Photo by david.nikonvscanon via Flickr Around 100 people's car tires were slashed over the night, leaving San Pedro residents with an unhappy morning surprise. It wasn't until people gathered at a local tire store that they all began to figure out what happened. Police are not sure exactly how many people were victimized, but one person is quoted in a Daily Breeze report saying they were "inundated" with calls. Several neighborhoods were hit, including......

Living in an RV in San Pedro just got a little harder, at least for the next 30 days. Councilwoman Janice Hahn announced a new pilot program making it harder for RVs to park in the "designated RV restriction district in South San Pedro." New street signs installed state that no parking will be allowed for oversized vehicles between the hours of 2:00 and 6:00 a.m. “These oversized vehicles cause neighborhood blight and present safety......

Photo by Mike Watt San Pedro (or as he would say, "Pedro") local Mike Watt kayaks just about every morning and always takes beautiful beautiful beautiful sunrise photos. Here's one recent morning over at the Harbor. Previously: Mike Watt's Top Ten Pedro Sunrises of '06......

Yesterday at four different locations around the Los Angeles area, teams built ice structures, a re-creation of performance and installation artist Allan Kaprow's "Fluids." Yesterday, Kaprow's son helped build one of the structures in Pasadena's Memorial Park. LAist Featured Photos contributor Tom Andrews was there to catch it. From Beverly Hills to San Pedro, "Fluids" structures are still being put up today and tomorrow. Below the photo gallery is a map of locations and dates.......

This last Tuesday at the crack of dawn, famous San Pedro local Mike Watt snapped this shot. "I'm paddling my kayak down in the harbor here in Pedro and I saw the Angels Gate Lighthouse being reflected down onto the water and took a shot of it as I was about to pass her and head out into the open sea. I flipped the picture 180 degrees to give it a trippy perspective. It......

Photo by Arlette via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr 19-year-old alleged gang member Pedro Espinoza entered a not guilty plea today for the murder of Jamiel Shaw. Shaw, the 17-year-old high schooler, was gunned down near his home early last month. Mayor Tony's former lady friend and ousted tv reporter Mirthala Salinas opens up about her affair in an upcoming Los Angeles mag interview. She calls the relationship a "learning experience" and......

Every year about this time, the Los Angeles Wheelmen sponsor a bike ride up Fargo Street. This climb, which is this Sunday, draws attention every year for the feat these cyclists attempt and complete (last year's record was 90 accents!). From their website: Once a year cyclists gather from all over to match their legs and skill against Fargo Street Hill, reportedly the steepest hill in Los Angeles. It's only a couple of blocks long,......

DANCE The State Ballet of Georgia arrives for their Los Angeles premiere at UCLA's Royce Hall to perform Giselle. This historic Russian dance company is taking on a classic, with Nina Ananiashvili in the spotlight as the company's artistic director and prima ballerina in the title role. 8 p.m. // Royce Hall, UCLA // Westwood Plz at Charles E Young Dr S// (310) 825-2101 // $20 - 90 SPOKEN WORD It's an Anything Goes Open......

COMEDY “Groundlings Swimsuit Edition” is the comedy troupe’s latest offering, with plenty of sketch and improv. Keep your fingers crossed that we won’t see them in Speedos. (But then again, Speedos are funny…) 8 pm // Groundling Theatre // 7307 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles // $21.50. FILM Crenshaw Boulevard comes to life in the hands of director Dan Wozniak and producer Christopher Molony. The documentary features 12 vignettes of people along the street’s 24......

View Larger Map A two-car crash on Anaheim St. in the Wilmington neighborhood of Los Angeles north of San Pedro and the LA Harbor has sent four patients to the hospital in critical condition, leaving one in minor condition. Two had to be extricated from a sedan by the Los Angeles Fire Department. The cause of the crash is unknown at this time, but officials are warning of traffic along this main artery.......

As Cloverfield set a box office record for a January opening this holiday weekend, we Angelenos should be glad at the local economic boost, but we should also question if it could have been even more successful had the film been set in Los Angeles. Yes, the New York setting drew memories of 9/11 and classic monster movies, but Los Angeles is the city in which this monster would have done so much better......

I love Watt's photo of sunrise over this mast. The lines look like spiderwebs. It started me thinking about masts and general sailing terminology. People make jokes about the mizzen mast on Talk Like a Pirate Day. It is the most poetic-sounding mast. These are the actual names for the masts:Fore-mast - the first mast, or the mast fore of the main-mast. Main-mast - the tallest mast, usually located near the centre of the......

WORDS SCI-Arc’s spring lecture series on design and architecture kicks off tonight with Jeffrey Kipnis, professor of architectural design and theory at Ohio State University. Kipnis will discuss “happy,” “zany” and other important political trends in architecture. So the title of his lecture -- *@$#*!#!! -- does make sense. Kind of. 7 pm // W. M. Keck Lecture Hall SCI-Arc, 960 East 3rd Street, Los Angeles // Free. MORE WORDS David Frum is a former......

A wonderful bird is a pelican, His bill will hold more than his belican. He can take in his beak Food enough for a week; But I'm damned if I see how the helican. "The Pelican" (1910) by Dixon Lanire Merrith, often misattributed to Ogden Nash Modern pelicans are found on all continents except Antarctica. From the fossil record,[6] it is known that pelicans have been around for over 40 million years, the earliest......

