Beverly Hills fantasy: after the subway

Beverly Hills has been a lot more open to the idea of a Wilshire subway this time around, but the embrace is far from universal. An L.A. Business Journal story this week (summarized at Curbed) chronicles the objections of Rodeo Drive merchants, who talk only of trash, crime and the loss of high-roller customers. At KCET's website, Ophelia Chong feels inspired to imagine a transit-rich Golden Triangle.

Even though the day has just started, merchants are pulling out racks of marked down clothing and souvenirs onto the sidewalks. Boxes of tchotchkes and produce crowd into the small spaces between the stores and the curb. The Bijan store is now "jan's", the new owner decided that adding one letter was cheaper than redoing the whole sign. "Jan's" sells discount perfume and LA Dodger snow globes.

Since the opening of the Metro, what the Beverly Hills Merchants predicted did happen. Beverly Hills became Los Angeles. The quality merchants fled to the Upper Class lounge at Tom Bradley terminal at LAX, where you have to have to pass through full body cavity check and be able to afford a ticket higher than economy.

While I'm at SoCal Focus: D.J. Waldie encounters three Merlins falcons.