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Everyday

Grand Intervention Posts Ideas for Civic Park

By Eric Richardson — August 30, 2005
1 Comment

Back in mid-July I posted about Grand Intervention, the Norman Lear Center project to gather ideas for how the Civic Center park should be transformed when it gets its Grand Ave. project makeover. At the time I wrote that Though this is a sort of contest – the “best” submitted ideas will appear online and in print – I’d love to...

Everyday

A Little Housekeeping

By Eric Richardson — August 30, 2005

I just installed a new version of eThreads, the code that makes this site run, so if you notice anything that’s not behaving properly I’d appreciate an email. Things look pretty stable to me, and there’s a nice little performance bump in the new code. I also took this as a chance to enable the On This Date feature I’ve had on my blog...

Everyday

Dressing a Galaxy

By Eric Richardson — August 30, 2005
1 Comment

I know it would be more like me to give you a day or two notice on something like this, not three weeks, but September 19th Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising opens their Dressing a Galaxy: The Costumes of Star Wars exhibit. They’ll be displaying over 100 pieces from the six films. I’m not exactly a fashion guy, but many of these costumes...

Everyday

Not a Cornfield Events Blog

By Eric Richardson — August 29, 2005

I just saw that the Not a Cornfield project has a blog where they’re posting Community Events at the site. I haven’t had a chance yet to go walk around the site, but it’s been interesting to watch its development while passing by on the Gold Line or waiting at the Chinatown station. I really like their web presentation in general, and if you...

Everyday

Filming and I Have Been at Odds Lately

By Eric Richardson — August 28, 2005

I’ve complained a couple times now about filming closing the contraflow bus lane. Now, tonight, after two days of the bus lane being closed, they’re filming something I assume is a music video in the alley behind my apartment. Yet the only notification posted in my building was for the shoot across the street. I want to like filming, but it does make...

Everyday

Falling for that "New Corporate Math"

By Eric Richardson — August 26, 2005

Now that I’ve praised them for their wayfinding stance, I have to chide the Downtown News for succumbing to RIAA math (even though in this case we’re talking fashion). The news brief ”Police Raids Net Millions In Illegal Merchandise” says that On Aug. 20, police raided a warehouse in the 700 block of Sanford Avenue and found 120,000...

Everyday

Downtown News Echos Wayfinding Sentiments

By Eric Richardson — August 26, 2005
2 Comments

The new issue of the Downtown News runs an editorial saying basically the same thing I have about the Downtown wayfinding signage: good job, but now fix the dumb mistakes. Though it is likely too late to add a “Downtown” identifier to the signs directed at drivers, there is still an opportunity to improve the most perplexing examples. Those signs...

Everyday

A Different Image of LAPD Motorpool

By Eric Richardson — August 26, 2005
2 Comments

Responding to architect’s renderings of the new LAPD motorpool that had Gallery Row signage and presented a streetscape with a few pedestrians and Mercedes, Nic and Kjell presented this image at the meeting last night. I had to leave before they did so, but got a copy of the image to post here. As usual the truth lies somewhere in the middle, but it’...

Everyday

Fancy Parking Garage Still Parking Garage

By Eric Richardson — August 26, 2005
2 Comments

I had a class to go to tonight, so I couldn’t stay for the whole thing, but I stopped by City Hall this evening for the first 45 minutes or so of a community meeting to discuss the motorpool and parking garage component of the new Police headquarters project. The meeting was put on by CD9, and Jan Perry got things started, but then most of the presentation...

Everyday

The Spring Street River

By Eric Richardson — August 26, 2005
1 Comment

I think a water main must have burst this afternoon around this building on the west side of Spring, just south of 4th. I was biking from City Hall to USC for class around 6:40pm and stopped to gawk at this water shooting out of the sidewalk and across three lanes of traffic. I don’t know that you really get a sense from the photo just how much water was...