I regret that I missed the third annual Great LA Walk from Union Station to Santa Monica. Unfortunately, a nasty stomach bug kept me indoors most of the weekend, but last night we finally ventured out to see the Witch’s House in Beverly Hills, consume kapa maki and House music on Sawtelle, and, incidentally, arrived at the beach around the same time the Great LA Walkers did a day earlier.
I’ve never met Mike of the Franklin Avenue blog, but I sense that, like me, he loves Los Angeles for what it is. Yes, that’s normal in San Francisco and New York, but not here. In Los Angeles, civic pride is measured by the extent to which you wish your city erased and replaced by something other. The examples of this are endless: City Hall’s great neighborhood bulldoze/density bonus, the renaming of South Central, the damnation of the palm trees, the insidious Hollywood Freeway Central Park, our disinvestment in roads and obsession with transit cosmetic procedures.
Funny how New Yorkers have no time for utopia.
Los Angeles must be studied in macro and micro. It’s equally drivable and walkable, and that’s why Mike’s LA Walks inspire me (beyond the simple fact that I’m a walker); they complement my own tradition of driving LA’s boulevards end-to-end; Sunset until it spins out into the Pacific Palisades, Ventura until it loses lanes and stops trying to sell you stuff. Valley Boulevard is other-worldly.
Why, you ask? I’ll quote Mike: “Why not? There’s no special reason, no charity, no protest, no issue we’re promoting — other than a passion for Los Angeles.”
I will not be rushing to support Urth Caffe’s new downtown location. Sure, Urth serves the best vegan chocolate cake in LA, but a piece in this morning’s LA Downtown News indicates founder Shallom Berkman has selective use for his new neighbors. Says Berkman:
“Community is one of the important things to Urth Caffe. We want to be part of communities, and that’s what brought us here. We saw this as a new, thriving and artistic community we wanted to be part of…”
So how does he plan to celebrate Urth Caffe’s grand opening in its new, thriving, and artistic community?
The grand opening on Nov. 16 could well bring the paparazzi to Downtown. The invitation-only event is slated to include celebrities such as comedian Will Ferrell, rapper and actress Queen Latifah, actor Jon Voight and the cast of “Entourage.”
Merely winning the election already is a foregone conclusion but it means nothing if you have lost the confidence of the people in your leadership, in the future of the city.
Hooks, beats, and bass lines made for sunny boulevards. Songs that make you stand up and march. Not a liberal, conservative, Hip Hop Republican, or even libertarian. Ice Cube loves his city better than any city councilmember. His work is fiercely independent; never politically correct, consistently relevant and thought-provoking.
Rick Carusowill not run for mayor this time around:
…while I am genuinely grateful for all the encouragement I have received from people all over this city to run for mayor and the confidence they put in me, I have decided that the obligation of serving as mayor would put a burden on my family that is too much at this point in their lives and, as a result, I will not be a candidate in the upcoming campaign for mayor. Having worked closely with Mayors in the past, I understand the commitment necessary to properly fill that role, and it is not the right time for me to commit myself wholly to the City at the expense of my family, particularly my young children…
Yesterday, Mayor Villaraigosa made formal his bid for re-election. Today, he’s in Chicago, meeting with President-elect Barack Obama as a member of Obama’s Transition Economic Advisory Board — a group described as “experts on the economy” and whose members include Warren Buffett and several former Treasury Secretaries.
This morning I argue in favor of Proposition 2 over at Mayor Sam:
…Prop 2 is a question of ethics; a referendum on our progress as a society. It’s a modest measure that says animals destined for slaughter ought not be tortured in the process; egg-laying hens ought not be denied basic leg movement; pigs and veal calves ought not be confined to crates so small they can’t turn around, lie down, or extend their limbs…
The Genius of Ann Coulter [Friendly Fire] Tue, 06 Jan 2009 04:59:34
… Earl Ofari Hutchinson is not jealous of Coulter's book sales. His new book is out this month, BTW.
