Opinion & Commentary

A Resolution for Restaurants: Post Your Hours, and Stick to Them!

By Eric Richardson — 09:29 AM — 5 Comments

Eric Richardson

I've lived on Spring street for a touch under five years now, and for two of those I've enjoyed having a pair of great eateries flanking my building. On the one side, California Fresh, offering great salads and pizza. On the other, L.A. Cafe, where I'm a sucker for the chipotle chicken panini and the L.A. Sliders.

And yet, ask me what the hours are for these two cafes and I'll shake my head. Plenty of times I've walked downstairs planning to grab a bite and been foiled by an incorrect idea of who would be open when. — Continued Inside...

L.A. Live: Not Quite 'Downtown's Mecca,' But Still Full of Potential

By Ed Fuentes — December 30, 2008
18 Comments

|Photo Gallery| At a Menorah lighting on Sunday evening, Vic "The Brick" Jacobs claimed that "L.A. Live is Downtown's Mecca." That's a claim that would find plenty of disagreement. The highly-anticipated complex and plaza have their share of detractors, who say the space fails as a public gathering space and doesn't integrate into the community. It's not for lack of variety...

Broadway Critique Lacks Big Picture View

By Eric Richardson — December 05, 2008
7 Comments

Running today on New Geography is a Broadway critique by the Garment and Citizen's Jerry Sullivan, who scolds the Bringing Back Broadway effort for announcing redevelopment funds and not working to fix the street's increasing vacancy for ground floor retail. Yet the Broadway effort has put a focus on exactly that, in both programs announced and those in the...

Getting Ready for Showtime

By Ed Fuentes — December 01, 2008
1 Comment

Paying a visit to L.A. Live on Sunday, one saw a complex getting set for showtime. Crews were testing lights on the plaza's tree, getting set for Thursday's real debut. Wrapped presents, like ESPNZone (opening today, December 1), the Conga Room (opening December 4), and the Grammy Museum (opening December 6) are placed tenderly with care near the unwrapped...

Dear BID

By Eric Richardson — November 30, 2008
3 Comments

Dear Business Improvement District, I appreciate the services you provide for my neighborhood. You pick up trash, trim trees and generally make for a nicer place to live. I'm a bit puzzled, though, why you would choose to operate a pressure washer at 11pm on a Sunday just a few feet away from my window.

Guest Opinion: "Ladies' Night" in Skid Row

By General Jeff — November 14, 2008

Although it was the same night as Downtown Art Walk, there was an equally, if not more, important event held in the heart of Skid Row last night. Simply titled "Ladies Night," it was anything but simple as ALL of Skid Row's women were invited to a women-only function that included presentations focusing on topics such as victims of domestic violence issues and...

When Holding a Colorful Broadway Parade, Please Invite Downtown

By Ed Fuentes — October 13, 2008
20 Comments

|Photo Gallery| Downtowners may have mostly noticed the traffic impacts, but Sunday’s Desfile de la Hispanidad en Los Angeles offered colorful sights on Broadway. We would love to tell you exactly what the parade was for, but the official website is only in Spanish and organizer All Access Entertainment only says that the parade was “an international and multicultural...

Shooting "Near" Staples Highlights Downtown's Distinct Boundary

By Eric Richardson — October 13, 2008
15 Comments

“An 11-year-old boy and a 19-year-old man were fatally wounded Sunday evening a few blocks from Staples Center, victims of a drive-by shooting that police said may have been gang-related.” That’s the opening paragraph from a sad story in today’s L.A. Times about a shooting that occurred near Staples Center last night. A followup story...

Buried in CS Monitor's Downtown Piece, Some Interesting Numbers

By Eric Richardson — October 10, 2008
6 Comments

Despite the revitalization of Downtown, has the neighborhood lost 200,000 jobs since 1999 and seen condo prices drop seventy percent? Those are the numbers running in a piece on Downtown published in this week’s Christian Science Monitor.

Traffic Nightmare? Try Everyday Commute

By Eric Richardson — October 03, 2008
7 Comments

I’m sure you’ve heard it: driving around Downtown is going to be a disaster tomorrow, with a Dodgers playoff game, Detour Festival, an Obama fundraiser at the Edison, USC at the Coliseum, a concert at Staples and UCLA at the Rose Bowl. But did anyone do the numbers?