this week in downtown news

two pieces that caught my eye in the la downtown news this week: a market shift: grand central struggles to balance history with changing demographics, and broadway buildings get $1 million facelift.

personally, i’m glad to see more (prepared) food vendors in the grand central market. the one thing they’re bringing is variety. it will be great to have a tortilla maker in the market again, and i’m looking forward to the hawaiian barbecue place. i’m not sure that mongolian barbecue is a great fit for the space (you have to point out what you want to the person loading the bowl through glass partition, which makes it nearly impossible to communicate), but the food is tasty. it will be interesting to see how the 99 cent store opening in the underground space does. perhaps it will help fill the gap left when the baked goods vendor closed a few months ago.

i’m not entirely sure about what variety the multitude of produce vendors really brings to the market. they all sell basically the same things at the same prices, and none of them appear to put much effort into distinguishing themselves from the others.

the broadway renovation projects sound great, although i’m less than thrilled about the use of taxpayer funds to pay for it. it is a shame that the building owners can’t justify spending their own money for the improvements.

oh, and i should probably mention the article about bringing wifi to pershing square. it’s a fine idea, although i’m really not a big fan of pershing square.