Today, Metro announced that the Gold Line East Extension is 80% completed. But don't think that means you'll be riding into Little Tokyo and out to East LA by the end of this summer. Metro has always conceded that project will by done by the end of 2009, yet construction is now almost six months ahead of time. That means it could open in the summer of '09 if all goes well with the remaining......

"Sister Cities" | Photo by Stephanie Asher via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr An update on yesterday's Harbor-Gateway shooting of a 6-year-old in a car. LAPD Chief Bratton announced: "We are very confident that we have the people who were involved in the actual shooting in custody." For the Lakers fans out there, LA City Councilman Bernard Parks declared today as "Derek Fisher Day." 1,817. That's the number of teacher layoffs so......

View Larger Map *UPDATE, Weds. 3/5, 10:00 a.m.: The suspect who was shot is believed to be the North Hollywood-area's "Skeleton Bandit." He died in hospital from his injuries after being removed from the scene. *UPDATE, 11:24 p.m.: The alleged robber who was shot by the U.S. Marshal is now at the hospital in critical condition and the suspected accomplice is still at large according to Officer April Harding of the LAPD. So how was......

Test Your Reflex plays this month at Hotel Cafe on Wednesdays | Photo by Luke Wooden via their MySpace Despite SXSW starting up this week with 100+ Los Angeles based bands heading over there, residencies are growing stronger and more venue-diverse across the line, especially on Monday nights where the volume makes it hard to choose from. Here's to a great month of residencies, rock on. Mondays The Chapin Sisters @ The Echo (Free),......

Don't try this at home -- or at the Civic Center Metro Station. / Photo by puck90 via LAist's flickr pool. TRANSIT TALK Metro is studying alternatives for connecting the Gold, Blue and Expo lines through downtown Los Angeles. This study will examine linking the future Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension (near the Little Tokyo/Arts District Station) and the 7th Street/Metro Center Station. Tonight Metro will update the public on the project and allow......

Update on why Ventura Blvd. in Studio City was shut down this afternoon by the LAPD: according to the North Hollywood Police Division, the shooting took place at De Soto Ave and Gresham St. in Chatsworth. Later, the suspect's car was found at the Studio City 7-11, prompting the LAPD shut down the area to search (hence all the helicopters). The suspect was later found in the city of Fontana and was arrested without......

A different kind of web-server: Los Angeles based social networking site MySpace is getting served with subpoenas in the case of the teenager who committed suicide following a friend fake-out that was allegedly helmed by a classmate's parent. All I wanna do is BANG BANG BANG BANG! and take your...Fritos? Two Lancaster gang members have been convicted for killing a kid over his junk food. Laquane Keith and Reno Williams shot and killed 18-year-old LeMarcus......

Okay, so yesterday the Bank Heist set aflame, but thanks to the Los Angeles Fire Department, the fire did not put the restaurant/club in the NoHo Arts District our of business, only affecting the second floor club area (a smaller bar and full service restaurant are on the first floor). They opened last fall, but never had a grand opening, which was and still is officially scheduled for February. Owner Kat Johnson tells the LA......

No, there was not a bank heist today in North Hollywood, as there was 11 years ago, the old bank building turned into restaurant/club on Lankershim Blvd., near the NoHo Red/Orange Line stops, is on fire. At 7:13 a.m. this morning, the fire was reported. One firefighter suffered smoke inhalation.The fire burned between floors and in the attic area, said Ron Myers of the Los Angeles Fire Department. After about 40 minutes, firefighters determined......

Happy New Year from LAist and your brand new Food Editor! I've arrived home refreshed from a fantastic vacation in the Philly/New Jersey area, and now I'm revved up and ready for the New Food Year. It was difficult to leave Philadelphia and its fabulous dining options behind (cheesesteaks are only the tip of the iceberg), but nothing beats Los Angeles for its range of offerings. Here's my wish list for places to go,......

A photoshoot held earlier this month was captured by a building employee who explains that the photos were being taken to help promote the sale of units NoHo Lofts, one of many housing structures that have taken over the landscape in NoHo Arts in the past several months. The development of NoHo has really taken off over the past few years, but concerns about "pricing out" current area residents may make selling apartments more......

MUSIC: Machine Project is back with an evening of experimental folk music mix. The evening features the sounds of Ryan Fuller, Julie Carpenter, Laura Steenberge, Ruthann Friedman, rickyricky, Pilar Diaz, Pawko and Marshweed. 8 pm // Machine Project // 1200 D. N. Alvarado, Downtown // Free. THEATRE: The Anteus Company presents two nights of eight Noel Coward plays. Night Two takes place tonight featuring the plays: Come The Wild - Red Peppers, Fumed Oak,......

Last week with the Holiday, we said it was slim pickings. This week, classical music in Los Angeles is bountiful and what has piqued our interest is Alternative Opera Theater's three performances this upcoming weekend at the intimate NoHo Arts District space, the Raven Playhouse. The performance will feature two chamber operas, the first being "The Telephone" by Gian Carlo Menotti where a man attempts to propose to the woman she loves. But there's......

I was struck this weekend by a most wonderful thought: my neighborhood, the NoHo Arts District, is getting to be a fun place to walk around at night. I used to jokingly refer to the District's studiously "fun!" new moniker as "merely an exercise in public relations rather than a reference to anything 'real,'" but after getting out and about on Friday night, I have to say that this stretch of Lankershim Boulevard really......

e3rd Steakhouse isn't your average late-night dining spot. Its vibe is less "let's go soak up all that alcohol" and far more "let's have a fabulous meal post-theatre." Located in the growing Arts District downtown, e3rd's premise is promising: a steakhouse owned by the guy who owns Zip Fusion Sushi, the most popular sushi restaurant in the area. When we asked owner Jason Ha why a steakhouse - and why a steakhouse only steps......

