Kids! The June 4 meeting is at 8:00PM!!!

Kids! The June 4 meeting is at 8:00PM!!!

Let’s Represent!

The Historic Broadway Streetscape & Infrastructure Improvement Plan project and the Broadway Entertainment Community Design Overlay District project are important parts of Bringing Back Broadway. Both projects are intended to improve the appearance, enhance the identity, promote the pedestrian environment, and economic revitalization, of the Broadway corridor.

Design alternatives and draft concepts will be presented for community review and input at an “open house” meeting on Wednesday May 27 with hours intended to accommodate to those who prefer to participate during the work day, and those who prefer to participate in the evening hours. Please join us! 

www.TinyURL.com/BroadwayOpenHouseMay27

BROADWAY PUBLIC MEETING
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
4:30–7:30 PM 
818 S. Broadway – Ground Floor of the Wurlitzer Building
(open house format – participate when it is convenient for you)

Both the Streetscape Master Plan team and City of Los Angeles Planning staff will be represented in this joint session. We will ask you to consider the design of public right of way areas, including elements on the sidewalks and in the street itself which enhance the historic character and serve pedestrians and transit riders. You will also get a chance to review and discuss the ideas for private development guidance and regulation addressing the buildings and private properties on Broadway. 

Mark your calendars now and plan to attend and provide your input! All are welcome!
For more information, contact:
Valerie Watson
Meléndrez – Landscape Architecture, Planning & Urban Design
213-673-4400
vwatson@melendrez.com

was “louis” worth the wait…

Definitely!

To say I was expectant when Bottega Louis opened its doors a couple of weeks ago is an understatement. Ever since hearing of the planning of this multi faceted Italian style ‘deli’ restaurant a couple of years ago, my taste buds have been a twitter.

Janene and I even turned up on the Sunday afternoon to check the place out before their scheduled opening on the Monday. And the space is amazing. High ceilings, white marble floors, French cafe style seating and an open plan that flows better than I would have hoped. It is a tad noisy, but as Janene noted, it’s a ‘New York meatpacking district’ type of noisy – alive and vibrant.

We have been twice now, once for breakfast and once for dinner. Breakfast was lovely, I had the farmers breakfast, a cascade of warm, crisp, assorted veggies coupled with the sharpness of Parmesan Reggiano and the comfort of poached eggs. I added some potatoes pancakes on the side which were the closest I have had in the States to the crisp salty goodness I’ve experience in the gasthauses of Vienna.

Last Saturday, we arrived for supper at 10.30, and dined through to near midnight, and the place was still hopping when we left. Nice to see that a major downtown LA establishment is catering for a more nocturnal crowd. The dinner menu was great too, flavourful with a vibrant Mediterranean bent brought about with fresh top quality ingredients. Nothing too flamboyant but overall delicious in its simplicity.

They have a wonderful wood fired pizza oven which creates mouth watering pies fast – with crisp crusts, a perfect tomato base supporting a range of traditional toppings. Tried the chocolate soufflé for desert, another first for me – rich, fluffy, volcanic, deliciousness – a must (though the kitchen need 20 minutes to prepare the dish – and it’s worth the wait!) which was paired with scalding espresso sporting a frothy velvet crema. Prema!

Te service is the best I have ever encountered in Los Angeles – period. We counted 5 seconds before a used dish was removed from our table. The wait staff are friendly, engaging and fast.

So do get down to visit the ground floor of the Brockman on 7th and Grand … and feast!

