Streetsblog points out that the city of Santa Monica has taken a back seat to Long Beach in recent years when it comes to leading the pack for bicycle-friendly progressive efforts. Now, Santa Monicans are seeing the signs, literally, that their city is getting back to business... more ›

City officials and law enforcement seem to be in prep mode for delivering the expected eviction notice to the Occupy LA protesters who have lived on the City Hall lawn since October 1. more ›

Angelenos, as you cruise (or roll slowly along) the 110 this morning, you may witness a crowd of people waving signs and banners on the Flower Street overpass beginning at 9am. If you can't catch what the signage reads, here's what's happening. more ›

One Studio City woman is sick of your lost kitty posters cluttering her neighborhood, and she's not going to take it anymore. Resident Marilyn White-Sedel has been waging a one-woman campaign to tear down lost pet and garage sale signs that clutter her neighborhood. Now she's asking for the community's help, Studio City Patch reports. more ›

Someone on the west side is really trying to take the fun out of the nightlife. A reader sent us the above picture, and let us know that the sign popped up on her neighbor's yard in the Olypmic/La Brea area last night. In case you can't tell, it admonishes bystanders who might be inclined to indulge in prostitutes (or be prostitutes themselves), drugs, drinking, shooting or stabbing people, and even good old-fashioned loitering. more ›

A Los Angeles Times opinion piece published today puts for the query: "Should visitors have to sign a liability waiver before entering [Yosemite National Park]?" The question comes just a few days after three hikers fell to their deaths after stepping past a barrier at a waterfall in the park. more ›

We were just in our Happy Place and enjoyed "the most hilariously effective signs supporting gay marriage." With the recent legalization of same-sex marriage in New York and California's Proposition 8 ruled unconstitutional, perhaps the witty, chuckle-inducing pro-gay signage proves effective. more ›

One man is leading the movement to have Caltrans replace the bicycle safety signs destroyed by the Station Fire along Angeles Crest Highway. In fact, Trent Sanders of La Cañada says he's willing to pay to have them made and put up himself, according to the Glendale News-Press. more ›

Last week, the City Council approved $252,000 in additional funding to the design firm overseeing renovations to a vacant, vintage building currently slated to become the new home of the Museum of Neon Art. more ›

"ATTENTION: SHIT COULD BE WORSE" "YOU LOOK LOVELY TODAY" "YOU ARE NOT COOL" These may be the kinds of phrases you mumble while driving around Los Angeles wishing the few open parking spots weren't so far away and didn't have $4/hr (incl. Sunday) meters. But what if those six-part, multiple-infraction, day-and-time sensitive parking signs in Hollywood were replaced with something more sensible? more ›

Some of our favorite Los Angeles area neon signs as captured by the photographers of the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr. more ›

Dakota Smith at Curbed LA stuck it out into the wee hours of this morning as the large illegal supergraphic that landed one businessman in jail over the weekend was taken down. As she witnessed the slow operation alongside David Berger, special assistant to the City Attorney, the businessman's lawyer, Andrew Stein, asked why other supergraphics and billboards got to stay up. "Why is that one legal, because it's part of the building?" he asked of Berger, pointing out a billboard at the Hollywood & Highland complex across the street. Even more suspicious is an Asics ad that was apparently installed last week on one of the other corners. more ›

Although they even fooled one LADOT representative, further research has shown that Tow Zone signs put up yesterday on the 5700 block of Wilshire Boulevard were not placed by city workers. "Our temporary sign posting folks reported those are definitely not our signs," explained spokesman Bruce Gillman. "We log all postings by LADOT personnel." more ›

The blog LA Eastside has designed some fake signs (online only) for new Eastside Extension of Metro's Gold Line. Needless to say, it's causing some controversy within the comments section of the post as well as apparently prompting confused calls from riders to Metro. So what does Metro do? They blog: more ›

Curbed LA has heard it twice now--Metro's Gold Line Eastside Extension between downtown LA and East LA will open in August. Little Tokyo UnBlogged took a safety walk with officials around the tracks and found that people had many concerns about crossings and signage: "The other questions that came up time and again were the lack of language-appropriate signage (some of the signs that were up did have Spanish translations). Many in the group expressed concerns over how local Japanese and Korean residents, most especially seniors, would be able to read the warnings." UPDATE: Metro says no firm date has been set. Read more here. more ›

Enforceable times at parking meters are still confusing residents as LADOT makes it way through the city updating extended times at signs and meters. The problem? Here's an example: a sign on West 3rd Street says "2 Hour Parking 8am to 6pm Except Sunday” but corresponding meters say Mon-Sat 8am-8pm and Sunday 11am-8pm, notes Tasha Nita Adams at her blog Blackburn & Sweetzer. This is an issue LAist looked at back in January and we thought all signs would be updated by now... apparently not. "It would be inappropriate [to ticket] without the new signs," the department spokesman Bruce Gilman explained back then. more ›

