The Whole Enchilada

Before I moved downtown, I lived on the Westside. A yawn. A sigh. About as ethnic as white toast or Wonder Bread. Well, at least to me anyway. 

To get away from the boredom, I would get in my car and drive downtown to the Fashion District. I would pretend that I was in Mexico on one street. Guatemala on another. Paris on another. 

I didn't care where I was on my travels - I just felt as though as I was transported to someplace else. A foreign land where people spoke a foreign language, with vendors who wore vibrant colors and hocked their vibrant wears, and children ran up and down the streets with new toys in their tiny hands.

Heaven, sheer heaven. 

What most of you don't know about me is that for years prior to my downtown adventures, I was a travel journalist. It was my way of earning a living, having some fun, and GETTING AWAY FROM LA. 

But once I found downtown about five years ago - after a friend recommended the Fashion District, which I didn't even know existed - I was hooked. And if I needed my "travel fix," I just got in my car and drove downtown.

Soon I expanded my adventures.

One day I would go to Chinatown, where I would walk Chung King Road - the charming windy street with many galleries - and pretend I was a Chinese maiden looking for my long lost artist lover. Or, I would go to Little Tokyo, and have tea in the Japanese American National Museum, and write in my journal. Or one night when I was really feeling restless, I even had the courage to go to The Hive Gallery on Spring - a street I had never been to - for my first Art Walk.  

To me, downtown was my trip. My whole enchilada. My adventure of surprises. 

So, when I finally took the leap and moved downtown my surprise was that there were still so many more surprises.

The teller at the bank, who always smiled (they don't do that on the Westside - they are very serious). How the same guy slept on the same corner every night. The fact that when you moved here, the first thing you asked when you rented a loft was, "Does it come with a parking space?" A ridiculous question in most parts of LA. 

And...I realized very quickly that in between the nooks and crannies were stories. And the windows only a very small reflection. 

Yes, an ADVENTURE. One that you don't need to purchase a ticket for...all you have to do is step on for the ride.

Comments

[Nalini]

I love your reflection and story of downtown. A few times a week, I head over west for personal reasons, and I always ask myself what's the deal with the stuffiness here? No smiles? Can anyway just give a shit for one second? I love the colorfulness, the change, the evolvement, and how people are enamored with their little gem here in DT. Maybe it's best to keep DT on the down low. I don't want it to change with no smile, stuffy people :)

[Brooke]

I couldn't agree more! I moved here from New York City. My first sublet was in WeHo, which was fine, I could walk to Trader Joe's and to a bar or two and to Book Soup. It was living in Chelsea in the 90's. Fine. Then I discovered the East Side and was hooked -- but I didn't get an apartment, I went back to NYC. When I finally took the plunge and *moved*, downtown was where I felt most at home. I couldn't agree more about ethnic and cultural diversity, not to mention a little refuge from the entertainment industry. We're in Chinatown about once a week, we have a local ramen place that we're obsessed with, a tacqueria a block away (24 hours, another perk for a New Yorker), and Pete's which is my favorite place for a date. When we leave it (for nearby Echo Park) I'll be a little sad....

[Lori]

Great story.
But I agree with Nalini,
Been DT in the last few mouths and have found the stuffyness as Nalini put it. Starting to emerge. But that's the way of the world.....

[gigi]

It doesn't look like Lori read your post or Nalini's comment very closely...LOL