L.A. Downtown public spaces

Our office in Los Angeles is way up in the sky, so I can get a pretty good view of downtown (from one side, anyway).

From above, there seem to be a lot of public spaces, but they are two or three stories above street level, usually above a parking garage.










This is what it's like from the street:




You need these pedestrian walkways to get to the public spaces, but how do you get up there?




Actually, I shouldn't assume that those green spaces are actually public. But you have to wonder when much of the retail is underground.



In addition to elevated plazas, sunken plazas are also quite popular.




There are a couple of spots where it was more humane, like in front of the Los Angeles public library.



And the plaza across the street from the library.



Downtown Los Angeles seemed to be a true Modernist experiment - separation of cars and people, elevation of cars in status, and separation of everyday functions (buying and eating lunch, shopping) from the banality of walking on the sidewalk. During the day, downtown isn't half-bad, but I did get annoyed when the hotel told us not to jog because the downtown was too dangerous. This perception was only reinforced by native LAists, who also told me not to walk around at night when I mentioned going for an after dinner stroll. It will be interesting to see how the city develops downtown, especially with the big Grand Avenue redevelopment project.

I did get to ride the subway, which I have been very curious about....



...only I was not supposed to ride it back.