[NSFW] Stupid & Random Thoughts

That had to be a record for the quickest 4 goals in EPL history? Am I right?

 

Uh, no?

 

I was in L.A. last week (and Seattle) and I have to say it's like going from one extreme to the other.

Seattle's downtown is awesome.

L.A.'s downtown is seriously the ugliest piece of shit I've seen in any major city. A few blocks from the US Bank tower is this:



Even the fancy LA-Live can't save the downtown area. Rugged and grimey. It's right up there with Oakland and Fresno in that regard.

Skid Row makes Portland's Oldtown feel like the Pearl or Beverly Hills.

 

LA's downtown is undergoing a revival. Its a LOT better than 5 years ago. Skid Row sucks balls. LA Live is souless hell.

A big part of the problem is right before the real estate bubble popped, LA made it so people had to stop re-developing the area because it was fucking up "affordable housing" (read: crackhouses). Its like if they stopped the Pearl District right in the beginning.

 

Skid Row is terrible. Alameda street...why they haven't patched up those pot holes since I've been here (since 1995) baffles the shit out of me. LA just doesn't give a fuck. Its terrible because Broadway could be really nice if they let development and revitalization happen. Instead, they make them shitty middle-eastern jewelry shops and cheap fucking mexican clothiers and discount retailers.

 

I was actually invited to go to Disney Hall on Sunday.

 

And just a few blocks down you'll get this:



You can't escape the LA grit for more than a few blocks in the downtown area.

 

Teh thing about LA that Downtown is not really the "center" of much..LA is spread out in several centers. Sure, downtown is ghetto...no one really goes there that much. Its a "downtown" in the very loosest sense of the word. I was out in Pasadena tonight...and less than a mile from there (which was a nice area) was a pretty ghetto mexican neighborhood.

In many cities, Downtowns are the primary tourist/shopping areas. In LA, they are elsewhere in the city (mid-city area, etc) where its more of what you would consider comparable to Seattle's downtown.

 

I have been rather impressed with some of the revitalization. It'll get better as time passes. Its still not very livable, I wouldn't live there (parents have a condo nearby though, about 5 min from downtown). Even Staples Center area....the last time the All Star game was in LA, that area was a fucking ghetto. It was really really bad..now its markedly improved.

The problem is the city politicians and council are corrupt as fuck here. 3rd world nation level corruptions.

 

I was going to bring that up, the density sucks. It's like a bigger version of downtown Phoenix.

 

personally I think Seattle's downtown is pretty shitty. After the initial amazement of the stores and pike market, etc, its actually quite boring and small. For my money, Portland is a lot better.

 

I've been to quite a few major cities. Most downtowns suck. The exception being Minneapolis.

 

Minneapolis/Seattle are similar in terms of density and size but the streetscape in MLPS is horrible. Every major road, it seems, was filled with potholes, cracks, and weeds. I know the climate plays a role in that - water seeps into the concrete/tar, freezes, and when it thaws it creates what you see everywhere in downtown MLPS.

 

I was in St. Louis' downtown in November. Absolutely horrible outside of the Busch stadium and Arch area. Not many places to go down there and a lot of boarded up buildings and stores. I felt like I stood out like a sore thumb because I was white.

 

The Landing was a good time. Lots of white people jammin' to some old school Eazy-E. I had a fucking blast there.

 

I was in Cincinnati once. fuck that shit is ghetto downtown.

 

Blah blah blah. Boooooooooring.

 

I'm 3 rep points away from 6 bars! Hint hint.

 

You ***gy ****?