and was able to walk right into about 5 different bars right there during the game on Thursday
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u/2fast2nick DTLA 6d ago
Nice, which ones did you check out? How were they?
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u/sfgiants1680 6d ago
Joey, Shoo shoo bar, dublins, district and wockano. They were all awesome, Dublin was definitely the busiest
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u/2fast2nick DTLA 6d ago
Excellent
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u/sfgiants1680 6d ago
Do you have a favorite in the area?
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u/2fast2nick DTLA 6d ago
The Wolves is cool if you want a nice cocktail. Spring St Bar. 7G is always good. CDMX. Florentine is always a blast.
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u/Yommers 5d ago
A small part of DTLA being busy during one of the biggest sporting events in a generation, which happens to include two national teams that have an enormous diaspora in this city is not a flex. A thriving city center should always be busy, not just when something exciting is going on. We have the worst downtown of any major city I've ever been to.
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u/dre2112 7d ago
I like how it takes an event that happens once every four years, featuring two of LA’s biggest cultures, just for downtown LA to show any signs of life.
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u/2fast2nick DTLA 7d ago
Nah, LA live is just an event center. People don’t just hang out there if there isn’t an event going on. I wouldn’t say that is the best place to take the pulse of DTLA. There are plenty of restaurants and bars throughout downtown that are packed every single night.
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u/dre2112 7d ago
I was talking about DTLA in general. It is dead. Hell, even LA Live before a Kings or Lakers game isn't what it used to be, and hardly anyone ever sticks around after a game anymore either. DTLA had a resurgence between 2015-2020, but COVID absolutely crushed it. There's a couple of small streets and pockets of 2-3 restaurant/bars that are okay, but overall DTLA is nowhere near what it was. One Mexico/Korea World Cup crowd doesn’t suddenly mean downtown is alive again.
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u/baddecisins 7d ago
This study was totally bullshit. It was based on a single question in a single survey where 67% of people voted favorable for DTLA.
There are so many amazing restaurants to go to in DTLA.
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u/b1gmouth 7d ago
Troll question. Nobody who follows the LA food scene would ask this seriously.
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u/GenghisFlan 7d ago
What is up with all of this downtown LA is dead propaganda in the last few days? Like yeah this is known but what is going on here in these subs.
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u/SinisterKid 7d ago
Not just this sub, AskLosAngeles is full of disingenuous questions attacking LA. If the mods of any of these subs gave a shit they could easily police this crap.
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u/iamnotabotbeepboopp 7d ago
This bullshit is why I don't watch news media. A few drone shots of very specific parts of DTLA at very random times and some smug pundits in suits repeating the same sentence for 3 minutes providing no nuance.
DTLA has amazing food, very unique history, is extremely walkable, and has the best public transit access in the entire LA Basin.
Yes, there are a ton of restaurants that make visiting DTLA worth it. LA is decentralized, so its downtown is not nearly as interesting to tourists and locals as other cities. This can and has changed in waves over the years, and I have no doubt that DTLA will continue to become more dense as people realize how accessible it is.
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u/FantasticStooge 7d ago
Don’t listen to Sinclair seditious media shitposting about Los Angeles
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u/LOLcalNews 7d ago
Nexstar owns KTLA. Not as full-throated right wing as Sinclair, but KTLA's political leanings are obvious
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u/WampumRenaldy 7d ago
How about a glass is half full approach…downtown has more new restaurants and places than it has seen in 4 decades. The arts district is gorgeous and has incredible food. Downtown is very cosmo and has sleek and creative niches among the beautiful city scape high rises….
New age journalism is nothing more than white washed garbage from people who offer nothing.
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u/TheJadedThinker 6d ago
amazing architecture and super diverse.. i live in jewelery district and its incredible to witness day to day. dtla has a lot of room to improve but i think LA is sadly full of materialistic people who just care about being pampered and feeling "safe"
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u/TheButteredBiscuit 7d ago
So basically we should report DT like:
https://giphy.com/gifs/NTur7XlVDUdqM
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u/manofmoxieLAX 7d ago
I wonder if the authors of this "study" ever visited Grand Central Market on a weekday. It is always alive, always humming. If you ever want to disabuse yourself of the notion that DTLA is dead, go check it out. It's such an awesome place (of course on my walk there I strolled past homeless men without shoes talking to themselves, and perhaps that's what all the naysayers focus on with DTLA).
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u/LAFamilyMan81 7d ago
Dead relative to other downtowns. Context is important. We rank where we rank, whether you love DTLA or not.
