On the Move..

Kiki takes one last look out our South facing window over Main Street..

on the road:

Hillside Poppies growing near Lebec, along the I-5



On the other side of the Grapevine and Fort Tejon, the Valley spreads out below:


a farm along the I-5:


sorry so blurry.. was trapped in the back seat with two cats and not much movement.. =) Didn't get any photos after I moved to another seat since it had gotten dark by then.. =)

Moving Day

After the loaders finished..

Our mostly empty loft at the San Fernando, home for the last three of our four years in the Old Bank District.. Our neighborhood for 4 of the almost 6 years we've lived in DTLA.. Pretty happy times!

Rainy St Patrick's Day Protest

St Patrick's Day 2012 showed itself to be a rainy one, with a storm coming through in various strengths throughout the day.


Around lunchtime several LAPD patrol cars zoomed up Main Street to converge somewhere (possibly near City Hall) What later turned out to be an OccupyLA protest was dispersed some tweeted with "unnecessary violence." Since I wasn't there I can't comment on what happened, (we were having lunch with a neighbor friend when LAPD were zooming up the street).

A couple hours later we heard voices chanting.. a small group of protestors were marching down Main Street against the flow of traffic.. I got my iPhone taping just as they passed our building.. sorry about the quality.. I didn't want to open the window since the cats were nearby.

Aloha DTLA!

Alexander hanging out in our South-facing window.

The good thing about Aloha is that it's been used to mean 'hello' as well as 'goodbye' and so with this explanation, we announce that we've made it official. Sean & I put in our 30 day notice this morning. We're giving up our spacious, light-filled loft in the Old Bank District.

When Sean & I made the decision to leave the SF Bay Area & Berkeley for SoCal, it seemed like the logical choice, given how much traveling Sean was doing with work. It seemed like he was away or traveling more than he was home. We made the move thinking "nothing's permanent.." Well, that's what I told myself. That was eight years ago. We never imagined ourselves living in a live/work loft situation in DTLA. Since then, we find that time and experience changes things. Now I can't imagine why we didn't move to Downtown LA sooner.

We loved calling the Historic Core and the Old Bank District home. It's a little slice of what life should be everywhere. Where neighbors talk to each other, where we get involved in our community and take an interest in each other and how we can make life better for one another. I can't say I did much of that myself, but I really liked being a part of that environment. The creative and self-determined and civic-minded.

I enjoyed the time I was helping blog about our neighborhood, meeting new people and learning about the businesses around DTLA. I loved attending community events like Hope For Firefighters, National Night Out, or the Public Safety BBQ at 7th &Fig. Sean loved going to Art Walk and exploring the pop-up galleries and creative spaces around Gallery Row. We had favorite places we loved to go eat: Starry Kitchen, The Nickel Diner, Pete's Cafe, Syrup Desserts, Blossom, Wurstkuche,(as well as Royal Clayton's which will be re-opening in its new location on Spring later this year) to name just a few that we enjoyed regularly these past several years.

We made so many friends here, we found a home, and community. That said, why are we heading back to the Bay Area? Well, it's home. The decision to leave Berkeley for SoCal was made with our heads and not so much with our heart. Sean's family is from the Bay Area.. and while I'm not from there, I fell in love with the City and pretty much everything about living there. With Sean's work travel it made sense to move to SoCal.. but we missed home and it was a topic of conversation that came up over the years. "Do you think we'll ever move back to Berkeley?" Who knows? "Do you think they'll let you transfer back?" Who knows? At first it didn't make sense to move back, as there was still some traveling involved with his work.. The last couple years he's been telecommuting (when he's not having to travel now & again). So with our place being a true 'live/work' loft situation, the topic came up a few times. Working from home, Sean & I could live anywhere.. While we have been very happy where we live, we realized that the time might be right to see about moving back to Berkeley.. or to the Bay Area in general (San Jose came up a couple times). So Sean looked into it, and here we are.

We found an adaptive reuse 'live/work' loft space to live in Emeryville,Ca. Many of our friends know Emeryville as Pixar Headquarters. =) It's also where Peet's Coffe & Tea is based, Title Nine, Leap Frog, and Jamba Juice among many others.. Emeryville is also a very small city: Incorporated in the late 1800s.. It has a police and fire department, but no public library or newspaper! Sandwiched between Berkeley and Oakland in the Eastbay, it may not need a paper but this is where community blogging comes in. Blogs are essential to sharing information and news around Emeryville. While I can't say what I personally will do along the lines of blogging, I do intend to keep posting updates.. I just won't be posting about DTLA so much. While I fully intend to visit to DTLA pretty often, I don't expect to make like I can keep up on the goings-on. We're relocating pretty far away; things will be missed.

