Costa Mesa city employees by the hundreds met on Monday for a vigil to celebrate the life of Huy Pham, a talented 29-year old maintenance worker who jumped to his death from the Civic Center on Thursday as layoff notices were distributed through City Hall to nearly half the workforce in a city facing a $1.4-million deficit and rising pension costs. more ›

Pasadena's beautiful, historic, and oft-immortalized on film City Hall has a birthday today! Designed by San Francisco's Bakewell and Brown, the Mediterranean Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival style building began its life in 1923, and was completed on December 27th, 1927, which means today marks the building's 83rd birthday. On the National Register of Historic Places (listing # 80000813) since 1980, people all over the world have gotten glimpses of the civic center structure in films from The Great Dictator to A Walk in the Clouds--not to mention a ton of TV shows (Wikipedia). Of course, people love to photograph Pasadena City Hall, so we had to look no further than our own LAist Featured Photos pool for some impressive shots. more ›

There are already visions of doing it in Hollywood, Santa Monica and Ventura. And Seattle has already done it. But since 2008, thanks to a group of interns and the support of Caltrans and other agencies, there's also a vision to cap a freeway, placing a park above, in downtown Los Angeles. more ›

Beneath the blazing sun and high temperatures, thousands gathered yesterday before Los Angeles City Hall to protest Proposition 8. The public demonstration was one of many throughout the state and even spanned to cities outside of California, including Portland, Chicago and New York City. Here in LA, the crowd marched from downtown to Chinatown to Los Angeles State Historic Park (the former Not a Cornfield site). more ›

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We get to call it a "Winter Storm" because it's storming and it's January, and not to overstate the obvious, but it is Winter Storming like nobody's business out there. more ›

With just about a month left in the exhibit, artists Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, and Simone Legno will be gathering for a discussion about the work of Takashi Murakami at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. The event, called Pervasive Persuasion, is a panel-style talk moderated by Eric Nakamura, publisher and co-editor of Giant Robot, and will include thoughts on "how and why artists in Los Angeles are blurring the lines of media to spread their ideas beyond museum walls." The evening will end with the opportunity for the audience to participate in a collaborative painting with the artists and a enjoy unique performance art experience by Oguri. more ›

There was an article in the LA Times some time ago about the Downtown arts and culture scene suffering Westside patronage due to rush hour traffic. Unless residents we're already Downtown, buying a ticket to a play, symphony concert or opera was not worth the frustration stuck in traffic. On Wednesday, the LA Opera announced their new weekday service to take ticket holders on a luxury motor coach from the Federal Building in Westwood to... more ›

Every Friday, LAist is taking you on a trip down to Orange County to uncover the unique dining experiences that await adventurous eaters willing to explore beyond the county line. Here in LA, we are blessed with embarrassing riches when it comes to Latin American food. Just about every country is represented by at least a couple of places that truly embody the cuisine and spirit of the local culture. Venezuela is no different.... more ›

Mayor Tony V. signed an ordinance Monday allowing the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery to have free admission. The Department of Cultural Affairs hopes the freebie will encourage more Angelenos to visit the gallery, which has been serving the community since 1951. more ›

View Larger Map Ventura Blvd. is well served by three bus lines, the 750, 150 and 240. During the day on a weekday, you can pretty much walk to a stop and find a bus coming. To the north of the Valley's famous boulevard is the Orange Line, which during the same times of day seems to run every few seconds (it's only at 12 a.m. am I waiting longer than 10 minutes). Sandwiched between... more ›

We felt it slightly in the Valley and according to the USGS, a 4.7 Earthquake east of Santa Ana hit at 10:29 a.m.Lake Elsinore, CA - 13 km (8 miles) WNW (298 degrees) Lakeland Village, CA - 15 km (9 miles) NW (314 degrees) Portola Hills, CA - 16 km (10 miles) ENE (70 degrees) Corona, CA - 18 km (11 miles) SSE (148 degrees) Los Angeles Civic Center, CA - 80 km (50 miles)... more ›

Photo by ellwoodite via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr more ›

Worthy Sounds is an event company dedicated to bringing people together through music and tonight are hosting an event tonight called "Green Spirits." It is their intention raise awareness about sustainable opportunities and help people get involved. Held at The Gibson Showroom, five diverse music acts will be performing, there is a silent auction and an eco-spa suite sponsored by Jurlique. Net proceeds will benefit Tree People. To RSVP, email: worthysounds@gmail.com. more ›

- According to the LA Times, people who live next to trains and subways do not use them. - Eek! "From July 1 of 2006 to June 30 of this year, only 3.21 inches of rain fell in downtown Los Angeles — the lowest precipitation level since records started being kept in the 1880s." - After 80 mph driving and weaving on the Hollywood Freeway in March, actress Vivica A. Fox (Kill Bill, Independence Day)... more ›

Beginning at 10 a.m. on Tuesday morning, the May Day immigration march will begin at Olympic and Broadway, heading towards City Hall on Spring St. According to Metro, "Rail service will be increased on the Metro Blue and Metro Red lines to handle the extra patrons expected to participate in the march. The Metro Green and Metro Gold lines will have extra trains ready for deployment should the need arise. The Metro Red Line... more ›

Watching one of the best action TV shows, The Unit, on Tuesday night, we got nerdy for a second. As the elite military group known as The Unit (who only answer to the President), attempt to foil a plan of a terrorist's foul play in a Hamburg, Germany subway station, we could not help but notice Hamburg's subway station is just like the Universal Red Line. And as we all know, LA's subway stations... more ›

The 0 to 57 miles per hour in 2.8 seconds roller coaster featuring Aerosmith's music has always confused us. The premise in which the audience happens upon a recording studio with Aerosmith, who is late for their concert at The Forum, invite us backstage. But we have to hurry through LA traffic to get there! So when traffic is jammed, we got to get jammin' (on the alt route that is). If you look... more ›

- Tom Sizemore isn't a Whiz kid. more ›

History often proves unkind to ideas and plans once touted as the wave of the future. Take much of Downtown LA, such as the elevated walkways and segregated vehicular/pedestrian zones. more ›