My new garden

A few days ago I made the unfortunate error of locking myself out of my apartment.  Exactly how that happened is irrelevant to my story, but suffice to say it ended up necessitating a mile-long stroll to my landlord's office to get a spare key (all the while I was wearing my workout duds because I had originally been on my way to hit the gym).  What is relevant is that, along the way to the landlord's, I walked past the Fountain Community Gardens, which is a relatively new (like just a couple years old) community garden just a short 15-minute walk (or 5-minute bike ride) from my apartment.

I took note of the contact info posted outside the gardens and sent them an email when I got back home, and today I dropped by for their garden work day.

One of the garden's boardmembers greeted me at the gate and showed me around, including pointing out several plots that were available to rent by those on the garden waitlist.  I was very interested in getting a plot and wondered how long the waitlist might be.  My experience in San Francisco was that these sorts of things could take years to get a plot after putting your name on a waitlist, so I checked out the plots without any keen interest, only making note of different plants, herbs, and vegetables that the gardeners were growing throughout the garden.

We strolled around to the common spaces, including the sheds with tools and soil.  This particular boardmember had been instrumental in growing and tending to a communal herb and citrus garden.  After taking me around, she showed me the garden work day project, which was weeding out nut grass (thus buggers are tough to pull!), and then asked me if I wanted to get a garden plot before doing the project.  I told her that I definitely wanted to, and she directed me to the garden treasurer, who was standing nearby.

The treasurer asked me, "which plot would you like?  They're $10/month."  This caught me by surprise.  While there had been about 5 vacant plots out of 65, I did not expect that I could just show up and rent one on the spot.  And sure enough, I could!  So.... I did!  :-D  Plot 21 is my new garden, and I'm super stoked about it.

One of the things I've been saddest about in the transition from my previous apartment to my current apartment has been the loss of garden space.  While I love my new apartment, I did really enjoy poking around my garden in San Francisco, planting different herbs and flowers, and clearing out the various weeds that relentlessly regrew every few months.  I've noticed that LA homes generally have a lot more green space on their properties than did homes in SF, but, at least in my neighborhood, they're not often well-tended.  In the nicer parts of town it's fairly apparent that the homeowners pay someone else to tend to their properties, which to me is a big loss because there's little else like digging your hands in the ground and tending to the growth of plants to feel connected to nature.

So, stumbling upon this community garden and now being the proud renter of a 5' x 15' garden plot - just a few days later! - has me pretty stoked.  For those of you wondering, here's my new garden...

Luke's new garden :-)

After a couple hours of weeding common space, I went about weeding some of my plot, which is basically the whole area in the middle that is clear of plants.

The prior plot renter left behind some tomato cages, so I'll definitely be using those next year!  Just about everything currently growing in my new plot is a weed, so next time I get to the garden I'll be tearing out those weeds and putting down a new bed of soil.

Can I just reiterate how excited I am about this?  For a mere $10/month, I now have a garden where I can grow my own fruits, vegetables, flowers, etc.  There won't be as much weeding of this plot as my garden in SF, since it will be pretty clear once I tear out what's there now, and that will free me up to spend more time getting my plants to grow nice and strong.  I am also thinking that I might do more work in the garden communal areas, helping spruce them up and making the garden better for everyone who comes there.

Why does SF hate LA so much?

I've already blogged about this topic a few times, but it just keeps coming up.  Today it's this article in the San Francisco Chronicle which goes out of its way to snarkily mock Los Angeles.  Just another in a long line of "SF is so way much cooler and better and funner than LA" articles/stories/etc. I've heard over many many years.  So, in much the same style as the Chronicle's story, here's my response...

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Signs on the Muni buses proclaim San Francisco as "The City that Knows How," which is ironic considering that it took 10 years and 3 elections to decide if "the City" (which is how residents of this 700,000-person town refer to San Francisco in a geographic region where the largest city, of more than 1 million residents, is actually San Jose) would tear down a five-block section of elevated freeway and replace it with essentially a freeway with traffic lights at street level.  Sure, you can stroll along the Octavia boulevard today and not feel as threatened by shadows and dirty underpasses as you once were, and now you just have to navigate the shopping carts and cars that don't understand what the extra alleys are for along each side of the 6-lane road.  Still, the new Patricia's Green is a beautiful space with a temporary art exhibit that brings a little bit of Black Rock City to the neighborhood.

