Doing the Tourist Thing

While I was surrounded by visiting relatives this weekend, I had a chance to visit some of Greater LA’s tourist areas. Of course, this called for another photo diary…

Wednesday Night:STAPLES CENTER For Clippers v Denver

Did anyone ever hear of developing around your major attractions? I couldn’t find anything except more parking lots between me and Staples.

Well, at least the crosswalks are well marked, wide and have working signals…

Saturday: THE GROVE

Well, this is kind of cool. The Grove beefs up security so that the pedestrians are kept safe from even the minor danger posed by the one traffic lane that cuts it in half. Maybe this isn’t a bad place to bring the kids.

Then we see two people get in a fight over a parking spot, they had to be separated by security….

Then the children’s band sets up at a place completely inappropriate for kids…ok, maybe we can cross the grove off the list of places to take kids.

SUNDAY: THE PROMENADE in Santa Monica

Its Grove-esque, only bigger and with street performers and vendors not wholly owned by some corporation. You’re not going to run into Jerry Rubin handing out flyers in front of a Banana Republic.

An empty holder of Metro and Santa Monica transit schedules. I suppose that’s either a really good sign or a really bad one.

Like The Grove, Santa Monica has some extra muscle out to protect pedestrians.

Unlike Vegas, Santa Monica seems to care whether or not pedestrians get hurt outside of the developed area. Note the crosswalk in the center of the street.