Cheers ,

Andrew …

sexo y violencia…

…and a little goes a long way! the pre-valentine’s day mosh of luchadores and busty burlesque babes was just the jolt i needed. brought to you by “el jimador” king of tequilas, this show is jam packed with l.a.’s finest masked wrestlers. home to legendary greats like el chupacabra, dirty sanchez, the poubelle twins and my personal fave, cassandro, who wrestles in drag, the grand mayan theatre is nestled in the piss stained streets of downtown l.a. come early because you’ll want to bear witness to their grand arrival via beautifully restored vintage cars. no show would be complete without emcee talent to call the matches and in this case, we’ve hit the motherlode. there is blaine capatch, patton oswalt (king of queens) and the illustrious tom kenny, the man behind spongebob squarepants. got your attention now? every season brings a freshly choreographed match themed for the season (when suitable). boys vs boys, girls vs girls, boys vs girls (it has happened with the poubelle twins, those vicious little minx!), chickens on midgets and although i’m pretty p.c., i’m not opposed to the occasional midget toss at all! in between the matches you’re treated to burlesque feats compliments of lucy fur, karie and roky roulette who’s striptease via pogo stick is nothing short of masterful bringing down the house each time! ringside seats are where it’s at as it puts you close to all the eye poppin’ action (not to mention the bar!). spanish covers of popular tunes accompany the acts and the comedy throughout the acts is raunchy but fun. bright colors, flying spangles and the occasional blood letting makes this something to remember outside of the humdrum cocktail scenario that most people find themselves in line for every weekend. for those who are not too high brow for low brow, it’s a must see show! hey, i enjoy the theatre too but nothing is more theatrical and over the top than LUCHA VA VOOM!

Memories

A friend of mine came down to see my loft. She has always been a downtown lover and takes pictures whenever the moment strikes her. She took this picture in December, 2005. As I said: memories.

LAPD Building Search

Hi there,

Anybody know whether the LAPD found what they were looking for door-to-door last evening 2/8/09 ?

Thank you,

Greg

internet connection issues…

Hey Janene,
We just moved in we are in 508 I wanted to post a question to people in the building but I can’t figure out how to post only to comment so maybe you have answer to this or anyone else who might read this time warner is having trouble setting up a wireless connection in this apartment they think it might be from interference we have tried setting up our own network but that hasn’t worked either but I see tons of wireless connections in the building so I was wondering what other people did to solve the problem I think maybe if I get one of those turbo business wireless routers it might work does anyone have any other suggestions? -Holden

(post excerpted from the “about” page)

The Year of the Ox – Chinese New Year Parade

Today was a spectacular day to live in downtown (okay…so many days are spectacular days to live here!). But, this is the Year of the Ox, and I am an Ox, and today was the famous Chinese New Year ’s Parade in Chinatown, and we only live a few blocks from there. So I grabbed my camera, headed up the street, and had some fun. The sites, the sounds, the smells. What a glorious day and moment. Happy Year of the Ox everyone – Obama is an Ox – so may this day kick off another new year for him as well. Are any of you Ox’s? Nancy

The Mayor of Main Street

The Mayor of Main Street
By julima
Written By Julio Martinez

(reprinted from the May, 1997 edition of Westways Magazine & downlalife.com)

“Junior! After school you come down to the fountain.” Every Friday morning, as my father, Julio Martinez, Sr., and I simultaneously prepared to leave our house on Overton Street, he would mumble this gruff offer, inviting me to enter his domain…the adventure-laden world of downtown Los Angeles.

From 1944 to 1960, my dad ruled the soda fountain/diner of Whalen’s Drug Store–located at 6th and Main Streets on the ground floor of the monumental Pacific Electric Building–first as fountain manager and later as the general director of all Whalen’s Drug Store food services in the Los Angeles area. In 1961, he opened his own restaurant, The Stage Coach Café, directly across the street, in the Trailways Bus Depot.

The year 1946 is emblazoned in my memory because as I began the 3rd grade in September, my dad decided his 8-year-old son was old enough to take that electronic gem of public transportation, the Red Car, from 10th Street Grammar School (located at Olympic Blvd. near Union Street) to the corner of Olympic and Main. I would then walk the four blocks to Whalen’s, usually stopping at the small store attached to the Hotel Cecil (7th and Main) for my Abba Zabba bar.

It is no exaggeration to state that back in the 1940s, prior to the dismantling of the electronic streetcar system, the Pacific Electric Building was the center of the city, the hub of the largest intra-urban electric train system in the world, servicing Los Angeles,

Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. The never-ending stream of red cars entered Pacific Electric along rows of tracks at the southwestern end of the building, 24 hours a day.

The multitude of arriving passengers would descend a huge ramp that was actually the back entrance to Whalen’s, where my father and his crew of waitresses, short order cooks, bus boys and dishwashers stood ready to dispense a rapidly-produced array of breakfast and luncheon fare.