The gold leaf covered dome of City Hall - the leafing which was paid for using city funds designated for creation and maintenance of open space - is about the most striking architectural element anywhere for miles in the Tenderloin, where the majority of people strolling the streets are more likely to panhandle, stare or yell at you than they are to simply ignore you and go about their business.  But don't let that distract you from the aromas of urine and feces that greet your nostrils as you stroll the streets, only to come across any number of nooks that often serve as open-air toilets.  And the "real" public toilets that dot the landscape are not for the faint of heart.  For just 50 cents, you too can have your senses accosted and your mind blown by the sight of needles and vomit while you attempt to do your business without touching anything for fear of what may linger afterward.

So for $2 you head down into the Muni, San Francisco's version of a subway, where the half-mile ride from Civic Center to Powell station can take anywhere from 5 to 25 minutes depending on the time of day, the day of the week, and myriad other totally unrelated factors that make each and every day a special one on Muni.  Sometimes it's that someone got caught in the door and almost slammed into a station wall; other times it's that the doors simply stopped working on one train, backing up the entire single-line subway; and other times there's just no explanation (which seems to most often be the case).  But hey, you only paid $2, so suck it up.  It's not like you were going to drive, right?  And, if you did drive, good luck affording (or finding) parking, so you're probably best off walking - it's free and can actually be quite pleasant.

You arrive at Powell station and are greeted first thing out the gates by panhandlers at the base and top of the escalator out of the dingy "plaza" which features a below-street-level "coffee shop" that is sometimes open, sometimes not, and always patronized by more pigeons than people.  Now that you're here, though, it's time to ride one of the cable cars, which are San Francisco's world-reknowned moving national historic landmarks (the only moving national landmarks in the country).  However, be prepared to wait in a long line and pony up $5 for a one-way trip, for if there's anything that "The City that knows how" knows how to do it's empty out your pockets and make you gladly do it.

Once you get to the end of the cable car line, 2 hours later (of which one and a half hours were spent in line), you arrive at tourist hell, also known as Fisherman's Wharf.  Yes, this was at one time a functioning wharf, for fishermen even, and it basically still serves that purpose.  But, like all things San Francisco that once were just functional things that people used to get their work done, it has been commoditized and commercialized and now you can watch the fishermen doing their work as if Disneyland relocated from Anaheim to SF and this is part of the "small world" exhibit.  And that is something San Francisco knows how to do... take once ordinary things and make them spectacularly exciting.  It's like being in a place where everything we generally take for granted elsewhere is so different and glorified.  What?  You want to repaint your house?  That'll be at last a half-dozen neighborhood group meetings, a historic preservation permit, and one year later you'll just be going from one shade of dark blue to another.

Take another example: big box development.  Want to hit the Home Depot, or Ikea, or Target?  You'll have to leave the City.  And now Target likely won't get a store in SF because they gave $150,000 to a major a*hole anti-gay candidate for governor in Minnesota (yes, this caused even yours truly to boycott them).  On the other hand, for many years Target has consistently been one of the country's most LGBT-supportive companies for their employees.  And the alternative to a Target or Home Depot is... what exactly?  How are you going to know if every single purchase you make was manufactured, distributed, and sold by good progressive-leaning companies?

San Francisco's tendency is to oppose all things corporate and big, even though these things can sometimes serve as magnets or vehicles for development in areas that otherwise are falling apart at the seams or totally unappealing to small business for any number of reasons.  Areas like the Bayshore corridor, or the incredibly empty, and spacious, Metreon.  Large and small business can and do co-exist, even as they compete for market share.  In San Francisco, however, anything that can be construed as a "chain" must jump through additional hoops, essentially having to get the sign-off of the neighborhood, which in some cases has meant San Francisco-founded and based companies that have prospered using successful models have found themselves unable to open new storefronts in their hometown because they've grown too big and have become the "big, bad other."

