go go go
July 17, 2004 by Eric Richardson
My mom arrived yesterday morning, and it's already been a packed day and a half. I'm a little tired, so I'm not going to post a full review right now, but here's what we've hit:
The Natural History Museum, which I had seen in June. I wanted my mom to see the LA: Light/Motion/Dreams exhibit and the model of downtown.
The California Science Center to see Body Worlds. Crazy.
The Koo Koo Roo on Wilshire to eat and then next door to see the tar pit.
The Grove, including a great view from the top of its 8-story parking garage. The skies were clear and the view included the Hollywood sign, downtown, and the trail of buildings that follow Wilshire down to Century City and beyond.
The Hard Rock Cafe to see the retooled lineup of Yardley.
Today, a morning LA Conservancy walking tour of historic Broadway theaters. We were able to see inside five or so theaters and to hear the organ played at the Orpheum.
Lunch at Cole's, claimed originator of the french dip sandwich.
weekends downtown
July 15, 2004 by Eric Richardson
Yesterday there was a post on blogging.la asking the oft heard question:
So, blogging.la, what would you say is "The" Los Angeles attraction that must not be missed?
In the comments be sure to look for the suggestions of Will Campbell. His day plan sounds tiring, but amazing.
But then you get a couple comments by "Mike", derriding other suggestions in favor of just going surfing (not bad in and of itself, but in his context a bad comment). One of his comments includes
Have you been downtown on a weekend? Did you like sharing your lunch with the 20 homeless guys sitting next to you?
Funny thing about that... One of the most surprising things to me about moving downtown was that downtown on a weekend is absolutely packed. I live on Spring, between 6th and 7th. One block west is Broadway, where Will suggests seeing the old theaters. Broadway these days is home to a huge range of shops selling cheap clothing, electronics, basically anything you can imagine. And on the weekends people come there in droves. D4 and I walked up the street to Grand Central Market this past Saturday, and the sidwalks were so full it was hard to get around.
Yeah, you'll definitely see the homeless people around there at night once the shops close, but during the day you're going to have a tough time picking them out from the mass of other people milling about.
speaking of downtown
July 14, 2004 by Eric Richardson
While I'm on the topic, downtown blogger Jim Winstead has for a while now been doing some figuring and running the numbers on what it would take to open a video rental store in the area. Downtown is largely berift of options in that regard, and while being able to get DVDs from the library is cool, their selection is way too odd to be of regular help. Anyway, after thinking he wasn't up to it, he did end up going to home entertainment 2004 is Las Vegas.
The building next door to me has some empty storefront space, and in the window is a sign that includes a bit about how residents would like to see a gallery or video store (paraphrasing since I'm at work right now). You'd like to think that with the influx of population and apparent interest someone could make the numbers work.
the ever-evolving downtown
July 14, 2004 by Eric Richardson
Last week I mentioned that some days my bike ride seems a lot tougher than others. Today it was a breeze.
The L.A. Times today has an article titled "Developers Set to Start Staples Center Project." It talks about the upcoming start of construction on LA Live, the massive entertainment/hotel/housing/shopping project to be built on the north side of Staples Center. The hotel aspect is one of the focal points of the project, and the article today lists a detail I hadn't seen before:
As planned, the 1,200-room hotel is expected to include three components in one high-rise of as many as 55 stories: * 900 guest rooms and the largest meeting space in Los Angeles County under one hotel brand. * 300 rooms above those, under the flag of another, higher-end hotel chain. * As many as 100 luxury condominiums at the very top of the building.
The whole stacked-use concept is kind of cool. I realize the hotels will probably share a lot of management and infrastructure, and so really won't be entirely separate, but it's still kind of funky having two hotels in the same building. And as everything downtown right now, it includes a large dose of housing. The city of LA recently launched a map of adaptive reuse projects downtown, and it's pretty crazy to see graphically what you sort of understand walking around the area. Just the "Under Construction" category includes 2,551 units.
It's a fun time to be downtown.
Update: The Daily News has this similar story that includes some artist's conception drawings of the LA Live project.
handsome devil
July 13, 2004 by Eric Richardson
As I'm writing this Morning Becomes Eclectic is playing "Tennessee Wedding" by Jim Bianco. I'm loving it. Jim Bianco is amazing. His next local show is the LA cd release party at the Knitting Factory on July 29th.