LA Bob (as in Lower Alabama Bob) travels to that other LA. The hip, glitzy one. This is one of the things I saw.

I was staying in Glendale.  Glendale is not far north of downtown Los Angeles and Hollywood is a short distance to the west.

It was early on Easter Sunday morning.  I figured a Sunday morning and particularly an Easter Sunday morning would help tame the place for my little excursion.  In other words,  it would result in less traffic and less craziness than normal.  
So I headed into the bowels of Los Angeles.  Through downtown and on to Compton,  Watts and the rest of South LA.  With a little side trip through East LA (the hispanic neighborhoods) on the way south.

What I saw in downtown Los Angeles was a sight to behold.  About 50 square city blocks of downtown LA is what is called Skid Row.  
I took this photo to show you what Skid Row looks like...



For much of it,  every sidewalk is filled with cardboard shelters,  leantos, tents and other makeshift "homes".  The garbage this produces is spilling into the streets.   There aren't any portable toilets so the residents defecate and urinate in the shadows.  
Skid Row has one of, if not THE,  largest concentrations of permanently residing homeless people in the United States.  And it's in downtown Los Angeles.  





Now Skid Row by itself is,  as I said,  a sight to behold.
BUT,  the story of my visit to Los Angeles gets a lot crazier because now we move to Hollywood.

For anyone who has ever visited Hollywood,  you will know that the "times square" of Hollywood is the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Ave.
It is where the center of the action is.  
In the block adjacent to this intersection,  you have Grauman's Chinese Theater (now the TLC Chinese Theater) and next door to it The Dolby Theater (home of the Academy Awards show),  and across the street is the El Capitan Theater where Jimmy Kimmel Live is taped.

In the photo below,  the Chinese theatre is labeled "A".  At the time I took the photo,  the world premiere of the movie The Longest Ride was taking place on Hollywood Blvd in front of the Chinese Theater.
"B" in the photo is the front entrance to the Dolby Theater and inside "America's Got Talent" is being taped (I just left one taping and exited onto Hollywood Blvd when I took the photo).
And "C" points to the El Capitan where the Kimmel show is being taped at the same time.
In the midst of all this,  and at the same time,  there are literally thousands of tourists walking up and down Hollywood Blvd going in and out of the theaters,  souvenir shops,  stores, bars, restaurants,  etc.  



And as you see,  a homeless man is either drunk or asleep on the sidewalk. And I observed him for two hours on that sidewalk and never did a cop hassle him even though a dozen LAPD cops were providing security for the movie premiere in the street next to him.

Why is this so surprising you might be asking.  Well it's because when I went to what is perceived to be the most liberal big city in the nation (San Francisco) a year or so ago,  I visited the high traffic tourist areas there too.  And never did I see a homeless person passed out on the street.
In fact,  one of the most tourist oriented places in SF now is the Haight/Ashbury district.   Very similiar to the scene on Hollywood Blvd.  The streets there are literally stinking with tourist traps and tourists.  But what I saw there was markedly different.  Anytime a homeless person even stops to sit on the street,  the SFPD are on the scene immediately to run them out of there.

Los Angeles is a unique place.  Literally some of the poorest and wealthiest people in the United States are all living side by side.  Quite a sight.

Bob,

Homeless can be found in almost any city in America.

http://www.sfgate.com/homeless/

We are in Austin....the only homeless we saw was a baby bunny on the grounds of the hotel.

Joanimaroni wrote:We are in Austin....the only homeless we saw was a baby bunny on the grounds of the hotel.

What side of town are you on?  About two months ago I spent a week in a time share condo at Lake Travis.  Came into downtown Austin to see the sights several times.  Didn't see any much homeless around UT and then went on down to 6th St (center of the night life for the uninitiated) and didn't see em there either.
At least not camped.  Did see some sign carrying panhandlers but they were all still on their feet.  

Saw the funniest thing while on 6th St.  We were coming out of a sports bar (which had damn good food btw) and two of the three of us were carrying takeout boxes.  As soon as we exit the door we come up on a young dude walking down the sidewalk and asking everyone coming out of restaurants if he can have their takeout food.  And immediately a dude behind us coming out of the same restaurant handed the dude his food and wished him well.  The kid was polite and seemed to be sincere about it too.

Never had seen anything quite like that before.  Not on a major downtown thoroughfare of any major metropolitan city.

But remind me someday to tell you about the insanity I had with Dollar Rent a Car and the Austin toll roads.  It literally turned my life into a nightmare.

2seaoat wrote:Bob,

Homeless can be found in almost any city in America.

I realize that,  seaoat.  I've visited every major city except Detroit and Boston.  And most of that in recent years.
And while I think it's entirely possible that Detroit could match what I saw in Los Angeles,  that would probably be the only place could do it.

