Police have been trying to talk down a man who took his clothes off as he climbed a 220-foot communications tower near the city's emergency complex on East Temple Street.
We told you earlier this week that the 1960s-era metal grates would be coming off the old facade of Clifton's Brookdale cafeteria on Broadway — and this morning they did.
At a ceremony later this morning, the original Broadway facade of the Clifton's Brookdale Cafeteria will be uncovered and later restored.
The Last Bookstore on Spring Street in Downtown is big and if it lasts it may actually become the last bookstore standing in Los Angeles.
Councilmembers Jan Perry and Bill Rosendahl reacted generally positively to the design, while Councilman Ed Reyes said the project should include more benefits for the area's residents.
Every Anglo L.A. cliche of local history and Mexican-American culture you could want, with some quaint pronunciations.
Adam Leipzig, publisher of the website Cultural Weekly, doesn't pretend to be objective about the city's move to remove the Latino Theater Company from the Los Angeles Theatre Center, its Spring Street home for six years.
Since 1977, Philippe has charged just nine cents for coffee — plus a penny in tax. Nice touch and marketing gimmick while it lasted
The secret City Council district maps were released publicly today, revealing whose ox is being gored. As she foreshadowed, Councilwoman Jan Perry is among the gored.
I kept seeing Twitter and Facebook posts go by marveling at the sunset over Los Angeles on Tuesday. I thought, well OK, sorry I missed it. Luckily, photographer Jonathan...
In my weekly commentary segment tonight with Lisa Napoli, we talk about media-shy Colorado mogul Phil Anschutz and his local right-hand, Tim Leiweke.
Connie Bruck's profile of Philip Anschutz, Tim Leiweke and their empire in downtown Los Angeles — Staples Center, L.A. Live, the Los Angeles Kings, the proposed Farmers Field football stadium and more — is behind the magazine's pay wall. Here's a brief pre-look.
Hard to see today, but Downtown was encircled on at least two sides by big hills that blocked access. As L.A.'s outlying areas grew, the traffic poobahs punched through the hills with tunnels.
Video from the only rehearsal of the local tradition at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.
The Wilshire Grand, closing this week to be torn down and make way for a new high-rise hotel and office tower, opened in 1952 as the Statler.
Not many people probably know that there is a Mental Health Courthouse in Los Angeles County, or that when you report for Superior Court jury duty Downtown you could be sent to this building on San Fernando Road.
The Department of Water and Power has apparently decided to reopen its once well-regarded cafeteria to the public, KPCC says.
Kent Twitchell's mural of L.A. Chamber Orchestra players started going up in 1991
Ed Fuentes, the Downtown photographer and muralist, examines the case for preserving the mural created on the plywood box that city crews had erected in the Occupy LA camp to protect a fountain.
The breakdown is 290 booked for failure to disperse, one for battery on a police officer and one for interfering with an officer.
Raid looks like it's about to happen.
Police said the arrests were of protesters who refused to get out of the street opposite City Hall or who threw things at officers. The camp remains, but smaller.
Some campers have left, the crowd has grown with sympathizers, and there has been milling in the traffic lanes of 1st Street at Spring, inhibiting passing cars but no actual trouble. Police presence: light.
After that time, say Mayor Villaraigosa and LAPD chief Beck, the curfew banning overnight use of the City Hall park will be enforced. KInda sorta.
Deputy Mayor Matt Szabo told reporters today that Occupy LA will be cleared out some time next week, and the mayor's office followed with a statement.
Curbed LA made this video on life inside the Occupy L.A. camp on the lawns around City Hall.
Sounds like the choreographed sort of street protest crackdown, with marchers and police each playing their part.
Here's what a key Downtown corner looked like, showing some old cafes and a legendary saloon.
The worst of the bunch, in the latest Texas Transportation Institute study, is supposedly the stretch of the 110 Freeway from Interstate 10 to the Dodger Stadium exit at Stadium Way.
AEG and Gensler released fresh looks at the proposed Downtown football stadium.
Grand Avenue will be blocked in front of Disney Hall on Tuesday, or so the sign says.
A no parking sign of dubious origin, plus evidence of progress on the Eli Broad art museum on Bunker Hill.
The sign here was out front of The Pie Hole, a new dessert and coffee spot in downtown's Arts District.
Occupy Wall Street organizer David DeGraw spoke at Occupy L.A. on Sunday night and said focus would shift to the Los Angeles encampment during the New York winter.
Concrete in the 1933 bridge connecting Downtown with the Eastside is rotting from the inside and the structure is slated for replacement.
It appears the relationship is chilling between City Hall's politicos and the encampment of protesters outside on the lawn.
LA Observed contributing photographer Iris Schneider has been down on the lawn at City Hall shooting portraits of some of the participants in the Occupy Los Angeles encampment and protest.
If you've never shopped on Santee Alley in the downtown Fashion District, here's a short LA Observed video showing what the scene is like.
Staples announcer David Courtney tweets his excitement for tonight's Kings opener.
