A reader named Alex Robinson sent me this photo of the former used appliances store at Laveta -- below the famed Laveta Steps -- and Sunset. Alex said the picture was taken on his/her (?) Blackberry.At first, I had guessed it was from an old Diana camera. One of the reasons I like the picture is because of the misty illusion it gives of looking back through time to the present moment. We think the past looks like the picture frames we see it in. But this is very much the present. This shop is under renovation. It has been painted a stylish French-roast brown. I think it was gray last year. I had thought the appliance store was going to become a cafe, but plans for that may have changed. There's a cafe/coffehouse boom in Echo Park right now -- they're popping up like cottonweeds after a good rain (which means there should be dozens of tiny coffeehouses in my backyard right now, even after the weed-whacking). Cafe Mariposa on Sunset, a new one in construction on Echo Park Avenue at Baxter, a new one planned for the new bookstore on Sunset between Lemoyne and Logan. And more, I have no doubt. Perhaps because so many people who used to work in offices -- like myself -- now can take their laptops up a tree if they like, if they have work.
