Thanks to the readers that sent in answers to the questions posed this week. No matter how small, or how dumb, every question deserves an answer. Now let's rumble.
1) Beverly Hills: Our good friend at LA Ritz chimes in with some info of use as to why part of Beverly Hills is ugly. "My sense of the lack of an attractive "gateway" to BH at SM Blvd. has to do with the south end of the street (area full of trash and bad landscaping behind the chain links) being a former railway line right-of-way. It's probably tied up in arcane legal ownership issues, and maybe the municipalities have to duke it out and thus just ignore it. I'd have to check the Sanborn maps to confirm, but this actually explains more poorly maintained alleys and "cracks" in the city than you might expect; most physical remnants of the railway days have been wiped out but many of these remain."
2) Downtown: A couple of good responses from readers about the situation at SCI-Arc. First this, "They have a 19-year lease on the space, so I don't think they are going anywhere." And then this, "SCI-Arc totally blew their original plan, totally failed at any intelligent fund-raising, totally rebuffed any attempts at doing an innovative mixed use campus while they still had a chance at buying the whole thing - and there were those of us who tried to help them on all of these things - and then they tried to blackmail everyone after they screwed up.
And that's the version that makes [Eric Owen Moss, SCI-Arc Director] look good." Is it appropriate to say 'MEOW' here?
3) Beverly Hills Adj.: In the future all of our neighborhoods will be named according to their proximity to a Rick Caruso mall. Several readers answered our query about the name of the neighborhood across from the Beverly Center stretching to The Grove. There was no real consensus, though. A realtor said the neighborhood north of Beverly is known as Melrose Gardens in the realty world (not necessarily the real world). Other readers provided several answers for the 'hood south of Beverly. This one seems to sum it up: "Depending on who they're trying to lure, Realtors usually call it either Beverly Center or, innacurately, West Hollywood. However, since The Grove opened it's become common to call that neighborhood Beverly Grove. That's the one I'd use...it's really caught on." Beverly Grove it is!
Second, in regards to Noura's Cafe, we received this, "Sokyo, a Japanese small-plates restaurant from David and Michelle Myers (Sona, Boule ), is set to open in June 2006, replacing Noura Café (8479 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood)." And we also received this nice summary, " I think the Noura space was going to be occupied by a small plates Japanese concept restaurant created by David and Michelle Myers of Sona/Boule. However, word is they're splitsville; she's been out of the kitchen at Sona for months, and they've lost droves of pastry chefs. So doesn't sound likely they'll be involved in the new venture, or remain involved together at all. (Meow!)" That's the reader's 'meow' not ours.
4) West Hollywood: There is apparently a new development going in at Hancock and Santa Monica - see website www.901hancock.com. After looking at the site, we think we posted on this months ago. Another reader sends a link to the architect's web site, here.
5) Los Angeles: The question about parking in a loading zone was graciously answer by LA City Nerd on his blog. We also wanted to credit another blog that wrote about this a year ago but we can't remember who it was now. Anyways, Mr. Nerd says, "Yellow Loading Zones are open as unrestricted parking after 6pm. According to LADOT, "in the City of Los Angeles yellow curb zones are effective 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday (but not on Sunday)." This especially helpful in Hollywood off of Hollywood Boulevard (check out Orange Avenue north of the Boulevard) and in Westwood Village. Related, but not as frequent, Green Zones (15 or 20 minutes parking) are only enforced 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday." Mr. Nerd offers four other quality parking tips on his blog.
6) The Air Above Los Angeles: The colorful blimp in the sky is explained by a commenter on blogging.la: "It's the Ameriquest Soaring Dreams airship which was painted by kids all across the country." Your dreams now sponsored by Ameriquest.
Thanks for a wacky, fun filled R&B this week. Please send in your question, tips and quips to la@curbed.com. We're here to find answers to your questions.