Mega Project Prepares Plans Mega Expansion

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – The City Planning Commission next week will consider a plan to add hundreds of thousands of square feet of office, hotel and residential space to the 27-acre L.A. Live sports and entertainment complex.

• The Golden Age, Part II

  DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - When the Metropolitan Transportation Authority opened the first segment of the Red Line subway in 1993, the agency expected it to support two rush hours. But the line that now connects Downtown with North Hollywood, and has a stop in MacArthur Park, generated three peak usage times: In addition to the morning and evening work commutes, a lunchtime rush resulted, said Art Leahy, Metro’s CEO.
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• One Mixed Mess

  DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - Two weeks ago, the California Supreme Court decided not to review a Down­town developer’s successful lawsuit challenging the city of Los Angeles’ affordable housing policy in City West. Although it may at first glance seem to be an isolated or even inconsequential case, legal experts and city officials paint a far different picture — they say it has effectively torpedoed the centerpiece of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s sweeping $5 billion plan to increase L.A.’s low-income housing stock.
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Don’t Let Parker Center Languish

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - Significant attention has been focused on the Los Angeles Police Department in recent weeks. This makes sense, considering the Oct. 24 opening of the new $440 million headquarters building in Downtown, the Oct. 31 departure of Police Chief William Bratton, and the nomination, three days later, of Deputy Chief Charlie Beck as Bratton’s replacement.

• A Skid Row Basketball Oasis

  DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - Skid Row is constantly full of surprises. Many are difficult to witness and comprehend — the horrors of intense poverty and filth, widespread drug dealing, and rampant and untreated mental illness all raise disturbing questions about how a modern, seemingly advanced society allows such suffering.
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• Work to Keep SCI-Arc in Downtown

  The news that the Southern California Institute of Architecture is looking at alternatives to its current home in the Arts District raises serious concerns for Downtown. The school has played an important role in the revitalization the community has enjoyed in the past decade, thanks to the creative base provided by its 500 students and the associated professors, administrators and other employees. Local business and political officials should come forward sooner rather than later to ensure that a solution can be found to keep SCI-Arc in its Downtown Los Angeles home.
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A Play You Really Should Smell

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - If you’re going to attend East West Players’ latest production, make sure to eat dinner beforehand. Otherwise, you may find the play Po Boy Tango an entertaining but torturous experience.

• Standing Up Before Stonewall

  DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - In 1969, the Stonewall Riots in New York ignited the nation’s gay rights movement, proving to be a flashpoint for organization and advocacy against discrimination and prejudice. The riots followed a police raid of the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village.
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• The Nanny State

  DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - The most important thing to know about the stage version of Mary Poppins, which opens at the Ahmanson Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles on Sunday, Nov. 15, is that it is not a copy of the beloved 1964 movie musical starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. Although some of the most well-known songs remain, other numbers and scenes have been replaced by darker passages from the series of books, written by P.L. Travers, from which the film was adapted. There are brand new elements as well in the tale of a family in Edwardian England who are visited by a nanny with some otherworldly powers.
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