.... join me at the 01 Gallery for a new opening curated by Retna! .... Undisputed Champions, featuring the work of Sam Fuchs and Adam Gray. It is the first official opening at O1's new space on South Hewitt Street in the Barker Block Lofts. The opening will run from 6 pm until 10 pm. So come on down, get some refreshments, listen to some music, and check out the art!
To get a feel for Sam and Adam's work, go to them on the web at www.hellamorefunner.com.
Also, there will be an after party at LaCita Bar in downtown Los Angeles after the opening. They are located at 336 S. Hill St. Go to their web site for directions, etc: www.lacitabar.com. Oh, and if you mention the 01 Gallery you get into the bar for FREE!
Contact Information
01 Gallery
530 S. Hewitt St., Suite 141
Los Angeles, CA 90013
phone: 213.689.0101
web: www.01gallery.com
Saturday, August 16, 2008
BOXeight Opens New Gallery Tonight!
BOXeight Studios is celebrating the grand opening of their new, permanent space Downtown with a big ol' party tonight. Head down to check out the inaugural exhibit, featuring Dirk Mai, Peter Eaton Gurnz, Marc Mez, Ben Cope, Urk Denman, Alie Ward, Mike Vensel, Bryden Lando, Casino Nelson Berto H, Soo Yong Kim, Jerry Park/Tara Jean, Marco Rached, and Valou, and live performances from Chester French, Crooked Cowboys & The Fresh Water Indians, and Nite Jewel, along with DJs Keith 2.0 and Cam Francisco.
Why The Los Angeles Times Has No Street Cred!
The headline on the morning version of the LAT website was:
But until this moment in time no one has ever claimed that South Western is in Windsor Square - which both headlines do - nor has South Western ever been described as being even in the Windsor Square area. And the only way I can imagine it being called that is if someone picked up a Thomas Guide and looked for the coolest name anywhere near this site and said - well, that works for me!
Now what makes this particular error so embarrassing for the Times is that just two nights ago at a panel discussion on the Times I sat on - the civic tragedy that the reporters and editors of the Times don't even know the streets or the neighborhoods of the city they are supposedly covering was the single most shameful problem at the Times.
And this proves - if anything - we considerably understated the problem.
2 found dead in burned building in Windsor SquareNow why would it use the term 'building' when Windsor Square is 100% single family homes. Then came the headline:
2 charred bodies found at Windsor Square fire sceneWestern Avenue is in Windsor Square?? Then the story:
More than 100 Los Angeles city firefighters worked to control the blaze at a skin-care business on Western Avenue.
By Jia-Rui Chong, Los Angeles Times Staff WriterNow as anyone in this city knows - or should know - 400 S. Western is in the heart of Koreatown. It also used to be called Mid-Wilshire and it has had a couple other names since then. The area between this neighborhood and Windsor Square has also had several names of its own.
11:23 AM PDT, August 16, 2008
Two charred bodies were found early today after a fire in a skin-care business in the Windsor Square area, Los Angeles Fire Department officials said. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.
The fire broke about 2:30 a.m. on the 400 block of South Western Avenue, said department spokeswoman d'Lisa Davies. Authorities were alerted to the blaze by a 911 call from a nearby building, she said. More than 100 firefighters worked for 38 minutes to bring the fire under control.
But until this moment in time no one has ever claimed that South Western is in Windsor Square - which both headlines do - nor has South Western ever been described as being even in the Windsor Square area. And the only way I can imagine it being called that is if someone picked up a Thomas Guide and looked for the coolest name anywhere near this site and said - well, that works for me!
Now what makes this particular error so embarrassing for the Times is that just two nights ago at a panel discussion on the Times I sat on - the civic tragedy that the reporters and editors of the Times don't even know the streets or the neighborhoods of the city they are supposedly covering was the single most shameful problem at the Times.
And this proves - if anything - we considerably understated the problem.
More On New Publisher Of LA Times!
Eddy Hartenstein may be the perfect publisher for the Los Angeles Times - at least on paper. And I've had some time to check him out though mutual acquaintances since Nikki Finke first floated his name over two weeks ago.
Hartenstein comes from the generation that reads/read newspapers, but he is also an innovator in electronic data delivery. He has an engineering background - which creates the problem solving mind needed to tackle the myriad of issues facing the newspaper industry, but he is also very much a people person according to everyone I've spoken with.
He was also born (I believe, but need to confirm), raised and schooled in Los Angeles.
He is also very, very bright.
Hartenstein comes from the generation that reads/read newspapers, but he is also an innovator in electronic data delivery. He has an engineering background - which creates the problem solving mind needed to tackle the myriad of issues facing the newspaper industry, but he is also very much a people person according to everyone I've spoken with.
He was also born (I believe, but need to confirm), raised and schooled in Los Angeles.
He is also very, very bright.
L.A. Times names Eddy Hartenstein to publisher's post
The former DirecTV chief must contend with steep declines in circulation and advertising revenues.
By Martin Zimmerman
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 16, 2008
Eddy Hartenstein, the former head of satellite television provider DirecTV, will become the new publisher of the Los Angeles Times on Monday.
Hartenstein said Friday that he would fill the post vacated when publisher David Hiller resigned July 14, the same day parent company Tribune Co. began implementing the latest round of staff cutbacks at the paper.
Hartenstein takes over at a time when The Times and most other newspapers are losing readers and advertising revenue at a significant rate. Some observers are even questioning whether the newspaper business as currently constituted can survive.
"I'm not coming into this with blinders on," said Hartenstein, 57. "I realize that the problems are huge and daunting, but I don't believe there's anything that can't be fixed as long as everyone is pulling in the same direction."
An avid reader of The Times since his boyhood in Alhambra, he said, "I love challenges. I love complex issues and problems, and this certainly met all that."
Sam Zell, who has led Tribune since taking the Chicago-based media company private last December, approached the former satellite TV executive about becoming publisher about a month ago, said Hartenstein, who met Zell for the first time last fall.
After mulling it over and doing some research -- which included a 3 1/2 -hour lunch with Times Editor Russ Stanton -- Hartenstein agreed to take the job.
"I wanted to know that I would have the ability . . . to call the shots," said Hartenstein, who said his new boss made no demands concerning future staff cuts. Zell "basically said, 'You're the publisher and CEO. It's yours to run,' and that was pretty much it."
Hartenstein said he also sought assurances that Zell had no intention to simply "dress up the paper for a sale."
"One of the questions I asked Sam was: Are you going to keep this?" Hartenstein said. The answer "was a strong, affirmative 'Yes. This is a keeper.' "
The Times has been particularly hard hit by the current turmoil in the newspaper industry. Its daily circulation has tumbled from a peak of 1.2 million in the early 1990s to about 774,000 this year while advertising revenue has slumped. Traffic to the paper's website, at latimes.com, has increased sharply in recent years but that has not offset the declines in advertising.
Management turnover has accompanied the circulation decline. Hartenstein will be The Times' fourth publisher since Tribune acquired the paper in 2000. The paper has had four editors since 2005. Hartenstein said he had "no intention of changing the editor of the Los Angeles Times."
His appointment continues Zell's tendency to name former executives from electronic media to positions within Tribune, including Chief Operating Officer Randy Michaels, a former radio executive.
Friends and associates say Hartenstein, regarded by many as the father of the satellite TV industry, combines the analytical thinking of a Caltech-educated engineer -- which he is -- with the people skills needed to lead a complex, consumer-oriented organization, which he also happens to have done.
"He'll meet you once and he won't forget your name, he won't forget what you do -- and he'll care about all of that," said Stanley E. Hubbard, chief executive of Hubbard Media Group in St. Paul, Minn., who has worked with Hartenstein in the past. "It's a very refreshing way for a senior leader to be."
He left a positive impression at the Glendora offices of the National Hot Rod Assn., which was working with an investment group headed by Hartenstein on a $121-million deal to turn the drag racing organization into a mini-NASCAR. The deal abruptly fell apart in February after 18 months of work. With the credit crisis on Wall Street worsening by the day, what had seemed a good deal a year earlier was no longer viable.
"The market conditions were the driving force behind it not happening," said association President Tom Compton, who worked with Hartenstein and his investors. "Those guys are very bright guys. If they couldn't get it done, I'm not sure who could've."
It was a rare setback for Hartenstein, whose career path has been mostly upward. After graduating from Cal Poly Pomona in 1972 with degrees in math and aerospace engineering, he went to work for El Segundo-based Hughes Electronics Corp., a defense contractor and satellite maker that was later acquired by General Motors Corp.
While pursuing a master's in applied mechanics at Caltech in his spare time, Hartenstein was moving up the ladder at Hughes and germinating an idea that would shake up the television industry: using satellites and digital technologies to deliver programming to viewers' homes. Not only would the sound and picture be sharper, satellite TV would make an end run around local cable monopolies, he reasoned.
In the early '90s, Hartenstein persuaded his bosses at GM to finance the venture that would become DirecTV Group Inc. In 1994, DirecTV revolutionized the satellite TV business when it introduced a small receiving dish that could be mounted on a rooftop or apartment balcony, eliminating the need for the wading-pool-sized backyard dishes that had been the standard until then.
The innovation helped win over reluctant consumers and also gave DirecTV a leg up on rivals. Hartenstein, who had been president of DirecTV since its inception and was named chairman and CEO in 2001, distinguished the pioneering medium from its cable competitors by improving customer service and offering innovative packages of sports programming.
By the time he left at the end of 2004, a year after GM sold its stake in DirecTV to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., the company was among the nation's top pay television providers, with 13.9 million subscribers.
Associates say DirecTV's growth illustrates Hartenstein's ability to combine technical innovation with customer-oriented initiatives, shedding when necessary the numbers-driven, pocket-protector persona generally associated with engineers to focus on the commercial aspects of the business.
Other than the failed deal with the drag-racing group, Hartenstein has kept a fairly low profile since leaving DirecTV, serving on the boards of SanDisk Corp., XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc., Broadcom Corp. and the City of Hope hospital in Duarte.
Although well known in the industry (he's a member of the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame and received a lifetime achievement Emmy last year), Hartenstein isn't exactly a household name. The Wikipedia page for Alhambra High School doesn't even list him on the roster of notable alums, which includes model Cheryl Tiegs and Hillary Rodham Clinton's mother.
"He doesn't go to the annual gatherings of industry big shots," said Brian Lamb, CEO of C-SPAN and a longtime friend. "He's not a high roller."
Whether Hartenstein's success at building a business from scratch translates to a declining industry that's under assault from a range of newly sprouted competitors remains to be seen. Those who have worked with him say he's adept at choosing effective lieutenants, which could help compensate for his lack of publishing experience.
"Eddy knows what he knows and he knows what he doesn't know," said Compton of the National Hot Rod Assn.
Efforts to reinvent the traditional daily paper so far have failed to gain traction with subscribers, advertisers or investors. At The Times, in addition to halting the slide in circulation, Hartenstein will need to lure advertisers back to the paper and to the website and shore up a demoralized staff.
Even so, those who know Hartenstein don't expect him to make changes impulsively.
"Eddy's not a guy to panic," said Joe Clayton, former chairman of Sirius Satellite Radio. "When things get difficult, he remains calm. He'll assess the situation, get a consensus and then make an appropriate decision."
martin.zimmerman@latimes.com
Here is Nikki Finke's Original Post Back on July 29th!
Also go to the above link to see the comments on her post.
Rocket Scientist New LA Times Publisher?
EXCLUSIVE: Reliable sources tell me that Eddy Hartenstein, the ex-chief of DirecTV, is under serious consideration to be the new Los Angeles Times publisher, replacing David Hiller who was fired this month. A deal for him isn't done yet but he's first choice on the short list. The 57-year-old rocket scientist (yes, really) is a name well-known to Hollywood since he was the Big Kahuna in the development of modern-day satellite television, serving as DirecTV's CEO, chairman, vice chairman and president from the company's inception in 1990 until 2004 when he left after Rupert Murdoch's News Corp bought the company. OK, so why Hartenstein for LA Times publisher?
I'm told it's because he understands subscription-based product and new media distribution after taking DirecTV from zero to 12.5 million subscribers despite facing very stiff competition from cable. Hiring Hartenstein would seem to be a smart move on the part of Tribune Co owner Sam Zell. But why is Hartenstein jumping on board journalism's equivalent of the Titanic? "He doesn't need a job, he needs an adventure," one source explained to me. "He's looking for the next bounce." Hartenstein also served in senior executive positions at the satellite-based communications provider Hughes Communications and Equatorial Communications Services Company, a provider of telephony and data distribution services. Hartenstein was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame in 2002 and received an Emmy for lifetime achievement from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 2007.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Thursday, August 14, 2008
LA Cowboy On Future Of The LA Times Panel Tonight!
It starts at 7 PM at the main Library Downtown and seats are stand-by only - but speakers will be set up in the courtyard for the overflow crowd. Further details at the above link.
Thu, Aug 14, 7 PM
Los Angeles Without the Los Angeles Times?
A Community Forum & Panel Discussion
George Kieffer, Robin M. Kramer, Geneva Overholser,
Kevin Roderick, Joel Sappell,
Brady Westwater and
David Lauter, LA Times Editor
Moderated by Kit Rachlis,
Los Angeles magazine
Sneak Preview of 01's 'Undisputed Champions' Art Show On Tonight's Art Walk!
If you want to see the a preview of the hot new show starring Adam Gray and Sam Fuchs premiering at 01 Gallery this Saturday, get yourself down to the Spring Arts Tower (209 West 5th Street at Spring) any time from noon today until 8:30 PM today. This preview will then take a break for 90 minutes of free Comedy Walk shows; the art show will then resume at 10 until 11 pm. It's not often I get excited by a new artist, but these two recent UCLA graduates have one of the best debut shows I have seen in many seasons.
More on the Saturday opening below:
More on the Saturday opening below:
Saturday August 16th at the 01 Gallery we are having a new opening curated by Retna! Undisputed Champions, featuring the work of Sam Fuchs and Adam Gray, will be the first official opening at our new space on 530 South Hewitt Street Suite 141 in the Barker Block Lofts. The opening will run from 6 pm until 10 pm. So come on down, get some refreshments, listen to some music, and check out the art!
To get a feel for Sam and Adam's work, go to them on the web at www.hellamorefunner.com.
Also, we will be having an after party at LaCita Bar in downtown Los Angeles after the opening. They are located at 336 S. Hill St. Go to their web site for directions, etc: www.lacitabar.com. Oh, and if you mention the 01 Gallery you get into the bar for FREE!
See you next Saturday!
Love,
Everyone at the 01
Contact Information
01 Gallery
530 S. Hewitt St., Suite 141
Los Angeles, CA 90013
phone: 213.689.0101
web: www.01gallery.com
Downtown FREE Comedy Walk TONIGHT At Farmer's and Merchant's Bank, LATC and Spring Arts Tower!
* Get your FREE TICKET at www.ComedyWalk.com or just come to the LATC Theatre.
* Thursday, August 14th, 2008, 8:30pm-10pm
COMEDY WALK is the biggest monthly comedy show in the world. It's like speed-dating with comedians! As seen in The Onion. A Los Angeles Times "Best Bet". A Hollywood Today selection. Featured performers this month include Courtney Ca, Mary Kennedy and Bill Word. Two dozen comedy acts. Six simultaneous 90-minute shows.
