Results tagged “downtown”

When the two hotels and Ritz Carlton residences open at L.A. Live next year, that's not the end for development at the mega sports and entertainment complex in downtown. The Downtown News finds that AEG has submitted some big plans. It includes "332,618 square feet of office space and a 269,182-square-foot broadcasting studio that could accommodate a nationwide cable television network, a 275-room hotel and a 25-story residential building with 65 units adjacent to the L.A. Live campus." Currently, L.A. Live is home to two stage venues, the Grammy Museum, a movie theatre and various restaurants.

The holiday season always means more and more DUI checkpoints. With thousands of hit-and-runs and drinking-related crashes so far this year, the LAPD has two Sobriety & Drivers License Checkpoints set up for the weekend. The first is tonight 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. at West Florence Avenue and South Main Street in South L.A. Then tomorrow from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m., a checkpoint will be set up on Figueroa between 7th and 8th in downtown. Stay safe out there!

No, downtown does not have a bunch of crunchy cheezeball souvenir shops, superheroes or stars embedded in the sidewalk. It does, however, have a convenient spot for movie premieres along the relatively unknown Georgia Street. Such an unremarkable name, but one that means less impacts to neighbors, traffic and, well, a movie studio's wallet.

With runaway production affecting the local economy, Los Angeles wants filming to come back home. Last month, the city council adopted a motion that brought 19 ideas to the table that would hopefully entice more local filming. One of those tasks was to identify the ten hardest places to film in. And in record time--less than a month, that's saying something for a city report--that list was just released.

The new Regal Cinemas L.A. Live is offering seven free screenings to downtown residents tonight, according to blogdowntown. They are first come, first serve, but the boundaries of downtown and whether IDs will be checked is unknown. "Tickets are available the day of from the box office. I don't believe they will be checking IDs, but they don't explicitly say," noted blogdowntown's Eric Richardson in the comments section. Tonights films are Funny People (7:00), 500 Days of Summer (7:10), District 9 (7:20), Star Trek (7:30), Up (7:40), G.I. Joe (7:50) and The Proposal (8:00). Update: No IDs will be checked, explains an AEG rep.

Many people in Los Angeles consider a trip downtown as practical as visiting the moon, which may explain why it was never a big deal to Buzz Aldrin. "I used to come down to the Midnight Mission, I had a lot of friends working there," recalled the astronaut. Another charitable cause brought him back on Monday night, a fundraiser gala that generated over $300,000 for Virgin Unite and the Eve Branson Foundation. The charitable arm of Sir Richard Branson's empire supports social and environmental causes, including health care in rural parts of Africa.

It's a big night for downtown Los Angeles, more specifically L.A. Live. 6 p.m.: "This Is It," the Michael Jackson documentary, premieres (some wonder if some movie premieres will move from Hollywood to downtown. The movie 2012 will premiere here next week.). | 7 p.m.: Lakers and Clippers open basketball season at the Staples Center | 9 p.m.: L.A. Live's newest addition, Regal Cinemas opens to the public.

The LAPD is setting up two sobriety & drivers license checkpoints this weekend. As always, just don't drink and drive and you'll be fine. Between 8:00 p.m. and 3:00 a.m. tonight, police will set a checkpoint up on Figueroa Street between 8th and 9th streets. Tomorrow in Cahuenga Pass between Hollywood and the Universal City area, a checkpoint will be set up...

Downtown LA’s Grand Central Market is a Recession Obsession institution. If you’ve never been, grab a crisp five dollar bill, and you’ll purchase a great meal. Grab a crisp ten dollar bill and you’ll find that nirvana known as Food Coma.

The new abstract public art at the Police Administration Building in downtown is garnering some nice discussion and attention, as all good art should. Artist Peter Shelton tells blogdowntown that the six "beasts of burden" should have viewers making up their own stories as to what they are.

