Articles tagged with Santa Monica

Los Angeles is historically horizontal, but it’s becoming increasingly vertical with a host of new projects going up from downtown to Santa Monica.  Many large building projects, on hold since the Great Recession, are not just back on the drawing boards but under construction.
So-called “smart growth” dictates that high-rise work space and housing is the best ways to accommodate increased growth within the region. A …

In LA County alone, there are 20 thousand youth who have more urgent concerns besides iPhones, cars, and dating.  They’re foster kids, struggling to transcend neglectful and abusive homes, and then to survive in a system which turns them out to fend for themselves at age 18.
This weekend, I visited the offices of the Southern California Foster Family and Adoption Agency to meet a group …

The legendary trumpeter Herb Alpert is best known for his Tijuana Brass.  But all the while he’s been making music, he’s also been making fine art.
Tomorrow night, you can see a sampling of his paintings and sculptures on display at the Robert Berman Gallery at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica.
Coincidentally, you can walk around the corner (be careful!) to Olympic Boulevard and see three …

Who says southern California has no history?
On the sprawling campus of Santa Monica High School are two hidden gems: first, the 1937 Barnum Hall, a 1200-seat theater done in “streamline moderne” style.  This is not your typical high school assembly hall.  It predates the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium that will soon be mothballed, and in fact, before that ill-fated structure was built, Barnum Hall …

Guns poll. Californians are way out in front of the country as a whole when it comes to stricter gun controls. A new USC-Dornsife-L.A. Times poll finds Californians overwhelmingly favor a proposed federal ban on assault weapons, as well as restrictions on high-capacity magazines, background checks for ammunition purchases and rules requiring all gun owners to be registered and insured. One thing that Californians …

The city of Santa Monica has been awarded a million-dollar grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies to develop an index for well-being.  (You can read about the other winners of the “Mayors Challenge” in this NY Times story.)
Santa Monica has produced a slick promotional video for the effort (shot on the Big Blue Bus, buses being indicators of happiness because they help you avert the unhappiness of commuting.) While it incorrectly claims …

No sale. First AEG was for sale…now it’s not, but influential CEO Tim Leiweke is heading out the door. So what does it all for the company’s proposed downtown football stadium and a return of the NFL to Los Angeles? One NFL source tells the L.A. Times that Leiweke’s exit all but kills the Farmers Field plan. But Councilwoman Jan Perry, a major backer …

Saluting Buss. The Los Angeles Lakers are reportedly planning to hold a ceremony honoring owner Jerry Buss during tomorrow night’s game at Staples Center. Fittingly, the Lakers will play their biggest rival, the Boston Celtics. Buss died of kidney failure yesterday at Cedars Sinai Medical Center after a long battle with cancer. Team officials say the Lakers will remain in the Buss family. Jerry …

A while ago I wrote about the end of the wonderful place known as Track 16, the ginormous glorious gallery at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica that was eminent domain-ed to make way for the Expo Line. (And where–full disclosure- I’ve spent a lot, lot, lot of time over the last few years.)
Well, now it’s really a goner. Bergamot Station co-creator and Track 16 …

Church secrets. Former Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahony and a top adviser sought to conceal molestation of children by Catholic priests from law enforcement, according to internal Church records released by the L.A. Times. The revelations relate to memos written more than two decades ago by Mahony and Monsignor Thomas Curry, then the L.A. Archdiocese’s advisor on sex abuse cases. In the notes, Curry …

It’s a sad irony for those of us who crave more mass transit that a special spot has to fall to make way for the Expo Line. Wine-sipping, art loving visitors have flocked to the galleries at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica for nearly 20 years, but the building that houses the massive 13-thousand square foot wonder known as Track 16 will be razed soon, and in its …

Terror arrests. Four Southern California men have been charged with plotting to kill Americans overseas by joining al Qaeda and the Taliban. A federal complaint unsealed in Riverside says one-time Pomona resident Sohiel Omar Kabir traveled to Afghanistan in July to arrange for terror training. Kabir is an Afghan native and naturalized U.S. citizen. The 34-year-old served in the Air Force from 2000 to …

Constitutional Christmas. A debate over the separation of church and state in Santa Monica could come to a head today. A lawyer for a church group that wants to continue erecting Christmas scenes in Palisades Park will ask a federal judge to reverse a city ban on religious displays. The flap began three years ago when an atheist group first applied for a display …

The other day I was over at Track 16 at Bergamot Station in Santa Monica, and two guys were hanging a show that opens this weekend that I know you’ll want to see for a number of reasons.
1.We Got Power: We Survived the Pit! is debuting in conjunction with a new book about punk in the 80s in southern California.   Co-curators/co-authors Dave Markey and …

You might see some familiar faces among the athletes competing in the London Olympics. About 15 percent of the US Olympic Team comes from Southern California, even though our region accounts for 7 percent of the U.S. population as a whole. In fact, if Southern California was a nation, it would be fifth in total medals as of this writing.  KCRW’s Matt Holzman went …

Term limits prevent state legislators from learning their jobs, giving the real power in Sacramento to lobbyists and bureaucrats. That’s according to supporters of Proposition 28 on next month’s ballot. But how does it make things better by giving lawmakers less total time in the Capitol rather than more? We solve that riddle and hear the pros and cons. Also, a mountain lion in …

Update: The Santa Monica city council decided not to allocate money to restore the sculpture and supporters have until November 15th to raise the necessary funds. It could cost up to $427,000 to fix according to the Santa Monica Daily Press.
Tonight’s a big night in the ongoing saga of Chain Reaction, the 26-foot tall fiberglass mushroom cloud outside the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium that …

The Santa Monica arts commission decided to scrap it–but at the same time they gave it a bit of a reprieve.  Activists have 6 months to see if they can raise money to restore the sculpture of a mushroom cloud made from chain links… rather than let the city dismantle it (which they say is a far less costly endeavor.)
No-nukes activist and Santa Monica …

Rod Merl is the new guy in charge of the iconic landmark also known as the Santa Monica Pier.  It’s going through some changes to improve its future.
This is a longer version of the interview we did than the one you might have heard on the radio during All Things Considered yesterday:

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