IVAR HILL's FIRST LIVE BLOG: Jury Duty

POST JURY DUTY: Well, it wasn't that painful after all. They called lunch at around noon and had then told us we didn't need to come back after lunch and our civic duty was taken care of for another year.

11:27am - First trial has just been called. They pulled about 15 people out to be screened in the courtroom. I'm still seated at my cubicle i staked out early this morning.

10:20am - Still waiting for something interesting to happen.

9:55am - First Break (20 minutes) - it was a very trying first portion of Jury Duty today. I had to wait in a long line to get past security, then we listened to orientation.

9:51am - You can forfeit your .34/mile in gas mileage for an MTA pass. They claim this pass is worth $14.

9:45am - On your second day of jury duty the LA superior court will pay $15/day + .34 per mile for gas mileage one way. Didn't the federal government just raise the required gas mileage paid to .585/mile (link) shouldn't the court be required to pay the IRS rate for gas mileage?

9:34am - This video is about 5 minutes longer than it should be. I'm reminded of a certain Veronica Mars episode where she is a juror on a trial. She broke all the rules they are telling me about in this video.

9:24am - During orientation the video "Jury: Ideals Made Real" screen. Moderator told us to turn off our cell phones during the video because they conflict with the tv system. All tv's are hardwired.

Book signing at Borders Hollywood

Jennifer Brandt Taylor the author of Vintage L.A. will be appearing at Borders in Hollywood Wednesday, June 25th at 7pm. I looked through the book the last time I was in the store and it looked interesting, the perfect coffee table book. It is focused more on places that look vintage than are actually relics of an earlier age of Hollywood and LA. It does have mentions of some great places in the Wilshire corridor but also uses the word "Hipster" quite a bit so take your LA history with a grain of salt (or a pint of PBR).

Borders Hollywood (corner of Sunset/Vine)
Vintage L.A. on Amazon

Public Transit to Dodger Stadium

The LA Times is reporting that the city of Los Angeles will offer a transit alternative to paying $15 to park at Dodger stadium. Dodger stadium is a great place to see a ball game but options are few and far between to get there any other way than by car. The plan which would operate a Dash shuttle between Union Station and Dodger stadium with two stops on Sunset will cost approximately $70,000 with the city of Los Angeles picking up the tab with the Dodgers responsible for promotion.

I'm excited to hop on the red line and transfer to a shuttle to check out a dodgers game. It's about time we get another option to get near the parking lot surrounded dodger stadium - lets hope this program is successful and continues for years to come.

(Image via Google Maps)

uWink at Hollywood and Highland

UPDATE: LAist has the full story - uWink opens tonight! June 17th and has a "soft" opening until next weekend. Ivar Hill wasn't invited to the media night - maybe next year. They do have a full photo gallery and the place looks pretty nice.

On the train monday evening coming back from the Valley noticed two women getting on the train at the Hollywood/Highland station wearing uWink polo shirts which reminded me that the countdown for the Hollywood/Highland location is opening in a matter of weeks - Eater LA has the date at or around June 26th.

I've been to the Woodland Hills location a few times and the most interesting thing about the place is seeing what might be - it's an innovative concept and one that can grow to be great but it's not there yet. Ordering food at your table is cool but not flawless - you will likely still need some help if your screen freezes. Also, the games are cool (mostly the trivia) but last time i went still won't allow you to play against other people at your table or the restaurant. If you read about the concept at all they plan for lots of interactivity between everyone - the way it is now it seems like it's perfect for a family that doesn't want to talk to anyone.

Regardless - I'm excited for the opening and am anxious to see if they made any improvements for the new location.

Asssscat at Upright Citizens Brigade

Went to go see the Upright Citizens Brigade show last night Asssscat. I've been to a few other shows there and enjoyed them but hadn't been to this one - i had heard from others that this one was the one to go see. So we bought our tickets Saturday morning so we could be sure we would get in and stood in line for about 20 minutes outside before being let in. There was a standby list but who wants to wait around if you aren't sure you are going to get in.