OK OK, too easy. Next time I'll make it a bit more challenging.
Coming up on 4 p.m. on October 12, the LA Observed weather center reports a Downtown temperature of 99 degrees. 97 in the Valley, 88 along the KOST (sorry, couldn't...
The landmarked United Artists Theater at the south end of Downtown's Broadway movie palace district has been sold to Greenfield Partners, a national hotel developer and real estate investment company.
Miguel Angel Corzo, president and CEO of the new LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes near the historic Plaza, has been removed and there have been layoffs.
The landmark Clifton's on Broadway will be shut down for three to six months, according to Eater LA. The kitchen and the serving line will be redone, and the dining...
As of Monday, the Downtown blog will be under the banner of KPCC, the NPR station in Pasadena.
Cassie spent her adolescence on the streets of L.A. then got herself together, only to slip back into the rabbit hole of urchins, dealers and characters in...Frogtown.
The Vaux's swifts that come down the coast from Alaska every fall are roosting again in the chimney of the Chester Williams building at 5th and Broadway.
Author and humorist Ashley Ream blogs about stopping in to say goodbye to the Downtown bookstore.
Gotham City goons tried to stop Jeff Schultz from getting a shot of this weekend location shoot for "The Dark Knight Rises."
On tonight's "Which Way, L.A.?" on KCRW, lawyer David Pettit of the Natural Resources Defense Council introduced his comments about AEG's bill in Sacramento by saying that he — and NRDC — want the downtown NFL stadium to be built.
There are the San Diego folks, who are protective of the Chargers, and then a broader problem: the rest of the state don't much like L.A.
Councilman Jose Huizar tweeted tonight that Ezat Delijani, a leader in L.A.'s Persian Jewish community, died yesterday. No other details are immediately available.
A documentary will chronicle the store's final month.
The effect of moving the vendors and food trucks out of the crowded core of Downtown's Art Walk was, predictably, to steer some of the people to other blocks.
Food trucks will be kept outside the core area of this Thursday's Downtown Art Walk, the first to be held since the death last month of Marcello Vasquez when a car went up on the sidewalk.
On my trip to Seattle, my hotel room window looked out at the baseball stadium. We got to our seats in five minutes.
Don't expect too many surprises at City Hall.
The 84-seat landmark now charges 50 cents a cup on orders from owner and former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan.
You have to wonder whether it's worth all the time, effort and political maneuvering.
Whether Garcetti can deliver on any of the conditions is an open question, but here is his letter addressed to CAO Miguel Santana and the council's legislative analyst, Gerry Miller.
A two-month-old baby and its mother were struck by a sheared-off parking meter at 4th and Spring at the peak of tonight's Art Walk.
In "Berth Marks," Laurel and Hardy (and Hal Roach) show off the bridge and the old Santa Fe rail station that was beside the river.
L.A. Times columnist Patt Morrison's blog quip the other day that actress Zooey Deschanel is a "snobby cow" for daring to diss an ugly corner of Downtown has elicited a big response — from Deschanel.
See the Museum of Neon Art begin its move out of Downtown to Glendale.
Following on the news about Village Books and Latitude 33 closing, Metropolis Books on Main Street near 4th Street was put up for sale recently.
The plot of the April 9, 1969 episode of the television series "The Outsider," starring Darrin McGavin, hinges on the destruction of the Bunker Hill neighborhood in Downtown.
The LAFD Historical Society has posted some good aerial photos of the Convention Center being expanded circa 1991 — before Staples Center or L.A. Live came to the Downtown neighborhood.
The Brian Setzer Orchestra with "Jump Jive An' Wail" in the old Fred Harvey diner at Union Station.
After yesterday's posts on the Fred Harvey cafe at Union Station, blogger Scott Lowe stumbled across a Fiona Apple video shot there.
The Southern California Institute of Architecture has bought the century-old former rail freight depot it occupies in the Arts District.
One of the little quirks about Downtown L.A. is that a major north-south street, Hope Street, stops at the Central Library. Yet Hope Street predates the library.
Bloomberg moved a story tonight saying that AEG's financial guarantee to the city on the NFL stadium the company wants to build near L.A. Live "falls short" of the assurances offered on Staples Center 13 years ago.
Tonight's Which Way, L.A.? on KCRW delved more deeply into today's City Council approval of the special lighting rules for the Korean-backed project planned for the Wilshire Grand hotel site at 7th and Figueroa.
If AEG gets the go-ahead to build its NFL stadium and events center on the footprint of the existing Los Angeles Convention Center, L.A.-based Gensler will be the designer.
The Museum of Neon Art isn't moving far — to the heart of Glendale's Carusoland — but it will be the end of an era.
One of the most eagerly awaited discoveries from the 2010 census (at least for me) is to find out how many people actually live in the Downtown neighborhoods after more than a decade of in-movement.
City Council veteran Jan Perry did what everyone expected her to do and filed the papers to form a fundraising committee for a 2013 mayoral bid. Nice and quiet, no...
