Richard Neutra's 1962 Designed Hall of Records 50 Years Old. But How Should it Be Preserved for Another 50 Years?

The Los Angeles County Hall of Records - which no longer stores the County's records - is the only major civic or private building legendary modernist architect Richard Neutra designed and built in the LA area.  This is despite his living in Los Angeles for over 50 years; from 1923 until just before his death in 1970.  His only other  larger projects in Los Angeles, other than private homes, were mainly several schools, a series of apartment buildings starting with the unjustly ignored 1927/1928  Jardinette Apartments (the first international style apartment building built in the US) and a handful of small office buildings such as the one at 621 S. Westmoreland.

Unfortunately, as LA OBSERVED points out - the Hall of Records building needs considerable conservation work and it is no longer used for its original purpose.  Another long term problem is that its small floor plates make it less than perfect for the needs of a major government agency.

The good news is that with the new Grand Park next door and the proposed conversion of the old Federal Courthouse Building one block away - the Hall of Records is now an ideal candidate for conversion into a new type of seen day a week 24 hour a day use to help enliven the area during the times all the government buildings are closed.

But since its windowless sections are not conducive for residential uses such as are proposed for the old Federal Building - its highest and best use might be a combination of creative office uses and art galleries and retail stores featured designed oriented products.  Uses that would be open nights and weekends when the surrounding government uses along the Grand Park are closed.

For that reason, it might also be an ideal home for the LA based California Design Museum.and the Los Angeles Toy and Amusements Museum.

Walking Tour of Historic Downtown Los Angeles This Saturday August 25th at 10:30 AM!

Sorry about posting so late this weekend - but I've been busy sorting and shelving the 100,000 one dollar books on the Second Floor of THE LAST BOOKSTORE at 5th and Spring in Downtown Los Angeles.  But if there are any reservations by 10AM Saturday morning, I will be giving the HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES 101 Tour at  10:30 AM on Saturday and the weather man is promising temps no higher than the mid-70's  mid'70's by the end of the tour!
See details below.


The Last Bookstore Presents
(and it's just opened 2nd floor with 100,000 books at only ONE DOLLAR each!)
Presents….

... The Secret Lives of Historic Downtown Los Angeles!

The HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES 101  2 hour walking tour will take place this Saturday August 25th  at 10:30 AM starting at THE LAST BOOKSTORE at 453 S. Spring Street.. 

And  besides our regular schedule tours, we will be offering customized tours on different days and different times - depending on your schedule.  With a minimum of four reservations, we will design a tour of any part of Downtown focusing on any subject matter you choose.  These tours can be after work, during lunch breaks - or??

FOR MORE INFORMATION  - contact Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 - or bradywestwater@gmail.com

BRADBURY BUILDING

All tours begin at THE LAST BOOKSTORE at 453 S. Spring Street in the Spring Arts Tower and will be led by long time Downtown resident Brady Westwater who, besides being involved with the Downtown LA Neighborhood Council, the Historic Downtown BID, Gallery Row, Art Walk, and the BOXeight and the CONCEPT Fashion Weeks, has brought over 150 businesses, artists and non-profit institutions to Downtown.  All tours are only $15 per person.  

If you are a participant in Saturday's 'Historic Downtown Los Angeles 101' Tour, you will see the first motion picture theater built,  the place where Babe Ruth signed his contract with the Yankees, the hotel where Charlie Chaplin lived when he made his early films (and the place where he made his Los Angeles vaudeville debut in 1910) - plus the homes and haunts of everyone from actor Nicholas Cage, the Black Dahlia, Rudolph Valentino, LA’s version of Jack the Ripper, President Teddy Roosevelt, the Night Stalker, western outlaw Emment Dalton,  actor Ryan Gosling and more.  And you will also visit where O. J. Simpson bought his knife.

You’ll explore an intersection where all four buildings were often visited by gunfighter/sheriff Wyatt Earp since they were all built or occupied by friends of his from Tombstone during the shoot-out at the OK Corral.  At this intersection you will also discover what John Wayne, a prime minister of Italy, Houdini, Winston Churchill, boxer Jack Dempsey, Greta Garbo, President Woodrow Wilson and multiple Mexican boxing champions all had in common here.

You will also see where the first new lofts were opened, the places where Gallery Row and the Art Walk began and where Fashion Week returned to Downtown.  You will see many of the new boutiques, designer showrooms and stores that have recently opened in the area along with getting a sneak preview of what will soon be happening in the area.

Tickets for tours are only $15 per person - free for children under 8 - and reservations can be made by calling Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 or emailing bradywestwater@gmail.com.  All credit card orders will be processed  at Last Bookstore and cash payments may be made at the start of the tour.   All proceeds will go towards the revitalization and the study of the history of the neighborhood.  

