Its the insistence of locals to keep Little Tokyo trapped in amber that is the very thing killing it. Housing remains static and yet demand keeps going up.
There is a reason Tokyo (the real one) remains relatively affordable and able to preserve local shops. Because it builds adequate housing. The Little Tokyo community fights tooth and nail against housing proposals and anything even moderately dense has to have plethora of expensive community benefits package that will not in any way stave off housing prices rising.
Little Tokyo sits right on top of two major rail lines. Its in walking distance of the busiest train station west of the Mississippi. It should be DENSE. But locals killed the project to put a mid rise tower on the Metro lot there because it didnt have enough parking. (again, this is the most train connected neighborhood in LA!)
The Little Tokyo station lot should have a 25 story tower on top of it at minimum. The lot across the street where the former station was and where they staged construction should have 3-4 25+ story towers.
This article ignores Anime Jungle, which is always bursting with customers. The Manga shop is also usually packed. Never really understood why this isn’t take advantage of, via festivals or other community lead events.
The community leaders there are giant hypocrites. They talk so much about wanting to promote Japanese culture but then let shops like LA Style, Anime Station and the pop-up stands to exist which all sell counterfeit goods from AliExpress that rip off actual Japanese industries. Meanwhile they protest businesses like Mokuyobi which is non-asian ran, but heavily inspired by Japanese culture, fashion and ran by a young person. It’s honestly so frustrating.
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What an aggravating article.
Its the insistence of locals to keep Little Tokyo trapped in amber that is the very thing killing it. Housing remains static and yet demand keeps going up.
There is a reason Tokyo (the real one) remains relatively affordable and able to preserve local shops. Because it builds adequate housing. The Little Tokyo community fights tooth and nail against housing proposals and anything even moderately dense has to have plethora of expensive community benefits package that will not in any way stave off housing prices rising.
Little Tokyo sits right on top of two major rail lines. Its in walking distance of the busiest train station west of the Mississippi. It should be DENSE. But locals killed the project to put a mid rise tower on the Metro lot there because it didnt have enough parking. (again, this is the most train connected neighborhood in LA!)
The Little Tokyo station lot should have a 25 story tower on top of it at minimum. The lot across the street where the former station was and where they staged construction should have 3-4 25+ story towers.
This article ignores Anime Jungle, which is always bursting with customers. The Manga shop is also usually packed. Never really understood why this isn’t take advantage of, via festivals or other community lead events.
The community leaders there are giant hypocrites. They talk so much about wanting to promote Japanese culture but then let shops like LA Style, Anime Station and the pop-up stands to exist which all sell counterfeit goods from AliExpress that rip off actual Japanese industries. Meanwhile they protest businesses like Mokuyobi which is non-asian ran, but heavily inspired by Japanese culture, fashion and ran by a young person. It’s honestly so frustrating.
Little Tokyo doesn’t look at all like Tokyo