Blogdowntown's weekly print edition hit the streets last August, and it stopped regular publication in February.
Ted Soqui at LA Photo has posted a page of pictures from this morning's memorial procession in Downtown for fallen LAFD firefighter Glenn Allen. Links to more coverage.
Streets around City Hall and the cathedral will be closed Friday morning for the funeral procession and service for Glenn Allen, the LAFD veteran killed fighting a fire in the Hollywood Hills last week.
This year's 25th run of Last Remaining Seats in the Broadway Historic Theatre District will open at the Orpheum with "Rear Window," the Alfred Hitchcock classic starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly, and end there with Harold Lloyd in "Safety Last."
In a story exploring the bios of the group appointed by Mayor Villaraigosa to report to him on the wisdom of AEG's downtown stadium, the Associated Press's Jacob Adelman cuts to the chase right in the lede.
AEG chief Tim Leiweke kept to the us versus them message in remarks today to reporters asking him about public doubts over his company's NFL stadium plans for Downtown.
'm getting used to the idea that there might be a football stadium dropped behind Staples Center, but if Phil Anschutz and friends want Angelenos to buy into the idea, they better come up with some better assurances — and drop the classless us versus them attacks.
Tim Leiweke met this week with Speaker John Perez, and with labor's backing for Farmers Field I have to bet Perez will give the Anschutz company whatever it wants.
The biggest political threat to the AEG stadium deal might be skepticism among die-hard Angelenos (and sports fans) who have heard it all promised before.
Pardon my mixed sports metaphors. After this morning's pep rally for the Downtown NFL football stadium, Mayor Villaraigosa announced the members of a "blue ribbon commission" to evaluate the proposal...
Mark's right over at LA Biz Observed. AEG's stadium show this morning, officially to announce the naming of Farmers Field but more importantly staged to make the downtown NFL stadium...
Phil Anschutz' football stadium at L.A. Live would be called Farmers Field under a $700 million naming-rights deal with Farmers Insurance to be announced tomorrow.
The former lead singer of X talks about the former punk venues of Downtown and her appearance tonight at the Redwood Bar and Grill on 2nd Street.
Miguel Angel Corzo, President and CEO of L.A. Plaza de Cultura y Artes, announced a halt to the archaeological excavation where the remains of early Angelenos have been found.
Bunch of developments in the campaign by AEG's Tim Leiweke to rush through approval of a football stadium next to Staples Center and, he hopes, secure an NFL team to play there before Ed Roski's proposed stadium in Industry gets one.
The Broad Art Foundation this morning announced the designs for The Broad, the name it's now using for the museum to be built on Bunker Hill to hold Eli and Edythe Broad's art collection.
Architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne makes a civic splash in the L.A. Times by pointing out that the Downtown NFL stadium Tim Leiweke and Casey Wasserman are pushing is another case of Los Angeles going about it all wrong.
In today's L.A. Times, Bob Pool picks up and runs with Eric Lynxwiler's visiting blogger post from a couple of weeks ago on the terra cota angel that sits in his Arts District loft.
Tying up loose ends on the Bell story, Disneyland turns away crowds, re-thinking the Gray Davis recall and more.
The view is from the window at Langer's deli. I'm guessing lunchtime.
Natalie Portman decorates the cover of January's Vogue, from a fashion shoot probably in the Alexandria Hotel. Watch the video.
If the three competing designs for Phil Anschutz's downtown football stadium were an NFL division, LAT architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne says "they'd be the NFC West."
Right about now, at 5 p.m., AEG is formally unveiling prospective designs for the Downtown stadium it wants to build in place of the Convention Center's West Hall.
Brian Alexik has been talking a lot to Downtown News reporter Ryan Vaillancourt.
In a Visiting Blogger post at LA Observed, J. Eric Lynxwiler announces he has become the proud owner of a 1½-ton terra-cotta angel that used to stand guard over downtown...
Two experienced downtown planners from Michigan and Florida argue on the Times op-ed page that fooitball stadiums tend to be a bad choice for downtowns.
ports architects HKS and HNTB and L.A. Live designer Gensler are the three finalists to plan the stadium, says Sports Business Journal.
Going on the air in about 20 minutes to talk about AEG's proposal for a Downtown football stadium. The piece airs at 6:44 p.m. (my usual Monday spot) and is...
Today's Sunday Styles section of the New York Times profiles Philo Hagen, a Los Angeles writer and blogger who is the founder of Hooping.org — and whose video of hooping (and stripping) through Downtown inspired the story.
All of a sudden, the intrigue swirling around AEG's wishes to build a football and soccer stadium in place of part of the Los Angeles Convention Center has gotten more interesting.
The creators of the somewhat controversial reporting project The Entryway have posted their exit messages.
A photo tour of the 1925 Hall of Justice at Temple and Spring streets, closed since the Northridge earthquake.
The next executive director of the Art Walk will be expected to meet a lengthy list of skill and experience requirements.
