July 22, 2007

• PhotoPost: Ocean Blvd. Long Beach

  Ocean Blvd. is the "Main Street" for downtown Long Beach, California, once a sleepy little place where movie stars would flee to from Hollywood, and known for being alternately, a city of old people and a rowdy navy town filled with fights and hookers. Now Ocean Blvd. is the heart of downtown Long Beach, currently the 5th largest city in California. It is a mix of the historical, the modern, and what I call the "Disneyfication" process of archtectural style. The place is very photogenic, and in order to look right, one needs the perfect Long Beach day.

  

  CLICK ON THE PHOTOS TO SEE LARGER IMAGES IN ANOTHER WINDOW

  I need clouds in the background. A blue sky isn't enough. The day has to be clear, and the sun can't be too low. When magic happens, I get photo series I am quite proud of. I promised I wouldn't take any more photo excursions until I got a digital camera which took better photos than 1.2 megapixels, but the year is halfway over, and I still haven't been able to afford a new camera. I had an idea of taking photos in my 'back yard', in today's instance, Ocean Blvd. in Long Beach, CA, the city where I work. Since this is "home" I don't think of the areas around here as "tourist destinations" but for most of you in Xangaland, Long Beach might very well be a destination someday. It's certainly not the same Long Beach of yesterday, although certain reminders remain. Let's take a walk west from Shoreline Drive to the new Pike on the other side of town.

  

  I'm too lazy to do a websearch for the actual historical names of the buildings I don't know or can't remember right now, like the building above, on the corner of Shoreline Drive and Ocean Blvd, where our walk begins. I think this is the Heritage Apartments, but I could be wrong. In any case, the building was a swank apartment house during the 30s, it survived the 1933 earthquake, which took most of the town, and it's now a condo complex that's being retrofitted because of it's historic status. It's currently wrapped in plastic, which makes it look like a Christmas present.

  

  An older renovated building next to an 80s style high rise that grew in the first gentrification program for Ocean Blvd. You'd never know it now, but during the 70s, after the Pike Amusement Park had closed down, and when Long Beach was still a Navy town, and not the 5th largest city in California, this was a seedy part of town, right on the ocean, with dozens of nudie bars and porno theaters.

  

  A vertical shot of one of the 20 story condo projects that now line the south side of the street. People on the other side get an uncluttered view of the harbor. People on this side, an uncluttered view of the city. If you have a million or so bucks, you might think of investing in, oops, sorry, this one is all sold out.

  

  The Breakers, which was a luxury hotel in the 30s and 40s and now an assisted living apartment house, is one of the older buildings which still command an unfettered view of the sky. Soon, there will be highrise condos on all sides of the older buildings. The balloon in the foreground is from the Aquas Complex of condominium homes, which recently opened, towering 20 stories into the air.  

   

  This is a building that's been in Long Beach for a long time. It's the Arena, next to the Long Beach Performing Arts Theater. We used to see concerts here in the 70s. It's probably vacant now, awaiting reconversion into lofts. (Just kidding.)

  

  The Westin Hotel. Sometimes Ocean Blvd. resembles Miami Beach. (Or Atlantic City or Vegas, without the slots.)  I've only started to use Ocean Blvd. recently as another of three routes home from work. Using this route, I travel over the Vincent Thomas suspension bridge on the way back to San Pedro, and then home. When I first started working in Long Beach, the Ocean Blvd. route wasn't cost effective because of the toll on the bridge, which disappeared a few years ago.(the toll, not the bridge)

  

  The view from the court of the Long Beach Performing Center Arts Theater, which has been around since the 70s I believe. The building across the street is the tower for the Westin Hotel shown in the previous photo. It is about 5 years old. May be older, may be younger, but it's a "new" building.

  

  Here's an artsy shot, showing the bright blue paint on the streetlamps (which are "historical") a fire hydrant, and the International City Bank in the background. Like any big city, Long Beach has a financial district, and it's on Ocean Blvd, along with the Residential Hotel and Condo district, the Tourist District, the Theater District, Restaurant Row, etc.

  

  The "Pike" was the 30s era amusement park that closed down in the early 70s, and then became a blight on the landscape until it was torn down. The vacant lots stuck around for most of the 90s, and then in the mid aughts, the Pike Mall was built on the vacant land. (Which at one time was going to be sold to Disney, who was going to include the Queen Mary in a "Nautical Theme Park". ) Now the area looks sort of like Disneyland. I call it the "Disneyfication" of Long Beach. First came Disneyland, which begat Citywalk, which begat modern Las Vegas, which begat the Pike.

