Want to blog about your neighborhood? Now might be your big chance. Word on the street (or...well...in Forbes) is that Patch.com, hyperlocal news site extraordinaire, is looking to hire 8,000 writers within the next eight days. Writers won't be paid, which isn't too surprising considering the fact that one Ariana Huffington is now at the helm of AOL's online content. more ›

The U.S. House takeover isn't the only change that's happening these days. Here at LAist, we're mixing up things, too. After almost three years as LAist's Editor, I'm heading over to KCET, L.A.'s public television station that will split from PBS in January, making it the largest independent public television station in the nation. To say the least, this is an opportunity and challenge like no other, and I'm ecstatic to join the team to ramp up their blogging effort to make KCET a destination. more ›

Comedy, politics, exploring the city, food and even religion. This is life, day by day. But this week, they are all also topics being covered by some 70 panels of social media mavens throughout this week for Social Media Week L.A. more ›

Blogger e*starLA recently moved to Hollywood from Beverly Hills-adjacent. It was a choice, and one partly based on living a life where you can leave your car behind and walk. "From Farmer’s Market on Sundays to the movie theatre, the largest independent music store and Trader Joe’s - I can walk anywhere, and I started to, immediately," she wrote about her neighborhood. more ›

Okay, so UK-based music news magazine NME last month released their list of best new bands of 2010. It, of course, named a handful of local bands. Now today comes music blog Stereogum's 40 best new bands of 2010. Once again, local heroes are named. more ›

One of the best approaches to blogging is obsessively sticking to one sole and unique subject. Some take on a city neighborhoods or regions like blogdowntown or The Eastsider LA. Some track issues such as city billboard and signage laws. Others take on more quirky roles. LAist contributor Jeremy Oberstein documents alleys in Los Angeles. Another contributor, Peggy Archer, photographs abandoned couches found throughout the city. And on Sunday, a new entered the blogLAsphere: I Saw Jesus in L.A. more ›

On its own, West Hollywood is a small city of around 35,000 people living within 1.9 square miles. But look at it with broader eyes and the island city surrounded by Los Angeles and Beverly Hills is nothing but small. It's played a major role in rock and roll history on the Sunset Strip, is a center of gay culture and is a hot spot for celebrity life. And beyond that surface, it's a city founded upon principals that takes a progressive stance on issues and on how to produce a high quality of life. more ›

It's not often you hear about an online publication announcing its transition to print. Because it is -- although hackneyed -- usually the opposite: "print is dying." But that's not true. At all. more ›

There's a relatively new blog that's produced by the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, which owns the Long Beach Press Telegram, Daily News, Pasadena Star News, the Daily Breeze and various other papers. Out in the 562 focuses on covering LGBT stories in the Long Beach area. Being the second largest city in L.A. County, and also home to a large gay community -- their pride event brought out around 80,000 people -- it's a good move for the community. more ›

Our society can now be characterized with the phrase TMI (too much information), according the Daily Breeze. Facebook, status updates, Twitter, and other social media sites all share a part in this trend toward “oversharing” and privacy disregard. more ›

Today the L.A. Department of Transportation Bikeways office launched a blog in an effort to reach out to the bicycle community. Behind it is an intern, who is an Urban Planning masters student at USC named Chris. In his first post, he takes the first step, admitting the office has a problem. "A lot of friction between the L.A. bicycle community and LADOT Bikeways has risen from our inability to effectively communicate our goals and rationale to a growing, vocal, and increasingly connected bicycle community," more ›

AOL is launching a new neighborhood news service called Patch. It's hyper-local to the core, as they just hired a full time editor to live and breath Manhattan Beach day in, day out. Soon they'll launch a Redondo Beach version and so on, apparently. This type of reporting is much needed and if successful like Eric Richardson's blogdowntown, where city council agendas are scrutinized and development news is broke, this will be exciting. Kevin Roderick at LA Observed, however, has a note of caution: "the difficult trick on coverage of small cities is to be knowledgeable without becoming a tool of the city officials, politicians and community leaders who care more about favorable coverage and avoidance of controversy than about accuracy or independence." Currently a feature piece on the MB portal is a piece about parking meter rate hikes. more ›

Sometimes the best creativity comes with some boundaries. When you join one of the many local Community Support Agriculture (CSA) programs, you get a large amount of vegetables, often ones that are not part your staple. Radishes?! What the hell am I going to make out of these! more ›

L.A. needs more engagement like this and from all sides of the gameboard. The newly elected Councilman Paul Krekorian is now publishing a policy blog, which is meant "to enhance what should be the free flow of policy discussions as it concerns the city’s second City Council district and the rest of Los Angeles." To that end, Krekorian's Education and Neighborhoods Committee meeting today is being liveblogged. more ›

We've seen it roll out in New York and Chicago; now Los Angeles has one too. Yesterday, the Huffington Post launched its local Los Angeles website, featuring the day's hot stories plus commentary about the city. more ›

LAist gained a new Twitter follower today and it was blast from the past. It was the mysterious and clandestine LA City Nerd, who some think is a current City Councilmember and others think is just a nerdy couch-historian, shut down his/her popular blog sometime ago. Hopefully this means more fun nerdy facts about the city are to come. LAist has interviewed the Nerd a few times here, here and here. more ›

