The Californization of the Central Village Ghettos


University Place between 13th and 14th has been a sore spot on the hood for my entire life, but recently there has been either a coordinated or coincidental movement to turn the discarded block into a 'Little Los Angeles'

That bootleg California pizza has been there forever, and the Pan-Asian restaurant across the street seems pretty alright…but now we've got The Claremont. It is a very out of place condo that looks more like the front to a back-lot set piece than a Greenwich Village apartment building. It's built from an artificial looking yellow limestone, and the apartments appear to be lit by bright white florescent lights. To top it all off, Former LA Lakers star Rick Fox had been rumored to have shown interest in the Penthouse there. Interesting...

But only recently has the plan all come to fruition. Here's the kicker...Across the street, on the side of the DSW/Forever 21 building, they will soon be opening, of all things, a JAMBA JUICE! Zoinks! A more iconic Californian retail establishment there has never been!

So...add the idling bus exhaust you're forced to suck down whenever you walk down the block and you've basically got a little piece of California sunshine at the northernmost point of Central Village. We're a neighborhood always open to new cultures and customs, so welcome. And don't mind the Odd-Job loading dock, or the homeless colony living across the street…They're just there for veracity.