Do you think the Downtown News understands how funny this article is?

From the Downtown News:

Over two months, Central Area detectives had been investigating two suspects believed to be responsible for six armed robberies and an additional attempted robbery. One suspect, described as heavyset, was known as the “Braids Bandit,” because of his braided hair; the other, who appeared slimmer, was labeled the “Do-rag Bandit,” for the head covering — a sort of nylon bandana — that he wore.

Police now believe that Anthony Brown, a parolee who was arrested on Wednesday, Aug. 5, in Skid Row, is behind both sets of crimes.

...

“We were prepared to… ask the public for their help in capturing the Do-rag Bandit,” Vernon said. “Turns out, we can let everyone know instead his crime spree is over.”

A Crime Under the Alexandria!

"A Terrible Theft"

Scene of the Crime

A terrible theft has inconvenienced the residents of the Alexandria, as well as the clientele of the Parking garage therein.

Yes, that's right, someone stole the pushbuttons to the elevators on the garage level. An employee of the Alexandria (who shall not be identified as he is not authorized to speak on this subject, but rather to park cars) said "It's crazy!"

See? This is why we can't have nice things.

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...

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?

MySpace? Really?

The Alexandria has a MySpace page. Here's a sample of the About Me:

Live In A Legend*************** ***************Designed by famed architect John Parkinson, whose creative power produced such notable projects as Union Station, Los Angeles City Hall, and The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, The Alexandria exudes confidence that not only comes with brilliant design but with a charm and personality all her own. ***************Hollywood fell in love with The Alexandria from the start. Legends from Charlie Chaplin, Mae West, and Humphrey Bogart to Rudolph Valentino, Clark Gable and Greta Garbo called her home. Three U.S. Presidents and foreign dignitaries followed suit making The Alexandria one of the most famous buildings in the city. ***************Now, you have the opportunity to live in the same residences as these legendary celebrities and make a history all your own. Currently in renovation, the new Alexandria will offer a charming, affordable and secure environment in the heart of the evolving downtown Los Angeles community. This is an opportunity to get in on the ground floor of the new urbanism movement and a growing, citywide revitalization effort. +++++A Facelift for our Beauty+++++ ***************The Alexandria is receiving a $14 million renovation including manicured common areas with fashionable furnishings for your enjoyment and entertaining, and our popular ‘micro-lofts’ will feature all new appliances, floor coverings, ceiling fans and light fixtures. Additional plans include a fitness center, business center, lobby diner, black box room for resident performances & exhibitions, and storage lockers for your convenience. Construction begins in the fall of 2006 and is scheduled for completion in the spring of 2009. ***************All new residents must meet affordable income guidelines but will benefit from rents starting in the $450 per month range including utilities.

Hm, no mention of the crack dealers hanging out by the front door. An oversight, I'm sure.

That "Crime" stuff, do we have it here?

The whole adventure at the Hayward (with the shooting, and the helicopters, and the... GLAVIN!) has us all thinking about Crime over here. I thought I would do a little digging to find out how much of it we actually have.

The LAPD keeps monthly stats and makes them available on their "COMPSAT" site. Let's take a quick compare between Downtown and out old 'hood, Silver Lake (Northeast division.)

Northeast division recorded 463 violent crimes among it's quarter of a million peeps last year, or 1.852 per 1,000 population. Not bad!

Central division saw 363 violent crimes in 40,000 residents for a rate of 9.075 crimes per 1,000 population! EVERYBODY PANIC!

Wait, I don't feel very dead. How can this be?

Well, looking out the window I see hella lot more than forty thousand people. More like four HUNDRED thousand, which is the "daytime population" number for Downtown thrown around by people like the National real estate investor and Blogdowntown. The true number is probably higher (just as the true number for the night time population is probably closer to fifty or sixty thousand.) But plugging in our new daytime numbers gives a violent crime rate of 0.9 crimes per 1,000 population. Nice! Half the crime rate of Silver Lake! But this number is probably misleading as well.

The problem is, there are daytime crimes that will affect the daytime office-and-shopping population, and nighttime crimes that will affect those who live here. Lofties will be safer than SRO residents from some crimes, like burglary, but will be affected more by other crimes like theft-from-vehicle. So how do we get our thoughts around the real danger?

This problem was the subject of a paper by Richard Peiser and Jiaqi Xiong presented in the Journal of Real Estate Research, Oct-Dec 2003. Their goal was to quantify the actual danger presented to a daytime shopper, using 1997 police crime stats. Their somewhat surprising result was that they found that a shopper was twice as likely to be victimized shopping in Santa Monica than in Downtown LA, even back in 1997! Think of that. You are much safer wondering around Downtown with a wad of money and a dreamy look on your face than you would be in Santa Monica, at least in the daytime. At night? Not so much.

Still, the "conventional" crime rate for downtown is very high, and without any information as to whether the crimes are day or night, it is hard to say what our true risk is on nights and weekends. However, my gut feeling is that the more people there are on the street at any given moment, (and Downtown, this number is going nowhere but up,) the lower the risk. Perhaps the LAPD can shed some light on this, given Bratton's famous love for stats and computers. I'll ask.

