MacArthur Park

LA2050 Is Giving $100,000 For an Art Project, and You Can Vote on Who Gets It

Making ideals reality can take a frustratingly long time, especially for organizations in need of funding. Grant-writing and paperwork often come first, followed by waiting. That's part of what's exciting about My LA2050, the $1 million challenge the Goldhirsh Foundation, a philanthropic outfit with ... More >>

Salvadoran Hip-Hop Is On the Rise

Filmmaker Junior Gonzalez made it his goal to show his Salvadoran culture in a positive light. Or, in any light at all, really. There were no films that he could think of on the subject, save for those on the notorious MS-13 street gang. "When I say I'm Salvadoran, some people will throw up gang si ... More >>

Now Open: Cafecito Organico in Burbank

It's not too often that a locally-owned, independent coffee roaster manages to take over a space formerly inhabited by a giant corporate franchise, but such was the case when L.A.-based Cafecito Organico opened up its sixth Southern California location Thursday in what used to be a Starbucks in Burb ... More >>

Mara Salvatrucha, Koreatown Gang, Is Now An International Crime Syndicate

Mara Salvatrucha, the Salvadoran American group that got its start in the heart of L.A.'s Koreatown, has been designated by federal authorities as an international criminal organization, a first for a street gang. MS-13, as it's also known, "is being targeted for its involvement in serious transnat ... More >>

Music Picks: As Blood Runs Black, Kelly Hogan, Regina Spektor

Also, Agalloch, Antibalas, Power of the Riff and others

Music Picks: Kaskade, Dirty Projectors, Ondatrópica

Cafecito Orgánico: Point Dume The World

Cafecito Orgánico, the coffee shop and roastery that began life as a farmers market stall and once operated out of a back room of Mama's Hot Tamales near MacArthur Park, is expanding. Not like a little expansion, but the kind of proliferation that makes you think everybody just needs access to high ... More >>

Viva Los Dodgers 2012 Lineup Announced: Ximena Sariñana, Ana Tijoux, More

See also: *Ximena Sariñana: An Indie-Pop Star In Mexico, Anonymous In L.A. *Our review of Ana Tijoux at Levitt Pavilion at MacArthur Park Viva Los Dodgers, a festival celebrating Los Angeles' Latino culture, just announced this season's lineup exclusively through West Coast Sound. Held in Lot ... More >>

We're All Just Getting Along Fine 20 Years After L.A. Riots, Survey Says

If you remember the aftermath of the riots, things were dire in Los Angeles, and it seemed like every other white family had left town for the Pacific Northwest. On the eve of the 20th anniversary of the uprisings and chaos, Loyola Marymount University has released a survey measuring the temperatur ... More >>

LAPD's Abandoned Rampart Station, Center of B.I.G. Scandal, Is Now Blight Capital of the Eastside

A new kind of scandal has overtaken the LAPD's old, boarded-up Rampart Station in Historic Filipinotown. It's a lot less hip-hop than the last one, but infuriating all the same: "This old station has now been abandoned for at least the past 3 years, and has been a magnet for graffiti, vagrants, and ... More >>

Las Cafeteras Defy Tradition

Their take on Veracruz music is pissing some folks off

Dumbfoundead On Dropping Out Of High School, Working As A Bail Bondsman, And The Advantages Of Being An Asian Rapper

Jennie Warren​See also: Dumbfoundead: Koreantown Rapper Inspires a Tremendous Following with his Unlikely Story In our music feature this week, Dumbfoundead discusses his seeming overnight success, which was actually preceded by a largely unseen and tedious grind. Just 25, he was already an i ... More >>

Officers Shot on Notorious Drug Street Controlled by Mara Salvatrucha Gang in Koreatown

When two undercover L.A. cops were shot in the face over the weekend they were working on one of L.A.'s more notorious crack streets, controlled by the Mara Salvatrucha gang and only a few blocks from its 18th Street archenemies. The area in Koreatown near Westlake and Pico-Union had been quiet, an ... More >>

FAQs: CicLAvia For Beginners on October 9 in Los Angeles

The third CicLAvia public bike tour to hit L.A. happens Oct. 9 and will take over 10 miles of closed streets from East Hollywood to the Eastside. Organizers are inviting folks to stop and smell the architecture and culture along the way too, with focal points including "historic downtown," Boyle He ... More >>

Music Picks: Janet Jackson, John Escreet Quartet, DJ Quik, Charles Bradley

Also, Charlie Haden Quartet West, John Williams, Philip Glass and others

Brick's Picks: Just Like It Was in the '30s

L.A. Journalists Invited to Get Asses Kicked as Part of Police-Beat Training

Police Investigative Media Academy​Turns out some journalists do have first-hand experience with police displaying "use-of-force" techniques. There was that little incident in 2007 in which a line of LAPD cops pushed over people in MacArthur Park, including a few journalists. (Some sued and wo ... More >>

Eat This Now: Tacos de Guisado at Tacos Carmelita

From humble taco tables to neighborhood trucks to brick-and-mortar joints, Los Angeles has no shortage of taquerias. Yes, that might be the understatement of the century. The rub is that while we're awash in carne asada and al pastor, Mexico City-style tacos de guisado are something of a rarity. Th ... More >>