Go back and look at the maps,  seaoat.  Nowhere else does any city in our country have 50 adjacent blocks of homeless living downtown.  Downtown.  Not in the fringes.

Actually,  if you want to talk about the suburbs and fringes,  California has a hooverville that tops the list for that too.  That one's in Silicon Valley.
And it's the same thing. Huge numbers of the wealthy living with huge numbers of the poor.
It's sorta starting to get like Rio de Janeiro already is.

North Austin.....we avoided the toll roads. They havery express lanes for VOX whatever that is and the toll roads say no cash so I assume you have to have a pass.

Joanimaroni wrote:North Austin.....we avoided the toll roads. They have express lanes for VOX whatever that is and the toll roads say no cash so I assume you have to have a pass.

Don't know what a VOX lane is. Are you sure you don't mean HOV lanes?
Those are High Occupancy Vehicle lanes which means any car in that lane has to have either two (or sometimes three) or more people in the car.

It was the North Austin toll roads that got us. Those are the ones leading out to Lake Travis in the suburbs.
Actually the amount of the tolls was reasonable. It was what happened because I was in a rental car that made my life suck.

We didn't see any toll booths or we would have gladly paid cash. So instead we opted for the automated toll collection. That means they take a picture of your license tag to identify the vehicle using the toll road. And then the toll authority mails a bill to the vehicle's registered owner.
When you're in a rental car, since the rental agency owns the car they get the bill for the tolls. I had already been through this with another rental agency while doing the same thing on the northern New Jersey toll roads.
The rental agency sent me a bill for the tolls and I happily paid it.

But this time, there were eight Austin tolls and they were all 60 to 80 cents apiece.
And those sons of bitches at Dollar sent me a bill for $125. That's because Dollar charged me what they call an "administrative fee" of $15 for EACH of those lousy 60 cent tolls. And the letter told me if I didn't mail in the money to them, they would simply charge it to the credit card account they already had on file to pay for the car rental.

That pissed me off so much that I sent back a letter with a check for $14. I informed them that the check covered the cost of the tolls plus $1 for each toll for an administrative fee. AND that I have paid off the balance on the credit card account they have on file and closed the account. And I added that if I get any correspondence or phone call from any bill collector over this, that I will file against them in Escambia County Florida Summary Claims court and since they have locations in Florida THEY WILL have to send a representative to court and he can explain to the judge how they're justified in charging an administrative fee which is 2000% of the amount of the tolls.
That was a month ago and I aint heard a peep out of them. I feel sorry for the suckers they fleece on shit like this who just roll over and pay the money.

Never again will I EVER ride on a toll road in a rental car period.

By the way, we actually now have the same toll setup here in the panhandle and I didn't even know this until someone told me after I'd gotten back from Texas.
It's on the extension of the Mid-Bay Bridge over Okaloosa Bay. They now have a toll expressway which goes from the northern end of that bridge to I-10. And there are no toll booths. All of the toll collection is done by reading the license tags and mailing bills.

But get this. A friend in Destin who sometimes uses that bridge told me what the "administrative fee" is for that. It's a total of $2.50 which cover up to 125 different toll charges within a given period of time.
And those Dollar crooks charged me $15 for one 60 cent toll.

Gee Bob, I thought you reamed me out about my choice of National and my defense of their commercial. I am glad you are learning you get what you pay for, and the cheapest is NEVER the best.

2seaoat wrote:Gee Bob, I thought you reamed me out about my choice of National and my defense of their commercial.  I am glad you  are learning you get what you pay  for, and the cheapest is NEVER the best.

I didn't ream you out.  I just said all rental car companies provide basically the same service so I just go with whichever at the time has the lowest rate.
And it's not like one company charges one price,  another charges more,  and another charges even more.  It don't work like that.
National will charge one rate at one time and another rate at a different time.  So will Hertz,  Avis,  Dollar,  Thrifty and all the rest.  In that regard, all car rental companies operate like airlines and hotels.  The rate for the same service (airline tickets,  hotel rooms or rental cars) usually depends on how far in advance you make the reservation.  If you make it one day ahead you get charged one rate.  If you make the reservation more than a month ahead you get charged a different rate.  Applies to every rental car company.

So now that we've clarified that,  let's get to the rental car toll fees.
The highway robbery they're doing on that applies to all rental car companies and not just Dollar Rent A Car.  It's such a widepread scam now that class action lawsuits are being filed over it...

http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-08-29/when-does-a-5-toll-cost-30-when-youre-driving-a-rental-car

So here's the bottom line if you're going to drive a rental car.  And this applies to ANY rental car company.
WHEN YOU'RE IN A RENTAL CAR,  AVOID ANY TOLL ROADS WHICH DO NOT HAVE TOLL BOOTHS AND INSTEAD HAVE ONLY ELECTRONIC TOLL PAYMENT BY MAIL.  Because if you don't avoid that,  the rental car company is going to try to charge you a gargantuan collection fee for each toll.  As I said in my case they charged $15 for a 60 cent toll and they did that eight times resulting in a bill of $120 to pay for a lousy $6 in actual tolls.

