Loco (motive) on Spring Street

Sweet

MB and I hung out at Syrup Desserts today. He had a root beer float made with a locally brewed (and amazingly tasty) root beer and I had a latte and a macaroon. It's a really comfortable space, especially the second floor lounge, and they have wifi. I'm always looking for new places to write and I think this is going to be great--out of the apartment so that I don't get distracted by Kidlo, but close enough for me to pop in and out when I need to. Also, because they have outdoor seating, they really fit in on a block that has a lot of outdoor seating already--LA Cafe, the Mexican joint (sorry, can't remember the name), California Pizza and even the grocery store all have their little bistro areas. I hope Syrup Desserts sticks around.

It's a clean machine

Cowboy Steele is missing his guns!

This big guy at the corner of Sixth and Spring used to have a brace of oversize pistols. A few months ago, paper went up over the window as construction work went on inside. When the paper came down, the pistols were gone.

So if someone tries to hold you up with some suspiciously large six-guns, well, you know where they came from...

The Evolution of Spring Street

There are a lot of changes happening in my little slice of Downtown. The Hayward Hotel is completing a revamping of its facade in anticipation of new tenants, including a yogurt shop (groan...), a clothing store and a 2,000-sf market (yay!!). Across the street, a nightclub will be opening at the Stock Exchange Building (though a lot of people aren't happy about the news). There's the revamped Charley O's and another nightclub opening in the Spring Arts Tower. And there are at least four buildings that will open up for residency in the next year. On my corner alone we're looking at 200 new units.

I really think that Spring Street has the biggest potential to become the heart of the "new" Historic Core--much more so than Broadway. Broadway as it is now is a success--not for the folks who are moving into the lofts, but for the people who come in from the Eastside (the real Eastside) to shop. Broadway is packed every weekend and it has some of the highest retail rents in Los Angeles--almost as high as Beverly Hills! It's obviously profitable for the building owners as-is, so what incentive do they have to upgrade the retail space to accommodate more upscale stores?

In contrast, Spring Street has gorgeous buildings that are rapidly filling with residents and many empty storefronts that can be upgraded without displacing any tenants. It's also lined with ficus trees (which Bert Green and I both like), making it very inviting for pedestrians, even in the heat of the summer.

I like the idea of two Downtown shopping districts coexisting side-by-side. I can shop at the stores on Broadway when I need inexpensive things for the house, but still have my iced coffee at LA Cafe. It's hard for people in LA to imagine having two wildly different shopping areas existing thisclose together, but if you've ever been to NYC, you know it can work.