COMEDY WALK #8 is at the New LATC Theatre, 514 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, and nearby venues. Different acts and different venues each month. Another performer every ten minutes on six stages. Print the 1-page PDF program with schedule at www.ComedyWalk.com.
This Month's Venues and Hosts:
Venue #1
Host: James Edward Moorer
Tom Bradley Theatre
The New LATC
514 S. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90013
500-seat theater
Venue #2
Host: Corey Blake
Lobby Theater
80-seat cabaret
The New LATC
514 S. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90013
Venue #3
Host: Milka Munoz
The Farmers Room
Farmers & Merchants Bank
Across from Pete's Cafe
401 S. Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
1,500-sq.ft
Venue #4
Host: Dennis Neder
The Onion Room
Spring Arts Tower
205 W. 5th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
1,400 sq. ft. SRO
Venue #5
Host:
The Chicken Room
Spring Arts Tower
211 W. 5th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
1,000-sq.ft SRO
Venue #6
Host: Gabrielle Pantera
Underground Vault
The New LATC
514 S. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90013
600 sq. ft. SRO
This Month's Comedians:
1. Kacey Arnold - The Comedy Union, one of the faces of Big Lots - www.kaceyarnold.com
2. Aurelio Miguel Bocanegra myspace.com/aureliomiguelbocanegra
3. Courtney Ca - Norma Jean's Downtown Comedy www.courtneyca.com
4. Jason Dudey - Hosts GaysRUs @ Hollywood Improv. www.jasondudey.com
5. Celeste Davis - myspace.com/theofficialcelestedavis
6. Brian Farrell - www.myspace.com/65047864
7. Grace Fraga - Laugh Factory, Comedy Store. www.gracefraga.com
8. Chris Gehrt - The Comedy Store, The Hollywood Improv, The Ice House, Club Aura www.youtube.com/ChrisGehrt
9. Sean Green - Comedy Garage. www.myspace.com/seantgreen
10. Keith Healy - Ice House www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oN5njOr5BM
11. Paul Jacek - Las Vegas Riviera Hotel and Casino, Comedy Store, founding member of Gay and Lesbian Night/Sunset La Jolla www.pauljacek.com
12. Gayla Johnson - BET Comic View, The Comedy Store, The Laugh Factory, The Ice House - www.GaylaJohnson.net
13. Mary Kennedy - Comedy Central, USA Network, Spike TV, the Laugh Factory, Bonkerz, Rooster T. Feathers, Rascals, Caroline's NYC, The Comic Strip, Stand Up New York. www.marykennedy.info
14. Stogie Kenyatta - USO comedy tour in Tokyo, Japan and Okinawa www.stogiekenyatta.com
15. Carl Kozlowski - Laugh Factory, The Comedy Store, The Ice House, Comedytime - www.americasfunniestreporter.com
16. Bruno Lucia - www.brunolucia.com
17. Stevie Mack - Steviemack@Night airing daily at www.steviemack.com
18. Lisa Mesa - Laugh Factory, Westside Eclectic, Ha Ha Comedy Club - http://lisamesa.blogspot.com
19. The Mooney Twins (Daryl and Dwayne) - BET Comic View, Montel Williams - www.mooneytwinsnetwork.com
20. Clarinda Morales www.myspace.com/clarindiva
21. Maury Rogow - Entourage, Style Network host, Oceans 13, HaHa, Improv, Comedy Store
www.youtube.com/mrogow2
22. Alicia Simmons - The Comedy Store, The Comedy Union, The Laugh Factory, The Ice House www.myspace.com/aliciadsimmons
23. Alysia Wood - National Lampoon Comedy Radio myspace.com/alysiawood
24. Jon Wilson - The Ha Ha Cafe, La Jolla Comedy Store, The Tonight Show's Jay Walking segment - www.myspace.com/jwilsoncomedy
25. Bill Word - National Lampoon Comedy Radio www.killerkomedy.com
SPECIAL THANKS to Jose Luis Valenzuela, Mark Friedman, and William Flores of The New LATC, Paul Su of Spring Arts Tower, Tom Gilmore of the Old Bank District and Brady Westwater of the Historic Downtown Los Angeles Business Improvement District (BID). For the City of Los Angeles: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, District 9 Councilwoman Jan Perry. For the Cultural Affairs Department: Executive Director Olga Garay, Assistant General Manager Saul Romo.
A big thank you to the many volunteers who make COMEDY WALK possible as a FREE event!
Executive Producer Robin Rowe, Casting Director Gabrielle Pantera, Associate Producer Hillary Layman, A production of MovieEditor.com.
* Thursday, August 14th, 2008, 8:30pm-10pm
COMEDY WALK is the biggest monthly comedy show in the world. It's like speed-dating with comedians! As seen in The Onion. A Los Angeles Times "Best Bet". A Hollywood Today selection. Featured performers this month include Courtney Ca, Mary Kennedy and Bill Word. Two dozen comedy acts. Six simultaneous 90-minute shows.
COMEDY WALK #8 is at the New LATC Theatre, 514 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, and nearby venues. Different acts and different venues each month. Another performer every ten minutes on six stages. Print the 1-page PDF program with schedule at www.ComedyWalk.com.
This Month's Venues and Hosts:
Venue #1
Host: James Edward Moorer
Tom Bradley Theatre
The New LATC
514 S. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90013
500-seat theater
Venue #2
Host: Corey Blake
Lobby Theater
80-seat cabaret
The New LATC
514 S. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90013
Venue #3
Host: Milka Munoz
The Farmers Room
Farmers & Merchants Bank
Across from Pete's Cafe
401 S. Main Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
1,500-sq.ft
Venue #4
Host: Dennis Neder
The Onion Room
Spring Arts Tower
205 W. 5th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
1,400 sq. ft. SRO
Venue #5
Host:
The Chicken Room
Spring Arts Tower
211 W. 5th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
1,000-sq.ft SRO
Venue #6
Host: Gabrielle Pantera
Underground Vault
The New LATC
514 S. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90013
600 sq. ft. SRO
This Month's Comedians:
1. Kacey Arnold - The Comedy Union, one of the faces of Big Lots - www.kaceyarnold.com
2. Aurelio Miguel Bocanegra myspace.com/aureliomiguelbocanegra
3. Courtney Ca - Norma Jean's Downtown Comedy www.courtneyca.com
4. Jason Dudey - Hosts GaysRUs @ Hollywood Improv. www.jasondudey.com
5. Celeste Davis - myspace.com/theofficialcelestedavis
6. Brian Farrell - www.myspace.com/65047864
7. Grace Fraga - Laugh Factory, Comedy Store. www.gracefraga.com
8. Chris Gehrt - The Comedy Store, The Hollywood Improv, The Ice House, Club Aura www.youtube.com/ChrisGehrt
9. Sean Green - Comedy Garage. www.myspace.com/seantgreen
10. Keith Healy - Ice House www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oN5njOr5BM
11. Paul Jacek - Las Vegas Riviera Hotel and Casino, Comedy Store, founding member of Gay and Lesbian Night/Sunset La Jolla www.pauljacek.com
12. Gayla Johnson - BET Comic View, The Comedy Store, The Laugh Factory, The Ice House - www.GaylaJohnson.net
13. Mary Kennedy - Comedy Central, USA Network, Spike TV, the Laugh Factory, Bonkerz, Rooster T. Feathers, Rascals, Caroline's NYC, The Comic Strip, Stand Up New York. www.marykennedy.info
14. Stogie Kenyatta - USO comedy tour in Tokyo, Japan and Okinawa www.stogiekenyatta.com
15. Carl Kozlowski - Laugh Factory, The Comedy Store, The Ice House, Comedytime - www.americasfunniestreporter.com
16. Bruno Lucia - www.brunolucia.com
17. Stevie Mack - Steviemack@Night airing daily at www.steviemack.com
18. Lisa Mesa - Laugh Factory, Westside Eclectic, Ha Ha Comedy Club - http://lisamesa.blogspot.com
19. The Mooney Twins (Daryl and Dwayne) - BET Comic View, Montel Williams - www.mooneytwinsnetwork.com
20. Clarinda Morales www.myspace.com/clarindiva
21. Maury Rogow - Entourage, Style Network host, Oceans 13, HaHa, Improv, Comedy Store
www.youtube.com/mrogow2
22. Alicia Simmons - The Comedy Store, The Comedy Union, The Laugh Factory, The Ice House www.myspace.com/aliciadsimmons
23. Alysia Wood - National Lampoon Comedy Radio myspace.com/alysiawood
24. Jon Wilson - The Ha Ha Cafe, La Jolla Comedy Store, The Tonight Show's Jay Walking segment - www.myspace.com/jwilsoncomedy
25. Bill Word - National Lampoon Comedy Radio www.killerkomedy.com
SPECIAL THANKS to Jose Luis Valenzuela, Mark Friedman, and William Flores of The New LATC, Paul Su of Spring Arts Tower, Tom Gilmore of the Old Bank District and Brady Westwater of the Historic Downtown Los Angeles Business Improvement District (BID). For the City of Los Angeles: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, District 9 Councilwoman Jan Perry. For the Cultural Affairs Department: Executive Director Olga Garay, Assistant General Manager Saul Romo.
A big thank you to the many volunteers who make COMEDY WALK possible as a FREE event!
Executive Producer Robin Rowe, Casting Director Gabrielle Pantera, Associate Producer Hillary Layman, A production of MovieEditor.com.
Downtown + Broadway Streetcar Planning Workshop TODAY!
INTERACTIVE PLANNING WORKSHOP (CHARRETTE) ABOUT THE BROADWAY STREETCAR
Sponsored by Councilmember Jose' Huizar, Bringing Back Broadway, CRA/LA
and the IBI Group (The event, including lunch, is free)
WHEN
Thursday August 14
10am - 2:30pm
* Lunch will be provided mid-day
WHERE
The New LATC - Los Angeles Theatre Center
514 S. Spring Street
Downtown, Los Angeles 90013
INTERACTIVE WORKING / DISCUSSION GROUP TOPICS
* How a Broadway streetcar will integrate with a new Broadway
streetscape design
* How a Broadway streetcar will connect with other forms of transit
* How to make the most out of commercial paseos and pedestrian walkways
between Broadway and adjacent streets
* Ideas for the design of a streetcar maintenance facility
WHO
Downtown residents, city and public agency staff and experts, business
owners, property owners, employees and others who want to see downtown
thrive. All are welcome - the event (including lunch) is free of
charge!
PARKING
Parking is available at Joe's Auto Park, 530 South Spring and other
lots in the area.
Sponsored by Councilmember Jose' Huizar, Bringing Back Broadway, CRA/LA
and the IBI Group (The event, including lunch, is free)
WHEN
Thursday August 14
10am - 2:30pm
* Lunch will be provided mid-day
WHERE
The New LATC - Los Angeles Theatre Center
514 S. Spring Street
Downtown, Los Angeles 90013
INTERACTIVE WORKING / DISCUSSION GROUP TOPICS
* How a Broadway streetcar will integrate with a new Broadway
streetscape design
* How a Broadway streetcar will connect with other forms of transit
* How to make the most out of commercial paseos and pedestrian walkways
between Broadway and adjacent streets
* Ideas for the design of a streetcar maintenance facility
WHO
Downtown residents, city and public agency staff and experts, business
owners, property owners, employees and others who want to see downtown
thrive. All are welcome - the event (including lunch) is free of
charge!
PARKING
Parking is available at Joe's Auto Park, 530 South Spring and other
lots in the area.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
What Can You Believe In The LA Times? The Headline - Or The Story?
As is too often the case - the headline of a story in the Los Angeles Times - likely not written by the writer of the story - contradicts what the writer says in the story.
While the first headline says that inclusionary zoning is being approved today - it is not even being voted upon. All that is being voted upon are some very general policies that will lead to some kind of bill regarding inclusionary zoning likely being introduced later this year.
The second headline says that this alleged mandate 'would' require builders to include units for the poor - but the article - correctly - says this 'could' be required. The article also further states:
A law will be introduced and it may or may not pass and even if it passes, it may be radically different than what is being currently proposed. No one currently knows. But there are two things everyone - other than the editors of the LA Times - can agree upon. First, there is no law mandating inclusionary zoning being voted upon today. Second, exclusionary zoning is not being 'approved' today.
L.A. City Council expected to OK 'inclusionary zoning' today
The mandate would require builders to include units for the poor, thus making Los Angeles eligible for hundreds of millions of dollars in state housing bond funds.
By Jessica Garrison, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
10:26 AM PDT, August 13, 2008
New condominium projects in neighborhoods such as Brentwood, Studio City and other affluent parts of Los Angeles could be required to include units for very poor people if the City Council approves a new housing plan as expected today.
The commitment to a so-called inclusionary zoning law, which has been a contentious topic in Los Angeles for years, is part of a comprehensive housing plan that the city must adopt to be eligible for hundreds of millions of dollars in state housing bond funds.
The plan calls for the City Council to introduce a proposed law by the end of the year that would mandate developers build units for poor people.
While the first headline says that inclusionary zoning is being approved today - it is not even being voted upon. All that is being voted upon are some very general policies that will lead to some kind of bill regarding inclusionary zoning likely being introduced later this year.
The second headline says that this alleged mandate 'would' require builders to include units for the poor - but the article - correctly - says this 'could' be required. The article also further states:
Others warned the action would set the stage for a fight over the next few months as developers, advocates for the poor and other interested parties hash out the details.
A law will be introduced and it may or may not pass and even if it passes, it may be radically different than what is being currently proposed. No one currently knows. But there are two things everyone - other than the editors of the LA Times - can agree upon. First, there is no law mandating inclusionary zoning being voted upon today. Second, exclusionary zoning is not being 'approved' today.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
LA Times Confused by Difference Between the City Council and the Board of Supervisors!
L.A. City Council tells Delgadillo, Chick to simmer down
The board wants the city attorney and controller to 'cease' their court battle over an administrative audit.
By Phil Willon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
2:55 PM PDT, August 12, 2008
The Los Angeles City Council today asked City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo and Controller Laura Chick to "cease" their escalating court battle that was triggered when Chick launched an audit of Delgadillo's workers' compensation unit.
Council? Board? Council? None of the above?
Monday, August 11, 2008
Turns Out EVERYONE Had a Gmail Blackout!
From the New York Times:
August 11, 2008, 6:26 pm
A Modern-Day Blackout: Gmail Goes Dark
By Miguel Helft
UPDATED 6:35 p.m. After about 90 minutes, Gmail came back to life for most users.
My colleague Brad Stone recently wrote about the annoyances tied to persistent system outages at popular Web services of technology stalwarts like Amazon, Yahoo and Research in Motion. It’s now Google’s turn, as Gmail, the company’s popular Web e-mail service, has been down for a very large number of users for about an hour or so.
Type “mail.google.com” into http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ and you’ll get confirmation that if you have Gmail problems, you are not alone.
One of the best places to track the outage is Twitter. Users are venting their frustrations about Gmail being down — at a rate of 100 or so messages per minute. As a user who calls himself dashmybuttons said, “it’s like a neighborhood blackout, now everyone’s out in the street trying to assess what went wrong.”
I called a Google spokesman, who said he would check and get back to me. For a company that is trying to pitch its Web applications to business customers, not to mention millions of individual users, this can’t be good news.
For some users, an HTML version of Gmail partially works at http://mail.google.com/mail/h
UPDATE: A Google spokesman confirmed the outage and said the company’s engineers were investigating its cause.
