State of California, Park Rangers: "'The park system we have is not set up to be an answer to social services' but exists as a recreation and vacation venue, [Roy Stearns, a state Department of Parks and Recreation spokesman,] said. He said churches and community centers would be more appropriate as sites for feeding the homeless." Interfaith Needs Network (represented by ACLU): "'We are not inciting a riot,' Siler said. 'We are simply feeding our......

Photo by discarted via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Contrasting the Los Angeles City Council's vote earlier today on mansionization, affecting single-family homes, another ordinance was passed today -- one that replaces a temporary 2005 law regarding downtown residential hotels, mostly used by low-income and nearly homeless people. The ordinance protects single-room-occumpancy (SRO) and residential hotels within Los Angeles from becoming expensive lofts and condos. If owners want to convert their buildings, they must......

Photo from the Getty by Rick O! via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr Students, faculty, staff, and parents associated with Lincoln Elementary school in Santa Monica are trying to come to grips today with the weekend arrest of Thomas Beltran, who taught ESL at the school. Beltran, 60, has been charged with molesting four young girls who were his students. An auto fire turned into a brush fire late this afternoon near......

Tent City is a homeless camp that has been growing in both size and reputation in Ontario for almost a year now. It is a place where the homeless can find a refuge that offers relative safety and was set "up on city property just west of LA/Ontario International Airport last June to lure the local homeless away from dangerous sites" by area officials. In recent months, however, police have begun to tow cars away......

Photo by highervision via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr This evening a public viewing will be held for slain LA High football star Jamiel Shaw, with funeral services to follow tomorrow. Shaw's tragic murder has prompted many LA residents to refocus on the senselessness of gang-related violence. Go, stop, go, stop: Commuters northbound on the 57 and the 605 transitioning to the 210 westbound this morning were greeted by the new traffic......

Last month, the city of Santa Monica ventured out to find the "ten most vulnerable" homeless people (similarly, Los Angeles began to search for the fifty most vulnerable). After finding 277 homeless in the small beachside city, they identified 110 who were vulnerable, meaning those who are most likely to die on the streets. A survey determined a vulnerability score that gave weight to several variables, including length of homelessness and physical and mental health......

Anyone living downtown in an old converted warehouse is familiar with the specific brand of glee the comes with learning that the big empty retail space on the groundfloor of your building or across the street from your front door has finally been filled. In a downtown that is still growing and adding services for the ever-expanding resident population, any new service is met with excitement. As in: Will it be a Trader Joe's? Imagine,......

LA's homeless population is filling up local shelters, with some trying to gain permission from officials to allow people to stay inside 24 hours a day. Extra cots have been set up, and shelters like the Union Rescue Mission are at capacity. Many Southern California Edison customers found themselves without power last night thanks to the weather. The primary concentration of outages was in the Lake Arrowhead area. Traffic woes: Roads through Griffith Park were......

Last month a program called Project 50 aimed at identifying homeless individuals most in need of immediate housing was begun in Los Angeles, and a similar program kicked off today in the City of Santa Monica. This morning teams began training for safety and census-taking skills, and are preparing to take to the streets early next week in the late night (or early morning) hours, tracking the areas where groups of homeless people congregate and......

Yesterday the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved additional steps for Project 50, a three year pilot program that will help get some of the most vulnerable people living on skid row into permanent housing. Volunteers completed hundreds of early-morning interviews to identify the 50 people who were in the most trouble -- people living on the streets with chronic illnesses, like liver disease and AIDS, many of whom are also mentally ill. Now a......

Three people were injured and dozens evacuated after an apartment fire in Sherman Oaks gutted at least two units at 2 a.m. this morning. It was cold last night, but there are better ways to stay warm people. Australian police arrested a man in Melbourne who threatened to attack The Grove Friday. There is no evidence the man, who has never been to the United States, intended to carry out the attack. Still, days......

Welcome Home LA, a group of students from the USC Roski School of Fine Arts, recently hit Skid Row using performance/public/street art to draw attention to the Downtown neighborhood and its issues. "We want to utilize public art and the reproduction and documentation of public art to bring attention to marginalized urban space," the Welcome Home LA website explains. "These images, which allude to homes, human presence, security and comfort, will be juxtaposed with......

Earlier today, GOD took the form of a crazy vagrant and helped us picket outside the Disney/ABC studios in Burbank. Shortly after signing in, he headed straight for the snack table, and with his giant Godly hand, slammed a fistful of Red Vines into his mouth. It looked as if he was eating a candy octopus -- its red tentacles dangling from his most holy hole -- and just when we thought his reign......

3,000 homeless plus 400 volunteers makes for a festive mood at a Skid Row Thanksgiving Dinner today. More Downtown holiday news at blogdowntown. 1.85 million. That is how many people expected to be traveling in, out and through LAX this holiday weekend. That number is almost half of Los Angeles' population! NPR gives out 9 tips on how to have a more eco-friendly Thanksgiving. Tip #3, skip the Turkey and go for native protein......

What do you get when you mix a sponsor (AOL Spinner), a holiday (Halloween), a label (DefJux), and a DJ (Juggaknot's DJ Boo)? Of course, a free mixtape. Peep: DJ Boo - The Definitive Jux Halloween Candy Before Dinner Mixtape [DOWNLOAD] Tracklist: Aesop Rock, 'Citronella' El-P, 'Smithereens' Rob Sonic, 'Rock The Convoy' Junk Science,'Do It Easy' Hangar 18, 'West Wing' Rob Sonic, 'Dead As Disco' Junk Science, 'Hey!' Hangar 18, 'Bakin' Soda' Junk Science, 'Jerry......

