Thematic Photographic - Windows

Thematic Photographic" - Carmi at the blog Written, Inc. presents a weekly themed photographic challenge. This week's theme is WINDOWS.

This is the view from the window of a downtown Los Angeles residential loft, looking westward at the skyline of the financial district. Isn't it stunning?

It's the Little Tokyo Lofts, a former Westinghouse factory located on San Pedro Street. The view is magnificent.

The neighborhood, alas, is not. It's a little too close to Skid Row, and with the economic downturn, property values are dropping.

It's funny, in a way. The whole concept of urban residential lofts rests on the notion that living in undervalued, abandoned factory buildings in dangerous neighborhoods is an edgy and cool lifestyle.

I lived in just such a place myself, on the corner of Greene Street and Broome Street in lower Manhattan in 1977. I rented a room from a painter on the third floor of a building with a metal-working factory on the ground floor. Coming home at night, we used to walk down the middle of the deserted street, because it was safer than walking close to the darkened doorways of the buildings.

Back then, you couldn't buy this kind of atmosphere. It was priceless.

Whaddya say - want to take a gamble? I hear they're going for good prices.

True confession - even now, at my age, I'd love to be able to live in a building like this. The only obstacle is traffic - living in downtown LA would triple my commute time. When will they complete the Expo Line?