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Ok, so I exaggerated with that title. But only just a little. Baxter Street, which is one of L.A.’s steepest streets – cutting through Silver Lake and Echo Park – makes my stomach turn and my head spin. Every time I get to the top of the hill I think: “This is the day. It's the day that I’ll gently ride the brakes of my little Subaru in third gear all the way to the bottom.” And every time, I turn the car around and find other streets to get me to my friends on Echo Park Ave. (I used to drive a stick, and give me a red light at La Cienega or Sweetzer with a Mercedes and a BMW crowding my bumpers any day.)
The last time I faced this asphalt nemesis was on Sunday afternoon when my friend’s 4-year-old daughter was helping me navigate the neighborhood from the 2 freeway. I then realized where she was taking me: It’s a straight shot down Baxter to get to their house. So I get to the top of the hill, look out over my dashboard and realize (again) that I can’t see the street in front of me. I can only see the bottom of the hill, which is a very, very long way down. The vertigo kicks in, and my heart starts racing. I back the car up and turn left instead, hoping I don’t tick off too many locals who probably watch and mock everyone who does this.
“Christine, why don’t you go down that street?” the 4-year-old asks from the back seat. “We’re not going to be able to find our way home,” says her 3-year-old sister. I think she’s about to cry. Little does she know that I will probably start crying if they make me drive down the 33 percent grade that is Baxter. I don’t want to tell these little girls who drive this street every day that I am scared of the street. (Their mom might’ve been a little upset with me if I instilled a Baxter phobia in them, too.) So I do what any adult would do in this case: I lied. “You know, honey, I have another favorite street that I like to drive down that’s not Baxter. Let’s go find it!” The 3-year-old says again, “What if we can’t find the house?”
I start driving and find the first street to my left that's only on like a 22 percent grade or something. I drop my gear into third and ride the brakes down. Then I make a few turns and get us to the bottom of the hill and Echo Park Ave. “See, we’re at your house,” I tell the girls. “Now those were my favorite streets to get to you home.”
I wasn’t lying to the kids that time. My favorite streets in Echo Park are all the ones not named Baxter.
Photos by craig1black via flickr.
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stick subies hooray
Oh, come on. It's not that bad. I always take Duane, which is almost as steep and probably the other steepie you mentioned, for my shortcut to the worst post office in LA (also known as the Edendale Station on Alvarado.)
yes that is a brutal shortcut. its probably funner than most rides in disneyland.
Baxter is my favorite street in L.A.
Waaaay back in the day when my mom was a distributor for the old Herald Examiner and I didn't have a driver license yet, many were the weekends I used to ride a Yamaha 50cc Champ all the way out to Echo Park from Beverly Hills to fill in delivering papers for sick paperboyz. My favorite thing to do when finished around sunrise was to gun it hard up from Glendale Boulevard up that last stretch of Baxter before the Silver Lake reservoir and if I was lucky catch a little air off the top with nothing but the road dropping away steeply beneath me to the water out beyond and a prayer that I wouldn't land wrong.
I never did.
When I was a teenager, and had my first car--my friends & I used to pack in and go down Baxter for thrills. Haha-we were dorks, but I still love taking people down that street.
What's amazing though is that 3 year old and 4 year old weren't scare, why were you?