Results tagged “downtown”

Today's the day: The Great L.A. Walk, organized by Mike & Maria of Franklin Avenue, departs at 9 a.m. sharp from the Shrine Auditorium in Downtown, and will take participants on a 14-mile "urban hike" all the way to the water's edge via Adams and Washington.

Last New Year's Eve, the San Francisco Area rung in the New Year with a bad start. A police officer working for the BART transit system shot and killed an unarmed man already restrained and facing down on the ground. Now that former cop, 27-year-old Johannes Mehserle stands trial for murder.

       

As noted over the weekend, MOCA is offering free admission at their two downtown locations through Friday. The museum is celebrating thirty years by displaying their permanent collection through May 3rd.

Jared Leto and hundreds of Midnight Ridazz bikers take over the streets of LA in the new 30 Seconds to Mars video, "Kings + Queens". We like watching as they head over the Sixth Street Bridge, through the Second Street Tunnel, around Hollywood and Highland, and finally hit the edge of the Santa Monica Pier as the Ridazz show off LA's unique and growing bike culture. We think it's pretty cool that they name each rider at the end too!

            

I get asked more often than I can handle for recommendations for where to eat in Los Angeles. And it's a hard question to answer because there are not only a staggering number of excellent options, but also it's so often a matter of personal taste and finding the right spot for the right occasion. For the past four or five years, however, if you ask me what my favorite special occasion restaurant in Los Angeles is (not counting the epic $500 sushi of Urasawa, mind you) I will without hesitation say The Water Grill.

As the two hotels and condos prepare to open at L.A. Live (all in one building), Eric Richardson at blogdowntown sat down with the building's Director of Food and Beverage to get some details. What's known so far is enough to get foodies excited. There will be two "signature" restaurants with yet-to-be-named celebrity chefs. The ground floor will be home to L.A. Market while the other restaurant will live on the 24th floor. There will also be a cocktail room called the Mixing Room. And add to that a lobby lounge and poolside bar named Glance and Ion, respectively.

As the Downtown Art Walk grew in popularity over the past year, so did unrelated activities like a large craft show and, of course, food trucks. Well, it looks like Main Street, which has turned into food truck alley on the second Thursday of the month, will remain empty of some trucks.

The Downtown Art Walk, which is centered around Gallery Row, might be all the buzz tonight, but over in the nearby Arts District, a new 24-foot tall mural at Traction and E. 3rd by Shepard Fairey has just gone up, says Ed Fuentes at blogdowntown. It's called the "Peace Goddess" and is part of LA Freewall project, which could turn the area into largest outdoor art gallery. ALSO: Fairey's art gallery, Subliminal Projects, has a new show featuring work by WK Interact. It's a solo exhibition called "How To Blow Yourself Up."

Tonight's the second Thursday of the month, meaning that it's time for the Downtown Art Walk in LA's Historic Core. Dozens of galleries and arts venues participate into the wee hours of the evening, but there's much more than art happening, tonight. Two salons are being held at Clifton's from 5:30-7:30 pm: One on writer John Fante hosted by biographer Stephen Cooper; the second is on LAvender Los Angeles, a look at the emergence of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community in Los Angeles, starting in 1950. Over at HABEAS LOUNGE, a salon will dive into local bicycle and public transit issues.

There's another event to add to tonight's festivities at the Downtown Art Walk and its at the LAPD's Central Division police station on 6th Street. LAPD Captain Blake Chow and other officials are hosting a open house for the community, which will include a guided tour of the station, live entertainment, demonstrations and a mini food festival of sorts that they are calling a "taste of downtown."

If you came to Los Angeles and had to choose one late-night diner, which would you go to? Playboy traveled the country in search of the top ten best such diners across the country, naming the Original Pantry Cafe in downtown as one of them (good choice!). What they say, in part: "Open all day, every day since 1924, former Mayor Richard Riordan loved the Pantry so much that he bought the diner in order to save it from demolition. Today the Pantry is dwarfed by the shadows of the Staples Center and other markers of downtown Los Angeles, but it serves up to 3,000 people every day...” Also listed: Orphan Andy’s (SF), Big Nick’s (NYC) and Diner Grill (Chi).

Just in time for downtown's most popular event tomorrow evening, the new 2nd Street Park at the Police Administration Building has finally reopened after a two-week closure for a private police foundation fundraiser. Unfortunately, it now looks terrible. "Its grass may look as if a season of football has been played on it," described Eric Richardson at blogdowntown. So who gets to pay for the reseeding and landscaping?

When the two hotels and Ritz Carlton residences open at L.A. Live next year, that's not the end for development at the mega sports and entertainment complex in downtown. The Downtown News finds that AEG has submitted some big plans. It includes "332,618 square feet of office space and a 269,182-square-foot broadcasting studio that could accommodate a nationwide cable television network, a 275-room hotel and a 25-story residential building with 65 units adjacent to the L.A. Live campus." Currently, L.A. Live is home to two stage venues, the Grammy Museum, a movie theatre and various restaurants.

The holiday season always means more and more DUI checkpoints. With thousands of hit-and-runs and drinking-related crashes so far this year, the LAPD has two Sobriety & Drivers License Checkpoints set up for the weekend. The first is tonight 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. at West Florence Avenue and South Main Street in South L.A. Then tomorrow from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m., a checkpoint will be set up on Figueroa between 7th and 8th in downtown. Stay safe out there!

