Tuesday, September 29, 2015

UCLA Study Suggests Los Angeles Home Prices May Rise for Another 4 More Years & Go Up Another 35% in Price



Despite LA's home prices having already gone up for three straight years - and having risen 27% higher, KCCP reports on their website the UCLA Anderson Forecast released on Monday believes housing prices - based on prior recoveries - may  continue to rise for another four years - and go up another 35% in price - which would mean a total increase of 62%.

And the big reason for the continuing rise in prices is the lack of new housing being built.  And the lack of enough new housing being built will mean that existing housing will get  still more expensive and the rising costs of land and materials and labor will make the construction of new 'affordable housing' even more expensive. And that will make the needed per unit subsidy financially unsustainable for anything more than a comparative  handful of units.

The only possible short term solution I can see for even  a small part of this problem is to find ways to make all new housing easier and faster to build - without  overwhelming existing communities - until the new construction can at least keep up with the demand.

But in the long run - we need to find financially sustainable ways for people to buy homes near where they work and near schools where their kids can get good educations.  And for most of our country's history that has meant finding places where they could move to and be able to get a good job - and buy a home of their own withing walking distance of a school where their kids could get a good education.

And since that ad hoc system appears to have broken down, we now need to invent far better ways for families to find communities where they work and afford to live and where their kids can get good educations - and that may turn out to  be the very next killer application for tech to tackle.

Thursday, September 24, 2015

Video of Highly Identifiable Young White Bearded Hipster Who Tried to Murder Someone in Dowtown LA



Here is the story from Channel 9 and the link will take you to the video, 
OS ANGELES (CBSLA.com)   —  It was, the victim recalls, just a downtown loft party.
No one was expecting violence. But violence showed up uninvited.
It’s a story that is Only On 9 — the stabbing victim who spent months in the hospital recovering is well enough to tell his story.
The victim, we are calling him “Tony,” spoke to KCAL9’s Rachel Kim Wednesday evening.
“Me speaking out might save somebody else’s life,” Tony said.
The victim didn’t want his face shown — the man who nearly killed him is still out there.
Tony showed Kim the scars left on his body after he was stabbed three times by the suspect — seen on security video — after leaving an advertised party in downtown LA back in May.
“It didn’t have to go to that extent,” Tony says.
The party was held on the top floor of a building along Santee Street.
But after the party ended, a fight broke out on the sidewalk and ended up across the street where Tony got stabbed.

Again - here is the link to the video.
The scuffle was also captures on tape.
Tony tells us he had no problems with the suspect or his friends at the party, but for some reason they started a fight with Tony’s group outside.
“Someone comes up and sucker punches me, I fall back and the next thing I know I feel somebody get on top of me with a knife and proceeded to stab me multiple times,” he says.
Tony suffered a collapsed lung and has nerve damage. Detectives consider the suspect dangerous and hope releasing this video will help the public identify him.
“My other concern is that this would be a continuing problem. If this guy has done this to my victim, if he’d do it to someone else in the community,” says Det. Mchael Mazzacano of the LAPD’s Central Division.
The bearded suspect has a sleeve tattoo and is described  as being about 6 feet tall and 180 pounds.
“Angry, he definitely threw me off track,” Tony says, “It would make me feel a lot better knowing someone like him is off the streets.”
If you have information or recognize this suspect, you’re asked to call detectives at LAPD’s Central Division.

Monday, September 21, 2015

Great Story in the Economist on Downtown Los Angeles's Arts District


One point not mentioned in this or any other recent article is how one previous Mayor was strong-armed by organized labor into keeping this entire part of the city restricted to heavy industry, long after heavy industry had not only fled this area - but the entire city.  And for years projects like those listed below were stopped and the buildings lay empty.