With all the notoriety, of course people were going to show up.
President Obama returns Oct. 22 for a Democratic rally at USC. Here's what it looked like when FDR motorcaded through Downtown in 1935.
We're doing another LA Observed night on the world-famous Neon Cruise on Saturday, October 16.
Downtown property owners, i.e. some of the big beneficiaries of the monthly Art Walk's growing popularity, stepped up with $200,000 in funding to save the event and professionalize its operation.
The downtown real estate broker-poet missing since Friday in Joshua Tree National Park was found today and flown to a hospital, according to a family friend cited by Blogdowntown and...
Poet and L.A. River advocate Lewis MacAdams' dream of a park on the Union Pacific Piggyback Yard made a splash in today's New York Times real estate pages.
Search teams in Joshua Tree National Park shut down trails to preserve any tracks that may have been left by hiker Ed Rosenthal, and by nightfall had picked up "clear indications of Rosenthal's presence" several miles south of the original search zone.
Ed Rosenthal is the subject of an active search after his car was found over the weekend at the Black Rock campground in Joshua Tree National Park.
Last week's abrupt announcement that the Downtown Art Walk would cease being held monthly on Thursday nights is now being called an unauthorized statement by "former director" Jay Lopez.
When the official Downtown Art Walk returns in January, it will switch to a weekend day and be held quarterly, the organizers say.
The new owner of Clifton's Cafeteria will be appearing at a press conference shortly with Councilman Jose Huizar to announce that there will be 100 new jobs for the formerly homeless as part of the new Clifton's. Plus a DWP cafeteria update.
The last remaining Clifton's Cafeteria in Downtown, the forest-themed one on Broadway, has been purchased by Andrew Meieran, owner of The Edison.
Blogdowntown's Eric Richardson explains why the Jesus Saves neon signs tower above the United Artists theatre on Broadway — and digs into their travels since the first sign appeared on the downtown skyline in 1935.
Before she left town for Washington, former New York Times bureau chief Jennifer Steinhauer did the tour of newer Downtown restaurants.
Ground was broken on a $9 million interpretive center for the American Tropical mural at Olvera Street.
Related Cos. said this week that it plans to request a two-year extension of its current February 2011 deadline to begin construction on the big Grand Avenue Project, citing the economy.
Why, I think that's a Kaufman and Broad home.
All that theater last week about Eli Broad not having decided to build his art museum Downtown? Theater.
Eli Broad insists that Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's news website misquoted him saying that his art museum will definitely be built Downtown on Grand Avenue.
I'm happy to announce that LA Observed is the new home of Gary Leonard's long-running series of Los Angeles street photos, still under the banner of Take My Picture Gary Leonard.
The Board of Supervisors today approved its part of the deal to lure Eli Broad's art museum to Downtown. After the vote, Broad called it a done deal despite the formality of another vote scheduled Monday by the Grand Avenue Authority.
The museum invokes the LAPD to cut down on scalping. An email warning to a ticket buyer.
Big crowds — possibly the largest yet — with dozens of food trucks and many familiar faces.
In the afternoon I parked on Wilshire, between Grand and Hope — so it was easy to spot that block in "Inception" a few hours later.
A whole lot of you watched — and by the sound of your emails, tweets and Facebook comments really enjoyed — the USC student film of 1956 Bunker Hill by Kent MacKenzie.
Five years before Kent MacKenzie made The Exiles, about Native Americans in Downtown Los Angeles, he made a 17-minute student film at USC showing everyday life in the Bunker Hill neighborhood in 1956.
In this week's final issue of the Los Angeles Garment & Citizen, founder and editor Jerry Sullivan completes the difficult last task of closing down a local newspaper.
Blogdowntown Weekly, which debuts Aug. 5 , will show up on Thursdays "focused on calendar and lifestyle content for Downtown."
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and MOCA director Jeffrey Deitch praise the choice of Grand Avenue for Eli Broad's modern art collection.
Editor and publisher Jerry Sullivan has been notifying supporters and others all day that the July 23 issue of the Los Angeles Garment and Citizen will be the weekly's last.
L.A. journalist Anthea Raymond narrates interviews with players from the early Downtown music and arts scene.
Christopher Hawthorne seems to like what he sees happening at the new park envisioned for the ugly mall that runs from the Music Center east most of the way to City Hall.
I gather July's Downtown Art Walk is always pretty sizable, given the time of year. But turnout at last week's walk was especially large, apparently.
The powwow with AEG representatives included Speaker John Perez, Senate leader Darrell Steinberg and Maria Elena Durazo, head of the L.A. County Federation of Labor, James Wagner reports in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.
The Los Angeles Business Council handed out its architectural awards today. The top prizes went to the new Los Angeles Police Department administration building across from City Hall and to...
A memorial service for Phillip Ortiz will be held at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Downtown.
This unedited and graphic video released by the Los Angeles Fire Department shows the crowd in Downtown attacking that taxi after the Lakers championship victory.
