May 15, 2008

Silver Lake’s Death Loop

Once, not so long ago, before squeezing out a baby, I was a jogger. I’d sometimes do the loop around the Silverlake Reservoir, which as locals know, only has a pedestrian path for three-quarters of the way. The remaining portion is what I like to call the death loop, a few hundred yards where excercisers go head-on with fast-moving traffic coming around blind corners-a great way to make sure your heart rate stays up.

It’s really no joke, though, since there have been fatal accidents along this stretch. As part of the Master Plan for the area, a pedestrian path is being built and was scheduled to open this summer.Well, that long-awaited walking path has been delayed, giving me an excellent excuse to remain indoors.

In the meantime, many of you have probably noticed that the resevoir itself is filling back up - what suprised me was that the water is being brought in from the Eastern Sierras, making it some of the cleanest water in the city (for the moment, give it a few days and I’m sure it will take on the local flavor).

But for those of you looking for a house with a safer jogging environment, here are 3 places near Griffith Park, where coyotes are a bigger problem than cars.

• Here’s a big-spender kind of place in one of my favorite neighborhoods-the Oaks, just west of the main entrance to Griffith Park. It’s a 3/3.5 with a guest house. It’s been on the market 122 days, but hasn’t lowered its $1.749 price tag once, so doesn’t look like the sellers are in a rush.
• This 3/3 on Ames has been creeping down in price slowly, and is now $1.25 after 115 days on the market. It started out at $1.349.
• Last up is this 4/2.5 with a pool, that is listed at a more-reasonable sounding $950,000. That might be because it doesn’t have the same kind of curb appeal as many places in the area, but the inside looks nicely redone. It’s only been on the market 37 days.