Once you've strolled the urine-stained Civic Center, panhandler-filled Union Square, and tourist-centric (and also panhandler-filled) Fisherman's Wharf/Pier 39, you might make it to the Ferry Building, which is indeed one of San Francisco's treasures.  The food may be a bit pricey, but the open-air halls and brickwork do hearken back to days of old, before the bridges were built, when people took the ferries to get to and from SF.  It's a step back in time, redone for a new era, and it is a beautiful anchor at the heart of old San Francisco.

It's worth noting that almost every day of the year in San Francisco is jacket weather.  There are certainly a handful of days when you can wear shorts for more than a few hours without risking getting goosebumps by 4pm.  But very little else demarcates a tourist like uniform of cargo shorts and joined with an "SF" parka, which was probably purchased at no small cost at a hole-in-the-wall shop along Powell Street.  Not only do the temperatures rarely rise above 70 (or fall below 50), but the wind will almost always send a chill through you.  So, like a good boy scout, be prepared.

All this and more can be yours if the price is right.  For San Francisco's landlords, home sellers, and hoteliers, the price is nearly always right, because about the only place in the entire country that is more expensive to live than San Francisco is Manhattan.  For the low low price of $1,200 a month, you too can share an apartment with a perfect stranger and haggle with your landlord over things like... painting the walls, or, getting a pet.  If you want your own place, be ready to pony up more than $2,000 a month, or compromise substantially on location and/or space.

Let's say you want to buy your own slice of heaven?  In a decent neighborhood your one-person pad will cost you close to half a million dollars.  In a fancy neighborhood it's more like $700,000, at least.  If you're willing to forgo parking, you can lop off about 10% of that price, but about the only thing more scarce in San Francisco than land is street parking, so it's good to know these things going in.  Spend a little time in San Francisco, and you'll find those people who bought their home before "the market exploded," (where their homes are now worth 3-10 times what they originally paid) but more often these days it's the folks whose mortgages are eating up more than half their paychecks, and they're the lucky ones.

San Francisco, "The City that Knows How."  So much can be said, but I'll close with this...

With all this to offer and more, one wonders why so many residents, let alone media, feel compelled to trash talk SF's sister city to the south?  Having been one of those trash talkers for years, the reasons seem too many to count to someone in love with the fog, the hills, the colors, and the people of San Francisco (and there are many many reasons to love SF).  On the other hand, it does seem just a touch ridiculous to focus so intently on all the things going wrong with someplace else when one's own city could use a few nips and tucks of its own, and no one seems to know the first thing about fixing those (or if they do then they must accept that it'll probably take 10 years and 3 elections and hundreds of thousands of dollars to get it done).

So, lay off, San Francisco.  You got a good thing going, really.  Revel in that and, as Tim Gunn would say, make it work.  And next time you want to trash talk Los Angeles or any other city, first think to yourself, "Am I in a position to criticize another given my own foibles?"  If the answer is ever anything other than "no," get a second opinion.  And if the answer is still "no," get to know your city a little better.

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I love San Francisco and, above all else, miss my friends and family.  What I've written here is from a place of love, recognizing that we all got our stuff to take care of, and I truly hope that SF figures out some solutions, particularly to its most vexing issues.  In the meantime, I hope that papers like the Chronicle will stop feeling the need to give voice to mocking Los Angeles or any other city.  It's unnecessary and unwarranted.  The people in LA didn't make it the way it is anymore than the residents of San Francisco could all claim responsibility for it being the way it is.  But every day we can and should seek to make our respective communities better.

Ironically enough, today's Chronicle features another article bemoaning the challenges with attracting entertainment business to the City from Los Angeles and elsewhere.  This is just a case of too much work for too little benefit relative to the cost - or at least the perception of it - as well as city leaders who, as a whole, aren't compelled to find ways to get more entertainment business in SF.  And it's just one example of when it's better to discuss ways to improve oneself than to throw stones from one's glass house.

Welcome home!

The past few days I was doing a lot of traveling.  When the cabbie picked me up to take me to LAX for the start of my travels, he asked me if I wanted him to take the freeways.  I later understood why, as the freeways were a bit of a slog, but everything worked out fine in the end.

