But let’s all face it. LA is a toilet. It always has been and it always will be. There is big business in those bi towers, but at the end of the day it is a toilet.

Where did all those homeless people go that used to set up small neighborhood type cardboard homes in fron of the Ronald Reagon Building, or the Trade center. Those people found job? They are not homeless any longer? No they were pushed away to the outskirts.

Thank god there is something nice to live in in Downtown. Thank god you can now actually walk outside without get approached by thiefs, muggars, homeless people.

It is projects like these that make neighborhoods more successful, more attractive, and more safe.

Just like downtown Anaheim, Brea, Bella Terra in Huntington Beach. All of these places were toilets like LA. Thanks to proper high end development they are now attractive and good paying, upscale people with money and good credit scores now finally occupy this neighborhood.

I hope Palmer builds more. We need more people like Palmer. He should run for Govenor. He would get my vote.

You should all stop being envious of his success and his tranformation of a downtown toilet to a masterpiece.

Thank you Mr. Palmer. Keep up the great work.

N EXT!

P.S. I do wish Palmer had been forced to move that last Queen Anne house to Heritage Square where it could have been restored. Would have been a nice capper to their collection of buildings. Oh well.

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The problem with the retail space in the orsini is a few reasons, primarily the fact that any buisness you run just looks like the orsini. I don’t see a place for signage or major aesthetic changes so anyone driving by will just think its apartments. If i was investing money in opening a new restaurant or coffee shop, i don’t want faux italian architecture with dark windows and brick arches to be my only option.

As far as downtown haters, it’s fine let people say its dirty or ugly, I rather live in a community that has affection for its surroundings then try and convert people living in glendale or sherman oaks that downtown is worth moving to.

I agree Phillips is probably the best BBQ in LA and there is also Smokehouse down the way and their fries are amazing… I will check out Mr. Cecil’s…

I think we’d all love to see the retail full but full of what? The locations he’s chosen are pioneering for new development. Look across the streets and there isn’t shit. Also, many, many retailers don’t have any desire to take the space for virtually free becasue the retail is so poorly designed. The city required something for which there really is no demand. There are plenty of much better retail locations in DTLA.

The “historic” Queen Anne he tore town was a boarded up crack house he couldn’t give away because it was in such poor condition. There was absolutely nothing worth salvaging and the fact that the city and the hysterical conservancy tried to make him salvage it is ridiculous (especially if you consider the hypocracy that the city and the CRA are respnsible for tearing down an entire neighborhood full of historic Victoians when they redeveloped Bunker Hill).

My understanding is he also tried pretty hard to fit a small grocery store chain into the Orsini III (not TJ’s) but that to do it he would have lost an entire floor of units becasue the city wouldn’t give him a variance of a few feet in height (the grocery need higher ceilings than the original design).

BTW - The BQ King was decent BBQ, nothing more. Head down to Philip’s in Leimert Park or Mr. Cecil’s at Pico an Bundy for two FAR superior establishments. Don’t get me wrong, I ate at BB King frequently (and it absolutely destroys the Spring St Smoke House) but it always made me wish I had the time or ambition to go to another BBQ joint. Do they actually do any smoking at the 7th St location? Looks too small and I haven’t seen/smelled the smoke.

If you dislike our city, its history and vision there are lots of other places to be. I thank God for the people that have put their lives, talent, and fortune in the historical heart and start of Los Angeles, DOWNTOWN. I don’t especially like the architecture of the lets say, Orsini, but thank goodness they are here. And to “Nerd”, grow up.-Don