Halloween in Los Angeles inspires a unique feeling. Between the industry-level artistry on full display, warmer weather than that customarily associated with the autumn, and the logistics of a busy metropolis with a serious case of urban sprawl, there’s no other nexus of time and space quite like it. But pockets of the LA community grapple with a trick-or-treating obstacle course similar to what residents of New York City and Chicago face at this time of year: Halloween in a high-rise building. There are ways to make it work. But you also shouldn’t feel limited in a city like LA.
The High-Rise Building Halloween Obstacle Course
Adults love to wistfully look back on the trick-or-treating of yore and recall that the journey was more important than the countless doors knocked on. But ask any child, and you’ll find the true spirit of Halloween: a high-stakes rush to get as much candy as you can possibly carry. And when you look at the evening through this lens, you’ll quickly realize why a high-rise building is a massive pain.
Sure, the doors are closer together – some mere feet away. But if you get a tip that someone is handing out full-size candy bars on the 3rd floor and you’re on the 7th, you’re left with two grim options: wait for the elevator that’s insanely slow even on low-traffic nights, or hit the stairs. Neither is a particularly attractive option when you’re carrying a pillowcase of peanut butter cups on the verge of melting. But this is Halloween in a high-rise building.
When Access is Anything but Easy
Los Angeles high-rise apartments and condos often have additional obstacles, like manned entryways, concierge clearance, or even automated access triggered by key fobs or codes. Sometimes, it’s just a lobby doorman. But other buildings restrict access to certain floors or even individual units, leading to frustrating dead ends as the clock keeps ticking to the hazy deadline when candy is depleted and the candles in jack-o’-lanterns are gracelessly guttering out.
Of course, this all assumes you live in a high-rise building with a decent number of children. In high-rise apartments that cater more to young professionals and couples, finding anyone honoring the trick-or-treat traditions can be a challenge unto itself. Even if you do get someone answering the door, they might go awkwardly scrambling into their cupboards searching frantically for something – anything – that could pass as candy. This unresponsiveness shouldn’t be taken as hostile. We just live in a city with a lot going on – especially on a night like Halloween!
Turning Your High-Rise Building Into a Halloween Haven
So, what’s a kid growing up in an LA high-rise building to do – just stop celebrating Halloween? Fortunately, that’s not necessary. There are plenty of ways to make Halloween work, inside or outside of that high-rise. You just need to recognize what you have to work with.
Buildings with a lot of families may already have some sort of organized event, including community Halloween parties, trick-or-treat stations, or designated floors for safe trick-or-treating. If you’re curious, reach out to your building manager or homeowners association. Organized events like these can provide an added degree of security to Halloween fun, especially in larger high-rise apartments where neighbors may not be very familiar with one another.
Trick-or-Treating Beyond the High-Rise
If your high-rise building isn’t consumed with Halloween spirit, you may need to look outside of your hallways for the best way to celebrate. As with any city or town, certain neighborhoods are more trick-or-treating-friendly than others. Areas of Los Feliz, Larchmont Village, Brentwood, Pasadena, and Hancock Park are reliable trick-or-treating sanctuaries, some of which even close down backstreets for heightened safety. You can even travel out to portions of Glendora and Monrovia, where family-friendly Halloween fun is an annual tradition, often in community festivals that transcend classic trick-or-treating.
If the traditional trick-or-treating experience doesn’t work for you, you can check around the city to see which malls host trick-or-treating. In addition, some communities sponsor area trunk-or-treating routes (yes, “trunk”, as in car trunk) where candy is handed out from designated vehicles in a parked area. These tend to be more common in the neighborhoods at the outskirts of the city.
Heralding Halloween in Your High-Rise Building
So, yes, trick-or-treating in a high-rise building – even in Los Angeles – isn’t exactly ideal. But it’s possible, and happens every year. If you live in one of the city’s multifamily buildings that doesn’t have some sort of communal Halloween plan in place, it can often be more beneficial to search for Halloween fun away from home. Or, if there are plenty of interested parties in your building but nothing in place, maybe you can be the trailblazer, setting up building-wide costume contests, Halloween parades, trick-or-treating routes, you name it. After all, Halloween doesn’t have a height restriction, so seven floors up should be nothing!
With a brand that says as much as JohnHart’s, Senior Copywriter Seth Styles never finds himself at a loss for words. Responsible for maintaining the voice of the company, he spends each day drafting marketing materials, blogs, bios, and agent resources that speak from the company’s collective mind and Hart… errr, heart.
Having spent over a decade in creative roles across a variety of industries, Seth brings with him vast experience in SEO practices, digital marketing, and all manner of professional writing with particular strength in blogging, content creation, and brand building. Gratitude, passion, and sincerity remain core tenets of his unwavering work ethic. The landscape of the industry changes daily, paralleling JohnHart’s efforts to {re}define real estate, but Seth works to maintain the company’s consistent message while offering both agents and clients a new echelon of service.
When not preserving the JohnHart essence in stirring copy, Seth puts his efforts into writing and illustrating an ongoing series entitled The Death of Romance. In addition, he adores spending quality time with his girlfriend and Romeo (his long-haired chihuahua mix), watching ‘70s and ‘80s horror movies, and reading (with a particular penchant for Victorian horror novels and authors Yukio Mishima and Bret Easton Ellis). He also occasionally records music as the vocalist and songwriter for his glam rock band, Peppermint Pumpkin.
