EDITORIAL NO MORE SUBSIDIES.

BY all accounts, the resurrection of downtown Los Angeles in the past 30 years has become a great urban success story.

It's been a long time coming, though, driven by the relentless pursuit of remaking the defunct city center. Millions upon millions in public money have gone into that effort, in the form of tax credits and subsidies. But it seems to have finally paid off. The streets of South Park, once the location of only run-down hotels, are now sporting luxury housing buildings by the score.

Who ever imagined the industrial blight of Alameda Street south of Temple Street would be replaced by trendy new lofts and coffeehouses? Or that hipsters from the Westside would choose downtown over Venice Beach or Melrose?

But that's exactly what is happening, and the result is a ripple effect that will generate as much as $26 billion in revenue throughout the Los Angeles region over the next decade, according to the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp.

Legitimate and longtime concerns have been raised over how downtown's redevelopment has come at the expense of the neighborhoods of the San Fernando Valley and other parts of the city. So those who have begrudged the massive allocation of precious resources to downtown should applaud the fact that it has reached a critical mass of development and investment.

Now it's time to let downtown stand on its own financial feet. Officials must stop the public subsidies and start investing in the areas of the city that have long been neglected to feed the downtown dream.

The tax revenue that has been kept downtown to help defray costs for billionaire developers is clearly no longer necessary and must be returned to the city's general fund to build healthy neighborhoods across the city. With plans well under way to get the homeless off the streets of downtown one way or another, the city center soon will no longer be considered blighted.

So it's time the city's leaders claim victory and let free-market forces dictate future downtown development. It's time they start spreading the wealth, planning expertise and leadership they've lavished on downtown to neighborhoods such as North Hollywood, Pacoima, Lincoln Heights and South Los Angeles.

If decades of the city's wealth can transform downtown from a coal pit to a field of diamonds, imagine what a few years' worth of help can do for the rest of the city.