  

  The Long Beach Convention Center, which was completed in the late 90s or early Aughts, looking toward Ocean Blvd. I shot these photos today, and it's a Sunday. This area is full of people during the week. Since the area is a "mixed use" place now, with new residences complementing the apartment buildings and condos that were already on the street, there are a few people walking around, but I purposefully try to stage the shots "between" people and cars, so that the landscape and the architecture is what is in the shot. (Plus an L.A. Times Newspaper dispenser, which I just had to get in the shot.)

  

  They modeled the footbridge over Shoreline Drive from one side of the new Pike Complex to the other on the roller coaster which used to grace the actual amusement park. No, there aren't any little cars you can ride in, that's just the framework over the bridge. Shoreline Drive, by the way, is converted into the racetrack for the Long Beach Grand Prix in the Spring, and Indy cars can be seen screeching down this section of roadway.

  

  I took over 250 photos today and still I didn't feel as if I were "finished". There were so many great photos. This is just the parking garage for the Pike Mall. Sort of looks like an outdoor set for a Batman movie, doesn't it? Long Beach is only a few miles away from Hollyweird, and the whole area, from San Fernando to the sea, is starting to resemble, er, Disneyland, or a movie back lot. They're pretty much the same thing anyway.

  

  I like this shot. To the left, is a 90s skyscraper, the Wells Fargo building. To the right is the Ocean Park building, which used to be part of the original Pike Amusement park, and could use some work right now, and is probably slated for a complete renovation sometime in the near future. In the center of the vacant lot is the roof of the original Pike's Ferris Wheel, up on blocks. This is part of the surreal nature of mixed architectural styles and seeming "back lot" quality of modern Long Beach.

  

  An artsy shot of the Bank Tower and the Ferris Wheel roof, composed with some chain link fence in the foreground. Astute followers of my photographic "art" will recall that chain link fences appear in quite a few of my pieces.

  

  I contemplated only offering 10 or 12 shots, but I had so much fun today I just feel the need to share, share, share. This is my "apocalypse now" shot. Again, I'm using the Wells Fargo Bank Tower, and the steps are the steps of the Ocean Park building alley. Someone left a destroyed CD player on the steps, and I took the photo.

  

  Just for fun. I'm in the outside lobby of the Ocean Park building, where I just shot through the front doors into the lobby. I'm reflected in a blacked out picture window, and you can also see the ceiling fan in the lobby above my head. There is no artistic value to this photo. I just included it for fun and games.

  

  More photos will show up in a future Webshots Gallery folder (or two ) I will also upload some more photos which aren't in this PhotoPost and create an Ocean Blvd. folder in my Xanga Photo Blog, since I want to show more, more, more. This is looking up one of the cross streets toward the north part of town, ansd shows some older buildings framed with a modern "art deco" thingamabob rising out of the sidewalk.

  

  Sorry, can't pigeonhole this building. It's on First Street, which runs parallel to Ocean on the north. This building and the one with the clock tower on the left got lots of angled photos in my collection here, but I wanted to show a complete view of this old building to you guys. I mentioned that sometimes the city resembles a movie back lot. Believe it or not, movie crews use these older high rises to "stand in" for many other American cities in period pieces, including New York and Chicago.

  

  I will leave you with a shot of a modern Corvette fronting a historical building, which has been remodeled.  I'm announcing this post in a message to my subscribers and friends, because I really think that serendipity hit me today with the photos, the imagination, and the "subjects". Even the sky participated by providing some clouds. Oh Happy Day. And because of it you get to join me on my walk down Ocean Blvd. Needless to say, there will be a video in the works. Different photos taken on the same walk can be seen in my Xanga PhotoBlog. The folder is "Ocean Blvd." I also have uploaded all 250 plus photos to my Webshots Gallery and they can be seen in the Ocean Blvd. 1 and Ocean Blvd. 2. folders.

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  EDIT: 10:30 pm. I've been informed that my message to everyone was received three times, which I admit, is a bit much. A mass message sent to "subscribers and friends" seems to go out twice, once for "subscribers" and once for "friends". I frequently get double messages from sites to which I am both a subscriber and friend. The third time must be a "Xanga glitch", but since I sent the message, I apologize for any inconvenience anyone has experienced.

  • 9:40 pm
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