As expected, the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles voted to give $5 million towards a 3.4 mile downtown streetcar route. But there is still a long way to go as the project is expected to cost $90 million with up to half of the funding possibly coming from the private sector. Earlier this week, LA City Councilman Jose Huizar said that he intends on riding the streetcar in 2014.......

Metro has been looking into connecting the Blue, Gold and future Expo Lines for some time now. Currently, if you want to go to Long Beach from Pasadena, you take the Gold to the Red to the Blue. With the regional connector, imagine taking just one train from start to finish. While Metro has not posted the next group of meetings yet, Little Tokyo UnBlogged has the info for two meetings later this month. Plans......

UPDATE: "Jesse Jane and other cast members will appear [live] and in person to sign copies of Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge. The festivities will go down on at the Hustler Hollywood Sunset store on Thursday October 2nd, from 8-10 p.m. and at Hustler Hollywood San Diego on Friday October 3rd." (Via Tony Batman) This past Saturday, Digital Playground (MySpace) celebrated the release of their new blockbuster adult movie Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge -- directed......

A streetcar in Portland, OR | Photo by pdxjeff via Flickr Funding for the proposed 3.4-mile downtown streetcar could get a step up on Thursday when the Community Redevelopment Agency is scheduled to vote on giving the project $5 million. The whole project is estimated to cost $90 million with "30% - 50% of that total.. expected to come from the private sector via an assessment on surrounding property owners," reports Eric Richardson at......

Photo by Open Air Control Testing Ground via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr At today's Metro board meeting, the group unanimously approved a pilot program that would extend Red Line hours until 3:00 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays from November through January 3rd. Yes, Los Angeles will finally have a subway that operates until 3:00 a.m... well, at least for a short period of time. The approved motion allows for the program to begin......

Deathbowl To Downtown. Photo courtesy of ncpfilms. Los Angeles, as a culture, lives by it’s own standards and plays by as many (or as few) rules as money can buy. But with that is the tacit understanding that, on many occasions, it will also die by it’s own shortcomings. As a result, Southern California is and will be the birthplace of many things, but those things will often leave their home to experience greater......

Los Angeles annual average temperatures from 1878 to 2008 "The bottom line is that we're definitely going to be living in a warmer Southern California," said Bill Patzert, a NASA Jet Propulsion Lab climatologist and oceanographer who co-authored a study that examined Los Angeles' daily temperature data for a hundred year period. What they found was that "the number of extreme heat days (above 90 degrees Fahrenheit in downtown LA) has increased sharply over......

Last year L.A. LIVE opened the first phase of its massive project with the NOKIA Theatre, accommodating 7,100 people per show (The Emmys were there on Sunday). This year on November 10 Club NOKIA will open its doors for the first time to 2,300 fans of Beck (tickets go on sale Saturday). Their line-up, which includes Matisyahu, Usher and B.B. King has only been announced through February. Also in December, the GRAMMY Museum located next......

Starting today, Starline Tours will be adding downtown to their roster of double-decker travel for sight seeing in addition to routes in Beverly Hills and Hollywood. "The 'hop-on hop-off' buses will travel between Olvera Street and Staples Center each half-hour, starting at 10 a.m.," reported the Daily News. "Along the route, riders can stop at the Civic Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Broadway's historic movie theaters, the Central Library and other sites." Just another sign......

A conceptual site illustration of the land east of downtown Attracting business to (or keeping it within) Los Angeles is a good thing for the economy. Having them be green is hip and great for the future. So that's why the Community Redevelopment Agency of the city claimed one million square feet of downtown industrial land for green research, development and industrial manufacturing at the new Los Angles Clean Technology Manufacturing Center that was......

Earlier this month, local electropop duo Electrocute (MySpace) -- previously covered here -- performed at Bordello (MySpace) in Downtown LA. Tomorrow night, they will be part of the Barack Obama-rama at Spaceland (MySpace) in Silver Lake, with locals The Bird and the Bee (MySpace), The Lady Tigra (MySpace), Hard Place (MySpace), Willoughby (MySpace), and The Polyamorous Affair (MySpace), as well as the Copenhagen-based Wolfkin (MySpace), and Lance Rock manning the DJ booth. The fundraiser......

A worker entering the media and other-attendee entrance at the Emmy Awards was stopped and briefly detained at a police checkpoint when an officer noticed a rifle in the trunk. The episode prompted traffic to be stopped at various checkpoints around the Nokia Theatre in downtown. The incident that began shortly before 4:00 p.m. only lasted twenty minutes after the gun was found to be a common Airsoft-type rifle (it's like a BB gun),......

Here's a photo of Torti Gallas and Partners, an urban design and architecture firm based in downtown, setting up their commandeered parking space at 6th & Grand Avenue. Complete with a picket fence, welcome mat and a For Sale sign, their "concept for Park[ing] Day acknowledges the potential of a parking spot not only as a green space, but also as a place that can be reprogrammed with a variety of more valuable and......

Here's a big win for fans of classic sandwiches: a tip just came down the wire that Cole's Pacific Electric Buffet, one of the two restaurants in L.A. that claims responsibility for inventing the famed French Dip sandwich (the other being Phillipe's), will be reopening sometime in late October or early November. Downtown nightlife impresario Cedd Moses, of 213 Downtown, acquired Cole's in 2007 and has been renovating the space back to the glory......

High-profile, pricey dining events are fun and all, but most of us would rather spend our dining dollars on an event that supports a great cause. If you're one of those people, you're in luck this weekend, because Savor The Season is one of those worth-it events. Not only does it feature a catered spread from some of L.A.'s best restaurants, but proceeds from the event are going to Break The Cycle, an organization......

