Councilwoman Jan Perry made do with a one-year moratorium on the addition of new fast food restaurants in South Los Angeles that went into effect last year, but now she's gearing up to fight the battle of the bulge in a more permanent way by asking for a complete ban on new fast food joints in the area. According to the Los Angeles Business Journal, "The ban is intended to stop the proliferation of eateries......

Photo by discarted via Flickr If you take the above headline literally, then apparently murder is allowed all other times except for 40 hours this weekend if a Los Angeles city council motion is passed today. And some might say murder feels legal these days with the rise in violence in 2008. Four people were shot dead within minutes and miles of each other in East LA yesterday, police in two separate incidents shot......

75 killings this year equal a 27% increase from this last year, but the LAPD says they are random and unrelated, according to KFWB News 980 on air. One of those include a murder this morning. There has been a 5% decline in violent crime overall and a 25% drop in gang-related homicides. "Try telling that to the people I represent," said LA City Councilwoman Jan Perry in the Daily News report on gang violence.......

Zuma Dogg was nice enough to post this video on Mayor Sam today which lays out a proposal that Jan Perry wants to inflict on the residents of South Central. Even though the councilwoman is ignorant in regards to the neighborhoods in her district, she does know that the people she represents are fat. They're so fat (and in her mind, ignorant) that she seems to want to protect them from themselves. It's her......

Los Angeles has over 180 official neighborhoods. These are those communities designated with the city sealed blue sign. However, if you tried to figure out your neighborhood and its official boundary, there's a good chance you are going to come upon a) conflicting information b) no information, or c) confusing information. Trust us, we know. We've been digging into official Los Angeles city neighborhoods with our Neighborhood Project and have yet to come upon......

A trend is finally catching on that holds employees personally responsible for their health care premiums. Basically, the healthier you are, the less you’ll pay. Car insurance has worked this way for decades. Get a speeding ticket and points are added to your record, and insurance carriers can justify a premium increase. An increase that’s not absorbed by everyone else who drives. There’s always been a lingering question about health care. Why should a......

By week's end, LA is littered with dozens of free rags. LAist reads the weeklies so you don't have to. If there's anything we missed, let us know, or better yet drop it in the comments section below. Downtown News dedicated about half of its July 30 issue to the long-awaited opening of Ralph's at Ninth and Flower. The cover story is here with more here, here, and here. Kathleen Nye Flynn examined the......

As the Los Angeles city councilman who represents Hollywood, Silver Lake, Echo Park, Koreatown and many other neighborhoods, Eric Garcetti is quite popular. He's green, he's American, and he's not afraid to stand his ground. He's also very passionate about some issues coming to us this Tuesday. 1. In one sentence, what is Prop H? Prop H, a billion-dollar bond issue, would be the single biggest weapon against our housing crisis, helping us get......

Eli Broad (with glasses) and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stand in front of one of the models of the new Grand Avenue at today's press conference. We admit, we are entranced by shiny, pretty things, and in this case that goes for things encased in translucent glass, too. We're talking about debut of the design of Grand Avenue, phase 1, by a team of architects led by superstar Frank Gehry. The design includes two towers, a......

The LA Times held its first publisher's forum last night with an impressive panel gathered to discuss homelessness. LA Times columnist Steve Lopez, Sheriff Lee Baca, Bobby Shriver (Mayor pro tem of Santa Monica), LAPD Chief William Bratton, Lamp Community head Casey Horan and Dr. Marvin Southard, Director of the LA County Department of Mental Health sat in directors chairs as LA Times Editorial Page Editor Andrés Martinez moderated. That's Martinez in the picture.......

We’re not really sure when we stopped paying attention to the inconsistencies and broken promises spouted by the political leadership of Los Angeles. “We” not only being the writers of LAist, but also the editors of the Times and the City’s citizens. The instant broken promise we are referring to “Stem Cellgate” as Bob Hertzberg’s former verbal hatchet man, Matt Szabo, called it. (Check his blog out; it’s quite good.) Over and over again......

Last week, the City Council approved a proposal to build a new Police Headquarters near City Hall at the corner of First and Spring. The agreement ends a long debate over the future of the department's location. It also puts a stop to widespread speculation that a new HQ might be placed in the middle of Little Tokyo, irrevocably changing the neighborhood's urban dynamics. The approved proposal also cancels out plans to place a block-long......