A burgeoning arts district is helping California’s biggest city reinvent itself





JAMES S. RUSSELL

THE opening of the Broad Museum  is claimed by some to bestow a pre-eminence on downtown Los Angeles that has long been sought. Many Angelenos have never been completely persuaded that their sprawling, mongrel-like metropolis could ever have a proper downtown, even though it has skyscrapers hugging the freeway and a line-up of cultural crown jewels on South Grand Avenue, on what is called Bunker Hill, where the Broad is to be found. But the sceptics should take heart. Another part of the city-centre that has been ignored for decades is now coming to the fore, amid hundreds of blocks of low, anonymous industrial buildings that spread southeast a mile or more from the foot of Bunker Hill to the vast railway yards by the Los Angeles river.

A couple of streets away an arts district has been quietly taking root, as a coterie of artists first settled, and then thrived, in near invisibility. Though a few coffee shops and some sophisticated restaurants have opened, most barely announce their presence within the rusting sheds. Murals cover derelict factories and lorries roar down the wide streets.

Ever since it opened, the district’s fulcrum has been the Box, an influential gallery in a concrete-block building, founded by Mara McCarthy, the daughter of Paul McCarthy, a well-known Los Angeles artist. Now, close by the Box, Paul Schimmel, for many years the chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), has teamed up with Hauser & Wirth, a powerful international gallery that represents Mr McCarthy, among others, to overhaul a 116,000-square-foot (10,800-square-metre) complex of derelict industrial buildings (pictured).The project, which will be called Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, is conceived as a “destination”, Mr Schimmel says. Designed by Annabelle Selldorf, an architect who specialises in galleries, it will work much like a museum, with an educational area, a bookshop, a restaurant, a garden, four large exhibition spaces and a sculpture court. It is also a sign of the city’s growing presence in the international art world.


The new gallery will be a short walk from the Geffen Contemporary, a MOCA branch. The combination of the two will rival the institutions of Bunker Hill. Other high-profile projects are also bringing greater attention to the area. Preliminary construction has begun to replace the crumbling Sixth Street Bridge that spans the Los Angeles river. The arches and delicate deck-supporting cables of the new bridge, designed by Michael Maltzan, an architect working with HNTB, an engineering firm, echo the graceful arches of the original, which has provided the backdrop for dozens of memorable scenes filmed in the concrete riverbed. The bridge accommodates pedestrians and bikes with stairs and ramps that drop down to the riverbank and run up the arches to gain views of downtown. It could become an attraction to rival the High Line Park in New York.

There is also untapped value in the river itself. A master plan provides greater public access to the softened edges of a naturalised stream flowing among lushly planted islands. The district’s mongrel character has spurred Mr Maltzan to develop other projects around downtown, channelling the area’s industrial atmosphere while proposing new ways of accommodating its growing density.
One of these is a block of flats, One Santa Fe, that extends a quarter of a mile (402 metres) along the railway yards. Three floors of white and red stucco flats run above a two-storey concrete parking structure that is as stark as a highway viaduct. The design expresses the district’s “infrastructure scale” of railways, bridges and power lines, Mr Maltzan says. Its extended horizontal layers are meant to suggest that higher density may be achieved by stacking horizontal elements rather than building towers.

In other cities, the presence of such landmark investments would set off a wave of property development that would drive away the very people who first created value out of abandonment. Locals seem less worried about that happening in Los Angeles because the city is seen as eternally fluid and diffuse. “Every place is sort of a destination here,” says Laura Owens, a Los Angeles artist who has collaborated with Gavin Brown, a gallery owner, and Wendy Yao, who owns a bookshop, to open 356 Mission, an exhibition space. As prices have risen in the arts district, Ms Owens has moved to Boyle Heights, across the river. “People will drive all over to see what’s interesting.” She says her gallery is off the beaten path, but won’t be in a year. (A local offshoot of Maccarone, a New York gallery, is opening nearby this month.)

And all the rest of this article is right here.

Thursday, September 10, 2015

FREE ONE YEAR MEMBERSHIP FOR MOCA! LIMITED TIME OFFER!



FREE! A full one year MOCA membership if you come to MOCA's box office with a ticket for the Broad during the first two weeks the Broad is open and it opens on September 20th. Now I only saw this mentioned in the New York Times article - so many people may not know this. And you can get your free Broad tickets on-line - though they may be 'sold out' for the first week or so - so hurry!