Here's how the mayor's press release glosses over that the Coliseum won't be opened at the end of Monday's Lakers championship parade. The Coliseum party, open free to anyone who could get in — the place filled to capacity — was the high point of last year's celebration.
At least 38 were arrested, an LAPD officer and a sheriff's deputy were hurt, an unknown number of others were injured, three vehicle fires were set, and some shops and restaurants had their windows broken or stuff stolen.
So much for the LAPD's threat to check tickets as a measure to keep Lakers fans from crowding the Staples Center neighborhood.
Brian Alexik, the 34-year-old New Jersey man arrested a month after he fled unit 701 of the Reserve Lofts in Downtown's South Park area just ahead of the law, faced some new charges today.
Mayor Villaraigosa just met the media under the stands at Staples Center and confirmed he will attend Game 7 of the NBA Finals, but declined to say in what official capacity he would perform.
Brian Alexik hadn't even fled Downtown, it seems. The Downtown News says he was arrested without incident at 1:40 p.m. in an apartment at 303 Hewitt Street, after police cordoned off a big swath of the Arts District.
Kent Mackenzie's 1961 film about Native Americans living in Downtown Los Angeles premiered that year at the Venice Film Festival but was not released commercially. It screens Wednesday at The Hammer.
In addition to the earlier mysteries about why Brian Alexik had counterfeit $100 bills, AK-47s, fake IDs and a CIA floor mosaic in unit 701 overlooking the Federal Reserve Bank, the Downtown News has posted an update with more good questions.
That's the market value of the city-owned parcel near Disney Hall that officials are thinking of giving to Eli Broad at $1 a year for his art museum and offices for the Broad Foundation
The first City council member who cites this poll as evidence of public support for a Downtown football stadium should be laughed out of the horseshoe.
The 10,000 fancy new parking meters being introduced around the city are getting most of their attention for being solar powered and taking credit and debit cards. But the fanciest thing about them is that they will let the city raise parking rates block by block and hour by hour in response to demand — or the desire to alter behavior.
Bella will enjoy her next kiss in "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" at the Los Angeles Film Festival, which opens June 17 in its new downtown location at L.A. Live. See the full schedule.
Here's a photo of the CIA seal mosaic that was found in the floor of the Downtown loft where a counterfeit operation was found, along with AK-47s and fake passports.
Today's May Day rally crowds in Downtown fell far short of the bar set in 2006, but were bigger than last year — and way bigger than the turnouts for...
Police who broke into unit 701 at the Reserve Lofts found, in addition to counterfeit money and AK-47s, a handmade tile mosaic replica of the Central Intelligence Agency seal and a portrait of Huge Chavez.
Last week's bust in a downtown penthouse of a counterfeit-money operation has the makings of a great yarn, if only detectives can figure it out.
Tom Gilmore, whose adapative reuse projects in Downtown have benefited from a favorable loan from the city of Los Angeles, is facing a financial pinch and has gone back to the city for a new loan, the Garment & Citizen says.
Coverage of this morning's Daryl Gates services in text, photos and video.
Patt Morrison is stretching but only a bit when she writes that Monday's closed-casket viewing at the Police Administration Building — and Tuesday morning funeral at the cathedral — "will be the closest thing to a state funeral that Los Angeles could have."
That planted rectangle on the 110 near Downtown that Caltrans sold to Toyota last year for a Prius ad is being given a baseball-themed message.
Amusing piece at LA Eastside by guest blogger Matt Lucas on waiting at that Angelus Plaza bench for Zooey Deschanel to appear, as she did in "(500) Days of Summer."
President Obama will arrive a little before 5:30 p.m. Monday to raise L.A. campaign cash for the Democrats — Sen. Barbara Boxer and the DNC specifically — and wreak a little unfortunate havoc with local mobility. At least it will be a Monday, so the natural afternoon traffic should be a bit lighter than usual — but there's a Kings playoff game at Staples Center at 7 p.m.
AEG's Tim Leiweke and sports mogul Casey Wasserman are considering reviving the NFL stadium plan they first aired eight years ago.
City Attorney Carmen Trutanich filed this morning for an injunction naming 80 suspected drug dealers active in the Skid Row area of Downtown.
Take 50 seconds and enjoy Saturday's celebration Downtown of National Pillow Fight Day, uploaded to YouTube by rhivanz.
Today was the annual Blessing of the Animals procession, in which a long line of pets with their owners line up to be received by Cardinal Roger Mahony just off the Old Plaza. If you have never been and want to catch the flavor of the event, here's our LA Observed video from last year.
David Allen, columnist and blogger for the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, spotted this regulatory perplexer in Downtown's Pershing Square.
At 2:30 this afternoon, the Los Angeles Fire Department will supervise the full evacuation of the Aon Building, the 62-story tower at Wilshire and Hope that was known as the First Interstate Tower when a fire broke out on the 12th floor in 1988.
