Photo by ~db~ via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr It's official: Police have identified the Green Skeleton Bandit who was fatally shot earlier this week when he was caught in the act of robbing the AutoZone in NoHo by a US Marshal. He was 24-year-old Lawrence Dean Smith Jr. of Palmdale who used a knife and wore a skeleton-themed sweatsuit in his robberies. Fight for the right to ficus! Local activists in......

Built in 1921, famous for its celeb/political/royal visitors and the six academy award shows, the Ambassador Hotel's Coconut Grove nightclub is a Los Angeles landmark officially slated for destruction (most of it at least) on January 22nd, compliments of the Los Angeles Unified School District. The battle was long-fought, even involving Donald Trump at one point, but in the end, a $4-million settlement by LAUSD paved way for a new 4,200-student K-12 campus on the......

Nowadays, fairy tales have been cleaned up (and often outfitted with boring pop culture referential comedy that mitigates the timelessness of the stories) Cinderella's evil sisters don't cut off parts of their feet to fit into the glass slipper. The little mermaid lives happily ever after instead of sacrificing herself to save the life of her beloved. These stories were made to tap into children's deepest fears, to give weight to the shadows the......

LAist Featured Photos contributer Jonathan Alcorn talks about this photo he took in September. "The Venice sign has returned to Windward Avenue after being taken down in the 1940's. It is a copy of the historical Venice sign that hung across Windward Avenue, a block from the entrance to Venice Beach. The effort to bring back the sign was secured by a beautification grant from the City of Los Angeles for the project in......

Hop in your time machine and set the dial back sixty years to December 1947 and the pages of National Geographic magazine. Holiday shopping back then was just as difficult as it is now, especially when you've got people on your list who are hard to buy for. So what's left to get them except this "All in One" trailer that makes the ideal home at the beach, in the desert, or in the......

1812: A major earthquake struck Southern California, destroying the church at Mission San Juan Capistrano and damaging the San Gabriel Mission. 1873: J. R. Toberman, Mayor approved a franchise for a street railway which have a run "commencing at Temple and Spring Streets, and along Spring to First; First to Fort Street, (now Broadway); Fort Street to Fourth Street, Fourth to Hill Street, on Hill to Fifth Street; on Fifth to Olive Street; on......

Earlier this week I made a right turn out of a parking lot in order to avoid waiting a lifetime to make a near-impossible left turn. I found myself on a quiet side street in lovely Toluca Lake, and eyeballed my trusty GPS navigation screen in order to see if the road I'd taken would connect me through to a street I knew would hook me up with Riverside Drive and send me on my......

Most of us point, shoot and load our photos into Flickr. And then there are some who scan in old photos such as Alan Light. Above is a photo taken outside the Viper Room in 1994, the year after River Phoenix's early morning Halloween death. Fans graffitied the wall between the club and what is now a cigar shop. Today, that wall is painted beige. Almost 10 years later to the day, singer/songwriter Elliot......

When the original owner of Griffith Park, Don Antonio Feliz died of small pox in 1863, he left his extensive land holdings to Don Antonio Coronel. Subsequently, his blind, destitute 17 year old niece, Dona Petronilla, cursed the land -- great misfortune would come to whoever owned it. One by one, Coronel's family died from misfortune and disease. He left the land to his wife, who married again only to have her husband try......

Did you know today is the 226th birthday of El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de Los Angeles -- aka L.A.? The old bitch is looking pretty good for her age! Although the city did not incorporate until 1850, September 4th, 1781 is the date that 44 Mexican pobladores set out from San Gabriel with a military escort to settle alongside a great river -- then called the Rio de Porciuncula, later to......

Somewhere inside the archives of my storage closet resides one of those relics of yesteryear--a recordable audiocassette that, on one Saturday night about fifteen years ago, I stuck in my "boom box" and pressed down the play and record buttons together to capture the KROQ DJ giving his shout-outs to all the folks who'd just called in, including me and one of my partners-in-crime. "And Lindsay and Laurie in La Crescenta are going to Rocky......

This photo is of 6th Street in downtown LA, looking east, between Hope and Grand. The Hotel Savoy on the left later became the Crocker National Bank Tower (how it looked in 1969 or so, when it was the tallest building in LA). The building is still there, and -- no surprise -- it's slated to go condo. LA so relentlessly tears down its buildings that I'm always hoping to find a way to......

Guest Day Editor LA City Nerd will be joining LAist with a few posts throughout the day. Read the introductory interview here and check out the nerd's blog. Everyone knows Los Angeles is the second largest City in the US, but here are some LA City Nerd facts you might not have known... 1. LA City has the largest urban forest of any City in the US. 2. LA City has the largest municipal street......

The Board of Directors of Campo de Cahuenga, the 217 year-old North Hollywood historical site, is locked in a battle with a development firm over the future of the landmark....

"This historical landmark will be subdivided" a sign said in 1945 during the postwar building boom in the San Fernando Valley. Thank god for PTA mothers, who saw this sign and saved it by raising money according to the Daily News. The '94 earthquake destroyed Los Encinos State Historic Park's centerpiece, the De La Ossa Adobe, originally built in 1849. Tomorrow, after 13-years of rehab and discovery, it reopens with a celebration of bands,......

