I know that I do. We have a wonderful place called Horrock's, not to far from where I live. I am what Michiganders call a "transplant". Originally born and raised in the Wild West of California. I've lived in both Southern and Northern California, and cannot choose between the two, which one I'm more fond of. Both of them have their attributes and drawbacks. Some people believe that Los Angeles is a disgusting place, filled with gangs and murderers, thieves and rogues, but that couldn't be father from the truth. Others feel that the Bay Area is a disgusting place, filled with harlots and drug dealers, shooters and sharps.
That's the vision most people have of large cities, never looking for the good things in a mega-metropolis. I grew up in the East Bay, born in Oakland. Yeah, that's right. One of America's toughest and most dangerous city's but it wasn't always that bad. It had a baseball and football dynasty at one time, long before it had drugs and shootings. Drugs and shootings are cyclic in this part of America. History tells us that. Then of course, living my adult life in both Los Angeles valleys, watching them slowly decline after the 1984 Olympics was very predictable, based on most places that decline after hosting either Summer or Winter Olympic events.
China is the most recent example
So now we all see that cities and their greatness, go through cycles from greatness and head into decline. It's the adventure of having been there when these events took place that make them great in our memory, for it is all memories, and nothing more. New York is going through its most recent cycle of decline. It's may soon lose some of its tradition luster, when the horse drawn carriage is permanently banned from the urban purview forever and replaced with "antiqued" electric cars. Traditional art, all too soon replaced by ghettoized Banksy art works. Those silhouette stencils have captured the imagination of millions of New Yorkers, while building owner's who have been deemed lucky enough to receive one of these nouveau riche graffiti pieces, continue to deplete their life savings, hoping to protect this midnight vandal's creativity (or lack there of) for posterity's sake. No one is the wiser, that Banksy, is pissing on the rich and the poor, simultaneously. Yet he is very aware of what he's doing.
Immovable art, that can be painted over and never really protected, that is no where near as good as Jean Michel Basquiat works, should not really be called art, for lack of art's sake. It's more of a nuisance. Creating uncontrollable hoards of so-called art enthusiast, whose iPhone captured digitized photos, hold the same value as the original one's on the ghetto walls. And that is the point, you see? It's merely art gentrification. Valueless Art unless you are wealthy. Art that will one day, be covered over, but not before its fought over first.
Why, the word "iPhone" holds more intrinsic value than a Banksy.
But, I digress.
Sometimes the value of any city is its history. You're probably asking yourself, by now, what does all this have to do with the Environmental Protection Agency and fresh produce? Well, like all that I've spoken about so far, it has to do with history. Not the kind of history that requires a PhD to interject the social relevance of 'what is' and 'what ain't', but history never the less. Oh, you could have a PhD for exploring this type of history, but this type of history has more to do with uncovering things that should be already be known. I've uncovered a bit of history, while writing my novel, "Death By The Blue Oak". It is a different type of story, based on the life of Eadweard Muybridge. I can't even begin to explain how I arrived at the concept for its structure, other than I was compelled to do so, and haven't looked back since. I was tweeting with Elizabeth Kracht one day, who's an agent at Kimberly Cameron & Associates, that takes these wonderful photographs of Richardson Bay from time to time. And every now and then, when she has time, she post them on instagram. Actually, most of her landscape pictures of my old stomping grounds in the Bay Area are absolutely moving, and inspire me to finish this piece of historical literary fiction, so I can get on with the next piece of whatever suits me at the moment.
Sometimes, the pictures that she takes are just the push I need.
Sometimes I try and find a picture similar to the one she's posted, and post them on her twitter timeline, juxtaposed to her picture.
Elizabeth's are modern photos and mine come from archived works from digital libraries, like Bancroft or the Lone Mountain Collection, to name a few.
I like looking at pictures.
They remind me that very little changes with time, and time is truly relative.
I do not believe in coincidence.
It is a part of who I am as am artist.
That is how I roll.
Elizabeth once tweeted to the world, asking if anyone out there had any questions "about water". Something to the effect of "ask her anything". She was working on at the time, and I assume, the promotion of a book about improving water quality for those who drink it. I happened to be working on one of the DBTBO supplements that deals with San Francisco, and how it came to have its current supply of drinking water. It was not always supplied by Hetchy Hetch, and in the early days, San Francisco's water was supplied by Captain William Guillermo Antonio Richardson, of Rancho Saucelito.