I couldn't believe recently how bad the empty lot at 1st and Broadway looks — a deep pit filling with rancid- looking water and overgrown with weeds a block from City Hall.
Today's observation du jour regarding Angels Flight: the Downtown funicular, in a scene evoking its authentic pre-1969 setting, makes an appearance in a You Tube video for the End Times album by the band EELS.
I've been receiving some nice comments all day for posting yesterday's item about the Millard Sheets painting called Angel's Flight. Here's a cover from the literary journal Black Clock that shares the noir vibe and Bunker Hill setting.
In honor of Angels Flight re-opening Monday to paying passengers, let's return to the days when the funicular originally called the Los Angeles Incline Railway was an integral part of Downtown life.
After a lifetime in outlying parts of town, Abelardo de la Peña Jr., the editor of LatinoLA.com, and his family are trying Downtown. He's blogging about the transition.
Raimund Abraham, a visiting faculty member at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, died in a Downtown crash hours after giving a lecture at the school.
KCAL's news went out in the field this afternoon for a report from that Prius flower patch beside the 110 freeway where that makeshift memorial to Toyota victims was taken down — four days ago.
Spotted today on Alameda near 6th Street Downtown.
The L.A. institution is expected to open an outpost in the former Liberty Grill spot in the South Park area.
Anna Scott moves from the Downtown News to the Los Angeles Daily Journal on March 1.
The Starbucks at L.A. Live is trying a three-month experiment of closing at 2 a.m. six nights a week.
A day ahead of the official ribbon-cutting, the new JW Marriott hotel — that's the shiny tower that looms over L.A. Live these days — admitted its first guests today.
Philippe's has reopened after a bout with cockroaches.
Discussions this morning centered on the parking lot south of the REDCAT theater.
Los Angeles City Council member José Huizar and his wife, Richelle Rios, welcomed Aviana Rose this morning at 11 o'clock.
Howard Stiers was strolling last night's Downtown Art Walk when he stopped in at the ARTY Gallery and had a chat with the founder of a Los Angeles art institution.
The JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels at L.A. Live don't open until Feb. 15, but Blogdowntown was on hand last night when the tower was lit up for a City of Hope gala.
The Modern Committee of the Los Angeles Conservancy celebrated 25 years, the holidays and four photographers on Monday night in the Mayor Tom Bradley Room atop City Hall. Half the...
The first story to benefit from collaboration with Spot.us Los Angeles is a report by the Garment & Citizen downtown that seems aimed at getting country clubs on the Westside...
The so-called Lindbergh beacon was shining atop Los Angeles City Hall when Kevin McCollister captured the view during Saturday's storm. Click to biggify....
While we're on a bit of a music jag, Esther Wong was the godmother of punk in Los Angeles. Her restaurant-clubs in Chinatown and Santa Monica would be in the...
The National Autonomous University of Mexico, said to be the largest in the western hemisphere, has operated out of the Mexican consulate here for three years. But now UNAM has...
Caltrans has quietly installed new directional signs over the northbound 110 freeway out of Downtown, in the process taking down one of Los Angeles' all-time great guerilla art installations. In...
All this talk of the 20th anniversary of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner closing led Curbed LA to ask, sensibly, what has become of the plans to renovate the old...
Meridith Baer furnishes and decorates homes specifically to hook potential buyers. A New York Times Magazine writer lusts after the image of a life she created — mountain bike included...
The new Regal Cinemas' L.A. Live Stadium 14 debuts officially on Tuesday with the first showings of Michael Jackson's "This Is It." Variety sees the new Downtown cineplex — which...
City Attorney Carmen Trutanich enjoyed a split decision this morning, getting a Daily News editorial in favor of his bully approach to governing, and an L.A. Times editorial that rebuked...
Staples has re-upped its deal for the naming rights to Staples Center — extending its original 20-year agreement into an "in perpetuity" deal. Staples turned ten this month....
Downtown News staff writer Ryan Vaillancourt spent a year reporting on the inner workings of the Skid Row basketball league, starting by getting himself into pickup games at Gladys Park....
Gustavo Dudamel is making his long-awaited debut tonight at the Hollywood Bowl. The Dodgers are trying to avoid an epic collapse at the stadium. My choice of venues for tonight...
The Museum of Neon Art is leaving Downtown for Glendale's Brand Boulevard. Earlier post here and new L.A. Times story....
The Museum of Neon Art is thinking seriously about moving from Downtown — and Los Angeles — to the city of Glendale. "MONA needs a permanent location to display these...
Motor officers plan to meet the truck from Kansas City when it reaches Rosemead Boulevard on I-10 at 10:30 on Tuesday. The bikes will escort the truck to a mounting...
A media group was escorted Thursday through the new Los Angeles Police Department headquarters across Spring Street from the L.A. Times building. The new HQ, as yet unnamed, opens in...
While crackdowns on counterfeit clothes and DVDs get more attention, Ed Fuentes reports at Blogdowntown that "the Fashion District's illegal animal trade continues unabated." The photo is by Fuentes. According...