The show impressed - from the Start Matt Besser and Matt Walsh (both were players on the UCB show) walked on stage and chatted with the audience for awhile and then introduced the rest of the cast. They only asked for suggestions from the audience twice and both words kicked off a monologue by guest monologist Morgan Murphy and then followed by a 30-40 minute improv jam inspired by the monologue.

The whole show was hilarious, i was laughing the whole time. At only $8 for a ticket it's cheaper than going to see a movie and you can bring your own drinks into the theater. Highly recommended.

Bonus points for being in an awesome neighborhood (Franklin Village) with lots of good food and an awesome bookstore not that far away.

Upright Citizens Brigade Theater
5919 Franklin Ave.,
Hollywood, CA
90028

Orange Line Sepulveda Development

This isn't exactly Hollywood news but it's close to a house i used to live in - it's also nice to see Metro endorsing a development that's not a 20 story tower.

Metro released their recommendation for a plan to go ahead and build on the current site of the 1,000+ spot parking lot adjacent to the Sepulveda Orange Line station. The plan is interesting and bit radical - it calls for 560 for-rent units, 30,000 Sq/ft of retail adjacent to the orange line stop and another 103 spot parking lot to be built to replace the massive underutilized lot currently there.

I think this proposal is mostly good - It seems massive for the neighborhood and i'm sure the Victory Park neighborhood is going to be up in arms about it - but the location is next to a metro line and it calls for density. I was surprised the large shell of wickes furniture is still in the drawing - last i saw they were going through a major store closing sale and i had hoped Metro had bought up that land as well so they could move the Orange Line stop to a more reasonable place closer to Sepulveda itself.

I would have liked to see a development including a bunch of row-house style town homes and a small park but this seems like an interesting plan.

The full report can be downloaded here


It's not hard to see why they want to develop this parking lot - this photo was taken mid-day on a Saturday.

Hollywood Franklin - not leasing anymore

This is a bit of old news but meant to pass it on awhile ago. The building that was the subject to my last post was all set to open mid-april to may and abruptly closed up shop and turned away anyone who wanted to lease it out.

I went for a tour and saw some interesting units - very overpriced but in the current Hollywood market i'm sure they would have been rented eventually. I went the second weekend they had an open house, saw people putting down deposits and seemed busy. Then - the pulled down the "now leasing" sign and according to a poster over on Curbed started returning deposits. (Curbed LA)

Comments seem to jump between scientologists and selling the unit off as condo's. Someone who seemed to know what was going on said it was a mishap with DWP and shoddy construction work which i wouldn't be that surprised by. In any case, the building is fully built out and no one is going in and out anymore.

New Kid on the Block: Hollywood Franklin

It looks like the building at 6400 Franklin is finally opening it's doors and looking to rent units in the somewhat near future. The building is located on Franklin between Cahuenga and Vine adjacent to the Alto Nido apartment building. They put up signage on the building a few weeks ago and the website has an interest list. They promise "exclusive rental flats"

The building has been undergoing renovations for at least the past 6 months and probably longer. Looks like they still have a ways to go when you look in from Franklin. One bedrooms and Studios available - i have it on some authority that rents for studios with be in the $1250-1300 range and one bedrooms will be in the $1650 range and occupancy is slated for early April if everything goes well with the city ... so maybe sometime in July they might be moving people in.

I got an email about an open house this weekend - Saturday from 10-5 and Sunday from 11-5. Will be interesting to see what they did with the building.

Minneapolis Light Rail

I spent the days before and after Christmas this year traveling between my adopted home on Ivar Hill and my childhood home in northern Minnesota. I left southern California before the sun rose on the 20Th on a very pleasant experience with Super Shuttle (only $25 from Hollywood) after a smooth flight on Northwest I landed in Minneapolis in the afternoon where i got the pleasure of taking the relatively new light rail line from the airport to downtown where i was meeting up with my ride the rest of the way home.