I don't know if I should keep updating this, maybe change the name of the blog to something more Bay-centric? I don't expect DTLA friends & neighbors to be interested in what's going on in Emeryville.. I do have a wordpress blog that I started when I was doing research for the move back, but then it doesn't make sense to me to keep up two blogs about what is most likely to be the same topic. Honestly I just don't know.. Maybe some folks have suggestions.. Until such time, we're keeping busy.

I've been scavenging boxes from the neighbors and I got another moving kit coming in from Costco. We're looking into movers now and contemplating a visit from "Out of the Closet" for some of our furniture. I'm doing a lot of sorting, dusting, organizing.. Despite all that, the place is a mess.. and looks more untidy than it did before I started. The cats are getting a little upset about the constant movement of 'stuff' around the loft.

We're anxious. We're excited. We're happy. We're sad.. We're stressed. This is a good thing. We'll be missing so much about downtown and yet we know this isn't goodbye forever. With friends and community we found here, it's just "so long for now.. see you soon.." Aloha.


Kiki loves a warm patch of sun as it comes through one of our many frosted glass windows.

Old Bank District Lights

Light at OBD garage, originally uploaded by meekorouse.

Back in November of last year, I posted some photos of the Old Bank District folks unloading these screens off a flatbed truck. They were eventually installed on the OBD garage.

They were put up shortly before the rest of the holiday decorations, but unlike the decorations, these blue "curtain" lights are still up. Not sure if they'll be permanent or not, or why the curtain shape (we were thinking they'd maybe project stuff in the opening part but I've never seen anything like that).

Just in case they take it down, I wanted to make sure everyone (who actually looks here) can see how that installation turned out. I must say the blue glow in our loft is rather nicet.

The Return of the Trashcan..

The trashcan near the corner of 4th and Main disappeared a short while back (we're not sure since we've been out of town off & on the last couple months). Yesterday there were workman installing a new replacement:



The workman had to literally climb inside the bin to weld it in place.



Yeah. It was a slow day. =)

Most Wonderful Time Coming Soon!

A chance view out the window had us spotting a big flatbed truck parked across the street this afternoon:


So what's under those tarps??




Holiday lights are here!


They were pulled off the truck:


and then carried off to be stored temporarily..



Assuming they'll go up within the next week (since Thanksgiving is next week) and our neighborhood will begin to look all festive again:

Lights on 4th Street between Spring and Main,(photo from Dec 2008).

**UPDATE** Indeed they are holiday lights but not for 4th Street.. They'll start work in the next day or so I've been told.

Art Walk Patrol

Along with LAPD bicycle patrols, LAPD was seen walking their horses up Main Street.

After Last month's tragic accident involving a car parallel parking on Spring, banning the food trucks, art parks and stepped up police patrols seems to be the immediate response.

While picking up dinner and a movie, the sidewalks still seemed a bit busy at 4th and Main.

It's yet to be seen how the changes will affect tonight's Art Walk.

Awning is off Banquette

Awning is off Banquette
Originally uploaded by meekorouse

While the sounds of construction for new tenant Baco goes on behind the scenes, the awning of OBD favorite "Banquette Cafe & Wine Bar" has been dismantled from the facade of the San Fernando Building.

sidewalk scene

sidewalk scene
Originally uploaded by meekorouse

This was the scene on the corner of Main & Winston early Saturday morning. I posted this to Facebook then, and got several interesting comments regarding the hinky-ness of this filming. They did have a permit.. they weren't necessarily the part of the filming that was legitimately going on this past weekend. (we still haven't figured this out) and they weren't selling shoes.

What amused me about it (because getting woke up on Saturday from some guy with a bullhorn wasn't it!) was their attempt to film a cafe scene on the sidewalk in front of the parking lot next door.. Good Luck with whatever that is. Maybe next time they can save up and rent a real cafe??

