Atwater Village: 'Flat, Friendly, a Little Dull'

REAL-ESTATE BLOG Curbed LA takes a shot at Atwater Village in yesterday's post about an apparently overpriced $775,000 home on Glenhurst Avenue: If there's one neighborhood that causes people to go ballistic over prices, it's Atwater Village. Maybe it's the geography of the neighborhood: Real estate agents sneakily try and list the homes under "Los Feliz," perhaps thinking that Atwater is the next Los Feliz, the next upscale hood. No, Atwater is just Atwater: Flat, friendly, a little dull. There's a certain harsh truth to this, despite a spate of recent undull events. But maybe flat (wider streets, easier access, more parking), friendly (neighborly, hospitable, easy-going) and dull (stable, established, predictable) are just what couples and families want on our side of I-5. I guess when the crazy kids of Los Feliz get real jobs and real relationships and grow weary of waiting for Adrien Grenier to notice how cleverly they ask for Splenda at The Alcove, they might seek something flatter, friendlier and duller. Till then they should know that Curbed LA is hiring bloggers. I think they pay like $10 per post. Write about 77,500 posts and then maybe rethink that house on Glenhurst.

1,000 Posts and Counting!

THANKS, LOS ANGELES, for humoring me these last 1,000 posts, with your 192,258 visits and 329,614 page views.  It's an honor to still be a Newbie!

Find the Lamest Headline

ANYONE CAN START a blog. Anyone. So what does it mean when the lamest headline on my RSS reader, "Olympic volleyball medalists are hot!" comes from one of the largest professionally-staffed daily news organizations in the nation. (That would be the LA Times.)

Thanks, LA, for a Visitastic First Year

Possible New Names for This Blog

I can't be a newbie forever. In fact, the LA Times says a Los Angeles veteran is anyone here "at least a year." For me, that's less than two months away. So how about:

• Atwater Villager
• Atwater Village Idiot
• It Takes An Atwater Village
• Three Glasses of Atwater a Day
• Smoke on the Atwater
• Where It's Atwater

How the Dog Got Its Wag Back

Atwater Village, 1990, water delivery guy to the rescue:

There's a little nook of Atwater Village that can be found south of Fletcher... And there it was again. Barely. A high-pitched cry. It was a sound I'd never before heard, filled with such defeat and sadness and the next thing I knew I was out of the cab and on the street and turning my ears this way and that trying to divine its location and source... [more]

Welcome New Readers

Happy new year and welcome to Atwater Village Newbie, a nominee for LA City Nerd's 2006 Blogger, a proud member of the blog-LA-sphere and, in the words of our esteemed blogging colleagues at LAist, "quite a good neighborhood blog." What is Atwater Village? A banana-shaped Los Angeles neighborhood, just inside northeast city limits, with about 8,000 residents. In ways a microcosm of LA: average housing prices (for LA), a mix of people and languages, palm trees and graffiti, struggles between tradition and progress. Unlike some LA hoods, though, a distinct village feel: outdoor movies, well-heeled sidewalks, holiday trees, mom-and-pop shops, farmers markets, and bickering about Starbucks. Where is Atwater Village? Between I-5 and the Los Angeles River to the west, highway 134 to the north, railroad tracks and Glendale to the east, and highway 2 and the Elysian Valley neighborhood to the south. Is Atwater Village on the east side of LA? Depends. It's east of the LA River, so yes. And it's 20 miles from the nearest beach. But it's north of downtown LA, and it's not adjacent to Latino-dominated East LA. Plus it's next to Glendale. And Burbank. Which might, to some, make Atwater Village part of the San Fernando Valley. (Definitely not the east side). To keep people from getting itchy, it's best not to say, "Atwater Village is eastside." Try instead, "Atwater Village is on the east side." Get the difference? No? Me neither. Who Is the Newbie? In 2006 Mrs. Newbie and I migrated from Colorado to California. In March, when we reach our one-year anniversary here, we will no longer be newbies and will be, according to the LA Times, LA veterans. (Subject to approval by other members of the blog-LA-sphere.) Looking for more? Perhaps these previous posts will help answer recent requests: Is the new Canele bistro on Glendale Blvd. any good? Do the Black Eyed Peas have a recording studio in Atwater Village? Didn't the Beastie Boys have one too? Sad about Atwater resident Matthew Merrill. What happened? Any giant new housing developments in the neighborhood? Or college campuses? What post, if any, riles up the most people? (See here for most recent riling) Is this blog really the #1 Google result for trendy red wine? Speaking of trendy, isn't Atwater Village one of those up-and-coming hipster hoods? Latte, anyone?

Seeking Verb for 2007

I keep new years' resolutions simple. One word, one verb, carries me through the year. But I am stumped, so far, on what to resolve for 2007, the tenth year of my tradition:

1998: UPGRADE
1999: PURGE
2000: SUBSCRIBE
2001: WONDER
2002: QUENCH
2003: FLIP
2004: STRAIGHTEN
2005: ASK
2006: REBOOT
2007: ????

