75 degrees for This Weekend's Walking Tours of Historic Downtown Los Angeles! 11 AM to 1 PM Saturday & Sunday March 2nd & 3rd - Starting at THE LAST BOOKSTORE

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 and Sunday March 2nd and 3rd at 11 AM -  plus there will also be tours next Saturday and Sunday, March 9th and 10th, also from 11 AM  to 1 PM and on the two weekends after that, too.  And all tours start at THE LAST BOOKSTORE in the Spring Arts Tower at 5th and Spring and they are still only $15 per person.

And  besides our regular scheduled 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.

Broadway to Get First Residential High Rise Building

According to the Downtown News, Izek Shomolf is planning to build first residential high rise - 22 stories tall -  on Broadway - or anywhere in Historic Downtown Los Angeles..

Shomof just closed escrow on the single story parking garage/retail building with additional parking on the roof (formerly owned by Dr. Lee) at the SE corner of 4th and Broadway for an amount in excess of ten million dollars and he says he is considering building a residential building on the site.

The property is next to the already converted Judson building which is next to a building local developer Alex Moradi just purchased to convert to lofts.  And, at the opposite end of the block, the Chester Williams loft conversion just opened which would make this project the 4th new residential building - all with ground floor retail - on the block.

Directly behind it on Spring Street  is a parking lot and due south of that are two buildings Shomof originally was purchasing with a partner, who ended up being the sole owner, and the first of those  buildings may become a hotel and the larger one - the old Title Insurance Building - may become up to 200 condominiums.  Then, at the end of that block, is the all creative office building, the Spring Arts Tower, which has The Last Book Store as its primary retail tenant.

Great Weather for This Weekend's Walking Tour of Historic Downtown Los Angeles! 11 AM to 1 PM Sunday - Starting at THE LAST BOOKSTORE - February 17th!

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 Sunday February 17th at 11 AM - and if there enough reservations for President's Day - Monday February 18th - I will do a two hour tour starting at 11 AM on that day, too.  Plus there will also be tours next Saturday and Sunday, February 23rd and 24th,  at 11 AM and on the two weekends after that, too

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.

Cupid Visits The Last Bookstore on Valentine's Day

Last night THE LAST BOOKSTORE had its first official wedding proposal.  One member  of the many couples who have first met while book browsing at the store asked if he could reserve the ‘secret room’ in the one dollar section on the second floor for his Valentine’s day proposal.

We accepted – and last night, she accepted.  They then looked over the books his best friend – with some assistance – selected for the room that told the story of their individual lives – and now their future life together.

Come See Art Walk TONIGHT and Your LAST CHANCE to see the Documentary THE YOUNG TURKS - The First Artist to Live in Downtown LA Lofts in the 1970's!

Tonight - ART WALK NIGHT - is your LAST Chance to see the story of the first artists to pioneer loft living in Historic Downtown LA and what later became the Arts District. Long before Art Walk, Gallery Row, Joel Boom, MOCA  - THE YOUNG TURKS  - were living in many of the same building we are living and working in today.

So be sure to catch either the 5 PM or the 7 PM showing of THE YOUNG TURKS February 14th at 5 PM or 7 PM at the Downtown Independent on Main Street between  2nd and 3rd.

The French Have Killed Wrestling as an Olympic Sport to Save a Fake Sport They Invented in 1912!!

As a sign of how corrupt the Olympics still are, mankind's oldest sport has just been killed by a secret vote -orchestrated by the French - to preserve a sport the French invented in 1912. ESPN has some of the details:.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- IOC leaders dropped wrestling from the Olympic program on Tuesday, a surprise decision that removes one of the oldest Olympic sports from the 2020 Games.

The IOC executive board decided to retain modern pentathlon -- the event considered most at risk -- and remove wrestling instead from its list of 25 "core sports."

[+] Enlarge

Stephen Mally/Icon SMIThe IOC dropped wrestling from its 2020 Olympic Games program.

The IOC board acted after reviewing the 26 sports on the current Olympic program. Eliminating one sport allows the International Olympic Committee to add a new sport to the program later this year.

Wrestling, which combines freestyle and Greco-Roman events, goes back to the inaugural modern Olympics in Athens in 1896.

"This is a process of renewing and renovating the program for the Olympics," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said. "In the view of the executive board, this was the best program for the Olympic Games in 2020. It's not a case of what's wrong with wrestling, it is what's right with the 25 core sports."

Adams said the decision was made by secret ballot over several rounds, with members voting each time on which sport should not be included in the core group. IOC President Jacques Rogge did not vote.

Wrestling was voted out from a final group that also included modern pentathlon, taekwondo and field hockey, officials familiar with the vote told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the voting details were not made public.

The board voted after reviewing a report by the IOC program commission report that analyzed 39 criteria, including television ratings, ticket sales, anti-doping policy and global participation and popularity. With no official rankings or recommendations contained in the report, the final decision by the 15-member board was also subject to political, emotional and sentimental factors.

SportsNation: Olympic Wrestling

Wrestling has been removed from the 2020 Olympics. Would you take out another sport in order to bring it back?
Cast your votes!

The governing body of wrestling, known by its French initials FILA, called the IOC's move an "aberration" and said it was "greatly astonished" by the decision.

FILA says it will take "all necessary measures" to convince IOC members to maintain wrestling's Olympic status when they meet in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in September.

