Grand misspelling?

Like most of Los Angeles, we're desperate for more parkland in Downtown. July 28 is the date Grand Park will officially open and connect the Music Center to City Hall, but as a first class urban snoop, I firmly intend to sneak in at least a few weeks in advance.

A few welcome signs with multilingual text have already been installed. Call me cynical, but I have a suspicion that before long someone will spot an off-kilter translation in there.

"I'm a jelly donut."

Cudahy corrupted

The latest city corruption scandal in southeast Los Angeles County publicly unfolded on Friday in tiny Cudahy with three arrests, including Mayor David Silva and Councilman Osvaldo Conde. Bribery, election fraud, more news to come.

Yesterday I peeked inside the windows of Cudahy City Hall, which is the most difficult-to-find city hall I've ever seen...off the main roads, no directional signage to help you get there. The official photos of Silva and Conde smiled back at me, and I wondered how much longer they will be displayed. Let the countdown begin...

Cudahy City Hall...far from the best looking city hall out there

Hall of Fame, all right

Eastern Central Europe

Not sure why, but it's hard for me to get back into posting stuff after vacation. This time around we had the good fortune to travel to Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Dresden, and Bratislava. We made the mistake of referring to the region as Eastern Europe..."You're in Central Europe!"

Frank Gehry in Prague

garrrrgoyles...St. Vitus Cathedral

Budapest

holeman...Bratislava

Strauss...Vienna

Mexicano food everywhere...Budapest

Bike makes right

The cross-California cycling race known as Amgen Tour of California ended in Los Angeles this morning. Those bikers were hella speedy...

Bottled Kobe

New sign that was installed last night on Los Angeles Street. Does it refer to Kobe, Japan or Kobe, Los Angeles?

Here yesterday, gone yesterday

These folks spent their Sunday afternoon working on this (northeast corner of 3rd & Main) only to have it painted over. I wanted to tell them that history wasn't on their side, but they seemed to be having so much fun.

Adam Yauch tribute

Today was the last day of Transmission LA at MOCA, which was put together by Mike D from the Beastie Boys.

The last hour of Peanut Butter Wolf's 3-hour DJ/VJ set was dedicated to Adam Yauch. I looked around and saw a range of emotions...folks dancing, hugging, crying. Some were clearly personally close to Yauch, most weren't, but you could tell he touched the lives of many.