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Metro is exploring development opportunities at the future Little Tokyo/Arts District Station site and wants to hear from you!
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The new Little Tokyo/Arts District underground station is being built as part of the Regional Connector project that is tying together the Blue, Expo and Gold Lines to speed up light rail trips to and through downtown Los Angeles and greatly reduce the need to transfer.
The proposed development site is along 1st Street between Central and Alameda. For more information on this project, please visit metro.net/projects/jd-littletokyo-artsdistrict/.
Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects
Convert the Mangrove into a community park with shade trees and green grass; benches and playgrounds, water fountains, where locals as well as visitors can relax and rest from their daily commute. Time to take a leisurely look at their city and appreciate it.
Rogelio Peña
Montebello, CA 90640
323-627-6213
3/17/2018
My vision includes not calling it “Arts District” that name will likely be used by the Red line. Avoid confusion early.
Maybe they can move the Little Tokyo koban to the station entrance, so that when subway riders arrive, they can get local information, help and directions. The koban is also supposed to serve as a small police substation.
How about the radical idea of selling to the highest bidder and using the funds for capital construction of other Metro projects? You know, delivering transportation projects like Metro’s mandate requires rather than other inefficient programs that Metro shouldn’t be involved with?
The east end of First St, after Alameda, does not “fall away” into “undeveloped” land. There are some very interesting older buildings, and a few have already been adapted to unique artistic and commercial use. New structures built there should of course be retail + residential, but the “style” there should not be just like the rest of downtown LA. Let the new Metro station (“fantastic site”) announce a transition into a distinct new zone of historically sensitive re-adaptation of distinct older properties.
Sorry, lemme clarify: I only meant the north part of First Street (the Mangrove site), which has been vacant (parking lots) all the way up to the Buddhist temple for many years. To me, it has been a major continuity break for Downtown LA for far too long. The south side of First Street has many cool buildings and people, and wasn’t at all what I was complaining about.
As a person who doesn’t live in Little Tokyo, I would say development of the “Mangrove site” (northeast corner of 1st/Alameda) is super important to connecting Little Tokyo and the Arts District to El Pueblo and Union Station.
Currently, the east end of First Street just kind of falls apart into undeveloped and underdeveloped land. This makes for an uncomfortable experience for pedestrians – locals and visitors. Building out the Mangrove site, if done well, would put an “endcap” on Little Tokyo, making it feel more whole and connected with the rest of the city.
How that development is comprised should ultimately be up to the locals. In my view, it should be a mixed-use (retail + residential) development 4-8 stories tall. It’s a fantastic site, at the intersection of major streets, soon to have a busy subway station across the street.
My dream would be if the entire block could be redeveloped by tearing down the Staples store and one story shopping center. Replace it with multi story mixed use shopping promenade.