August 11, 2008, 6:26 pm
A Modern-Day Blackout: Gmail Goes Dark
By Miguel Helft
UPDATED 6:35 p.m. After about 90 minutes, Gmail came back to life for most users.
My colleague Brad Stone recently wrote about the annoyances tied to persistent system outages at popular Web services of technology stalwarts like Amazon, Yahoo and Research in Motion. It’s now Google’s turn, as Gmail, the company’s popular Web e-mail service, has been down for a very large number of users for about an hour or so.
Type “mail.google.com” into http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/ and you’ll get confirmation that if you have Gmail problems, you are not alone.
One of the best places to track the outage is Twitter. Users are venting their frustrations about Gmail being down — at a rate of 100 or so messages per minute. As a user who calls himself dashmybuttons said, “it’s like a neighborhood blackout, now everyone’s out in the street trying to assess what went wrong.”
I called a Google spokesman, who said he would check and get back to me. For a company that is trying to pitch its Web applications to business customers, not to mention millions of individual users, this can’t be good news.
For some users, an HTML version of Gmail partially works at http://mail.google.com/mail/h
UPDATE: A Google spokesman confirmed the outage and said the company’s engineers were investigating its cause.
Anyone Else having G-Mail Meltdown? (Now working again... finally)
BELOW IS THE ERROR MESSAGE I'VE BEEN GETTING FOR ALMOST AN HOUR NOW:
Gmail by Google
Temporary Error (502)
We’re sorry, but your Gmail account is currently experiencing errors. You won’t be able to use your account while these errors last, but don’t worry, your account data and messages are safe. Our engineers are working to resolve this issue.
Please try accessing your account again in a few minutes.
Try Again Sign Out
UPDATE--
Gmail workiong again.
©2005 Google - Gmail Home - Privacy Policy - Program Policies - Terms of Use - Google Home
Gmail by Google
Temporary Error (502)
We’re sorry, but your Gmail account is currently experiencing errors. You won’t be able to use your account while these errors last, but don’t worry, your account data and messages are safe. Our engineers are working to resolve this issue.
Please try accessing your account again in a few minutes.
Try Again Sign Out
UPDATE--
Gmail workiong again.
©2005 Google - Gmail Home - Privacy Policy - Program Policies - Terms of Use - Google Home
It's September 1939 and Hitler Has Just Invaded Poland...
.... and if the Allied powers knew then what we know now - would they have taken appropriate actions to stop Hitler? And will we today take appropriate actions when another murderous dictator - Putin - attacks another country to unify his 'fatherland'?
And does anyone expect Putin - who already has agents murdering people who dare oppose him both in his country and overseas and who has already ended democracy in Russia to stop at Georgia if the world lets him take over that country?
Not likely.
But as far as what the appropriate measures are - well, I'm sure glad I don't have to make that decision.
UPDATE
One more point; I neglected to mention last night that when Hitler attacked Poland from the west - the Soviet Union and Stalin attacked Poland from the east. History is about to repeat itself with a new Stalin at the helm of a new Soviet Union.
And does anyone expect Putin - who already has agents murdering people who dare oppose him both in his country and overseas and who has already ended democracy in Russia to stop at Georgia if the world lets him take over that country?
Not likely.
But as far as what the appropriate measures are - well, I'm sure glad I don't have to make that decision.
UPDATE
One more point; I neglected to mention last night that when Hitler attacked Poland from the west - the Soviet Union and Stalin attacked Poland from the east. History is about to repeat itself with a new Stalin at the helm of a new Soviet Union.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Why Does the MSM Still Refuse to Actually Investigate The Jon Edwards Story?
Now that the main stream media has - finally - covered the story of John Edward's affair (but only after they had no choice), you would think that they would now critically look at Edward's claims in the interview. But no, despite two clearly smoking guns in the interview that strongly suggest Edwards is still lying.
Now was anyone surprised when Hunter then announced she would refuse to take a paternity test? Even when she is now claiming that a friend of Edwards is the father? Of course not. Even before she made that statement, Edwards' odd statement about the paternity test make it clear - to me at least - that a deal had already been made for her to refuse to take the test that would prove he is the father.
Second, the truly bizarre language he used to 'deny' the photo of him holding his baby was of him or the baby:
And I thought Bill Clinton's definition of 'sex' was convoluted. Here every statement seems to be qualified by saying what he doesn't know and doesn't remember. The only unqualified statement he makes seems to say that he was not at a meeting in order to have a photo taking of him holding a child; again, he appeared to not deny that he was at a meeting holding a child - just that that wasn't the reason why he attended the meeting. Or at least the was the best way I could translate that sentence into English.
Now the latest new information tonight - from a blog, of course (the Huntington Post) is the existence of an email that appears to prove the affair started far earlier than Edwards is now claiming it started. News that none of the MSM, of course, even though they likely had the same information - reported.
Now as for why we should care? Well, what John Edwards does is of little concern to me. But the fact that the traditional media taken the position that the American public needs to be protected from politically incorrect news should be of concern to everyone who believes in a free press in the country.
WOODRUFF: Have you taken a paternity test?
EDWARDS: I have not, I would welcome participating in a paternity test. Be happy to participate in one. I know that it's not possible that this child could be mine because of the timing of events, so I know it's not possible. Happy to take a paternity test, and would love to see it happen.
WOODRUFF: Are you going to do that soon?
EDWARDS: I'm only one side -- I'm only one side of the test, but I'm happy to participate in one.
WOODRUFF: Has Miss Hunter said, she does not want to do this DNA test?
EDWARDS: I don't know what she has said.
Now was anyone surprised when Hunter then announced she would refuse to take a paternity test? Even when she is now claiming that a friend of Edwards is the father? Of course not. Even before she made that statement, Edwards' odd statement about the paternity test make it clear - to me at least - that a deal had already been made for her to refuse to take the test that would prove he is the father.
Second, the truly bizarre language he used to 'deny' the photo of him holding his baby was of him or the baby:
WOODRUFF: And that picture is absolutely you and you are holding that baby.
EDWARDS: The picture in the tabloid. I have no idea what that picture is.
WOODRUFF: But you've seen it right?
EDWARDS: I did see it and I cannot make any sense out of that. When I went to this meeting you've already asked me about, uh, I was not wearing a t-shirt, I was wearing a long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up. I don't know who that picture -- I don't know if that picture is me, it could well be, it looks like me. I don't know who that baby is, I have no idea what that picture is.
WOODRUFF: But are you saying you don't remember holding that child of Miss Hunter?
EDWARDS: I'm saying you asked me about this photograph, I don't know anything about that photograph, I don't know who that baby is. I don't know if the picture has been altered, manufactured, if it's a picture of me taken some other time, holding another baby -- I have no idea. I was not at this meeting holding a child for my photograph to be taken I can tell you that.
WOODRUFF: You did say you did meet her at a hotel in California.
EDWARDS: She was there, Mr. McGovern was present, and that's where the meeting took place.
WOODRUFF: But you don't remember a baby being there?
EDWARDS: No.
And I thought Bill Clinton's definition of 'sex' was convoluted. Here every statement seems to be qualified by saying what he doesn't know and doesn't remember. The only unqualified statement he makes seems to say that he was not at a meeting in order to have a photo taking of him holding a child; again, he appeared to not deny that he was at a meeting holding a child - just that that wasn't the reason why he attended the meeting. Or at least the was the best way I could translate that sentence into English.
Now the latest new information tonight - from a blog, of course (the Huntington Post) is the existence of an email that appears to prove the affair started far earlier than Edwards is now claiming it started. News that none of the MSM, of course, even though they likely had the same information - reported.
Now as for why we should care? Well, what John Edwards does is of little concern to me. But the fact that the traditional media taken the position that the American public needs to be protected from politically incorrect news should be of concern to everyone who believes in a free press in the country.
Someone Still Needs to Buy a Thomas Guide For the Los Angeles Times!
To begin with, East Los Angeles, Lincoln Heights and Boyle Heights are three very different communities. But you would never know this is you ever read the Los Angeles Times.
The latter two are historic 19th Century suburbs of Los Angeles and are in the city of Los Angeles. East Los Angeles, in contrast, is a much later unincorporated neighborhood that - finally - is deservedly hopefully about to become a city of its own. But hardly a week goes by in which the Times can not tell these communities apart. Below is the last time I called them on this....
http://lacowboy.blogspot.com/2008/06/can-someone-please-all-these-new.html#links
And Kevin Roderick over at LA Observed has called the Times on this even more recently, too, but his search engine failed to cough up the link to the story.
Another reoccurring error in the Times is what constitutes Bunker Hill and the tendency to call anything within a mile of Bunker Hill as being on... Bunker Hill. The above link is the latest in a long series of errors on this subject.
It states that a house was moved to Carroll Avenue from Bunker Hill in 1978 - long after every single inch of Bunker Hill had been bulldozed out of existence. The house in the article is actually from Court Street west of the Harbor Freeway. Now there are at least three names that come to mind as to what that neighborhood can be called - but until today's LA Times - no one I know has ever tried to claim that stretch of Court Street was on Bunker Hill. But now that the LAT has gotten this 'fact' wrong once - it will - as usual - continue to get this 'fact' wrong until the paper finally expires and no correction will ever be posted on this error.
The latter two are historic 19th Century suburbs of Los Angeles and are in the city of Los Angeles. East Los Angeles, in contrast, is a much later unincorporated neighborhood that - finally - is deservedly hopefully about to become a city of its own. But hardly a week goes by in which the Times can not tell these communities apart. Below is the last time I called them on this....
http://lacowboy.blogspot.com/2008/06/can-someone-please-all-these-new.html#links
And Kevin Roderick over at LA Observed has called the Times on this even more recently, too, but his search engine failed to cough up the link to the story.
Another reoccurring error in the Times is what constitutes Bunker Hill and the tendency to call anything within a mile of Bunker Hill as being on... Bunker Hill. The above link is the latest in a long series of errors on this subject.
It states that a house was moved to Carroll Avenue from Bunker Hill in 1978 - long after every single inch of Bunker Hill had been bulldozed out of existence. The house in the article is actually from Court Street west of the Harbor Freeway. Now there are at least three names that come to mind as to what that neighborhood can be called - but until today's LA Times - no one I know has ever tried to claim that stretch of Court Street was on Bunker Hill. But now that the LAT has gotten this 'fact' wrong once - it will - as usual - continue to get this 'fact' wrong until the paper finally expires and no correction will ever be posted on this error.
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Mongolian Festival Today At Barnsdall Park!
Today - Saturday - there will be a gathering of Mongolians from all over Southern California for their annual cultural festival. I will be one of the guest speakers at about 1 PM. Details about the event at Barnsdall Park in East Hollywood are at the above link.
Now as for why this fighthing cowboy from the sagebrush West east of the Sierras is at a Mongolian Festival, I will give you three reasons.
First, Mongolians are among the the world's greatest horsemen. Second, wrestling is the national sport of Mongolia. Third - Mongolian women are among the most beautiful women in the world.
Any more questions?
I didn't think so.
(And the food's pretty good, too!)
Now as for why this fighthing cowboy from the sagebrush West east of the Sierras is at a Mongolian Festival, I will give you three reasons.
First, Mongolians are among the the world's greatest horsemen. Second, wrestling is the national sport of Mongolia. Third - Mongolian women are among the most beautiful women in the world.
Any more questions?
I didn't think so.
(And the food's pretty good, too!)
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Read All About LA's Wild West Past! Even Wyatt Earp Said Los Angeles Was Wilder Than Tombstone!
When in testifying in a court case, when asked to compare the degree of lawlessness in frontier Los Angeles - and Tombstone - Wyatt Earp made it clear LA was the hands down winner.
During the 1850's and 1860's (and to a certain extent as late as the 1890's) there were more shoot outs, lynchings, stage robberies, cattle rustling, train robberies and general mayhem in Los Angeles than in any city in the history of the West - and for a far longer period of time than in any other place in Western history.
So why doesn't anyone know of this part of our history? Well, partly because no one know anything about any of LA's history, partly because we are the only city - or town - in this county without a museum dedicated to its own history (though some of us are working to fix that) and partly because no one has even written any books about that part of our history.
Until now.
Recently, "Six Gun Sound: The Early History of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department" was written by Sheriff's deputy Sven Crongeyer and published by a small local publisher with no budget for promotion. As a result, this book is NOT stocked by local bookstores and it has never been reviewed by our local papers.
So no one knows about it.
But as of today - you can buy a copy at Downtown's newest book store - Polyester - just off 5th and Spring in the Spring Arts Tower at 211 W. 5th Street. So go to the above link to a story about new book store run by Bill Eisman - which is open on both Saturday AND Sunday as well as Tuesday through Friday - and Eisman's Todd Browning art gallery, both of which are located next to the new Phyllis Stein Gallery. And visit his website at:
http://toddbrowning.com/
During the 1850's and 1860's (and to a certain extent as late as the 1890's) there were more shoot outs, lynchings, stage robberies, cattle rustling, train robberies and general mayhem in Los Angeles than in any city in the history of the West - and for a far longer period of time than in any other place in Western history.
So why doesn't anyone know of this part of our history? Well, partly because no one know anything about any of LA's history, partly because we are the only city - or town - in this county without a museum dedicated to its own history (though some of us are working to fix that) and partly because no one has even written any books about that part of our history.
Until now.
Recently, "Six Gun Sound: The Early History of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department" was written by Sheriff's deputy Sven Crongeyer and published by a small local publisher with no budget for promotion. As a result, this book is NOT stocked by local bookstores and it has never been reviewed by our local papers.
So no one knows about it.
But as of today - you can buy a copy at Downtown's newest book store - Polyester - just off 5th and Spring in the Spring Arts Tower at 211 W. 5th Street. So go to the above link to a story about new book store run by Bill Eisman - which is open on both Saturday AND Sunday as well as Tuesday through Friday - and Eisman's Todd Browning art gallery, both of which are located next to the new Phyllis Stein Gallery. And visit his website at:
http://toddbrowning.com/
Yogurt Factory To Come To Grand Central Market!
Since no one else seems to have mentioned it - for a couple weeks banner announcing that a Yogurt Factory will open in one of the many, many closed stalls at Grand Central Market. Increasingly, the market part of Grand Central is being phased out for businesses that can pay higher rents such as jewelry stores, restaurants and non-food retail uses. And this has nothing to do with the new Ralphs since most of the fruit and vegetable stalls, the last all baked goods stall and the last stall that sold meat that did not need to be cooked (sliced or fried chicken, turkey etc.) has closed before Ralphs opened. The main reason seems to be the rents being charged as the very small stand that sold ready to eat meats told me they were paying $6,000 a month when all the charges were added up for one of the smallest places and that they had been losing money for a year before they finally gave up.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Downtown Ralph's Continues To Sell Substandard Yogurt!
A few weeks ago I started noticing that some of the Ralphs Brand Carb Master Yogurt had almost no peach flavor to it and that it had a sour taste to it rather than its normally sweet taste. It finally got to the point that my daily purchase was half normal and half a totally different product. I finally figured out it was the expiration dates of August 17th and August 18th that were 100% bad.
I have since reported this to the store on multiple occasions and they promised to fix this problem. But last night while in a hurry I bought ten more of the small cartons - and half of them were from the bad batch. What amazes me is that these two clearly substandard dates have been shipped all over the country and there has been no national recall issued. SO for weeks customers have been paying for a product that has not relation to the product they think they are buying - and Ralphs refuses to fix the problem on either a national or a local level. And even after I have left my name and phone number twice at the store - no one from Ralphs has bothered to call me back.
