It's time to get bent, lovers of shiny things and the revitalization of historic buildings: Downtown L.A. will soon be home to a "Sparkle Factory." If you, like us, are wondering WTF is a "Sparkle Factory," (and if any My Little Pony products are involved) we can explain... more ›

Today Councilman Jose Huizar will announce he plans to join with community activists and seek a full ban on the businesses, because a recent court decision will create severe limitations on how the City of Los Angeles can "effectively regulate" those medical marijuana operations. more ›

There are some seriously amazing things going on in Downtown on Broadway, as historic spaces are getting new life as restored and reimagined spaces for dining and entertainment. Now comes word the historic Schaber Cafeteria, built in 1928 and heavily damaged during the 1992 riots is about to get a remodel and be transformed into Figaro Bistro on Broadway. more ›

It's a good question, considering the proposed Los Angeles Downtown Streetcar is (slowly) on its way to becoming a reality. A recent study has determined that opening month ridership for the public transit project will be between 6,610 and 8,390 riders daily, and those numbers have local leaders supporting the streetcar very encouraged. more ›

What better day than Park[ing] Day L.A. for Los Angeles City Council members Jan Perry and Jose Huizar to introduce a motion calling for a set of mini public green spaces called "parklets" in Downtown and Northeast Los Angeles? more ›

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is not the only elected official in the City of Los Angeles who will be ponying up some after-the-fact cash in the form of fines for accepting free tickets to events over the last few years. Now four City Council reps have agreed to pay a combined $13,000 in such fines for accepting free passes to events like awards shows and dinners, according to LA Now. more ›

A special task got underway earlier today in Eagle Rock by an elite crew of the Los Angeles Fire Department. Members of the LAFD Urban Search and Rescue Team have been deployed to help remove the hard-to-reach graffiti left near the top of the neighborhood's iconic rock at the urging of residents, City Council representative Jose Huizar, and the city's Department of Recreation and Parks. more ›

Eagle Rock, which just turned 100, has a national reputation as being the "college town" for Occidental, and is known locally as a historic hot bed of counterculture and the arts, and a contemporary evolutionary tale of the upwardly mobile hipster-esque family. Now residents are up in arms about the proliferation of erotic massage parlors that are inundating Eagle Rock Boulevard, and taking over where pot shops left off as the scourge du jour, according to the LA Times. more ›

City officials, bicycling enthusiasts, and members of the community turned out today to welcome the city's first public bike corral, newly installed nearly a year after it was approved outside Highland Park's Café de Leche. The idea to bring the bike corral to York Boulevard and outside his popular cafe came from Café de Leche co-owner Matt Schodorf, who took the proposal to City Councilmember José Huizar, back in 2009. The motion was brought to City Council in April of last year, and approved shortly after. more ›

A white flag flies in CD14 today. City council candidates Josè Huizar and Rudy Martinez publicly agreed on Tuesday to keep their campaigns focused on positive and productive conversations about the community, and to refrain from negative attacks on each other. more ›

Approved by the City Council in April 2010, L.A.'s first official public bicycle corral will finally be installed in Highland Park. "A tentative date of February 18th at 9:00 AM has been set for the corral’s grand opening," says the LADOT Bike Blog. more ›

Michael Trujillo, a consultant for Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar, was fired after sending an e-mail to supporters on Friday about putting a "political bullet" in the forehead of their campaign's opponent. "We are about to put a political bullet in between Rudy Martinez's forehead and make him pee in his pants too," the e-mail said, reports ABC Local. more ›

The highly anticipated restoration of the "History of Highland Park" mural began on Saturday as over 100 volunteers devoted their time to start the clean up process on the much-loved but recently much-maligned neighborhood artwork. Using biodegradable soap, elbow grease and a healthy dose of neighborhood pride, community members helped kick-off the vision of years of work by the Highland Park Heritage Trust, the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council and Councilmember José Huizar. more ›

A community may not be able to change its history, but as residents of Highland Park are about to discover, it is possible to clean it up. On Saturday, volunteers will work to restore one of the neighborhood’s most cherished murals, “History of Highland Park,” located on the AT&T building on Avenue 56. more ›