Lastly, future tours will feature specialized areas of interest such as architecture, art of all kinds, shopping and food, single streets, sports (from steer wrestling to luchador wrestlers to a Sumo wrestler), transportation, specific periods of history, the hidden Wild West history of Los Angeles, movie locations, Downtown after hours and many other aspects of the neighborhood. And custom designed can be developed by request  for groups of four or more.

We will also be soon starting weekday and evening tours on what it's like to live in Downtown Los Angeles. You will be introduced to the many of stores, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues (and often their owners, too) - along with being given previews of one of a kind special events - so you can get a feel for what it is like to live in Downtown Los Angeles.

We expect this tour to be popular with not only people considering moving to Downtown and people who work in Downtown and who would like to know what to do after hours in Downtown - but also to recent and even long established Downtown residents who want to know more about their neighborhood.

Happy 119th B-Day Dorothy Parker - Even Though You NEVER Said Los Angeles Was 72 Suburbs in Search of a City

On Dorothy Parker's 119th birthday today, the web is alive with one of her most famous quotes - Los Angeles is 72 suburbs in search of a city.

Except - she never said any such thing.  In fact - the quote was never even attributed to her until AFTER her death.  The real quote is - "Los Angeles is seven cities of search of a city" and it was said by her long time Friend Alexander Woollcott in his best selling book "While Rome Burns" in 1934.

Many Things To Consider Before Privatizing The Los Angeles Convention Center

An editorial in this week's DOWNTOWN NEWS examines if the City of LA should have a private operator take of the running of the Convention Center. And I agree with all the points the editorial makes.

Bur I also think any contract should have a review process at certain points to ensure that the needs of the City are being met - other than just the monetary needs - with some quantifiable marks that need to be met to get an automatic renewal.

And, of course, the city would then have the option to also consider uncontrollable circumstances such as another 9/11 or the out break of some new flu.

I also think the convention center needs to look at as many revenue sources as possible to guarantee the bond payments can be met.. For example, since major conventions being booked years in advance - has the addition been designed to be used as a massive sound stage when it is not being used as a convention hall?

Now I do know that a lot of shooting is already being done there, but LA is now at a disadvantage by not having the massive sound stages other shooting location have built - and this might be an opportunity to both keep LA competitive in big budget films and to ensure that the bond payments will be made.

And due to the difference in time frames between the two uses, it could be a real opportunity. And this is just one possible idea. There might be many other ways the convention center - even when it is not housing major conventions - would be able to benefit the economic well being of Los Angeles.

THE LAST BOOKSTORE'S $1 ONLY FLOOR OPEN FOR BUSINESS

I've been busy this week sorting through the 20 - 30 new boxes of $1  books that have been shipped to the LABYRINTH - the getting close to 100,000 books second floor at THE LAST BOOKSTORE (453 S. Spring in the Spring Arts Tower) - and while 95% of the books are randomly shelved  - but carefully curated to have only the books people actually want to buy - to allow you the chance to find the books you never knew existed, I do create special collection (with very few duplicates) at a buck apiece with both our psychology and military history sections recently climbing to over 500 volumes each - with very few duplicates and growing collections of  American and English history.
\
And if you know anyone who's shopping for college text books - this should be their first stop!

This weekend we also have a refined contemporary poetry selection of 50 books that arrived recently, (and a small but excellent collection in film making that will not last long) plus hundreds of other poetry already books scattered around, a very strong Russian/Soviet Union collection, over 50 books on Medieval European history, a great collection of books about the Olympics, women in sports - and another collection of the history of sports - many of which are used in college courses..  And we also have hundreds of popular fiction books in... Russian! 

But don't forget downstairs where we have our carefully selected main stock of books - with most books being from $4 to $8 - sorted into every possible category - with even some of the more expensive art and architecture books usually being under $20 and often well under that.  And there is also a small collection of brand new art & architecture books, plus a well stocked new magazine stand - and thousands and thousands of used Vinyl Records!

But getting back to the dollar floor, we are also assembling strong collections in baseball, golf, wine, astronomy, a great math & statistic's section filled with text books, a decent collection of chemistry & biology & college textbooks, books on art history, rapidly expanding collections on China & Japan - and the Caribbean & Central America, the history of theater, ancient Greece, knitting & needlepoint, sociology, folk lore and anthropology, philosophy & ethics.