The light rail line - called the Hiawatha line - has two stops in the airport (one at each terminal) and arrived promptly once i got to the stop. The ticket machine accepted my credit card and took my $1.50 for a ticket ($2 during rush hour) and similar to L.A. i didn't need to show my ticket to anyone to board the train.

I sat down and watched the roughly 20 minute trip to downtown pass outside the windows of the train. At every stop you could see signs of great revitalization in the form of new development. At my stop downtown i could see other travelers waiting for the train to take them to the airport. Overall it was a very pleasant experience - I'm sure it doesn't serve that many places in Minneapolis but it seems like a fairly sound foundation to start building a system on. If you are traveling to Minneapolis consider the Hiawatha line for your transit needs. Once you get downtown the bus system is convenient.

Hiawatha Line

Seen in Hollywood

Walking home Friday night and i stumbled across this impromptu fountain at the corner of Hollywood and Wilcox. That is a fire hydrant that for some reason was gushing water about 20 feet in the air - a few onlookers were getting wet but mostly people just driving by.

Village Pizzeria Update

The storefronts at 6363 Yucca are progressing nicely with construction crews in and out of there everyday. I'm not around during the day at all to see if they are moving in ovens and other equipment yet but construction does seem to be moving. Last week they added the steel roll down doors. A few days ago noticed they had installed all glass doors in one of the openings. The store is shaping up to be a really nice addition to a strip of Yucca that is striving for a new identity.

I'm anxiously awaiting the first slice.

6363 Yucca Update

So Eater LA dug up what restaurant is going into the spot at 6363 Yucca that I posted about a little over a month ago here

The place is being taken over by Village Pizzeria. The only one (I belive) is on Larchmont and is delicious. I work close enough that we can get delivery and I also try to eat at the restaurant on occasion. The pizza, subs, salads and pastas are all really good. One of my favorite places to grab a lunch when i'm working on a saturday or sunday, take a little extra time and sit outside at village pizzeria, enjoy a slice or two and relax. Hopefully the location on Yucca won't be a take out only restaurant as it claims but will make room for a few tables like the one on Larchmont.

Read eater's post here where they claim a december opening is possible - i peeked in there a few weeks ago and the place doesn't look anywhere near close enough to open so we'll see. Very excited for this addition even though the surrounding area is already awash with pizza places (Combo's, Greco's, Rafallo's, Asparagus) within just a few blocks. Hopefully Village Pizzeria can translate the winning forumla from Larchmont to a new location.

Ivar Hill goes to New York

Ivar Hill has been a bit quiet lately - I'm still here and still taking notes in and around the neighborhood. The primary reason there have been fewer posts this week is that I went to New York this weekend for an awesome weekend with some old friends. It was very quick - very very quick. Below are a few notes from my trip.

• flew Virgin America and it was an overall pleasant experience. They have plenty of options for trips to JFK from LAX but not much else right now. They said the planes are wired for wifi and will be available in early 2008. The in-flight entertainment system was pretty neat - comparable to the one i had when i flew on Swiss Air on an International Flight last year - a limited number of cable tv channels (no broadcast channels) interactive games, tv shows on demand and one of the cooler aspects was you could order drinks and snacks through it and then the stewardess would just bring it out.

• New York has such a decidedly different vibe than LA - every time i visit i feel the need to compare them and just can't put it into words. Spent most of the time going to bars and almost every bar i went into (primarily in the village area - but also upper east side) seemed like a place i could have a good time in. In LA i feel like i need to choose my establishments carefully or else i won't be wearing the right shoes or have enough cash to get a beer.

• People will always complain. While i was marvelling at the subway system in New York and thinking about the private companies tunneling under Manhattan at the turn of the century i would hear people complain about the system and how the MTA was over charging for a ride. Also - at around 4am waiting for a train back to the Bronx - my friend exclaimed "we are probably going to have to wait a long time this time of night for a train - maybe even 15 minutes. I regularly wait 15 minutes for my bus to come during morning rush hour.

You can't begin to compare the two cities - it was shivering walking to the subway in New York - back in Los Angeles i'm thinking about going to the beach this weekend (of course only 20 minutes away). Every time i visit i can't help but wish for a city that would combine both aspects - anyone have a suggestion?

