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***The Official LA Isn't So Bad Thread***

Havoc

Havoc

Rabbitt Bartholomew status
May 23, 2016
7,801
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in da hood next to paradise
One-Off said:
I love LA, precisely because of places like Little Tokyo and establishments like Suehiro and Fugetsu-do.

Little Tokyo has grown in popularity the past ten years, especially with young people. But Little Tokyo is in the historic heart of LA and just a few blocks from Skid Row. Putting a dispensary there is exactly the wrong thing to do to develop the area. People go there for dining and shopping. The dispensary will only attract more skid row residents into the area IMHO.

I'm not saying LA is perfect, just that it isn't so bad. There's a public artwork a block away from there that features my family.

View attachment 169082
View attachment 169083

Unfortunately it had become a homeless camp. You can see the bronzer pillar just right of the portable toilets, between the gingko trees.


View attachment 169084


They've been cleared out. We were there last night and the area was fenced off. There was graffiti on the artwork.

spectrumnews1.com

Toriumi Plaza temporarily closing to transition homeless to housing

Growing homeless encampment prompted the closure for repairs
spectrumnews1.com spectrumnews1.com


Speaking of graffiti. You know how that is one of my pet peeves when I go hiking? I met the guy from Sierra Club/State Parks who is in charge of removing graffiti. He was very philosophical about it, advising me not to get angry. "Humans, animals really, have felt the need to leave their mark since time immemorial. You just remove it. They might come back once and try again but then you remove it again and eventually they give up."

This is what he uses and is now going in my hiking pack -


You can complain, or you can act.
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wanted to take wife and kid to j-town and then to sushi-gen but man, that area got rough. real bummer. i head to torrance these days for japanese food or costa mesa. too bad.
 
$kully

$kully

Duke status
Feb 27, 2009
60,288
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One-Off said:
How do they feel about graffiti on artwork? Like on a bronze memorial sculpture?
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Stupid and disrespectful. Just like graffiti on murals. There’s no shortage of walls to paint in a city like Los Angeles. Most graffiti I see these days is really bad. Gang graffiti in particular.
 
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$kully

$kully

Duke status
Feb 27, 2009
60,288
17,092
113
enframed said:
I just saw my postal carrier cussing out an Amazon driver who was blocking the road.
Click to expand...
I’ve had to resort to Uber eats delivery to get by during and in the wake of the strikes. The delivery economy and traffic/parking is a problem. Delivery people live and die parking in the red and bus stops and bus drivers are particularly hostile about it. I’d get yelled at by them multiple times a day and I get it. Especially near these ghost kitchens where there’s like 20 delivery drivers jockeying for parking at any given time. Something has to give and I think it may be this that kills the delivery economy…

 
$kully

$kully

Duke status
Feb 27, 2009
60,288
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Havoc said:
wanted to take wife and kid to j-town and then to sushi-gen but man, that area got rough. real bummer. i head to torrance these days for japanese food or costa mesa. too bad.
Click to expand...
I get it skid row is right next door and it’s tough to stomach. But it’s also not that bad where you can’t go to little Tokyo. I’m there literally every day and have never had a problem and there are plenty of ways to approach it without passing through skid row. Also I remember as a kid in the 80’s driving with my mother through the south Bronx and the Bowery. Sure she’d make us lock the doors and it was always a bit of an adventure, but cutting through the bad areas always beat sitting in traffic and we didnt die.
 
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One-Off

One-Off

Tom Curren status
Jul 28, 2005
14,240
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33.8N - 118.4W
Havoc said:
wanted to take wife and kid to j-town and then to sushi-gen but man, that area got rough. real bummer. i head to torrance these days for japanese food or costa mesa. too bad.
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j-town is in San Francisco. Little Tokyo is LA. It's not bad. If you go a few blocks south it is. Just don't go a few blocks south. We park on the street just north. This mural originally from 1989 is visible from where we park. I took this pic last night. Still totally valid.