Slim and dapper at 5’2” inches and 120 pounds, Puerto Rican-born Julio A. Martinez had been a professional ballroom dancer in the 1920s and 1930s, having first been a teenage male taxi dancer at the same Manhattan speakeasy establishments as former hoofers Rudolph Valentino, Legs Diamond and George Raft. Later he teamed with Maria Quintero, whom he married, and they did the rumba throughout the East coast nightclub and vaudeville circuits, highlighted by a stint with the Xavier Cugat Orchestra.

My dad, though, had the exact opposite agenda of most entertainers. His greatest ambition in life was to be a middle class businessman. He hated show business life and, much to my mother’s consternation, leapt at the opportunity to come to Los Angeles during the war to work in the West Coast operation of the New York-based Whalen Company.. Though he only had a 7th grade education and spoke English with a pronounced accent, he had taught himself math and accounting, enabling him to administer all the contracts with the suppliers and trades people who did business with his employer.

That made my dad an important person. As if he needed a witness to his status, Friday afternoons were dedicated to showing off for his son and heir. After I had been allowed to have free rein over any items on the menu, dad would motion to me to follow

him as he strolled Main Street and the surrounding area for blocks. It seemed to me he

knew everyone in every establishment along the way. He would always point at me and say, “This is my son, Junior,” but I was then dismissed from his attention as he held forth with a vast array of Main Street folk. The point of my being with him was to observe how successful and important he was. And that was fine with me.

Occasionally we’d stop at the American Barber College, located between fifth and 4th Streets, which I hated because I would have to sit in a chair for an hour while sometimes three and four students gave me a workover. All my economy-minded dad cared about was it was only costing him fifteen cents. Twice, during that year he took me to see a tailor/haberdasher named Lieberman whose tiny, cloth-crowded establishment was located on an upper floor of Pacific Electric. Lieberman outfitted me in oversized dress pants and jackets that I would not grow into until I was ten, but my dad got them at cost.

Though my dad claimed to be completely repulsed by show business, he never missed an opportunity to stop at the two Main Street burlesque houses: the Burbank and the New Follies, located across the street from each other on Main. between 4th and 5th Streets. It seemed there was always someone working at one of the houses whom my dad knew from New York.

One day, at the entrance to the Burbank, I was introduced to a wildly animated man who was not much taller than my dad. Julio Sr. simply waved at me and walked off as the man grabbed my hand and practically shouted, “I’m Joe Yule, kid, and Julio said you can see the show.”

That was the first of many times I watched this supercharged baggy pants comedian, as well as such legendary strippers as Tempest Storm and Betty Rowland, although my 8-year-old sensibilities did not quite grasp the relevance of their talents. It

was much later that I learned that Joe Yule was the father of Joe Yule Jr., better known as Mickey Rooney.

Julio Sr. never thought twice about leaving me anywhere in downtown L.A. if he had to get back to work. To him, the area between Los Angeles Street and Figueroa, First Street and Olympic Boulevard was like a country village where he knew everyone and everyone knew him.

For his offspring, the rewards were long afternoons spent at the Million Dollar Theatre, the RKO Hill Street Theatre, the Paramount, riding up and down Angel’s Flight or the elevator of the Bradbury Building, or listening to the fanatics harangue each other in old Pershing Square. It in Pershing Square that I first saw the nomadic songwriter Eden Ahbez sitting cross-legged on the grass singing his legenedary, “Nature Boy.”

In 1949, our climb toward middle class respectability took the family away from downtown L.A. We moved to the suburban community of Montebello and my dad commuted to Whalen’s by car. I developed my own adolescent interests and no longer desired to “go downtown.”

Today, there are very few clues to the downtown L.A. I knew and only about 20 feet of Overton Street still exists, slashed into oblivion by the Harbor Freeway as it crosses Olympic Blvd. My 86-year-old dad, Julio Sr., is living in an Alzheimer’s clinic in Anaheim and doesn’t know who I am.

Every once in a while I run into someone who knew Julio A. Martinez from the old days, including an aged barber in Hollywood who had been at the American Barber College. He looked at me and laughed, “Kid, you know we used to call your dad: ‘The Mayor of Main Street’.”

-30-

owner’s please read…

…there are posts being added to the owner’s forum which might be of interest. if you are an owner and do not have the password, please contact me with your name and unit and i will see to it that you are added. thanks! ~janene