Yesterday, I was talking to a friend, who lives in the NoHo Arts District, about bars in proximity to the Red Line and she mentioned a dream that many share: "You know it was also be sweet if the subway was extended to 1 a.m. or later. We could bar hop into Hollywood and back!" Little known to many, the red line actually has one train that travels beyond 1 a.m. I explained this......

I have to confess something: despite living in the NoHo Arts District, despite working on Sunset and Vine, despite writing for one of the most public-transit-friendly blogs in the city, I have remained hesitant about taking the Metro to work every morning. I mean, it makes sense: the station in NoHo is about a 10-15 minute walk away, it's a quick 10 minute trip to the Hollywood and Vine station, which drops me conveniently......

I've been living in the NoHo Arts District for about three months now, but it still seems like I run across a new restaurant every day. Magnolia Blvd. is a hotbed for funky, cheap, and authentic places like Coley's Caribbean-American Cuisine, the new North Hollywood outpost of an Inglewood favorite. Every time I drive by the sunny yellow-and-green exterior, I say to myself -- "that's next on the list." I've finally gotten around to......

Hide the knives, Joan Didion: the Santa Anas are coming! The Santa Anas are coming! The new assistant director over at the Los Angeles branch of the FBI has experience in the domestic terror, white-collar crime, and foreign relations divisions; he has also spent time in Mexico City as an FBI legal attache. This week's Sign of the Apocalypse: kids as young as thirteen and fourteen are now getting into the paparazzi business. We......

The NoHo Arts District is looking up as the opening of the NoHo 14 Lofts nears and the arrival (finally!) of the two-story Bank Heist restaurant/bar. Small steps, small steps, right? Well, yesterday, the "Metro board approved negotiating with Lowe Enterprises for [a $1 billion development] massive mixed-use project," according to the Daily News today. Christened as the NoHo Art Wave, the development located over and around the Metro Orange and Red Line stations will......

I love standing at the front of the Orange Line bus looking out the front window, my eyes being massaged by the passing by landscaped medians, surrounded by Valley apartments and industrial buildings on the outside. Take a ride, here, from the NoHo Arts District station to Laurel Canyon Blvd. Video by Zach Behrens/LAist......

This morning, the LA Stage Alliance announced the nominees for the 2007 Ovations Awards, which are the only peer-judged theatre awards in Los Angeles and considered by the LA Times to be the "...highest-profile contest for local theatre..." 30 categories in all, one of our favorite "LAist Recommends" from this year, "The Long Christmas Ride Home" at the Tribe Theatre in the NoHo Arts District, has been nominated for several awards including best ensemble, direction......

Now that the NoHo Arts District is up and coming, packed with 20 or so live theatres, new condos, new apartments, a new grocery store, a soon-to-be movie theatre and more, all running up, down and around Lankershim Blvd., is it time to talk about the NoHo Streetcar? One that would run from the junction of the Orange and Red Lines. One that would run down to Lankershim, maybe passed the intersection of hell, aka......

Ever feel like you're cramped in a bus of 100 people? Imagine a bus where 100 could fit comfortably. As reported last week, the Orange Line in the Valley got a new bus to play with today. The gigantic 65-foot bus that will be in service for a one year pilot began taking passengers back and forth between the NoHo Arts District and Woodland Hills late this morning. To alleviate the high usage of......

- JetBlue to match Virgin's prices to NYC - The final offer has been submitted by the union of clerks for the LA and Long Beach Ports. If not accepted, strikes could begin Monday, stopping work for 40% of cargo container traffic in the country. 15,000 longshoremen of a different union have also agreed to honor the picket lines. - West Adams, or WeAd is the black WeHo. - Harry Potter Fools! Why wait......

NoHo Arts is a burgeoning East Valley area that occupies one very eclectic, historic, and active square mile within the limits of North Hollywood proper. The past couple of years have seen a dramatic increase in multi-use condo construction and the arrival of chain retail and food purveyors thanks in part to the neighborhood's role as major transit hub (NoHo Arts hosts the termini of both the Red and the Orange Lines) and the......

Be glad not to see this play during holiday season "because the disappointments of our families last all year long... This ain't no X-mas story," as the slogan goes. The Los Angeles premiere of The Long Christmas Ride Home by Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vogel (How I Learned to Drive) is an intense and visually beautiful production that combines Thornton Wilder story telling, with bunraku puppet theater and noh dance. Puppetry, when done well,......

Good morning LAist readers, are you already taking a break from working? Sounds good to us! Here is what you missed over the Holiday weekend. Enjoy! News & Community A look into Metro's internal newsletter. We read the weeklies so you don't have to. What do you think of the NoHo Arts District new crosswalks? New owner of the LA Times, Sam Zell, doesn't know much about newspapers or the internet. Extra Extra: Entourage,......

In the NoHo Arts District last week, the city started putting in these colored splats in lieu of the traditional crosswalk. We did some field research and went to 7-11 and asked the manager how in the hell did we miss these or were they just put in yesterday? "They put them in last week to try them out. Do you like it?" he asked. We said yes and he responded, "Five dollars please."......

When we biked the Orange Line a few weeks ago, we noticed what could be the first transit oriented development along the "Valley's newest shortcut" at the Canoga Park station, a recent addition to the line. Even for this ex-suburban kid, living in the West Valley is starting to not look that bad if it had to come to that for some reason. But what is looking even better is where the Orange and......