More on the shooting

Blogdowntown has coverage of the shooting. What's interesting are the comments. A sample:

I was in my loft right across and heard the shots, I just moved into the new building at the Manhattan directly across from the Hayward, what a great way to welcome me into the neighborhood!!

I was really scared, I just hope this isnt something that happens often, I thought Dowtown was relatively safer now, Im always going out here and finally decided to make the move. Can anyone tell me just how bad it might be?

...

Adrienne: I can assure you that this isn't a normal event. First time I think I've heard of something like this in the four years I've lived here.

...

I agree with Eric. Been here since 2004, and this was the first time I'd seen something like this downtown.

Now, the westside...Alex and I saw one shooting, heard 2 - all within one weekend.

The next weekend we came downtown to tour lofts, and four months later (due to construction scheduling), moved into Santee Court. We would have moved sooner that year had rain not stopped so much construction downtown.

...

We were watching it all transpire, including the police sniper on the roof of the Stock Exchange. Definitely scary, but definitely not the norm. Adrienne, don't worry, you're safe, we have an 8 mos. old in this neighborhood and if it was not safe, we would not be here. :) The only recommendation I can make is to remember, you ARE in an urban environment and you need to be aware all the time. But that's any city environment in the world. (Editorial note: Another family with a baby!)

And finally, a comment from MB:

We just moved from Silver Lake to the Manhattan. My wife is a little freaked out about this. For me, when I found out it was a starter pistol, things went from "Scary" to "How drunk was he?"

The LAPD crime map for downtown can be scary, but then, during our time in peaceful ol' Silver Lake a body was dumped in the alley behind El Cid, as well as a lot of broken car windows. And before we were married, there was a gang related drive-by murder down the street from her... In Brentwood! But let me say this: I've lived in Los Angeles since the Eighties, and I have never felt safer here. And I feel much safer here than I ever did in NYC.

So now I feel silly for the freakout, but at least I wasn't the only one. Adrienne and I should get together for drinks and commiserate on being easily spooked. *sigh*

"Shooting at the Hayward" or "Why did we move down here again?"

Last night, a man at the Hayward Hotel fired shots out of his window. Details from KNBC:

Police: Man Accused Of Firing Shots From Hotel Window
Officials Say Starter Pistols, Air Rifles Recovered From Man's Abode

LOS ANGELES -- A man suspected of shooting from a downtown hotel toward the street was in custody Sunday, police said.VideoThe shots were fired from the Hotel Hayward, 601 S. Spring St., just before 8 p.m. Saturday, said Los Angeles police Officer April Harding of the media relations section.No one was injured.Police determined the man was firing from a street-facing window on the east side of the 12-story building, according to Newsreel Video.Police blocked off Broadway and Spring Street between Fifth and Seventh streets during the incident, Harding said.A police helicopter was used during the two-hour standoff, which ended when the accused sniper, on the seventh floor, surrendered to police, Newsreel reported.The man was described as a man between 45 and 55, Newsreel reported.Police entered the man's residence, where they found a collection of starter pistols and air rifles, but no lethal weapons, according to Newsreel.Police said that the man was possibly responsible for similar shooting incidents this past week, Newsreel reported.The man's name was being withheld while police continued their investigation, said a watch commander at the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Station.

This was across the street from where we live. I'm not a happy mama.

When we moved to the neighborhood, I knew we were taking a chance since it definitely has its gritty side. I've worried about the safety factor, solely because of Kidlo. I've always hated the suburbs, but now that I'm a mother, I get it. I get why people want to huddle into their little homogeneous enclaves, with alarms on their houses and cars, not letting their kids play on the streets. Part of me wants to flee the city with Kidlo and raise him in a place where nothing bad can possibly ever happen to him. Yes, I know that such a place doesn't really exist, but it's such a seductive idea. It's why suburbs thrive.

But MB and I feel very strongly that we don't want Kidlo to grow up in a bubble of privilege, completely cut off from people who are different. We want to live in a neighborhood that's culturally, racially and economically diverse, with a strong and thriving arts scene. We want to break our dependence on driving and enjoy walking, bumping shoulders with other people and truly immersing ourselves in life, not limiting our interactions with other human beings to shopping in a climate-controlled mall.

I'm Puerto Rican and grew up in Soundview in the Bronx and lived in Brooklyn and the East Village in New York. My family was poor--I know what it's like to eat government cheese and go to the hospital emergency room for health care. I was the first person in my family to go to college and now I'm solidly middle class, at least with regards to my wallet. So in many respects, I straddle two worlds (if not more). I'm glad that Kidlo will grow up with more resources and more opportunities than I had. But I don't want him to take it for granted. I don't want him to feel contempt for others simply because they're poor. I don't want him to look at people who come from different countries and treat them as if they are sub-human.

So here we are Downtown.

But then I wake up to the news that a man was shooting a gun across the street. I see people dealing drugs on 5th Street. And I fear that I'm not doing the right thing by my son.

That's the tradeoff, right? By opening yourself up to new experiences, you open yourself up to fear as well. But if you give into that fear and wall yourself off from life, you sacrifice your humanity, your creativity, the capacity for empathy and compassion.

By the way, my sister is a New York City cop. She sees a lot of ugly shit. But she still wants to raise her kids in the city. She understands the risks in a visceral way, but she doesn't want to be cut off either. So there she is.

And here we are. Downtown.