Curbed LA Gets - Mugged! Left Lying In The ... Gutter!

It's never a pretty sight. Innocent, young college boys... wander into the big city... and end lying in the... gutter... bloodied and bruised...

Well, maybe it's not pretty - but it's sure a lot of fun to watch!

http://la.curbed.com/archives/2005/11/mayor_plays_ear.php#email


The Mayor and a slew of dignitaries attended the groundbreaking of two new Downtown residential towers and the topping of a third on October 27th, according to a press release from the South Group:

More than 600 people, including the Mayor and City Councilmember Jan Perry, joined the South Group development team in toasting downtown L.A.'s new "South" community. The event featured the topping off of Elleven, and the groundbreaking of Luma and Evo, the South Group's trio of residential towers that are the first new ground-up buildings in downtown L.A. in 20 years.

Now granted our young innocents are quoting a... press release from a... developer, but still...

Now there are, of course, a number of ways to read the phrase ...'first new ground-up buildings in Downtown LA in 20 years'. Fortunately for us range experienced cowboys - every one of them is deliciously wrong!

First, by just saying, buildings - then civic buildings such as Disney Hall built long after 1985 - which was the date 20 years ago - would make that statement wrong. So, OK, let's take pity on these... greenhorns... and exclude those buildings.

Now it could also mean commercial office buildings - except that many of the major high rises downtown were finished in the 1990's - such as the Gas Company, 801 Fig, and many others, so, let's do these poor, hapless dudes a favor and exclude them, too.

OK - then let's say they really meant to say... housing, except... well, just a very few blocks away are several subsidized from the ground up affordable housing buildings that have been recently constructed, one of them just two years old.

OK - let's make it really hard on me and restrict it to - market rate from the ground up housing.

But no! Still wrong!

With easy walking distance of the alleged first new building in 20 years are the City Lights apartments - which have been occupied for some time, and other residential buildings built from 1994 until the present day.

So what about... the first newly built condos?

Nope!

Just steps away is a condo building in which brand new condo units were built on top of an older building, making them brand new construction.

OK. Now I've got it! Now I know how to make that statement true! They mean this is the first from the ground up market rate residential building in twenty years that is also being built to be sold as condos! That must be it!

But - No!

At Third and San Pedro the Teramachi from the ground up for sale market rate condo project broke ground almost a full year before this building broke ground.

So, of course, the answer is - again - No!

Welcome to the Cowboy's range city boys! And a tip to too trusting Trojans - unless you want to end up back in the ... gutter... again.... don't take any wooden nickels - and don't believe everything you're told in the Big City!

Unless, of course, it's told to you by a Bruin wearing cowboy boots and a cowboy hat!