The Amateur Enthusiast is a blog devoted to drinking and dining in Downtown by political strategist Glenn Gritzner. In today's post, he struggles to bring his fellow Enthusiasts around on...
Zooey Deschanel, the co-star of the current L.A. paean "[500] Days of Summer," has broken down and sent her first Twitter blurb. Her link goes to the site for her...
The store's annual clearance sale began in the Convention Center today....
Most nights, it seems, one window remains brightly lit on the west face of the City Hall tower. Lisa Napoli emails that she and her neighbors on Bunker Hill watch...
"We're young, we live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, we might as well have fun while we can," Zooey Deschanel's character says in "500...
I can't remember the last time I saw the Hotel Rosslyn roof signs on display over Downtown, but I was pleased to see the northern one of the pair fired...
For the first time in what feels like forever, Michael Jackson isn't mentioned in this week's LA Observed segment airing at 4:44 p.m. on KCRW. The subject this time is...
City Council prez pro tem Jan Perry has released the city's map on street closures designed to keep the ticketless masses far away from the Michael Jackson memorial at Staples...
LAPD chief William Bratton, speaking just now on Fox 11, said officers are trying to clear out the last groups still hanging around Downtown. He says there have been five...
Looks like over a thousand people are gathered in the Staples Center neighborhood right now, with some small fires being set in the street and quickly extinguished — including of...
In the ongoing contest of wills between photographers and the owners of Los Angeles' tallest skyscraper, the picture takers report some progress. The guards who try to block pictures of...
Taplin, who was involved with the Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council from its inception in 2002, was killed Tuesday in a freeway car accident. Blogdowntown says that Taplin and her...
"The sudden appearance of these designs, even in provisional form, in the middle of a deep recession prompts a couple of questions. Why now? And why -- when the last...
Dogs, horses, rabbits, cats, turtles, birds — even a few lizards and a snake — got along famously at Saturday's traditional Blessing of the Animals at Olvera Street and...
Downtown has just a single construction crane left on the job, at the Ritz-Carlton tower at L.A. Live. How's that for a sign of the recession. "In the summer of...
Morley Safer did a nice piece on the connection between L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez and Nathaniel Ayers, with some reportage on the Downtown street musician's former life as a...
Poring over a century's worth of old L.A. newspapers, you see certain issues recur. Billboards, for one. Another perennial is what to do with the public space downtown that was...
Mark Lacter's Tuesday recession reports on KPCC keep getting better — and more ominous — as the situation worsens. Today I woke to Mark talking about the bleak picture for...
Photographer Gary Leonard is no longer taking pictures for CityBeat — they cut him in November — but he has moved his collection of Los Angeles photos to a new...
A group of shooters from the National Photographers' Rights Organization went downtown on Sunday to see if they would be blocked from taking pictures anywhere, and they did run up...
Took my honey to her first Lakers game tonight, and she wasn't disappointed. The Lakers romped over the Warriors 130-113, Kobe scored 31 and our seats were close enough for...
LACMA's board came out today and proposed in writing that the museum merge operations with MOCA. Here's a story by the LAT and the release from LACMA. Also, on KCRW'S...
Downtown blogger Eric Richardson got to see what the view will be like from the top floors of the Ritz-Carlton tower under construction at AEG's L.A. Live complex. Check out...
Here's a full-screen, high resolution 360-degree online tour of the bar and club in the basement of the Higgins Building downtown....
How important are bloggers to promoting the success of Downtown developments? Pretty important, based on this invitation by AEG for the Ritz-Carlton condos to be built as part of L.A....
The perking up of Downtown has reached the point that Sen. Hillary Clinton is scheduled to appear at an Obama fundraiser at the hipster bar The Edison on Oct. 4....
Oddly, Philippe The Original's hundredth anniversary celebration next Monday isn't the only French dip sandwich news in my mailbox. On that day from 4 to 8 pm, Philippe's will roll...
AEG has shopped around a proposal to partner with a Los Angeles TV station on a digital channel to feature events at Staples Center and the Nokia Theater. They would...
Signs have begun going up in Downtown advising commuters. A funeral procession for Officer Spree Desha will begin at Parker Center at 8:45 am Thursday and move to the Cathedral...
Exciting and fairly big news in the world of Los Angeles blogs. Eric Richardson announced today that his blogdowntown has been accepted into an incubator program at Community Partners and...
This weekend I saw the recently finished Belmont Station apartments on the old soccer field at 2nd Street and Beverly near Belmont High and wondered if the subway tunnel opening...
The subject is the Alexandria Hotel, the Rosslyn Lofts project and City Hall's support of an $8 million subsidy for alleged slumlord Ruben Islas. Tibby Rothman, in the LA Weekly,...
Frank McCourt, the Dodgers owner of new, met Peter O'Malley at yesterday's Coliseum unveiling of a plaque honoring Walter O'Malley, the owner who brought the Dodgers west from Brooklyn. O'Malley...
