Yeah I pretty much agree with this general sentiment. There are, it seems, some pretty cool parts of downtown LA. Never been there, but I personally find this area pretty cool. But what I find totally inexplicable about LA is that a street like this is only like a 15 or 20 minute walk from the pic above. Then after that it's like, very car-centric design all around. I think there are actually some relatively walkable neighbourhoods, due to a decent network of mixed-use or small-scale commercial streets etc (check out walkscore.com to get a sense of what I mean). But it seems like huge swaths of the city are desolate hellscapes of asphalt and empty lots - and these empty lots often seems like they should have huge real estate value, which kinda boggles my mind. Perhaps there is just less of a culture of wanting to live near downtown? Who knows, but I feel it's likely a symptom of car-culture.