Etcetera

Patterns, Numbers and Comments

By Eric Richardson — June 03, 2008

Comments by Weekday for 2008

This may fall clearly into the category of lies and statistics, but tonight I decided to run some numbers to see if a hunch I had would hold true. My question: Are comments really a lot lighter of Fridays than on other weekdays?


Looking at blogdowntown Stories from Above

By Eric Richardson — May 29, 2008
1 Comment

April/May Story Geo-Distribution

Just a bit of a fun image this evening. What you're looking at is a view of all blogdowntown stories from April - May, 2008, that were about a location. The image was taken from a Google Maps overlay of blogdowntown data. I'm rather impressed with the distribution of coverage. We're a little Historic Core-heavy and a bit South Park-poor, but on the whole...


The Parking Lot that Will Not Go Away

By Ed Fuentes — May 21, 2008
1 Comment

Public Parking

New banners signs are beckoning commuters to return to the "temporary" 1,062-car portable parking structure built in 1969. Scheduled to be dismantled, now it’s a subtle reminder that the Grand Ave project is on hold. Los Angeles County’s Parking Lot 17, better known as the Tinker Toy Lot or the Erector Set, isn’t ready to be pushed out of town quite yet. If...


Joel Simply Not Fading Away

By Ed Fuentes — May 19, 2008

Joel

When Downtown icon Joel Bloom passed away last July, someone wrote "Joel We Love You" on Traction street, outside Bloom's General Store. Nearly a year later the text continues to get touched up. It's a living reminder of the Arts District activist, and a well-loved roadsign for Joel Bloom Square.


March Traffic Disruptions Too Much for USPS

By Eric Richardson — May 01, 2008
1 Comment

Out of Service

Today's marches and the associated street closures were apparently too much for USPS, which decided to take a holiday from mail collection in at least one Historic Core building. This sign posted on the mail drop in the lobby of Premiere Towers says that there's no collection for May 1st, though the lack of accompanying signs on upper floors might make the warning...


Bringing Back the Flags at Arcade Post Office

By Eric Richardson — April 28, 2008
1 Comment

Flags

Last week a small black pole outside the Security Lofts building on Spring street got a little more exciting, as the Post Office added two flags to the sidewalk scene. Below the American flag was hanging the POW / MIA flag, which Post Offices are required to display on a half dozen holidays throughout the year. The Post Office reopened in July of last year...


Unicycle Man, I Salute You

By Eric Richardson — April 24, 2008
3 Comments

Unicycle

Walking back to my apartment just now I was passed by this man on a unicycle. He headed west on 6th before turning north at Spring. I've never stopped to consider the unicycle's place in Downtown's mobility picture. I consider that a grave oversight.


A Moment of Nature in the Midst of It All

By Eric Richardson — April 04, 2008
4 Comments

Pershing Square Tree

Walking through Pershing Square just minutes ago, I caught a flit out of the corner of my eye. A tiny object in motion, alternately hovering in space and hitting bursts of motion. I stopped, and proceeded to spend the next five minutes standing in the middle of one of the least inviting parks I've seen, utterly captivated to watch a hummingbird moving about...


No Joking: Welcome to blogdowntown

By Eric Richardson — April 01, 2008
19 Comments

square_illustration

While the calendar may say April 1st, I'll gladly assure you that this isn't a joke. After months of work, the all-singing, all-dancing, new blogdowntown is ready for its public debut. First off, yes, it is quite different. That out of the way, I'm really excited to get to share a project that's taken large chunks of my time ever since last fall. The purpose...


Welcome Back

By Eric Richardson — March 28, 2008
6 Comments

I apologize for the rather too long outage this morning. A dirty little secret of mine is that blogdowntown runs out of my living room, and my building, Premiere Towers, lost power this morning at 7:30am. Service wasn't restored until after noon, so in the interim blogdowntown was in the dark. It's a nice testament to Downtown's power stability that this sort...