A Park for Kidlo

One thing that's not so great about living downtown with a kid is the lack of green space. We live just three blocks from Pershing Square, but there's no playground and that big concrete hole in the center is ugly and unappealing. There's Angels Knoll Park in Bunker Hill, but it's on a steep slope, and meh. Also not appealing. There are various parks in the planning stages, but who knows how long it'll take for them to get built (if some of the ever are).

But I'd read about a park near FIDM and Ralph's, so I packed Kidlo into the jogging stroller and walked over, even though it was 95 degrees today. It's a little less than a mile away from my apartment, so not too bad a walk even with the heat. It turned out to be a little jewel of a park, with grass, arbors covered in vines, a fountain and even a playground. It was so hot that Kidlo didn't want to move from the carriage, so we sat under an arbor and enjoyed the breeze for a while. It was early so the park was mostly empty, but as I left I saw a man and his two sons ride their bikes into the park. I'm glad that Reina will be able to talk Kidlo to the park without having to drive all the way to Griffith Park.

After the park we went to Ralphs and I did a little shopping. Very little because of how farking expensive it is. Jaysus, even with the price of gas it's still cheaper for us to drive to Trader Joe's and Costco. But it's nice to have a supermarket that's a quick bike ride away in case we need an onion or something.

While at Ralph's, I saw a pregnant woman shopping and a man carrying his son on his shoulders. It's nice to know I'm not the only person raising a kid down here. I think I'm going to try and get some sort of parents group together for downtown. I'm going to email a few bloggers and see if they'll give me a little space to put out the word.