Just Another Saturday on Main

An average weekend (or weekday) will find traffic stopped on Main so that filming of some kind can occur. I get so many FilmLA notices (one must subscribe to email updates as the posting of FilmLA notices are erratic or non-existent), I'm not sure if this was an 'action' shot or just a messed up car commercial.

If you see the video the car is being driven South-bound on a normally North-bound ONLY Main Street. Basically all day long traffic is stopped, shouting occurs to silence the neighborhood and then a 'take' is shot, then repeated several times over several hours. Most people who live downtown are familiar with this as it seems Downtown LA is the location for any number of programs, (like CSI: NY or Castle) commercials and movies (too many to name).

This one was fairly innocuous, as far as noise and light (night shots can often be bad as giant spotlights are shone into buildings as they light the block up and shooting on sidewalks can be annoying if you have some jerk PA trying to tell you you can't walk on your own sidewalk out of your building). I can't speak for anyone dealing with the traffic stoppage though.

Downtown Historic Bid Signage

24hr hotline number posted on trash bin at 4th and Main.. Supposedly been up at least a week. I just noticed today on my Friday lunchtime walk home.

Art Walk Cat

Guinness "slide" starring OBD

Many downtown neighbors will spot old bank district locations in this fun Guinness ad filmed at 4th & Main in early October...

The office scene was filmed in the Historic San Fernando Building..

* video is embedded from youtube user "scottmkaplan"

all done!

The folks at Gilmore Assoc. have put all the decorations up around the Old Bank District.. (updated @ 6am 11/26)


corner of 4th & Main.. the Hellman Building, the Old Bank & west to the Continental Building on Spring all have bows and wreaths..




Continental Building with bows.. (11/24)


Hellman Building entrance at night..


The Old Bank at night..

and of course, the San Fernando..


when you come to look for a loft, you'll see the lobby is decorated too..

garland decorates the stairs..

UPDATE:
lights across 4th Street..

Christmas Time in the City!

Yesterday the bows and wreath went up on the Hellman and the Old Bank. This morning, garland was beginning to trim the windows on the Old Bank. It's Christmastime again, at least at 4th & Main..

Seen From the Loft

Big Man Bakes gets its new signage up..

I scampered downstairs to get a better view..


the store location is just south of the Hellman building in one of the OBD garage build outs. (click image for larger view)



Big Man Bakes is open.. and had their grand opening on September 10th..

Big Man Bakes
413 S. Main Street
twitter @BigManBakes

Regent Changes its Hue..

After a little over a year and a half, the "Main Street Recovery" mural came down today. A fresh new coat of bright yellow paint is now gracing the facade of the Regent Theatre..


The mural as seen from spring of 2008. The mural was originally installed on the Regent Theatre the 30th of January, 2008. Each part of the mural tells a story of Main Street's changes and the changes in Downtown. It was a temporary installation, but one can't help but think it had become a part of the landscape of Main Street.

This morning.. the scaffolding was being raised:






By late afternoon, the mural was halfway down.. and much of the new paint had been applied.






and then a little after 7pm.. this is what the Regent looked like:


As for the "Main Street Recovery" mural, it's rumored that it may make future appearances around the Old Bank District at some point. As for now, for the immediate future, the Regent will be grooving out in bright yellow.

Main in Bloom

Stella waters her sunflowers.. You can see them blossoming outside Stella Dottir dress shop near Winston & Main.

fire safety

Living in the Old Bank District, we're near the Skid Row Fire Station 9 as well as LAPD's Central Division. That said, we get our fair share of public safety vehicles rushing by on their way somewhere. When either one of these entities makes a noisy show and suddenly stops outside one of our buildings.. I tend to take notice.


This was outside the Hellman Building today near 4th & Main.

LAFD were called out on what I later found out to be a false alarm (some joker may have tripped the fire alarm). The thing is it's not really funny because these are some well trained folks that have better things to be doing than get called out on useless errands of stupidity (that's my opinion). I'm ever so glad they are so quick though.

Had it been a real emergency, they were ready to go! They had their axes in hand and were geared up and ready to get to work. Several minutes later after taking care of the situation, they were very organized and headed out safely on what I imagine was another run, or back to their Skid Row Station.

I guess the only thing I wanted to say is that our police & fire are here to serve the public in times of need, such as a real emergency.. Please be safe at all times & also don't fool around with your building's fire equipment or alarms. It could be your life getting saved next time.