This was the first time that I've flown out of and back to LAX as a resident of my new city.  After ten years of an established pattern, including lots of flights in and out of SFO for visits to my boyfriend in LA, I was keenly aware that this was different.  From the trip down (and later back via) the 101, 110, and 105 to get to and from LAX, to seeing downtown both on the way down and back, and the much more expensive cab fare than that to which I've been accustomed, I was noticing the differences each step of the way.

As we landed late last night, I was reminded of how I used to look forward to seeing the lights and familiar sights of the Bay come into view as my plane made its final descent into SFO, particularly as I tried to figure out where we were over the LA region as we got closer and closer to landing.  At some point, I finally figured it out, but by then the fog was beginning to obscure the landmarks and eventually turn the whole scene into a blotchy tableau of yellow light and grey wisps.

My boyfriend left me a voicemail message welcoming me "home" while we were en route, and I listened to it as our plane taxied to the gate.  My initial reaction upon hearing him use the word "home" was a bit of confusion.  Yes, this is where I live, but can I really call it home after only being here a month?  When I don't presently have steady work?  When my circle of nearby friends is a fraction of what I once knew?  When for the first time in my life I'm more than an hour drive from my nearest family (and that was only for college... otherwise either living with or within a mile or two of at least one family member)?

It got me thinking... what does it mean to be home?  Does Los Angeles yet fit that definition for me?

• This is the first time in my life that I've had an apartment that really felt like my home.  I couldn't afford something like this in SF, and I have felt tremendous excitement making this place my home.
• This move is the first time that I've taken such a big risk to be with my boyfriend.  While having been with and loved some great guys in SF, this is the first time I've felt not only "in love" but also "freely loved" (in no small part because of my own maturity).
• This is the first time I have had both this degree of uncertainty about what lies ahead in my future and also lots excitement about encountering it and taking on new challenges as life comes at me.

So, am I home?  Is Los Angeles yet home for me?  It feels new.  I'm doing a lot of adjusting.  I'm trying to figure out where life takes me next.  The traditional definitions don't seem to fit quite as they "should."

...And yet, when I stepped out of the cab last night in front of my place, the warm moist air spun around me, the familiar smell of the air greeted me, the grass shined under the yellow streetlights, my mind finally began to rest after a long journey, and I knew it.  I was home.

Heat - No heat - Heat - No heat

A couple weeks back I blogged here about the heat and perpetual sunshine that defined much of my first month in LA.  And undoubtedly many readers of this blog will have seen a news story somewhere on last week's all-time record high temperature of 113 degrees Fahrenheit that was reached at the official downtown station just before the thermometer broke (meaning it might have gotten even hotter, but we just don't know).  Even though it cooled off after that record-setting Monday, temperatures cooled slowly - down to "only" 100 degrees on Tuesday and then topping out at 90 degrees every day through Saturday.

This week?  An entirely different story.  Two of the four days so far this week we've been cooler in LA than in San Francisco.  In fact, our high temperature on Monday this week was about 50 degrees cooler than our all-time record high temperature just one week prior.  So far this week we've recorded a quarter-inch of rain (this during the tail-end of our dry season!).  WTF is going on?

I'll tell ya, kids.  :-)

It's actually something that I saw happen on a number of occasions when I was living in San Francisco, but this weather pattern doesn't typically impact SF.  We have a cutoff low sitting off the coast west of San Diego.  A cutoff low is a low-pressure system (the kind that are associated with clouds and rain) that has detached from the general flow of weather systems, moving from west to east.  In this case, the low has been just hanging out for a few days, spinning up rain clouds from the central California coast all the way out to Arizona and Colorado, where big thunderstorms and tornadoes are the story right now.

The cutoff low will be out of here tonight and tomorrow and we'll gradually return to 80s and sunshine - i.e. the norm for this time of year.  In the meantime, I'm actually enjoying the wacky weather we've been having, from the really hot to the really cool, the sunshine and the rain.  It's fun!

Entertainment

There's no denying it, Los Angeles is the heart of the television and movie entertainment business.  It's everywhere you go.

