Give Up the Suburb? Yes. Give Up the Car? No Way

People are moving downtown, all right. But this is L.A. So they're bringing their cars with them.

And now local officials, who just a few years ago stopped requiring developers to build parking spaces in most loft buildings, are scrambling to accommodate automobiles -- and their owners -- downtown.

For example, when Michael Esparza moved to a downtown loft from Rancho Cucamonga last year, he shed almost every reminder of his suburban lifestyle except his cellphone with its 909 area code -- and his green 2000 Audi TT convertible.

"I can't imagine not having a car," he said. "It's not as essential as breathing or food, but, honestly

Esparza lives in the Higgins Building, a converted 1910 office structure at 2nd and Main streets, and keeps the car in a lot across the street. He walks to the Los Angeles County Superior Court complex, where he does legal research for bail-bond companies.

But he doesn't think much of L.A.'s public transportation, and he uses the car frequently -- to visit clients, shop for groceries, even to reach such downtown destinations as Arnie Morton's Steakhouse at 7th and Figueroa streets.

He and other downtown residents ride public transit for just 7% of their overall trips for work, shopping and other purposes, according to the Southern California Assn. of Governments. The other 93% -- minus a statistically insignificant number of trips on foot -- are made by car.

"Downtown L.A. will continue to be a place where you need a car for the majority of your trips," said Hasan Ikhrata, the association's director of policy and planning. "I don't see less reliance on the automobile in the near future."

Concerned that the revival will get stuck if residents and their visitors can't comfortably navigate and park their cars downtown, the city and its Community Redevelopment Agency have begun pressuring developers to build more parking.

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation is considering eliminating one-way bus lanes to allow more parking and improve traffic flow. Some streets near artist lofts in Little Tokyo were recently re-striped for diagonal street parking.