Getting Some Traction

A few days ago we did something unusual on our way home from Orange County. Instead of driving through and beyond Los Angeles as fast as we could, we exited the freeway at 4th Street, headed into town on one of the old bridges that cross the L.A. River, which is basically a concrete channel at this point, parked on Traction Avenue, and got out of the car.

We were in the Arts District. Who knew? (Well, anyone who knows anything knew...but this is your country bumpkin blogger blogging, the one who's still amazed.)Bordered by freeways to the north (the 101) and south (the 10), the river on the east, and Alameda Street on the west, the neighborhood was at one point the site of a thriving 104-acre vineyard planted by Jean-Louis Vignes, which by 1849 was California's largest wine producer.

Then came citrus. By the late 19th century, orange and grapefruit trees lined the banks of the river. (Apparently there is a 30-foot grapefruit tree still standing above the Japanese American Plaza in Little Tokyo; I aim to take a look at that next time I'm in the neighborhood.)

Anyway, storage and shipping of produce necessitated the building of warehouses and railroad freight depots. Then manufacturers of various goods took advantage of the shipping infrastructure and created factories nearby.

But times changed, and as these sprawling industrial spaces were vacated, the area became a classic scene of urban decay and abandonment. It was a pretty rough neighborhood even through the '70s and '80s, rife with drug use and crime.

Art stepped in! Resourceful and creative types envisioned those abandoned spaces as studios and galleries. An artist-in-residence ordinance was passed by the city in 1981, allowing artists to use the buildings as living quarters as well as work areas. Painters, sculptors, clothing and graphics designers, filmmakers, foodies, and craftspeople of all sorts have converged here, and the place is a'splash with creativity. There are interesting (albeit pricey) retail stores, not-Starbucks coffee shops where hip young people sip their beverages, and colorful street art everywhere you happen to gaze.

The Art District is still in progress, still evolving, and there are already plenty of mutterings about its being too trendy, with rents climbing beyond the reach of struggling artists, but there's definitely something happening here. It was another good reminder to get out of the car, look around, and learn a little.

"This place makes me want to be young again," I told a very young woman who was working in one of the gallery-shops.

"You are young!" she said, without hesitating. "And here you are."

It was a good response.