10:36 p.m., last night: Daily News publishes a story about 14628 Sylvan Street in Van Nuys -- the oldest house in Van Nuys built in 1911 by William Paul Whitsett (now you know where that street name came from). The article tells how this historic house is threatened by demolition for condos. Preservationists want to save the house. 8:23 a.m., this morning: LACityNerd posts and e-mail blasts the blogLAsphere about the article quoting City......

I reside within the city limits of Los Angeles. I have been in many movies. I was built in Boyle Heights. When I was completed, I was the one of the most costly and finest houses in Los Angeles. I no longer live in Boyle Heights. A week ago today, you may have seen me. I am within a hop and a skip of two major urban arteries. Someday, a red car like the one......

After a nine year absence, this week Disneyland tore down the walls around the lagoon and resumed running the subs for all to see. The new Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage opens the the public on June 11th. Let's hear it for the buoy!......

So UCLA just launched an online photo archive of images from the LA Times and Daily News that range from the 1920s to 1990. How did today's hot topics look yesteryear? The above photo from the LA Times (July 28, 1977) juxtaposes the ubiquitous wildfire against the contemporary city. This is something we have all experienced a lot of this past week and to come all summer long.......

On this day in 1984, a paranoid, drug-taking, freaked out Marvin Gaye was shot and killed by his father, Marvin Sr., at the elder's home on Gramercy in the Crenshaw District. 1983 was very good for Gaye, he won his first Grammy, he performed that unforgettable version of the Star Spangled Banner at the Forum before the All-Star Game, and he toured around the US. Unfortunately he was driving himself crazy with the concept......

Says the nerd... Maybe 5 questions were too much to start with? Maybe they were too hard. Sadly, with only one serious response and only one correct answer out of those five - it's a sad state of affairs for LA City Nerdisms. Let's help correct that by at least adding 5 new tidbits of LA City Nerdism into the vernacular: 1. Before the 2005 opening of LAPD's Mission Division in the San Fernando Valley,......

So after Sunday's Question and Monday's Answer, the LA City Nerd challenged LAist and you, our readers to a quiz: "I saw you posted a Pop Quiz on LAist, and thought I'd see if I could challenge your readers with an LA City Nerd Pop Quiz." So here you go kids, let's go at it! Put your guesses and answers in the comments section. 1. Before the 2005 opening of LAPD's Mission Division in......

Yesterday we asked. Today we answer. This statue can be found in the West Garden among an old wine vat, a grinding stone, two bells (cast in Spain and bearing the dates of 1686 and 1720) and the Archival Center for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles at the Mission San Fernando, Rey De Espana in Mission Hills, a neighborhood in The Valley. If you have not been, this is one of those times to......

Just for fun: Can you guess where in LA this is? Extra points for telling us who this is. Hint: What day of the week is today? Answer: Put your answers in the comments section. Quiz Closes: 12 a.m. tonight. Prize: You are just that cool.......

Yes, like Ventura's split from its original name (San Buenaventura) or San Diego's true Spanish meaning (a whale's vagina), Los Angeles comes from a much larger city name - El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula (The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels on the River Porciúncula). And like other rare departments in the landscape of city government (Port of Los Angeles or Neighborhood......

Oprah's favorite weight loss doctors, Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz, would be proud of Los Angeles this weekend. In their most recent book, You: On A Diet, they say you should walk thirty minutes every day no matter what. "No excuses. It doesn't matter if you do this in one whole block or broken up into as many as three shorter sessions." Inspired by Franklin Ave's Wilshire Walk, Will Campbell from Metroblogging Los Angeles......

We work at home. We work on Macs. We don't like Outlook. We are Google kids. We use Gmail. We use Google RSS Reader. We use Google Groups, Google Maps and Google SMS. We also use Google Calendar and here's five of many reasons why: 1. If you're like us, you plan events big or small. And sometimes planning that party on a holiday we forgot existed on that day screws things up. With......

If you're heading out the door for some cross valley/basin traveling today, avoid Coldwater Canyon as it is closed for road resurfacing from 7am to 5pm. Only residential traffic may travel on the road between Mulholland Dr. and Potosi Ave. The same holds for next Saturday. Ever wonder why Coldwater is named what it is? Well, here's what the LACityNerd had to say: Both Laurel and Coldwater were initially canyon routes between Sherman (a town......

In a move certain to wind up the tails of many a fan of The Mouse, Disneyland announced that they they are temporarily replacing the onboard soundtracks to both the Space Mountain and California Screamin' roller coasters with remixed versions of songs by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Disneyland asserts "rock fans’ dreams will come true as Rockin’ Both Parks provides new special effects and soundtracks specifically remixed to heighten every twist, turn, rise......

I'm a total sucker for aerial photography, especially images of my immediate surroundings. Call it aerial narcissism, if you will. The Thomas Guide is my Bible while I'm on the road, but what to do when I'm chained to my computer? Fortunately, online mapping technology has advanced miles beyond what it used to be even a couple of years ago. The standard road maps are usually accompanied by satellite imagery that allow the user......