CurbedWire: Get Ready To Drink At Hotel Palomar
Tuesday, June 5, 2007, by Marissa Gluck
DOWNTOWN - We only use the Interweb for our news, and even then we limit our news intake to just Perez Hilton, but a reader who likes to dirty his fingertips with newsprint from, like, "real news" writes in to let us know: "From today's LA Times.. on the back page of the business section there is a (advertisement from the city) 'request for proposal for development of los angeles mall'.. which is that odd, kind of underground mall/plaza by city hall and the court houses...the one with the "triforium" sculpture. Although the DTLA updates really grate on some of the readers for some reason." We noticed that too. So this one goes out to all the Downtown haters. [CurbedWire Inbox]
SANTA MONICA - Another Pinkberry. Yawn. This time on Montana Ave. A reader writes in: "A pinkberry is going to be opening on Montana Ave in SM between 16th and 17th streets. No pic, sorry, but the notice posted by the city says that it is moving in. Thought you'd like to know." Yeah, I guess. Even we're starting to get bored by non-stop Pinkberry coverage. [CurbedWire Inbox]
WESTWOOD - Boutique hotel chain Kimpton is inching towards that Summer Fall 2007 opening they promised for Hotel Palomar. One of our readers noticed "the posting notice went up on the former Westwood Hotel, and Kimpton officially took temporary possession of the liquor license at 10740 Wilshire Blvd. in Westwood." [CurbedWire Inbox]
How about leveling the Los Angeles Mall, turning it back into a street-level park, and then reinstalling the Triforium? The fast food shops could be replaced with licensed vending carts: tacos here, hot dogs there, a couple of Indian-style chat sellers, and maybe some sort of hippie vegan crap to round things out.
Like skybridges, underground malls are a nasty vestige of "defensible space"-obsessed 1970s planning. There's no point in keeping them around.
I went to a Pinkberry's for the first time last week and it was sucky. Your constant coverage-- it has been a joke, yes? I guess that plying the untrained, journalism-rules-don't-apply-to-me, who-will-know-but-me-when-I'm-wrong blogworld with compliment-filled happy hours and free vodka at press events has paid off once again.
fred - we WISH we were invited to compliment-filled happy hours and press events with free vodka. if you know of any, send the invites our way. we're happy to be whores to corporate overseers, if only they knew we existed.
1. Remove Triforium. Store.
2. Demolish Mall. Build underground parking garage. 3. Cover with Astro Turf.
4. Reinstall Triforium. Surround with random art.
5. Host a Meet Your Neighbors Day. Tell a few people.
6. Debate with patty cake.
Thank you, Marissa. I hate downtown. And I am proud of it. Downtown is for losers who have nowhere else to go. For whom the westside is too hip and the eastside too scary and who cannot even conceive of venturing into south-central. Who think that LA Live will be "cool". Who ride bicycles with training wheels. And think buses area a great way to get places. Who give a sh*t about the los angeles mall. Who were the class losers in high school and every night dream the dream that they could be transformed like the protaganists in a John Hughes movie. Who stealthily drive through hollywood and silverlake late at night, picking out where they would live if they just had a little more scratch and could escape the rathole that is downtown. Who think the Gopher is bitchin'. Who give a crap about the homeless. Who think 700 square feet is enormous. Losers.
Forgot they had parking, semprini. I've only been there once - walking through the desolate space on a random weekend. I like the idea of keep the Triforium, while at the same time, finding better use of the space.
Will getting rid of the Mall help eradicate the inescapable odor of piss and crap that permeates every corner, every block, every sidewalk, alleyway, and thoroughfare of downtown LA. Every lobby of every building, every single goddamn square inch.
Personally, it gives me a splitting headache. If I lived downtown, I'd require a hermetically sealed home and 3-5 showers a day.
I was at a college football game back at my old alma mater back East a few years ago. I hit the wretched, nasty men's room after a few beers, and as I entered and the miasma hit me, I smiled and thought to myself, "Hey, smell like downtown LA, only fresher."
The triforium is light probably 70% of the time these days and it was given a good cleaning right around Christmas.
Dr. Anton whoosiewhatsit, the mall is filled pretty exclusively with civil servants, not homeless. Group thereapy with that other dude, okay?
Enaldo - relax, your wish will come true. Downtown isn't happening. Just let the money roll in, watch the redevelopment of downtown, and then watch it roll back out when nothing interesting happens to it.
Tim "k"ook
the funny thing is you won't let it go with the downtown banter it's 1 or your favorite topics to bash.You've been talking about it you'll keep talking about and when the whole thing comes to fruition you'll be old and still renting in Simi.Talking to yourself and pissing yourself and thinking the scent of your own urine is from Downtown.
"Downtown won't ever happen"
what the hell do you call those cranes, new bars, new hotels and new residents????
You and the 6&9 dudes should get your golden showers on and beat it.
Late at night, the L.A. Mall bumps tunes and has all its lights on, so it can't be that bad. I hit up the credit union ATM to get money when I'm going to Little Tokyo or to the art walk. It feels scary, but I know I am safe - the place is crawling with cameras and the hooda.
The underground-mall idea is cool, but I wish they could make it feel a little more people-friendly. I have to walk down three flights of stairs and then up three more just to get across the courtyard. There are mini-sets of two and three steps everywhere. A trip-and-fall bonanza as far as I can tell.
The BTC office, where you have to shell out cash to a "private company" to have your plans get approved by the Planning Department has a cool one-depressed-African-man office. He has a suite of office machinery within arms reach to do his job.
If the mall were more pedestrian friendly, maybe the BTC guy would be happier?
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