Zach Behrens

Mayor Antonio Villaraigasa may want Los Angeles to be the greenest city in the country and San Francisco may be popularly referred to as one of the greenest, but when it comes to solar power, San Diego is king when it comes to California big cities, according to a report released by Environment California. The city leads with 2,267 solar roofs. By contrast, San Francisco has 1,493 with Los Angeles trailing behind at 1,432....

Photo of a regular LA street | Photo by Atwater Village Newbie via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr Los Angeles has had one for a little while and now Santa Monica has joined the club. Typically, when it rains the runoff goes into the storm drains directing it to the ocean. What it takes along with it--chemicals, trash, etc--is extremely harmful and wasteful, too. If the little water brought to us in Southern California...

Since the Twilight Dance Series on the Santa Monica Pier began a couple weeks ago, the pier has gotten over capacity and has prompted extra police, says the Santa Monica Daily Press, noting that this is a first in its 25 year history for the weekly Thursday night summer event. Bigger crowds usually happen by the end of the summer, but not like this: "Franz-Knight attributed the big crowds to the economic downturn. 'We've...

The behind doors budget deficit talks have been quite hush-hush leaving a big question mark on the latest for the survival of California's state parks. "There's not a lot of information coming out now about the parks issue," said Traci Verardo-Torres of the California State Parks Foundation who said environmental issues are rumored to be the subject of discussions today in the private budget meetings. What Verado-Torres does know is that 60,000 people have...

At about 12:30 p.m., a suspicious package prompted police to shut down the area round Santa Monica Blve and Avenue of the Stars in Century City. The bomb squad responded, but as of 2:45 p.m., there was no word on the status of the incident, according to LAPD Media Relations. This unfortunately is a regular occurrence. The area around the Federal Building has been shut down a handful of times in the past and...

A small plane carrying three people crashed this afternoon near the Hawthorne Airport off the 105 freeway, according to KNX1070. "Hawthorne Municipal Airport, also known as Jack Northrop Field, is an FAA-designated general aviation reliever airport owned by the City of Hawthorne," according to its webpage. It's located at 12101 S. Crenshaw Boulevard....

Photo by rchiba via LAist Feautred Photos on Flickr A report released yesterday ranked Los Angeles number one out of 273 cities for the treatment of homeless populations. "Homes Not Handcuffs: The Criminalization of Homelessness in U.S. Cities" by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and the National Coalition for the Homeless highlights the Safer Cities Initiative--which has spent $6 million on extra police in Skid Row--as a program that traps homeless...

Last summer The Dark Knight earned $18.5 million in midnight screenings. Then came along Harry Potter last night bringing in a record $22.2 million. Earlier this summer, the horribly-awesome-but-really-horrible Transformers made $16 million on its first night of midnight screenings followed by the "second biggest single day gross in history of $62 million," according to Hollywood.com who notes that reviews for the new Harry Potter "have been the strongest for any film in the...

As expected, Judy Chu won California's 32nd Congressional Seat in yesterday's election. "With 173 of 209 precincts reporting Tuesday night, Chu had 14,115 votes, or 62 percent. She was trailed by her cousin by marriage, Republican Betty Chu, with 7,355 votes, or 32 percent," reported the Associated Press. "Most residents in the 32nd Congressional District are Hispanic, but Judy Chu assembled a diverse coalition and stressed her ability to work across racial and ethnic...

A new mixed use tower to across the street from the LA Convention Center was approved today by City Council. It will be New York City-based architect Daniel Libeskind's first for Los Angeles and the savvy architectural readers at Curbed LA are mostly giving a thumbs up. The building, located at 1340 S Figueroa Street, will include " include 273 residential units stacked atop an eight-level podium, restaurants and a spa," according to the...

Photo by JoshMcConnell via Flickr Los Angeles has thousands of miles of failed sidewalks. Buckled, cracked, missing chunks or completey destroyed, the problem leaves the city paying out $2 to $4 million in trip and fall lawsuits each year. The city's budget only provides for fixing less than one hundred miles a year leaving residents on a wait list for 83 years to have their sidewalk fixed. For nearly four years, a proposal has...

A Rolls Royce with a bicycle rack on the Imperial Highway| Photo by m kasahara via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr New York City-based Grub Street launched a Los Angeles version of their foodie blog yesterday. First order of business: Katsuya2Go! Metro is looking at speeding up the timelines for three rail projects, but Streesblog LA questions the fiscal reality of that idea. Mayor Villaraigosa may have to report his recent trip to Africa...