Still waiting for Downtown LA's agora

The LA Times' coverage of the recently unveiled preliminary plans for the latest, greatest makeover of the downtown civic center has been disappointingly uncritical--with the partial exception of architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne's piece--while the Daily News has been typically obsessed with the project's potential taxpayer costs. Morris Newman of the online Slatin Report thus provides a welcome view which fairmindedly asks what we, residents and visitors of Southern California alike, are really going to get in terms of usable urban spaces from the new Grand Avenue project being developed for the city and county by the Related Companies. It's far too early to say for sure, but I'm in full agreement with Newman that what's been revealed so far is thoroughly underwhelming, if not particularly unexpected. Too bad, too, because the potential for something truly great is there.