West Hollywood Hates You

The city of West Hollywood fucked Irv's Burgers. There's no other way to really put it. This city fucks residents and businesses all the time but this one felt particularly messed up. I have lived in this city for almost 22 years now and first went to Irv's at its original location diagonal to City Hall. It was a good spot. If you didn't want to spend three times as much at Hamburger Mary's and didn't want to hoof it up to Sunset for a burger elsewhere this place was good. It improved after the new owners took over in 2000. Even if you were in a bad mood you couldn't help but cheer up a bit when you saw Sonia Hong or her mother there. Hell, even last year I would see her walking burgers down the street. Sonia would draw a little cartoon on the packages and write “Just for you!” on it.

I saw a new place being built right next to it and knew that Irv's was gonna be done. It got a plaque declaring it a landmark which I thought would keep it from being removed but that turned out to be bullshit. The new beach themed restaurant ended up using Irv's to cook their food in which was so insulting. I purposely refused to eat at this new place and eventually they closed. A new place is there and I have zero desire to go there. Irv's ended up in a new spot further east a few blocks on Santa Monica. The people who work at City Hall were not trying to make that trek. If they did they would have to walk past all the homeless people that populate the parking lot behind Out of the Closet. Past the smells of The Gold Coast. Past the new homeless that park near Med Men. Cross Crescent Heights risking their lives. Past the homeless at the gas station and be within shouting distance of that 7/11 where a man was attacked with an ax.

I would walk past Irv's new location and there was usually no one in there. There is no parking near that place. The street parking in taken over by delivery trucks. Right across the street is the graveyard known as French Market is right there. It didn't help that Irv's closes real early. This city pretends that it is for the people that live here. It is not. It has not been for a long time. I doubt the people who run this shit even live here otherwise things would look different. When that robot parking lot was built and employees had to actually walk a couple blocks you know what happened? The alley got cleaner than it has ever been. The metered lot behind the bar got gardening every week. More bike patrols. Once that lot opened things went back to normal. This city does not care about your small business. When I see a place opening soon the clock starts ticking on the lease. What this city cares about is revenue from building apartments that no one is going to live in. So many new apartments have appeared. I'm done rambling.