Smaller Flyaway Bus

The Really reputable USA Today is reporting that the Flyaway departing from Van Nuys, Union Station and Westwood will begin being serviced by smaller "21 Passenger Buses"

I'm not sure why USA today is the only mention i've heard of this but this should be big (and negative news) for public transit in Los Angeles. The worst news is that they plan to begin using the smaller buses in December. Everytime i'm on a flyaway bus from or to Van Nuys duing december every seat is full and people are standing in line - often times the bus is full by the time it gets to terminal 5 or 6. That's with using the full size 55 seat coach buses - i shudder to think what the flyaway service is going to be like in and out of van nuys over christmas this year if they do in fact plan to use the shorter buses. This is the quickest way to kill this system - make it inconvenient for everyone to use over a major holiday season. I hope someone over at LAWA has thought about this and possibly actually rides the flyaway.

As a side note - one of the reasons i liked the flyaway so much is that they were huge comfortable coach buses. I usually got my own seat and could relax. I think 21 person buses are pushing the limits of a normal route and not looking for future growth.

Hollywood Dell Music Park - in the plans?

Some of you may remember my post from a few weeks ago about the vacant lot at Cahuenga/Franklin being a possible target for a pocket park

It turns out a similar project may already be in the works for the area. While i was casually browsing old minutes from the Hollywood United Neighborhood Council archives I happened upon a few mentions of a rather odd lot that now sits empty and looks like it is part of the freeway system.

I've included the text I'm talking about below but the gist of it from what i can gather is that the lot at Franklin and Ivar next to the freeway is up for sale from CalTrans for $897,000. One person wants to buy the land and make it a parking lot, someone wants to buy it and put up condos (freeway adjacent!), and Robyn Whitney thinks it would be a good idea to put a Music Park (with underground parking and an on-site caretaker?). I would really like to see the PowerPoint presentation she used to describe this project.

The project sounds awesomely ambitious and I'm all about it. Not sure if i can get behind 39 underground parking spaces (i read somewhere to construct underground parking it's $20,000 per spot - I'd provide a link if i could but i have no idea where i read it) but right now that lot is vacant with a few trees and a chain link fence. If someone could figure out a way to utilize this space and minimize the effect the freeway has on this stretch of Franklin lets go for it. I don't see those Quimby funds being used for anything else (Curbed and Downtown News have both reported on Downtown's lack of ability to spend Quimby fees)

Below is the information from the HUNC Meeting minutes I'm getting all my information from.

HUNC Board Meetings: Third Monday of the Month at 6:30pm at First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood

The lot being discussed is on the right, just north of Franklin. The 101 is adjacent to the lot.

From the August 20th Meeting Minutes:

"The lot will be up for auction on Sept. 1st. Eric Garcetti will contribute $400,000 in Quimby Act funds. The money is not in hand, it’s coming later. So it can’t be given to CalTrans. The price for the lot is $897,000.00 with 10% down."

From the Sept. 17th Meeting Minutes

D. PS&T –
2. Update on the status of the lot on Franklin at Ivar,
a. Presentation by Robyn Whitney for a proposed use of the lot.
Robyn Whitney presented the concept of a Hollywood Dell Music Park for this site.
How this land might be used--some options:

• Leave as empty land
• Parking
• Park
• Condominiums –(26 units)

An innovative use would be a Music Park. H. B. Barnum, the benefactor, would like to leave a park on this site. This will be a private / public park partnership. Quimby funds could be used to purchase the lot. Developers contribute to Quimby Funds to help acquire green space. A caretaker will live on the premises. The site would have buildings and 39 parking spaces below ground. Robyn made a power-point presentation with diagrams and renderings showing the envisioned project.

She also noted that keeping it as a park would benefit Hollywood because State Law states that: “Once land is designated as a park it remains a park forever.” There is a need to form a Parks Advisory Board.
Robyn Whitney requested a support letter from HUNC to Tom LaBonge for the Hollywood Dell Music Park.

