VENICE & GLENDON

WHEN I MOVED TO PALMS IN 2003, the intersection of Venice Blvd. and Glendon Ave. wasn't really much of an intersection at all. The stupid island which turns that entire stretch of the boulevard into a mass automobile do-si-do ran unbroken from Girard to Overland, reducing the Glendon corner to a stop sign bordering a one-way Venice. Parents would shield their children's ears when walking through the neighborhood to drown out the chorus of cursing from drivers passing by as they they realized they were going to have to make four u-turns, two three-point turns and fly off a ramp just to go north. Then they would cuss a purple storm into little Ajeet's ear upon the understanding that to get to Ralph's directly across the street, they would have to either take the two-week walk to the Overland stoplight, or grab their child's hand in a white-knuckle grip and run across Venice, which is like running across the 405.

one of these would have come in very handy in those days.

Then one day two summers ago, concrete medians appeared on either side of Palms Island. Theories as to their purpose ran rife through the community, one person insisting that CalTrans was going to put a metro rail line through the hood. But when the construction signs finally disappeared, Palms Island had been segmented at Glendon and traffic lights and walk signals were at each corner. This corner marks the heart of Palms (heh), equidistant to Culver Center and the Jack In The Crack/McDonalds/CPK trifecta to the east, and the Latino-Semitic corridor leading to the hallowed block housing Saints & Sinners, the medical marijuana clinic, and the mosque upstairs to the west.

Therefore, being a major artery of foot traffic in a notoriously kooky neighborhood, this corner is bringing birds of many different feathers face to face for the first time. Sometimes it's more like face to concrete, as outlined in last week's blog The Art Of The Dirt Nap (link), and other times it's less dramatic but only slightly less funny, as in the case of this fella below. Just examine him for a minute and let him work his magic. That woman will never forget him.

That was last week. Then today I see some guy has decided to move his entire living room on the corner in hopes of making a few bucks. What a renegade. I'm sure Enterprise didn't give him permission to hang his raggedy clothing all over their ominous black gate.