Let's Tour Koreatown, Los Angeles!

In this video we go on a tour of Koreatown. I show off some of the major parts of it and discuss how the city has changed in the last year and how I think the city will continue to change.

There are some interesting topics in this video regarding architecture, urban development, culture, and transit.

#losangeles #urbanplanning #walkablecity #transit #publictransport #urbandecay #gentrification #architecture

[Demographically]

Just went on a 3 video binge of your channel. No idea how I found you, but I am glad the YouTube algorithm brought me here! Here are a couple of feedback items:
1.) Wilshire Blvd is pronounced Will-Shur
2.) Litter, homeless tents, and dilapidated store fronts are common throughout much of urban LA. But it tends to be especially pronounced in Koreatown. It is one of the densest and poorest neighborhoods in Southern California (a combination that often results in unkept looking sidewalks). The situation is made worse by the fact that Koreatown has been gerrymandered severely by political interests, so it's hard for residents to easily coordinate on municipal services and demand clear accountability from city council. The fact that Koreatown lacks a full sized green space/park is case in point of how little their elected leaders care.
3.) Cities like LA, NYC, SF, have seen commercial corridors severely lag in their COVID rebounds. Lots of empty storefronts in various parts of Manhattan NY too.
4.) Yes there is lots of new residential development happening. But that's more a function of that fact that NIMBYISM is weaker in Koreatown compared with other neighborhoods. We will take new housing wherever we can get it, as this entire region is in severe housing shortage.

Anyways. Thanks for the content. Liked and subscribed.

[mariusfacktor]

0:58 Olympic Blvd is treacherous. They need to slow it down to 25 mph. They need to replace a car lane with a bike lane and add a bus lane by removing street parking. They have way too much street parking in KTown. There is the Purple Line, decent bus service, and it's walkable.

[maxxrenn]

I just moved to LA from London England so Im loving these educational videos

[djbobabear]

Regarding 8th Street, all those businesses are open! You just go through the back. It's mostly for safety, and Ktown businesses have a long history of closing their front doors but keeping their back entrances open. A great example is Hanbat Sulun Tang; they added a sign to their back entrance as they grew in popularity over the years.

[Geotpf]

The Purple Line subway is being extended all the way down Wilshire to the VA hospital. That, and it already going downtown, with other connections, is probably one of the main reasons for all the apartment construction nearby. Hopefully the new residents will use the subway and other public transportation as much as possible.

[zackhod]

“Los Angeles-Korea Town the old almanac a lot of GREAT times living here 🥲😁 some day soon I’ll come back!!!⏰👍

[RalphBarbagallo]

Koreatown is cool, but I had to move out a few years back when someone got a full clip emptied into them from a 45 caliber handgun right in front of my street level apartment window. There are lots of cool, older low-density apartment buildings with nice vintage interiors etc. It's a very convenient place to live with lots of charm...but also lots of bullets. :)

[solegonz]

Haven't been to K-town since before the pandemic. Please enjoy all the good eats for me!!

[FlyingOverTrut]

I'd love to see some green space in Koreatown as well as protected bike lanes or separated bike paths. I see so many people ride their bikes on sidewalks because the main roads like Wilshire and Western, among others, are too dangerous to ride on. I ride my bike on the sidewalk on big streets like those as well, and it seems pointless when we have such an opportunity to ease traffic and make Koreatown easier and less expensive to get around in with protected bike lanes.

[no_name]

I'm optimistic when traffic gets worse. People have different breaking points and start looking into alternative options like public transit or biking. Once these alternative gain more optics, it'll push for more development in this areas. So I say let traffic get worse. This was one reason why I started taking public transit to work. It was only 10-15 minutes more than driving and but It's 100X more pleasant when I can just chill instead of dealing with traffic.

[EKsUrbanTracks]

My kinda channel! Instant sub!
@01:45 It's so nice to see these pop up! We hear a lot about how difficult it is to have them built, but rarely successful attempts like these! These look like what you can find in dense Parisian suburbs.
I also notice how visible electric cables are.
@02:13 Paris Baguette? Somehow I feel like there's a lie somewhere.
@03:13 Versailles? Is this a joke? 😂
@06:36 Wow, four! You can't even use them on both sides! You could quadruple the parking space by tilting them by 90 degrees!

Thanks for this exploration of a neighbourhood I never heard about!

[alangag]

hey, I’m from Brazil and i really liked ur video! My hometown, São Paulo, is a really massive city and very car friendly really similar to LA, but here the changes are a bit slower. Nice to nice how LA is handling things. Success!!

[SeaBassTian]

Koreatown may be a jumbled mess architecturally but I enjoy the fact that it looks like Epcot Center on shuffle. I'm less fond of the stroad vibe of Olympic Blvd, gives me Queens Blvd vibes... As a side note, I called that Bora 3170 property for my job earlier today!

[eu]

K-town’s boundaries vary depending on who you ask but I generally consider it to go all the way up to Beverly. The section between 3rd and Beverly has a lot of bungalows, two-story apartment buildings, and even a decently sized single-family home area. Normandie Ave, between 7th and 8th, has a lot of old historic brick apartment buildings giving the street a NY vibe. I’ve heard some people even refer to that street as Little NY due to the similar style apartment buildings.

[maYTeus]

ita funny that ktown is inspired by korean culture but didnt get any of that korean urban upgrades 🙃

[rosevee]

A lot has changed. I used to walk at 8th street going to Olympic blv. for Boba. The intersection at Wilshire I used to work in one of the bldg. there. So many memories.

[jlee]

“Wil-Shire”? Did you just move to LA, or are you writing this from Omsk Russia?

[ryanmedina]

My only issue is how he says Willshire. Its Will-sure not WIll-Shire. 😁

[davidblanc]

there was pacific electric trolley line on venice blvd till the 1960's. Bus and bike lanes could reduce traffic a lot. A full-fledged metre system like nyc could as well, an underground car tunnel like in seattle waterfront or boston, all this is very expensive

[nuclearquack]

In terms of transit running north-south, the K line will have an extension running through from the E line, future D line station (Wilshire/Fairfax likley) and the B line. While it won't run directly at Koreatown (it's gonna run through Mid-City and Fairfax area), residents will have more transit flexibility soon albeit with a required transfer.