Tuesday, September 08, 2015

And Here Are Austin Beutner's Final Words on Facebook on Being Fired as Publisher of the Los Angeles Times.

Since some people can not access Facebook for a variety of reasons - here is Austin Beutner's entire post.  And, again, the rest of the story is contained in my prior four posts.

 

My Parting Thoughts

I am writing to let you know that I am leaving the Los Angeles Times, effective immediately.  I am not departing by choice, nor is this some “mutual agreement” on my part and Tribune Publishing.  Tribune Publishing has decided to fire me.  I am sorry you will read this on social media, but I no longer have access to my Times email.


I agreed to become the Publisher and CEO of the Times because I believe in Los Angeles and recognize the unique role the Times plays in our community.  It is the civic conscience which holds accountable those with power in Los Angeles, helps celebrate what is good in our community, and provides news and information to help us better understand and engage with the world around us.  As the thousands who attended The Taste, our annual celebration of food, this past weekend experienced, the Los Angeles and California story really does begin here at the Times.


It has been about a year since I joined the Times.  We have much to be proud of as we worked together to breathe new life into an organization which had labored under the burden of massive change in the newspaper industry, compounded by a contentious merger followed by a lengthy bankruptcy.


The Times is only as good as its journalism.  I am proud to say that each and every day the Los Angeles Times is reaching new, award-winning heights.


This past year Times journalists won two Pulitzer prizes and were finalists for two more, our best showing in years.  We have relaunched the California and Business sections to much acclaim.  Our Opinion effort has worked to increase civic engagement in our community with its new effort to grade local government.  The effort has drawn Angelenos throughout the city into the conversation about what we ought to expect from our local government.


Times journalism continues to make a difference in our community and around the world.  The riveting series “Product of Mexico” exposed the horrific conditions under which farmworkers in Mexico were living and working.  The stories led to changes in the Mexican government’s regulation and oversight of farms and in the buying practices of American supermarket and restaurant chains.   The result was improved conditions for hundreds of thousands of farmworkers.  The Times gave readers an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at LACMA’s plan to expand and the pivotal role one person’s generosity is playing to help make LACMA’s dreams a reality.  Michael Douglas shared with Times readers his journey in rediscovering his Jewish faith and heritage, a story which went viral and was shared around the world.


Importantly, the Times is also creating a digital future, engaging audiences in innovative and new ways.  The “Fight of the Century” guide to the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight, published in English, Spanish, and Tagalog on Flipboard, had more than 1 million viewers around the world.  Our “California Conversation” with California Governor Brown on “Water in the West” was held before a live audience, watched on TV in almost 1 million households, and read by more than 1.5 million people in print and online.  “Trail Guide,” our live blog on the presidential campaign, has drawn 1 million readers since making its debut in July.


We have launched 20 email newsletters to engage directly with audiences in particular areas of interest, ranging from “Essential California,” which provides the daily pulse of California, to “Counter Intelligence,” Jonathan Gold’s weekly sample of food and culture in Los Angeles, to “Water and Power,” the definitive source for information about the drought.  Several of the newsletters have more than 100,000 subscribers and a few have open rates as high as 50%--far better than the industry average.  Sponsors are finding these newsletters the ideal way to reach an engaged, target audience.


These verticals, or communities of interest, serve as the foundation of a plan to both identify a digital audience and generate revenue from these readers’ deep engagement with our journalism.  In the digital world, more and more people are gathering their news and information from multiple sources.  If the Times is to succeed, it must become very good at developing these verticals.  We are off to an auspicious start.  The recently launched “Education Matters,” will soon be followed by a California politics vertical and a groundbreaking effort to discuss race, diversity, and multiculturalism in our country, #EmergingUS.