How silly. Here on this cul de sac in Sherman Oaks sat glass for nearly four weeks as street sweepers went by every Thursday. You can even see the vehicle's damp tire tracks going around the debris in the above photo. more ›

Billboard blight activist Dennis Hathaway has combed through the proposed sign ordinance released last week (download a copy here) and has found a bit of everything reflecting the good and the bad. There's lots of good, but if you're against sign districts--think Hollywood & Highland, a major commercial district in the city--then Hathaway sees a problem: more ›

For years us Angelenos have been trained that once the clock strikes six, we're free from parking tix. But now that the city standard for enforceable parking times has been pushed back later into the day, our human habit ways are out of whack. Last night in Sherman Oaks, a cursory street poll found that people didn't pay at meters enforced until 8 p.m. with signs above saying "2 Hour Parking, 8 AM to 6 PM." more ›

Since the Fall, Los Angeles has been adjusting parking meter rates throughout the city to an increased $1 per hour rate at the minimum (you'll find some meters up $4 an hour) and they expect to be done by the end of January. Not only that, beware of the time. The days of free parking after 6 p.m. is over--numerous areas will now have meters in force until 8 p.m. The worst part of this transition is that in some areas, meters say they are enforced to 6 p.m. and the signs above say 8 p.m. What to do? What to do? more ›

Should the freeways signs that display amber alerts and travel times also be used for advertising to help raise money for our cash-strapped state? The Schwarzenegger administration is considering an idea from Clear Channel Outdoor that would let a billboard company upgrade the signs for free if some kind of advertising deal would be worked out. more ›

The anonymous Freewayblogger is coming back to Los Angeles on Thursday while on her West Coast tour that begins today in San Diego and ends in Portland on the 22nd. more ›

Further investigation into reasons why a few spots around the city have signs prohibiting bicycle sidewalk riding shows that both Sherman Oaks locations were due to troubles caused by skateboarders. After pedestrians getting hit by boards, cars nearly hitting skaters falling into the street and customers being intimidated, Van Nuys Division LAPD officers requested a solution to help them enforce the location-isolated problems. more ›

Sometimes, what happens around San Francisco applies to Los Angeles. Editor Brock Keeling catches this sign of the times with some humor: more ›

As a passionate traveler, I'm often struck by signs. Signs that you pass on the road, signs to motels, barber shops, gas stations, liquor stores and churches. This one was taken in a suburb of Pittsburgh, PA and I think it says it all. Some might say life (and love Pat Benatar we know) is a battlefield, but what if it didn't have to be. If people were just a little bit nicer and more cognizant of each other. Look around, do you have to be frustrated by little things each day or things that people do that ruffle your feathers? Maybe 2008 can be the year you take just a moment's pause to let the moment pass. Practice kindness this year...for as they say, sugar can get you a lot further than salt. more ›

New Year's Day, most in LA seemed to be up in Pasadena watching either the Rose Parade or the Rose Bowl, or getting over their New Year's Eve hangover at home watching TV. Why do I think that? Because the roads were EMPTY! It seemed that no one was on the roads. My goal was to head out with a friend, with cameras in hand and hit the roads and drive around LA on the one day in the year that you can get from one end of the city to the other in 20 minutes. The city seems almost small and quaint when you can get from Silverlake to Santa Monica at a constant MPH and without going under 45. more ›

A water main break has closed the northbound and southbound lanes of Sepulveda at Century and is estimated to reopen at 5 a.m. tomorrow morning according to a press release just released by Caltrans:Los Angeles – The Department of Transportation (Caltrans) announces that a Department of Water and Power (DWP) 36-inch water main break has caused the closure of northbound and southbound Sepulveda Boulevard at Century Boulevard in Los Angeles. Estimated duration of the... more ›

Here's a Music Medley of some tunes from bands reviewed or highlighted here over the last couple months (some lyrics NSFW BTW): No Age - Every Artist Needs a Tragedy Caribou - Irene Five O' Clock Heroes - Head Games Bitter:sweet - Dirty Laundry (Skeewiff Remix) CINEMATIC: Classic Film Music Remixed - The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3 Main Title (Phillip Charles' Signs in Mallorca Rewerk) Shocking Pinks - Victims Sunset Rubdown - Colt... more ›

Photos from the Parking Lot Art Show at the Sunset Junction. more ›

When a celebrity moves next door, so does the parking and traffic problems caused by paparazzi. So who do you call to solve the problem? Well, the city of course. And in this town, local politicians are no stranger to loving or hating celebs, whether it be Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and most recently, City Councilman Jack Weiss: An embattled city councilman who has been accused of making the gut-wrenching Los... more ›