It’s speculators who drove these prices up and who will suffer by their fall. The rest of us can get back to the business of building our communities. I say it is a good thing, and will help the development of downtown, not hinder it.

Sure, the downtown housing market is cooling off. It’s cooling everywhere in the WHOLE COUNTRY, not just southern California.

And if the average price is down 15% for downtown condos rather than 11% elsewhere, that is not a really big yawning gap of a difference.

Buildings are still going up, very few projects have been delayed or abandoned. The Concerto is going up. The Medallion is starting to be built. The Meruelo project is going up. GLO just opened. Geoff Palmer is still building his Tuscan fortresses. EVO is mostly sold and it’s 26 stories.

By the time all of these projects are finished, the economy should be on somewhat of a rebound. Methinks the Times is too ready to declare the death of Downtown, especially with that headline. Why do they want to do that? Isn’t that where their office is?

I’ve heard talk that Council staff might be losing their free cars (or the number of free cars they get).

I’ve heard that they might start getting free bikes!

Also, now might be a good time to suggest turning the LADOT into a transit-only (along with taxicab licensing) agency, and pull all of its infrastructure staff into the Department of Public Works.

The roadway planning staff could be shoved into Planning – where they could use the help.

The meter maids could got to the LAPD or general services.

Getting rid of a department, and consolidating fleets and maintenance staff could be a huge savings. It would certainly make political decisions having to do with the roadway easier.

but, good for him. $100 says it’s a beach cruiser.