Bob wrote:By the way,  we actually now have the same toll setup here in the panhandle and I didn't even know this until someone told me after I'd gotten back from Texas.
It's on the extension of the Mid-Bay Bridge over Okaloosa Bay.  They now have a toll expressway which goes from the northern end of that bridge to I-10.  And there are no toll booths.  All of the toll collection is done by reading the license tags and mailing bills.

But get this.  A friend in Destin who sometimes uses that bridge told me what the "administrative fee" is for that.  It's a total of $2.50 which cover up to 125 different toll charges within a given period of time.
And those Dollar crooks charged me $15 for one 60 cent toll.

We have a Sun Pass. Less than the posted tolls and no service fee for the Mid Bay bridge and toll that ends at Hwy 85. For as often as we go over to Destin from Niceville, Sun Pass is the only way to go.

I want to be clear about this. I have no beef with any toll roads which can pay for themselves with the toll revenue collected (and of course this doesn't apply to the Bo's Bridges or the Bridges to Nowhere or the other political boondoggles).
I have no beef with the toll roads in Austin. The tolls were reasonable and the nominal toll cost is worth it to avoid the sometimes nightmarish traffic on the "free"ways.

My only beef is with a shyster corporation trying to fleece me with fees that are 2000 percent of the amount of the toll.

Compton and Watts were places few white people ventured into when I was going to Cal State Long Beach in the early 1970s. My Aunt lived in Dominguez, which is just a few blocks from Compton. She got lost in Compton one evening and rolled down her window to ask a black man directions and he reached in and locked her car door and told her to keep her car locked as she drove through that area.

Skid Row contains one of the largest populations of homeless people in the United States, according to Wikepedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skid_Row,_Los_Angeles

I drove through the heart of Compton and Watts on Easter Sunday.  And not just on the main thoroughfares,  I got on the back streets.
Yes it was daytime and I wouldn't risk it at night.  But I never felt threatened at any time.
At one point I drove to Watts Towers.  To get to the Towers you have to drive up a narrow street (107th St) which dead ends at the Towers.  And the only way to get out is to turn around at the dead end.  Problem is,  cars are parallel parked on both sides of the street at the dead end.  So you have to slowly turn around in the narrow street between those parked cars.  And the Watts residents living on that street are in their small front yards watching you as you try to do it.
That would seem scary,  but it wasn't.  Nobody gave me the evil eye.  Nobody seemed threatening.  In fact,  on the way out  I passed a car parked on the side and two middle aged white women tourists had gotten out of the car and were taking pictures of the Towers.  And they weren't scared either.

Bob wrote:

Joanimaroni wrote:North Austin.....we avoided the toll roads. They have express lanes for VOX whatever that is and the toll roads say no cash so I assume you have to have a pass.

Don't know what a VOX lane is.  Are you sure you don't mean HOV lanes?
Those are High Occupancy Vehicle lanes which means any car in that lane has to have either two (or sometimes three) or more people in the car.  

It was the North Austin toll roads that got us.  Those are the ones leading out to Lake Travis in the suburbs.  
Actually the amount of the tolls was reasonable.  It was what happened because I was in a rental car that made my life suck.

We didn't see any toll booths or we would have gladly paid cash.  So instead we opted for the automated toll collection.  That means they take a picture of your license tag to identify the vehicle using the toll road.  And then the toll authority mails a bill to the vehicle's registered owner.
When you're in a rental car,  since the rental agency owns the car they get the bill for the tolls.  I had already been through this with another rental agency while doing the same thing on the northern New Jersey toll roads.
The rental agency sent me a bill for the tolls and I happily paid it.

But this time,  there were eight Austin tolls and they were all 60 to 80 cents apiece.
And those sons of bitches at Dollar sent me a bill for $125.  That's because Dollar charged me what they call an "administrative fee" of $15 for EACH of those lousy 60 cent tolls.  And the letter told me if I didn't mail in the money to them, they would simply charge it to the credit card account they already had on file to pay for the car rental.

That pissed me off so much that I sent back a letter with a check for $14.  I informed them that the check covered the cost of the tolls plus $1 for each toll for an administrative fee.  AND that I have paid off the balance on the credit card account they have on file and closed the account.  And I added that if I get any correspondence or phone call from any bill collector over this,  that I will file against them in Escambia County Florida Summary Claims court and since they have locations in Florida THEY WILL have to send a representative to court and he can explain to the judge how they're justified in charging an administrative fee which is 2000% of the amount of the tolls.  
That was a month ago and I aint heard a peep out of them.  I feel sorry for the suckers they fleece on shit like this who just roll over and pay the money.  