Our African-American section is also growing to include college text books, books on civil rights movement, popular romances, many biographies, long out of print books (one teacher just found a book she had been searching for - for 20 years) and dozens of other subjects and it has just been joined by a section about all things African.the last bookstore

And our 200 volume  Judaica section has everything from cooking to humor to popular novels to Israel and scholarly religious books to books for kids and young adults and our computer section has over a hundred different  books & manuals from the first days of computers to more recent manuals

The fastest growing section though is - business and management and economics - with over a 50 college level books published over the past 5 decades until last year - and hundreds of books from the past few years on leadership and management.

We also have law books and  books about the supreme court, lawyer jokes,famous cases, notorious criminals, true life crimes, bios of famous legal figures and how to do it yourself books on the law.

Out newest section, though - will be called - WORDS.  Everything you need to know about words, books (and how to sell or self-publish them) writing almost anything- from a play to a script to an essay to poetry to a college paper to a medical or business journal to a blog to a will.  It also has 2 books on how to translate, publications from the MLA and books on etymology, grammar, literature (including college text books), linguistics and many other fields related to reading or writing.

BUT - since the average buyer quickly fills a box - what's here now - may not be here tomorrow.  So if you are looking for any of these categories - this weekend is when you should be coming to... THE LAST BOOKSTORE at 453 S. Spring Street.  Open 10AM - 11PM on Saturday (thought upstairs always closes a half-hour early) and 10AM - 6 PM on Sunday.  And during the week it opens at 10 AM and closes at 10 PM except for Monday and Friday when it is open until 11 PM

Two Walking Tours of Historic Downtown Los Angeles This Weekend!

Sorry about posting so late this weekend - but I've been busy sorting and shelving the 100,000 one dollar books on the Second Floor of THE LAST BOOKSTORE at 5th & Spring in Downtown Los Angeles.  But if there are any reservations by 10AM Saturday morning, I will be giving a tours an half-hour earlier than normal - 10:30 AM on Saturday and Sunday - so each tour will be over before the hottest part of the day.

See details below.


The Last Bookstore Presents
(and it's just opened 2nd floor with 100,000 books at only ONE DOLLAR each!)
Presents….

... The Secret Lives of Historic Downtown Los Angeles!

The HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES 101  2 hour walking tours will take place this Saturday August 18th  at 10:30 AM - and then also next Saturday August 25nd at 10:30 AM.   

NEXT... the HOW DOWNTOWN LOS ANGLES INVENTED THE WILD WEST (and why no one knows it) walking tour will take place this Sunday August 19th at 10:30 AM and next Sunday August 26th also at 10:30 AM..

And  besides our regular schedule tours, we will be offering customized tours on different days and different times - depending on your schedule.  With a minimum of four reservations, we will design a tour of any part of Downtown focusing on any subject matter you choose.  These tours can be after work, during lunch breaks - or??

FOR MORE INFORMATION  - contact Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 - or bradywestwater@gmail.com

BRADBURY BUILDING

All tours begin at THE LAST BOOKSTORE at 453 S. Spring Street in the Spring Arts Tower and will be led by long time Downtown resident Brady Westwater who, besides being involved with the Downtown LA Neighborhood Council, the Historic Downtown BID, Gallery Row, Art Walk, and the BOXeight and the CONCEPT Fashion Weeks, has brought over 150 businesses, artists and non-profit institutions to Downtown.  All tours are only $15 per person.  

Wyatt Earp

If you are a participant in Saturday's 'Historic Downtown Los Angeles 101' Tour, you will see the first motion picture theater built,  the place where Babe Ruth signed his contract with the Yankees, the hotel where Charlie Chaplin lived when he made his early films (and the place where he made his Los Angeles vaudeville debut in 1910) - plus the homes and haunts of everyone from actor Nicholas Cage, the Black Dahlia, Rudolph Valentino, LA’s version of Jack the Ripper, President Teddy Roosevelt, the Night Stalker, western outlaw Emmet Dalton,  actor Ryan Gosling and more.  And you will also visit where O. J. Simpson bought his knife.

You’ll explore an intersection where all four buildings were often visited by gunfighter/sheriff Wyatt Earp since they were all built or occupied by friends of his from Tombstone during the shoot-out at the OK Corral.  At this intersection you will also discover what John Wayne, a prime minister of Italy, Houdini, Winston Churchill, boxer Jack Dempsey, Greta Garbo, President Woodrow Wilson and multiple Mexican boxing champions all had in common here.

You will also see where the first new lofts were opened, the places where Gallery Row and the Art Walk began and where Fashion Week returned to Downtown.  You will see many of the new boutiques, designer showrooms and stores that have recently opened in the area along with getting a sneak preview of what will soon be happening in the area.