I have since reported this to the store on multiple occasions and they promised to fix this problem. But last night while in a hurry I bought ten more of the small cartons - and half of them were from the bad batch. What amazes me is that these two clearly substandard dates have been shipped all over the country and there has been no national recall issued. SO for weeks customers have been paying for a product that has not relation to the product they think they are buying - and Ralphs refuses to fix the problem on either a national or a local level. And even after I have left my name and phone number twice at the store - no one from Ralphs has bothered to call me back.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Bricks Hit Broadway!
As I thought, the earthquake was quite a few miles away (in the Chino Hills) and there seems to be no real damage Downtown other than a few bricks coming off a building two doors south of the Bradbury Building. They appear to be bricks that were either disturbed or replaced after the top two floors of the building were demolished for seismic reasons, which is ironic; because no bricks would have likely fallen off the building if the upper floor hadn't been removed.
This particular building has some local historic significance since it was home of the dress shop of the mother of local real estate tycoon - Richard Muerelo - and it was the first building acquired by the family.
This particular building has some local historic significance since it was home of the dress shop of the mother of local real estate tycoon - Richard Muerelo - and it was the first building acquired by the family.
Decent-sized Earthquake In Downtown!
At Spring Arts Tower at 5th and Spring my bookcases were waving back and forth on the 10th floor - but nothing fell out of them. Started very gently - could barely feel the seat of my chair move for some seconds - then whole building slowly started to rock and roll. Quake center likely far away.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Extension Granted For Grand Avenue - The Fastest Moving Major Project In Downtown's History!
This morning the Grand Avenue Authority granted a series of extensions for the Related Group to finish their construction documents and get their financing in place. Construction is now scheduled to begin in February 2009. If financing can not be obtained by then, then monthly extensions will be granted for up to two years and monthly payments will be made by Related of $250,000.
A 30 million dollar completion bond is also going to be posted by Related, part in cash and part via letters of credit and language prioritizing the affordable component of the project proposed by Jan Perry is also being added to the extension document.
Finally, if no financing can be had by February 2011, then the Authority is under no legal obligation to give any further extensions. But if the Authority finds that other projects of a similar size are also unable to get financing, they will have the right but not the obligation, to enter into negotiations for another extension.
This way Related can deal with the lending market without having to constantly come back for extensions should the present dismal lending market get even worse in the short term. But it also sets guidelines on how long such extensions can be granted. This now resolved, the Authority can concentrate upon the development of the park (which will not be delayed by this extension) and the creation of a 501c3 to both fund raise, plan and run the park.
Lastly, in the public comment section of the agenda, I pointed out that in the history of public/private partnerships - and all major projects - in Downtown Los Angeles - dating back over a half-century - this project has moved faster and with fewer delays that any project it's size. It's also moved faster than most projects a fraction of its size. Added to that, virtually all of the delays are due to factors totally beyond the control of the developer.
First there was an extensive public outreach process, then a lengthy and much debated EIR review, then came a lawsuit over the hotel, then came the collapse of the credit markets which made it hard to get any finance, and lastly - then came the new lending requirements that 80% of the construction documents have to be completed prior to getting loan approval.
And any developer on any project this size would have needed to delay any project for these reasons just as any major project always has delays from the original deadlines no matter what the environment is.
But these facts makes the carping over the much touted delays even more perplexing, since virtually every major project that has been public/private to any extent has taken over ten years to get going and sometimes 20 years or longer! But no one seems to have the institutional memory to know this.
Staring with the overall Bunker Hill project - the initial planning for that started in the 1930's and 1940's, the serious planning began in the 1950's and the building didn't begin until the 1960's. The Music Center project started in the mid-1950s and didn't open until the the mid-late 1960's. The other big Grand Avenue Project, Cal Plaza, stated in the 1970's - and still isn't finished almost 30 years later.
Disney Hall started in the 1980's but didn't open until the following century. Even a project like a simple supermarket - Ralphs - took well over ten years. And the infamous new Convention Center hotel - well, that started in the 1970's, then fell apart, then picked up steam again in 1980's - then fell apart again, then started again in the 1990's, then fell apart, then in this century it went from private to public/private to private with public assistance - and with multiple partners in and out of the deal - and it is still not finished.
And here, in contrast, we have one developer, one plan that is almost unchanged - and a few comparatively minor delays due - totally - to outside forces beyond the developer's control.
But you would never know that from reading the press.
A 30 million dollar completion bond is also going to be posted by Related, part in cash and part via letters of credit and language prioritizing the affordable component of the project proposed by Jan Perry is also being added to the extension document.
Finally, if no financing can be had by February 2011, then the Authority is under no legal obligation to give any further extensions. But if the Authority finds that other projects of a similar size are also unable to get financing, they will have the right but not the obligation, to enter into negotiations for another extension.
This way Related can deal with the lending market without having to constantly come back for extensions should the present dismal lending market get even worse in the short term. But it also sets guidelines on how long such extensions can be granted. This now resolved, the Authority can concentrate upon the development of the park (which will not be delayed by this extension) and the creation of a 501c3 to both fund raise, plan and run the park.
Lastly, in the public comment section of the agenda, I pointed out that in the history of public/private partnerships - and all major projects - in Downtown Los Angeles - dating back over a half-century - this project has moved faster and with fewer delays that any project it's size. It's also moved faster than most projects a fraction of its size. Added to that, virtually all of the delays are due to factors totally beyond the control of the developer.
First there was an extensive public outreach process, then a lengthy and much debated EIR review, then came a lawsuit over the hotel, then came the collapse of the credit markets which made it hard to get any finance, and lastly - then came the new lending requirements that 80% of the construction documents have to be completed prior to getting loan approval.
And any developer on any project this size would have needed to delay any project for these reasons just as any major project always has delays from the original deadlines no matter what the environment is.
But these facts makes the carping over the much touted delays even more perplexing, since virtually every major project that has been public/private to any extent has taken over ten years to get going and sometimes 20 years or longer! But no one seems to have the institutional memory to know this.
Staring with the overall Bunker Hill project - the initial planning for that started in the 1930's and 1940's, the serious planning began in the 1950's and the building didn't begin until the 1960's. The Music Center project started in the mid-1950s and didn't open until the the mid-late 1960's. The other big Grand Avenue Project, Cal Plaza, stated in the 1970's - and still isn't finished almost 30 years later.
Disney Hall started in the 1980's but didn't open until the following century. Even a project like a simple supermarket - Ralphs - took well over ten years. And the infamous new Convention Center hotel - well, that started in the 1970's, then fell apart, then picked up steam again in 1980's - then fell apart again, then started again in the 1990's, then fell apart, then in this century it went from private to public/private to private with public assistance - and with multiple partners in and out of the deal - and it is still not finished.
And here, in contrast, we have one developer, one plan that is almost unchanged - and a few comparatively minor delays due - totally - to outside forces beyond the developer's control.
But you would never know that from reading the press.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Intelligent - And Accurate - Story In LA Times On Downtown Housing Market - And It's Not April Fool's Day!
Below is the opening for a well thought out and excellently researched story on the current condo market in Downtown:
The rest of the story at the above link goes into more detail about how the strong market for the most expensive units in Downtown is an indicator of the future Downtown market.
The only thing the article misses are the staggering numbers being racked up by the best units at the Ritz-Carlton (which everyone who is anyone Downtown knows - unofficially - but which I guess are not considered newsworthy by the LAT until the building is completed and they close). But with the present rate of sales - even with increasing per square foot prices - it should be sold out by completion - which bodes very well for the Grand Avenue project's condos.
With penthouses, downtown Los Angeles might be moving on up
The units meant to lure the wealthy could be the key to continued revitalization. There is competition with towers to the west, but lower prices in the city center might work to its advantage.
By Cara Mia DiMassa
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 26, 2008
They sit atop downtown buildings like beacons: Marble bathrooms glistening, glass wrap-around patios gazing out on the city and high-end ranges awaiting their first speck of gourmet food.
The penthouses that crown many of downtown's high-rise condos and lofts were conceived in a different era, during the last real estate boom when the sky seemed the limit, even on the gritty streets of the city center.
While most downtown dwellings are decidedly more modest, the penthouses have gotten the attention -- with magazine spreads and rumors of Hollywood stars moving in.
But with the real estate downturn, developers are figuring out how to market the gems -- and using them to bolster the perception that downtown is becoming a high-end residential destination.
Because some of the new developments on the horizon -- notably the Frank Gehry-designed Grand Avenue project and the Ritz-Carlton Residences at L.A. Live -- are aimed at wealthy buyers, with all or almost all of their units priced above $1 million, the fate of downtown's penthouses is of particular importance.
Downtown boosters have seen attracting more wealthy residents as a key next step in the area's revitalization, because they hope that would attract some of the high-end retail that up until now has largely been missing.
But downtown faces some hefty competition to the west.
Right now, the center of ultra-luxury high-rise living stretches from Beverly Hills and Century City through Westwood, where several opulent buildings are already rising or in the planning stages, including the Century tower in Century City, where Candy Spelling purchased a $47-million penthouse.
It remains unclear how much of that demographic the decidedly grittier downtown area can grab. While downtown is farther from Spago, Sunset Strip, Montana Avenue and Rodeo Drive, prices for penthouses are generally much lower than in the best Westside towers. And some say that is making a difference.
"The two really hot areas are Century City and downtown in terms of the ultra-luxury segment," said Jim Perabo of Condosource.com, a portal for condo sales and rentals.
The downtown penthouses also serve another important purpose: providing aspiration for entry-level downtown condo buyers.
"Ultimately, developers are trying to sell the rest of the units," said Gil Seraf of the 213 Loft Company, a real estate firm in downtown Los Angeles. The penthouses "are always good P.R."
Although it's impossible to guess exactly how many downtown penthouses there are, most new buildings are including between five and 10 of the luxe units, which typically start at about $1 million and boast more expansive space and upgraded amenities than their more modest cousins.
The rest of the story at the above link goes into more detail about how the strong market for the most expensive units in Downtown is an indicator of the future Downtown market.
The only thing the article misses are the staggering numbers being racked up by the best units at the Ritz-Carlton (which everyone who is anyone Downtown knows - unofficially - but which I guess are not considered newsworthy by the LAT until the building is completed and they close). But with the present rate of sales - even with increasing per square foot prices - it should be sold out by completion - which bodes very well for the Grand Avenue project's condos.
Pod People Walk Among Us In Downtown Los Angeles!
And also this link: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-covermak27-2008jul27,0,1379685.story
For some time alien life forms from a culture far different than our own have been walking - and living among us. Yes, two business section reporters from the Los Angeles Times, Julie Makinen and Patrick McMahon, have secretly taken up residence among us humans.
And the seriously scary part is that they are living lives exactly like the rest of us do. In fact, reading their two stories about their lives in our community sounds exactly like the lives all of us live!
Now I know this sounds amazing that two people from the alien planet known as Times-Mirror Square can report on life Downtown as it really is - but these two impostors have infiltrated us so well that they could be standing right next to you right now - and you wouldn't even know it!
They even manage to write stories based on real world, first hand experiences and they do so without a single quote from alien life forces such as the clueless UCLA's Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris or the equally clueless Fernando J. Guerra of Loyola - both of whom have never set foot east of La Cienega without ideological blinders very carefully self-affixed to their eyes to prevent any contamination from - gasp! - real world observations.
So read their two stories and learn the good and the bad and the every day of life in Downtown. Because it may never happen again in the pages of the Los Angeles Times - and certainly never will if a certain notorious editor ever has his way with the rewrite pen.
For some time alien life forms from a culture far different than our own have been walking - and living among us. Yes, two business section reporters from the Los Angeles Times, Julie Makinen and Patrick McMahon, have secretly taken up residence among us humans.
And the seriously scary part is that they are living lives exactly like the rest of us do. In fact, reading their two stories about their lives in our community sounds exactly like the lives all of us live!
Now I know this sounds amazing that two people from the alien planet known as Times-Mirror Square can report on life Downtown as it really is - but these two impostors have infiltrated us so well that they could be standing right next to you right now - and you wouldn't even know it!
They even manage to write stories based on real world, first hand experiences and they do so without a single quote from alien life forces such as the clueless UCLA's Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris or the equally clueless Fernando J. Guerra of Loyola - both of whom have never set foot east of La Cienega without ideological blinders very carefully self-affixed to their eyes to prevent any contamination from - gasp! - real world observations.
So read their two stories and learn the good and the bad and the every day of life in Downtown. Because it may never happen again in the pages of the Los Angeles Times - and certainly never will if a certain notorious editor ever has his way with the rewrite pen.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
One Reason LA's Public Pools Are Contamined!
The recent story in the Times about the health department shutting down public pools due to pollution missed one particular part of the problem. While I was trying out new gyms when the pool at my regular gym was closed for a month, I was surprised by how many gyms have showers in the public areas and that swimmers are only required to shower in them.
So not only do these showers not have any soap to use to wash one's body with, since it is a mixed sex space, the swimmers also keep on their bathing suits and therefore do not wash and clear that parts of their body that are most likely to cause health problems in the pool.
My question is - is this legal? Can the health code not require that gyms require a full washing of the body with soap and water? Another problem with some of the gym's pools - particularly in neighborhoods with large immigrant populations - is that some of the patrons do not even shower period before entering the pool and a few do not even put on bathing suits - they just go into the water in their underwear. And on more than one occasion - some people just get into the poll wearing their shirts and their pants. Needless to say, I quickly stopped going to either of those gyms.
But while the later problems are more maintenance problems - and a lack of sufficient signage in appropriate languages telling people what is and is not acceptable - my big question is - why does the health department allow people to enter pools after just partially washing bodies with water - and after using no soap at all? And if they don't - shouldn't the pool side showers have signs that they are only to used after being in the pool - and not before entering the pool?
So not only do these showers not have any soap to use to wash one's body with, since it is a mixed sex space, the swimmers also keep on their bathing suits and therefore do not wash and clear that parts of their body that are most likely to cause health problems in the pool.
My question is - is this legal? Can the health code not require that gyms require a full washing of the body with soap and water? Another problem with some of the gym's pools - particularly in neighborhoods with large immigrant populations - is that some of the patrons do not even shower period before entering the pool and a few do not even put on bathing suits - they just go into the water in their underwear. And on more than one occasion - some people just get into the poll wearing their shirts and their pants. Needless to say, I quickly stopped going to either of those gyms.
But while the later problems are more maintenance problems - and a lack of sufficient signage in appropriate languages telling people what is and is not acceptable - my big question is - why does the health department allow people to enter pools after just partially washing bodies with water - and after using no soap at all? And if they don't - shouldn't the pool side showers have signs that they are only to used after being in the pool - and not before entering the pool?
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Freeway Park Presentation This Afternoon Downtown!
The HABEAS INDEX presents: PARK 101, Thursday, July 24
12:30 - 1:30 PM
Informal lunchtime discussion with Project Managers Gaurav Srivastava and Mike Williams, + Intern Program participants Gustavo Alejandro Garcia and Henrik Olsson.
5:00 - 7:30 PM
Reception and public forum, question and answer period with the EDAW Team + urban designer Simon Pastucha.
