Before playing William Adama in Battlestar Galactica, Edward James Olmos was mostly known for his portrayal of Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver. Based on real life events, the movie follows Escalante as he enters James Garfield High in Los Angeles and makes a difference on the young tough kids through his teachings of mathematics. Kinda like Dangerous Minds but with no Coolio. Right next to MacArthur Park on Wilshire Blvd. you'll find "Los Angeles......

Local cyclists on the Tuesday Night Bicykillers Bike Ride were giving a "no-show" rider a hard time on the Midnight Ridazz forum, but when they heard the rider's excuse, it left them apologizing and genuflecting. Here's what happened Tuesday night, a personal account from the rider, Mark Oshiro, himself: I went on a short 4 mile run and on my way back to my pad (right next to MacArthur Park) I saw the birdy in......

MacArthur Park | Here in Van Nuys/Flickr In 2004, live-feed cameras, paid for by donations, were installed in MacArthur Park. Police said crime went down. Then the cameras started not working, maintenance was not happening. Crime is supposedly on the increase. Example: last Fall, among hundreds of people in the middle of the day, a 23-day-old infant was shot by a gunman. Did the cameras help? "The unfortunate tragedy was like a highlight. It......

Just like yesterday, when we announced that while the federal government can rob medical marijuana dispensaries, citizens can't, we find that LAPD officers are not allowed to rob drug dealers. In a separate case from the widely known Rampart Division Scandal, a group of rogue officers held up at least 30 drug dealers in a two year period ending in 2001 according to CBS2 News. After the robberies, which included taking the drugs, money......

Photographers are known to fixate. They are pretty faithful to their subject. For the most part, I take pictures of food, bands, and cemetaries. Then sometimes I just become obsessed with random subjects. On this day it was the vendors at the Tamale Festival.......

You still have until 6pm tonight to get over to MacArthur Park and hit the tamale festival! I'm even thinking about going back again for the one treat I missed, and then I realized that I would have to be crazy to do that. So, I will probably see you there! The tamale eating contest is at 1pm. If things go the way they do on TV, I'm sure it will make you never......

The LA Times is reporting today that the city has a near $77.5 million unspent in Quimby fees that it has been collected from developers for park space and improvements. The fees, from the California 1975 Quimby Act (not that quimby folks), require developers to help mitigate the impacts of property improvements and new development by paying a fee that goes into a city parks department fund or set aside land on the development.The......

Hide the knives, Joan Didion: the Santa Anas are coming! The Santa Anas are coming! The new assistant director over at the Los Angeles branch of the FBI has experience in the domestic terror, white-collar crime, and foreign relations divisions; he has also spent time in Mexico City as an FBI legal attache. This week's Sign of the Apocalypse: kids as young as thirteen and fourteen are now getting into the paparazzi business. We......

I've been on some damn crowded, sardine-in-the can, packed-to-the-brim buses before; such as the 200 down Alvarado or the 704 down Sunset. Both exasperating, yet, nothing in comparison to the Pico-Union/Echo Park DASH on a Sunday afternoon. "Can I ask, why are you taking pictures?" a woman asked me as I awkwardly moved my arm around in what must have looked like a modern dance as I tried to get an angle for a......

Have you entered LAist's contest to win Arcade Fire tickets yet? Head on over and comment to become eligible: are you a wine drinker or a beer drinker when at the Bowl? Or, are you like some people we know who bring in a couple of forties and a bucket of fried chicken? An infant was shot and killed last night in MacArthur Park; the baby was hit by a stray bullet while his......

Dengue Fever @ Levitt Pavilion for the Performing Arts (MacArthur Park, 7pm) Spoon @ Henry Fonda Joe Frank @ Largo Kinski @ The Echo Rezurex @ Safari Sam's Nightcat, The Nimoys, Spinal Frog, Laura Steenberge, Free Radical @ Mr. T's Bowl......

Gee, I wonder what tipped them off: California transportation officials will immediately inspect 69 of the state's most vulnerable steel-deck bridges. And the frozen yogurt wars rage on... A man, believed to be a property caretaker, was fatally mauled by a dog on Ving Rhames' property. How desperate can you get? Fox News is offering Republicans $15 to attend an upcoming taping of the "Half Hour News Hour" - a right-wing (and shoddy) version......

If the red line seems slow today, now you know why. The Los Angeles Fire Department is reporting that a man either fell or jumped inito the path of the North Hollywood bound Metro Red Line train at the Westlake/MacArthur Park subway station shortly before 8:40 a.m.The subway train was unable to stop before striking the man, who was found trapped beneath the trainset. Despite the prompt response of Los Angeles Fire Department personnel, the......

A.N.S.W.E.R. LA is holding a march tomorrow in Hollywood at Hollywood & Vine starting at 12 noon that is expected to bring out 15,000 people. (if you go, please take public transit). If you know nothing of the organization, take a hint from their long acrynym: Act Now to Stop War & End Racism. If the above video looks familiar, you might remember it from last year's Hollywood protest of the Minutemen. on July......

The diversity of MacArthur Park couldn't be more dramatic than the 1940's style old school deli known for its pastrami as Langer's Deli, firmly entrenched on Alvarado, and surrounded by Central- and South American cuisine and shops. Langer's keeps it so real that they close at 4pm and take Sundays off. They have cozy, leather booths, a big menu, and bigger servings. LA Observed reminds us that Langer's celebrates their 60th birthday with a......

