Support verbdowntown
From the Newsroom

Everyday

What's It Like Living Downtown?

By Eric Richardson — July 12, 2005
3 Comments

I got an email today with some questions that I thought really captured what I hear people asking about Downtown LA. I answered it; and also asked if I could post the question and answer on the website. He agreed, and here it is. I’d love to hear how others would answer the same questions. I am a native Los Angelino (grew up around the Fairfax / Melrose...


Everyday

A Little More Perspective on Spring Street and Contraflow

By Eric Richardson — July 12, 2005
7 Comments

Spring, north of 1st

As I’ve mentioned before, the issue of the Spring Street contra-flow lane goes to the City Council’s Transportation Committee tomorrow at 2pm. I’ll be at the meeting, and I’ll be testifying that as a resident I think that this will be a good thing for the neighborhood. That’s the point I want to make clear; even as I write that...


Everyday

Bloggers Come Downtown for Drinks

By Eric Richardson — July 11, 2005
4 Comments

Tonight I made my way over to the Golden Gopher for a blogger get together put on by Sean and the rest of the blogging.la peoples. Oddly, I’ve lived Downtown for a bit over a year now and had never been to the Gopher, so I guess I had to end that streak at some point. I really enjoyed how they’ve laid out the room and the way the windows onto the...


Everyday

Jogging Downtown

By Eric Richardson — July 10, 2005
3 Comments

New Downtown blogger eecue (or Dave, if you’re into real names) writes today about a jog he and his fiance took around the neighborhood. Today we did a run in the city and we started at the lofts, went straight up 6th street into the civic center, through a maze of stairs which belong to the parking lot across from the disney concert hall and the up the...


Everyday

Slow Down Before Speeding Up Spring and Main

By Eric Richardson — July 08, 2005

Bus Backup

This upcoming Wednesday the issue of the Spring Street contraflow lane goes to the City Council’s Transportation Committee (PDF Agenda). You probably know that I have some feelings on the issue, seeing as I’ve covered it before (and also tackled Spring Street parking in photo form). Luckily this issue happened to be one on which someone, namely the...


Everyday

The Price of Security

By Eric Richardson — July 08, 2005

Interesting in light of the Ford Hotel piece from yesterday is a short “On Your Money” bit I saw just now on KCAL9 News. They were taking a look at security in office buildings, and asking whether attacks like the one on London yesterday would lead to more buildings springing for security measures. They presented the bottom-line as the big issue ...


Everyday

Careful What You Ask For

By Eric Richardson — July 07, 2005
1 Comment

Sometimes you see good illustrations of why you shouldn’t fuss too loud unless all your cards are in order. Case in point: the Ford Hotel at 1000 E. 7th St (midway between San Pedro and Central). In April a zoning administrator ruled that the hotel needed to maintain some conditions that had previously been put on its operation. One of those was that two...


Everyday

Downtown Race: Me and the 33

By Eric Richardson — July 06, 2005
1 Comment

One of my favorite things about biking Downtown is the healthy competition you get to have with the bus drivers. Today, though, I had a guy driving the 33 try to cut me off and I really didn’t appreciate it. I got the last laugh, though. It all started back before 1st Street. We were both heading down Spring, and I was hanging out in the second lane to...


Everyday

Metro 417 Looking Close to Open

By Eric Richardson — July 05, 2005

Subway Terminal Building Getting Close

I was glad to note today that the Subway Terminal Building – or Metro 417 – is finally looking close to being ready to open. The sidewalks have for a while been closed on both Hill and 4th, but today I saw that they are both open again. Workout equipment was visible in a room on the 4th Street side. It’ll be interesting to see both this building...


Everyday

Looking for Inspiration: The 16th Street Mall in Denver

By Eric Richardson — July 05, 2005
2 Comments

Good Advice

As I’ve mentioned, I was in Denver over the weekend for my cousin’s wedding. Sunday afternoon we had a little time before we needed to be at the airport, so we decided to go check out the city’s Downtown. Particularly interesting to me was the 16th Street Mall, a 16-block pedestrian mall oriented toward retail, restaurants, and nightlife. My...