And if you take the "How Los Angeles Invented The Wild West (and why no one knows it"tour, you will discover that long before the famed Western cowtowns and mining camps Tombstone, Dodge City, and Deadwood existed, Los Angeles was the first town where everything that happened in the Wild West, happened here first and that everyone from Wyatt Earp to Judge Roy Bean came to Los Angeles first before going east to help start the Wild West. You will also discover LA was a far ‘wilder’ town than any Western town that followed after it.

And besides ‘inventing’ the original Wild West, Los Angeles also remained part of the Wild West for far longer than other place (from 25 years to over 90 years - compared to the average period of 3 or 4 years to 10 years of most cowtowns) and LA was also one of the few towns built upon both cattle and mining.

Tickets for either tour are only $15 per person - free for children under 8 - and reservations can be made by calling Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 or emailing bradywestwater@gmail.com.  All credit card orders will be processed  at Last Bookstore and cash payments may be made at the start of the tour.   All proceeds will go towards the revitalization and the study of the history of the neighborhood.  

Lastly, future tours will feature specialized areas of interest such as architecture, art of all kinds, shopping and food, single streets, sports (from steer wrestling to luchador wrestlers to a Sumo wrestler), transportation, specific periods of history, the hidden Wild West history of Los Angeles, movie locations, Downtown after hours and many other aspects of the neighborhood. And custom designed can be developed by request  for groups of four or more.

We will also be soon starting weekday and evening tours on what it's like to live in Downtown Los Angeles. You will be introduced to the many of stores, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues (and often their owners, too) - along with being given previews of one of a kind special events - so you can get a feel for what it is like to live in Downtown Los Angeles.

We expect this tour to be popular with not only people considering moving to Downtown and people who work in Downtown and who would like to know what to do after hours in Downtown - but also to recent and even long established Downtown residents who want to know more about their neighborhood.

For future updates and more information go to www.historicdowntownlosangeles.blogspot.com

Los Angeles Has OVER 400% MORE Olympic Medal Winners Than Any Other City in the US - and California Has More Medal Winners Than Any Countries Other Than China & Russia (and the US, of course)

Los Angeles has 400% MORE Olympic Medal winners than any other city! 45 to San Francisco's 11. And we also have more winners who were born or raised in Los Angeles. A total of 35. 

Besides Los Angeles being the number one city in the United States - and the world - for medal winning Olympic athletes, if you don't count the United States - California would rank as the number three country in the WORLD - with at least 66medal winners - third only to China (even though China has 1,340,000,000 billion people compared to California's 37,000,000 million people) and Russia

And, yes, that gives China an edge over California of 1,303,000,000 billion people.

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After Buying Frommer's - When Will Google Buy The Los Angeles Times?

According to Forbes this morning, 

The publisher John Wiley & Sons  said it has agreed to sell al of its travel assets, including the Frommer’s brand, to Google.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Wiley said proceeds will be redeployed to support its professional, scientific, technical, medical and education businesses.

I’d note that the deal adds to Google’s collection of travel information sites, which already includes the Zagat’s restaurant review service, among other things. Frommer publishes over 300 guidebooks and operates the Frommers.com website.

Forbes later posts that it is clear that Google is now a media company.  

My question then is - with more and more pay walls going up around the larger newspaper sites - when will Google buy a major newspaper?  

And it would have to be a newspaper big enough to have reporters not just around the country - but throughout the world - to feed it's search engine.

My guess is with the LA Times about to come on the market - and with neither the New York Times nor the Washington Post likely to come on the market - Google could easily go after the  LA Times - or the entire Tribune newspaper empire.

Google should in time -  be able to make make far more money linking to the Times than they - or anyone else - would ever make from running the paper - putting Google at a clear advantage over all other buyers.

Can Traditional Manufacturing Jobs Make a Comeback in Downtown Los Angeles?

While I agree manufacturing can and needs to make a comeback in the US, as does Hal Sirkin of the Boston Consulting Group in his Huffington Post column, cities and states need to be realistic on what types of manufacturing can survive within their specific economic climate. 

In Los Angeles, some politicians feel industrial land needs to be preserved for assembly line factories which are a better fit for the wage, utility, land and infrastructure costs of rural Alabama as opposed to the type of highly specialized manufacturing that has a chance of surviving - much less thriving - in the middle of a congested city with high taxes, land costs, utility costs, and living costs.

In fashion, we are seeing smaller lines and luxury brands bringing back production that once was overseas while other types of more boutique manufacturing are also starting to return in the various tech, electronic entertainment and other high value added businesses. But for those industries to thrive, many of them need to be located within mixed use, live/work communities which will allow for a 24/7 creative environment as opposed to large industrial parks that some are proposing to build in the middle our high cost urban area.

This Weekend's Best Deals in the One Dollar Floor at THE LAST BOOKSTORE in Downtown Los Angeles!

