Only In LA: The Real Driveways Of Beverly Hills

Beverly Hills.

BH.

90210.

However you know it, it’s a hell of a town.  These days, instead of being packed with celebrities and paparazzi, Beverly Hills is mainly tourists and wealthy retirees.   Angelinos of the less geriatric and more resident variety only  head to the Hills for one of the following circumstances:

a) if we need to go to the doctor for legit reasons (most doctors are in BH)

b) if we need to go to the doctor for LA reasons (most plastic surgeons are in BH)

c) when we need to go to the shrink (again, most are in BH)

When I’m in Beverly Hills, I really like snooping around to see what everyone (& their help) is driving. Like this one:

Looks like a movie set, right?  In Beverly Hills, anyone can have a Bentley, Rolls or Lambo in their driveway but a 1962 Mercury Monterey convertible..that takes some moxie. Unless he’s the original owner, older than dirt and just too stubborn to buy a new car– but that’s cool too.

And, if it’s a weekday, you’ll notice that there are plenty of scrappy pick-ups with ladders, hoses, buckets & Dodger stickers– the tell-tale gardener ride of LA. But then every once and a while you’ll spot one guy who clearly has expanded his empire.

Oh shut up, I’m not being racist, I actually saw the guy getting the gardening stuff out of his truck. And this one too:

And I love it! I like to imagine the lady of the house rolling home in her Mercedes convertible and instantly turned on by her gardener’s manly truck while her husband whizzes by in a Prius (wonh, wonh).  We both know whose weeds she’d rather whack…

Another way to get yourself noticed in BH is to be normal. You know, like the rest of the world where a 3 series isn’t a starter ride, where Ferraris are rare and Kardashians are rarer?  Here they all seem to be dividing and multiplying.  In BH, there simply isn’t a lot of this:

Standard issue early Civic, complete with aftermarket wheels and carefully configured Emo stickers. The kind of stuff that is normal everywhere else. But in Beverly Hills,  this is a fascinating display of non-native culture. Apparently wherever THEY come from, they don’t understand the concept of leasing.

And if all else fails and you REALLY want to get noticed in Beverly Hills, you could do something wild, something totally insane, something so daring that it takes balls of steel to execute, you could run around town in a Toyota MR2!*

Technically, this shot is in Brentwood, but whatever, it’s adjacent!

So when you come to LA, don’t skip Beverly Hills! The cars alone will amuse you.

*thanks Scott K!