Just a few blocks from me is one end of the Hollywood Walk of Fame.  It may not be the most glamorous thing, but I've never lived in an area where the names of hundreds of entertainment stars were permanently emblazoned for miles in the sidewalk and tourists from around the world walk around with their cameras pointed toward the ground.

A few more blocks from me is the famed Capitol Records building, with its iconic (though apparently unintentional) shape of a stack of records.  Then there's the nearby Palladium, which in just the month I've been here has hosted the likes of the Scissor Sisters, The xx, and Belle & Sebastian, and is sold out this weekend for two nights featuring world-reknowned DJ Kaskade.  The other day, I stepped out of the Hollywood & Vine LA Metro station and could see the top of the Capitol Records building as I strolled out across the Walk of Fame.

Within a half-mile of my place there are at least three television studios of which I'm aware, including Sunset Bronson, Sunset Gower, and Nickelodeon.  Sounds glamorous right?  Except that television studios are basically giant walls facing the street, as shown in this lovely street-view of Sunset Gower studios from Gower.  Still, in just the immediate vicinity, a number of television programs are taped for national broadcast.

Going to a movie theater in Los Angeles is more of an experience than any theater I've gone to elsewhere, and why wouldn't it be?  At the nearby ArcLight Cinemas, an usher announces to the assembled audience the name of the movie and the title stars before the theater dims for the previews.  It's a small touch, to be sure, but in addition to the super-large, comfy seats which are assigned in advance, and the wide-open space outside the theaters, it all signals that movies are really important here.  Just a short jog up the road from ArcLight is the major intersection of Hollywood and Highland where the importance of the movie industry becomes all the more obvious, where the new Kodak Theatre is the regular home of the Academy Awards and the finale of American Idol.

Everywhere I turn, there's the possibility of running into some kind of celeb.  As I've mentioned here before, I saw Matthew Morrison (of Glee fame) the other day at my gym (and again today).  Last week at a small book-signing party, I met and had a fun conversation with Ashley Williams, who was super sweet.  At a premiere party last week for the new Logo show, "The Arrangement," I saw Santino Rice, who was on the second season of "Project Runway," and is now one-half of the title duo on the new Lifetime show, "On the Road with Austin and Santino." And the other day I had the pleasure of meeting actress Nancy Stephens and her husband, director Rick Rosenthal, at a gathering they hosted at their lovely home.

On Friday night, my boyfriend took me to see "Leap of Faith," featuring the inimitable Brooke Shields.  And last night, we went to a reading of Terrence McNally's "Some Men," which had a laundry list of incredible actors on tap, including Alan Cumming, John Glover, Matt Gould, David Alan Grier, Luke MacFarlane, Justin Kirk, Michael McKean, Jason Ritter, Josh Stamberg, and none other than Lily Tomlin.  For me, it was pretty incredible going to a one-night-only reading of a play on a random Monday night and seeing that kind of cast come together for a cause (it was a fundraiser for the Courage Campaign's latest effort, "Testimony").

From the built community, to the people on the street, to events happening any night of the week, you can not only not escape the entertainment industry here in Los Angeles, you'd probably be foolish to want to do so.  It's everywhere, and it's pretty amazing to be up close and personal with it, even in just the short time that I've been here so far.

Having grown up in a household where we sang all the time, and having studied singing, acting, and dancing, I am really interested in what I am encountering.  And I promise to soon have another blog post up about the personal experience I am having in my new home, as it relates to my background in entertainment and my interest in doing more with it now that I am in the industry's proverbial backyard.

"I love San Francisco!"

What has been rather remarkable to me in the short time that I've been in LA (now officially 24 days) is the degree to which Los Angelenos tell me how much they love San Francisco.  Perhaps I was just under the (mis-)impression from my ten years in the city by the bay that these two cities had a mutual dislike for each other because of the unkind things so many of my SF compatriots (myself included) had to say about our smoggier, larger neighbor 350 miles to the south.  However, in just a few weeks I've heard the words "I love San Francisco!" exclaimed to me by at least a half-dozen people when I've told them that I just moved from there.