Motion: Gary Slossberg, “To support the Hollywood Dell Music Park and to write a letter of support to Tom LaBonge and the appropriate LA City and State officials.”
Second: Andrew Ettinger
Vote: Yes---11 No---0 Abs---1

Letter Drafted During Sept. 17th Meeting
Hollywood Music Park letter

Dear ______,

The Hollywood United Neighborhood Council would like to extend its enthusiastic support of the proposed Hollywood Dell Music Park to be built on the Caltrans empty lot at the intersection of Ivar Street, Franklin Blvd and the 101 Freeway. The park is an innovative and cost-effective way to create more green space in Hollywood and to celebrate the accomplishments of musicians and (_____________) in the Hollywood area.
We strongly encourage the City and State to make all efforts to provide the adequate funding to make the Hollywood Dell Music Park a reality.

Sincerely,
HUNC

The Vine Theater: Gone Again?

This is an unconfirmed report but the Vine Theater - that old porn theater on hollywood that shows two movies for seven dollars - may have quietly shut it's doors this weekend. The marquee had been displaying both the Transformers and The Simpsons Movie for seven bucks for the past four weeks or so - now it only lists a church service they host on sunday mornings.

Confirming this theory is the movie listing at losangelesmovietimes.com which says they aren't showing any films. Could just be an error - will follow up and report back sometime soon.

Film Shoot on Ivar Hill

Saturday afternoon residents were greeted with Tow-Away No Parking signs and film permits taped to front doors. Our little stretch of Ivar (between Yucca and Franklin) will be completely shut down to both parking and driving on tuesday and wednesday. The permit shows the location of the shoot will primarly be the Alto Nido apartments and possibly involve some sort of stunt - then again the permit also shows the street will be shut down from 7am-10pm and the sign above has a posted no parking from 7am-10am. A minor difference

Parking is sure to be worse in the next few days as residents hunt for a spot.

What i'm anxious for is to see these temporary No-Parking signs remain up for weeks. The place i used to live at in Van Nuys had these same signs posted one day for a shoot and remained up for at least 4 months and might still be posted to the tree's. Whoever is responsible for putting these signs up should also be responsible for taking them down.

Metro Westside Expansion Meeting

I attended one of the five community meetings that are being held to gauge public opinion of what (if any) additional metro service should be planned for the west side. I did not stand up and voice my opinion but i plan to craft a letter that I will be sending that will voice my opinions.

Overall the meeting seemed productive - this is the first Metro meeting i've been able to attend and they seemed legitimately interested in getting public opinion about transit options in the area. The presentation was fairly straightforward and reinforced all the signs they had posted around the room. They addressed what exact phase this project is in, possible outcomes, possible alignments a project would have and what the next steps would be. They stressed many times that Nov. 1st is the cut off date for public opinion in order to look into what the "locally preferred alternative" is. I urge everyone to let Metro know what you think about LA Transit and the traffic on the west side here

The first thing that caught my attention was the potential alignments poster. They showed the obvious alignment down wilshire but also an alignment that goes from Hollywood/Highland down Santa Monica and continues down Wilshire to the Ocean.

I think both of these alignments would add value to Los Angeles but I think the Wilshire branch would be the most beneficial. A few people from neighborhood councils expressed concern with building a subway through their "historical" neighborhoods. One commenter was very against building a station at Wilshire/Crenshaw because of the ridiculous Park Mile designation that has kept any retail out of the area - it hasn't kept large office buildings out of the area though and multiple 6-8 story office buildings line wilshire that could be served by that station - not to mention connecting to Crenshaw transit options.

The comment that got to me the most was by a gentleman who claimed Los Angeles is a horizontal city and doesn't have any need for a subway - he ranted about how much a subway costs compared to other options. It's that kind of narrow thinking that keeps Los Angeles stuck in traffic all day. Los Angeles may have been a horizontal city in the past but look at any major artery in the city and all you see is 10+ story buildings going up.