PARK 101, the focus of EDAW's 2008 Intern Program (www.edaw.com), is a proposed visionary urban design solution to cap the half-mile length of the 101 Hollywood Freeway in downtown Los Angeles and reconnect the city's historic core, north of the freeway, with the civic, cultural, and financial cores of modern Los Angeles to the south. Strongly being considered by the Los Angeles Community Development Department and Caltrans for implementation, the project provides a unique opportunity to create an iconic urban park in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, focused on re-visioning the existing infrastructure that supports and encircles the core of the city —freeways, channelized rivers, streets, and public transit. The PARK 101 model will be on display.
The HABEAS INDEX is an evolving series of presentations, actions and discussions about urban issues and downtown life.
The HABEAS INDEX is located in the new artspace @ 7+FIG
735 S. Figueroa Street, middle level
Los Angeles, CA 90017
open weekdays, 12 - 4 PM, Thursdays 12- 6 PM, + during special events
Validated parking in the 7+FIG parking structure, accessible from 7th and 8th Street, west of Figueroa / Bike rack on street level next to Starbucks
www.habeasindex.org
Image: Linda Pollack
12:30 - 1:30 PM
Informal lunchtime discussion with Project Managers Gaurav Srivastava and Mike Williams, + Intern Program participants Gustavo Alejandro Garcia and Henrik Olsson.
5:00 - 7:30 PM
Reception and public forum, question and answer period with the EDAW Team + urban designer Simon Pastucha.
PARK 101, the focus of EDAW's 2008 Intern Program (www.edaw.com), is a proposed visionary urban design solution to cap the half-mile length of the 101 Hollywood Freeway in downtown Los Angeles and reconnect the city's historic core, north of the freeway, with the civic, cultural, and financial cores of modern Los Angeles to the south. Strongly being considered by the Los Angeles Community Development Department and Caltrans for implementation, the project provides a unique opportunity to create an iconic urban park in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, focused on re-visioning the existing infrastructure that supports and encircles the core of the city —freeways, channelized rivers, streets, and public transit. The PARK 101 model will be on display.
The HABEAS INDEX is an evolving series of presentations, actions and discussions about urban issues and downtown life.
The HABEAS INDEX is located in the new artspace @ 7+FIG
735 S. Figueroa Street, middle level
Los Angeles, CA 90017
open weekdays, 12 - 4 PM, Thursdays 12- 6 PM, + during special events
Validated parking in the 7+FIG parking structure, accessible from 7th and 8th Street, west of Figueroa / Bike rack on street level next to Starbucks
www.habeasindex.org
Image: Linda Pollack
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Writing About Writing About Writing!
In "How Fiction Works", James Wood's newest collection of essays - 123 numbered mini-essays strong - Woods again tackles the question of what makes a novel a novel, along with the related question of what makes a great novel, great. After reading the review Saturday in the preview Sunday Times, I managed to acquire a copy today and have just finished consuming in it one guilty gulp.
Below is a quote from reviewer Gideon Lewis-Kraus about what James Wood has achieved.
The key point here is that Woods writes about books in order to write about life and that's why everyone should read him.
My review is simpler.
Read this book.
Below is a quote from reviewer Gideon Lewis-Kraus about what James Wood has achieved.
His initial focus is on "free indirect style," whereby the narrator moves the story along through a character's voice such that "we see things through the character's eyes and language but also through the author's eyes and language. We inhabit omniscience and partiality at once." This is the essence of fiction-making: We readers know that an author has invented this character, but we also feel as though the character exists somewhere outside and beyond the author's invention. We are divided between what we know to be fake and what we nevertheless momentarily postulate as real. Good characters promise us that their invented freedom has meaning, and we react to them accordingly. (Wood, in this way, pretends to write about books while writing about life.)
The key point here is that Woods writes about books in order to write about life and that's why everyone should read him.
My review is simpler.
Read this book.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Paparazzi Attack LA Cowboy! Or - What Happens When Tom Cruise And Katie Holmes Are In The House!
When I turned the corner to go back to my office at the Spring Arts Tower, where the TV series ELI STONE has been shooting this afternoon, 30 or 40 paparazzi suddenly appeared and started shooting their cameras in front of me. And I assumed that were part of a scene that was being shot. But then they turned to shoot a van that was pulling away and I was told Katie Holmes has just walked in front of me.
And this really surprised me. After having watched half of the blockbuster films of the past ten years shot in my neighborhood - and regularly seeing many of the biggest stars in Hollywood - I could not recall even one paparazzi stalking anyone - much less a whole pack of them.
Then when I returned from the gym tonight, a half dozen of them were still waiting around when I stopped to gossip with a couple of the guys from Magic Elves - which produces most of the reality shows on TV. And I turned from them just as Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes and got out of a car and walked right in front of me and into the building followed by the flash of cameras.
Now after living in Malibu for 20 years and selling real estate, I saw film and TV stars every day and worked with many of them. But it was still weird to see these two walking into my building and even weirder to see packs of paparazzi roaming our sidewalks. The real problem, though, is with all the actors moving in our neighborhood, hopefully, this was only an aberration and not the start of our descent into paparazzi hell.
And this really surprised me. After having watched half of the blockbuster films of the past ten years shot in my neighborhood - and regularly seeing many of the biggest stars in Hollywood - I could not recall even one paparazzi stalking anyone - much less a whole pack of them.
Then when I returned from the gym tonight, a half dozen of them were still waiting around when I stopped to gossip with a couple of the guys from Magic Elves - which produces most of the reality shows on TV. And I turned from them just as Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes and got out of a car and walked right in front of me and into the building followed by the flash of cameras.
Now after living in Malibu for 20 years and selling real estate, I saw film and TV stars every day and worked with many of them. But it was still weird to see these two walking into my building and even weirder to see packs of paparazzi roaming our sidewalks. The real problem, though, is with all the actors moving in our neighborhood, hopefully, this was only an aberration and not the start of our descent into paparazzi hell.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
LA Times Announces Hot Fashion Trend! Black Cowboy Hat And Amateur Wrestling T-shirts!
Last Sunday, I was recovering from an exhausting Saturday night when I got a frantic call from my long time fashion stylist, Miss Kitty. Her news flash was that the Times' fashion section - Image - in an article about the hottest international fashion boutiques flocking to Los Angeles - could find only one person - a certain local cowboy - fashionable enough to be featured.
Moi!
http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-ig-stores13-2008jul13,0,1077507.story
Yes, the single person the fashion editors of the Los Angeles Times found in these exclusive shops with a fashion sense worthy of being photographed was this cowboy as I exited Comme de Garçons. But what upset Miss Kitty was that not only was not I - much less her properly credited - but that the Times also neglected to mention any of the designers of my elegant ensemble, which of course defeated the purpose of all those designers who so graciously give me their latest fashions to wear.
So to give credit where credit is due - my black cowboy hat is made by the Golden Gate Hat Company of Los Angeles and my au courant T-shirt - with it's muscular coiled cobra emblazened across it (which makes it the absolutely favorite shirt of Mr. Cowboy's female fans) is yet another stunning design by famed atelier of the Striker Wrestling Club.
Ironic Update...
Now that I think of it, my being photographed walking out of the shop is kind of fitting since the store would never have been there without me, and a number of other people.
Back in the Wild West Days of the 'hood, I did the original master lease (pro bono as usual) to Jose Caballer of GROOP SPACE and then they sub-leased part of their space to Tak Kato of BLENDS (and that concept was part of the original business plan) - and BLENDS was brought in by a friend of mine, Brigham Yen - and then Tak and Brett Westfall brought in the pop-up version of Comme des Garçons.
The moral is... it takes a village to build a neighborhood.
Moi!
http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-ig-stores13-2008jul13,0,1077507.story
Yes, the single person the fashion editors of the Los Angeles Times found in these exclusive shops with a fashion sense worthy of being photographed was this cowboy as I exited Comme de Garçons. But what upset Miss Kitty was that not only was not I - much less her properly credited - but that the Times also neglected to mention any of the designers of my elegant ensemble, which of course defeated the purpose of all those designers who so graciously give me their latest fashions to wear.
So to give credit where credit is due - my black cowboy hat is made by the Golden Gate Hat Company of Los Angeles and my au courant T-shirt - with it's muscular coiled cobra emblazened across it (which makes it the absolutely favorite shirt of Mr. Cowboy's female fans) is yet another stunning design by famed atelier of the Striker Wrestling Club.
Ironic Update...
Now that I think of it, my being photographed walking out of the shop is kind of fitting since the store would never have been there without me, and a number of other people.
Back in the Wild West Days of the 'hood, I did the original master lease (pro bono as usual) to Jose Caballer of GROOP SPACE and then they sub-leased part of their space to Tak Kato of BLENDS (and that concept was part of the original business plan) - and BLENDS was brought in by a friend of mine, Brigham Yen - and then Tak and Brett Westfall brought in the pop-up version of Comme des Garçons.
The moral is... it takes a village to build a neighborhood.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Comedy Walk Tonight With Art Walk! Six Free Comedy Shows From 8:30 - 10 PM!
*** COMEDY WALK ANNOUNCEMENT ***
COMEDY WALK is the biggest monthly comedy festival in the world. It's like speed-dating with comedians! 25 different comedy acts. 6 simultaneous 90-minute shows. As seen in The Onion. A Los Angeles Times "Best Bet". A Hollywood Today selection.
* Get your FREE TICKET at www.ComedyWalk.com
* Thursday, July 10th, 2008, 8:30pm-10pm
COMEDY WALK #7 is at the New LATC Theatre, 514 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, and nearby venues. Featured performers include Jason Dudey, Michael Goldstom, and Alysia Wood. Different acts and different venues each month. Another performer every 10 minutes. Performers are comedians who've appeared at comedy clubs or on television or in films.
Venue #1
Host: Jennifer Simms
Alexandria Room
200-seat club
501 S Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
8:25 Host Warm-Up
8:30 Alysia Wood
8:40 Tim Powers
8:50 Willis Turner
9:00 Brian Farrell
9:10 Courtney Ca
9:20 Josh Rencher
9:30 Erik Lundy
9:40 Bill Word
9:50 Rick Overton
Venue #2
Host: Kirk Bovill
Lobby Cabaret Theater
80-seat cabaret
The New LATC
514 S. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90013
8:25 Host Warm-Up
8:30 Michael Goldstrom
8:40 Joe Bartnick
8:50 Julia Louiza
9:00 Jason Dudey
9:10 Stevie Mack
9:20 Rick Overton
9:30 Celeste Davis
9:40 Jodi Miller
9:50 Roz Browne
Venue #3
Host: Ashley McCarthy
"The Velvet Room
By the Bert Green Art Gallery
114 W. 5th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
1,500-sq.ft SRO
8:25 Host Warm-Up
8:30 Bruno Lucia
8:40 Stevie Mack
8:50 Erik Lundy
9:00 Pat Branch
9:10 Larry Vazeos
9:20 Grace Fraga
9:30 Alysia Wood
9:40 Jackie Fabulous
9:50 Brian Farrell
Venue #4
Host: Katia Louise
"The Onion Room
Spring Arts Tower
205 W. 5th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
1,400 sq. ft. SRO
8:25 Host Warm-Up
8:30 Jodi Miller
8:40 Bill Word
8:50 Grace Fraga
9:00 Celeste Davis
9:10 Sasha Faynor
9:20 Michael Goldstrom
9:30 Pat Branch
9:40 Willis Turner
9:50 Courtney Ca
Venue #5
Host: Corey Blake
The Chicken Room
Spring Arts Tower
211 W. 5th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
1,000-sq.ft SRO
8:25 Host Warm-Up
8:30 Jason Dudey
8:40 Josh Rencher
8:50 Jackie Fabulous
9:00 Roz Browne
9:10 Bruno Lucia
9:20 Tim Powers
9:30 Julia Louiza
9:40 Joe Bartnick
9:50 Larry Vazeos
Venue #6
Host: Gabrielle Pantera
The Pump Room
Alexandria Building
214 W. 5th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
1,000 sq. ft. SRO
8pm-10pm
Gosh! TV Talk Show
Three-minute interviews with the comedians and hosts in a talk show format.
Supporters: Digital Express Printing, The Onion, Hollywood Today, British Weekly, StubDog, Thrillist, Couch Surfers, The New LATC, Rooftop Comedy, ScreenPlayLab. For the City of Los Angeles: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, District 9 Councilwoman Jan Perry. For the Cultural Affairs Department: Executive Director Olga Garay, Assistant General Manager Saul Romo.
Executive Producer Robin Rowe, Casting Director Gabrielle Pantera, Associate Producer Hillary Layman, Associate Producer Brian Fredericks. A production of MovieEditor.com
###
COMEDY WALK is the biggest monthly comedy festival in the world. It's like speed-dating with comedians! 25 different comedy acts. 6 simultaneous 90-minute shows. As seen in The Onion. A Los Angeles Times "Best Bet". A Hollywood Today selection.
* Get your FREE TICKET at www.ComedyWalk.com
* Thursday, July 10th, 2008, 8:30pm-10pm
COMEDY WALK #7 is at the New LATC Theatre, 514 S. Spring St., Los Angeles, and nearby venues. Featured performers include Jason Dudey, Michael Goldstom, and Alysia Wood. Different acts and different venues each month. Another performer every 10 minutes. Performers are comedians who've appeared at comedy clubs or on television or in films.
Venue #1
Host: Jennifer Simms
Alexandria Room
200-seat club
501 S Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
8:25 Host Warm-Up
8:30 Alysia Wood
8:40 Tim Powers
8:50 Willis Turner
9:00 Brian Farrell
9:10 Courtney Ca
9:20 Josh Rencher
9:30 Erik Lundy
9:40 Bill Word
9:50 Rick Overton
Venue #2
Host: Kirk Bovill
Lobby Cabaret Theater
80-seat cabaret
The New LATC
514 S. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90013
8:25 Host Warm-Up
8:30 Michael Goldstrom
8:40 Joe Bartnick
8:50 Julia Louiza
9:00 Jason Dudey
9:10 Stevie Mack
9:20 Rick Overton
9:30 Celeste Davis
9:40 Jodi Miller
9:50 Roz Browne
Venue #3
Host: Ashley McCarthy
"The Velvet Room
By the Bert Green Art Gallery
114 W. 5th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
1,500-sq.ft SRO
8:25 Host Warm-Up
8:30 Bruno Lucia
8:40 Stevie Mack
8:50 Erik Lundy
9:00 Pat Branch
9:10 Larry Vazeos
9:20 Grace Fraga
9:30 Alysia Wood
9:40 Jackie Fabulous
9:50 Brian Farrell
Venue #4
Host: Katia Louise
"The Onion Room
Spring Arts Tower
205 W. 5th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
1,400 sq. ft. SRO
8:25 Host Warm-Up
8:30 Jodi Miller
8:40 Bill Word
8:50 Grace Fraga
9:00 Celeste Davis
9:10 Sasha Faynor
9:20 Michael Goldstrom
9:30 Pat Branch
9:40 Willis Turner
9:50 Courtney Ca
Venue #5
Host: Corey Blake
The Chicken Room
Spring Arts Tower
211 W. 5th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
1,000-sq.ft SRO
8:25 Host Warm-Up
8:30 Jason Dudey
8:40 Josh Rencher
8:50 Jackie Fabulous
9:00 Roz Browne
9:10 Bruno Lucia
9:20 Tim Powers
9:30 Julia Louiza
9:40 Joe Bartnick
9:50 Larry Vazeos
Venue #6
Host: Gabrielle Pantera
The Pump Room
Alexandria Building
214 W. 5th Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
1,000 sq. ft. SRO
8pm-10pm
Gosh! TV Talk Show
Three-minute interviews with the comedians and hosts in a talk show format.