Still, FILA President Raphael Martinetti faces criticism when his ruling board meets this weekend in Thailand.

Russian federation leader Mikhail Mamiashvili said FILA is the problem, and Martinetti's tasks include defending "wrestling's place before the IOC."

German official Jannis Zamanduridis said "a piece of the Olympic idea is dying with this decision."

Wrestling featured 344 athletes competing in 11 medal events in freestyle and seven in Greco-Roman at last year's London Olympics. Women's wrestling was added to the Olympics at the 2004 Athens Games.

Wrestling will now join seven other sports in applying for inclusion in 2020. The others are a combined bid from baseball and softball, plus karate, squash, roller sports, sport climbing, wakeboarding and wushu. They will be vying for a single opening in 2020.

The IOC executive board will meet in May in St. Petersburg, Russia, to decide which sport or sports to propose for 2020 inclusion. The final vote will be made at the IOC session, or general assembly, in September in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

It is extremely unlikely that wrestling would be voted back in so soon after being removed by the executive board.

"Today's decision is not final," Adams said. "The session is sovereign, and the session will make the final decision."

The last sports removed from the Olympics were baseball and softball, voted out by the IOC in 2005 and off the program since the 2008 Beijing Games. Golf and rugby will be joining the program at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Previously considered under the closest scrutiny was modern pentathlon, which has been on the Olympic program since the 1912 Stockholm Games. It was created by French baron Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic movement, and combines fencing, horse riding, swimming, running and shooting.

Klaus Schormann, president of governing body UIPM, lobbied hard to protect his sport's Olympic status and it paid off in the end.

"We have promised things, and we have delivered," he said after Tuesday's decision. "That gives me a great feeling. It also gives me new energy to develop our sport further and never give up."

Modern pentathlon also benefited from the work of Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr., the son of the former IOC president who is a UIPM vice president and a member of the IOC board.

"We were considered weak in some of the scores in the program commission report but strong in others," Samaranch told the AP. "We played our cards to the best of our ability and stressed the positives. Tradition is one of our strongest assets, but we are also a multisport discipline that produces very complete people."

Sunny Skies Predicted for This Weekends TWO Walking Tours of Historic Downtown Los Angeles! Sat. and Sun Feb. 9th & 10th from 11 AM to 1 PM Starting at THE LAST BOOKSTORE!

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 9th at 11 AM  and  Sunday February 10th at 11 AM.  And there will also be tours next Saturday and Sunday, February 16th and 17th,  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.

Wilshire Grand Hotel to be Highest Tower in California & Has 400,000 feet of Office Space

This tower is in the perfect spot - the block of Figueroa between 7th & Wilshire - for a major hotel and the first new high rise office building in downtown in decades. It is by the new streetcar, the new subway connector and has direct access to four other subway lines. 

As for it's design, its simple, tapering shape is a good contrast with the forest of boxy high rises that surround it. That simplicity might also work better - as part of the overall urban fabric - than a showier tower.  Here is part of the coverage over at LACURBED where you can find the rest of the story.

The Wilshire Grand is comin' for you, US Bank Tower--today developer Korean Air is unveiling its final plans for the *73-story tower (which is already under construction; demolition on the old Wilshire Grand began last fall) and turns out it'll be 1,100 feet tall including its spire; the US Bank is a puny 1,018 feet. That will make Wilshire Grand the tallest building on the West Coast. Our world is tilting off its axis just a little today. Furthermore, it'll be LA's first tower since 1974 built without a flat top. AC Martin Partners designed the building, which "will be capped by an iconic sail-shaped architectural feature that will be illuminated with LED lighting at night," according to blogger Brigham Yen. (This lighting was the source of an enormous amount of contention during the project's approval process; supposedly it can't possibly be used for advertising.) The development started life as an office/hotel project two towers--one 45 stories and the other 65--but was rejiggered last year into a single tower with 900 hotel rooms, 400,000 square feet of office space, groundfloor retail, and a top-floor "sky lobby" reached by "one of the fastest dual high-speed elevators in the world."

Fourteen New Single Family Homes to be Built Near Downtown Los Angeles

Not only are long stalled condo and loft projects again moving ahead in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles, but many long stalled smaller projects in the inner suburbs surrounding DTLA are once again heading for completion.  Included in those projects is an 14 home subdivision in Highland Park that will add new single family homes to the mix of housing under construction within easy commuting distance of DTLA jobs and DTLA's shopping, cultural and entertainment venues either by car or the Gold Line.

GLOBEST has the full story but here are the opening paragraphs as reported by Carrie Rossenfield::

LOS ANGELES-Kraemer Land Co. has acquired a 14-lotresidential development in the Highland Park submarket here though a new strategic partnership with Orange County homebuilder South Coast Communities. The company plans to finish four standing-inventory homes within the next 90 days and complete construction on all remaining single-family detached lots before year-end 2013.

Located at the intersection of North Ave. 66 and Staley Ave., the development, which was acquired from two independent groups of sellers, has remained unfinished since 2009. Tim Barden of Land Advisor’s Organization represented both the buyer and seller in the transaction.

Kraemer Land Co. has committed approximately $7.5 million in new capital to complete the project, and South Coast will manage all design, engineering, construction, marketing and new home sales. Home prices are projected to start from the mid- to high-$700,000s.