The Grove is a
fake-European upscale shopping mall in the Fairfax District of
Los Angeles]' west side, near West Hollywood (and not too far from Beverly Hills). It was built to look like a central historic district of an old Mediterranean city like Nice, but it is only five years old. It is a
perfect example of "
fake history" - building something new that looks like it'
s old while actual older parts of L.A. are left to decay. It was built next door to the Farmer's Market, a collection of shops that was one of the last landmarks of old Hollywood left. While the Farmer's Market still keeps some of its old
vibe with a mixture of tourists and aging locals, the stores in the Grove are the same overpriced "designer chains" that one can find in any mall in America, and the whole place is so
fake looking it's
sick. The Grove has incredibly worsened traffic on the west side of L.A. particularly all the shortcuts that one could once take to get from the west side to Hollywood are all fucked up now because of the massive traffic of people going to The Grove. I for one wish that it was never built.