Journey to the Center of Los Angeles: The Sequel

With my wife and son out of town,  I left the comforts of Westwood and journeyed to USC yesterday.  The trip was well worth it.  Since I don't drive, I enriched two taxi drivers and helped to stimulate our stagnant economy.  Professor Siqi Zheng and I went to USC to listen to a seminar by Joe Tracy.   He presented a new paper documenting that households with negative equity (debt - current home price < 0) are significantly less geographically mobile.

Professor Zheng and I spent the afternoon at USC sitting outside in the shade and revising a submission for the Journal of Economic Literature.  We made great progress and I give their pretty campus the credit.   We then joined the dinner group at the Kitchen Table's Rooftop Dining Room  .  I'm not used to eating dinner outside in the middle of the center city.   The food was quite good.  The funny thing about the menu is that the chef doesn't tell you what stuff is; there are broad choices;  "bird, cow, fish"  and the waiter then tries to tell you the specifics of what is the "cow" for that night.

Here is the view looking out onto the street.





At night, downtown LA is a funky mix.  We saw plenty of people who do not appear to work for a living but we also saw plenty of upscale urban life.  I had never been to Pershing Square before and it looked nice.  We found our second cab at the Biltmore Hotel at Pershing Square and headed West down Wilshire Blvd and once again I was back in the bubble called Westwood.