IMG_9093.JPG

$kully said:
I get it skid row is right next door and it’s tough to stomach. But it’s also not that bad where you can’t go to little Tokyo. I’m there literally every day and have never had a problem and there are plenty of ways to approach it without passing through skid row.
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If you're there all the time you probably know that sax player busking on Second St. He wasn't there last night. We haven't been in a while. Hope he's OK. He's pretty good. I always leave him a couple bucks. There used to be the old Japanese one man band guy but I haven't seen him in couple of years. He was pretty old. I fear the worst for him.
 
$kully

$kully

Duke status
Feb 27, 2009
60,288
17,092
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One-Off said:
j-town is in San Francisco. Little Tokyo is LA. It's not bad. If you go a few blocks south it is. Just don't go a few blocks south. We park on the street just north. This mural originally from 1989 is visible from where we park. I took this pic last night. Still totally valid.


View attachment 169100



If you're there all the time you probably know that sax player busking on Second St. He wasn't there last night. We haven't been in a while. Hope he's OK. He's pretty good. I always leave him a couple bucks. There used to be the old Japanese one man band guy but I haven't seen him in couple of years. He was pretty old. I fear the worst for him.
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None of the guys you describe ring a bell. But a lot of old fixtures like that quietly disappear.

There was an old black dude we used to always see around downtown who wore a pirate hat. He was a fixture and a character but always down to chat. One day he just disappeared.

I wonder what happened to this Venice Beach fixture. I don’t get over there much, wonder if he’s still around?


IMG_1674.jpeg
 
One-Off

One-Off

Tom Curren status
Jul 28, 2005
14,240
10,439
113
33.8N - 118.4W
$kully said:
None of the guys you describe ring a bell. But a lot of old fixtures like that quietly disappear.

There was an old black dude we used to always see around downtown who wore a pirate hat. He was a fixture and a character but always down to chat. One day he just disappeared.

I wonder what happened to this Venice Beach fixture. I don’t get over there much, wonder if he’s still around?


View attachment 169104
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I was running on Venice beach all the time over the last couple years and didn't see him.

But he's around. From this year-


Here's the one man band-



A quick google and I found the sax player-

 
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$kully

$kully

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Feb 27, 2009
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$kully said:
Stupid and disrespectful. Just like graffiti on murals. There’s no shortage of walls to paint in a city like Los Angeles. Most graffiti I see these days is really bad. Gang graffiti in particular.
Click to expand...
Here’s some graffiti I can get down with…

www.instagram.com

Tags From Around The World! on Instagram: "Pizza against nazis Tag #handstylesworldwide to get featured Follow for daily graffiti content By @cibo.oooo * * * * * * * * * * * * * * #art #viral #graffiti #handstyle #handstylesworldwide"

59K likes, 1,933 comments - handstyles.worldwideDecember 9, 2023 on : "Pizza against nazis Tag #handstylesworldwide to get featured Follow for daily graffiti content By @cibo.oooo * * * * *..."
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com
 
Brsnstein

Brsnstein

OTF status
Jul 28, 2018
250
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SoCal
$kully said:
There was an old black dude we used to always see around downtown who wore a pirate hat. He was a fixture and a character but always down to chat. One day he just disappeared.
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That was Ricky the pirate. He used to hang outside the bars at night shooting the sh!t. Someone made this postcard (low grade phone pic from 2009) for him and he was handing them out one night:
 

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$kully

$kully

Duke status
Feb 27, 2009
60,288
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Brsnstein said:
That was Ricky the pirate. He used to hang outside the bars at night shooting the sh!t. Someone made this postcard (low grade phone pic from 2009) for him and he was handing them out one night:
Click to expand...
Yes!!! We used to see him all the time outside 107!
 
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W

Witchipoo

Michael Peterson status
Jun 16, 2010
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East of Malibu
Firebird said:
Gosh, I gotta say, you always come in here with such a ray of sunshine and positivity. Always such uplifting posts. You really light up the place.
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:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Interesting that you singled out my post, which is saying pretty much the same thing as a lot of other posts. Wonder why?
 
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