Best urban area to revitalize? [View All]

[KamaAina]

Last week I saw a piece on the NewsHour with a fellow who was pooh-poohing the new Disney Hall in downtown L.A. He made the area sound rather promising, actually: many old theatres to fix up, office buildings to convert to apartments like in lower Manhattan, etc.

Trouble is, it's not that no one's down there, it's that everyone's pulling in different directions. Hardly the place for a bunch of DUers to pull up with the U-Haul and start unpacking. Besides, what if there were females around when Gov. Schicklgroper came to town?!

So, any other brilliant ideas for an urban environment that needs to be settled in? Progressive local politics (there really aren't any states left :( ), good transportation, culture above the level of Terminator 4 at the 'plex, and the like. It could even be an "inner-ring" suburb" that new development has passed by (the model there would be Takoma Park, MD, near DC) or an old industrial town, as long as it was possible to get to a nearby city without an SUV (or any other private vehicle).