Four Los Angeles City Councilmembers co-introduced a motion today that would transform L.A.’s toxic hotspots into “Green Zones.” The first-in-the-nation initiative would grant the low-income and heavily polluted communities of Pacoima, Boyle Heights and Wilmington access to economic assistance for cleanup efforts. more ›

This week the LA City Council voted unanimously to approve a new policy for all City departments and elected offices for donating surplus food, and proponents of the policy believe it could be a model program for the rest of the country. The vote followed the presentation of a final report on the policy, which has enjoyed widespread support as it moved towards implementation. more ›

The next time there is a special city council district election in Los Angeles, it could end in dramatically different results. Not necessarily about who is elected (there's a chance of that, though), but regarding turnout. The L.A. City Council today voted to draft an amendment to the election code that would authorize an all vote-by-mail election. more ›

In a city of four million people, how many come out to vote? Unless it's a historic election, not many. And sometimes turnout dwindles to a sad single digit number. That's why two Los Angeles City Councilmembers are trying to encourage more participation through four reforms nicknamed the Los Angeles Voters' Bill of Rights. Three of them must be approved by voters, likely during the March 2011 election, but they first must be approved by the City Council for placement on that ballot. more ›

While the November election is at the top of everyone's mind these days, the municipal election next March is making news today. Yesterday, campaign finance disclosure statements were due to Los Angeles' Ethics Commission and they've revealed that a real race is developing in Council District 14, which covers parts of downtown, the Eastside (Boyle Heights, El Sereno, etc.) and Northeast L.A.(Eagle Rock, Glassell Park, etc.). more ›

Through a partnership between leading food providers, businesses and non-profits, along with the help of Councilman Jose Huizar (CD 14), a plan has been implemented in order to make it easier for businesses to donate their surplus food to those in need. more ›

A fundraising event held at L.A. Live brought in $200,000 for the non-profit group who is working to get a streetcar system implemented in Downtown, reports the Downtown News. The money will be used to help fund administrative costs for the group. more ›

The most commonly committed environmental crime in Los Angeles is illegal dumping and littering. For the Bureau of Street Services (BSS), it's a $12 million problem, but that doesn't include the money spent by business improvement districts, the parks department and other groups. more ›

With Arizona's controversial SB 1070 law set to become law next week Friday, the city of Los Angeles today approved a resolution declaring August as Immigrant Pride Month. The city of Los Angeles is made up of 1.6 million -- that's 40% of the population -- immigrants, according to the proposal's authors, Councilmembers Ed Reyes and Jose Huizar. more ›

When there's an event in Los Angeles, who gets the leftovers? Thanks to a proposal put forth by Councilman Jose Huizar, soon those in need will. more ›

More than many other major cities, Los Angeles has year-round access to locally grown food, but it doesn't mean hunger is a problem. And in a city known for its large events and parties, a plethora of catering companies are out there serving food, yet are also throwing it away when all is said and done. One of those institutions at the receiving end is the city of Los Angeles, where leftover food at city functions might get wasted. more ›

It's not just food trucks that annoy Councilmember Tom LaBonge, but also people who dispose of their cigarette butts on the sidewalk, in the streets or wherever else they shouldn't go (and rightly so). He's been ragging on the issue for years and will even approach you if he witnesses it (once at a red light, he said he got out of his car to talk to a driver in front of him). more ›

This morning about 100 volunteers and city workers are taking part in a 4-hour community clean-up on Broadway between 2nd Street and Olympic Blvd. The effort is backed by Councilman Jose Huizar as part of his Bringing Back Broadway initiative, which focuses on revitalizing Downtown's Historic Broadway Core. more ›

At a news conference held today, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa went on record in support of a boycott of Arizona by the City of Los Angeles, according to LA Now. The Mayor calls the neighboring state's new SB 1070 immigration law "unpatriotic and unconstitutional." Joining Councilmen Ed Reyes and Jose Huizar to speak on the issue, Villaraigosa expressed awareness that an economic boycott of Arizona would be difficult more ›

Los Angeles will finally get a bicycle corral, thanks to a unanimous vote by the City Council this afternoon. A pilot project funded by the business community and local neighborhood council, the corral will hold up to 20 bicycles in front of Cafe de Leche on York Boulevard at Avenue 50. more ›