Blowback

http://www.laweekly.com/2013-05-09/news/arts-district-tyler-stonebreaker/

Before getting back to my previous post on digital cities, I'd first like to thank all of you for reading my posts.  Because of you we're over four hundred.  You guys are the best and I like to share my thoughts on Architecture, Historic Preservation, Urban Planning and Design with you.  Can we do five hundred?  Let's go for it.  Next, I want to share some LA Weekly reader comments on the May 3rd article about the Los Angeles Arts District, "Reinventing The Arts District" by Alissa Walker.

The response to Ms. Walker's article were mostly negative.  One reader called it "CRAP ARTICLE."  Pretty harsh.  The reader called it "a revisionist, hipsterific article," and wondered if Ms. Walker spoke with any of the long term residents-i.e. those living in the area longer than one or two years.  This reader accused Ms. Walker of pandering to the lowest common denominator of individuals how prefer cool over culture and community.  Truthfully, I think that Tyler Stonebreaker and company have conflated the two.  The reader concludes that it was the people that made the neighborhood by bringing in the SCI-Arc people and other creative types.  The efforts by Mr. Stonebreaker come off as exclusivity rather than inclusivity.

On that note, another reader pointed out that the Arts District was "...a lively, dynamic, and thriving community before Handsome Coffee moved in.  There are a broad variety of stakeholders who made it what it is-not a 'neighborhood curator...'"  True too.  The long term residents and businesses in the Arts District and surrounding area do have a say in what goes on in the area.  This agrees with the previous comment regarding why Ms. Walker didn't interview long-term residents and business owners.  It wasn't a "neighborhood curator' that made the neighborhood, it was was the residents and businesses.

One reader wondered if Ms. Walker's article was intended as satire.  In the interest of full disclosure, this reader has lived in the Arts District for four years.  The reader pointed out that while Handsome Coffee is a great addition to the neighborhood, it hardly had anything to with making the neighborhood more popular.  There were already a variety of oh, so cool coffee places and restaurants as well as various celebrity loft owners and renters, not "curated" by Mr. Stonebreaker.  Love or hate Mr. Stonebreaker's efforts, bottom line is that he made no notable contribution.

Finally, we have a reader who was concerned about the comment, "If you think the Arts District if going to be another Abbot Kinney (the main boulevard in Venice, California), you are thinking way too small."  The reader points to two of Mr. Stonebreaker's "curated" tenants, Garret Leight, the owner of eyewear company GLCO and fashion company Mattinson.  Both retail establishments cater to a moneyed clientele that can afford $300 for a pair of sunglasses or $3,000 for a suit.  The reader wondered if these were the most appropriate choices for businesses in the Arts District.  Good question.  The reader responses to this question, "Of course they must be, because Tyler has our back...After all, he said, 'We're thoughtfully guiding it down the path we think is right for the neighborhood, and 'We are hyper-locally focused, asking people on the ground-those living and working in the neighborhood-what do they want?'"  Is this what the long-term residents and businesses in the Arts District really want?  A place to get $300 sunglasses or a $3,000 suit?

To me it seems that the negative responses are couched in the knee-jerk emotions that gentrification brings with it.  Tyler Stonebreaker seems to be blithely disregarding the real needs of the neighborhood in favor what HE BELIEVES to be the best choices for the area.  Or is he simply responding to the changing demographic and socio-economic climate of the urban center?  You decide.