Good Friday in Los Angeles

Good morning my fellow Observers,

The City of Los Angeles and the surrounding areas are going through a major metamorphosis. Due to the influx of foreign money, people, and jobs, the downtown area is finally turning into the asphalt jungle that everyone complains about, but loves to visit and now, so it seems, live there.

This change has been slow in coming but the first sign of progress was the opening of a Ralph's grocery story about two years ago, downtown, after nearly 30 years.

There are at least 10 high rise office and residential/retail buildings under construction and the city's skyline is punctured by construction cranes that appear to break through the clouds. A Chinese conglomerate is building what will be the tallest residential/retail building west of the Mississippi.

The infamous 7th street Broadway Department Store shopping center has been demolished and being built in it's place is a very futuristic mall with indoor and outdoor shopping and dining. This project is so large that it took 1,500 trucks of cement and the closing of the street for an entire week to pour just the foundation. 

Just last year, there was only one condo in downtown Los Angeles for sale and a total of ten available to rent, so the demand for additional housing is high. Most of the downtown jobs will be in the tech, legal, and banking businesses which are attracting the millennials who don't want to live in the suburbs, or in large homes, nor drive big cars or drive at all.

Having spent all of his professional life in the construction design business as a "spec writer", Mad Man is totally "jazzed" about what's happening in Los Angeles and would invite you to tag along with him on his Good Friday trips through the city as it enjoys its revitalization.

Pictured above is the Walt Disney Concert Hall as designed by the famous Architect, Frank Gehry. To understand and appreciate this building, you must read its history. It took years to design and build and required political pressure on those who resisted progress.

Mad Man parks in this building sometimes on his way to jury duty
and his intimate knowledge of it makes him understand why Walt Disney wanted to create the "happiest place on earth" and the Disney Concert Hall is an extension of that. It has a park on the roof, excellent interior acoustics, and is open all day for visitors.
To best describe this complex building, the word "beautiful" comes to mind.

Keep reading Mad Man's Good Friday submittals and you will be able to take the journey with him as Los Angeles enhances its position as one of the top destination cities in the world.

Mad Man