L.A. Arena District Revives a Downtown in Decline

The company that planned, financed and built L.A. Live, the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), has been hired as a consultant on all aspects of Oilers owner Daryl Katz’s proposed arena district in Edmonton.

Joel Kotkin, the noted Los Angeles scholar on urban planning, says the buildings of the arena district are generic. “There’s nothing uniquely Angeleno about any of this stuff,” he says. “This could be anywhere. This could be in the Midwest somewhere. It probably is in the Midwest somewhere.”

Kotkin’s praise is faint. “I certainly don’t think it’s overwhelmingly exciting. We’re a big city and we’re going to need an arena somewhere. So it’s as good a place as any other.”