Supporters: Digital Express Printing, The Onion, Hollywood Today, British Weekly, StubDog, Thrillist, Couch Surfers, The New LATC, Rooftop Comedy, ScreenPlayLab. For the City of Los Angeles: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, District 9 Councilwoman Jan Perry. For the Cultural Affairs Department: Executive Director Olga Garay, Assistant General Manager Saul Romo.
Executive Producer Robin Rowe, Casting Director Gabrielle Pantera, Associate Producer Hillary Layman, Associate Producer Brian Fredericks. A production of MovieEditor.com
###
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Downtown Parks & Civic Center Plans Meeting - TONIGHT!
Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council- DLANC &
Historic Downtown LA Business Improvement District- HDLA BID
Sponsors Re-imagining Downtown
Creating a Master Plan for the Civic Center and its
Neighbors.
Tuesday July 8th 6:45 pm Historic Los Angeles Theatre Lobby
615 S. Broadway - parking at Pershing Square or Red Line Subway Stop One Block away at 5th and Hill
Refreshments provided
Presentations:
• The Grand & Civic Center Grand Avenue Park- Bill Witte of The
Related Group will give an update on these two projects.
A joint powers project including the Community Redevelopment
Agency/City of Los Angeles, the County of Los Angeles and The
Related Group. This $3 billion project will include Frank Gehry
designed buildings which include 2600 housing units of condominiums,
apartments, affordable housing, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, a grocery
store, bookstore, fitness club, restaurants and entertainment venues
and numerous retail outlets. 3.6 million square feet of development
• The Civic Center 16 acre park- Bill Witte- The Related Group
LA's new version of Central Park will be a $100 million plus project
will be a grand commons connecting The Music Center Plaza to the
steps of City Hall for city-wide celebrations and international
events.
• Park 101- EDAW Design Group-
An International design forum with 24 participants has created a
master plan that caps the 101 Hollywood Freeway from Alameda to
Grand Avenue, from Temple to Cesar Chavez. This proposed project
would unite Chinatown, El Pueblo, Union Station, the Civic Center,
Bunker Hill and the Arts District with 100 acres of green space and
development opportunities.
• LA Police Department Headquarters-
This 2 acre site is opposite the LA Times Building from First to
Second Street along Spring and from Main to Spring Street along 2nd
Street opposite Higgins Building all activated by a restaurant,
auditorium and plaza fronting First Street.
• Vista Hermosa- Park at Belmont Learning Center
This $14 million open space consists of 10 acres adjacent to the
Edward R. Roybald Learning Center (Belmont Learning Center) in the
City West neighborhood at 1st and Beaudry. The complex will serve
2,800 students and cost $350 million. Walking and hiking trails,
water features, a playground, soccer field shared by LAUSD and the
Dept. of Recreation & Parks are part of the complex. The Mountains
Recreation and Conservation Authority have operational authority.
Historic Downtown LA Business Improvement District- HDLA BID
Sponsors Re-imagining Downtown
Creating a Master Plan for the Civic Center and its
Neighbors.
Tuesday July 8th 6:45 pm Historic Los Angeles Theatre Lobby
615 S. Broadway - parking at Pershing Square or Red Line Subway Stop One Block away at 5th and Hill
Refreshments provided
Presentations:
• The Grand & Civic Center Grand Avenue Park- Bill Witte of The
Related Group will give an update on these two projects.
A joint powers project including the Community Redevelopment
Agency/City of Los Angeles, the County of Los Angeles and The
Related Group. This $3 billion project will include Frank Gehry
designed buildings which include 2600 housing units of condominiums,
apartments, affordable housing, Mandarin Oriental Hotel, a grocery
store, bookstore, fitness club, restaurants and entertainment venues
and numerous retail outlets. 3.6 million square feet of development
• The Civic Center 16 acre park- Bill Witte- The Related Group
LA's new version of Central Park will be a $100 million plus project
will be a grand commons connecting The Music Center Plaza to the
steps of City Hall for city-wide celebrations and international
events.
• Park 101- EDAW Design Group-
An International design forum with 24 participants has created a
master plan that caps the 101 Hollywood Freeway from Alameda to
Grand Avenue, from Temple to Cesar Chavez. This proposed project
would unite Chinatown, El Pueblo, Union Station, the Civic Center,
Bunker Hill and the Arts District with 100 acres of green space and
development opportunities.
• LA Police Department Headquarters-
This 2 acre site is opposite the LA Times Building from First to
Second Street along Spring and from Main to Spring Street along 2nd
Street opposite Higgins Building all activated by a restaurant,
auditorium and plaza fronting First Street.
• Vista Hermosa- Park at Belmont Learning Center
This $14 million open space consists of 10 acres adjacent to the
Edward R. Roybald Learning Center (Belmont Learning Center) in the
City West neighborhood at 1st and Beaudry. The complex will serve
2,800 students and cost $350 million. Walking and hiking trails,
water features, a playground, soccer field shared by LAUSD and the
Dept. of Recreation & Parks are part of the complex. The Mountains
Recreation and Conservation Authority have operational authority.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Downtown Freeway Park Cap Plan To Be Unveiled Today!
A proposed plan on how the 101 Freeway AKA - the Hollywood Freeway - between Alameda and Grand Avenue - can be capped with a park - and other civic amenities - will shown to the public at 5PM today - Friday 27th June - at the Cal Trans Plaza on Main Street between 1st and 2nd Streets.
Twenty-four interns from around the world came to Los Angeles to design a plan that will also include suggestions on how the adjacent neighborhoods of Downtown - the Civic Center, Bunker Hill & the Historic Core - and China Town, the Plaza & Union Station separated by the below grade 101 Freeway slot can be reconnected and revitalized.
And they did this all in two weeks.
Among the speakers will be City of Los Angeles Planning Director Gail Goldberg and Department of Transportation (Cal Trans) District Director Douglas R. Failing.
But the highlight will be a 45 minute presentation of the plan by the interns them self. Much more on this after the event along some ideas on what the Downtown community needs to do next. Because in the city with countless shelves filled with endless forgotten reports - unless we get organized to make this vision a reality - two weeks from now, the dust will already be settling on this plan.
Twenty-four interns from around the world came to Los Angeles to design a plan that will also include suggestions on how the adjacent neighborhoods of Downtown - the Civic Center, Bunker Hill & the Historic Core - and China Town, the Plaza & Union Station separated by the below grade 101 Freeway slot can be reconnected and revitalized.
And they did this all in two weeks.
Among the speakers will be City of Los Angeles Planning Director Gail Goldberg and Department of Transportation (Cal Trans) District Director Douglas R. Failing.
But the highlight will be a 45 minute presentation of the plan by the interns them self. Much more on this after the event along some ideas on what the Downtown community needs to do next. Because in the city with countless shelves filled with endless forgotten reports - unless we get organized to make this vision a reality - two weeks from now, the dust will already be settling on this plan.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Los Angeles Times Building To Go On Auction Block?
Here are the opening graphs from Peter Villes L.A. LAND blog on the LAT website:
A RFP will go out to potential buyers today. And while the Times not being in the Times building was once unthinkable, with the quality of local coverage of Los Angeles in the print section having recently deteriorated so dramatically - even while the rest of the paper and the website have continued to improve - the print version of the Times has already ceased to be a credible local institution.
Zell to entertain offers for Tribune Tower, L.A. Times building
Sam Zell, the real estate mogul who runs the Tribune Company, put out this stunner this morning: he's willing entertain offers for the company's prize real estate holdings, which include the Tribune Tower in Chicago and the Times Mirror Square complex here in Los Angeles, which many know as the Los Angeles Times building.
This from an e-mail Sam sent to me personally, as well as every other Tribune employee: "... we are in the process of asking a number of real estate firms to give us their best thinking on how we can generate more value from Tribune Tower in Chicago, and the Times Mirror Square complex in Los Angeles."
More: "We’ll be considering numerous options to maximize the value of these properties. While a near-term transaction is possible, we’ll be focusing on opportunities that allow for some level of ongoing occupancy in both buildings for the mid-term (defined as five years), for farther out (15 years), and beyond.
A RFP will go out to potential buyers today. And while the Times not being in the Times building was once unthinkable, with the quality of local coverage of Los Angeles in the print section having recently deteriorated so dramatically - even while the rest of the paper and the website have continued to improve - the print version of the Times has already ceased to be a credible local institution.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Another Rare Case Of Actual Journalism In LA Times Metro Section!
Once again, Evelyn Larrubia manages to break the increasing trend towards factually challenged propaganda pieces masquerading as news article within the LA Times Metro section. Her cause is also helped when she has an editor who writes brilliant headlines that actually tell you what the story is about as opposed to headlines that either contradict the story - or are so biased as to be fictional.
Below is the opening of her story; as you will see, the headline, the sub-headline and the story all allow both sides to make their best points - and then allows the reader to make an intelligent, informed decision on who is right.
(And, btw - the LAUSD is ignoring the wishes of the voters with their present actions and - as usual - refuses to allow any true public debate on this very complicated issue in which both sides have valid points)
The rest of the story is at the above link....
Below is the opening of her story; as you will see, the headline, the sub-headline and the story all allow both sides to make their best points - and then allows the reader to make an intelligent, informed decision on who is right.
(And, btw - the LAUSD is ignoring the wishes of the voters with their present actions and - as usual - refuses to allow any true public debate on this very complicated issue in which both sides have valid points)
L.A. Unified will have more seats, but fewer students to fill them
Despite falling enrollment, the district will keep building schools as a way to eliminate year-round calendars, forced busing and portable classrooms. Critics say it's overbuilding.
By Evelyn Larrubia, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
June 23, 2008
San Fernando Middle School is expecting 1,600 students this fall, but officials estimate that the north Valley campus could handle 2,300. Lake Primary Center in Echo Park is expecting 160 but has room for 260. And Lincoln High School in Lincoln Heights is anticipating about 2,700 students; it has space for about 3,000.
What do Los Angeles Unified School District officials plan to do with the empty space? Add to it.
The district plans to build campuses that will take hundreds of students from those schools, further reducing their enrollment. By the time the building program is completed in 2012, there will be tens of thousands of empty seats at dozens of once-crowded schools, a Times analysis shows.
The district will use boundary changes, smaller class sizes and other methods to even out enrollment and reduce the surplus. A decade ago, the nation's second-largest school system was bursting at the seams, with campuses so crowded that students sometimes had no desks. And the number of students was predicted to keep growing. The dire situation persuaded local voters to approve four bonds, which launched a $20-billion building and modernization program.
But now, with 180 new schools and additions completed and 79 more on the drawing board, things have changed dramatically.
Economic and demographic changes have resolved some of the space crunch that the construction program was created to fix.
Over the last decade, fewer people moved to Southern California, large numbers of school-aged children grew up, and the birth rate among Latinos declined. Some students left traditional public schools to enroll in publicly financed charters, experts and officials said. Rising housing prices changed the face of some neighborhoods in the urban core, bringing singles and childless couples into what were once communities of large, poor immigrant families.
As a result, L.A. Unified has lost 57,000 students, nearly 8% of its total enrollment.
"When we wrote the ballot arguments against the last bond, we said they should wait. There were still billions of dollars in the pipeline, and their own figures showed declining enrollment," said Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. "We were speculating that these schools were eventually going to be housing the homeless because we're running out of students."
With the district paying $600 a square foot for construction costs, the extra schools add up to real money.
Facing a budget shortfall, the school board last year scrapped 19 projects and reduced the size of others, citing demographic changes, but officials said every remaining school is necessary.
L.A. Unified plans to add space for roughly 70,000 students at currently mandated class sizes by 2012. But its own projections show that would produce space for 25,000 more students than needed to take schools off year-round schedules and eliminate forced busing, the goals of the school building program.
The district is continuing with plans to build some schools in areas of dwindling population and others that are too large, in some cases because the projects are too far along. Also, the district, running up against state deadlines for matching funds, is primed to avoid delays.
"If we're locked and loaded, let's go," said Edwin Van Ginkel, a high-ranking consultant for the district's building program. "You don't save a whole lot of money in redesign. You're just taking a few classrooms out."
In addition, officials said, the extra space will allow the district to stop crowding playgrounds with portable classroom trailers, leave a large majority of classrooms empty for one period to allow teachers to plan there and, potentially, shrink class sizes at all schools. The extra space will also allow the district to take advantage of a seven-year state grant to make classes at select campuses smaller still. These measures were not envisioned when voters were asked to approve the bonds.
Rena Perez, the district's head demographer, said an increase in births in the region is expected to cause enrollment to begin rising in six years.
"If we build to our absolute need, then we wouldn't have any margin if and when our enrollment starts to grow again," she said.
The rest of the story is at the above link....
Downtown Freeway Park Cap Halfway Point Review!
After an intensive first week of work, the 24 interns developing a master plan to the cap the 101 Freeway Downtown between the Civic Center and the Plaza (see prior post for details), presented six different visions to the Review Committee on Friday. We were shown substantially proposals on how – and where - the freeway might be capped - and we were also given sweeping visions of how the adjacent neighborhoods might be redeveloped and connected with each other.
These 24 interns from all over the country – and all over the world - have worked at the Cal Trans Building under EDAW’s leadership and in less than one week from their arrival in LA, they have produced an amazing array of choices from which the panel could comment upon.
The single most striking point of the session, though, was not the high quality of each of the presentations, but the fact that by using the most salient points from each of the proposals, one unified vision could be constructed.
In fact, not only could large parts of each of these six proposals be used in combination – but it is absolutely essential that any plan – or plans – contain the key elements from each of these proposals. But they now have just one week before they present their final vision – or visions – to the Review Committee – and the public at large at 5 PM – at the Cal Trans Plaza at 1st and Main Streets.
So while I have a lot to say about what I saw, I will defer any comment until after the public unveiling. But I will state this now.
Monday morning needs to be the start of a permanent committee to begin a far broader public process for this project. With the high quality of work already produced, getting the public excited about their vision should prove easy. Keeping our civic leaders engaged for the long process though, will – as usual, be the far harder task.
These 24 interns from all over the country – and all over the world - have worked at the Cal Trans Building under EDAW’s leadership and in less than one week from their arrival in LA, they have produced an amazing array of choices from which the panel could comment upon.
The single most striking point of the session, though, was not the high quality of each of the presentations, but the fact that by using the most salient points from each of the proposals, one unified vision could be constructed.
In fact, not only could large parts of each of these six proposals be used in combination – but it is absolutely essential that any plan – or plans – contain the key elements from each of these proposals. But they now have just one week before they present their final vision – or visions – to the Review Committee – and the public at large at 5 PM – at the Cal Trans Plaza at 1st and Main Streets.
So while I have a lot to say about what I saw, I will defer any comment until after the public unveiling. But I will state this now.
Monday morning needs to be the start of a permanent committee to begin a far broader public process for this project. With the high quality of work already produced, getting the public excited about their vision should prove easy. Keeping our civic leaders engaged for the long process though, will – as usual, be the far harder task.
Editorial On Proposed Downtown Freeway Park!
The only words I can add to the below editorial is that while 100 acres are technically possible for the proposed park - and while a far larger area than that should be benefited by this project, the actual park will likely be smaller.
