The Lastest Share from Prof O'Hare

"The research, presented in late March at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers, locates hot spots based on the frequency and draw of cultural happenings: film and television screenings, concerts, fashion shows, gallery and theater openings. The buzziest areas in New York, it finds, are around Lincoln and Rockefeller Centers, and down Broadway from Times Square into SoHo. In Los Angeles the cool stuff happens in Beverly Hills and Hollywood, along the Sunset Strip, not in trendy Silver Lake or Echo Park."
-"Mapping the Cultural Buzz: How Cool Is That?" full NY Times article

Last Thursday, PP157 discussed the arts as a means of stimulating the national economy. This bled over into a discussion about local arts development and whether or not the creation of a museum or gallery in an impoverished neighborhood would boost the local economy as a result of building the community's cultural capital. Can the arts effectively do this? Are their other industries that have boosted SES better? ::gagrealestategag:: [I won't get started on that...]

I bring this up only because of the article's reference to Echo Park. Seriously... "trendy... Echo Park"? Dear me, if you referenced Echo Park six years ago, you would have been laughed at and slapped with a wet noodle.. or drenched with Echo Park lake water.