Never again will I EVER ride on a toll road in a rental car period.

Oh shit! We got on a toll road by accident. Only went a half mile and got off. The road was not marked and only shown as a toll road when we were on it. I rented from Enterprise.

Joanimaroni wrote:

Oh shit!  We got on a toll road by accident. Only went a half mile and got off. The road was not marked and only shown as a toll road when we were on it. I rented from Enterprise.

Let me know how much of a fee Enterprise charges when you get the bill.  

By the way,  Enterprise,  Alamo and National are all owned by the same parent company (Enterprise Holdings).  So whatever the fee is for Enterprise it will likely be the same for National and Alamo too.

Hertz owns Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty. And Avis owns Avis and Budget.
So there's not as much competition as there might appear to be.

Bob, did you make to Koreatown? We stayed there last year while visiting our son. Great area, great food, saw where the Ambassador hotel stood - school now - but they left the kitchen building where Robert Kennedy was assassinated. Nice memorial to him on Wilshire Blvd that overlooks the area.

SheWrites wrote:Bob, did you make to Koreatown?  We stayed there last year while visiting our son.  Great area, great food, saw where the Ambassador hotel stood - school now - but they left the kitchen building where Robert Kennedy was assassinated.  Nice memorial to him on Wilshire Blvd that overlooks the area.  

I drove through it on Wilshire to get to McArthur Park but didn't stop to eat. But I did eat banchan from the HK Korean Market in Glendale (which was highly recommended) and really enjoyed it.

I had only one disapointment while visiting LA.  But it's only because I'm so goofy about what I want to see.  lol

When I was young I was an extreme fanboy of the tv series The Rockford Files.
In the story,  Rockford lived in a house trailer in the parking lot of a restaurant on this iconic spot on the beach in Malibu called Paradise Cove (address 29 Cove Rd).  
I've always wanted to see that scene with my own two eyeballs.  So I drove to Malibu to finally get to see it.
When I got to the location,  all of a sudden I was faced with a $40 parking charge.  But that changes to $6 if you spend money in the restaurant and get it validated.  So I went for it.  Got fish and chips and one double Crown and the bill came to more than the cost of the parking.  Plus I had already eaten so I took most of the food with me.  lol

Until that I was trying to do the whole trip on the cheap.  The only reason I took the trip was because I found out I could get roundtrip airfare to Vegas for $335.  So I then went looking for lodging in Vegas and LA.  Booked two nights in Vegas for $26/night,  four nights in LA for $56/night,  and then got two nights back in Vegas for $9.95/night.  And the rental car for 8 days was $262.  After all the taxes and resort fees and the rest,  the airfare,  lodging and rental car was only $1050.  Plus food,  gas etc.
The driving distance between Vegas and LA is about 270 miles making it about 550 miles round trip.  But I ended up putting 1400 miles on that rental car.

$56/ night in LA? Wow...

Malibu is one of my favorite spots. The drive through Malibu Canyon is breathtaking.

You need a "Frugal Bob Travels" blog.

SheWrites wrote:$56/ night in LA?  Wow...

Malibu is one of my favorite spots.  The drive through Malibu Canyon is breathtaking.  

You need a "Frugal Bob Travels" blog.  

Omigod. Malibu Canyon!

I wanted to get on Mullholland so I got on it way west accidentally. Got to the Mullholland lookout which is a psychedelic trip in itself. That's because it's the perfect place to overlook the Valley and it's ALL locals up there.
What nobody understands until you actually do it and experience it is Los Angeles is 10 million people (half the frigging population of Florida which is now the 3rd largest state in the country). That's a WHOLE LOT of locals.

So I then headed west on the Ventura Freeway until I got to that road which cuts across the Santa Monica Mountains and through Malibu Canyon to the Pacific Coast Highway and Malibu.

All I can say about that is this. I aint been everywhere. In fact I've never been outside the country. But I have driven around the island of Oahu, and I have been to the most scenic parts of Big Sur. And just last year I drove the Rockies. But I have never witnessed anything that appealed to me more than driving through Malibu Canyon. You are SO right.

I love mountains and I love the ocean. What better place for the two to meet. Malibu! Glad you saw the canyon. It's indescribable. One just HAS to experience it.

We saw the view of LA, in total, from Greystone Mansion. If you love movie trivia and their locations, Greystone is monumental in filming. Long list of movies and tv shows use the location.

I have to say that LA is so much more than I had pictured in my mind. I loved it.

The LA Farmers Market (near the La Brea Tar Pits) has a 5 story parking garage which gives great views in every direction from the roof of it.
Took this pic of the skyline.

Great view! #1 Son lives in the area of Farmer's Market. We'll have to catch that view next time for a family pic.

Here's the view from Greystone of LA.





And a view toward the Hollywood sign and Griffith observatory from Line
Hotel.