Now Los Angeles is shifting gears. A huge new sports arena opened just in time for the Democratic National Convention, and city officials are pushing a scheme to link Staples Arena and stagnant Bunker Hill with a corridor of retail business, entertainment and residential development. The latter is critical to the success of any downtown renewal scheme. From hard experience, municipal planners and investors have learned that luring affluent suburbanites is almost impossible without a major draw, such as a baseball park or basketball arena, and that works only on the relatively few game days. Conversely, San Francisco and Santa Monica have prospered largely because of large populations of affluent, young residents who have the yen for diversion and the money to buy it.
Long Beach is a case study.
Massive layoffs of aerospace workers and the closure of the Long Beach Navy Base clobbered the local economy. Much of downtown Long Beach suffers from decay, and the Queen Mary, the aquarium and the convention center have fallen short. The latter is a nationwide trend. If the market isn't there, all the city subsidies in the world won't create prosperity. Let us hear from you.