There is nothing less sexy than a freeway closure in this town, but somehow, some way, Mayor Eric Garcetti managed to end our week with a seductive tune about shutting down the 101 to rebuild the Sixth Street Bridge. With help from Roosevelt's High School Jazz Band, he dropped a video about the closure, which starts tonight at 10pm and will reopen on Sunday around 2pm. The freeway between the 10 near Union Station and the 5 interchange south of Downtown will be affected.
Not since President Obama slow-jammed the news with Jimmy Fallon have we been so enamored with a government official. He managed to make "Metro is there for you all day and all night" sound like a Marvin Gaye lyric, before reassuring us that the 101 will be back in operation before the Super Bowl kickoff on Sunday.
There are some cringeworthy moments: "Stay safe out there, cats—and by that I mean Los Angeles," is a line your weird uncle might utter before playfully punching your arm and winking, and we're not really sure how the 101 taking a break "for R&R and R&B" really makes sense. But he was cool, calm, collected and a total silver fox, so we'll forgive his dad jokes this one time.
Shout-out to the Roosevelt High School Jazz Band and its sultry female vocalist, who's "Coming to you soooooon" at the end gave us goosebumps.
#101SlowJamThe 101 will close for 40 hours this weekend, so we're getting ready to take it slow. We teamed up with our friends at Roosevelt High School to drop a slow jam and get the word out.
Posted by Mayor Eric Garcetti on Thursday, February 4, 2016