No, downtown does not have a bunch of crunchy cheezeball souvenir shops, superheroes or stars embedded in the sidewalk. It does, however, have a convenient spot for movie premieres along the relatively unknown Georgia Street. Such an unremarkable name, but one that means less impacts to neighbors, traffic and, well, a movie studio's wallet.

With runaway production affecting the local economy, Los Angeles wants filming to come back home. Last month, the city council adopted a motion that brought 19 ideas to the table that would hopefully entice more local filming. One of those tasks was to identify the ten hardest places to film in. And in record time--less than a month, that's saying something for a city report--that list was just released.

The new Regal Cinemas L.A. Live is offering seven free screenings to downtown residents tonight, according to blogdowntown. They are first come, first serve, but the boundaries of downtown and whether IDs will be checked is unknown. "Tickets are available the day of from the box office. I don't believe they will be checking IDs, but they don't explicitly say," noted blogdowntown's Eric Richardson in the comments section. Tonights films are Funny People (7:00), 500 Days of Summer (7:10), District 9 (7:20), Star Trek (7:30), Up (7:40), G.I. Joe (7:50) and The Proposal (8:00). Update: No IDs will be checked, explains an AEG rep.

Many people in Los Angeles consider a trip downtown as practical as visiting the moon, which may explain why it was never a big deal to Buzz Aldrin. "I used to come down to the Midnight Mission, I had a lot of friends working there," recalled the astronaut. Another charitable cause brought him back on Monday night, a fundraiser gala that generated over $300,000 for Virgin Unite and the Eve Branson Foundation. The charitable arm of Sir Richard Branson's empire supports social and environmental causes, including health care in rural parts of Africa.

It's a big night for downtown Los Angeles, more specifically L.A. Live. 6 p.m.: "This Is It," the Michael Jackson documentary, premieres (some wonder if some movie premieres will move from Hollywood to downtown. The movie 2012 will premiere here next week.). | 7 p.m.: Lakers and Clippers open basketball season at the Staples Center | 9 p.m.: L.A. Live's newest addition, Regal Cinemas opens to the public.

The LAPD is setting up two sobriety & drivers license checkpoints this weekend. As always, just don't drink and drive and you'll be fine. Between 8:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. tonight, police will set a checkpoint up on Figueroa Street between 8th and 9th streets. Tomorrow in Cahuenga Pass between Hollywood and the Universal City area, a checkpoint will be set up...

Downtown LA’s Grand Central Market is a Recession Obsession institution. If you’ve never been, grab a crisp five dollar bill, and you’ll purchase a great meal. Grab a crisp ten dollar bill and you’ll find that nirvana known as Food Coma.

The new abstract public art at the Police Administration Building in downtown is garnering some nice discussion and attention, as all good art should. Artist Peter Shelton tells blogdowntown that the six "beasts of burden" should have viewers making up their own stories as to what they are.

The office supply store, which first purchased the naming rights to the Staples Center in 1997, has scored a deal with AEG to keep their name on LA's busiest arena in perpetuity. The original agreement was $100 million for a mere 20 years. Exact terms of the new arrangement have not been disclosed. It's the first time a major-market arena has inked a lifetime deal.

If Metro's regional connector project is built, passengers will be able to commute between Pasadena and Long Beach without transferring from the Gold Line to the Red Line, then the Blue Line. Likewise, those traveling between East LA and Culver City (and maybe someday Santa Monica) will be able to skip a similar transfer process. That means faster travel times and more accessibility car-free.

                     

Brakes are required at the Red Bull Soapbox Races but a sense of self-preservation is not. The event has been held in more than 40 countries over the past decade, with vehicle designers thinking way outside of their so-called-box. It stopped in downtown Los Angeles for the first time on Saturday.

The Metro board yesterday directed staff to apply for federal grants in hopes of capturing start-up money for the a subway to UCLA and a the regional connector in downtown.

If you've got the day off Friday (jobless, furloughed, ditching?), then maybe skipping the beach is in order so you can climb the tallest building west of the Mississippi. Every year, the popular Stair Climb to the Top raises money for the downtown YMCA with some 1,500 runners expected this Friday. The honor will cost you $100 (that's the fundraising minimum), whether you raise the money or pay your own way. On-site registration begins at 2 p.m.

Well, hello, Autumn! As of 9 a.m., it was already 72 in Van Nuys, 66 in downtown L.A. and 64 at LAX and in Long Beach. But temperatures are going to soar today, prompting a Red Flag for fire danger and officials to tell the public to take heed (drink that water, stay cool). At the height of the day, the National Weather Service predicts temperatures over 100 in the Valley (100 in Burbank, 101 in Van Nuys, 104 in Woodland Hills), 96 in downtown L.A. and Long Beach, 89 at LAX, 84 in Santa Monica and 101 in Pasadena.

       

Welcome to Emmys day! Amid the high heat, red carpet arrivals are underway right now at the Nokia Theatre at L.A. Live in downtown. Grab a drink (preferably the official drink of the day) and enjoy the live arrivals coverage on KTLA right now with Carrie Ann Inaba & Chris Harrison, who we interviewed yesterday.

Crazy Gideon's crazy videos were always fun to watch with his yelling and the throwing of electronics around his downtown warehouse (never seen them? watch a collection below, they're great). But the times have changed and Gideon Kotzer has installed a "Going out of Business" sign on his Arts District-located warehouse, which he plans to convert into housing. Ed Fuentes of blogdowntown catches up with Kotzer in this great video.