Zach Behrens

Overlooking the city from Runyun Canyon | Photo by Alex de Cordoba via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Dailiy News gives Townhouse Kitchen + Bar, a new restaurant in the Sherman Oaks Galleria, three stars.Police are looking for a man that has robbed at least seven stores in the Long Beach and Lakewood. Can you identify him? Phew! "Metrolink Riders Safe From Price Increase -- For Now." Sketchy! The sidewalk along Broadway in downtown...

Streetsblogger Damien Newton and other public transit advocates took an unofficial (bike) ride today, examining safety issues surrounding the soon-to-open Gold Line Eastside Extension. In their opinion, they found various issues, including problems at the Little Tokyo and Indiana stations, pedestrian signal timing that worsened the further East the line went and the most interesting fact of all, how $4.5 million allocated for safety won't be spent until next year. To that, Newton asks...

Photo by Yogma via Flickr As with every weekend (and weekday), police are out to catch drunk drivers. Tonight, we know of two sobriety check points: one in Del Rey and another in Pasadena. From 8 p.m. to 3 a.m., the LAPD will hold a Sobriety & Drivers License Checkpoint at Lincoln Blvd and Maxella Ave at the border of the L.A. city neighborhood Del Rey and unincorporated Marina Del Rey. The LAPD's Pacific...

LAist gained a new Twitter follower today and it was blast from the past. It was the mysterious and clandestine LA City Nerd, who some think is a current City Councilmember and others think is just a nerdy couch-historian, shut down his/her popular blog sometime ago. Hopefully this means more fun nerdy facts about the city are to come. LAist has interviewed the Nerd a few times here, here and here....

A sandstorm in Death Valley National Park | Photo by erikogan via Flickr Back in 1996, four German tourists vanished in Death Valley National Park on a blistering 120-degree day. After months of searching, their minivan was found in a ravine, but there was no sign of the group, which included two boys aged 4 and 10. Since there have been no breaks in the case, which has been a long-standing mystery for the...

As the two hotels and condos prepare to open at L.A. Live (all in one building), Eric Richardson at blogdowntown sat down with the building's Director of Food and Beverage to get some details. What's known so far is enough to get foodies excited. There will be two "signature" restaurants with yet-to-be-named celebrity chefs. The ground floor will be home to L.A. Market while the other restaurant will live on the 24th floor. There...

The Gold Line's Eastside Extension is opening this Sunday, allowing for car-free travel between East L.A. and Union Station. Here's a look at the timetable (.pdf). Although the Gold Line will begin weekday northbound service, which is considered from East L.A. to Pasadena, at 3:40 a.m., it will only be from Union Station to Pasadena. The first train to leave the Atlantic Station will happen at 4:21 a.m., arriving at Union Station 24 minutes...

Douglas Ring, a name known around City Hall, was found dead today in his Brentwood home. Preliminary results seem to indicate his death was a suicide, but the official cause is pending a final coroner's report, according to the LA Times. The 65-year-old developer and lawyer is the husband of former City Councilmember and current President of the Board of Harbor Commissioners, Cindy Miscikowski. He is credited with leading the rebuild effort behind Central...

Photo by curdiogenes via LAist Featured Photos on flickr Good news for UCLA students: Westwood will soon be seeing a Barney's Beanery in the neighborhood. A car free future? A study funded by the city of Los Angeles looks into the "last mile" problem, which is "is a term created to describe the barrier many car commuters feel to taking transit or other options to single-passenger vehicle commuting." Continuing on that theme, Green LA...

Art Walk patrons enjoy The Gastrobus in September | Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist As the Downtown Art Walk grew in popularity over the past year, so did unrelated activities like a large craft show and, of course, food trucks. Well, it looks like Main Street, which has turned into food truck alley on the second Thursday of the month, will remain empty of some trucks. "Don Chow Tacos, @fishlips_sushi, and @indiajonesct got the boot...

One lawsuit won, some 20 to go. A federal judge sided with Los Angeles in the never-ending battle over billboards this week. It was one of the three lawsuits filed by World Wide Rush, which "argued that it had a right to erect new signs or supergraphics because it requested permits during a four-month period in late 2008" when no ban was in effect, explained the LA Times. "Under the company’s logic, their applications...

As of 3 p.m., Jeremy Swan's attempt to break the world record for "most tattoos done in 24 hours" was around half way there with about 400 tats completed. He needs to complete over 802 tattoos total. Although hundreds poured in to his Silver Lake-based Broken Art Tattoo at midnight, the rate of people coming in during this morning slowed significantly. However, this afternoon, progress picked up and is expected to continue as night...