"Megaclub" to eliminate parking?

Woke up this morning to a notice taped to the front gate of my apartment building. As i walked down the hill i noticed the same bright yellow sign in a similar position to each apartment building. The full text reads:

PARKING
GOING GOING GONE!

1000 CAPACITY NIGHTCLUB TO OPEN IN THE FOX THEATER (HOLLYWOOD & WILCOX)
APPEAL HARING
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 25TH, 4:30 PM
CITY HALL
200 N. SPRING STREET, 10TH FLOOR
LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

PARKING, NOISE & TRAFFIC LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD AS A RESIDENT AND BUSINESS OWNER & IMPACT WHETHER OR NOT THIS MEGA CLUB OPENS

Heard about this project back in march when Curbed LA had an article about the Fox Theater becoming the next Crobar.

Thought the project might be stalled but apparently it's held up in attaining it's "megaclub" status from the city of Los Angeles. Can't really say the parking angle of the above flyer is really that valid - with enough other venue's around hollywood (pantages, henry fonda, avalon) most people going to clubs have resigned themselves to valet or to pay in a lot. I don't see the parking situation in my corner of hollywood getting better anytime soon and making sure a new club can't open sure isn't going to solve it. If you live in hollywood you live here for a reason - my reason is so i can ditch my car as much as possible. I'll be watching how this project develops - at the very least it would be nice to get rid of another empty storefront. It would be nice if something other than a club would go in - a cinema-grill-bar combination would be perfect for the neighborhood.

Some Images From Hollywood

These are a few photo's i took on a recent early evening. With the days getting shorter and shorter the opportunities for daytime photos aren't as frequent - i'll have to start getting up earlier to snap the prime photos.
This is the view looking north from the top of Ivar Hill south of the 101.


Looking down Vine at Franklin
View of the Broadway Hollywood Sign from between buildings at the top of Ivar Hill

Construction Watch: Pali House

Cruising down Vine today saw another major step forward for the "boutique hotel" the Pali House Living rooms going in next to the Avalon and across from the Hollywood and Vine condo's.

It appears they were blocking two lanes to traffic to start putting up the bright yellow construction cranes.

From what i remember the project is going to be five stories tall with two stories of below grade parking. Include condo's, a small hotel and retail space to include at least one restaurant. I'll try to grab some photo's later today.

Leinenkugels Sighting

One of the things i miss about the midwest is it's selection of interesting brews. There is a selection of off-beat beers that you just don't find elsewhere. There is the Hamm's/Old Style/Stroh's market (under $15 for 30 beers) and then the Summit/Leinenkugels more upscale smaller brewery market.

A few years ago my sister turned me onto New Belgium beers - Fat Tire to be specific - and about 9 months ago when they started distributing heavily to California i was very happy. Now for the second time in less than a month i have seen a leinenkugels brew available for purchase.

The first is the Palms resort and casino in vegas that has Leinenkugels Sunset Wheat on tap at all their casino level bars (not sure about the clubs). I also just stumbed across it at a liquor store just a few blocks from my apartment. The store is at Franklin and Argyle in hollywood and they have six packs of Sunset Wheat available.

The biggest travesty is that i am without a fridge and was unable to purchase any - hopefully the stock doesn't dry up anytime soon.

Fridge

So i moved into my apartment last monday and when i walked in my kitchen was lacking a fridge of any sorts. which would be fairly normal for an apartment building except the lease i signed two weeks before i moved in stated they needed to provide a fridge.

I called up our acting manager to say "hey, where is my fridge" and all i got for an answer was "ohh yeah, i think they ordered that, not sure when it's coming"

I'm calling bullshit on that right now. They had a full 10 days from the point the old tenent moved out til i moved in and now i've been in the apartment for 7 days with no fridge. I'm starting to get upset.

On the plus side, i've been eating out for every meal and had a good opportunity to discover a few local eateries which i'll be highlighting as this blog moves forward. This whole no refridgerating thing is really starting to put a damper on many things i enjoy, like cooking food and drinking cold beer.

