In light of ongoing news about the city's budget crisis (a predicted $295 million dollar deficit), information about the number of people employed by the city who earn more than $100,000 is not sitting well with some. As reported in the Daily News, the newspaper conducted research and compiled a "review of salary data [that] shows more than 21,000 city workers take home $70,000 or more a year and more than 6,000 take home more......

The Hollywood Coalition of Neighborhood Councils is hosting a Town Hall on Thursday night to address "Parking, Planning and Transportation." In an effort to entice attendees, the Coalition promises "plenty of free parking," thereby demonstrating a commitment to an old, tired paradigm of transportation that will continue to result in the gridlock, congestion and frustration the Coalition purports to address in the Town Hall. The Coalition is missing a big opportunity to encourage the community......

The City of Los Angeles is in the process of updating its Bicycle Master Plan, a component of the Transportation Element of the City’s General Plan. For the cycling community, this should be a joyous occasion, the opportunity to participate in the creation of a City Planning Department document that codifies the rights of cyclists and drives the development of a multi-modal city. But critics complain that the BMP Workshop process is obligatory at best......

Photo by emdot via Flickr. Today being Valentine's Day in the City of Los Angeles, what better day than today to extol the virtues of the great City on a day when a date means so much? So, what follows are five simple reasons that the City of L.A. makes a better date: 1. L.A. goes slow 2. L.A. has many cultures and claims them all 3. L.A. is shapely (have you ever taken......

"Found on sidewalk near Hope & 8th" Ball-busting: The City of Los Angeles is considering mandating spaying and neutering for all cats and dogs because shelters are overcrowded and so many animals go unadopted. Enforcement is expected to be easygoing, as in if your pet minds its own business you'll stay under the radar, but if your neighbor logs in a complaint about your barking dog and his junk is still ready to make......

Cranes along Vine St. in Hollywood | Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist Today, Councilman Eric Garcetti delivered the annual State of Hollwood address at an event organized by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. He dedicated the address to Johnny Grant, who passed away earlier this month, and spoke about what makes a great neighborhood, at-risk youth tragedies and all that has been great and to be great for Hollywood. Here are excerpts from the address......

Starting a business in Los Angeles is what thousands of people do. In fact, in the City alone there are over 300,000 registered business, which means their is one business for every 13 residents (no matter their age). Starting a business is the realization of a dream for many, and can be lifechanging. But how do you start? Like LAist reported early this week, many people look at the new year as the time to......

The City of Los Angeles in 2007 saw a 5% drop in serious crimes, bringing the number of homicides down to the lowest it's been in 37 years. The LA Times reports that, "The Watts area alone last year saw a nearly 50% drop in homicides, according to LAPD crime statistics." The Times goes on to report that LAPD Chief William J. Bratton claims that this drop can be attributed to police officers doing their......

Yesterday's citywide public relations blitz, "A Day Without a Bag," to bring awareness to our bad habits of using and and ditching paper and plastic bags in the trash was a quaint effort by city and county leaders -- a step in the right direction, as it were. Though, in a nation where the average household consumes 750 plastic bags a year, one day, or two bags, is hardly habit forming. And habit is......

LAist Featured Photos contributer Jonathan Alcorn talks about this photo he took in September. "The Venice sign has returned to Windward Avenue after being taken down in the 1940's. It is a copy of the historical Venice sign that hung across Windward Avenue, a block from the entrance to Venice Beach. The effort to bring back the sign was secured by a beautification grant from the City of Los Angeles for the project in......

Quick, yet deadly: this weekend's Malibu Fire is 90% contained. We thought NBC had a policy of not giving car chases attention, a respectable position to take. Those days must be over. Anyway, it's always interesting when a car chase gets off freeway at the exit by your house like the one this morning on the 101. That would make number eight on our list for witnessed car chases. More cost effective and more......

“Carol Baker Tharp loved the City of Los Angeles and spent the past year working to strengthen its neighborhoods as the General Manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said today in a statement announcing the passing of Carol Baker Tharp. "Though we mourn her passing today, we take comfort in the fact that her work and ideas will continue to yield positive benefits for the people of Los Angeles.” Tharp was......

The Malibu Wildfire, as seen from the beach. So far, the Malibu Wildfire has claimed no more homes since our reports earlier this morning. "We're at the mercy of the winds right now," Captain Mike Brown of the LA County Fire Department told CBS2. Responding to a Mutual Aid Request, the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) has dispatched four strike teams of firefighters, one LAFD helicopter, and a seasonally-contracted helitanker to assist the Los......

The state says the Mayor should get an automatic $8,283 salary increase retroactive to July 1. The mayor says not so fast: “With the City of Los Angeles facing a tough budget year, I do not believe now is the time for me to accept an automatic and retroactive pay raise. Being Mayor of Los Angeles is reward enough, and I’m committed to working twenty-four-seven to protect essential services.” (via a press release) The......

Home Depot is suing the city of Los Angeles because they didn't get what they wanted they say Councilwoman Wendy Greuel acted in a biased manner by helping neighborhood groups challenge the project while voting to require an environmental review. Greuel calls shenanigans in an LA Times article: "Is Home Depot and their lawyer suggesting that if a council member supports or opposes a project before it comes to the council, that there is......

