You can cut people off when merging but often people will let you merge in if you are exiting a parking lot. Also you always can cross the street without any problems but only if you cross right at the cross walk when the sign says go. Otherwise, good luck. But always look first because it's generally ok to run red lights and roll through stop signs. Still trying to figure out the skating in the streets rule since you can actually get jaywalking tickets here. For safety's sake, of course, as most people drive here, most drive pretty aggro and stops are just "suggested". Craze combo.
And parking SUCKS. Just like trying to find a legal spot in Midtown in the middle of the day. You're screwed pretty much everywhere from the supermarket to the taco stand. Good luck trying to find parking ANYWHERE you go. We luckily have parking spots in our building, and although getting around by bus has been a steep learning curve; I'm glad I don't commute by car. I HATED parking stress back home and I don't remotely enjoy it here. There's traffic at all point of the day, not unlike New York. Try driving across the Cross Bronx around lunchtime. Impossible. So that which everyone complains about is a given.
Yeah soooo the weather is insane. 80 degrees every day all the time. It's January and my head is sunburned. I'd wear a hat, but it's kinda fucking hot. Yeah, I know. Whatevs. Been using the dry weather to my advantage & finally got to hit up Lincoln Skatepark. I've been watching clips back home getting hyped to finally roll through the park. Most of the new LA parks are more plaza style with stairs, rails & ledges- fun in their own right. But with a small bag of tricks these parks can get a bit boring. Lincoln is fun with it's snake run style set-up to Jersey Barrier or huge ollie hip. So fun. The quarterpipe facing the barrier is amazing too. Volcano style: super steep, super fun.
The cement, no hang-up lips are perfect and every section grinds well. Even during crowded sessions, the kids mainly hit the stairs so it's all good. Just don't wander the neighborhood too much like I did looking for "authentic local food". I was informed by the kids in the area that I skated through some of the worst gang affiliated streets in Lincoln Heights. Next time I'll stick to the 7-11 directly across the street from the park. Also the bus ride transfers right in the heart of Chinatown, so it's a no-brainer to just wait and get my roast pig on rice after a session. No cholo action necessary.
Also finally hit up the infamous Stoner Park. Even at 11am mid week the park had a good group of kids there. The quarterpipe hip set up is amazing with more grindable concrete lips. It's like sessioning a curb atop a bank. No crazy metal coping no stress. The rest of the park is fun as well with ledges and flat bars galore.
That Sebo kid was there killing the place. Backside double flip the ramp to ramp gap as well as a backside flip up the dish to stage gap. An easy 7 foot distance step up. Just his random quarter tricks were mindblowing from back noseblunts like axle stalls to switch nose bluntsides to fakie tail stall 2 pivot fakie-in to hip floater ollies every which way switch & regs. Couldn't help but fan out on the trick bank.
Still feel like I'm only here on vacation as Jillian & I have our first real apartment with all brand new fancy Ashley furniture. Seems kinda craze. I do miss my car, but selling it has afforded us a brand new crib with all the nice furniture we always dreamed of. No sketchy first floor Queens apartment with a nice view of a brick wall. And although I have no real toys to show for the sale, it has also afforded me a semi-retirement budget before I'm back on the grind with a 7 day a week 9-9 job. But until then I plan to try and enjoy LA, although I still think it's too fucking hot here but I can't really complain about that as the rest of the world is actually toiling through the brutality of winter. My bad. Come visit homies! Let's go skate.
