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Showing posts from April, 2021

Los Angeles. Love/Hate Relationship. SPECIAL SERIES: A Tale of Two Cities. 2021. Part 6. COVID brings LA's greatest faults to surface.

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In any condominium, water shut-offs do occur. Typically, however, they're occasional, not a common occurrence. This is particularly challenging at a time when more of us are working from home. Our property manager said water shut-offs are a more common issue as a result. However, the Market Lofts was a live/work building long before COVID-19 - it should be able to accommodate people living and working from home. We've had over 12 in the first quarter, some multiple days in a row. Living over the grocery store is tremendously convenient but also can be disadvantageous as well. At least once a quarter the bakery causes the alarms in our building to go off. Once, someone set the toilet seats in the men's room on fire. The entrance to the underground parking lot to the store is right next to our entrance. You need to always be extra cautious coming and going as shoppers are not always paying close attention. The largest grocery store in Downtown Los Angeles, it is also a magnet...

Los Angeles. Love/Hate Relationship. SPECIAL SERIES: A Tale of Two Cities. 2021. Part 5. Overly restrictive California and the losses to the LGBT community.

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The Gold Coast, which some referred to as "God's waiting room", opened in 1981 at the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and La Jolla, across from the infamous Circus of Books Store which has been there since 1960 and created the home of the Vaseline Alley behind the store. It was a classic "dive" bar and attracted a wide-net audience. It was the home of the Red dress party which started as a vow between 2 bartenders, Mark Ferguson and Yves-Claude, with proceeds going to Life Group LA. I've spent time at the Gold Coast at 2 PM and left at 2 AM. While not a regular hangout of mine, it certainly was always a safety net, a piece of West Hollywood that was comfortable to go to when I just wanted to pop in for a drink or even sometimes just use the bathroom. It wasn't pretentious, the drinks were less expensive than most everywhere else in WeHo. there was something comforting that it was just off the path of the epicenter of Boystown, yet only blocks away from...