Selecting a gift for a loved one is tough, especially if the occasion is a 226th Birthday. What do you get the City of Los Angeles? After all, she already has it all! John Bwarie figured a way to give something back to the City he loves and it all starts with ice cream, buckets of ice cream. All flavors, double cream, soy cream, free range, dolphin safe, shade grown…you name it and loaded......

Yet another tale of pure insanity. This one from San Bernardino County:A 65-year-old Hesperia woman was shot and killed Thursday evening after she and family members confronted taggers spray-painting graffiti on their apartment wall and trash cans. [snip] Seutatia Tausili of Hesperia was shot about 8:30 p.m. Thursday after she and other family members approached several people spray-painting their apartment complex on First Avenue. "All we wanted to know is why they were doing......

The story goes like this... On Friday night, police said, Hicks, 57, was driving home from visiting her sister in Whittier when she noticed a teenager spraying graffiti on a cinder-block wall two blocks from her house near San Gabriel River Parkway and Woodford Street. Hicks honked her horn and flashed her lights at the teenager. As he walked away, she followed him in her car. Suddenly, another car pulled up behind her and......

Last week after receiving the Hottest Politician award from Downtown News, 13th District Councilman Eric Garcetti headed up to the Valley where he grew up. "You can the kid out of the Valley, but you can't take the Valley out of the kid," he told a the San Fernando Valley Jaycees at their monthly membership meeting. Garcetti, a Jaycee alumnus himself, spoke eloquently about the history of Los Angeles and how we got to where......

Civic Center developments still struggling amidst Downtown construction boom. Nothing like a good Saturday scandal story: a manager for the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles was found to have illegally steered almost $800,000 in contracts to family members and corporate allies. One begets another: an inmate serving a life sentence for the murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer in 1989 was stabbed 11 times by another inmate. Taking animal cruelty to a......

spotted in Hollywood on Gower at Franklin ... before someone calls 311 and gets it abated. I'm a big fan of graffiti art. But I'm also a big fan of getting rid of it. How can I contradict myself like that? To me it is like a game and I'm always going to win. I enjoy some of graffiti, but it's still illegal. Artist enjoy making it and partly because of the lure of......

A park doesn't have to be hundreds of acres. It could be 100 sq. feet. A park doesn't or shouldn't have to have parking spaces available for people to access it. A park could be literally be in a parking space. And that's exactly what a group of Los Angeles activists are doing on Friday, September 21st along Wilshire Blvd. and other locations around the city for the first annual Park(ing) Day LA. Despite......

The 15 Commuter Express lines that provide non-stop and express bus service between residential areas and work centers in the City of Los Angeles have not been updated in 20 years. So it's a good thing that Councilwoman Wendy Greuel introduced a motion on Wednesday, calling for a review of those lines. Let's hope it goes through. "Our commuting patterns have shifted dramatically in the last 20 years," said Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, Chair of......

Maybe we shouldn't be emphasizing this tip so we can keep our parking spots open in busy areas of the city. But we're feeling generous to those who read LAist on Sundays and we still seem to shock a new person everyday with this parking tip that the LACityNerd taught us so long ago. Yellow Loading Zones are only in effect from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. So take advantage all......

Today, Councilman Dennis Zine's office announced in a press release a victory for the City in a court case against Frisky Kitty Strip Club, located in Tarzana. Basically, LAMC 12.70, a City of Los Angeles municipal code, prohibits nude dancing within 500 feet of a residential community. Today, the court issued a permanent injunction ordering the owners of the Frisky Kitty to comply with LAMC 12.70 immediately, and imposed $90,000 on the owner of the......

There's a new performance space in Silver Lake hidden among a smog shop and an immigration service center on Sunset Blvd. Inside the 300 square ft. space, deemed a "micro theater," are a few rows of displaced church pews that seats 20 people total for each performance. Welcome to the Manual Archives, a space devoted to the newly invented folklore of Los Angeles. Lead Feet And Nothing Upstairs: A History of the Lifelike is......

After last week's back and forth on fighting parking tickets and whether or not parking at a FAILED meter will warrant a ticket or not, we decided to call the Department of Transportation (DOT). However, DOT has taught us in the past that when you call as "press," they freak out, send you in loops and you might get a call back or you might not. So this time, we just called the city......

Here at LAist, we are all for government contracts. After all, It makes fiscal sense, especially with the ominous budget cuts on their way next week. From medical benefits to office supplies, vendors save the tax dollars. Period. But there is another way vendors cost you money in the City of Los Angeles and that comes in the form of fighting a parking ticket. Before we move on, you must know that the officer......

Does this sound like something the City of Los Angeles should do? The city of Moorpark has slapped a $25,000 fine against Time Warner Cable over what it says is poor service provided to customers. The City Council voted 4-0 to fine the company over technical problems, long waiting times and telephone prompts that didn’t lead to the right answer. “Time Warner has, for a period of time, not lived up to the obligations that......

About a hour ago, the LACityNerd posted "we're typing live from the SavingLA conference." The anonymous city blogger is out on the streets, possibly sitting next to you. We see it as a risk, but maybe red herrings are thrown in. We're suspecting that the nerd is Ken Bernstein, Director of the Office of Historic Preservation. Bernstein also happens to be speaking at today's event. "Ken's presentation is quite informative and worth staying past the......