At Point Fermin last year where one person was found dead, another injured | Photo by Marshall Astor - Food Pornographer via Flickr There are a lot of falls over at and near Point Fermin and the Sunken City, whether it is accidental or suicidal. The battle for safety precautions over natural views of the ocean can be a contentious one with the community. There comes a point where you can't stop people from......

At Point Fermin last year where one person was found dead, another injured | Photo by Marshall Astor - Food Pornographer via Flickr One person is dead (now reported as a 50-year-old woman) after they went over the side of a cliff near Point Fermin 1:40 p.m. this afternoon in San Pedro (map). No preliminary reports on how this happened are out yet, but this cliff is no stranger to incidents like today (Update:......

A man shot in San Pedro early this morning later died at the hospital. It happened at 2:43 a.m. this morning when a Hispanic male in an SUV drove-by another Hispanic male and shot him at 1125 S. Gaffey Street. The suspect then crashed his car and ran away on foot. The LAPD now has the suspect's vehicle, but so far, no witnesses have come forward and further details are pending, according to Officer Mobasser,......

Papadakis Taverna at Sixth and Centre streets in downtown San Pedro is a popular high-profile Greek restaurant that has served up food for the past 35 years to locals and celebs alike. Now, the owner is looking to sell it, but not anyone can buy it, according to the Daily Breeze. The Papadakis would like someone to buy it and keep the restaurant going. The asking price is $500,000 for the restaurant itself, which includes......

A sign at Hollywood & Vine | Photo by discarted There's a common law that most bicyclists know in Los Angeles: sidewalk riding is legal as long as you do not have "a willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property." LAMC 56.15 also "disallows the riding of bicycles on Ocean Front Walk in Venice." Reading that, you would think that you can ride your bike on all the other sidewalks......

In the name of safety and a smoother ride, Caltrans is working on a is $7 million bridge deck resurfacing project. Therefore, that means some day and night time closures (pdf). Full and partial closures will occur Saturday through Monday nights and next Friday.......

LAist Featured Photos contributor Marshall Astor titled this photo "Holy Fuck Part Deux! Thrifty Gas in San Pedro Goes for Broke." He continues to say "this gas station's prices have gone nuts, but every time I drive by, there's some moron at the pump getting gouged. "For reference, I paid $4.01 at a nearby station last week, and most other nearby stations are in the low $4.10-20 range. "I'm expecting this pump to hit $5.00......

Photo by david.nikonvscanon via Flickr Around 100 people's car tires were slashed over the night, leaving San Pedro residents with an unhappy morning surprise. It wasn't until people gathered at a local tire store that they all began to figure out what happened. Police are not sure exactly how many people were victimized, but one person is quoted in a Daily Breeze report saying they were "inundated" with calls. Several neighborhoods were hit, including......

Living in an RV in San Pedro just got a little harder, at least for the next 30 days. Councilwoman Janice Hahn announced a new pilot program making it harder for RVs to park in the "designated RV restriction district in South San Pedro." New street signs installed state that no parking will be allowed for oversized vehicles between the hours of 2:00 and 6:00 a.m. “These oversized vehicles cause neighborhood blight and present safety......

Photo by Mike Watt San Pedro (or as he would say, "Pedro") local Mike Watt kayaks just about every morning and always takes beautiful beautiful beautiful sunrise photos. Here's one recent morning over at the Harbor. Previously: Mike Watt's Top Ten Pedro Sunrises of '06......

Yesterday at four different locations around the Los Angeles area, teams built ice structures, a re-creation of performance and installation artist Allan Kaprow's "Fluids." Yesterday, Kaprow's son helped build one of the structures in Pasadena's Memorial Park. LAist Featured Photos contributor Tom Andrews was there to catch it. From Beverly Hills to San Pedro, "Fluids" structures are still being put up today and tomorrow. Below the photo gallery is a map of locations and dates.......

This last Tuesday at the crack of dawn, famous San Pedro local Mike Watt snapped this shot. "I'm paddling my kayak down in the harbor here in Pedro and I saw the Angels Gate Lighthouse being reflected down onto the water and took a shot of it as I was about to pass her and head out into the open sea. I flipped the picture 180 degrees to give it a trippy perspective. It......

Photo by Arlette via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr 19-year-old alleged gang member Pedro Espinoza entered a not guilty plea today for the murder of Jamiel Shaw. Shaw, the 17-year-old high schooler, was gunned down near his home early last month. Mayor Tony's former lady friend and ousted tv reporter Mirthala Salinas opens up about her affair in an upcoming Los Angeles mag interview. She calls the relationship a "learning experience" and......

Every year about this time, the Los Angeles Wheelmen sponsor a bike ride up Fargo Street. This climb, which is this Sunday, draws attention every year for the feat these cyclists attempt and complete (last year's record was 90 accents!). From their website: Once a year cyclists gather from all over to match their legs and skill against Fargo Street Hill, reportedly the steepest hill in Los Angeles. It's only a couple of blocks long,......

DANCE The State Ballet of Georgia arrives for their Los Angeles premiere at UCLA's Royce Hall to perform Giselle. This historic Russian dance company is taking on a classic, with Nina Ananiashvili in the spotlight as the company's artistic director and prima ballerina in the title role. 8 p.m. // Royce Hall, UCLA // Westwood Plz at Charles E Young Dr S// (310) 825-2101 // $20 - 90 SPOKEN WORD It's an Anything Goes Open......