"Rancho Saucelito" Land Grant Map
It was supplied in barrels, shipped from fresh water springs in Rancho Saucelito, then shipped to North San Francisco, where it was stored in two very large holding tanks made of wood. Eventually, the city of San Francisco grew beyond the two tank capacity and a reservoir system was sorely needed. There would be no San Francisco if water was never found in abundance in Rancho Saucelito. The amount for the mission was not enough to grow the city. I can't tell you more about this part of the book, or my findings. What I can tell you is, is that I've discovered why the Lower Crystal Springs Reservoir is full of mercury, and it has nothing to do with China. Of course, it's easier to blame it on China and its poor air quality, the jet stream and all that nonsense.
It not easy to say out loud, that methylmercury poisoning was built into the San Francisco reservoir system.
The fact remains, even if Mark Twain did not say, "In the West, it is said, water flows uphill toward money and power", heavy metals like mercury, flow downhill, poisoning one reservoir system after another. The water does flow uphill from Hetchy Hetch, through a very complicated and old aqueduct system, that when it was built in 1863, there was no Environmental Protection Agency to answer to. There was only the masses. People of the Barbary Coast who needed water, and quicksilver was used for medicinal purposes anyway. What could possibly go wrong in the distant future? Increased methylmercury poisoning in certain parts of San Francisco's water system and food chain? Yes, I do know some people think this poison comes from the now defunct New Almaden Mines in the hills above San Jose, because they are truly looking for an answer that fits the rise in mercury levels in Lower Crystal Springs. That would be pushing heavy metals uphill, through water.
I found it easier to believe that this poison flows down hill, and that's when my Indiana Jones jones kicks in.
There are so many theories on how mercury got in the San Francisco water system.
Some people don't drink water because it is a known fact that fish pee in it.
On the other hand using this as an example, the dangers of eating lead in ones diet, while procuring fresh fruits and vegetable seems to have bypassed the current owners of Olive Fresh Garden Marketplace. One of the requirements of begin in the Arms Industry, if you are intelligent enough to know what materials you are dealing with, is keeping tabs on your constant exposure to lead and the dangers of exposure. People who work at firing ranges should go in for blood work ups regularly, based on their constant exposure to lead. It is toxic and very dangerous. I worked around a lot of lead, and other toxic materials, and did a lot of the company R&D for weapons analysis and procurement, which required me to shoot around 100,000 to 150,000 rounds annually. I had my check ups and blood work ups, done regularly, based on constant exposure to lead and it leading to lead poisoning if certain precautions are not taken when working around this substance..
Which brings me back to this place:
I get teased a lot on twitter about my former connections with the Arms Industry. Some people find my admission of dealing in the arms industry amusing, and even accuse me of lying about my own life. Mostly, because I refuse to be bullied into being "pro-open carry", by the open carry crowd, which is a ridiculous concept of exercising a Right to Openly Bear Arms in public, because you can, and not because you need to. I've said this many times before and I'll state it emphatically. I've forgotten more than most will ever know or be exposed to about guns and the business of guns. If that insults gun owners who think that the world of guns is the best thing since sliced bread, I beg to differ. I managed the largest, private armory operation in the tri-county area for five years after graduating from the conservatory in Valencia. I needed to pay off my student loans and take care of my family.
I grew up knowing more about an industry most people see only from the outside. It's a family legacy. During some of my best years in the gun business, my crew of twenty and I sold 350,000 weapons annually. I also dealt with transferring weapons from our wholesale operation to our retail operation, and setting up large wholesale purchases that could not be handle at a retail level. This place offered me a wealth of experiences, both good and bad. Eventually I left, never looking back and went into banking after a short stint with Brambleshire LTD in Beverly Hills. I still get called on by friends and professionals, for my expertise in this business, many years after I left it for good. Today, I sit back and watch the idiocy over Second Amendment rights unfold.
The place where I managed now sells food.
Knowing what I know about its former use, I would say that I personally could never buy food from there. I do know for certain, that this place at one time possessed an enclosed shooting range in the back, used for test firing weapons, and the ventilation for the building complex was not that great, even back then. I know its design structure. I know the blueprints. I doubt anyone could ever clean it from all of the lead dust micro-particles, from doing gun business over twenty plus years, unless they replaced the entire ventilation system. That would be very costly. I doubt that that happened. I'd be super surprised if it was totally gutted.
One would have to wear a Hazmat mask and jumpsuit just to clean that shooting range/room.
That is how it was done.
