Zach Behrens

Eric Garcetti It's been teased for years. Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti will run for Mayor of Los Angeles. That's yet to be seen, but Hollywood seems to like him and his father Gil, a former Los Angeles County District Attorney. For example, a fictional character running for D.A. of Gotham in the viral campaign for The Dark Knight was named Roger Garcetti, and in HBO's "The Wire," Baltimore City Councilmember Tommy...

Photo by Christa . Bike by the Sea via Flickr Los Angeles may be gearing up to finalize its master bicycle plan, which would bring some 1,600 miles of bikeways to the city, but that may not be enough for those whose primary location is USC. That's where some 10,000 to 15,000 cyclists roam the campus each day, according to 2009 report. According to Daily Trojan columnist Lucy Mueller, the problem for the past...

Photo by Alex de Cordoba via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr New rules to take effect in October mean some changes at farmers markets in Santa Monica, most notably the Sunday one on Main Street. Thanks to a City Council decision, prepared food vendors at markets must meet new criteria, namely being local -- as in local to Santa Monica -- and having sustainable practices. Six of the 13 prepared food stalls at the...

A closeup from the rescue effort (more photos here) | Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist Nearly two years to the date, a judge today is expected to sign off on a $200 million settlement that would go to family members and survivors of fatal Metrolink train crash in Chatsworth. On the afternoon of Friday, September 12th, 2008 a Metrolink train headed to Ventura County crashed head-on with a Union Pacific freight train, killing 25 people...

Photo by melissssaf via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Watch out: "Robbers armed with baseball bats assault victims in Echo Park & Franklin Hills." Employes and customers were detained, some reportedly arrested, by the LAPD in a raid of a Venice marijuana dispensary Thursday night. Another train crash: "A surgical team amputated the arm of a conductor Friday to free him from the wreckage of a locomotive that struck a slow-moving freight train on...

View a larger version of this map here (.pdf) | Map via Metro Just like the Gold Line's expansion beyond Pasadena in the foothill neighborhoods, it's also likely to get an extension east of the Eastside. At the moment there are two alternatives being discussed: one along the 60 Freeway from East Los Angeles to South El Monte and another that takes the 60 Freeway to Garfield to Washington, ending in Whittier. That's about...

via Beverly Hills Courier There are a plethora of events, including LAist's five picks, taking place across the city tonight for Fashion's Night Out. In Los Angeles, there five areas that will have a good amount of couture concentration. Those neighborhoods are Venice's Abbot Kinney Boulevard, downtown, Los Feliz Village, Melrose Avenue, Robertson Boulevard and West Third Street. Maps, schedule of events and trolley information can be found on the city's webpage. But what's...

Officers responding to a call this afternoon discovered a deceased female body, reportedly in a bag. A 3:05 p.m., the police were alerted to a death investigation at a recycling center on the 1000 block of North Main Street (map), according to LAPD Officer Rosario Herrera. The location is north of downtown in an industrial area abut Chinatown. KTLA, which reported it "near" Dodger Stadium, said the body was found inside a bag....

Green Eggs & Ham | Photo by djjewelz via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr What do the Lazy Ox Canteen, WP24, Church and State, Rivera and Starry Kitchen have in common? They're all relatively new to downtown and today made a New York Times list of "Delicious Ways to Love Downtown Los Angeles." The Times admits there has always been great spots like Philippe the Original, "but true destination restaurants have been...

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.