I've been busy this week sorting through the 20 - 30 new boxes of $1  books that have been shipped to the LABYRINTH - the getting close to 100,000 books second floor at THE LAST BOOKSTORE (453 S. Spring in the Spring Arts Tower) - and while 95% of the books are randomly shelved  - but carefully curated to have only the books people actually want to buy - to allow you the chance to find the books you never knew existed, I do create special collection (with very few duplicates) at a buck apiece with both our psychology and military history sections recently climbing to over 500 volumes each - with very few duplicates and growing collections of  American and English history.

This weekend we also have a refined contemporary poetry selection of 50 books that just arrived last night, (and a small but excellent collection in film making that will not last long) plus hundreds of other poetry already books scattered around, a very strong Russian/Soviet Union collection, over 50 books on Medieval European history, a great collection of books about the Olympics, women in sports - and another collection of the history of sports - many of which are used in college courses..  And we also have hundreds of popular fiction books in... Russian! 

But don't forget downstairs where we have our carefully selected main stock of books - with most books being from $4 to $8 - sorted into every possible category - with even some of the more expensive art and architecture books usually being under $20 and often well under that.  And there is also a small collection of brand new art & architecture books, plus a well stocked new magazine stand - and thousands and thousands of used Vinyl Records!

But getting back to the dollar floor, we are also assembling strong collections in baseball, golf, wine, astronomy, a great math & statistic's section filled with text books, a decent collection of chemistry & biology & college textbooks, books on art history, rapidly expanding collections on China & Japan - and the Caribbean & Central America, the history of theater, ancient Greece, knitting & needlepoint, sociology, folk lore and anthropology, philosophy & ethics.

Our African-American section is also growing to include college text books, books on civil rights movement, popular romances, many biographies, long out of print books (one teacher just found a book she had been searching for - for 20 years) and dozens of other subjects and it has just been joined by a section about all things African.the last bookstore

And our 200 volume  Judaica section has everything from cooking to humor to popular novels to Israel and scholarly religious books to books for kids and young adults and our computer section has over a hundred different  books & manuals from the fist days of computers to more recent manuals

The fastest growing section though is - business and management and economics - with over a 50 college level books published over the past 5 decades until last year - and hundreds of books from the past few years on leadership and management.

We also have law books and  books about the supreme court, lawyer jokes,famous cases, notorious criminals, true life crimes, bios of famous legal figures and how to do it yourself books on the law.

Out newest section, though - will be called - WORDS.  Everything you need to know about words, books (and how to sell or self-publish them) writing almost anything- from a play to a script to an essay to poetry to a college paper to a medical or business journal to a blog to a will.  It also has 2 books on how to translate, publications from the MLA and books on etymology, grammar, literature (including college text books), linguistics and many other fields related to reading or writing.

BUT - since the average buyer quickly fills a box - what's here now - may not be here tomorrow.  So if you are looking for any of these categories - this weekend is when you should be coming to... THE LAST BOOKSTORE at 453 S. Spring Street.  Open 10AM - 11PM on Saturday (thought upstairs always closes a half-hour early) and 10AM - 6 PM on Sunday.  And during the week it opens at 10 AM and closes at 10 PM except for Monday and Friday when it is open until 11 PM

What Occupy LA, Chalk Walk and the Media Don't Know About the Historic Downtown LA Neighborhood & Skid Row

Whenever any of us talk about the type of 'community' we have built here in Historic DOWNTOWN LA, the Occupy LA 'activists' always like to ridicule the idea that we have built anything special.  That's because they don't know what this neighborhood used to be - and what it's become and what it took to accomplish that.  Nor do they understand why their actions are making it far harder for those who are now sleeping on the sidewalks to be able to get into housing.

They also do not understand that while other parts of the city are fighting ANY low income housing, both the local business community and the local residential community have largely supported both the major service providers in their expansions and both SRO and Skid Row Housing   on their latest projects (after some healthy debate) due to the trust we have developed with each.

And many of us on a daily basis not just help these institutions - but many of us - on a one to one basis -have long done what we can to help those who were living on the streets.  Since I first moved here in the 1990's I have helped over 50 people get off the streets and get not just housing - but, far more importantly - the help they needed to be able to accept housing while working to reconnect them with the people in their lives - family members, college friends, a former high school coach or past employers - anyone who could assist them on their long road back.

For nine years I did this without anyone knowing about it until Steve Lopez did a series of columns about one person I had been helping - and how it paralleled the person - Nathaniel - he had been helping.  And here is a link to one of those columns. 

But the most important point made in the other columns was that this homeless person who lived alone on the street had an entire extended family of other loft dwellers (and office workers) - each one of whom repeatedly checking in with him and each one of us trying to get him the help and the housing he repeatedly refused.

