Over more than two decades we worked off and on in Downtown Los Angeles. We had a client for several years at 555 West 5th Street, in the tower at the base of Bunker Hill. We’d meet several times a week. Always in the morning.
Sometimes he would boast about his property in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and how he’d one day leave LA. Other times he’d deliver us a wire brushing for events beyond our control. One time he accused us of ‘smash and grab’ tactics for merely requesting payment of a past due invoice for contracted work that had already been delivered.
After these inspiring encounters we’d hike by the collection of derelicts and dope smokers sprawled out on the wall in front of the Central Library. This was as we made our way back to our office at the Wedbush Center on Wilshire Boulevard near Figueroa Street.
On the corner in front of the 7-Eleven a clown appeared one day. He had oversized shoes, a rainbow wig, face paint – the whole costume. All day every day, rain or shine, he was there, jumping around, waving at cars and buses, and fist bumping people walking by. Then, after about nine months, he was gone. We never saw or heard of him again. Continue reading