The Times has made strides in reengaging with the local community.  HS Insider, a program to allow high school students to chronicle their daily journeys, has over 100 schools participating with a student population of over 100,000.  College Connection offers effectively free subscriptions to college students.  The Publisher’s Book Club has gathered around the city some of the Times’ most loyal readers to hear from authors ranging from the Times’ own Jill Leovy on her thought-provoking work “Ghettoside” to Roy Choi sharing stories of his journey in “L.A. Son.”


I am particularly proud the leadership at the Times has begun to better reflect the community we serve.  Among the changes, the Times now has its first female Managing Editor, its first Latino Sports Editor, and “Black Twitter” is an assigned beat.  Plans are underway to publish more content in Spanish and a partnership is being developed to serve the needs of a Chinese-speaking audience in the US and in China.


As a business, we have worked to regain momentum after a decade of turbulence.  A new leadership team is in place, including people to help support our advertisers in new and creative ways. Based on the feedback from an event the sales team hosted recently where sportscaster Al Michaels shared his thoughts about the world of sports with our top advertisers, they are making real progress.


We have managed to find resources to invest in new ideas, new products, and new people while keeping spending within our budget.  More broadly, we have conceived and executed on the strategic combination between the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune.  This will allow more efficient use of resources at both papers, freeing up money to invest in the digital future and enhancing the chances of both papers to survive.  The combination is ahead of plan and on budget.  It also positions the newly formed California News Group, of which the Times and Union-Tribune are part, as the news leader in the  Southern California marketplace—becoming the place where 25 million people from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border look first for news and information about the world around them.


The newspaper industry will have to change more in the next five years than it has in the last 20.  The fat and redundancies bred over a generation by print monopolies with thick sections of classified ads and full-page print ads are gone.  Cost-cutting alone is not a path to survival in the face of continued declines in print revenue and fierce competition in the digital world.  New sources of revenue will have to be developed and no single one will be the answer.  Newspapers must recognize their strength lies in high-quality content developed by world-class journalists with the tools they need to be successful.  Successful digital media organizations will have fewer managers and corporate executives, choosing instead to invest in journalists and technologists.


When I agreed to take this job, many people told me it was an impossible task.  Why take on the challenge?  For me, the choice was easy.  I could not imagine Los Angeles without a vibrant LA Times.  I still can’t.


It has been a privilege to serve in this role and work with all of you.  Thank you for your hard work and support and your continuing belief in the Los Angeles Times and what it means to our community.


California is where America comes to see its future and the place where that story begins is the Los Angeles Times.


I will continue to root for you to succeed.

The Fat Lady Sings! What the Los Angeles Times Has to Say About Publisher Austin Beutner Being Fired

Normally, I would never publish a full new story, but due to the... fluidness...of the situation, I feel it is important to preserve exactly what is being said at this moment  AND - if you want the whole story - scroll down to the three posts immediately preceding this one.

Austin Beutner is out as L.A. Times publisher


Tribune Publishing Co., parent of the Los Angeles Times, has fired Austin Beutner, the civic leader and former Wall Street investment banker who became publisher and chief executive of the newspaper last year.
Tribune executives met with Beutner on Tuesday morning.
A Tribune spokesman declined to comment on the firing or on who would succeed Beutner.
Within the past few weeks, Los Angeles philanthropist Eli Broad approached Tribune with an offer to purchase the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune and operate the two papers as a separate company. The proposal was rejected.

