The body of a woman who had apparently been bludgeoned to death was discovered just after midnight today by a cleaning crew inside a rented room at the Olympic Hotel in the MacArthur Park area. The woman appears to be about 40 years old. more ›

For the dance ready who aren't looking to haul their cookies all the way to the OC for Pacific Festival, or for those who simply prefer an urban park in which to boogie, this Saturday, dublab presents…HEATING UP: A TROPICAL DANCE PARTY at Levitt Pavilion in MacArthur Park from 6:30- 8:30 p.m. more ›

Today's May Day march, which is held to draw attention to the issue of immigration reform, was markedly smaller than it has been in recent years, reports Southern California Public Radio. Several thousand people took to the streets at 10 a.m. for the march, which left from Olympic and Broadway. The march has gotten smaller over the years since hundreds of thousands marched on 2007, and were infamously fired on by police with rubber bullets and struck by police batons. more ›

While an estimated 60,000 people gathered on the mall in Washington DC to rally under the leadership of Comedy Central hosts Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, about 1,000 Angelenos made their way to MacArthur Park this morning to watch the live telecast, reports CBS. more ›

If any traffic from President Barack Obama's visit to USC's campus and Glendale wasn't enough, then here's more. A march from Pershing Square in downtown and ending at MacArthur Park in Westlake will begin at 2 p.m. It's just one of the many protests across the nation for the National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality. more ›

Jon Stewart has found 'Sanity' in MacArthur Park. The festivus for the rest of us dubbed the "Rally To Restore Sanity" ran into a harshed mellow last week when LA's West Coast organizers were denied a permit to gather in Pershing Square. more ›

Attention is currently is drawn to protests in Westlake over the officer involved shooting that left a man dead on Sunday, but the fatal Thursday morning shooting of a 19-year-old man just a mile away has failed to see much attention. Celeste Fremon at Witness LA describes Irvin Panameno, nicknamed Smiley, as a reformed gang member. more ›

Streetsblog takes a close look at the MacArthur Park Metro Apartments, for which Mayor Villaraigosa and others held a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday. The project is "located one block east of the Westlake/MacArthur Park Metro Rail Station entrance," and is backed with stimulus funds, according to The Source. more ›

The iconic Westlake Theatre, a part of the MacArthur Park community since 1926, has been awarded a spot on the National Register of Historic Places, according to the April e-newsletter of the Office of Historic Resources. more ›

Los Angeles is a city of hundreds of neighborhoods and hundreds of languages, and the cultures that go along with them. From Venice to Garvanza to Shadow Hills to San Pedro (and everything between), we live within a plethora of diversity. But one thing that is missing from this polyglot metropolis are the stories coming out of all these places. more ›

On Saturday evening a man was shot while sitting in the barber's chair in what police are saying could be a gang-related incident. Domingo Reyes, 35, was at Alberto Barber Shop in Westlake near MacArthur Park when the incident happened around 6:58 p.m., according to the LAPD. more ›

The LAPD officers who used "questionable tactics" in their response to protesters on the 2007 May Day immigration march will not be prosecuted, reports the LA Times. The LAPD investigated the incident in which video footage showed police firing rubber bullets into the crowd Park May Day Melee. Their report reviewed the actions of 30 officers and "blamed poor leadership and overly aggressive tactics", but prosecutors were unable to "establish that any particular officer's actions were unreasonable or without lawful necessity in light of the tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving circumstances." Nineteen officers faced punishment last year, and earlier this year $12.85 million was awarded to victims injured in the protest. more ›

One of the most eclectic and lively musical venues in Los Angeles is probably one of the least known. In the north-west corner of MacArthur Park is Levitt Pavilion, a band shell built at the bottom of what was 100 years ago a reservoir and now whose banks now form a natural amphitheater. Over the last three summers the Levitt Family Foundation has funded perhaps the most exciting and diverse musical programs at here. Every Wednesday through Sunday concerts of every imaginable type of music . more ›

Police have found that a man with a similar motive and description is approaching young girls in an attempt to sexually assault them after enticing them into apartment buildings. The most recent attempt was partially caught on a security video (embedded below). more ›

Remember this angering video where a local video blogger documented the 2007 Immigration March that went from happy and free-spirited to LAPD officers terrorizing everyone by spraying rubber bullets into the crowds and taking batons to reporters? Today, the LA City Council approved $12.85 million to settle nine lawsuits against the city, but that's not the end of it as there were 27 lawsuits. Also, this not the only recent LAPD settlement the LA Times reports: "The settlement of the May Day cases comes on the heels of the council’s approval last week of a $20.5-million payout to four current and former police officers who claimed they were falsely arrested and mistreated in the wake of the scandal involving the police department's Rampart Division." more ›

On May Day 2007, hundreds of marchers, journalists and 18 officers were injured when the LAPD heavily overreacted to a small group of agitators at MacArthur Park. That led to lawsuits, which could be settled very soon, says the LA Times: "Victims of the melee in MacArthur Park last year involving Los Angeles police have reached a tentative multimillion-dollar settlement with the city, people close to the settlement talks said today... A couple of the sources, however, placed the proposed settlement at about $10 million." If you need a reminder of what happened, you probably should watch this video. more ›

Photos taken around town by our LAist Featured Photos contributors on Flickr.
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A 49-year-old man was struck and killed at 8:20 p.m. last night when standing in an alley near 6th & Grand View Streets. "Investigation have very few leads and there are no description of the suspect vehicle or the driver," the LAPD said in a statement. MacArthur Park has various live-feed cameras like Hollywood Blvd. (and soon Ventura Blvd.) placed in the park, but lack of funding for maintenance led to inoperable cameras earlier this year. Officers at the local police station who are in charge of monitoring the cameras could not immediately say if the cameras were working or not this afternoon. If they were working, could they have helped this case any? more ›

Last Sunday, Little Radio's Summer Camp series Downtown continued with performances by local bands Matt Ellis (MySpace), Hypernova (MySpace), Tenlons Fort (MySpace), and Castledoor (MySpace), with The Karabal Nightlife (MySpace) as well as Ladies and Gents (MySpace) among those performing earlier in the day during Open Mic. more ›

Pastry Chef Mariah Swan offers a selection of gourmet doughnuts every Wednesday night at Grace Restaurant. Selections vary on a weekly basis and include interesting combinations such as caramalized banana filled and cinnamon sugar glazed doughnuts. Various ice cream selections and warm spiced milk are also available to accompany your selection. more ›

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. more ›

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: more ›

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. more ›

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 and anything that look valuable, the officers would split the loot, sell the drugs to another dealer and proceed to split those profits (so wait, did they ever rob the dealer they dealt to?). more ›

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.... more ›

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... more ›

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... more ›

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... more ›

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... more ›