A reliable source has revealed to me the following facts about the Costa Mesa City Planning Commission:
- The area around the Lab and Camp nouveau malls is now known as SOBECA for the “South on Bristol Entertainment, Culture, and Arts” district. I’m sorry if you just spewed your coffee. I’ll wait a sec here while you mop up. Okay, ready? The website for this conceit is http://www.sobeca.net/ and you’re welcome!
- West 19th Street, home to numerous carnicerias, a lawnmower repair shop, a Smart & Final,
onetwo rock ‘n’ roll bars, and a few good restaurants is now to be known as the “19 West District”. I think this weekend I’ll stop by Alejandro’s drive through and hand out corsages and/or cummerbunds to the customers that say “19 West” on them in Swarowski Crystal.
Be My Blog 
make sure to bring some to avalon 🙂
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Good lord…who thought this was a good idea?
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Hehe, gotta love Orange County, where shopping malls can constitute an “arts district”… as long as they’re alternative malls.
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To give the poor bastards credit, that district does contain some art spaces and theatre stuff, and is right next to the big mainstream arts area which is for real. But yeah. Mall. “Edgy” mall from about 1990, at that.
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Yeah, I’ve been to the “Anti-Mall” a couple of times. Native Foods is a good vegan restaurant, but on the whole, I wasn’t impressed.
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that’s actually the new antimall, the “Camp”. The one with the weird piped in nature sounds. The original one is across the street and has an Urban Outfitters in it. It also has a real theatre in it, though, and a coffeehouse that does art & poetry. It’s an okay environment for the rapidly aging late 20s/early 30s crowd.
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Heh, I’m just not sure how anyone who lives in Orange County can possibly affect a “hip” attitude without their brain exploding from contradiction.
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It’s humorous to watch. Mostly we have commuter hipsters who throw attitude in L.A. but the Detroit Bar has its own little circle around a few rock ‘n’ roll bands that’s like a parody of Liz Phair’s Guyville.
The people who are doing interesting art and music here are, like those elsewhere, uninterested in a scene, so it doesn’t matter to them.
I think SoBeCa will be helpful to the really neurotic wannabees, though! 😀
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I got a postcard in the mail about a city meeting to discuss changes in our area and the area south of south coast plaza. Didn’t go to the meeting, but I suppose this was what it was for. I don’t even have to move to move on up to the 19 West District.
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Wow — even more reasons to visit OC!! The arts!
*cough*
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I can only hope that, like manhattan, the only people who will actually bother caring are tourists.
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that “real theater” is now a really expensive sushi restaurant. all this sobeca crap seems to be just about big fish in a little pond, and trust me, its only getting worse.
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I tried shopping at the anti-mall once but I couldn’t find a spot in the anti-parking lot.
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