Robert StGenis Voice empowered

Downtown Los Angeles is a "district" which is rather small, only encompassing shy of 6 square miles of the 503 square mile city boundaries. Basically, a little more than 1%. When I first moved to Los Angeles in the late 90s I would joke with visitors that the skyscrapers in Downtown were there as a stage set really so that you could have an easily identifiable location shot. Unless you needed city hall, had to go to court or went to see the opera (and some theatre), there was little other reason to go there unless your job was there. You might have well packed your own lunch or nosh as restaurants were hard to come by as well. Then, as LA moved into the 21st Century and the city adapted some new laws to allow repurposing of abandoned buildings that had been sitting for decades, things began to change.  The 2000 Census found that 27,849 people lived in Downtown. City estimates that the population grew to about 35,000 in 2008. Census data moved that number to over 40,000 by 201...

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...

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...

I first started hearing about Atlanta as a child in the late early 1980s. Our neighbors in Michigan moved to some place called Dunwoody. A place I am quite familiar with now and imagine was significantly smaller back in the day. I recall they built a home and were overwhelmed with the amount of natural wood used inside on trim and such and the attention to detail the builder put into satisfying their desires. Mr. Riley proclaimed something like “if you don’t like the moldings, they just rip them out and start over” - I don’t think they would find that as easily to be the case today. They also might be scraping into Dunwoody now, not building a custom home from West Bloomfield today. West Bloomfield and Dunwoody are somewhat similar in both being more affluent suburbs. According to Zillow, however, the average home price in Dunwoody is $502,716 and West Bloomfield the average is $348,508.  While West Bloomfield definitely did grow from the time the Rileys left and when my family lef...

This is Part Three in a mini-series: Los Angeles. Love/Hate Relationship. A Tale of Two Cities in my series Los Angeles. Love/Hate Relationship . If you haven't already, be sure to read:  Tale of Two Cities. Part One and Part Two . When you have a chance, the entire series starts at:  Los Angeles. Love/Hate Relationship. Part One.   It is almost incomprehensible to believe that when I decided to make a stop on December 6, 2020 and grab a drink it would be the 1st time I had enter the indoors of a gay bar in at least 9 months. I am not exactly sure when it was earlier but it would have to had been while we were in Great Britain in late February and early March before California began to lockdown for what is becoming eternity. We are not big bar goers, in fact my husband doesn't drink. But, he is usually up for a bar with an "event" like a drag show or bingo and we usually make an "appearance" at a bar if visiting somewhere. We "live" to travel an...

  Market Lofts Condominiums. This is Part Two in a mini-series: Los Angeles. Love/Hate Relationship. A Tale of Two Cities in my series Los Angeles. Love/Hate Relationship .  At a minimum, be sure to read:  Tale of Two Cities. Part One  before reading this post. When you have a chance read the entire series starting at:  Los Angeles. Love/Hate Relationship. Part One. I entered the building and there was Ricardo, our security guard, who had just recently "turned me in" to our management for creating a nuisance violation for use of words of offensive language. He sat with his somehow perfectly naturally sparkling white teeth and smiled at me with such a "shit eating grin" it took everything to avoid what I wanted to say to someone I had previously considered a great member of our staff as I looked at him stare at me  with his bleached teeth and smug smile. The pandemic has made life challenging for everyone, day-to-day at the Market Lofts being no exceptio...

Be sure to have read at least Part 3 and Part 4 of this series before reading this entry to fully enjoy the story.  We woke up fairly early New Year's morning despite having stayed out fairly late at local bars celebrating New Year's Eve. I don't recall where we went other than I was mostly outside drinking and smoking cigarettes, something hard for me to fathom now as an adamant ex-smoker. I first started smoking on/off sneaking into woods during cross country in middle school at Cranbrook . I was roughly 14, so way too young! By the time we were in 'upper school' we were actually allowed to smoke on campus in designated areas. When I moved to New Jersey and went back to public school at Morristown High School, I think we could smoke outside; either way, we just left campus at lunch anyway... My first year at Concordia University in Montreal you could smoke in class, and tellers at the bank and postal workers would be smoking. Then Quebec caught on albeit French...

To really understand most of this blog entry, you really need to read:  Someone homeless in your house ,  Tony's first days back...  and  Tony incognito #1  prior to this entry.Read the messages in reverse, as they are Tony's replies to my messages. When Tony did come and received the IRS check he all but fell to his knees in thanks. I forget why, but I didn't have it at the front desk and I had him come to the door, just not inside. Later, he seems to have a very different memory.  Date: Mon 11 May 2020 Subject: RE: re: We have a package of something you ordered05:12 PM We also received something from the IRS for you. I will leave both at the front desk. ~~~~~~~~~ Tony wrote: Thank u! Ive been around elsinore still waiting for covid to stop ruining things. Ill try and grab that day after tomorrow unless im.up there manana ~~~~~~~~~ Robert wrote: It looks like something that may have come from wish. Where are you? What is up? Subject: re: We have a ...

Be sure you have read  Los Angeles. Love/Hate. Part 3  ,  Los Angeles. Love/Hate. Part 2  , and  Los Angeles. Love/Hate. Part 1  prior to reading this post... My ex, Bart, and I, along with our 2 cats, Chloe and Zuma, loaded up my roughly 8 year old Volvo 740 station wagon, which I had recently bought from my stepmother, and drove from Capitol Hill in Washington, DC and headed to West Hollywood. We left right after Christmas planning to arrive in West Hollywood for New Years Day 1997. Bart had bought me this stuffed Energizer Bunny for Christmas so we took it along the way and took pictures of it at given destinations on our journey. Mind you, we didn't have smart phones, but film cameras, so we only took so many and not all were worthy of keeping. Not to mention, I was a little overzealous spring cleaning a year or so ago.   We went through parts of Shenandoah National Park crossing through Virginia. We drove to, but didn't go into Dollywood (I wasn't...