And it was only after Steve Lopez ha inadvertently connected us with each other that we were - collectively - as a community - able to get him off the streets.

It also turned out the 'evil'  Central City Association & Downtown BID had a long funded homeless out reach patrol - and they too had contacted him dozens and dozens of times, also trying to get him the help he needed.  And, as I just said - it was all of us - working together as a community - that enabled him to be able to take control of his own life - and help himself.;

Another things  OCCUPY LA does not understand is how difficult it is to get people to want to get off the streets - since  most people who camp out on Skid Row do so not for financial reasons but due to mental illness and alcohol and drug dependency - and how hard it is for us to get them to accept housing.  

So the final irony is that the harder they 'fight' to preserve their 'rights' to sleep on the sidewalk - the harder they make it for them to accept and receive the help they need to get off of the streets. And they simply do not understand that making it easier for them to stay on the street and that by 'figthing'  for their 'right'  to sleep on the streets - is only making ti easier for them to continue to do so - and making far harder for those of us who have been fighting to get them off the streets and into housing - thus condemning them to even more years on the streets before they can finally accept the help they need.

You Know The Circus Is In Town When Occupy LA's Clown Bus Arrives from Oakland

Even while some members of Occupy LA were 'apologizing' for the violence they caused at last month's Art Walk at the LATC Theatre last Thursday - and promising not to disrupt today's Art Walk, other members of Chalk Walk and Occupy LA were busy working to bring in even more outsiders to invade and attack our community.

And while some of us were hopeful the local leaders would publicly support their promises to the residents and artists of Historic Downtown - and publicly ask for them not to show up (which I am ashamed to admit I had thought), others knew that we were just being set-up for a sucker punch; a sucker punch which, according to the LA Times is going to be delivered tonight.

So with the press guaranteeing them wall to wall coverage of anything they will do, every fading, forgotten 'activist' is now descending upon Downtown LA -  each one hoping for one more shot at the TV cameras.  And once the Oakland Clown Bus arrives and  the TV cameras and reporters descend upon this freak show  suddenly elevated to center ring status - that will encourage every nut job in the country to come to our neighborhood for one more shot at the big time media coverage.

100,000 One Dollar Books - AND Walking Tours of Historic Downtown Los Angeles Resume This Week End

The Last Bookstore Presents

...its just opened 2nd floor with 100,000 books at only ONE DOLLAR each!)

And because of that, I have been spending 7 days a week ten hours a day for the last month volunteering at THE LAST BOOKSTORE and organizing its second floor of 100,000 one dollar - yes, only $1 each! - books.  This is in addition to the carefully curated 50,000 plus books - many in the $4 - $8 range - located on the first floor.

However, I will now start taking off a few hours each weekend to resume both the 'Secrets of Historic Downtown Los Angeles' 2 Hour Tour and the  'How Downtown Los Angeles Invented The Wild West  - And Why No One Knows It' 2 Hour Tour.

So this Saturday, August 11th,  I will be doing the Historic Downtown LA Tour at 11 AM and - if there are reservations by this Friday Night - I will also do a 2 PM Tour.  Then on Sunday, August 12th, I will do the Wild West Tour at 11 AM - but only if there are reservations.by Saturday at noon - and then - if there are reservations - I will do the Historic Downtown LA Tour at 2 PM.

I will also be giving FREE tours of THE LAST BOOKSTORE  - by request  (or just call and let me know you be there at 10 AM this Saturday and Sunday by 9:30 AM on either day) to show how you can use all the amazing resources of this unique cultural resource. 

Then next weekend, August 18th & 19th. I will be resuming my regular two tours a day weekend schedule - with one change.  Depending on who makes the first reservations, tours can start as early as 10 AM so that the first tours will done by Noon, before the heat of the day.  
And  besides our regular schedule tours, we will be offering customized tours on different days and different times and from one to three hours including weekdays - depending on your schedule.  With a minimum of four reservations, we will design a tour of any part of Downtown focusing on any subject matter you choose.  These tours can be after work, during lunch breaks - or??

FOR MORE INFORMATION  - contact Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 - or bradywestwater@gmail.com

BRADBURY BUILDING

All tours begin at THE LAST BOOKSTORE at 453 S. Spring Street in the Spring Arts Tower and will be led by long time Downtown resident Brady Westwater who, besides being involved with the Downtown LA Neighborhood Council, the Historic Downtown BID, Gallery Row, Art Walk, and the BOXeight and the CONCEPT Fashion Weeks, has brought over 150 businesses, artists and non-profit institutions to Downtown.  All tours are only $15 per person.  