Woody Allen (Vicky Cristy Barcelona, Manhattan, Annie Hall) and William Friedkin (the Exorcist, the French Connection) collaborate with the Los Angeles to bring you their vision of Giacomo Puccini's Il Trittico. Il Trittico is made up of three one-act operas, "Il Tabarro", "Suor Angelica", and "Gianni Schicchi". James Conlon conducts the orchestra and Tony-award winning Santo Loquasto will design the set. "Il Tabarro" is about a tragic love triangle, filled with dark and violent......

Actor and producer (okay, and sometimes director) Kevin Spacey has purchased a unit in Downtown's Biscuit Lofts for a cool $1.2 million. The building came to be in 1925 and envisioned as the West Coast HQ for the National Biscuit Company. Its building cost was $2 million--a shocking price tag eight decades ago--and it was designed by EJ Eckel, the Dean of American Architecture and of the firm Eckel & Aldrich, according to the building's......

It's not every morning that we have clear skies. And depending where you live, today might not be so different. But it's Friday. Relax. Take a deep breath and enjoy these wonderful sunrise photos from the past, some of them from our LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr.......

"The measure of any society is how they treat their weakest element. The widows, the orphans, the strangers on the land. How we do anything is how we do everything. We're not doing so well on Skid Row." ~ Sam Slovick For many people living in Los Angeles, Skid Row truly embodies the phrase "out of sight, out of mind". The homelessness, drug abuse, prostitution, violence and mental illness that continue to thrive on Skid......

Los Angeles Firefighters who were reporting to a dumpster fire this morning before 7:00 a.m. discovered a dead body set on fire. After extinguishing the fire on the 1300 block of East 15th Street near Central Ave. and the 10 Freeway, first responders called LAPD who in turn sent out homicide detectives. Police are not sure if the body was dumped there and then put on fire or not, according to Officer April Harding.......

Photo of Walt Disney Concert Hall by el daverino via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Yesterday, we announced the free LA Philharmonic concerts that will be performed later this month (according to the Phil this morning, while the shows are reserved out already, that you should keep checking back as more seats could be released). Today, we find out that more free concerts will be performed during the Grand Avenue Festival on Sunday, September......

Photo by Matthew Imaging On the list of things you must see in Los Angeles is the Los Angeles Philharmonic playing in their home space at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The Frank Gehry designed building opened in 2003 and with tickets for classical shows often selling out or out of price range for some, many still have yet to experience one of Los Angeles' aural and visual gems. So here's your chance if......

If you happened to see some serious goat-on-grass action Monday at 4th and Hill Streets in Downtown, your eyes were not deceiving you. There were, indeed, 100 goats put there deliberately--not as some Fraternity prank--to help clear the lot of overgrowth. LAist Featured Photos contributor Jonathan Alcorn (aka Sundogg) grabbed this great goat shot for us, and explains (via the LA Times):Sep 09, 2008 - Los Angeles, California, USA - A herd of goats......

With each new restaurant and store, downtown Los Angeles continues to grow into a better and more exciting urban neighborhood. The latest is from Ben Ford of Ford's Filling Station in Culver City. "[They] just signed a lease for a nearly 5,000-foot space in the ground floor of the Rowan Lofts Building at 5th and Spring, confirmed by Director of Operations Emily Beretta," writes Rich Alossi at Angelenic. "The move ensures Downtowners will have......

To see a larger image of this map, download this version of the map here (.pdf, 1.9MB) If you live or plan to travel around the areas of this year's Los Angeles Triathlon on Sunday morning, you might want to pay attention to this map by the city's Department of Transportation showing street closures and other pertinent information. Basically, the race begins at Venice Beach and goes down Venice Blvd. for seven miles to......

A man in his forties was hit and killed by a semi-truck this afternoon directly outside a fire station in the industrial eastside of downtown. The intersection of Santa Fe and Olympic, where the incident occurred, has heavy truck traffic due to its location near the convergence of the 5, 10, 101 and 60 freeways as well as the industrial nature of the area. No 9-1-1 calls were made since a witness ran up to......

For a larger view of the route image, click here The city's Department of Transportation (LADOT) begins operation a new DASH bus route that will serve the Central City East area of Downtown. From 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., the new DASH Central City East route will serve Little Tokyo, the Toy District, the Arts District and the Flower District. The new DASH route also offers riders the ability to connect with other DASH routes......

Last Sunday, director Benny Profane (MySpace) celebrated the release of his new Vivid-Alt (MySpace) movie Hospital!, his first directorial effort for the imprint, with a party at the Redwood Bar and Grill in Downtown LA. In attendance was star Mandy Morbid (MySpace) with boyfriend Zak Sabbath (MySpace). Also present was Vivid-Alt head Eon McKai (MySpace) and Sarah, director Dave Naz (MySpace) with Ashley Blue, director Vena Virago (MySpace), pornstar/director Kimberly Kane (MySpace) with boyfriend......

A Portland Streetcar | Photo by pdxjeff via Flickr Skipping the bureaucracies of Metro and the city's own Department of Transportation, a coalition of downtown stakeholders, including government officials, voted last week to create a nonprofit to build a 3-mile streetcar line that would travel mostly along Broadway from LA Live to the some-day Grand Avenue Project. The nonprofit will tentatively be named L.A. Streetcar Inc., inspired by Portland Streetcar Inc. who built that......

With mini spa treatments galore, sweets to your heart's content and a swank downtown Los Angeles loft setting, who wouldn't enjoy being a girl at the Pamper Yourself Fabulous event last week? We were lucky enough to be one of the 100+ attendees at this sold-out spa day, a girls' day out unlike any other. No sample sales to stress over or wine tastings to get sloppy during, it's all about rest and relaxation here.......