The Curious Case of the Streetless Street Closure
Ed Fuentes
Looking down on Harlem Alley and the entrance to Lost Souls Cafe.
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — It would seem safe to think that street closures typically require a street, right? If so, it might be a surprise to see a motion pass through City Council today authorizing the closure of Harlem Place on September 18th.
Harlem Place, of course, is the alley that runs through the buildings of the Old Bank District. It's best known for Lost Souls Cafe, which opened in January of 2006.
Though gated and withdrawn from public use, Harlem Place is still officially public right of way. It provides access for trash trucks, but has not hosted regular vehicle traffic in years.
That not-quite-a-street status makes things a little complicated when it comes to situations like the DLANC-sponsored Park[ing] Day event proposed to take place in the alley on September 18th.
A representative from Gilmore Associates, owner of the neighboring Hellman Building, says that the company is interested to see whether the city says a street closure permit is really necessary.
Long-term plans for the alley envision it as a pedestrian space with more retail and cafe spaces opening onto it. For that to happen, the city and property owners are first going to have to sit down and figure out just what exactly Harlem Place really is.
Randall BusTard on August 14, 2009, at 11:34PM – #1
Harlem Place has been odd for many years.
In the 1990s, when Sheryl was one of two owners of the Valuta at 548 S. Spring Street (a building with a rear wall facing Harlem Alley), she stated that it was private property. The metermaids that attempted to impose their presence were successfully turned away. During the 1990s, the gate allowing entrance to Harlem Alley from 6th Street had a code that only those in the Valuta were given. (However, the keypad was on the outside of the alley; such placement required those exiting Harlem alley to reach through the gate to manipulate the keypad affixed to the Valuta.)
The gate that was open at Harlem and 5th during last Thursday's Artwalk, was closed in mid-2008 owing to an incident provoked by a LADOT metermaid behaving as he meant to run down a pedestrian in Harlem Alley after said metermaid was unable to travel from 5th to 6th owing to BID vehicles blocking the alley. (The detectives at LAPD Central Division are aware of the incident.)
What does all this mean? I won't speculate. These are merely incidents that illustrate the confusion that has been conferred above.
John Swartz on August 19, 2009, at 01:17PM – #2
Yah, they had this open for the art walk last week.
They should make it a pedestrian walk with landscape features like fountains and bike racks and well lit entrances for the buildings.
But, whats up with Lost Souls??? Is that place open or closed? They have wierd operation hours.. but I haven't been for almost a year.
Guest on December 14, 2010, at 11:26PM – #3
Hey I was wondering if anyone remembers the old layout of the Valuta Building or its older use as Lloyd's Bank. This is the building that's now SB Lofts at 548 S. Spring. Anything cool? The building seems to have been completely reconfigured (typical for the current owner/developer), but some of the old wrought iron stair rails are still there.
By the way, those BID workers in Harlem Alley are very loud in the early morning hours. This morning one guy was singing, "Rat skin fur coat, she wore a rat skin fur coat!" way too loud.