This Weekend's TWO Walking Tours of THE SECRET LIVES OF HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES!

The Last Bookstore (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!

 I am continuing the  HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES 101  2 hour walking tours this Saturday February 2nd at 11 AM  and  Sunday February 3rd at 11 AM.  And there will also be tours next Saturday and Sunday, February 9th and 10th,  at 11 AM.

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 '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.

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.

Grand Avenue Authority Tells Developer Related - No More Extensions!

At today's meeting of the JPA that administers Bunker Hill's Grand Avenue Project, the board - as expected - approved a temporary 90 extension for the contract with the Related Companies (which was to expire on February 15th - making the new date May 15th) to give the developer time to develop a new plan for their approval.

Bill Witte of Related had earlier announced that rather than proceeding with the massive Frank Gehry project, that the site would be redesigned so that it could be built out in a series of phases which would be designed in concert with each other - but would also be designed be built incrementally to meet the changing needs of the market in Downtown.

What was not expected was how forcefully Chair and LA County Supervisor Gloria Molina made it exceptionally clear to Related there would be no more extensions of any kind from that board.  She - along with Co-Chair,  Los Angeles City Councilperson Jose Huizar - repeatedly stated they expected to have a new plan presented to them which had a buildable design with real world construction dates that would each have to be met  for each phase of the now multi-phased project to proceed or the remainder of their contract would be canceled.  They also asked  Related to provide proof of their ability to finance the project.

Molina additionally reminded them this was not the time for further architecture contests; that this was the time to commit to what was going to be built and commit to who was going to design it and who was going to finance it.

Related was also asked to report to a closed session of the JPA in 60 days to review the status of their plans to make certain that they were headed in the right direction to be able to get the their final extension.

Sat. JAN 26th 11 AM Tour of Historic DTLA SOLD OUT - so 1:30 2nd Tour added - and 11 AM Sunday Jan 27th Tour Still Open!

The Last Bookstore (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!

 I am continuing the  HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES 101  2 hour walking tours this Saturday - January 26th at 1:30 PM since the 11 AM tour has SOLD OUT and  Sunday January 27th at 11 AM.  And there will also be tours next Saturday and Sunday, February 2nd and 3rd,  at 11 AM

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 '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.

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.

In Beverly Hills Celebs 'Flip Houses'; In Malibu - Bloggers 'Flip Trailers'.

Veronique de Turenne offers on Malibu Fixer-Upper.

How City Hall Uses Downtown LA Drivers and Pedestrians To Balance The City's Budget Deficit!

KCET's blog has a story on how one man (Fred Prator) - after years of abuse - finally got the mysterious - and the only - 'no-right-hand-turn on a red light' sign in Downtown LA removed from the corner of 7th and Broadway.

But it took 15 years for this injustice to be righted and Prator calculates this may have illegally cost LA drivers around $15 million dollars.  And if that figure is even remotely correct- then all of the traffic scams the city has been running in Downtown may have cost people who live and work in Downtown hundreds of millions of dollars in the past 15 years.

Even today, we are probably the only neighborhood with our own personal transit cop who does nothing but ride a bike around a couple blocks of Main and Spring  to cite anyone whose parking meter is even a minute over.

We even used to have regular police officers on foot - hidden away on corners all day - when the area was still almost wall to wall drug dealers - to ticket anyone who stepped into a cross walk even a second after the don't walk signal started flashing.  And some of those signals were set to start flashing just seconds after the light had turned green - and long before they were needed to allow people to safely cross before the light turned red.  And there are still the mid-block signaled cross walks that are NOT synchronized with the signals at the major intersections so that when the street is clear of vehicles - even if you have pushed the button - the light will still not turn green.

And we still have police officers measuring how far a car is parked from the curb at 1 and 2 in the morning - and then giving them tickets - even though the cars are parked well within the white lines of where parking is allowed.  But it's not the LAPD's fault.  All the orders to do this come straight from City Hall to fill the City's ever growing structural deficit.

Another con game has been the removal of loading zones around busy office buildings - making it impossible for Fed-Ex and UPS to deliver packages without getting dozens of tickets every day  - while, of course, government post office truck don't get tickets.  And, of course, the people who work in those buildings also get tickets whenever they try to load anything into or out of their offices.