Where's our Central Park?
Putting a 'lid' over the 101 Freeway could give L.A. the gathering place it needs.
By Vaughan Davies
June 20, 2008
Great cities have great urban parks. Central Park in New York, Millennium Park in Chicago, Washington's Mall. They are magnets for the key ingredients that make a successful city center: housing and hotels, shops and cafes, museums and concert halls, public festivals and recreation from active sports to leisurely strolling. They provide breathing room amid the civic bustle; they open up the densest cityscapes; they signify the heart of the heart of their hometowns.
Unfortunately, Los Angeles -- a great city by most definitions -- has no important downtown park. Griffith Park meets many needs, but it's not in the center of the city. The Cornfield, north of Chinatown, is also removed from the action (and mostly not off the drawing board). The public space that links downtown's civic center buildings may get a polish as part of the Grand Avenue project, but it's tucked away, hemmed in by government buildings. None of these alone is the great, open-air city gathering place that L.A. needs.
It is time for something bold and visionary.
More than 100 acres of potential downtown urban parkland are hiding in plain sight. The site -- which is passed by tens of thousands of people every day -- is close to all the new transit lines that converge on downtown. Building a park there would not require hundreds of Angelenos to be relocated or dozens of buildings to be demolished. And the money to pay for it is available now from a variety of sources, both public and private.
Where is this potential park? On top of the "Big Trench" -- that unsightly two-thirds of a mile of the 101 Freeway, just east of the 110 interchange between Grand Avenue and Alameda Street -- that brutally slices through the historic heart of Los Angeles. The Big Trench separates some of our most prized and appealing landmarks -- Olvera Street, Chinatown and Union Station on one side; Disney Hall, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels and City Hall on the other -- creating isolated pockets of activity rather than what we need: a livable, walkable and unified downtown district.
All we have to do is put a "lid" over the Big Trench and its exit ramps and acquire nearby parking lots and underutilized land next to the freeway, turning an urban eyesore into a 100-acre urban park and knitting the core of downtown together again.
If we build it, the Grand Avenue arts corridor would end at a magnificent park, not a freeway no man's land. Angelenos could walk from Union Station through a park to their jobs at Civic Center or to weekend events on Bunker Hill, not trudge across intimidating bridges above the roar of freeway traffic.
Students at the $200-million performing arts high school, which is nearing completion -- without playing fields -- next to the freeway at Grand Avenue would have outdoor recreation space at their doorstep. Chinatown would gain a great "front door," and the long-proposed Latino Cultural Center could become one of the park's great destinations. Surrounding property values would get a boost.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who frequently speaks about the need for more urban parks, gets a Central Park footsteps from City Hall.
Can it be done? Decking over the Big Trench and constructing a park on the "lid" is a relatively straightforward engineering enterprise. Other cities have built parks on top of freeways. In Manhattan, the 15-acre Carl Schultz Park and Gracie Mansion (the mayor's official residence) have been sitting atop the East River Drive expressway for 50 years. Seattle opened its 5-acre Freeway Park atop Interstate 5 in 1976. A similar scheme is being discussed in Hollywood, also over the 101 Freeway.
Funding for such public projects is always a challenge, but money sources are available. Because the freeway could be streamlined and improved as part of the project, state infrastructure funding, provided by Propositions 1A and 1B, could be tapped. Property owners who would benefit from a new park could contribute to a fund for this open space as part of new development agreements. Fees for environmental "mitigation" programs at the Port of Los Angeles and similar initiatives could be put to use. And finally, the patchwork of funds available to Caltrans and other agencies for landscaping, sidewalks and the like could be marshaled to support a major new park.
The first major step in creating the Big Trench park is happening now. Twenty-five urban design students from across the country are in town for a two-week workshop, a design "charrette" whose aim is to analyze the Big Trench site, identify challenges to covering it and making a park, suggest ways to overcome those challenges and present a design approach. The best of their work will be unveiled at 5 p.m. at the Caltrans building's plaza, across 1st Street from City Hall, on June 27, with the cooperation of Caltrans, the Los Angeles Planning Department, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Community Redevelopment Agency, the Southern California Assn. of Governments, City Council members and the mayor's office.
Imagine what today's New York would be like without Central Park. Now envision what downtown L.A. could become if we convert the Big Trench dead zone into our own downtown park reflecting the city's great and boundless aspirations. Better yet, come to the Caltrans headquarters next Friday and see how what you imagine might actually take shape.
Vaughan Davies is a principal and director of urban design at the Los Angeles office of EDAW, an urban planning and design firm. EDAW organized the Big Trench charrette.
Where's our Central Park?
Putting a 'lid' over the 101 Freeway could give L.A. the gathering place it needs.
By Vaughan Davies
June 20, 2008
Great cities have great urban parks. Central Park in New York, Millennium Park in Chicago, Washington's Mall. They are magnets for the key ingredients that make a successful city center: housing and hotels, shops and cafes, museums and concert halls, public festivals and recreation from active sports to leisurely strolling. They provide breathing room amid the civic bustle; they open up the densest cityscapes; they signify the heart of the heart of their hometowns.
Unfortunately, Los Angeles -- a great city by most definitions -- has no important downtown park. Griffith Park meets many needs, but it's not in the center of the city. The Cornfield, north of Chinatown, is also removed from the action (and mostly not off the drawing board). The public space that links downtown's civic center buildings may get a polish as part of the Grand Avenue project, but it's tucked away, hemmed in by government buildings. None of these alone is the great, open-air city gathering place that L.A. needs.
It is time for something bold and visionary.
More than 100 acres of potential downtown urban parkland are hiding in plain sight. The site -- which is passed by tens of thousands of people every day -- is close to all the new transit lines that converge on downtown. Building a park there would not require hundreds of Angelenos to be relocated or dozens of buildings to be demolished. And the money to pay for it is available now from a variety of sources, both public and private.
Where is this potential park? On top of the "Big Trench" -- that unsightly two-thirds of a mile of the 101 Freeway, just east of the 110 interchange between Grand Avenue and Alameda Street -- that brutally slices through the historic heart of Los Angeles. The Big Trench separates some of our most prized and appealing landmarks -- Olvera Street, Chinatown and Union Station on one side; Disney Hall, the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels and City Hall on the other -- creating isolated pockets of activity rather than what we need: a livable, walkable and unified downtown district.
All we have to do is put a "lid" over the Big Trench and its exit ramps and acquire nearby parking lots and underutilized land next to the freeway, turning an urban eyesore into a 100-acre urban park and knitting the core of downtown together again.
If we build it, the Grand Avenue arts corridor would end at a magnificent park, not a freeway no man's land. Angelenos could walk from Union Station through a park to their jobs at Civic Center or to weekend events on Bunker Hill, not trudge across intimidating bridges above the roar of freeway traffic.
Students at the $200-million performing arts high school, which is nearing completion -- without playing fields -- next to the freeway at Grand Avenue would have outdoor recreation space at their doorstep. Chinatown would gain a great "front door," and the long-proposed Latino Cultural Center could become one of the park's great destinations. Surrounding property values would get a boost.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who frequently speaks about the need for more urban parks, gets a Central Park footsteps from City Hall.
Can it be done? Decking over the Big Trench and constructing a park on the "lid" is a relatively straightforward engineering enterprise. Other cities have built parks on top of freeways. In Manhattan, the 15-acre Carl Schultz Park and Gracie Mansion (the mayor's official residence) have been sitting atop the East River Drive expressway for 50 years. Seattle opened its 5-acre Freeway Park atop Interstate 5 in 1976. A similar scheme is being discussed in Hollywood, also over the 101 Freeway.
Funding for such public projects is always a challenge, but money sources are available. Because the freeway could be streamlined and improved as part of the project, state infrastructure funding, provided by Propositions 1A and 1B, could be tapped. Property owners who would benefit from a new park could contribute to a fund for this open space as part of new development agreements. Fees for environmental "mitigation" programs at the Port of Los Angeles and similar initiatives could be put to use. And finally, the patchwork of funds available to Caltrans and other agencies for landscaping, sidewalks and the like could be marshaled to support a major new park.
The first major step in creating the Big Trench park is happening now. Twenty-five urban design students from across the country are in town for a two-week workshop, a design "charrette" whose aim is to analyze the Big Trench site, identify challenges to covering it and making a park, suggest ways to overcome those challenges and present a design approach. The best of their work will be unveiled at 5 p.m. at the Caltrans building's plaza, across 1st Street from City Hall, on June 27, with the cooperation of Caltrans, the Los Angeles Planning Department, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Community Redevelopment Agency, the Southern California Assn. of Governments, City Council members and the mayor's office.
Imagine what today's New York would be like without Central Park. Now envision what downtown L.A. could become if we convert the Big Trench dead zone into our own downtown park reflecting the city's great and boundless aspirations. Better yet, come to the Caltrans headquarters next Friday and see how what you imagine might actually take shape.
Vaughan Davies is a principal and director of urban design at the Los Angeles office of EDAW, an urban planning and design firm. EDAW organized the Big Trench charrette.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Can Someone Please Buy All These New Reporters At The LA Times Thomas Guides?
I try to never read any stores in the LA Times Metro section since they have become so factually challenged - why bother? But when glancing a the website, I saw the headline about the Main Street off-ramp of the 5 Freeway which is in Lincoln Heights suddenly being moved into East Los Angeles.
Granted some people call everything east of Downtown, East Los Angeles - but anyone who writes for what used to be the paper of record of this city should be able to know the difference between Lincoln Heights and the real East Los Angeles - which is unincorporated county territory many miles south and east of Lincoln Heights. Any out-of-town writer pretending to know this city should also know that Boyle Heights is between the two communities.
Man, said to be tagging overpass, injured on 5 Freeway in East Los Angeles
Witnesses say man who fell from an overpass near Main Street off-ramp had a can of spray paint in his hands.
By Ari B. Bloomekatz, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
2:36 PM PDT, June 22, 2008
A man was apparently spray painting graffiti on an overpass when he fell Saturday night onto the 5 Freeway in East Los Angeles, authorities said.
Several motorists told authorities that the man had possibly broken his back at about 9:45 p.m. and had a can of spray paint clutched in his hands as he lay on the freeway near the Main Street off-ramp, said California Highway Patrol spokesman David Porter.
Granted some people call everything east of Downtown, East Los Angeles - but anyone who writes for what used to be the paper of record of this city should be able to know the difference between Lincoln Heights and the real East Los Angeles - which is unincorporated county territory many miles south and east of Lincoln Heights. Any out-of-town writer pretending to know this city should also know that Boyle Heights is between the two communities.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Downtown Freeway Park Cap Study Begins!
Yesterday, 24 interns from around the world gathered at the Cal Trans Building on Main Street to begin a two week study of how a section of the Hollywood Freeway that runs through Downtown Los Angeles can be capped with a park. The study will also examine how the communities on each side of the freeway can be connected with each other and made more pedestrian accessible.
This project is sponsored by EDAW which is also doing the official study of he Hollywood Freeway Cap Park in the heart of Hollywood.
The day started with welcoming speeches by Doug Failing of Cal Trans, the principals of EDAW - whose names I did not catch, EDAW project coordinators Mike Williams & Gaurav Srivastava, Planning Director Gail Goldberg, Jessica Wethington McClean who represented Councilman Jose Huizar and moi.
Afterwards, I gave a tour of the project area between First Street and the Plaza/Union Station area on Alameda all the way up to the Music Center and the Performing Arts High School on Grand Avenue and pretty much everything in between. We managed this all in under four hours.
My impression of the project after this first day is that EDAW has assembled a talented team of in-house staff members and local civic leaders to assist the interns in developing a much needed vision for both our Civic Center and our historic center. If anything, I think connecting these two sides of the freeway will be the easy part; the far bigger challenge will be to find a way to make the neighborhoods on each side of the freeway places one would want to connect with.
This project is sponsored by EDAW which is also doing the official study of he Hollywood Freeway Cap Park in the heart of Hollywood.
The day started with welcoming speeches by Doug Failing of Cal Trans, the principals of EDAW - whose names I did not catch, EDAW project coordinators Mike Williams & Gaurav Srivastava, Planning Director Gail Goldberg, Jessica Wethington McClean who represented Councilman Jose Huizar and moi.
Afterwards, I gave a tour of the project area between First Street and the Plaza/Union Station area on Alameda all the way up to the Music Center and the Performing Arts High School on Grand Avenue and pretty much everything in between. We managed this all in under four hours.
My impression of the project after this first day is that EDAW has assembled a talented team of in-house staff members and local civic leaders to assist the interns in developing a much needed vision for both our Civic Center and our historic center. If anything, I think connecting these two sides of the freeway will be the easy part; the far bigger challenge will be to find a way to make the neighborhoods on each side of the freeway places one would want to connect with.
Monday, June 02, 2008
Guess Who Didn't Get Her Vote By Mail Ballot!
Secretary of State, Debra Bowen, who runs elections statewide. Below is her most recent FACEBOOK update:
In her defense, her office is not in charge of those ballots. That is the responsibility of the individual counties.
Debra Bowen
Debra Bowen is in Monday-before-an-election mode, with press inquiries and the odd problem here and there - including not receiving my VBM ballot!
14 minutes ago
In her defense, her office is not in charge of those ballots. That is the responsibility of the individual counties.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
New York Times Covers Sonny Astani's Blade Runner Vision!
Unlike the provincial reaction in the Los Angles Times, the New York Times embraces Sonny's exciting plans for South Park in Downtown Los Angeles.
May 21, 2008
A Developer’s Unusual Plan for Bright Lights, Inspired by a Dark Film
By REBECCA CATHCART
LOS ANGELES — The year is 2019. The illuminated windows of the city’s densely packed towers sparkle like stars in the night, and their facades are covered with bright, animated billboards. A flying car glides past the enormous eye of a smiling geisha hundreds of stories above the wet urban streets.
That is the world of “Blade Runner,” Ridley Scott’s 1982 film set in a futuristic dystopia. It is also an obsession of a real estate developer, Sonny Astani, who hopes to evoke those atmospherics by affixing rows of light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, to the facades of his two newest condominium towers in downtown Los Angeles.
“That movie really hit a chord with me,” Mr. Astani, 55, said with a broad smile. “It was beautiful.”
On a recent afternoon in his Beverly Hills office, he held up digital renderings of the two buildings, the geisha’s face from “Blade Runner” superimposed on their facades.
“I saw ‘Blade Runner’ at a time when L.A. was feeling like that,” he said. “I was feeling like that.”
In 1982 Mr. Astani was a struggling real estate broker here. He had come to Los Angeles from Tehran six years earlier to study engineering at the University of Southern California, with plans to return home after graduation. The Iranian revolution changed that. He never went back.
The dark mood of “Blade Runner” matched his own melancholy at the time, Mr. Astani said, and he was gripped by the notion of looming skyscrapers covered with moving images and graphics, and the layering of old and new structures. Today Mr. Astani is a successful businessman, with two million square feet of downtown real estate built or in development, including six tall residential buildings. His projects are part of a wave of development in the area that began around 2001 and gained momentum in 2003, when Los Angeles expanded adaptive reuse policies similar to those of New York.
“Everyone wants downtown to happen,” he said. “This could create some excitement and conversation,” he said of his “Blade Runner”-inspired facades.
