Broadway People

 

At the corner of 5th & Broadway

 

On the 600 block

Near 7th & Olive

On the 700 block

On the 700 block, westside

Click on any image for a larger version.

All images taken w/Nikon D300/Nikkor AF-S 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5

We swam the laughing sea

Well, Labor Day is over and it's time to pack the bags up, grab the cooler, the beach chairs, the water wings, the towels and umbrellas and throw them in the car.

Check that the fridge is empty, the deck chairs are stacked and one last glance around the now empty cottage rooms for loose socks and bathing suits. You shut the screen door behind you for the last time.

A last glance at the laughing sea, the sun setting behind the clouds, and another summer is behind us.

Nikon D300 w/AF-S Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 ED

Hot town, summer in the city

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July was the hottest month ever in Southern California, with temps reaching well over 100°F all over the metro area, but especially the areas just to the east of downtown where I live. 

It's not especially easy to fully convey the sense of blistering heat in a photograph; photographers usually resort to implying heat with images of sweating bodies, kids playing in uncapped fire hydrants and such, but I thought I give it a try with a hint of crispyness in post-processing.

Let me know what you think.

Image taken with Nikon D70s w/Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 DX

St. Vincent Court - Pizza, Gyros and Some History

Once upon a time, Broadway was the financial and high-end commercial shopping hub for metro Los Angeles. But in the 1960s and 70s a wave of new commercial development on Figuaroa left the historic core basically deserted. The upside was that many of the best surviving examples of Beaux Art and Art Deco architecture were left unmolested. One such jewel is the alley called St. Vincent Court, about a half block west of Broadway on the north side of 7th Street.

Occupying the site of the old St Vincent's College for boys (founded in 1865 by the Vincentian Fathers, it eventually changed location and grew to become Loyola Marymount University), this charming food court is hidden away in an alley surrounded by Los Angeles' Jewelery District. The District is roughly defined as the area between Broadway, 6th Street, Hill Street, and 7th Street. And just so you know, 7th Street is the downtown section of historic Route 66, which until 1936 terminated at the intersection of 7th and Broadway.

Originally the entrance to the college, which became the Bullock's complex, later the St.Vincent Jewelery Center, in 1956 it was redecorated by a group of city boosters with the decorations, awnings and facades seen today. Small ethnic restaurants moved in, and today we can find a pizza place, a French bistro, Greek gyros sandwiches and Armenian kebab, and should you feel the need, there's a busy barber shop, as well. 


But even with all that history, it wouldn't be LA if there weren't a Marilyn, so she's here, too.

For more info on LA's historic core, see the informative LosAngeles Conservancy pamphlet, Strolling on Seventh Street.

Click on the images for larger versions. Images taken with a Nikon D70s w/Nikkor 18-70G EF f/3.5-4.5