For the latter third of the 20th Century, the historic core of downtown Los Angeles was ignored by the city’s power brokers. The neighborhood became synonymous with urban decay, a place where the marginalized went to rot.
But today, a visitor to Main Street is as likely to encounter a gleaming Honda Prius as an overladen shopping cart, or happen upon a Bikram Yoga studio as a liquor mart.
This reporting project digs at the heart of nearly 15 years of revitalization – or gentrification, depending on whom you ask – in historic downtown. We hit the pavement and interviewed residents, business owners, grassroots advocates and neighborhood watchdogs, all of who had an opinion on the radical transformation that has taken root.
Our work highlights both the long-established and emerging communities in the area, while also exploring some of the challenges of their now overlapping existence.
View Main Street in Downtown LA in a larger map