Apartment Search - Part 2

So after i had narrowed down my neighborhood choices i started to feverishly check craigslist and westside rentals for apartments that were where i wanted to be. I was getting a little disappointed because i wasn't finding as much as i had hoped and i only had a few weeks to look so i really started thinking i was going to need to settle on something i wasn't really fond of. I knew from the previous few times i've looked at apartments that there are a lot of other people looking to move into the same place so sometimes you need to settle to get anything.

I found a few places but a lot of what i was seeing was out of my price range - i wanted to pay under 1,000 for a studio. I figured i could probably scrape together enough to pay up to 1100 but i really didn't want to be forced into doing that.

The entire looking at apartments process actually went really quick for me. I went in early to work on a friday and left early to go look at a places. I had found about 10 apartments that were close enough to what i wanted and was a little disappointed when i called the number listed and no one answered and I hadn't received a call back except for one place. I knew the best way to find a place was to look for for rent signs in the place i want to live so i figured i would take the afternoon and walk around and see what i can find.

I started out looking at a place in Koreatown right across the street from the new housing project on top of the wilshire/vermont red line station. The building was nice enough but it was a newly renovated building and after talking to the manager I could tell they had to kick everyone who was living there out and then re-did all the apartments and got a weird vibe from the building. There were plenty of apartments available but i thought i could keep looking an go back there if i didn't find anything.

After that i headed up Vermont and drove around Los Feliz for a little while and called a bunch of numbers for apartments but again, no one answered and i left a bunch of messages. Then cruised on over to hollywood area and got a call from someone at a management company letting me know that they were currently showing apartments in a building at Ivar and Yucca. I headed over there and looked at the apartment with about 3 other people who wanted to rent it. My first impression was that it was small but an amazing location. No parking and kitchen was too small for a dining room table.

I managed to look at a few other places but on the drive back to Van Nuys decided i really liked the apartment on Ivar and wanted to move on it and try to get an application in. The next day i took the train/bike to hollywood and met up with the manager to hand in the application.

The manager said she would call me on monday and let me know if i got approved - she didn't call until wednesday when i called her but i guess everything worked out. I stopped by a bank on wednesday to get a security deposit to hold the apartment and a week later i was signing a lease with the management company.

Now i'm mostly moved in and adjusting to life in hollywood. The search was fairly easy overall, i knew what i wanted and managed to find a reasonably priced place in an area that fits all my requirements. I also get to describe where i live as "a block away from the capitol records tower" or "two blocks from hollywood and vine"

Apartment Search - Part 1

So part of this new blog is going to be chronicling my move into my new apartment and part of that move was finding this new place. I'm going to post the steps of my search in a few posts to provide insight to anyone who may be interested in finding an apartment in Los Angeles that shares my similar interests.

When the opportunity came up to move out of the house i've lived in for a little over the past year with an awesome group of roommates I must say I was ready for the change. I loved living in a big house with a bunch of friends but the place was just a bit too far from where i work (mid-wilshire area) and the 13+ mile drive each way was starting to take it's toll on me and my car.

I know a lot more about LA now than i did when i was originally looking for an apartment two years ago. At the time i hastily settled in Sherman Oaks and then moved again to Van Nuys. Both interesting communities to live in but my time has come to make the jump over the hill.
So began the search for a new neighborhood and apartment. The big benefit this time around was that i planned to be living alone so i didn't need to compromise with anyone but myself. I chose my neighborhoods based on the following factors:

closeness to work
- i wanted to be within a easy bus/rail ride and also be able to bike to work if i wanted
mass transit accessibility
- wanted to be within 1/2 mile of a red line stop
walkable
- being able to park the car for an entire weekend and still be able to get groceries and going out at night

So right off the bat i could eliminate all but a few neighborhoods. The ones high on my list were
Hollywood
Los Feliz
Koreatown
Downtown
Miracle Mile (along wilshire)
Hancock Park (Larchmont/Rossmore area)

Stay tuned for more of my search in future posts.

Ivar Hill - Hollywood Adventures

I am about to move into a new apartment in Hollywood on Ivar Hill. This blog is an attempt at a neighborhood blog for area's around the small Ivar Hill area, hollywood and Los Angeles in general. Stay tuned for restaurant reviews, cool events in the area, adventures using LA's metro transit system among other things.

I'll be chronicling my moving process as i get settled into my very small studio and the hassles that go with moving to a new neighborhood.