A Decade Plus One in LA

Last Friday I read a blogger’s post that spoke about his living in Los Angeles for 10 years. Last Cinco de Mayo was my 11th year anniversary in LA, the vast majority (about 8 years) was spent in West Hollywood. If there’s one thing that can be said about life in LA it’s that nothing really truly stays the same. I thought about this over the weekend and it reminded me of why I so loved ‘my beach’. No matter what else was going on in my life or how much my surroundings changed, my beach was always a familiar fill for my senses. It grounded me and put life into perspective. May seem strange but it is my little spiritual oasis, which is why I have taken very, very few people there over the past decade. Even though it really doesn’t seem like it’s been that long, so much has changed. I thought I would recognize some of the changes I’ve seen in my 11 years today, obviously most of them I witnessed in WeHo. In 1995:

• There were no Starbucks, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’s or Jamba Juice’s on Santa Monica Blvd in West Hollywood. If you wanted coffee, there was a small place across the street from the Palms (I think there’s a restaurant there now) or there was the Abbey. Yes, I said the Abbey!
• The Abbey was a place you went to BEFORE YOU STARTED your night out. We’d meet there in the quiet patio or inside where there were a few mismatched chairs and couches, wait for our friends to show up and then head across the street to Girl Bar.
• Girl Bar was celebrating its 5th year and was open on Friday and Saturday nights, with live music on Saturday before the big crowds got there. I remember seeing Jill Sobule, Melissa Ferrick and Jennifer Corday & The Curious.
• The spot where Fiesta Cantina is now was a little quiet and quaint restaurant that had awesome Sunday brunches up on the second floor. Between then and now I’m sure it’s been at least 3 or 4 other places.
• Smoking was allowed in bars and you would inevitably come home every weekend with clove-smelling clothes.
• Santa Monica Blvd had train tracks running down the middle of it so there was just one big, wide street for Halloween and the Pride parade.
• My half of the rent in my two bedroom, two bath apartment on Croft Ave. (with underground parking and security gates) was $500.
• I commuted to work via MTA to the big high-rise Bank of America building (not sad about that being in the past!) in Downtown LA and my company reimbursed me for my monthly pass. It was $50.
• Speaking of MTA, the Metro was ‘trying’ to be built but kept caving in in Hollywood. Seemed like about every month there’d be another story about what little progress was being made. There was constant construction where Hollywood and Highland is now. It was piles and piles of dirt. Nothing glamorous at all.
• Another not so glamorous place was The Farmer’s Market minus The Grove. Basically it was a dumpy old Farmer’s Market. Don’t get me wrong though, it had its own charm and it’s a little sad that the history has in a sense been altered by building the ‘hip’ shops and restaurants that now surround it. On Friday nights it was easy to get a parking spot there, be entertained by the wanna-be-stars performing Karaoke and drink lots of cheap pitchers of beer. I think that part of it is still there, but it’s just not the same anymore.
• Koo Koo Roo at Santa Monica and West Knoll didn’t exist yet and was an empty unofficial parking lot where you’d park to go to the Palms.
• The Palms had a weekly schedule that would pack them in. Wednesday night was “Cheap Drink Night”. All well drinks and tap beer was $1.00. Thursday night was “Cheaper Drink Night” with the same drinks being 50 cents! On Sundays they had a true Beer Bust, as did Mickey’s and Rage. At the Palms you would pay $5.00 for all the beer and food you could consume between 3:00 PM and 8:00 PM.
• Towards the end of that year on the corner of Santa Monica and Huntley a little corner coffee shop for women opened. It was called Little Frieda’s. Everyone wanted to be seen there. Ellen even taped an episode in the place during the season after she came out.
• On the other end of Huntley, at Melrose, was Sloan's. It was a "Cheers" like bar that was for all intents and purposes straight but always had gay people in it too. I loved that place because it SO didn't fit in among the rest of the bars in WeHo. Totally casual, cheap drinks and lots of men, women, straight, gay but I never saw any pettiness, discrimination or any other type of ridiculousness that I have witnessed at some of the other bars in town.
• The interesting building where the Sav-on is at La Cienega and Santa Monica was completely vacant and people would talk about how cool it would be if it was a club.
• There was no left turn allowed traveling west on Santa Monica at La Cienega. You would have to veer up to Holloway, turn left there and back track it down past that intersection again.

I’m sure there’s quite a bit more that isn’t coming to mind right away. If I think of more I’ll add it. Mainly it’s just interesting and a little nice to kind of suddenly realize how long I’ve been living in LA. I can’t really say that I ever really appreciated anywhere else I’ve lived; including North Hollywood which is where I now call home. I’m working on that though.