Downtown as Theme Park Just a Shill Ride

Hate to sound like a party pooper, but I'm not sure I'm loving what I'm hearing about the reinvention of downtown Los Angeles.

It's a tossup which is more irksome, the comparison of the Grand Avenue redevelopment plan with the Champs Elysees in Paris, or the description of the L.A. Live project near the Staples Center as Times Square West.

Isn't there already a place in the West that people can visit if they want bad imitations of world destinations? Yeah, it's called Vegas.

And besides, the once-grand Champs Elysees has been cheapened with fast-food joints and souvenir shops, judging by my last visit. As for Times Square, ever since the makeover, it's just another tourist trap.

The topper, though, is that taxpayers are forking over subsidies to L.A. Live developer Philip Anschutz, a Denver billionaire seven times over, and I'd like to call attention to this before our fawning city officials give him Griffith Park.

Now, before I continue, I'm going to admit that I seem to hold a minority opinion on the sports-entertainment colossus called L.A. Live. As noted, the City Council couldn't roll over fast enough, and Chamber of Commerce types are leaping for joy. Even downtown activist and professional curmudgeon Brady Westwater has found something to like about L.A. Live. He favors concentrating all that stuff in one place rather than sprinkling it around and ruining historic neighborhoods, which could later be redeveloped in less crass ways.

As for the subsidies, Westwater said it didn't look like a hotel would ever get built near the Convention Center any other way, and the Convention Center is a loser without one.

Maybe, but I can't quit thinking about those subsidies.

Anschutz got $58 million in city bonds and $12 million in redevelopment grants for the land around the Staples Center, and now he's been promised $290 million in hotel tax rebates over the next 25 years to help finance the $2.5-billion sports-entertainment colossus called L.A. Live.

The project is slated to include two upscale hotels, luxury condos, restaurants, an ESPN broadcasting studio, a Grammy museum, a 7,000-seat theater and 15-screen multiplex.

In other words, it's a triumphant blow to originality and the natural evolution of city life. While I might be lured to drop by on occasion, I suspect I'll be avoiding the synthetic fun center as much as possible, just on principle. The name alone is a tipoff to trouble, making it sound as if a visit will be akin to having a walk-on role in a reality show.