Local sex and relationships blogger AV Flox has launched a new naughty site, appropriately called Sex and the 405. It's tagline: "What your newspaper would look like if it had a sex section." more ›

On Saturday, over 5,000 groups from around the world gathered for the International Day of Climate Action in an effort to bring attention to the Copenhagen Climate Talks ,scheduled for December when the Kyoto Treaty will be replaced (big question, will the U.S. sign it?). more ›

It's very common for reporters to cross the line and become communicators for agencies they once reported on and investigated. Today comes the news that Metro is launching their blog (finally!) with two notable names behind it. From the LA Times is Steve Hymon, the paper's former transit reporter. And from the blogLAsphere is Fred Camino, the downtown resident who created the blog MetroRiderLA. It's called The Source and Metro says it "is your window into what's happening at" the agency. "We'll be writing about agency news, funding and policy issues, and how to get the most out of transit and Los Angeles." more ›

If you follow any "foodies" on Twitter you may have woken up to a stream of 140 character obit-like wails echoing the death rattle that's just been shook at print publication mega-player Conde Nast. They've just announced that they're going to close up shop at Gourmet magazine, a 68-year-old monthly whose colorful photos and thoughtful words have inspired cooks and eaters here in Los Angeles and around the world for decades. more ›

Jesus Sanchez, the blogger behind The Eastsider LA, found that street artist Shepard Fairey put an anti-graffiti coating on the brick walls of his art gallery and ad agency in Echo Park. Fairey explained that "when graff seeped into the raw brick it was very difficult to clean. The building is historic and I love and want to protect the brick." The new anti-graffiti coating will make abatement easier, but will not stop graffiti. more ›

Since mid June, Seth Menachem has been walking around his Fairfax District neighborhood, getting to know his elderly neighbors, interviewing them on camera for advice and posting the captivating short clips on his blog, Life Advice from Old People. "Maybe it's because my dad died, maybe it's because I was so close to my grandparents, and maybe it's a combination of both," he explained over e-mail. "But, I love speaking to the elderly and I love getting advice from them on the things they've learned in their lives. It forces me to reevaluate my life constantly - not a bad thing. more ›

Kat Odell just started her new gig as Editor of Eater LA a couple weeks ago, a nice change of pace for readers since Lesley Balla left the position in December. Then yesterday, she got some high exposure along with a downtown restaurant that became the focus of a post based on an anonymous tip. The Must Bar was using generic foods and charging high prices, the tipster asserted, adding possible health code violations. The LA Times' Daily Dish blog quickly jumped on to the story, interviewing the owners and finding that their thinking about legal action. But Ben Sheffner at Copyrights & Campaigns notes that the law is on Odell's side for the most part. For us, really, all this does is make us want to go support and check out The Must at least once to decide for ourselves. Time for a drink? more ›

Will Kogi BBQ start getting more notoriety because of these awesome rants instead of their food? The last time, it was an e-mail from Kogi's PR person to a food blogger where she explained she did not like being treated like a "vending machine" for press inquiries. Now, their resident blogger going after the so called "hypestar" in a long post. Here's an excerpt where the term is defined: "What is a hypester? (Not to be confused with a hipster - which is a very strangeLy fancifuL and occasionaLLy deLightfuL creature!) A hypester is a snarky littLe Negative Ned/Nancy who uses aLL avenues of the internet — be it a comment board, bLog, Twitter, Facebook, etc.- to try and start sh*t cuz it’s entertaining. These emotionaL/psychic vampires utiLize or create hype to provoke a reaction out of an internet personaLity, start a fLame war or some weird littLe feud over a triviaL opinion, an emaiL taken out of context or a quirk that they’ve re-cropped w/ their literary, gossip-driven Photoshop to be a personaL offense. The KEY CLUE IS HYPE. For they aLmost never use soLid evidence or reaLity as a means to sway one’s opinion." more ›

LA has a diverse cast of characters. Whether it's the characters with stirring stories or interesting occupations or the people who are just simply characters, this town has them all. In an effort to get to know some of those characters a little better, we've created "Seven Questions with..." more ›

Say goodbye to Hollywood, baby. Defamer, the loved--but not loved enough--celebrity gossip blog has been folded into its parent blog, Gawker. more ›

LA Observed broke the news late last night that the LA Times will be cutting the state and local news section of the paper, the California section. "The publisher decided to fold local news inside the front section," Kevin Roderick wrote. more ›

For the first time, the Orange County Fire Authority is blogging. Just like the Los Angeles Fire Department and the Transportation Security Administration, OCFA wants people to comment and engage by asking questions and offer ideas to make things better in future wildfire fights. more ›

With much excitement, the six-week late-night Metro Red Line subway service begins tomorrow. Every Friday and Saturday night until the end of the year, you'll be able to ride the train until 3 a.m. more ›

There's a relatively new local blog on the scene called Blazing Shark. Albeit a bit, ohhhh, NSFW (in words, not photos), it's all about the red headed Westsider's sexually adventurous life (she even flirts on Twitter). Her most recent post reminisces on some successful celebrity stalking earlier this year. more ›