COMEDY “Groundlings Swimsuit Edition” is the comedy troupe’s latest offering, with plenty of sketch and improv. Keep your fingers crossed that we won’t see them in Speedos. (But then again, Speedos are funny…) 8 pm // Groundling Theatre // 7307 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles // $21.50. FILM Crenshaw Boulevard comes to life in the hands of director Dan Wozniak and producer Christopher Molony. The documentary features 12 vignettes of people along the street’s 24......

View Larger Map A two-car crash on Anaheim St. in the Wilmington neighborhood of Los Angeles north of San Pedro and the LA Harbor has sent four patients to the hospital in critical condition, leaving one in minor condition. Two had to be extricated from a sedan by the Los Angeles Fire Department. The cause of the crash is unknown at this time, but officials are warning of traffic along this main artery.......

As Cloverfield set a box office record for a January opening this holiday weekend, we Angelenos should be glad at the local economic boost, but we should also question if it could have been even more successful had the film been set in Los Angeles. Yes, the New York setting drew memories of 9/11 and classic monster movies, but Los Angeles is the city in which this monster would have done so much better......

I love Watt's photo of sunrise over this mast. The lines look like spiderwebs. It started me thinking about masts and general sailing terminology. People make jokes about the mizzen mast on Talk Like a Pirate Day. It is the most poetic-sounding mast. These are the actual names for the masts:Fore-mast - the first mast, or the mast fore of the main-mast. Main-mast - the tallest mast, usually located near the centre of the......

WORDS SCI-Arc’s spring lecture series on design and architecture kicks off tonight with Jeffrey Kipnis, professor of architectural design and theory at Ohio State University. Kipnis will discuss “happy,” “zany” and other important political trends in architecture. So the title of his lecture -- *@$#*!#!! -- does make sense. Kind of. 7 pm // W. M. Keck Lecture Hall SCI-Arc, 960 East 3rd Street, Los Angeles // Free. MORE WORDS David Frum is a former......

A wonderful bird is a pelican, His bill will hold more than his belican. He can take in his beak Food enough for a week; But I'm damned if I see how the helican. "The Pelican" (1910) by Dixon Lanire Merrith, often misattributed to Ogden Nash Modern pelicans are found on all continents except Antarctica. From the fossil record,[6] it is known that pelicans have been around for over 40 million years, the earliest......

So maybe you holed up inside last night with a hot toddy and are thinking, "rain be damned! I'm going out tonight!" Okay, fine. If you make it out earlier, you can celebrate the Japanese New Year, or you can lay low until the evening hours and then get yourself so theatre. Or you could just stay home and keep drinking. We'll never tell... JAPANESE NEW YEAR/SAKE-TO ME There are multiple events going on today......

Here is a self-portrait of Watt braving the frigid January waters off of San Pedro in the 37th annual Cabrillo Beach Polar Bears Plunge on New Year's day. As far back as anyone can remember, an informal New Year's day swim has been led by lifeguards or the Dept of Parks and Recreation at noon off of Cabrillo Beach. In 1953, John Olguin and Jack Cheaney started the Cabrillo Beach Polar Bears. John's wife, Muriel......

One of the great things about Pedro are the cliffs, which provide beautiful views of the harbor. At the same time, the harbor is getting some beautiful views of the cliffs ( and the Point Fermin building). Here is a sea-lion's-eye view from Watt's kayak. A Watt's-eye-view.......

Happy 50th to our weekly photo contributor Mike Watt! This is a self-portrait taken this morning, kayaking around Angel's Gate in the rain at dawn. He'll also be marking the occasion tonight by rocking DiPiazza's in Long Beach. Watt will be joining Nels Cline and Steve Perkins in Banyan, Perkins' experimental, mostly instrumental project. Opening bands are Alfajerk and Horrors of Toledo. Banyan goes on at 11pm, so you can still catch them if......

A balcony collapsed last night around 9 p.m. in San Pedro, leaving the eight adults who fell about 8-10 feet in the accident with mild to moderate injuries.No injuries are reported in a small fire that tore through several garages and an apartment building this moring in the Hollywood Hills, according to ABC7. The fire took place at 8054 Fareholm Drive in the Laurel Canyon area, and the cause is as yet unknown. The price......

This is a picture of a bait raft in Pedro. I love this one because the seagull looks so blase as the sea lions go at it. I am not a fan of cheesily talking for animals. But he just seems to be thinking, "There go those goddamned sea lions again. If I wanted to listen to that crap I'd get married again." OK, the anthropomorphizing is over. You can open your eyes now.......

This photograph is somehow both beautiful and sad. Broken, abandoned things can be just as meaningful, sometimes even more meaningful, than natural beauty. It is just one more thing for the sea to claim and make its own. Photo by Mike Watt......

Sometimes Watt sends out pictures of found objects that he comes across while pedaling around Pedro. My favorite thing about this photo is Watt's DIY self-painted helmet on the ground. True, he probably took it off to look through the viewfinder of the camera. But it also makes me wonder just a little bit whether he was going to try on the hat.......

This weekend I thought we'd take a break from the sea and the red thing to check out the animal kingdom version of Thanksgiving. Are these not the fattest racoons you have ever seen? It's as if they are a new species. Don't mess with Pedro racoons, man. - Elise The Raccoon (Procyon lotor), also known as the Northern Raccoon, Common Raccoon, Washer Bear or Coon, is a widespread, medium-sized, omnivorous mammal native to......