Since the first time I had ever rented anywhere to live, I seldom lived in an actual "apartment." and only once in one owned by a large company and it isn't even in the "big 10" in LA (companies like Avalon, Palmer, Equity, etc). My first 2 years of college in Vermont I lived in a dormitory in a school of 500 students. I guess that was a quasi-management situation. There was no other option. I also lived in a dorm in my second year, when I transferred to university at Concordia in Montreal and was among the few as almost all lived off campus. They converted 2 apartment houses into dorms. We only had dorms for a few hundred students in those buildings out of 25,000 students so it was more like an unlikely co-ed fraternity than a managed setting. I left and lived in an apartment briefly with a boyfriend which might have been a "managed building", but it was his lease and I was only there a couple of months. We then rented a 2nd story of a 2 unit building...

Los Angeles had been beaten and battered in the few years leading up to my arrival. Starting in 1991, the Los Angeles basin shed over 200,000 jobs, primarily in the aerospace industry. Military bases were closed throughout Southern California. I've later learned much more about how this largely changed Southern California's "landscape" and diminished our middle class. The  Northridge earthquake of 1994  was one of the most costly natural disasters in US history.  I remember watching coverage on television. While there are cracks and shifts in buildings from the earthquake to this day and I remember noting some minor damage on trips to LA in 1996 prior to my moving, in reflection I have to say it was amazing how quickly things overall were repaired. But, it's impact did contribute to people leaving the region and a decline in prices. The earthquake occurred less than 2 years following the  1992 Los Angeles riots , which arguably was far more devastating to ...

Before or even after (in this case) this post, read  My First Text Book on how it is done . Before moving forward with my early pubescent stories with my buds, I should take a step back and give you at least the simple basics of how we all came 'together' initially. All of us had attended Green Elementary School and at this point were in 6th grade at Orchard Lake Middle School. Richie lived on the same street, Andy was two houses up on the adjacent street and David lived in the same subdivision. He was much closer to the middle school and far further from the elementary school where Richie, Andy and I had walked to daily. Richie was literally a few houses and a crossing guard away. Andy and I had a brief walk. My Mother picked our house in part so she could watch me through the kitchen window walk to school to give some reference. I don't honestly know if David did or not walk to Green. It seems a bit far at that age. But, it was a different era so parents were much more ...

I was on the phone with someone at USAA about my insurance and he asked me "how do you like L.A.?" Noting his genuine curiosity, I paused for a moment. I responded "it's a perfect place to have a love/hate relationship with; if you have never been, you should come." I gave an explanation of how it was vast and amazingly different than most anywhere else, but hard to get around, expensive but you at least most often convinced yourself worth it, and usually the weather is amazing. I have lived here most of my adult life, with brief times in the city of Riverside (the Inland Empire a large extension of L.A.) and the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs), a nearby getaway. A friend of mine from Berlin whom I have known some 30 years said to me years ago visiting me that L.A. was "one of the most unique cities in the world." I don't think that it was his first trip to L.A. when he said this to me. He has been back multiple times and repeated it since and he...

My parents had a lot of really nice furniture. My Mother would leave a room empty for as long as 2 years to save for what she really wanted to own. She died with most of those "prized" pieces of furniture that became part of my home in childhood. Such a different era. My Dad had a cabinet in his den that in retrospect I kind of wish I had now. It was a really nice piece of furniture. The top and sides were I want to say dark walnut. The front had a door with a woven raised walnut (assuming I have the right wood) front between a 2-3" black/dark brown crossed pattern on each side. I think there was something hand-carved in the middle as well. It had one of those old locks with a key like from "Colonial" times yet there was nothing colonial about the piece. The television in the den sat on top of that cabinet, one more reason it was a focal point. Around 12, in sixth grade, I became scarily curious about most everything. What is under the TV I wondered?...

Please read:  Someone homeless in your house ,  Tony's first days back... ,  Tony Incognito #1 ,  Tony Incognito #2  prior to this one to follow the story and gain the most insight. Transparency is paramount. Privacy and respect are also important so I travel a fine line. I want to continue to explain our relationship with Tony as it has been a learning experience for us. I believe it's important for others to at least try and comprehend the thousands of Tony's that are left in despair throughout our city and county of Angels, let alone elsewhere in the state and across the country. People most often try to categorize the homeless as a "group" with perceived "problems" that led them to their situation. In reality, our homeless pandemic is caused due to many neglects on our part as a society. We don't have the mental health facilities to house and help those who just can't handle being apart of "everyday life" and thus end up on the s...

I got ahead of myself with posts about communication with Tony after our November trip before telling about what occurred during the trip. The story of our time with Tony begins with  Someone homeless in your house . Continue following with  Tony in WEHO   prior to this entry.  Tony Incognito #1  and  Tony Incognito #2   and any others in the "Tony Incognito" series are best read following this post. After only knowing Tony for weeks and not a perfect track record, we'd given him a chance and let him stay at our place and care for our cats (we have 2) while we were away on a trip to Tennessee and Georgia. Perhaps I have some reservation of being judged. It's easy for many, especially those closest to us, to call us "idiots", "dumb shits" or whatever else. At least, that would be their justifiable first reaction. But most of those same people would have said the same of our helping him in the first place. It was a bit of a gamble, but my attitude...