Beutner had engineered Tribune’s purchase of the San Diego paper in May, part of a strategy to consolidate Southern California newspapers under common ownership as a way to reduce production and distribution costs and generate revenue for digital initiatives. The two papers comprised the newly formed California News Group under Beutner.
Beutner, 55, was named publisher of The Times in August 2014. In seeking to offset the decline of print advertising revenue, he launched multiple initiatives: email newsletters on topics such as the California drought, public events centered on Times journalism and coverage initiatives known as “verticals,” narrowly focused on such subjects as public education and California politics.
Beutner said these ventures were intended to develop an audience of regular, deeply engaged visitors to latimes.com, the paper’s website, in the belief that advertisers would pay more to reach passionate “communities of interest.”
Beutner surrounded himself with outside talent, often from the world of Los Angeles and national politics. His hires included Benjamin Chang, a former U.S. Foreign Service officer who had worked at the National Security Council; Johanna Maska, who served in the White House Press Office under President Obama; and Nicco Mele, an Internet strategist and entrepreneur who served as the digital advisor to former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign.
Chang was brought in to organize public events for The Times, Maska is vice president for communications and Mele is deputy publisher, responsible for various digital initiatives.
The Chicago Tribune, one of the newspapers within Tribune Publishing, reported Tuesday morning that leaders of the company were unhappy with the financial performance of The Times and with Beutner’s high-profile hires.
During Beutner’s 13 months as publisher, The Times won two Pulitzer Prizes — for cultural criticism and for feature writing — along with other national journalism awards for coverage of the California drought, the plight of Mexican farm workers and other stories. The California Newspaper Publishers Assn. awarded The Times its 2015 general excellence award.
Beutner, a New York native who grew up in Michigan, graduated from Dartmouth College in 1982 with a degree in economics and went to work as a financial analyst for Smith Barney. He later joined the Blackstone Group in New York, one of the world’s largest private equity firms, and at 29 became its youngest partner.
In the mid-1990s, he co-founded the New York investment banking firm Evercore Partners. He moved to Los Angeles in 2000 in conjunction with the company’s expansion.
When Evercore went public in 2006, Beutner reportedly made more than $100 million — a figure he did not dispute but declined to confirm.
In 2007, Beutner broke his neck after misjudging a turn while bicycling in the Santa Monica Mountains and was airlifted to a hospital. It took him a year to make a full recovery. He left Evercore and poured his energies into civic and philanthropic pursuits.
In 2010, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appointed Beutner deputy mayor of economic development, or “jobs czar,” overseeing 13 city departments and the Port of Los Angeles. He helped to streamline the business-permitting process and led the effort to pass a tax break to lure companies to Los Angeles.
Beutner accepted a $1-a-year salary and held the job for 15 months. In April 2011, he filed papers to explore a run for mayor. Espousing a business-friendly platform, he was critical of City Hall, at one point calling it a “barnyard.”
He dropped out of the race after a year, saying he wanted to spend more time with his wife, Virginia, and their four children.
Beutner served as co-chairman of the Los Angeles 2020 Commission, a panel of business, labor and civic leaders created to propose solutions to the city’s budget problems and ways to spur job growth.
In 2013, Beutner explored a possible purchase of The Times.
He was appointed publisher a week after Tribune Co. spun off the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and eight other daily papers into a stand-alone company, Tribune Publishing Co.
Beutner was the 14th publisher in the newspaper's history.

New Publisher of Los Angeles Times - Tribune Insider Tim Ryan Currently of the Baltimore Sun

Here is the story on the latest Los Angeles Times publisher - and look at my two prior posts to see what happened to current LAT publisher - Austin Beutner




 Baltimore Sun publisher Tim Ryan will lead the L.A. Times and San Diego Union-Tribune
Baltimore Sun Media Group publisher Timothy E. Ryan has been tapped to lead the Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune, sources said Tuesday.


The promotion comes after Tribune Publishing, the parent company for all three papers, dismissed the California newspapers' chief, Austin Beutner, according to the sources familiar with the matter. Beutner was hired in August 2014, a week after Tribune's newspapers became a separate, publicly traded company
Ryan's appointment as CEO and publisher of the papers and the California News Group is effective immediately. His boss, Denise Warren, is expected to name an interim publisher of The Baltimore Sun later today.
Beutner, a former deputy mayor in Los Angeles, was let go for lagging financial performance and a series of expensive, politically connected executive hires, sources said.
Ryan could not be reached for comment Tuesday morning.
 In 2007, he became publisher and chief executive of the Baltimore Sun Media Group, which includes The Baltimore Sun, The Aegis, Towson Times and other weekly newspapers and other products. He also served as publisher and chief executive of The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., since 2010.
Ryan saw The Sun through the recession, diversified its revenue sources with digital subscriptions as well as other initiatives, and acquired last year The Capital in Annapolis, the Carroll County Times and other area publications and websites.
Before joining Tribune, Ryan held executive and management positions at The Chicago Tribune and The Philadelphia Inquirer. He grew up in Rochester, N.Y., and earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame and a master's degree in business administration from Northwestern University.
Tribune Publishing was spun off as a separate company from Tribune Company's broadcast holdings last year. The new company has been seeking to bolster flagging print advertising revenues with acqusitions, cost-cutting and a greater focus on its web presence.
It acquired the San Diego Union-Tribune in May for $85 million and named Beutner its publisher.








