I spend a lot of time on that other side of town nowadays, way west of the river. It’s a living.
As a result of working over there, I increasingly tend to explore nearby neighborhoods, seek out places to eat, check out some sights. And I’m learning quite a bit about life there, for better or worse. I figured I’d post some of those observations every once in awhile here at LA Eastside, since our current but temporary motto is still “life beyond the river”, which means we go pa’ los dos lados. And if I take my cue from most recent transplants to Los Angeles, that means I’m also fully qualified to know-understand-explain everything about how things are. Still, I haven’t decided what to name that part of town, it’s all so “fluid” and I’m waiting to see which way opinions (and my mood) flow. I’m sure that soon I’ll get that special feeling that tells me what is what, irregardlessly of that whole yawn inducing controversy of “sense of place”, history, and all those boring debates with people that think they have a say just because they’ve lived here for most of their lives, that’s all so Feb 2009. The future is now! I mean now! Wait, Now!
Now?
Irregardlessly, I present you with this first installment and the pic above, which is sure to shock many an Eastsider: over there, they mulch their fire hydrants. Crazy. Is there a reason for this? Irregardlessly, it doesn’t matter. Que Locuras.
It’s an interesting place, but I sure wouldn’t want to live there.
I wonder if it might be because fires don’t happen on the westside because the westside is close enough to the ocean for a fire to catch an ocean breeze and put the fire out before an unnecessarily oversized fire truck shleps its way over to the blazing scene.
Or if mulched fire hydrants are something white people like. (http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/)
It helps the native hydrants retain ground moisture so they don’t dry out and require supplementary irrigation.
Even though I’m a white girl and grew up on the westside, I think this is carrying the neatness too far. I think the idea is to prevent weeds growing by the hydrant, but really, don’t they have more important things to think about?
I think El Chavo is making an important observation that clearly displays the disparity between the wealthy and poor communities in this one city, Los Angeles. LA’s westside population is wealthier than the eastside. This is true even without the statistics. We can see it in the retail shopping options, liquor stores, fastfood restaurants, cleanliness of sidewalks, and neatness of and environmental care for placement of fire hydrants.
Is it fair that certain areas of Los Angeles are more well-kept than others? Does the community whose fire hydrants aren’t mulched care?
From a Boyle Heights perspective, there seems to be little to no time to care about why our fire hydrants aren’t mulched, why sidewalks are filthy and littered, and why there are no available doggy bag posts so dogwalkers can curb their dogs. Most people in our community are too busy working and caring for their families. And the political process takes much longer if your first language is not English.
http://facesofsunset.com/
This photo book shares photos of life on Sunset Blvd from Echo Park to the beach and the per capita income from LA’s furthest east district (starting at Sunset) to LA’s furthest west. You will see a correlation between numbers in population and income. The lower the population, the higher the income; the higher the population, the lower the income.
*The “Stuff White People Like” is a satirical book on cultural observations from a white a guy in LA on (upper middle class) white people in LA. I just meant for my original comment to be funny and a possible addition to the “stuff.” I am half white and mean no harm.
I’ve never noticed these before, but I’m going to take a walk later (now with more daylight in the evening!) and see if I can find any of these mulched fire hydrants. I do want to post on the traffic calming measures through the wealthy residential neighborhoods. The homeowners associations around here are pretty fierce, so I’ve heard.
Uh, yeah. The traffic control is crazy out there…well at least in wealthy neighborhoods like Hancock Park. I got a ticket for making a right turn. I didn’t notice the sign that said on certain days of the week in the afternoons there are no right turns on to La Brea. It’s not something you think about. There are also tons of no left turns into residential neighborhoods. How do these folks get all these special rules? I’m asking seriously. There are neighborhoods here on the Eastside that would benefit from this kind of traffic control.
how is a young, bright-eyed fire hydrant to grow into a strong, mature firefighting (http://www.securobot.co.uk/ryland_research_firemote.htm) or crimefighting (http://www.worth1000.com/emailthis.asp?entry=201971) robot without the proper nutrition/mulch?
The Stuff White People like was also a little bit started by a Canadian-Filipino, but somehow he got cut of being mentioned completely. Some of the most popular posts were written by him. His name is Myles Valentin.
http://www.racialicious.com/2008/09/11/white-people-like-taking-credit-from-asians-who-is-myles-valentin/
Browne
Hi all,
My name is Ayam, I am a five and a half year old chocolate lab.
I work in the film industry and do pay taxes on my income.
I like these hydrants with the mulch, somebody was paid to do that with my taxes.
I am going out in a few minutes to lift my leg on one.
Ayam