As firefighters sought to contain the smoldering remains of California, officials are keying in on how the fires started. One of the largest fires, the Santiago fire that burned 22,000 acres was, reportedly set by an arsonist. President Bush toured parts of California and declared, "We're not going to forget you in Washington D.C." I guess he didn't visit any poor children. There's at least one good story to come out of this tragedy.......

Photo of Volunteer Park in Seattle by sunrisesoup via Flickr Forget New Years resolutions! Now is the perfect time to make a change in your life and make a difference the lives of others. Here's a very brief list of just a few organizations around L.A. that are currently looking for volunteers. For additional resources visit www.vcla.net or www.laworks.com. Animal Support Friends of Animals- works to cultivate a respectful view of nonhuman animals, free-living......

This could be the end (maybe temporary end) of your local street festival, maybe even make your block party a bit more costly. It also could mean changes for major festivals like Sunset Junction. Yesterday, Karen Sisson, the Los Angeles City Administrative Officer (she's in charge of the money), told City Council that due to an increasing amount of financial concerns, they should "freeze all new spending and end the politically popular practice of......

Did you know you can still get tickets for Monday night's Rilo Kiley show at the Santa Monica Civic? Do you know why you can still get tickets for the show? Because it's in Santa Monica. And when the people of Santa Monica aren't trying to destroy old trees and houses, they're looking for things to do Other than see great rock shows. Let's think of things they do on the Westside other than......

If you see a litter and pack of puppies and dogs walking around Pershing Square tonight, it's a Downtown Dog Walk. Maybe you're downtown right now with your dog... Go, go, go! Speaking of non-humans, the state is considering a special path for animals on the Skirball Center Drive bridge. Environmentalists cheer, residents complain it's a waste of transportation funds. On that note of big spending, California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez is still not......

Volume at the Los Angeles port, the biggest in the U.S., is expected to drop for the first time in four years. Experts attributed the decline to the slumping housing market and continued loss of confidence in imported goods. I don't pretend to be an expert, but we'll cheer up when they stop putting plastic in their toys. A woman was arrested and charged with murder, stemming from an incident in which she allegedly......

What a waste of a quarter billion dollars. For the same amount that the Galaxy promised David Beckham to come to Los Angeles, they could have paid the salaries of all 26 New York Yankees in 2007 -- plus the Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. In the NFL, they could have covered an entire team operating at the salary cap for almost two and a half seasons. Granted, it's a five year......

For quite some time i was one the guys responsible for illegally installing 200-400 promotional signs on people's property throughout the city (aka street spamming) while i simultaneously monitored 15 "signwalkers" spread out within proximity at various big intersections and freeway off-ramps. A signwalker is a person who is standing on a street corner holding a 10 ft. sign that will direct traffic to the sale we're promoting that particular weekend. You have to......

Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston's firefighters bent over backwards all week long - first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else - like Tom......

If you live, eat, or have ever been to Silver Lake you've seen the Five Dollar Guy around. He has murals, fans, pictures and stories online dedicated to him. But who the hell is this character and where did we find him? Who is the Five dollar Guy? Five Dollar Guy: He's the guy with the buy you need to see before you die. He's the man with the plan, the dude with no......

Eric Richardson of Blogdowntown snaps the above shot from a downtown commercial shoot yesterday: "Pictured is one scene from the commercial being shot, where a gaggle of females drop their workout to come press up against the window and see some brown guy. I would hope this'll make more sense by the time we see it on TV." Out best guess is that he is made out of chocolate. Los Angeles could soon be......

In a marked departure from his previous, politically-charged directorial efforts, Rod Lurie delivers a thoughtful, often poignant film about family and morality in Resurrecting the Champ. Based in part on a Los Angeles Times Magazine article by J.R. Moehringer, Resurrecting the Champ tells the story of Erik Kernan (Josh Hartnett), a sportswriter living in the shadow of his late father, a legendary broadcaster. Erik is your classic hustler--quick with a lie and unwilling to......

Angels 13, Tigers 4 - The Angels got back on track this weekend, hammering NL Central leader Detroit for 34 runs in a three game sweep. Anaheim reached double-digits in each game and had 12 runs by the end of the third inning on Sunday. Chone Figgins had three runs in the finale and every starter scored at least once. Rockies 9, Dodgers 6 - Los Angeles couldn't sustain a 9th inning rally and dropped......

/> *Update: Read the developments from the next day. I don't think I'm a bad person. I'm nice to strangers. I gave my belt to a homeless man a few weeks ago. And I drive my car as little as possible so as not to pollute the environment or exacerbate our dangerous oil dependency. I bike everywhere. In fact, I frequently go a week or more without using my car at all. So why am......

The New Downtown Ralphs: "They went — loft-dwelling yuppies, SRO dwellers, office workers and even some homeless people — for a chance to browse the aisles of the long-awaited, 50,000-square-foot Ralphs on 9th Street." Not Putting in Crosswalks Near Schools: "'Our Department of Transportation is one of the slowest, most bureaucratic departments in the city,' said City Councilman Greig Smith. 'I am constantly banging my head against the wall to get them to do......