While walking through Los Feliz yesterday we spotted these hot tshirts at Y-Que on Vermont. Not only do you have your choice of the Free the Bitch or Keep the Bitch tees (depending on which side of the law you're currently on), but apparently there's now a Free the Bitch Again shirts. Y-Que, of course, being the store that has the sweet-ass MacArthur Park tshirts that we love so. But back to Paris... yesterday......

Feel like returning to the scene of the crime with the Mayor of LA and help him protest his own police force? This evening at 5:30pm at the Immanuel Presbyterian Church at Wilshire Boulevard and Berendo Street there will be a short town hall meeting followed by a 10-block march to MacArthur Park where there will be a rally to denounce the LAPD behavior during the infamous Mayday Melee. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Assembly Speaker......

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.......

From Friday, May 11th's episode during the New Rules segment.......

- Bring popcorn: The MacArthur Park Task Force's first meeting is Monday at 6pm at Charles White Elementary School, 2401 Wilshire Blvd. - NBC4 - Was the Griffith Park Fire a pro-development conspiracy? - blogging.la - George Michael to star in an upcoming sitcom called "Ellie Stone" - Entertainment Wise - UCLA has done the right thing with 5,700 old pictures of Los Angeles - they're letting everyone use them - LA Observed -......

Last night's Midnight Ridazz was a blast, but those not on bikes probably did not think so, including the LAPD. One thing you have to know about the Midnight Ridazz is that the route is almost never announced until you arrive. In last night's case, the only map we received was of Zürich, Switzerland. It didn't make sense until you realized that the ride was dubbed Dada. Others tried to figure out acronyms like......

Photo by Wathana Lim It would be nice to be able to make light of my last article, and its many entertaining and inspired comments, but it is pretty tough to do that given what happened at the end of Tuesday's May Day immigration protest culminating in MacArthur Park. By most accounts, and as has been demonstrated by several different video recordings of the situation, there was an absolute loss of control on the......

Water-coloring, jazz-listening, horse track-attending, local politics-loving, cocktail-making, Joseph Mailander is stepping down from the blog he helped form, the Martini Republic. LAist has the exclusive interview with one of our favorite LA bloggers who dares say something about the Yankees which we recommend that you ignore as we have done. LAist: There appears to be some major changes in Martini Republic, namely I see that you are not the Editor of the site any......

LA blogger, GameJew, has put together a very well-done NPR-style video of what he saw and experienced at MacArthur Park yesterday when the LAPD decided to disperse the crowd with rubber bullets. A peaceful crowd of unarmed men, women, children, and the press, tried to unceremoniously scatter but were pelted with rubber bullets anyways. Not only does GameJew capture the fear and anger that people felt, but he has some really excellent interviews with......

The LAPD's civil rights consent decree just got extended this past summer for another three years. Do videos like this and witness accounts help end this decree and get more officers back on the street instead of desk duty for consent decree paperwork? Not really. Here is some excerpts from Daniel Hernandez's blog: "The sight of cops standing shoulder-to-shoulder menacingly holding batons drew more onlookers, which drew more cops, which drew more onlookers. The......

Videos don't tell the whole story by any means, but when the press got hit with a baton at yesterday's rally, they fought back in the only way they could -- with the news. The LA Times also has coverage. *UPDATE: Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton said today that some actions taken by officers trying to clear a crowd of marchers at MacArthur Park were "inappropriate" and that he has launched two......

Wilshire & Alvarado - May Day The presence of a police force lined up with riot gear presupposes trouble. And when someone supposedly threw a bottle near MacArthur Park Tuesday evening, it was a call to action. Or as Chief Bratton later rationalized: "Missiles were being thrown at the officers, and officers [were] responding." Last year's May Day march down Wilshire featured amiable members of LA's finest police and fire squads lined up on......

LAist likes the Gym Class Heroes video because it was filmed in MacArthur Park El-P, Mr. Dibbs, Percee P, C Minus @ The Troubadour Gym Class Heroes, RX Bandits, POS, K-OS @ House of Blues The Airborne Toxic Event, The Monolators, The Western States Motel @ Echo The Plus Size Model, Ponette, Legs on Sale @ The Good Hurt Jim Turner, Ann Magnuson @ Largo The Greatest Touchdown Ever Scored @ The Scene Waddy......

At last night's 10th Annual Los Angeles Political Roast, a fundraiser for the American Diabetes Association, there was more than just poking fun at the no-nonsense East Coast talking LAPD Chief - William Bratton. The LA Times did not get into it (LAObserved did), but there was a little tiff between Mayor Villaraigosa and District Attorney, Steve Cooley. The DA took a swing at the Mayor's supposed marriage situation and later while Mayor V......

It was last Thursday. A trip to Echo Park, car free. The 750 Rapid down Ventura Blvd. to the Universal Red Line Station. Take the Red Line, get off at MacArthur Park, and take the 200 down Alvarado to Sunset. It was rush hour and both buses were packed to the brim. Now that the consent decree is no longer in effect, will this be the sign of the times? Does this brand of......