LA Live sits just outside downtown Los Angeles

The Index

Square feet of LED signage in Nokia Plaza: 20,000

Cost of developing LA Live, in billions of dollars: 2.5

Size of LA Live, in acres: 27

Size of Vatican City, in acres: 110

Reported price of David Beckham's luxury condo, in millions of dollars: 8

Price of Surf N' Turf at Rock N' Fish, in dollars: 59.95

Nokia Theater

ESPN Zone

Lawry's Carvery

Regal Cinemas

                   

 

LA Live is vibrant late night spot

by Jeff Curtis

What makes Los Angeles unique?

That ostensibly simple question becomes difficult to answer when one considers how expansive Los Angeles is. There is almost too much going on in the city to single any thing out. Smog and silicone might sound like acceptable answers, but there is pollution everywhere and plastic surgery, while endemic to Los Angeles, is not unique to the city.

One thing Los Angeles can lay claim to is being the entertainment capital of the world. Home to movie studios and celebrities, the city has long been the center of show business. Los Angeles is filled with landmark entertainment sites, from Grauman’s Chinese Theater to the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

LA Live is the latest entrant into the pantheon of Los Angeles entertainment venues. Situated next to the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, LA Live blends dining, entertainment and a lot of neon lights together into a unique destination.

   

"It is impersonal, Christmas-esque and fluorescent." -LA Live patron

The most striking thing about the complex is how often it changes. The open-air plaza in the center of LA Live is constantly shifting to meet the entertainment needs of the development. One night the plaza is the site of the red carpet for the American Music Awards. The next week, it is home to an ice skating rink. It all comes together in a bright and varied spectacle that draws people throughout the Los Angeles area.

LA Live was built in part to revitalize the area and give people a reason to go downtown. The developers thought the complex would bring people to the area and give a boost to the sagging local economy. Despite concern from nearby business owners, the development seems to have had its intended effect. More and more people are flocking to LA Live until late at night to eat dinner or head to Club Nokia.

"We’ve extended our hours until 2 am. What we're selling isn’t so much food as alcohol.” -owner, La Bella Cucina restaurant

The sum effect of LA Live is a place as bright and ostentatious as Hollywood. Well-coiffed, nattily dressed people crowd the area long after midnight to be a part of the newest scene in Los Angeles. Even bald, shabby people come to enjoy the many entertainment options LA Live offers.

While not everyone loves the sparkling façade put on by LA Live, for many the complex is a vibrant new place to be in Los Angeles.

Controversy Surrounding LA Live

Christopher Wallace may have been on to something.

The rapper- better known as the Notorious B.I.G.- displayed a keen business sense with one of his song titles.

Mo Money, Mo Problems.

The developers behind LA Live can relate to that. With a sticker price of nearly $2.5 billion dollars, the cost of the downtown entertainment complex has nearly been equaled by the scrutiny it has drawn.

LA Live has come under fire from members of affordable housing groups after funds earmarked for battered women and the homeless instead went towards street renovations along the Figueroa Corridor.

In 2007, Gov. Schwarzenegger signed a law that allowed companies like Anschutz Entertainment Group (one of the developers behind the LA Live project) to use some of the $50 million voters approved for the Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act of 2006.

That the money was supposed to go towards sheltering the needy apparently had no bearing on the decision. Nor did the fact that people affiliated with the developers contributed nearly $3 million to state political funds, according to the Los Angeles Times.

And the luxury condo that Schwarzenegger bought in the as-yet incomplete Ritz-Carlton tower?  Completely unrelated.

According to the Los Angeles Times, executives affiliated with Anschutz have given $2.7 million to state political funds, including $583,000 to the governor’s campaigns.

It seems sadly ironic that some of this money would go to beautifying the streets around LA Live when needy people live just blocks away in Skid Row. Of course, the neon glow of LA Live likely reaches that far into the night sky, so perhaps the poor and destitute can take comfort in the lights while they sit on the streets.

Timeline of LA Live Development