Wyatt Earp

If you are a participant in Saturday's 'Historic Downtown Los Angeles 101' Tour, you will see what is left of the first motion picture theater built,  the place where Babe Ruth signed his contract with the Yankees, the hotel where Charlie Chaplin lived when he made his early films (and the place where he made his Los Angeles vaudeville debut in 1910) - plus the homes and haunts of everyone from actor Nicholas Cage, the Black Dahlia, Rudolph Valentino, LA’s version of Jack the Ripper, President Teddy Roosevelt, the Night Stalker, western outlaw Emmet Dalton,  actor Ryan Gosling and more.  And you will also visit where O. J. Simpson bought his knife.

You’ll explore an intersection where all four buildings were often visited by gunfighter/sheriff Wyatt Earp since they were all built or occupied by friends of his from Tombstone during the shoot-out at the OK Corral.  At this intersection you will also discover what John Wayne, a prime minister of Italy, Houdini, Winston Churchill, boxer Jack Dempsey, Greta Garbo, President Woodrow Wilson and multiple Mexican boxing champions all had in common here.

You will also see where the first new lofts were opened, the places where Gallery Row and the Art Walk began and where Fashion Week returned to Downtown.  You will see many of the new boutiques, designer showrooms and stores that have recently opened in the area along with getting a sneak preview of what will soon be happening in the area.

And if you take the "How Los Angeles Invented The Wild West (and why no one knows it"tour, you will discover that long before the famed Western cowtowns and mining camps Tombstone, Dodge City, and Deadwood existed, Los Angeles was the first town where everything that happened in the Wild West, happened here first and that everyone from Wyatt Earp to Judge Roy Bean came to Los Angeles first before going east to help start the Wild West. You will also discover LA was a far ‘wilder’ town than any Western town that followed after it.

And besides ‘inventing’ the original Wild West, Los Angeles also remained part of the Wild West for far longer than other place (from 25 years to over 90 years - compared to the average period of 3 or 4 years to 10 years of most cowtowns) and LA was also one of the few towns built upon both cattle and mining.

Tickets for either tour are only $15 per person - free for children under 8 - and reservations can be made by calling Brady Westwater at 213-804-8396 or emailing bradywestwater@gmail.com.  All credit card orders will be processed  at Last Bookstore and cash payments may be made at the start of the tour.   All proceeds will go towards the revitalization and the study of the history of the neighborhood.  

Lastly, future tours will feature specialized areas of interest such as architecture, art of all kinds, shopping and food, single streets, sports (from steer wrestling to luchador wrestlers to a Sumo wrestler), transportation, specific periods of history, the hidden Wild West history of Los Angeles, movie locations, Downtown after hours and many other aspects of the neighborhood. And custom designed can be developed by request  for groups of four or more.

We will also be soon starting weekday and evening tours on what it's like to live in Downtown Los Angeles. You will be introduced to the many of stores, restaurants, bars, and entertainment venues (and often their owners, too) - along with being given previews of one of a kind special events - so you can get a feel for what it is like to live in Downtown Los Angeles.

We expect this tour to be popular with not only people considering moving to Downtown and people who work in Downtown and who would like to know what to do after hours in Downtown - but also to recent and even long established Downtown residents who want to know more about their neighborhood.

For future updates and more information go to www.historicdowntownlosangeles.blogspot.com

Could Downtown Los Angeles Become The 21st Century Creative Mecca of the US Now That New York Is Too Expensive?

In the Los Angeles Review of Books, Hannah Gersen discusses The Last Bohemia: Scenes from the Life of Williamsburg, Brooklyn by Robert Anasi.   The book's main point is when a city or a community becomes successful enough to both nurture and reward artists and creative types of all persuasions - can it still remain affordable enough for future, upcoming generations of artists - much less affordable enough for the pre-existing blue collar residents.?

That then brings up the question if Los Angeles is also approaching the stage where it is pricing out its upcoming artists and creatives?  My answer is - yes, when it comes to the Westside - and no when it comes to other parts of greater LA;  particularly in the greater Downtown Los Angeles area.

DTLA's big difference with New York & WLA is that Downtown Los Angeles is in the almost exact center of a vast metropolitan area - while Manhattan is an island by the ocean - and the Westside of LA is bordered by an ocean and the Santa Monica Mountains with only one pass connecting it to the Valley - and no fixed rail transit connecting it to the rest of LA; just the barely moving San Diego and Santa Monica Freways

In contrast, Downtown Los Angeles - with an inner ring of dozens of relatively affordable and rather dense urban suburbs and with its being the hub of all the fixed rail transit,  has best chance of becoming - and remaining - a national creative hub for established, emerging  - and just beginning - artists, creative and entrepreneurial types. In fact, during the past 15 years, the number of affordable units of permanently protected low income housing has actually increased in Downtown LA - with the latest major new project, the Hotel Genesis - about to open at 5th & Main directly across the street from where both Gallery Row and the Art Walk started..