It's Offical Now! Chicago Tribune Announces Austin Beutner Has Been Fired as Publisher of the Los Angeles Times.

(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
It turns out that Beutner's getting ready to run for office may have had as much to do with his firing as did his policies in running the paper.  And before you read the 'official' story for the firng below - you might want to first read the unofficial/real story behind the firing.
And then come back and read the official story that starts below.
After just more than a year on the job, Tribune Publishing dismisses Los Angeles Times publisher Austin Beutner.
by Robert Channick Chicago Tribune
In a major newspaper industry shakeup, Austin Beutner was fired Monday as publisher and CEO of the Los Angeles Times and San Diego Union-Tribune, sources close to the situation said.Beutner, who had been heading up the largest newspaper in the Chicago-based Tribune Publishing chain, was let go for what sources said was lagging financial performance and a series of expensive executive hires seen by some as a prelude to a potential political run for the city's former deputy mayor.


No successor has been named, according to sources, leaving the California News Group in limbo as Tribune Publishing looks to realign those operations with its broader portfolio, where the Chicago Tribune and other properties have outperformed it financially.
A spokesman for Tribune Publishing declined to comment Monday morning.
Beutner was named to his post in August 2014, one week after Tribune Publishing spun off from Tribune Media as a standalone newspaper company under CEO Jack Griffin.
In May, Tribune Publishing, which owns 11 daily newspapers, acquired the San Diego Union-Tribune for $85 million and put both operations under Beutner. Sources said Monday that Tribune Publishing was unhappy with financial performance of the two brands, specifically the Los Angeles Times, which represents a third of the company's revenue.
A number of Beutner's high-profile hires didn't sit well with Tribune Publishing, especially those with political undertones.
Last November, Internet strategist Nicco Mele, who helped move political campaigning into the digital era, was named deputy publisher of the Los Angeles Times. Johanna Maska, who served in various roles with the Obama administration, was named vice president of marketing and communications at the Los Angeles Times in April.
Those hires fueled speculation that Beutner was setting himself up for another political run, perhaps for governorship of California, sources said.
Advertising revenue continues to fall for the Chicago-based newspaper company, which is seeking to bolster operations through acquisitions, cost-cutting and an aggressive digital transformation. The San Diego acquisition was driven by Tribune Publishing, but sources said leadership not satisfied with Beutner's execution on that strategy.
The rest of the story is here.

Why Los Angeles Times Publisher Austin Beutner Is - Reportedly - Being Fired by The Tribune Company


And the Tribune's decision to fire Austin Beutner is not due to one or two reasons - but a half-dozen reasons according to Ken Doctor over at Politico. They include everything from declining revenues and profits - to a reported - rejected - bid by Eli Broad to buy  paper - to Beutner's thoughts about running for governor and to his supposed lack of being a team player.  Here is the opening of the article:

Tribune to fire L.A. Times publisher Austin Beutner




tribune-fire-la-times-publisher-austin-beutner
Austin Beutner. (LAX Coastal Chamber of Commerce)
Tribune Publishing will announce Tuesday the termination of highly regarded L.A. Times publisher Austin Beutner, I’ve learned.
Beutner’s leave-taking may be announced as a resignation. The firing is an unexpected one, though one built on long-brewing differences between Beutner and his boss Tribune Publishing CEO Jack Griffin. It also follows quickly on Tribune Publishing’s rejection of overtures from a would-be buyer for the Times, an acquisition that would have taken the Times private. The firing and sales overture rejection are not unrelated.
Tribune Publishing told me it wouldn’t publicly comment on the unfolding events, nor would others involved.
Beutner’s quick departure — just one year after Griffin appointed him to the job, and just four months after Tribune’s acquisition of the San Diego Union-Tribune and the subsequent creation of the “California News Group” — should send shockwaves through the news publishing world.
And there's a lot more about the possible future of the LA Times right here.