This, to me, starkly contrasts with the reactions of San Franciscans to Los Angeles.  There is only one person (out of literally dozens) who I can recall outright told me that I would love Los Angeles, and I'd only met him minutes before.  A few other friends either neutrally or begrudgingly admitted they thought I would like it here, and otherwise the reactions ranged from negative to horrified.  Among the things I heard about LA from San Franciscans?

• It's so dirty!
• I get sick every time I go there.
• Enjoy the smog!
• Everyone is so fake.
• They don't call it LaLa Land for nothing!
• Hope you like driving!
• Better work on your tan.
• Are you sure? (as in, I obviously hadn't thought this one through enough)

I don't need to go on.  Y'all get the point.  I even remember a commercial run by a local Bay Area news outfit earlier this year that said something to the effect of "Thank god we're not in Los Angeles..."  My boyfriend saw it and asked me, "Why do people in San Francisco dislike LA so much?"

Honestly, I don't get it.  It reminds me of when I was at high school back in the metro Detroit area and everyone at my school pooh-poohed the University of Michigan as "elitist" and "snobby" and instead spoke of how fantastic Michigan State was.  I didn't buy it, and today I am a maize-and-blue-bleeding U-M alum.  I can also honestly say that I never heard the kind of trashing of Michigan State when I was at U-Michigan (other than the few times the high profile sports teams from each school played each other) that I heard from MSU fans when I was growing up.

What's that about?  Why the need to trash someone else?  I mean, did the 15 million people in the LA area do something to deserve being lumped into a smelly, waste-of-time morass in the collective consciousness of the upstanding and environmentally-friendly people of the Bay Area?

Not caveats:  I just had a meeting today with a legislative aide who is helping with the rapid, ongoing expansion of the Los Angeles Metro Rail, which is only 20 years old and already has 5 lines and will be adding 2 more and extending a 3rd in the next 10-15 years...  I attended a meeting this week where the elected leaders of the neighborhood-based organization were actually attempting to work in concert with a developer of an under-utilized property within a block of a metro station...  From my home, I'm able to walk to nearly everything I need, including the gym, grocery store, pharmacy, restaurants and shops, tons of clubs/hang-out spots, post office, and neighborhood city hall...  Oh, and I randomly discovered that my neighborhood has an LGBT senior housing facility (it's called "Triangle Square" - kinda cute!).

Why do I bring these things up?  Well, let's compare, shall we?

In SF, the Muni expansion down 3rd Street was its first major rail expansion in like 30 years, and it did little to shorten the time to get from Visitacion Valley to downtown (unlike my 15-minute ride downtown from Hollywood... where driving could be anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes, depending)...  In SF, I've seen multiple well-intentioned projects get bogged down to the point of imploding because of community opposition that often results in developers walking away...  In SF, I could walk to everything I needed too (in other words, that hasn't changed very much for me in my new home)...  And in SF, there's been talk of LGBT senior housing for a long, long time, and while it will still likely happen, the effort to do it was stalled for years by a handful of neighbors whose ultimate argument ended up being that they preferred to declare as historic a blank wall and a couple long-since-abandoned buildings over allowing new residents into their community.

Now, I don't want to trash-talk San Francisco here.  Tit-for-tat isn't my style.  I merely raise these points to offer some more concrete ways in which I think the negativity directed by SF residents toward Los Angeles may be a bit misguided.  Every city has its pluses and minuses.  So, I merely turn the spotlight to show that it ain't all rose-petals and Krispy Kremes in San Francisco, even as the Muni buses will sometimes display the words "San Francisco: The City that Knows How."

As I start to settle into my new home, I can see a lot of the warts that make this city a challenging place to live.  I've even blogged about some of them.  :-)  I also think it's important to consider that there's no reason both of these cities aren't worth some amount of praise and some amount of criticism for what they offer.

Like the people who have exclaimed their joy for San Francisco to me, I too love San Francisco.  This week, when we hit an all-time record high of 113 degrees, I longed for the cooling breeze and foggy skies to put me at ease.  Sufice to say, they didn't come, but I've also started to accept that maybe it isn't so bad to be able to walk around in flip-flops and shorts on almost any given day and feel comfortable and warm.

Suffice to say, I am beginning to see how my new home works, and I am beginning to love Los Angeles.