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Two notable movements among staff writers at the Los Angeles Times recently:  Pat McMahon and Julie Makinen have moved to Downtown Los Angeles, trading in long commutes and gardeners for lofts and the urban lifestyle.

Both have begun to chronicle their experiences, with McMahon deciding the din of buses and voices is a good thing, and Makinen loving the money savings Downtown has afforded her.

An exploration of the urban lifestyle by our local journalists is a good thing (I’m not just talking about Downtown, either), but the moves — and corresponding coverage — come at a time when layoffs, uncertainty and falling readership plagues the newspaper industry at large and is particularly acute at the Times.

While I make sure to include the LA Times as part of my daily reading (online only, but that’s a topic for another time), the dual questions of “Who are we serving now?” and “Who should we be serving in the future?” just haven’t been answered satisfactorily.

Successive rounds of resignations and cuts leave Angelenos with mixed emotions about the paper that has been so linked with the development of Los Angeles for over 125 years.

Unfortunately, the Times’ reporting on local issues has been like getting caught in a rip tide:  Constantly fighting against the sea change in the make-up of our city and its inhabitants threatens to wash the entire operation into Santa Monica Bay unless it gets smart, fast.

The paper has recently attempted to take steps in improving local reporting, though too often that has meant conducting “urban safaris” led by incredulous reporters.

Though two staff reporters’ moving Downtown seems like a trivial event — and maybe it is — it’s indicative of the larger shift we’re making as a city.  It’s my hope that their experiences will filter out into local coverage and help make this paper relevant again for those of us living lifestyles that don’t fit the mold of suburban LA.

I believe in the Times and its ability to be the paper we need it to be, just as I believe in the ability of Angelenos to pull together and decide that it’s time to work together to fix our many problems, to jumpstart our sense of civic pride once more, and to stay informed about the changes we’re experiencing as an interconnected society, each a part of the whole.

LA isn’t just a sunny vacation destination for weather-weary out-of-towners; we’re a city, dammit, so let’s start acting like one.

Here’s to hoping these moves usher in an era of local reporting on things that matter to real Angelenos — with less from high above in the Hollywood Hills, and more from the streets and sidewalks below.

-la times takes ignorant stance on downtown market (angelenic)
-A Walk to Work on the Wild Side (LA Times)
-Lofty Living for Less (LA Times)

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