The office supply store, which first purchased the naming rights to the Staples Center in 1997, has scored a deal with AEG to keep their name on LA's busiest arena in perpetuity. The original agreement was $100 million for a mere 20 years. Exact terms of the new arrangement have not been disclosed. It's the first time a major-market arena has inked a lifetime deal.

If Metro's regional connector project is built, passengers will be able to commute between Pasadena and Long Beach without transferring from the Gold Line to the Red Line, then the Blue Line. Likewise, those traveling between East LA and Culver City (and maybe someday Santa Monica) will be able to skip a similar transfer process. That means faster travel times and more accessibility car-free.

                     

Brakes are required at the Red Bull Soapbox Races but a sense of self-preservation is not. The event has been held in more than 40 countries over the past decade, with vehicle designers thinking way outside of their so-called-box. It stopped in downtown Los Angeles for the first time on Saturday.

The Metro board yesterday directed staff to apply for federal grants in hopes of capturing start-up money for the a subway to UCLA and a the regional connector in downtown.

If you've got the day off Friday (jobless, furloughed, ditching?), then maybe skipping the beach is in order so you can climb the tallest building west of the Mississippi. Every year, the popular Stair Climb to the Top raises money for the downtown YMCA with some 1,500 runners expected this Friday. The honor will cost you $100 (that's the fundraising minimum), whether you raise the money or pay your own way. On-site registration begins at 2 p.m.

Well, hello, Autumn! As of 9 a.m., it was already 72 in Van Nuys, 66 in downtown L.A. and 64 at LAX and in Long Beach. But temperatures are going to soar today, prompting a Red Flag for fire danger and officials to tell the public to take heed (drink that water, stay cool). At the height of the day, the National Weather Service predicts temperatures over 100 in the Valley (100 in Burbank, 101 in Van Nuys, 104 in Woodland Hills), 96 in downtown L.A. and Long Beach, 89 at LAX, 84 in Santa Monica and 101 in Pasadena.

       

Welcome to Emmys day! Amid the high heat, red carpet arrivals are underway right now at the Nokia Theatre at L.A. Live in downtown. Grab a drink (preferably the official drink of the day) and enjoy the live arrivals coverage on KTLA right now with Carrie Ann Inaba & Chris Harrison, who we interviewed yesterday.

Crazy Gideon's crazy videos were always fun to watch with his yelling and the throwing of electronics around his downtown warehouse (never seen them? watch a collection below, they're great). But the times have changed and Gideon Kotzer has installed a "Going out of Business" sign on his Arts District-located warehouse, which he plans to convert into housing. Ed Fuentes of blogdowntown catches up with Kotzer in this great video.

For the second time in recent months, a car has crashed through a building at 7th and Flower, reports Eric Richardson at blogdowntown. This morning's two-vehicle crash sent a white Camry halfway into the restaurant Wokano at 818 W. 7th Street after it appears one of the vehicles ran a red light. The crash, which sent both drivers to the hospital, occurred around 5:45 a.m., but was cleaned up with streets open by 7:30 a.m. In late May, a car crashed through a Bank of America branch in the same building. (Photo by Eric Richardson/blogdowntown)

Police are happy to announce this afternoon that officers in downtown rescued a 4-month-old baby from a woman, who was "frantically waving" a steak knife on 7th Street, near Hope, this morning.

       

Yes, I said fruit. Let's get that out of the way immediately, shall we? The tomato--versatile, plentiful, flavorful, and local--is a fruit. It's also something that is in season right now (although you can conceivably make a go of growing your own right now and celebrating a little later on). The Patina Group of restaurants is celebrating this stellar ingredient with Tomato Festival menus at nine of their eateries, and to show off the spoils of the season they brought together a crew of food bloggers and Paul and Maryann Carpenter (the couple who operate Coastal Organics, the 17-acre Santa Paula farm from which the Patina Group sources produce) for a caravan tour of three Downtown eateries, with one course per stop, each showing off the tasty tomato.