His 30-story residential towers, scheduled to be completed in 2009, sit at the north end of an evolving entertainment district anchored by the Stapes Center and L.A. Live, a sports and entertainment complex sometimes described as Times Square West.
The area already has plenty of loud billboards and klieg lights that have drawn complaints from some neighborhood groups, so the city is concerned about anything billboardesque. Mr. Astani’s application to build the LED panels is undergoing an environmental review by city planning officials.
He has taken pains to distinguish his project from typical LED billboards with bright, fast-paced graphics. His panels would shine with one-sixth the intensity of ordinary models; adjust their brightness at different times of the day; and project slower-moving images, according to the ordinance application. They would cover about 10 stories on just one side of each building.
The panels would appear solid from a distance, although they consist of horizontal blades spaced six inches apart, like large blinds. Only a half-inch thick and three inches wide, each one carries a single row of diodes.
The blades were designed by Frederic Opsomer, who is also known for creating spectacular video, light and stage designs for pop-music acts. The only other building clad in similar LED blades is the T-Mobile headquarters in Bonn, Mr. Astani said. The screens would feature mostly paid advertisements but would include work by local artists and ads for nonprofit groups 20 percent of the time. The technology and content have sowed some confusion among the city officials weighing Mr. Astani’s application.
“The issue of it potentially being viewed as art has complicated it,” said Patricia Diefenderfer, of the Los Angeles Planning Department.
“We’re treating it like a sign,” she said. “Signs are a stimulus. They clutter our environment and can assault us, in a sense. This is something very large. What is the impact? What does that mean?”
Yet Eric Lynxwiler, a downtown resident and author who leads nighttime tours of the city’s neon signs for the Museum of Neon Art, favors the project.
“I think he scared far too many people when he compared it to ‘Blade Runner,’ ” Mr. Lynxwiler said of Mr. Astani. “But I remember L.A. as it was — dark, more like ‘Blade Runner’ before the development,” he said, describing streets that were mostly empty after 6 p.m. “I think downtown definitely has the vibe to support something that large, that new and that bold and daring.”
Syd Mead, a visual-effects artist who worked on “Blade Runner,” said that the city’s once-haunted look is what inspired Mr. Scott to film there. The director was also taken with the eclectic downtown mix of newer structures and historic buildings, he said.
That the movie could inspire innovation is not a surprise, Mr. Mead said, adding, “I’ve called science fiction ‘reality ahead of schedule.’ ”
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Actual Reporting Discovered At LA Times!
At a time when too many reporters spend five minutes talking with the usual suspects prior to re-beating the same old dead horses when writing about the housing market, Michael Hiltzik took the time to actually research the generally accepted fact that scores of people who could afford to make the mortgage payments on their own homes, were now walking away from their obligations once they realized their home was worth less than they had paid for it - and even less than they owed on it.
And while everyone he talked with knew about this supposed phenonmenon, not one person could offer any evidence that such a thing was at all happening, much less that it was wide spread. Below, is the opening of the article:
Much more at the above link.
And while everyone he talked with knew about this supposed phenonmenon, not one person could offer any evidence that such a thing was at all happening, much less that it was wide spread. Below, is the opening of the article:
In mortgage market, ‘walkaway’ homeowners may be urban myth
Bankers and housing analysts say many homeowners, owing more than their homes are worth, are defaulting on their loans even when they can afford payments. But no hard numbers back up their claims.
By Michael A. Hiltzik
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
10:42 AM PDT, May 10, 2008
Bankers and housing market analysts are warning of a chilling new trend in the mortgage world: Homeowners voluntarily defaulting on their loans even though they can actually afford to make the payments.
It's known colloquially as "walking away," or more jocularly as "jingle mail," from the sound your house keys supposedly make when you mail them back to your bank.
It's a way of saying that Americans are beginning to apply a cold financial calculation to home ownership: When a home's value has fallen below what is owed on its mortgage, they feel it makes no sense to keep up the payments.
"That is going on, clearly, and there's lots of evidence of that in the market," Don Truslow, senior executive vice president of Wachovia Bank, said in a conference call with investors last month. A few weeks earlier, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson had waggled a stern finger at homeowners contemplating walking away from affordable mortgages: Do that, and you're no better than a "speculator," he said.
Elsewhere, media reports and Internet postings are rife with stories about the trend and a supposed sea change in American attitudes toward debt. But there's a major problem with all this talk about the phenomenon of solvent homeowners "walking away": There doesn't appear to be any hard evidence that it's actually happening.
When pressed for the number of borrowers who could afford their mortgage payments, major banks and lender groups could not produce numbers figures.
Nor could the Mortgage Bankers Assn., the leading trade group for housing lenders. Spokesman John Mechem said he believed that walkaways by homeowners who could afford their payments were "becoming more prevalent." But he said that was based on "anecdotes we're hearing from our members and what we're reading in the newspapers."
Wachovia's Truslow acknowledged during the bank's conference call April 14 that walkaways were "hard to quantify." A bank spokesman said this week that "we have heard anecdotally that people are walking away" but that Wachovia had no hard numbers.
Bank of America Chairman and Chief Executive Kenneth Lewis, whose company is acquiring mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp., complained about "a change in social attitudes toward default" in an interview with the Wall Street Journal in December.
In response to questions from The Times, Bank of America spokesman Terry Francisco said the bank had seen indications that some homeowners were taking pains to keep their credit card accounts current at the expense of their mortgage balances, often by raiding their home equity lines to pay their cards, a reversal of traditional customary customer priorities.
But he said the bank did not have "firm figures" on how many homeowners were unnecessarily defaulting on their mortgages.
"We are working hard with our analytics to get at how much that is happening," Francisco said. Others suggest that it may be impossible to find out.
"How would you know what someone's true ability to pay would be?" asked Todd Sinai, an associate professor of real estate at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. "I'm not sure you could even come up with a definition."
At Fannie Mae, the government-chartered company that owns or guarantees billions of dollars in home mortgages, Senior Vice President Marianne Sullivan conceded that there was growing "folklore" about residential walkaways but said that the phenomenon was more likely connected to investors than people who live in their homes, or "owner-occupants."
"The vast majority of borrowers we find have been acting in good faith," she said. "If they get behind, they are interested in working with their lender."
Bruce Marks, CEO of Neighborhood Assistance Corp., a Boston-based nonprofit agency that helps strapped homeowners, says flat out that the notion that legions of borrowers are simply deciding not to pay is an "urban myth" that largely reflects the mortgage industry's desire to blame homeowners, rather than their lenders, for the surge in problem loans.
Marks and others assert that mortgage bankers have an incentive to blame the rise in delinquencies and foreclosures on borrowers skipping out on obligations they're financially able to meet, because that diverts attention from the lenders' own role in the mortgage crisis.
Much more at the above link.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Medallion Project Back On Track? UPDATE - Medallion Reboot Confirmed!
That's the word on the street today. The mixed use project at 4th and Main that was postponed for one year according to an announcement last week - is now supposedly going to resume construction after progress was made on construction costs and retail leasing.
UPDATE -- Just talked with Tom Gilmore at Pete's - and the builder called him Friday and told him the project is going ahead immediately. Also heard from another source that the bank wasn't too crazy about extending the construction loan which also played a role in the project's resumption. Have also heard from another developer that his bank also still feels good about funding new rental projects downtown.
UPDATE -- Just talked with Tom Gilmore at Pete's - and the builder called him Friday and told him the project is going ahead immediately. Also heard from another source that the bank wasn't too crazy about extending the construction loan which also played a role in the project's resumption. Have also heard from another developer that his bank also still feels good about funding new rental projects downtown.
Thursday, May 08, 2008
Free Comedy Walk Downtown TONIGHT During Art Walk! 8:30 PM - 10 PM Thursday May 8th
COMEDY WALK is the biggest monthly comedy event in Los Angeles and happens during the Gallery Row Art Walk. Now in its fifth month running, Thursday, May 8th, 2008. A Los Angeles Times "Best Bet". PLEASE PASS THE WORD ALONG!
HOW MUCH: FREE TICKETS at www.comedywalk.com.
WHEN: Thursday, May 8th, 2008, 8:30pm to 10pm, 2nd Thursday each month.
WHAT: COMEDY WALK is the biggest comedy walk event in the world, a family-friendly show.
WHO: Each month COMEDY WALK presents 25 of the hottest upbeat comedy acts in Los Angeles selected from comedy clubs, television and radio.
WHERE: The New Los Angeles Theatre Complex, 504 S. Spring Street, Los Angeles, and 5 other nearby downtown locations including the ballroom of the ALexandria Hotel and three storefronts along 5th Street just west of Spring in the Spring Arts Tower. All venues within 1/2 block of each other!
Six simultaneous 90-minute shows. Neighborhood parking $6 or free on the street.
WHY: See your favorite hottest comedians all in one night. Join thousands of people crowding the streets of L.A. the second Thursday of each month.
Featured performers this month are Stevie Mack, Gayla Johnson and Laurie McDermott. Stevie Mack has performed at Last Comic Standing, BET, Comedy Central, UPN, and SpikeTV. Gayla Johnson has performed at The HaHa, Comedy Store, the Improv, Ice House, B.E.T, Comedy Central, and SiTV. Laurie McDermott has performed at HBO Comic Relief and Lifetime TV Mom Comics.
COMEDY WALK PERFORMERS - FULL LIST
1. Abel Arias - a regular on "The Cathy Lewis Show" www.abelarias.com
2. Philip Bach - The HaHa. www.jointhecrew.org
3. Jackie "Fabulous" Champagnie - Downtown Comedy Club, Laugh Factory, Ice House www.myspace.com/jackiechampagnie
4. Jamal Doman - BET, ComicView, SiTV, Latino Laugh Festival, The Magic Hour, Showtime, At the Apollo. www.jamaldoman.com
5. Dan Dominguez - Verizon Network www.funconsuming.com
6. Jason Dudey - Hosts GaysRUs at the Hollywood Improv. www.jasondudey.com
7. Christy Eidson - Southern fried humor. www.christyeidson.com
8. Shereen Faltas - Ice House, the Improv, Comedy Store. www.shereenfaltas.com
9. Nick Hoff - Comedy Uniion, Hollywood Improv, Ice House Annex. www.myspace.com/nicholasmckain
10. Jeffrey Isaak - The HaHa, Comedy Store, the Improv. www.myspace.com/comedyfreek
11. Gayla Johnson - The HaHa, Comedy Store, the Improv, Ice House, B.E.T, Comedy Central, SiTV. www.GaylaJohnson.net
12. Andy Konigsmark - Ice House Annex. www.andykonigsmark.com
13. Stevie Mack - Last Comic Standing, BET, Comedy Central, UPN, SpikeTV. www.steviemack.com
14. Madd Marv - Funny guy
15. Laurie McDermott - HBO Comic Relief and Lifetime TV Mom Comics. www.lauriemcdermott.com
16. Dave Mishevitz - Comedy Store. www.myspace.com/daveiscomedy
17. Tim Powers - has shared the stage with Sean Young and Chris Rock www.timisfunny.com
18. Alishia Simmons - from Newark, earthy comedy.
19. Ron Swallow - www.myspace.com/ronswallow
20. Mike Truesdale - Hollywood Improv, the HaHa Cafe. www.myspace.com/mikeiscoolerthanyourmom
21. Willis Turner - www.myspace.com/willisturner1
22. Scott Vinci - guitar comedy. Will Ferrell's www.funnyordie.com.
23. Tara Walden - Rocky's, Ice House Annex www.myspace.com/tarawalden
24. Joe Wilson - www.JoeWilsonComedy.com
25. Bill Word - National Lampoon Comedy Radio. www.killerkomedy.com
COMEDY WALK promotes comedy, downtown, and diversity.
HOW MUCH: FREE TICKETS at www.comedywalk.com.
WHEN: Thursday, May 8th, 2008, 8:30pm to 10pm, 2nd Thursday each month.
WHAT: COMEDY WALK is the biggest comedy walk event in the world, a family-friendly show.
WHO: Each month COMEDY WALK presents 25 of the hottest upbeat comedy acts in Los Angeles selected from comedy clubs, television and radio.
WHERE: The New Los Angeles Theatre Complex, 504 S. Spring Street, Los Angeles, and 5 other nearby downtown locations including the ballroom of the ALexandria Hotel and three storefronts along 5th Street just west of Spring in the Spring Arts Tower. All venues within 1/2 block of each other!
Six simultaneous 90-minute shows. Neighborhood parking $6 or free on the street.
WHY: See your favorite hottest comedians all in one night. Join thousands of people crowding the streets of L.A. the second Thursday of each month.
Featured performers this month are Stevie Mack, Gayla Johnson and Laurie McDermott. Stevie Mack has performed at Last Comic Standing, BET, Comedy Central, UPN, and SpikeTV. Gayla Johnson has performed at The HaHa, Comedy Store, the Improv, Ice House, B.E.T, Comedy Central, and SiTV. Laurie McDermott has performed at HBO Comic Relief and Lifetime TV Mom Comics.
COMEDY WALK PERFORMERS - FULL LIST
1. Abel Arias - a regular on "The Cathy Lewis Show" www.abelarias.com
2. Philip Bach - The HaHa. www.jointhecrew.org
3. Jackie "Fabulous" Champagnie - Downtown Comedy Club, Laugh Factory, Ice House www.myspace.com/jackiechampagnie
4. Jamal Doman - BET, ComicView, SiTV, Latino Laugh Festival, The Magic Hour, Showtime, At the Apollo. www.jamaldoman.com
5. Dan Dominguez - Verizon Network www.funconsuming.com
6. Jason Dudey - Hosts GaysRUs at the Hollywood Improv. www.jasondudey.com
7. Christy Eidson - Southern fried humor. www.christyeidson.com
8. Shereen Faltas - Ice House, the Improv, Comedy Store. www.shereenfaltas.com
9. Nick Hoff - Comedy Uniion, Hollywood Improv, Ice House Annex. www.myspace.com/nicholasmckain
10. Jeffrey Isaak - The HaHa, Comedy Store, the Improv. www.myspace.com/comedyfreek
11. Gayla Johnson - The HaHa, Comedy Store, the Improv, Ice House, B.E.T, Comedy Central, SiTV. www.GaylaJohnson.net
12. Andy Konigsmark - Ice House Annex. www.andykonigsmark.com
13. Stevie Mack - Last Comic Standing, BET, Comedy Central, UPN, SpikeTV. www.steviemack.com
14. Madd Marv - Funny guy
15. Laurie McDermott - HBO Comic Relief and Lifetime TV Mom Comics. www.lauriemcdermott.com
16. Dave Mishevitz - Comedy Store. www.myspace.com/daveiscomedy
17. Tim Powers - has shared the stage with Sean Young and Chris Rock www.timisfunny.com
18. Alishia Simmons - from Newark, earthy comedy.
19. Ron Swallow - www.myspace.com/ronswallow
20. Mike Truesdale - Hollywood Improv, the HaHa Cafe. www.myspace.com/mikeiscoolerthanyourmom
21. Willis Turner - www.myspace.com/willisturner1
22. Scott Vinci - guitar comedy. Will Ferrell's www.funnyordie.com.
23. Tara Walden - Rocky's, Ice House Annex www.myspace.com/tarawalden
24. Joe Wilson - www.JoeWilsonComedy.com
25. Bill Word - National Lampoon Comedy Radio. www.killerkomedy.com
COMEDY WALK promotes comedy, downtown, and diversity.
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