Jon Stewart Crowned 'Most Influential' Man Of The Year

Jon Stewart influences people.​It looks like L.A. will be enjoying hosting (he'll appear via satellite) the most influential man in America Saturday -- Jon Stewart, who topped AskMen.com's "Top 29 Most Influential Men of 2010" list this week. Stewart is appearing, via satellite, at his "Rally ... More >>

Jon Stewart's 'Rally To Restore Sanity' Heads To L.A.'s MacArthur Park

Jon Stewart's L.A. rally is on.​Jon Stewart's "Rally To Restore Sanity" is back on schedule at a location not far from the Pershing Square site originally chosen by organizers: MacArthur Park in the Westlake District near downtown The 9 a.m. to 2 a.m. event will happen Oct. 30 at Levitt Pavil ... More >>

The heel's guide to L.A. tail: 1974's America's Best Pick Up Spots!

​ Each Monday, your Crap Archivist brings you the finest in forgotten and bewildering crap culled from basements, thrift stores, estate sales and flea markets around Los Angeles. America's Best Pick Up Spots! Author:Eric Weber & M. Rob Frazier Date: 1974 Publisher: Eric Weber Press, Tenafl ... More >>

This Weekend: El Guincho, Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, Harlem, Dawes, Peter Case

El Guincho​Yes, that's the voice of Julieta Venegas on the re-imagined "Mientes," one of the five tracks on El Guincho's new EP Piratas de Sudamérica. El Guincho, the nom de tune of Barcelona experimentalist Pablo Díaz-Reixa, fueled some underground buzz with his 2007 album Alegranza. A pri ... More >>

TV News Personalities To Testify In 'May Day Melee' Suit Against LAPD

Fox 11's Christina Gonzalez.​KCBS/KCAL reporter Mark Coogan, former KTLA personality Ted Garcia, and KCBS/KCAL cameraman Carl Stein were scheduled to testify as witnesses this week in the civil suit brought by a group of news people against the city of Los Angeles and its police force stemming ... More >>

The Big Canvas

If you give an artist a billboard ...

THEY ARE SO SMART -- S-M-R-T!

Eighth Graders' Undiploma-tic Protest

Fifteen students at the MacArthur Park-area Liechty Middle School have not received diplomas as a result of a graduation ceremony protest they staged last week. Last Thursday the 15 demonstrated against L.A. Unified School District layoffs by turning their backs on guest speaker and LAUSD board pres ... More >>

Drawing the Line: Readers Define 'West L.A.'

Struck by the porous and flexible borders of that far country known as "West L.A.," we recently wondered aloud just what constituted its boundaries. ("West of La Brea, East of the Moon: Where the Hell Is West L.A.?") Here are some reader replies clarifying this cartographic mystery.MapQuest.comdeman ... More >>

Echo Park's Long May Day March

The Eastsider L.A. relays a report from Los Angeles Garment & Citizen about a new and rather ambitious May Day march route from Echo Park to Downtown this coming Friday. This one's scheduled to leave Park Avenue and Sunset Boulevard (i.e., Taix-Brite Spot Square) at 1:30 p.m. and head east to Al ... More >>

No Good Deed Dept.: L.A. Times' Neighborhood Map Project Gets Flak

The fact that some L.A. Times readers have treated the newspaper's attempt to map 87 Los Angeles neighborhoods as an act of capricious gerrymandering shows how fluid and volatile are our notions of community boundaries. Angelenos typically cry foul over boundary slights when their addresses, by fall ... More >>

LAPD Chief Bratton Wants 4 Officers 86'ed for May Day Screw Up

More than a year later, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Bill Bratton has offered his suggestions for disciplining 15 officers who were involved in the May Day fiasco in 2007, which saw groups of police officers swinging at, and connecting with, a mostly peaceful crowd at a demonstration in MacAr ... More >>

Brick's Picks: Jazz for a Summer Day

L.A., Through Raymond Chandler and a Lens Quietly

The author's city revealed by Judith Freeman and Anthony Hernandez

Letters: Biking in Santa Monica, Paddleboating in Echo Park

Our readers write

Rock Picks: Los Lobos, No Age, Los Abandoned, Slayer

For the week of August 23-30

Rock Picks

For the week of August 17 - 23

Fun With Air

What to do in Los Angeles this week

Antonio's Long Ride

How immigration issues torture the mayor

On the Boulevard

Jesus of Echo Park

The Ecstasy and the Agony

Looking at Los Angeles

Go Vertical, Young Green

How apartment living is good for the environment

Your Popsicle’s Melting

Beck’s Guero parties with death, wakes up with life

James Hahn Interview Transcript

New to the List

Bunkum Hill

Over the past 50 years, the city has tried repeatedly to turn Grand Avenue into the living, breathing heart of downtown, and has failed miserably. Now, a public-private group led by Eli Broad is trying again — with the emphasis on private

Silver Lake Gang War

Homeboys and hipsters struggle to claim Silver Lake

Wayne White, Mixed Media

Grochowski's Tree

Built piece by cruel piece

Welfare's Phantom workers

Coalition challenges unfair workfare