La Brea’s Car-Eating Trench

(Flickr pic by Daryl Furr.)

Car-eating trench on La Brea? Franklin Avenue reader Gerry emails:

For a week or so the city has been digging on La Brea, and today they removed the large metal plates and unveiled their masterpiece: a car-destroying trench. I drive a compact Toyota and I thought my car was being turned into rubble. Maybe someone else drove down La Brea and also almost had their car compacted? Let the city know what a great job they did!

Have any of you encountered the La Brea Trench?

Rate-A-Restaurant #193: Massimo’s Mudspot

Restaurant: Massimo’s Mudspot

Location: 759 S La Brea Ave. (Mid-Wilshire)

Type of restaurant: Coffee

We stipulated: Meeting with my friend Joe for a quick coffee and hang… Mudspot seemed like the good place to do it: Close to work, on the drive home, and a good spot on a rainy, dark evening.

What we ordered: I got a large coffee — $2.95.

High point: Massimo’s Mudspot may be new, but it’s got a comfortable, lived-in vibe that makes it feel like the coffeehouse has been there for years. Its laid-back vibe also couples nicely with all the people taking advantage of free wi-fi to create a large cast of regulars (so it seems). Also, they have Galaga — the coolest 80s vidgame around (sorry, Ms. Pac-Man).

Low point: $2.95 for a large coffee? And for a large coffee that was just servicable? Definitely on the pricey side.

Overall impression: Mudspot definitely fills the void in that neighborhood for a hip coffeehouse to hang your hat. The drinks are still a work in progress.

Chance we’ll go back: Mudspot won’t be a regular gathering spot — it’s not quite close enough to the office to make that happen — but it will be a possibility if I need to meet someone at a coffeehouse before or after work.

For a complete list of our more than 190 restaurant reviews, check out our companion Rate-A-Restaurant site.

Too Bad There’s No Way to Tap The Tar Pits

My office is one block over from the La Brea Tar Pits, famed for the oozing black stuff that occasionally pops up beyond the confines of the actual pit. With so much tar oozing through the walls of our parking garage, the building management even put up wall coverings to hide the black drippings.

It’s all lying there on the cement, sticky black tar. Quite a shame it can’t be scooped up to fuel my car.

Insult to Injury on La Brea’s Tree Kill Lane

It’s not bad enough that the lush trees on La Brea were chopped down earlier this year (leaving nothing but ugly stumps up and down the street), but now, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts building — which had previously been covered by the trees — has painted its La Brea campus a puke-y burnt orange.

Too… much… orange. Why was that necessary?

Granted, I’m still getting used to the stark brightness of that part of La Brea (not to mention those naked stumps) in the wake of last October’s tree massacare.

Here’s a reminder of what went down. As you can see, behind the trees, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts building was a deep olive color. Not sure that’s much better (what’s with these Crayola 64 box colors?), but it’s still not as out of place as that burnt orange.

When a Tree Falls on La Brea, It Does Make a Sound

Strange happenings on La Brea this past Saturday afternoon, as zealous workers were taking a chainsaw to quite a few trees up and down the east side of the street.

Were the trees diseased? Blocking someone’s view? Mistakingly chopped down?

The massive project caused a surface steet traffic jam, as La Brea was reduced to just one lane at a point.

That’s a lot of wood.

Anyone with firm details on why these trees were cut down, let us know!