Little Bangladesh and Koreatown are on the way to becoming officially recognized L.A. city neighborhoods, but that's not all. Assemblymember Mike Davis has been working with community members to create the El Salvador Community Corridor along Vermont Avenue. If his legislation passes, signs along the 10 Freeway will let drivers know where to exit to find the culturally rich artery. more ›

USC's digital online news website Neon Tommy began a new series today called Democracy in Action where reporters visit field offices of L.A.'s state legislators. "Our goal is to see what goes on in a two-hour period on a routine day," they explain. For the first post, Jessica Flores visited Assemblyman Mike Davis' field office, finding that the simplest of questions were the hardest to find answers to. Perhaps this is just one of the many symptoms why Sacramento is fucked: more ›

This past Sunday I dropped by a fundraiser event for Barack Obama in Koreatown, invited by my friend who works for Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas. Not really having kick-started my analysis of candidates out there yet, my only real knowledge of Obama, silly as it may sound, was that he is a) Democratic and therefore b) NOT BUSH. Hey, these are the important things. Although we had difficulty parking, and we basically had to cram... more ›

Bastards of the Party, which recently aired on HBO, is one of if not the best documentary about the rise of the Crips and the Bloods in Los Angeles. Directed by gang member-turned-activist by Cle "Bone" Sloan, who spent years in the Athens Park Bloods and still considers himself a non-active member, the film provides an insider's view on the economic privation and neighborhood rivalries that continue to fuel L.A.'s gang warfare. Sloan traces... more ›

LAUSD Superinendent Roy Romer has announced a series of reforms desgined to keep students from dropping out of school, and to help the 44% percent of freshmen who fail algebra on their first try. The LA Times writes "Romer's initiatives come on the heels of a Times series about the dropout problem in Los Angeles schools." Did the paper really cause the reforms? The Daily News thinks not, citing Mayor Villaraigosa's move to take over the schools as Romer's motivator. more ›

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