I think we just saw a patient dump...

About 1:05PM, third and spring, a guy walking towards main in a hospital gown. Purple patrol guy rode past him without giving a second look.

Was it the City attorneys office that was going after hospitals for dumping patients downtown? Is anyone still working on that issue?

Pwnage at Sixth and Spring

So the attention of the city parking folks has once again returned to Sixth and spring. They take that "No Stopping - Tow Away 3PM-6PM" stuff seriously. Yesterday they took a nice BMW, today it was another Beemer plus a Nissan truck. All this started at 3:28, so... Hmph.

There was another tow rig between spring and Main waiting in front of an SUV. The driver of the SUV got out and started shoving coins in the meter. "Don't, stop, Tow away!" I yelled. "What?" She asked. "Tow away. No parking after three!" I waved my arms. "TOW AWAY! NO PARKING" I gestured at the tow truck. "He's here to tow YOU!" "Oh..." She seemed unsure, thought a minute, consulted with her passengers, then got in and drove off. I walked up to talk to the Tow driver. "Did you hear me? I was telling her 'Don't do it!' He said. "I tell people, 'Don't park it, man, I'll tow you!' And they say "You ain't gonna tell me what to do!" So I go forward a spot, and I wait, and as soon as they walk away, BAM!" He grinned. "Oh, well, I tried!"

Ok, so if people are even ignoring the advice of the guy in the tow truck idling right in front of their car, well, I don't think any amount of signage is going to help.

BTW, if either of these are yours, the number to call is apparently (213) 687-1003.

That singing guy!

That Singing Guy we spoke of two weeks ago? Well, as he can no longer sing on the roof (or where ever he was that echoed into our loft) during the day, he's taken to singing on the corner of Fifth and Spring:

(Please excuse the shakeycam, my camera is really too light for video work.)

Impressive set of pipes on that guy, he is loud! He sang for about ten minutes longer, then when he was done, he got in his mobility scooter and drove back into The Alexandria.

Seen in front of the Hayward

Classin' up the joint!

Geez, open a burger joint and a gallery named after dangerous drugs and next thing you know the Rolls-Royce crowd is out front.

Speaking of burgers, the D-town Burger Bar has been stuffed, business seems busy at the Bodega next door to it, and of course the Nickel has been doing well. See, you Retailers? Just because a neighborhood has a six-figure median income doesn't mean it wants nothing but fru-fru restaurants and boutiques. Man does not live by Tuna Carpaccio alone. I was wandering around Old Town Pasadena last week wondering where the natives go to buy a pint of Half-n-Half.

Santa Fe Lofts in the Rain

Unexpected art is unexpected

I had to stop by the Federal Building last week and found this:

Cop stop

This happened last week but I didn't get around to pulling the pic off my camera until now: I was walking home when I saw the cops had pulled over a car at the corner of 6th and Hill. I snapped one photo, walked around to get another shot and realized that the cops had their guns drawn. That's when the police copter showed up and two more cop cars came screaming around the corner. At that point I remembered that A) I wasn't wearing a bullet proof vest, B) I'm not a photojournalist and C) Getting home in one piece to my kid is more important than snapping pictures for my blog. So my apologies for the blurry photo but this was the best I could get.

Hard to see, but yes, he's holding a gun.

On Top of the Alexandria

For the past few weeks, a man has been standing on the roof of the Alexandria after dark and singing loudly enough for us to hear him. It sounds like his voice is going through an old megaphone, sort of a Rudy Vallee kind of sound. It's pretty cool, almost like we're being sung to sleep.

6th Street in the Rain

More gold pain... t

This town sure loves the gold-painted doors.

The iron gates at the Title Insurance Building (433 S. Spring) are taking their turn for the gold-paint treatment. Which is fine, I guess. Spring St. is a former Banking district, after all. These buildings are monuments to a bygone era of financial excess. (Not that era, the previous one.) When we run out of doors, we can get on to gilding the pavement itself.