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“Whooooo Shiiiiiiit!!! Look what the cat done dragged into Vegas!!!!” screamed the large, handsome, cowboy looking fellow that had come to greet us at the airport. I staggered off of Stan Peters’ Gulfstream V and watched as the cowboy fellow lifted Stan off of the floor in a hug that would have crushed a hearty grizzly, no doubt. Hopefully you’ve read the last...

Catching Up With... The Downtown Streetcar

By Eric Richardson — December 27, 2008 — 3 Comments

Eric Richardson

As we go through the last few days of 2008, we thought it useful to take a look at some of the important Downtown projects working their way through the system.

The Project: Though an old idea, 2008 was a year of sudden activity for the project to bring a streetcar back to Downtown Los Angeles. With the announcement of the Bringing Back Broadway project in January, the project got a political wave to ride, and successfully navigated its way to the creation of a non-profit, the earmark of $5 million in redevelopment funds and successful public forums. Though a final route has not been decided, the basic plan would have ends at the Convention Center and Music Center, with a north-south leg on Broadway.

Latest Status: The non-profit Los Angeles Streetcar, Inc., is officially up and running via the Community Partners incubator program (blogdowntown's parent, verbdowntown, is set up through the same program). The project is preparing to name an Executive Director for the organization, who would manage the engineering and outreach work necessary to more forward. — Continued Inside...

History

Fifty-Eight Years Ago Today: Hollywood Freeway Opens Through Downtown

By Eric Richardson — December 27, 2008
6 Comments

On December 27, 1950, civic leaders made their speeches and welcomed the first vehicles onto the Hollywood Freeway through Downtown. The first link of the highway, now known as the 101, stretched from Grand Avenue to Silver Lake Boulevard and cost $13,000,000.

Everyday

First Game on New Gladys Park Court to Pit Skid Row 3 on 3 Against LAPD

By Eric Richardson — December 26, 2008

The new Nike-branded basketball court at Gladys Park will get its first real action tomorrow, as players from the Skid Row 3 on 3 league take on LAPD's Central Division. Afterward, the league will begin playoff games for its second season.

Catching Up With... The Regional Connector

By Eric Richardson — December 26, 2008 — 29 Comments

Metro

As we go through the last few days of 2008, we thought it useful to take a look at some of the important Downtown projects working their way through the system.

The Project: The Regional Connector is a $700 to $900 million project to link Los Angeles' light rail lines, connecting the Blue and Expo lines (which terminate at 7th / Metro) to the Gold Line and the Eastside Extension (via 1st / Alameda). The project's main goal is to create a coherent system out of Metro's existing rail lines, opening up a variety of operational possibilities including trains from Long Beach to Pasadena and Culver City to East L.A..

Latest Status: After three rounds of public meetings, the project is preparing to send an Alternatives Analysis to Metro's Board of Directors. This document will lay out two possibilities for the project, one underground and one above. — Continued Inside...

Help Us Cover Downtown: blogdowntown Needs Your Support

By Eric Richardson — December 24, 2008 — 20 Comments

Eric Richardson

blogdowntown is about to turn four years old, and we need the help of readers like you to continue our mission of creating a conversation about life in Downtown Los Angeles.

Today we're kicking off our first pledge drive, beginning a push to shape blogdowntown into a community-supported voice for those who live and work Downtown. — Continued Inside...

Arts/Culture

Music Center About to Go Live With Holiday Programming

By Ed Fuentes — December 24, 2008

|Photo Gallery| At the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion of the Music Center, 10,000 holiday concert-goers are expected to attend the 49th Annual Holiday Celebration. Backstage, voices are warming up, costumes getting checked, and instruments being tuning as last-minute preparations are made for the six-hour slate of music, choirs, music ensembles and dance companies that will go...

Everyday

A Quick Hello from Los Angeles Street

By Ed Fuentes — December 24, 2008
1 Comment

In the Fashion District, 75-year-old Soofer Nejat offers quiet welcomes and hellos with a tip of his hat. He wears his overcoat well, his suit highlighted by a handkerchief carefully folded in four points. Last Friday, on the day before the last shopping weekend, he added a distinguished air to Los Angeles Street as he manned the door of Millenium, between 7th...

Etc

Far From Downtown

By Eric Richardson — December 23, 2008
1 Comment

A cold greeting to those of you still in Downtown for the holidays. Kathy and I are in Michigan visiting family, remembering just how cold this part of the country can get.

City Hall Celebrates Chanukah

By Ed Fuentes — December 23, 2008

Ed Fuentes

Rabbi Boruch Shlomo Cunin entered City Hall Monday morning humming a tune, a quiet announcement that he had arrived. Cunin is head of Chahad of California, and he joined others from the Chabad yesterday for a civic Chanukah ceremony held in the third floor rotunda of City Hall. — Continued Inside...