Friday, September 04, 2015

At my father's funeral today, every story told was the same....

.....the story of a man who dedicated  his 92 years of life to helping other people.

Thursday, September 03, 2015

My Facebook Feed Says: Millenials are the New Ben Franklins - But 15 Minutes Later It Claims - America Has Lost Track of Ben Franklin's Values

So who exactly are we supposed to believe?  Clearly, someone has missed the weekly talking points MMM memo on Ben Franklin's relevance to our times for The Huffington Post to so proudly proclaim:

The Stunning Evolution of Millennials: They've Become the Ben Franklin Generation

 At the same time The Atlantic sadly bemoans:

How America Lost Track of Ben

Franklin's Definition of Success


Or - should you take the chance they might each have something to say - and read them both as they they examine much - but not all - the same evidence - and from similar political points of view - and yet manage to come to often quite different opinions.

Wednesday, September 02, 2015

Los Angeles Unveils 3 Major Arts Events in 3 Weeks - 1 Visual, 1 Performing and 1 Musical & Performing

Los Angeles may not be the corporate headquarters it used to be - but it's more than making up for that by increasingly becoming a major center for all the arts - visual and performing and everything else.. And today - within days of the opening of the Broad Museum on Grand Avenue on Bunker Hill, the LA Philharmonic - right next door in Disney Hall and also on Grand Avenue on Bunker Hill  - has appointed Yuval Sharon - the founder and Artistic Director of the LA-based opera company - The Industry - as an Artist-Collaborator for a three-year residency beginning in Fall 2016. And this happened just days after the Broad Stage in Santa Monica brought a major new talent to LA by appointing Wiley Hausam at its new artistic director.

Tuesday, September 01, 2015

Los Angeles City Council Approves Olympic's Contract and the USOC Makes Los Angeles the Official US Candidate for the 2024 Olympics



And now the real work starts of convincing  the world that Los Angeles should become the first city to host a third Olympics games.  And the story in Reuters makes it clear the IOC wants to have a strong bid fror the Olympics by the United States.


Boston's removal from the 2024 race proved an embarrassment for both the USOC and IOC, which has seen a troubling drop in cities interested in hosting a Games.
After four different candidates from Europe bidding for the 2022 Winter Games dropped out, mostly because of concerns over costs, the IOC was left with a choice between unlikely bids from Beijing and Almaty, Kazakhstan, before finally settling on the Chinese capital.
The IOC made it clear that it expected the U.S. to bid for the 2024 Games and at recent meetings in Kuala Lumpur did not hide its disappointment over the Boston fiasco.
Rio de Janeiro will host the Summer Games next year with Tokyo holding the event for a second time in 2020.

And the entire story from Reuters is here,

A Young Family Desperately Needs a One Bedroom or Large Studio Very Short Term Rental Anywhere in Central Los Angeles

A friend of mine works in Downtown Los Angeles and he and his wife and a one and a three year old have been living in a $700 month large studio when the landlord made some changes to the three buildings which made my friend's unit technically uninhabitable.  When thatwas discovered, building and safety called social services and removed their kids from the unit.  But they were told this was a problem they had not caused  - and that the minute they had a legal residence - they would be returned to them
The wife is also pregnant right now and this is hugely stressful to them both.  So as much as they need longer term housing - right know they desperately a short term rental s - even 2 or 3 months so they can be reunited with their kids.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

BradyWestwater
213-804-8396