The new MacArthur Park Media blog is the creation of Westlake neighborhood resident Devin Browne, a young journalist whose reporting you may have heard on KPCC and Marketplace, or read in the L.A. Weekly. The site's mission is straightforward enough — to “tell stories set in and around the immigrant portal that is the MacArthur Park neighborhood in Los Angeles.”

MPM's current lead story is an on-the-ground report about the school district's refusal to give 15 eighth graders completion certificates from John Liechty Middle School because they'd turned their backs on board president Monica Garcia during their graduation ceremony. (The kids were protesting school layoffs.) Another piece is a multimedia interview with a tamale vendor who explains the dangers of working the streets as an illegal immigrant.

With its sharp, crisp lines, MacArthur Park Media has that new-blog smell and thankfully doesn't come with headlines ending in triple exclamation points, or with gossipy tips about hot chefs and new cocktail lounges. Instead the site, launched by Browne and a small staff of contributors, is one neighborhood's mirror and microphone.

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