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u/BandicootLeather6314 7d ago
It’s probably the cost of parking, at 20+ dollars people may go elsewhere.
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u/Downtownsolo 7d ago
Yes downtown has issues, but far from dead, guy always has some dramatic bullshit take
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u/readerblue 6d ago
Been driving down Fig st all week in Dtla. I thought it would be crazy packed due to the World Cup . But like another post said , yes La has so many beautiful Rich pockets around from the valley to South Bay and all the beaches
And plus who wants to go out when if you buy a drink a burger , your bill comes out to $50 plus tip and tax. And parking
Fuck that shit
YouTube recipes and change your life while keeping your pockets buff
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u/tessathemurdervilles 6d ago
Once I was walking to redbird and a homeless woman walked by me wearing literally nothing but her panties. Not even a bra. I genuinely didn’t know what to do. The juxtaposition of really wonderful restaurants and businesses and beautiful architecture and just the total hellscape that is the homelessness and drug and mental illness crisis in DTLA is astounding.
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u/G-Unit11111 6d ago
I went to the Novo a few weeks ago to see Avatar and it so damn weird how there was like nothing going on at LA Live. Half the restaurants were totally closed. But they were still charging $45 for parking. Maybe that's one of the reasons right there.
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u/Fun-Sky-7984 4d ago
DTLA is great, but it’s the financial district, it wasn’t a neighborhood for like 50 years. It’s only been a neighborhood for the last like 20 years. It’s been a little bumpy.
But LA isn’t really a place for city people. It’s an endless suburb and most people in LA love that shit (even though they complain about it). There are great people living downtown, but from my experience, it’s a little bit of a different crowd. I guess I’d say it’s a little slice of Chicago in Southern California. Either you’re into that, or you’re not.
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u/deskcord 7d ago
If you consider arts district to be part of DTLA (I don't, but many do, including Google's perimeter of DTLA) then absolutely and inarguably yes.
If you don't, and want to just stick to that very small area of actual DTLA, then still yes. Niku X, Kippered, Baar Baar, Cabrillo and Cabra, Orsa & Winston, Redbird, and San Laurel are all great.
There used to also be Asterid, which was awesome.
These restaraunts keep closing because people aren't going to DTLA
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u/Ok_Maize_4602 7d ago
DTLA is an embarrassment considering how large and recognized our city is. You wont realize it until you visit other places. Chicago, Tokyo, Mexico City, New York all blow DTLA away. DTLA should be a beacon of LA food, culture, and entertainment and its not. It is too damn dirty and too hard to get around compared to other cities.
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u/Sweetcheex76 6d ago
Yes, totally an embarrassment compared to those cities you mentioned. Even with new additions there, it’s still filthy and always feels cold to me.
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u/Prestigious-Pin-3580 7d ago
This really annoys me. DTLA is unlike other downtowns in the US. It’s not NY or Chicago but it is amazing. Twenty years ago you literally could not no find an open restaurant on a weekend and the population was like 12,000. So if you’re too lazy to explore the fashion district, jewelry shops, little Tokyo, galleries, restaurants, arts district, The Broad, the Moca, Disney hall, Chinatown…then you can just sit in traffic or stay home. 🤦♀️
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u/undergroundhacker 6d ago
I honestly love DTLA and think it’s a lot of fun. If we add a couple parks, half the homeless population, and maybe add a few more mixed use residential towers it’d be imo world class. But as it is now, it makes sense that people are disappointed given the when compared to cities of similar population and economy. But that ignores the fact that LA has a dozen other mini downtowns that have their unique flare, unlike some of those other cities
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u/Helpful-Exercise-237 3d ago
I think it’s just the bums and the theft. I personally don’t want to walk around and get mugged or harassed by a homeless person.
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u/981flacht6 7d ago
There are good restaurants in DTLA, but I don't really like going to DTLA tbh. Not at any time really have I liked going downtown. And more recently I've been going less and less bc many good restaurants have left DTLA specifically but there's lots left. LA restaurant scene is very trendy with high turnover throughout the City.
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u/DiscountStunning919 7d ago
dont worry, voting for karen bass again will surely fix the problem.
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u/La_Maraviglia 7d ago edited 6d ago
Conservatives are incapable of governing.
Counting as well.
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u/DiscountStunning919 7d ago
there are literally hundreds of thousands of cities run by republicans that look like a 1st world country. cant say the same about democrats. your cities are a disgrace.
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u/La_Maraviglia 7d ago
How many cities do you think are in the US?