The rules are simple. The resolution should be one word. It should be a verb. It should be something I can do a little bit every day. (Or skip a few days here and there.) It can have multiple meanings, but it doesn't need to. It should be something I can look back at the end of 2007 and say, yes, I did that. Like in 2006, when I rebooted my life in California.

Any ideas out there? So far I have BURROW, but not everyone around here (I'm looking at you, Mrs. Newbie) likes that one.

An Honor Just To Be Nominated

From Newbie to Nerd in just 10 months? LA City Nerd released his City Nerd Award Nominees early this morning. And the nominees for Blogger are:

• Ed Fuentes (viewfromaloft.typepad.com)
• Atwater Village Newbie (atwater-village.blogspot.com)
• Kevin Roderick (www.laobserved.com)
• Zuma Dogg (mayorsam.blogspot.com)
• Mack Reed (www.lavoice.org)
• Walter Moore (www.mooreisbetter.com)
• Zach Behrens (LAist.com / shermanoaks.blogspot.com)
• Eric Richardson (blogdowntown.com)
• Siel (greenlagirl.com)

Vote early, vote often. Polls close Jan. 15, 11:59pm.

And just think, in two months I'm eligible to appeal for an upgrade from newbie to veteran.

Atwater Village Newbie's Best of 2006

Leave year-end restaurant rankings and political punditry to Los Angeles veterans. These are year-end bests for us, two of the LA newbies who helped bump city population over 4 million in 2006. Best Secret On-Ramp - From Riverside Drive in Elysian Valley, just south of Atwater Village, there's a well-marked ramp to I-5 south. But around the bend the ramp splits, without warning or signage, to join highway 110 south toward downtown LA. Shhhh... Best Secret On-Ramp, Spanish Language Version - In Boyle Heights, the Mission Rd. ramp to I-5 splits to I-10 East Best Reason to Know About Secret Ramps: Closures of I-5 north from I-10 west after midnight every time we try it Best Tacos in Walking Distance - Tacos Villa Corona Best Tacos in View of Hollywood Sign and Griffith Observatory - Sidewalk tables at tiny taqueria Casa Diaz, 4666 Hollywood Blvd., give unobstructed angles on two of the icons that drew us here Best LA Blog Family - Mike & Maria & Baby Blogger, curators of Franklin Avenue and Rate-a-Restaurant - among other blogs on every LA newbie's must-read list - and originators of the term Blog-LA-Sphere Best Blog-LA-Sphere Member Who Graciously Answers Pesky Questions from Moving Newbies - LA City Nerd Best Eight-Hour Stroll - Wilshire Blvd., the whole length of it, 16.2 miles from downtown Los Angeles to the ocean Best Local Show to TiVo - Eye on LA, a half-hour of trendy and traditional hot spots Best Web Site for Learning Where LA Neighborhoods Are and How Much It Costs to Live in Them: Rentslicer, especially cross-referenced with this city map Best Way to Make a Colorado Transplant Chuckle: Complaining about how cold it is in LA Second Best Way: Wearing Uggs when it's cold in LA Third Best Way: Being excited about Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory Best Vet for Newbie Pets: Gateway Animal Hospital, Alan Jimerson, DVM, 431 W. Los Feliz Blvd., Glendale Best Way to Read the Los Angeles Times Online - Fishbowl LA's LAT in 90 Seconds Best Automobile Accessory for Newbies - Thomas Guide for Los Angeles and Orange Counties Best Grocery Store Analogy for Newbies - VONS : SAFEWAY :: Ralph's : King Soopers Best Refurbished Grocery Store - Vons, 311 W. Los Feliz Blvd., Glendale, where employees must get paid for friendly greetings the way other grocery store employees are compensated for blank stares Best Place to Take Visitors Who Hate LA - San Diego Second Best Place - Pasadena Best Place to Take Two-Year-Old Visitors in LA - Shane's Inspiration Playground, Griffith Park Second Best Place - Travel Town, Griffith Park Best Traffic Web Site for Newbies - MyCaliforniaTraffic.com Best First Stop for Newbies Moving from a Landlocked State - IKEA, because landlocked states do not have IKEA Best Second Stop - The Getty Museum, because 1) it's free, 2) it gets you used to the idea that in LA "free" means you still pay for parking, and 3) the view makes you glad you moved from a landlocked state Best Song to Hear While Driving a Hyundai to Zankou Chicken in Glendale - "Debra" by Beck Best TV Show to Sharpen LA Geography Skills - From "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip": "A caller from Toluca Lake called us Barbra Streisand loving, Michael Moore worshiping jackasses;" "I keep all your things nicely stored on a garbage scow off Catalina" Best TV Show to Set Unrealistic LA Traffic Expectations: "24" Best Blog by Another LA Newbie: BLDGBLOG