The ammo room was bigger than some New York apartments. Holding millions of rounds of ammunition and cases of propellant for black powder shooting, in a cool, dry area. The walls were two feet thick and armor plated. Two huge Class 3 safes in the back, that formerly belonged to a furrier from Beverly Hills, were well suited for high grade merchandise, and held a bevy of fully automatic weapons of multiple calibers. Wrapped on all sides by a cyclone fence and topped with razor wire, it looked out of place in this North Hollywood residential neighborhood near Valley Village. It was such a historical fixture known far and wide, it was allowed to function, but not without animosity from those who thought it was still out of place.
A food store on that ground seems out of place.
Some good times, and some bad times were had by all who worked there. A four story building, armory slash living quarters, with a two story attached showroom slash gun storage area, that supplied the tri-county Southern California law enforcement population with all its local, state, and federal needs, as they saw fit. There was very little that we did not supply to the appropriate parties upon request, as long as the paperwork was in order. When fully stocked to capacity, we averaged over 100,000 firearms, of all makes and models, which could be found in the belly of this beast. Very few people ever saw the inside of these buildings, and those that have seen inside should feel honored.
The showroom floor made most gun lovers drool.
I was a customer of the corporation long before I became an employee of that corporation.
Becoming an employee showed me where all the 'bodies were buried' in the business of dealing guns.
Now, it sells food, to people who eat that food.
Olive Fresh Garden Marketplace wasn't always a grocery, deli, bakery.
Note the "red shingled" roof next door, and the top level balcony of the attached 4 story building
As you can see, we didn't sell crappy Mosins or Mausers. That was Martin B. Retting's target market.
Sometimes, you'd get called in as an "Expert Witness" on a gun violation case.
Bob and Barry hated going to court, and as "Manager", I was next in line for this type of information. No one ever spells my name correctly, except family members, and it's not like I couldn't show up because they misspelled my name.
This case was to identify gun models stolen in a burglary.
I'm simply amazed that it became a grocery store.
I think it went through a few different incarnations in the food service industry and it seems to be doing quite well now. I will say, the owners of B&B retail and wholesale never got along, and business wasn't good for them till I arrived to help them fix what they had broken. When I left their business it went down hill fast, as the continued conflicts between theses two brothers grew. Neither of them ever made my job easy, with all the infighting over the wealth that this store brought in, once I arrived to show them how to market their products. Both brothers made their own personal deals with their own personal devils, and I'm glad I walked away long before their eventual downfall. Greed drove them both to their own personal demise, and that was one of the lesson I learned long before I left for bigger and better things in my life. Their hatred for each other was fuel by an insurmountable sibling rivalry that grew into adulthood, and never ceased. As great as people thought they were, in reality, they were merely figureheads for a place they both had very little to do with, where running the business of guns was concerned. Once I left, they ran it into the ground.
That is their story.
My story has yet to be told.
I still like fresh produce, deli, and baked goods though.
I doubt I will ever get them from Olive Fresh Garden Marketplace.
Some places just leave a bad taste in your mouth forever.
Even if they were famous.
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This blog was dedicated to twitter's #opencarry crowd, and especially Linoge @ linoge_wotc, who continues to state, emphatically that I've never been in the gun business, that I know absolutely NOTHING about guns, uses race baiting as a tactic to try and rile me up, and is certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was never, ever and Arms Dealer. It's OK, because he's a very small minded person who tends to think he knows more than everyone else about most things; even if its how a person spent their life for a significant period of time, in a very significant place. He'll always know more. Just ask, he'll tell you so.
B&B Sales was a premier weapons dealer in Southern California, and the largest operation of its kind, West of the Pecos. It set the standard when it came to supply meeting demand in modern weaponry. Even Paul Cole's place was small compared to us, and our only true competition. I was manager of the North Hollywood operation for five years.
Most of my direct clients were Law Enforcement at every level, based on my family's background.
Sometime in 1997, about a year after I left the gun business permanently, I received a call from one of my former Asst. Managers, who was my replacement, asking me for help. It seems that a Bank Of America on Sherman Way near Victory Blvd. was being robbed down the street from the store, and the L.A.P.D. came in a demanded weapons to stop the onslaught. This became to be known as the famous "North Hollywood Shootout" or "44 Minutes". My instructions were specific, for truth is stranger than fiction. Do not release any weapons without the proper paperwork, as it could cause problems when all is said and done down the road. My advice was not headed and overruled by ego.
North Hollywood Shootout