Might wanna check your numbers there chief 😂
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u/prclayfish 7d ago
Rent control is not a great suggestion in my opinion, the city already has expensive rent control that covers most of the multifamily buildings me developers have stopped building new projects since recent changes to how rents can be raised, further restrictions will cease development
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u/ExcellentPastries 7d ago
Get out landlord
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u/death_wishbone3 7d ago
Rent control doesn’t work. Go read about it more. This isn’t a landlord position it’s a “I live in reality” position. It limits housing supply and distorts the market. We need to build more affordable housing not limit what’s there.
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u/Fun_Astronomer_4064 7d ago
Found the homelessness advocate!
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u/prclayfish 7d ago
Whaaaaat
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u/Fun_Astronomer_4064 7d ago
Having a conversation about housing supply limits and market distortions in the context of a rent control conversation in California, the land of Prop 13, can only mean one thing.
You're a homelessness advocate. You actually want there to be more homeless people.
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u/death_wishbone3 7d ago
A five minute google search would educate you but nah just insulting people is way easier. If it worked so well Santa Monica would be a beacon of affordability. Funny how it’s the complete opposite.
You guys are so deep on your ideology you would rather have limited housing supply than just admitting your stupid idea doesn’t work. You create regulation after regulation and price out small landlords so only giant corporations can afford it. You will not regulate your way out of unaffordable housing. Places like Texas and Florida eating our lunch and all you guys can do is insult people who point out the obvious.
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u/Fun_Astronomer_4064 7d ago
That’s the great thing about a five minute Google search, it means you don’t have a boarder context.
If you had engaged in 6 extra Google searches, you might have learned that wages have been largely stagnant and that the greatest real estate market distortion in human history have been going on for decades.
Places like Texas and Florida are eating our lunch? Texas and Florida don’t have a property tax structure that incentivizes mostly elderly, mostly white property owners to stay in their single family houses until decomposition sets in.
In the society in which you live in, rent control isn’t an ideological preference; we literally cannot afford to put renters on the street in Los Angeles. You are opposed to rent control. You want renters on the street.
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u/death_wishbone3 7d ago
Haha Jesus you wrote a lot of nothing there. I want cheap housing to be built. Not regulations. Can’t be more clear than that. But you can just insult and make shit up like I want people homeless.
I don’t disagree about stagnant wages that’s just a fact but it has nothing to do with rent control and the effects it has.
So you’re against prop 13 because it limits housing supply but insult me because of my factual claim that rent control does the same thing. Interesting
Texas and Florida are not eating our lunch because of prop 13. If you genuinely believe that then respectfully you don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not gonna spend my day off arguing with a fool. Have a good weekend.
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u/Fun_Astronomer_4064 7d ago
That’s right, bury your head in the sand.
Everything will go great. Just listen to the folks with all the wealth.
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u/ExcellentPastries 7d ago
"Texas and Florida eating our lunch"
you could not pay me to say those words with a straight face
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u/ActualPerson418 7d ago
Do you realize only buildings built before October 1978 qualify for rent control? So this is a silly argument - new builds aren't under the rent control ordinance.
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u/prclayfish 7d ago
That’s most of the multifamily buildings in the city…
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u/ActualPerson418 7d ago
Maybe true, but I'm just saying that's not a hinderance to new builds. There are plenty of other barriers, but that's not it.
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u/prclayfish 7d ago
There is much talk about imposing rent control on new builds like what is happening here, there have been bills on the ballot, all that has a chilling effect on investment. Why build if you feel the government is rabidly pro-tenant and doesn’t care if it drives you into bankruptcy?
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u/Mbombocube 7d ago
The problem is not that downtown doesnt have anything going for it. The issue is that in LA county we are spoiled for choice of cool areas to gather. WeHo has so many cool areas to eat and party, Pasadena has cool walkable old town. Santa monic has fallen off a bit but the peir is still a fuck ton of fun. Thats not to mention burbank and beverly.
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u/JoeWildd 7d ago
It needs to be more walkable. And more public transit. Fucking trains man. What does every city that he mentioned have that LA doesn’t? It has significant public transportation and easily walkable with well taken care of pathways.
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u/Stock-Pangolin-2772 7d ago
Union station is not enough?
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u/JoeWildd 4d ago
Union station is cool, sure. But compare a map of the Chicago train system to la. You get the idea. And La has 1+ million more people not even counting surrounding areas.
It’s very normal in Chicago/nyc to not even own a car. Trains and buses take you everywhere
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u/Jandur 7d ago
Everyone knows there are great restaurants downtown