Downtown LA Finally 'Happens'

Urbanites flock to new real estate hot spot
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 30, 2007 3:08 PM CDT
Downtown LA Finally 'Happens'
Soccer players are seen on a training session at the Bolivar stadium, some 3600 meters above sea level in downtown La Paz, Bolivia, Monday, May 28, 2007. President Evo Morales announced that Bolivia will fight a decision by soccer's international governing body FIFA to ban international games above...   (Associated Press)

The clutter of buildings known as "downtown LA" is morphing from a nightly ghost town into a hip 'hood, the Washington Post reports. Recent laws have turned offices into lofts, and attracted hipsters to enjoy the high ceilings and roof parties. Artists are hightailing out as six-figure professionals come looking for what one expert calls "the flip side of the suburbs."

The loft trend kicked off in New York and spread from Chicago to Wichita, attracting artists to replace the poor and then college grads to pay the big rents. “They've been talking about downtown happening for 10 years,” says a real estate agent. “Now it has happened. There's no turning back. There's too much money to turn back now.” (More Los Angeles stories.)

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