Lazy Saturday

Progress in Downtown Los Angeles is Slow

I’ve learned quite a bit during my first month here in Los Angeles … Coyotes will come down from the hills and take your kids away … People wear winter clothes in 70 degree weather … Drivers are not very aggressive on the highway and that is one of biggest reasons for all the traffic … You’re either trendy or you’re not … and things are slow to happen.

Today I would like to focus on the slow pace of progress when it comes to businesses opening up in downtown Los Angeles.

Back in January when H and I made our first trip to L.A. to find a place to live we visited the Market Lofts. At that time the ground floor currently was busy with construction as Quiznos, Robeks and some small Italian fast food place. We also visited the Met Lofts where signs were up advertising the impending opening of a wine store type place. Over in the bottom of Luma South they were talking about a bakery heading into the space. Pretty exciting eh?

We returned again in early March to narrow down our search and for H to do some business and guess what? All those businesses were still under construction.

Fast forward to the second week of May and they are still working on all of these places and none looks close to opening.

I can speak intelligently about the businesses under the Market Lofts since we live there. Every day they are working on the Italian place and Quiznos but I am not sure what they do. Same with Robeks whenever Carter and I wander over to that corner of the block. I am not a contractor but I don’t think it is unreasonable to think that you can’t get a Quiznos up and running in five months. A place where you make juice requires half a year of construction? I know there are plenty of things that have to happen - electrical, plumbing, decorating, installation of equipment, but five months?

How can they build a house in a weekend on tv but these places can’t get up in running yet? Mike Holmes wouldn’t be impressed.

I hope one day the downtown core is full of thriving businesses, green space for dogs to pee, and overall a great place to live.

I also hope this happens some time while I am alive.

The Coyotes Are At It Again

So the infamous coyote I mentioned the other day is back at it. Apparently yesterday he tried to snatch a little girl who was playing in her front yard.

The two year old was left in out front for a brief moment when the super smart coyote decided this was his chance. He ran onto the yard and picked the girl up by the head and started dragging her toward the street. Mom then came out of the house, saw what was happening and ran after the two. The coyote knew what was best, dropped the kid and ran off to wherever coyotes hang out when looking for little kids.

Traps have been set for Wild E. but they haven’t caught him yet. I mean wake up people - the Road Runner couldn’t do away with this guy after all these years, what do you think a couple of traps are going to do. And they probably aren’t Acme traps either.

Here is the story on the local news.

Urine Urine Everywhere

I like living in downtown Los Angeles, I really do. It is exciting to be in the midst of the transition the core is experiencing these days, all the while making our home amongst the lights of the Staples Center and the US Bank building.

But every once in a while something comes up or happens that makes me think that the city has to make some major changes if they want people and business to not only set up shop downtown but to stay.

Case in point - the smell of urine that exists around every corner. Look, I know there are a lot of homeless in Los Angeles and it is a problem that the local government and residents need to pay more attention too. At the same time if you want people to make their home here it can’t smell like pee on every block.

We walk Carter all around the immediate downtown core and the south park neighborhood and we can’t seem to travel a block without the strong smell of pee. There are some blocks where it is so strong that I have had to speed up the pace to get through it.

This is just one segment of a much larger issue: downtown L.A. is dirty. I lived five years in Chicago and was always amazed at how clean the city is, and so were guests that would visit. I found it interesting that after 3-4 days of my dad being here recently he commented on how dirty it is in the core, unlike Chicago.

I know the downtown improvement district has put a lot of garbage cans on the street and I see people picking up trash all the time. But I feel ‘dirty’ after walking outside some times and not in a good way.

Perhaps it is us being overly critical but I don’t think so - you can’t fake the smell of urine.

Where In The World Did We Move To?

Sunday night we are watching the news, and the second or third story in they talk about coyotes. Apparently at some park on the weekend a coyote came down from the mountain, went into a playground and grabbed a toddler by the butt and started to drag her away. The nanny ran to the kid, grabbed it and pulled it away from the coyote.

The next story was about mountain lion and bobcat sightings somewhere in the hills.

Excuse me? Coyotes grabbing kids from the playground?

Well apparently it happened again because they have shut down a park nearby, here is the story.

Now let’s just think about this for a minute, sentence by sentence.

1. A coyote came down from the hills
2. Said coyote went to a play ground and grabbed a toddler by the butt
3. The nanny grabbed the toddler away from the coyote
4. The coyote went back into the hills

Is this normal here? Do I need to be careful when walking Carter? (jk)

Attention Residents of Los Angeles

Attention residents of Los Angeles - Today the temperature reached a high of 68 and was in the mid to high 60s throughout the day. Therefore, the following are not required:

• Wool coats (guy sitting outside Coffee Bean)
• Wool hats (same guy outside Coffee Bean)
• Leather jackets, zippered all the way up (Wool-man’s friend outside Coffee Bean)
• Full-length wool coats (lady at the deli counter in Ralph’s)
• Wool scarves (guy crossing Olympic and Grand with girl)
• Gloves/mittens (girl walking down Hope)

I will let all of you know when winter arrives. For now, please store those items until at least November.