Anniversary day. Had breakfast at the Best Western Coffee Shop in Hollywood. We went there looking for the exact site of a Sandra Bernhard joke, but were pleased to find that it was also dirt cheap and uncrowded. We liked…

Afterward, off to Amoeba and a stop by the Formosa Cafe (from LA Confidential), and then back to the valley for some daytime pictures. Soon, we were on our way home, with a lovely cloud of smoke to our left as we approached the Grapevine…

 

Brushed the ash off the car and toured Orange County and parts of LA. I was, of course, looking for miscellaneous old supermarkets and shopping centers to photograph for the other site. We also made a pilgrimage to the site of the very first Taco Bell in Downey (and then drove down the street to eat at arch competitor Del Taco). Stopped by another Best Buy in Lakewood for more necessities and then made our way to our Saturday night accomodations at 3rd and Vermont in LA…

The motel was old and dumpy, with some very strange plumbing quirks, but it was clean and not terribly scary, so we survived it (after some initial apprehension)…

 

We took the 110 to Pasadena. Mark had never travelled California’s oldest freeway, and I thought it was time. Popped in a record store, realized it was too late for dinner at Clifton’s, and made our way into the Valley in search of interesting sights. And food. The sights lasted a little too long before producing food, but finally we were fed and happy…

More pictures:

 

 

 

The old “density” versus “preservation of neighborhoods” argument is in the spotlight again here in Sodom-by-the-Bay. Proponents of the former state — correctly — that the only way to build new housing in San Francisco is to build it at a higher density than is currently utilized in most of the city. The neighborhood preservationists have a point as well, that current residents should have some say in how the city (and their part of it) develops…

Manhattan or Phoenix? My preference would be for something in between, but that’s not going to happen in San Francisco. On average, this city is home to about 15,000 people per square mile. There are no more square miles. Therefore, ANY population increase will mean more density. Only three outcomes are possible: (1) population must decrease, or (2) density must increase, or (3) housing costs in the city must grow even more unreasonable than they are now. That’s just the way it is; that’s how cities and real estate values work…

Ultimately, the low-density neighborhoods WILL change, no matter which path the city chooses. It’s inevitable; either there will be more high-density housing or the neighborhoods in question will begin — although it may take a few years — to house a far different and more affluent type of resident, because no one else will be able to afford the buy-in. That “special character” will probably be lost one way or another as it already has been in many areas…

I don’t want to live in a dense urban area where mass transit is the only option. It’s my own preference, and many good and intelligent people do not share it. San Francisco can be a city exclusively for the rich, or it can be a dense, transit-oriented urban core. It cannot, however, be a place of affordable single-family homes with yards. Neither urban planning nor whining about the “good old days” can change this fact. Those who want these things should face the inevitable and consider moving to a place where land is more plentiful and less expensive…

That’s my plan…

Those of you who have to fight your way through it every day may be interested to know that the “hopital curve” section of the Bayshore (US 101) Freeway in San Francisco opened fifty years ago today. Happy motoring…

Thanks to Sarah for one of the maps I used in the graphic above.

Just what kind of people sit around listening to annoying techno at top volume in their homes and backyards all day? I could maybe understand DANCING to it in a club (OK, maybe not even that), but just LISTENING to it all afternoon? What sort of chemical catastrophe does it take to create such an individual? And why did he move in next to me?

And yes, as a matter of fact, I DO believe that all techno is inherently annoying, thanks, especially when I have to listen to it against my will. But I guess I shouldn’t complain about nonstop circuit clone music; it’s so liberating, after all…

Anyway, for the weekend:

• Working on a new site for a brand new TV station in upstate New York.
• Maybe a little road trip to get the hell out of the neighborhood, this being one of those three weekends a year when it’s more annoying than usual to live near Folsom Street.
• Probably an awful lot of Next Generation, since we now have them all on DVD, following dinner with Sarah on Wednesday.