From the Newsroom

Everyday

Budget and Finance: Considering the LA Theatre Center

By Eric Richardson — April 05, 2005
6 Comments

I'm actually at the Budget and Finance committee meeting right now, using the bits of EDGE connection I can pick up in City Hall room 1010 to blog this "live." Public comment took an hour, and since public comment comes before the actual committee discussion we still don't know exactly what it is the committee intends to do. You can read detailed notes of...


Everyday

Hollywood Sells; We Should All Move There

By Eric Richardson — April 05, 2005
1 Comment

There's an interesting opinion piece in today's Daily News about city planning and the relative appeals of Hollywood and Downtown. Hollywood is portrayed as the heart of the city, while Downtown takes the role of money-sink. Bureaucratic blindness seems to be endemic in the city. Instead of capitalizing on its very own gold mine and building up what is...


Everyday

Council Budget and Finance Committee Holds Special Meeting on LATC

By Eric Richardson — April 05, 2005

The City Council's Budget and Finance Committee is holding a special meeting tomorrow at 3:15pm (City Hall, Room 1010) to take action on the Los Angeles Theatre Center. This will immediately follow their regular meeting, but it's special because they only gave notice 24-hours ahead of time, and the Brown Act requires it be a "Special Meeting" in that case. ...


Everyday

Everybody Has Cool Cameras

By Eric Richardson — April 04, 2005

ATSAC Center

This morning as part of a class field trip I got to see the ATSAC headquarters under City Hall East. ATSAC, or Automated Traffic Surveillance and Control, is responsible for managing about 3100 of the city's 4000+ signalized intersections. A couple little tidbits I found interesting: They know within a second if a signal goes into flash mode (flashing red...


Everyday

Directionally Challenged

By Eric Richardson — April 01, 2005
2 Comments

The BIDs need to hurry up with those wayfinding signs (also covered today in the Daily Trojan). Maybe they could have helped the Downtown News locate the fashion district: Southwest of the Financial District, the 90-block Fashion District sprawls from about Seventh Street on the north to the 10 Freeway on the south, and from Main Street on the west to...


Everyday

Medici not the Only Downtown Fortress

By Eric Richardson — April 01, 2005

This week's Downtown News has a piece on the sale of the MCI Center (otherwise known as Macy's Plaza). Included is this fantastic work of understatement: The MCI Center, originally known as the Broadway Plaza for its anchor tenant, was built in 1973 and includes a glass atrium and courtyard. At the time, it included the first new department store built...


Everyday

Neighborhood Councils Reach Understanding With DWP

By Eric Richardson — March 31, 2005
1 Comment

Both the LA Times and the Daily News run stories today about the neighborhood councils and the Department of Water and Power (DWP) finalizing their Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). DLANC President Brady Westwater gets quoted in the Times piece: The proposed pact, which was announced Wednesday and will go to the DWP board for approval next week, would...


Everyday

Antonovich to Announce Endorsement of Hahn

By Eric Richardson — March 30, 2005

Hahn/Antonovich Press Conference

Kevin Roderick is taking a blogging-break today, so The Angelino was the first I saw to break the rumor that County Supervisor Michael Antonovich will this afternoon announce his support of Mayor Hahn. I just got confirmation of that, and news that a press conference will be held just after 3:30pm at the Hall of Administration. I should really be working on...


Everyday

March Transportation and Public Works Wrap-Up

By Eric Richardson — March 29, 2005

Tonight was the monthly meeting for DLANC's Transportation & Public Works committee. As usual, I'll try to summarize what went on, though obviously these aren't in any way official minutes. This month's meeting featured two big presentations. First came the Bureau of Street Services, talking about the Mayor's proposed $100,000 per council budget for street...


Everyday

"Two Billion Dollar Baby" on LA36

By Eric Richardson — March 28, 2005

Last Thursday the Central City Association had their General Membership Meeting at the Omni Hotel and the focus was the two big-dollar projects going on right now in Downtown: LA Live! and the Grand Avenue Project. LA36 was there filming, and their footage will air several times in the next few days: Tuesday, March 29th, at 11pm Wednesday, March 30th, at 4pm...