Wednesday was day one of Third Man Records and Novelties, a downtown three-day-long pop-up store from Jack White in promotion of Horehound, the latest album from his band The Dead Weather. More than 500 people packed the Regent Theatre for the free afternoon six-song show, reported blogdowntown.

For many years, Craby Joe's was known as a divey destination for cheap drinks and somewhat shady dealings. It also held a warm place in many Angeleno hearts, particularly because it was a favorite of local literary icon Charles Bukowski. The bar closed in 2007, but recently plans surfaced involving turning the spot into a more "top-shelf" bar. "Charles Lew, a lawyer and restaurateur, envisioned a new upscale bar in its place called the Haven Lounge. It would have high, wood-beam ceilings and a 200-year-old piece of stained-glass from a church in Germany," explains the LA Times.

In promotion of his latest album, Jack White is opening a temporary record store on Main Street in downtown Los Angeles tomorrow through Friday. Third Man Records and Novelties, which last popped up in New York City (and has a permanent space in Nashville), will feature all things Jack White from the White Stripes, Raconteurs and The Dead Weather, which just released the album, Horehound.

If you are a tequila enthusiast, there is only one place to find the smoothest, most exquisite tequila in Los Angeles. Rivera, Chef John Rivera Sedlar's pan Latin restaurant in downtown Los Angeles offers Seasonal Tequilas on Tap™.

Starting late last year, the Downtown "destination" LA Live began to host all sorts of events, including a Grand Opening celebration, a Christmas tree lighting ceremony starring Britney Spears and the Mayor, a big screen broadcast of Obama's inaguration, and the openings of specific "on campus" spots like the Conga Room and the ESPN Zone. Touting itself firmly as LA's answer to Times Square (a promo video shown to some invited bloggers last year at the Ritz Carlton sales office declared as such), the LA Live-ers asserted that the development joining Staples Center, the Nokia Theatres, Club Nokia, and the Convention Center would be both a destination and a pit stop for locals and tourists alike.

Last week came the news that the Clinton family (yes, Clinton) had decided to sell the building that has housed Clifton's Cafeteria, known as Clifton's Brookdale because of its whimsical forest themed decor, since 1935. Although few people admit to finding the food offered at the last of the Clifton's Cafeterias a gastronomic revelation, the news brought the immediate fear that this would bring about the end altogether of a decades-long institution in Los Angeles. While the Clinton family hopes to just unload the property but continue to operate the cafeteria (they actually only bought the building at 648 S Broadway in Downtown outright in 2006) now seems like a fitting time to fill in the gaps of local history when it comes to the Clintons and their Clifton's Cafeterias...and maybe, if you're hungry, prompt a trip with a tray down the lanes of the eatery--the last of a dying breed.

As mentioned last week, the LAPD tonight will hold a DUI Checkpoint in Hollywood at on Highland Avenue at Willoughby from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. After 66 driving under influence-related and 662 hit and run traffic collisions in the area just in 2009, police say they are using this checkpoint to "educate the community to use designated drivers and not drink and drive." Also, there will be a saturation patrol in the Newton Division, which covers the southern parts of downtown (Fashion District, Pueblo Del Rio, South Park-Entertainment). "These DUI saturation patrols are being deployed in response to an increase in DUI-related traffic collisions in the Newton geographic area of the Los Angeles Police Department," a police statement read.

If Inuit throat singing is your thing, then you need to head to Grand Performances at the California Plaza tonight at 8 pm for a free concert by Tanya Tagaq. She'll be performing with drummer Scott Amendola and violinist Jesse Zubot.

A man police thought to be two separate robbers in the downtown area was arrested this week in Skid Row. Anthony Brown, 42, allegedly began a spree of robberies around July 10th and over the weeks dropped so much weight that his appearance changed leading police to believe there were two bandits out there. Drugs appear to be caper in the weight loss and police have not said if they were specifically used to aid in changing his identity.