So even if one or two of those urban suburbs should begin to turn into another Williamsburgh in the next 20 or 30 years, the vast number of housing units in the endless communities surrounding DTLA far exceeds the limited supply of artists.  Artists should be able to integrate into those communities in a way which was impossible in a place like Williamsburgh or other NYC communities which were only one or two subway stops after you leave Manhattan.

Ironically, it is our much decried sprawl which should save us.  And while the traditional forces which have kept LA's housing prices high may eventually change the pricing structure of our urban suburbs, there are simply not enough artists  to significantly impact those communities.

After Art Walk Violence Last Month, Chalk Walk Organizer Apologizes to Downtown Los Angeles Residents (UPDATE ON NEW DOLLAR BOOK SECTIONS AT THE LAST BOOKSTORE)

According to the story in blogdowntown, at Thursday  night's meeting at the LATC (The Los Angeles Theatre Center) Richard Florence apologized for their actions at the last Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk and they promised to remain at Pershing Square during next week's August Art Walk. 

So - hopefully, this will be the beginning of the end of Occupy LA occupying Downtown's sidewalks, parks and other public spaces and maybe then they can concentrate on more positive activities to help the people they claim they want to help.

I might add I did not attend last night for two reasons. First, I was not invited and, second, I've been too busy organizing myself. But instead of protests, I've been organizing the second floor at THE LAST BOOKSTORE so financially struggling students can find college level texts books on Chemistry and Calculus and Physics for only one dollar each. 

And so local residents who need to get their GED's to be able to get jobs can find test manuals and the books they need to study - also for only one dollar each.  (SEE UPDATE ON NEW DOLLAR BOOK SECTIONS AT THE END OF THIS POST)

And anyone who needs to find ways to change their lives can find what they need for only one dollar per book. 

And for the past month - for ten hours a day - that is the volunteer, unpaid organizing I've been doing. And that is the type of organizing most of the people in this neighborhood who are not part of Occupy LA have been doing for the past ten or fifteen years.  And if Occupy LA ever wants to be known for anything other than the vandalism that occurred at City Hall Park, Pershing Square and during Art Walk - they might want to rethink what they are doing and learn from the residents of Downtown about what being a good neighbor means.


UPDATE


And if you want to take advantage of this dollar book section - this Sunday August 5th  it will be open until 5:30 and on Monday it will be open until 10:30 and then until 9:30 - Tuesday - Thursday and then until 10:30 Friday & Saturday.  Now while 90 per cent of the books are randomly shelved, I have a special selection of 500 books on psychology for just a buck apiece and other sections on the Olympics that starts today - along with one on women in sports - plus other temporary collections on Art History, many of the countries of the world, astronomy, 
philosophy, knitting, books on writing of all kinds, biology & chemistry high school and college text books, math of all kinds and a few surprises you will find if you spend some time searching the shelves.

How - And Why - The Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk - Should be for Everyone - Including Occupy LA

In a post on yesterday's blogdowntown,
I agree with David Markham's comment that  the goal of Art Walk should not for it to be free of political protest but that Art Walk should welcome all participants that do not endanger public safety by creating unsafe conditions.

So if the General Assembly of Occupy LA wishes to have a legal chalk drawing event that can be easily viewed by visitors to the Art Walk - and which will not endanger the public‘s safety, I will help them secure that space; just as I have done for hundreds of artists over the years since the very first Art Walk. - and long before Art Walk started - over the past 30 years.

This will allow them to exercise their First Amendment rights and avoid the problems of last month when congestion on the sidewalk made it impossible for most people to see what the artists were doing and forced people off the sidewalks and into the streets, creating the pubic safety issue.

But by being in a public place where they would not be blocking the public's right to walk on the sidewalks, there will be no public safety issue AND the artists will have a much larger audience for their message, giving both the local community and the demonstrators what they want.

Lastly, I have known and supported street artists in DTLA and elsewhere in LA since the late 1960’s and began to work with many of them after meeting the artists at John Pochna’s first Zero One and at Stash’s various galleries and shows starting back in the 1980’s.

I have also helped many street artists secure shows in LA and New York galleries and have leased - without taking any fees from anyone - spaces to several galleries in DTLA that show street artists - despite some hesitation by the landlords about bringing ‘graffiti artist into their neighborhood.

I am also currently working on obtaining a space for a bi-coastal street artist show for this fall in Downtown LA, which I would like to have on the Art Walk footprint, if possible.

Brady Westwater 

bradywestwater@gmail.com