But the single biggest rip-off is all the phony no parking lanes during rush hour.  Many of them have tow-away lanes TWO HOURS before they are needed during rush hour and some of the tow away lanes in Historic Downtown - don't even to be cleared during rush hour.

Those signs are also often hidden - or even removed -  so you can't see them and then the city changes the times on some of them so that it's 4 PM on one block and then 3 PM on another block - to confuse drivers. And there is never any warning or notice when they make those changes, since that would defeat the whole purpose of those changes.

And then there are the ever expanding number of hours the parking meters are - again without any notice to the public that this has happened - and lack of notice on when the meters are NOT working - to further confuse people into paying for parking when no payment is required.  And - of course - if you park at a broken meter that can not accept money - you will also get a ticket.

And that's just some of the worst of the many scams City Hall has used - and continues to use -  to extract money from Downtown drivers and pedestrians.

75 Degrees Forecast For This Weekend's Walking Tours of THE SECRET LIVES OF HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES!

The Last Bookstore (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!

 I am continuing the  HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES 101  2 hour walking tours this Saturday - January 26th at 1:30 PM since the 11 AM tour has SOLD OUT and  Sunday January 27th at 11 AM.  And there will also be tours next Saturday and Sunday, February 2nd and 3rd,  at 11 AM

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 '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.

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

Are London's Blue Plaques Celebrating London's Literary History - About to Become History?

One of the great pedestrian pleasures of London - which I have also long advocated for Downtown Los Angeles - are the blue plaques placed on buildings where famous writers - or other prominent historical figures - lived or worked. But, according to the Daily Mail -  even London may soon be unable to afford this program.

According to the LA Times website feed, at 7:30 AM farmers were hit hard by the freeze. but five hours later....

• .... their crops were doing just dandy....
• 
  

• Crops fare well despite cold, windy weather 01/13/2013, 1:09 p.m.

• Man pulled out gun inside theater, shot by police, authorities say 01/13/2013, 8:35 a.m.

• 1 dead, 1 wounded in shooting outside of Hollywood nightclub 01/13/2013, 7:44 a.m.

• California deep freeze continues; farmers hard hit01/13/2013, 7:35 a.m.

UP DATE!!! VAULT OPENED!!! World's Most Powerful Safe Cracking Drill Flown in to Break Into THE LAST BOOKSTORE's Mystery Vault For Tonight's Downtown Art Walk!

Discover what is in the MYSTERY VAULT at THE LAST BOOKSTORE at the Spring Arts Tower - 453 S. Spring Street on Tonight's Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk!

Inside the vault is a complete, 100% intact workshop for the maintenance of the building - complete with a small but discriminating stack of high quality porn!    Our photographic staff is now recording -  for posterity - this historic find of in situ blue collar life in the latter part of the 20th Century.

Is the Los Angeles Weekly on the Auction Block?

According to FishbowlLA, the parent owner of the Los Angeles Weekly, the Voice Media Group, has just sold both the San Francisco and the Seattle Weekly newspapers.  This brings them down to 11 from 13 newspapers.

Now,  are they just narrowing the focus of their newspaper empire?  Or are they cashing out on their investment?  If they are just narrowing their focus, it would seem odd to dump newspapers in two of the major tech/media cities  in the country.

UPDATE!! MYSTERY SAFE at THE LAST BOOKSTORE Breaks Every Drill Used! Bigger & Better Drills to be Tried Tomorrow!

UPDATE!  After foiling the finest locksmiths money could rent for two years - the infamous locked safe at THE LAST BOOKSTORE was finally drilled by an expert  two man team.  But they  failed
 when every single drill they tried instantly broke.

So everyone will have to wait until tomorrow to find out - what is in the only safe on the four floors of the Spring Arts Tower that was left locked - with no combination - when the bank vacated the premises so many decades ago.

(below is the original post)

Yes - the most famous locked safe since Al Capone's personal safe - will be drilled open  at THE LAST BOOK STORE this afternoon!  And the long locked vault in the one dollar mezzanine will - finally - reveal its long hidden secrets!  And below is one of the many previous unsuccessful attempts by some of the world's finest safe crackers to discover.... the secrets of the mystery vault.