Celebrating July 4th in Downtown Los Angeles

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — Ever since I moved Downtown, July 4th has become one of my favorite days of the year and this weekend was no different. For the 3rd year in a row our building, The Bartlett Building, held a community rooftop party so that everyone could take in the spectacular view, meet their neighbors and see hours of beautiful fireworks.

The Edison was the evening's official sponsor which meant everyone enjoyed the club's newly launched Edison light beer all night while fireworks lit up the sky. Check out their website for more information on their amazing brew.

Then there were the Bottega Louie eclairs, cookies and tarts and the to-die-for peach pastries made by one of my neighbors who is currently interning with The Nickel's pastry chef, Sharlena Fong.

But the best part of course are the fireworks. Starting at dusk and going on for hours into the evening you can see bursts of color for miles from the nearly unobstructed 360 degree view. I talked to a lot of people who were visiting friends or family in the building and they talked about how great the Downtown community was and how special it is to take in such a great view, especially when a lot of cities didn't even have fireworks because of the economy.

It was also really encouraging to look out on to once darkened rooftops along Spring Street and see residents grilling and kicking back to enjoy the 4th, something that wasn't as prevalent in previous years.

As Downtown moves through this really tough time I hope residents work on making community a priority, because I think that's the only way real change can ever happen.