AmbassaDoormat

This is the former site of the iconic Ambassador Hotel, where Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated after his 1968 win in the California Democratic primary. The steel bones are coming up for an LAUSD elementary school, middle school, and high school. A few token elements of the hotel will be preserved and integrated into the school buildings, like portions of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub and the coffee shop designed by Paul Williams.

Hard to argue with the need for new schools in an area where kids are bused miles out of the neighborhood, but I still find it painful to see the historic buildings leveled. An adaptive reuse of the hotel could've worked, with historic building tax credits and foundation funding paying the slightly higher tab. Too late...but that's Los Angeles for you.

Can you believe that California ended up helping Nixon get elected in '68? (Seems nuts considering he lost the governor race just six years earlier.) We gave that crank a whopping 40 electoral votes. We've come a long way, California.

Show me some skin

I discovered the secret to stepping into construction sites to take a look-see without getting hassled. Dress professionally, look like you belong, and when construction workers come your way, just give them a friendly nod and say, "It's looking really good."

Today I rolled into the job site for Los Angeles Unified's new School of Visual and Performing Arts. What a beast...about $200 million budgeted. Getting close, and LAUSD plans to open it up Fall 2009. Too bad nobody knows what the curriculum will be or which students will be allowed to attend. Setting aside the steep pricetag for a moment, the design is tops. I'm big on the silver-gray metallic panels, the awesome twisted tower view of/from the 101 freeway, and the coney library (a flash-forward version of Oxford's Radcliffe Library). It's a sure bet that a sci-fi movie will be filmed here, like Serenity and the Cell were filmed at Diamond Ranch High School.

I left quickly. Horrible memories of interviewing for a stint as a substitute teacher in 1996 (!) came back, so I had to escape. Egads...I can still hear that phone ringing at 5 in the morning to call me back to hell.