DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - Our family moved Downtown three yearsago, when our son, Nathan, was just a ye...

1. Life With the Little Caliph
DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - Our family moved Downtown three years
ago, when our son, Nathan, was just a year old. We were refugees
from Silver Lake, escaping not only the crazy high rents but the
insularity as well.
My husband, James, and I were looking for a place that was big
enough to accommodate his computer business while also being a
short commute to my job in City West. As regulars at the Art Walk,
we could see the neighborhood was evolving into something exciting,
and as native New Yorkers who'd grown up playing street games like
hopscotch, stickball and Ringalevio, we liked the idea of raising
our kid in the city core.
There is now a whole litany of places that didn't exist when we
first moved here: the Nickel Diner, D-town Burger Bar, Bliss,
Spring for Coffee, Crack Gallery, Syrup Desserts, Flea, Bark
Avenue, Bolt Barbers, the Gorbals and all of the bars on Spring
Street.
There were also, when we arrived, almost no families. I

2. personally knew almost everyone with kids Downtown and could count
them all on my fingers (no toes needed). I'd push Nathan in his
stroller down deserted streets on Sunday afternoons wondering if
we'd made a terrible mistake by moving into the neighborhood.
Things have changed. A lot. There's a newborn in my building
whose daddy takes her out for walks in the Baby Bjorn, along with
the family dog. More than 150 people belong to the Downtown L.A.
Parents Facebook group. There's a play date in Grand Hope Park
every Saturday and I see people pushing baby strollers down Spring
Street every day. It blows my mind. It's so... normal.
Of course, raising kids Downtown has its own special flavor.
There's a man on Broadway and Sixth Street who gives out
handwritten sheets detailing the connection between Allah and
Frankenstein (seriously), and he always makes a point of handing
one to Nathan. My son loves it because, at age four, he thinks
getting stuff, any kind of stuff, is awesome. The man loves it
because there aren't too many people who grab his handouts with a
big grin on their faces. He calls Nathan the Little Caliph.
So yeah, raising your kid Downtown means putting up with a bit
of weirdness. But in a strange way, Caliph Man illustrates what I
love most about living Downtown: the sense of community. When we

3. eat at the Nickel, owner Monica May sits at our table and calls
Nathan her mascot because he's grown up along with her restaurant.
Shane, our favorite barber at Bolt, knows exactly how to cut
Nathan's hair and calls him the best kid he's ever worked on. At
Christmas last year, both the owner of an electronics store and our
parking garage attendant gave Nathan presents out of the blue.
Walking down Spring Street or Broadway with Nathan can sometimes
feel like the Copa sequence in Goodfellas, with people calling out
his name and waving or stopping to shake his hand.
The other amazing aspect of raising a kid in Downtown is the
culture. My husband and I grew up in New York visiting the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, taking in Broadway shows and hearing
free symphony concerts in Central Park. Living in Downtown Los
Angeles, our son is having similar experiences. Nathan gets to
gallery hop at Art Walk, and attend children's opera at the Dorothy
Chandler Pavilion and free concerts at Disney Hall. This summer
Nathan will be taking music lessons at the Colburn School on Bunker
Hill (and riding Angels Flight to get there).
I remember one amazing event in particular when Pershing Square
was taken over for a nighttime art show. Nathan wasn't the only kid
there that night, and he and the other children ran around and
gaped in wonder at the sculptures as bands played and parents
strolled hand-in-hand under the stars.
As Downtown continues to evolve, there will be more and more
kids like Nathan, moving into the neighborhood along with their

4. parents or born here (because, as my husband says, when young,
attractive people move into lofts together, reproduction happens).
They'll experience a childhood that's unique in Los Angeles, one
that isn't limited to seeing the world passing by through a car
window.
We love it and we wouldn't want anything else for our son.
page 12, 5/2/2011
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