So maybe you holed up inside last night with a hot toddy and are thinking, "rain be damned! I'm going out tonight!" Okay, fine. If you make it out earlier, you can celebrate the Japanese New Year, or you can lay low until the evening hours and then get yourself so theatre. Or you could just stay home and keep drinking. We'll never tell... JAPANESE NEW YEAR/SAKE-TO ME There are multiple events going on today......

Here is a self-portrait of Watt braving the frigid January waters off of San Pedro in the 37th annual Cabrillo Beach Polar Bears Plunge on New Year's day. As far back as anyone can remember, an informal New Year's day swim has been led by lifeguards or the Dept of Parks and Recreation at noon off of Cabrillo Beach. In 1953, John Olguin and Jack Cheaney started the Cabrillo Beach Polar Bears. John's wife, Muriel......

One of the great things about Pedro are the cliffs, which provide beautiful views of the harbor. At the same time, the harbor is getting some beautiful views of the cliffs ( and the Point Fermin building). Here is a sea-lion's-eye view from Watt's kayak. A Watt's-eye-view.......

Happy 50th to our weekly photo contributor Mike Watt! This is a self-portrait taken this morning, kayaking around Angel's Gate in the rain at dawn. He'll also be marking the occasion tonight by rocking DiPiazza's in Long Beach. Watt will be joining Nels Cline and Steve Perkins in Banyan, Perkins' experimental, mostly instrumental project. Opening bands are Alfajerk and Horrors of Toledo. Banyan goes on at 11pm, so you can still catch them if......

A balcony collapsed last night around 9 p.m. in San Pedro, leaving the eight adults who fell about 8-10 feet in the accident with mild to moderate injuries.No injuries are reported in a small fire that tore through several garages and an apartment building this moring in the Hollywood Hills, according to ABC7. The fire took place at 8054 Fareholm Drive in the Laurel Canyon area, and the cause is as yet unknown. The price......

This is a picture of a bait raft in Pedro. I love this one because the seagull looks so blase as the sea lions go at it. I am not a fan of cheesily talking for animals. But he just seems to be thinking, "There go those goddamned sea lions again. If I wanted to listen to that crap I'd get married again." OK, the anthropomorphizing is over. You can open your eyes now.......

This photograph is somehow both beautiful and sad. Broken, abandoned things can be just as meaningful, sometimes even more meaningful, than natural beauty. It is just one more thing for the sea to claim and make its own. Photo by Mike Watt......

Sometimes Watt sends out pictures of found objects that he comes across while pedaling around Pedro. My favorite thing about this photo is Watt's DIY self-painted helmet on the ground. True, he probably took it off to look through the viewfinder of the camera. But it also makes me wonder just a little bit whether he was going to try on the hat.......

This weekend I thought we'd take a break from the sea and the red thing to check out the animal kingdom version of Thanksgiving. Are these not the fattest racoons you have ever seen? It's as if they are a new species. Don't mess with Pedro racoons, man. - Elise The Raccoon (Procyon lotor), also known as the Northern Raccoon, Common Raccoon, Washer Bear or Coon, is a widespread, medium-sized, omnivorous mammal native to......

Since Watt is just coming off of a mini-tour, having just played the Vegoose Music Fest and playing a gig with Thurston Moore, it seemed appropriate to post a photo of his boat. Actually, it's a picture of the red thing in the boat, which is a recurring subject, like the red couch, but smaller. In case you didn't know, the boat is Watt's van. Watt has his own language. It's a combo of Pedro......

Fire crews are optimistic, but not yet looking to declare victory over the multiple blazes that have burned over 500,000 acres and displaced millions. We agree, it's best to be sure before declaring victory too soon. One blaze that has partially kept officials from declaring an end to the madness, the Santiago fire in Orange County, is expected to be contained by Friday. But it could take years to rebuild charred neighborhoods. Seven people......

I don't know when I've seen a picture with such intense colors. The zig-zagging of the breakwater makes such a balancedcomposition, and the tanker in the distance is the only sign that you are not on an island in the south seas. The breakwater is 9,250 feet long and contains nearly three million tons of rock, brought over from Santa Catalina Island. (Pedro Chamber of Commerce) The initial western section of the breakwater, called......

Today's Daily News discusses yesterday morning's Congress of Neighborhoods where city's 89 neighborhood councils met in a convention style environment to learn skills such as media relations and working with city departments. Throughout the day, one major focus of chatter surrounded how to "wield their increasing influence." The Sunland-Tujunga Neighborhood Council recently succeeded in a community effort in halting a Home Depot from coming to their neighborhood. The Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council is......

"This historic lighthouse has marked the entrance to the port since 1913. Designed differently than any other California lighthouse, Angel's Gate is situated on a forty-foot concrete square. Built to withstand rough seas, the framework is structural steel, with steel plates to the second floor. The lighthouse is so well-constructed that, after a five-day storm in 1939 sent violent seas smashing into the building, the 73-foot Romanesque tower leaned slightly toward shore, but still......

The majestic California sea lion. I like this photo because the sea lions are so interested in Watt's kayak. They are almost posing. Just imagine the sea lions as drunk sorority girls, and this photo could be on any Myspace page. I was just reading about sea lions on Wikipedia and I came across this curious fact, "Non-breeding populations live as far north as British Columbia." Non-breeding populations? Of course, they could be protecting......

I think a lot of people imagine San Pedro as a gray town at the end of the freeway. Oil tankers, canneries, and smokestacks make up the landscape of Pedro. What I like about Mike Watt's pictures is that they show you the color. When I look at this photograph, I can smell the ropes, damp with saltwater. It makes me think about my dad's Chinese junk he kept docked in San Pedro. It......