Kicking all nay-sayers to the curb, the Times Op-Ed gives a thumbs up to the LA Live project if only because it fills a hole in the downtown landscape.
The development — which will include a 55-story hotel and condominium complex, a broadcast center for ESPN, restaurants and nightspots — offends some critics because it will be a playground for tourists. It will cater mainly to people with money to burn and an evening to kill, not to the daily needs of downtown's growing residential population. But for that particular stretch of downtown, the towering hotel and L.A. Live entertainment project are probably the best option available to the city. That's because they have the potential to convert downtown's biggest money pit, the embarrassingly vacant Convention Center, into something that acts more like an asset.
It's hardly a ringing endorsement of what's sure to change the face of South Park and by extension all of Downtown LA, but everyone seems to be willing to accept anything that has the chance to save our crappy convention center.
· Conventional wisdom [LA Times]