There were lots and lots of interesting stats about the west side including job growth and population growth. It made it hard to imagine any alternative other than building a subway to help with the problem.

If i was planning this route I would look at a combo subway/light rail project. Build a tunnel under Wilshire from Wilshire/Western to the UCLA/405 area. At that point the trains emerge from a tunnel and run along a surface alignment through the residential and less dense areas around Santa Monica. I don't know enough to know if it would save that much money to make the train above ground for that last portion through Santa Monica but it seems like a good solution that has been achieved in many other transit systems (MBTA in Boston and MUNI in San Francisco to name a few)

After the Wilshire line is created - or at least approved - then we can start talking about a major north/south alignment. I had no idea why no one is talking about a line down Sepulveda along the 405. And how about extending the crenshaw line up to hollywood to connect at hollywood/vine or hollywood/highland.

• Additional coverage of this meeting can be found on Metro Rider - more in depth analysis of the comments and attendance.

• Also of note is that the LA Times had a reporter there writing down lots of notes. I'm sure we can expect to see a piece in the paper this week.

**thanks to Elissa for the use of her camera for the above photos**

Why we put up with Los Angeles

Read an awesome post this morning about living in Los Angeles. I highly suggest everyone check out the link below.

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/greater-los-angeles.html

"I love Boston; I even love Denver; I like Miami; I think Washington DC is habitable; but Los Angeles is Los Angeles. You can't compare it to Paris, or to London, or to Rome, or to Shanghai. You can interestingly contrast it to those cities, sure, and Los Angeles even comes out lacking; but Los Angeles is still Los Angeles."
-bldgblog

I often find myself trying to explain to people what i find interesting or funny about los angeles and i'm often lost for words. It's hard to say ... There was this time on Crenshaw where this guy had a tree limb sticking out of his shirt, or this time a crane fell over the 405/101 interchange in the middle or rush hour, or some house that stayed on the 101 for two weeks (fully furnished, tagged, and possibly rented). For some reason i can never convey how i feel about LA.

The post i linked to above seems to sum it all up - you need to feel the vibe of the city to understand it. No one is going to be there to make you feel better - you have to do it yourself.

What i've been realizing as I adjust to living here (over 2 years now) and still adjusting to moving from Boston is that you can't compare LA to any other city. It is Los Angeles - it is dirty, it is unpleasant, it is full of weirdos, it just doesn't care that much - it doesn't try to be New York or San Francisco. The city revels in itself - it spreads out and takes everything we can give it - from water and electricity to all the motivation we have to try to make something unique and interesting. But if you are lucky and stick with it you might just get more than you expect out of this city that refuses to be classified.

"Here in Van Nuys" had a post a few months ago about a couple of people from Italy who dreamed of visiting Los Angeles for the same reason so many of us despise it. There are lots of things Los Angeles can't do and lots of things it can't be - but the same can be said for other cities. Los Angeles, like everyplace I may end up, is what i make of it. Some places just allow you to make things a little easier and Los Angeles is one of them.

(dockweiler state beach)

Subway to the sea - your voice can be heard!

(emerging from a red line stop)

Metro Event: Westside Expansion Meetings

There are three community input meetings scheduled for this week - each meeting takes place from 6-8pm.

Tuesday, Oct. 16th - Wilshire United Methodist Church
Wednesday Oct. 17th - Beverly Hills Public Library
Thursday, Oct. 18th - Santa Monica Public Library

You can find more information through the full press release at the metro site.

Two of these meetings have already happened but you still have an opportunity. I will personally be attending the one tomorrow night and i'll be sure to write about anything of interest.

While not directly related to the Hollywood neighborhood these meetings and the recommendations that will come from them are very important to the future of Los Angeles mass transit.

In my view Hollywood has turned into one of the best examples of how transit can change a neighborhood. As it becomes more and more difficult to drive the surrounding streets and more and more parking lots are developed into buildings. The ability to get to the west side efficiently via public transit will be a great bonus for everyone who lives in LA

So if you have time - or an interest/opinion - consider stopping by one of these meetings and participating.