Police and the fire department moved in today on an astonishing homeless encampment that was suspended above Figueroa Street on top of the ventilation shaft under the 1st Street overpass...
Mark Lacter isn't alone in predicting that Sam Zell would be lucky to get any value for the Los Angeles Times property in the Civic Center. Downtown guru Tom Gilmore...
CurbedLA's sharp eyes spot a new sign on the building....
Artist Kent Twitchell settled his lawsuit against the U.S. government and 12 other defendants for painting over his 70-foot tall landmark mural of Ed Ruscha at Olympic and Hill downtown...
Sure, the Tribune Co. has owned the L.A. Times since 2000. But the Chandler family's trust kept the land at 1st and Spring streets in Downtown, so the Times had...
This week's issue of The New Yorker carries a "Letter from Los Angeles" by Dana Goodyear on the movie being made based on Steve Lopez's L.A. Times columns about street...
What did they charge to see a silent movie in 1923, a quarter? At UCLA's Royce Hall this afternoon, many in the nearly full house paid $25 to see Harold...
Doug Davis broke in as the Downtown News editorial cartoonist by lampooning the insular concerns of downtown bloggers. He ruffled feathers, but "when I saw that reaction, I said, 'I...
Police were stumped trying to solve a string of nine residential heists pulled off inside Downtown's Orsini complex, a previously impenetrable place dubbed the Tuscan Rock by Curbed LA. Then...
Music Center president Stephen Roundtree said today that the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion will close for renovations in 2013, not 2011 as originally announced. Apparently, offices for displaced staff need to...
Over at Native Intelligence, Judy Graeme's third offering on Los Angeles photographers introduces a group of teenagers (and younger) who use borrowed cameras to shoot images of their gritty home...
Councilman Jose Huizar, downtown advocate Brady Westwater and, especially, the owner of several of the former movie palaces on Broadway are featured in a Wall Street Journal story today that...
Emily Banneker at Blogging.la is bummed that L.A. Freeway Kids, the 1984 Olympics-era mural that adorned a south wall of the Hollywood Freeway (or Santa Ana, depending on your interpretation)...
Downtown's usually dark neon signs atop the old Rosslyn Hotel towers were relit last night for a film shoot. Eric Lynxwiler and friends rushed out to capture the sight. Via...
Downtown's under-construction Nokia Theatre has booked its opening night for October 18. The theatre, part of the L.A. Live complex going up across 11th Street from Staples Center, promises that...
Motivated by yesterday's fun video of Broadway shot in the 1980s, Los Angeles photographer Robert Pacheco sent along his photo essay of Downtown in the 1970s. In his black-and-white...
Windows Steaks & Martinis, the restaurant with the amazing views atop what's now called the At&T Center, closes July 31. There has been talk of the office building going residential....
Yesterday's number of marchers was small compared to last year, perhaps 25,000 strong, and peaceful. But the day ended with police moving in to MacArthur Park after reporting that bottles...
Another Gran Marcha to support immigrants begins Tuesday morning at Broadway and Olympic, moves north on Broadway starting at 10 am, and heads to City Hall via 1st Street. Fewer...
Last month we posted on Southland Publishing's forthcoming debut of Los Angeles New City Monthly — you remember, the magazine that would "celebrate the intellectual and cultural 'renaissance' of L.A.'s...
Mark Lacter wonders if too much attention is paid to the 29,000 people who live downtown, in a city of four million. It's one of the smaller communities in Los...
Xeni Jardin reported on NPR's Day to Day about one of my favorite unofficial Wilshire Boulevard landmarks. One Wilshire, once a prestigious office tower, was converted long ago into a...
Correction to yesterday's item: it was a homeless woman who jumped to her death from the L.A. Times parking garage yesterday while staffers were arriving at work. Brief memo today...
Eric at Blogdowntown has posted a heat map showing where the homeless population is concentrated, based on LAPD counts. You can see distinct nodes of where people are sleeping on...
Times columnist Steve Lopez isn't the only one keeping a literal eye on construction of the new LAPD headquarters on the downtown block where a civic park should be instead....
Cops and others who work the streets downtown call the boils, abscesses and infections they see all the time Skid Row staph — a strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. It's...
Los Angeles mystery writer Naomi Hirahara, whose best-known character is Japanese American gardener Mas Arai, will be giving a private walking tour of Little Tokyo mystery sites later this year....
It's not unusual for someone to claim that a newspaper misinformed them. It is quite unusual, though, for the complaint to come from a Los Angeles Times contributor — about...
The power outage that knocked out lights and elevators across the Civic Center this morning has been mostly over since before 9:30 am, but the Hall of Administration's computers must...
Other than proximity to City Hall when the top brass has to make a visit, is there anything smart about the plans to erect the new LAPD headquarters in the...
Long before Hollywood came into being, a photographer for motion picture pioneer Thomas Edison traveled the Southern Pacific railroad shooting the first movie footage of locales in the West. Snippets...