03-14-16

St. Patrick’s Day in Downtown : 12-14 DWP: Drama, Water & Power : 5

art

Metro Charter School Needs a Home : 8

MARCH 14, 2016 I VOL. 45 I #11

BIG

The Blue-Chip Hauser Wirth & Schimmel Gallery Opens in the Arts District

See Story Page 6

photo by Daniel Trese

The directors of the new Hauser Wirth & Schimmel gallery.

Shown are (l to r) director of sales Graham Steele, senior director Stacen Berg, vice president and partner Paul Schimmel and director of operations Brian Boyer.

THE VOICE OF DOWNTOWN L.A. SINCE 1972

2 Downtown News

DT

AROUND TOWN

Huge Arts District Project To Break Ground

O

ne of the biggest residential projects in Downtown Los Angeles will break ground this week. On Tuesday, March 15, at 9 a.m., developers Legendary Developments and Brookfield are slated to officially begin construction on the Arts District complex 950 E. Third St. (grading and pre-construction already took place).

The series of five- to six-story buildings on a sixacre site next to the Southern California Institute of Architecture will create 472 residential units along with 22,000 square feet of retail. The $215 million effort, which is being designed by Kava Massih Architects, will include a walkway that connects Third Street with Traction Avenue; that pathway will be open to the public. The project is scheduled to be finished in mid-2018.

Hey Kid, Wanna Name a Tunnel Boring Machine?

P

erhaps the most challenging part of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s $1.55 billion Regional Connector is the underground tunnel — the 1.9-mile pathway must be big enough to hold light rail trains in the effort to speed up and facilitate cross-county travel. The tunnel boring machines are coming Downtown, but before they do, they need a name. Thus, Metro is holding a naming contest, but it’s not for

TWITTER: @ DOWNTOWNNEWS everyone. Through April 15, Pre-K through high school students can offer their best moniker, though it must be a female name, as per giantdrill-naming tradition. Entries can be either in an essay of up to 200 words or a video of no more than two minutes. Real or fictional names are allowed and entrants are asked to explain the significance of their choice. A panel will choose the finalists and a winner will be announced in late summer. Some of those who come up with the best names will get pre-loaded TAP cards, behind-the-scenes access to the project and other prizes. The tunnel boring is scheduled to start in the fall and the Regional Connector will open in 2020. More information on the contest and submission rules is at metro.net/projects/connectortunnel-boring-machine-tbm.

TAKE MY PICTURE GARY LEONARD

Conservancy Picks Films For Special Season of Last Remaining Seats

F

or three decades, the Los Angeles Conservancy has been programming one of Downtown’s most popular summer traditions: the Last Remaining Seats, which screens classic films in historic Broadway movie palaces. The 30th installment of the series arrives this summer, and last week the preservationist organization revealed its lineup. The eight movies, which will be on Wednesdays or Saturdays from June 4-25, mostly played to big crowds in the past, with one notable exception: Top Gun, the 1986 Tom Cruise offering, which gets its own 30th anniversary celebration in a season-opening date at the Los Angeles Theatre. Highlights include To Kill a Mockingbird on June 8 at the Million Dollar Theatre and Singin’ in the Rain on June 18 at the Theatre

March 14, 2016

Wilshire Grand

Topping Out Ceremony

at Ace Hotel. The series closes June 25 with Harold Lloyd’s Safety Last! Ticket sales ($18 and up) begin March 30 for Conservancy members and April 13 for the general public. Additional information is at laconservancy.org.

Wilshire Grand Tops Out

T

he Wilshire Grand replacement tower in the heart of the Financial District hit a milestone on March 8: After two years of construction, its concrete and steel core is complete. The existing structure has topped out at 826 feet, and will jump to 1,099 feet once its massive

March 08, 2016

decorative spire is installed. That spire will make the Wilshire Grand the tallest building west of the Mississippi, surpassing Downtown’s U.S. Bank Tower, which stands 1,018 feet tall. The Wilshire Grand also has an opening date, which was announced at last week’s topping-out ceremony: March 8, 2017. The next big step is to complete window installation and put electricity in the building. When it is complete, the AC Martin-designed Wilshire Grand will offer 900 InterContinental hotel rooms, 400,000 square feet of office space and 45,000 square feet of retail. A rooftop pool and recreation area will offer guests expansive views of Los Angeles.

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March 14, 2016

Downtown News 3

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4 Downtown News

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CIRCULATION: Danielle Salmon DISTRIBUTION MANAGER: Salvador Ingles DISTRIBUTION ASSISTANTS: Lorenzo Castillo, Gustavo BonillaMarch 14, 2016

©2016 Civic Center News, Inc. Los Angeles Downtown News is a trademark of Civic Center News Inc. All rights reserved. The Los Angeles Downtown News is the must-read newspaper for Downtown Los Angeles and is distributed every Monday throughout the offices and residences of Downtown Los Angeles.

EDITORIALS

One copy per person.

Urban Scrawl by Doug Davis

Leonard Hill’s Good Deed EDITOR & PUBLISHER: Sue Laris

A

lot of people have done a lot of good in GENERAL MANAGER: Dawn Eastin Downtown Los Angeles in the past 15 years.

EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Jon Regardie However, as the community has improved, SENIOR WRITER: Eddie Kim we’re hard-pressed to think of someone who has STAFF WRITER: Nicholas Slayton stepped up for the Arts District in the way that LeonCONTRIBUTING EDITOR: Kathryn Maese S I N C E 19 7 2 ard Hill did.

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Jeff Favre, Greg Fischer Los Angeles Downtown News Hill is a partner in the development firm Linear 1264 W. First Street, Los Angeles, CA 90026 City, which was the early mover in the modern Arts ART DIRECTOR: Brian Allison phone: 213-481-1448 • fax: 213-250-4617 District (after the pioneers of the 1970s and ’80s).

ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR: Yumi Kanegawa web: DowntownNews.com In the early and mid-2000s, when most housing email: realpeople@downtownnews.com PHOTOGRAPHER: Gary Leonard developers were focusing on the Historic Core and facebook: South Park, Hill and his partners were working agACCOUNTING: Ashley Schmidt L.A. Downtown News gressively around the intersection of Seventh and CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING MANAGER: Catherine Holloway Industrial streets. Linear City’s Biscuit Company twitter: ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Catherine Holloway, Brenda Stevens, DowntownNews S I N C E 19 7 2 and Toy Factory lofts were residential beachheads Michael Lamb Losestablished Angeles Downtown News that the community as “safe” for the ©2016 Civic Center News, Inc. Los Angeles Downtown News SALES ASSISTANT: Claudia Hernandez is a trademark of Civic Center News Inc. All rights reserved.

1264 W. Firstrestaurateurs Street, Los Angeles, 90026 developers, and CA shop owners now The Los Angeles Downtown News is the must-read newsphone: 213-481-1448 flocking to the area. • fax: 213-250-4617 CIRCULATION: Danielle Salmon paper for Downtown Los Angeles and is distributed every web: DowntownNews.com • email: realpeople@downtownnews.com Monday throughout the offices and residences of Downtown Hill’s latest move goes beyond housing. As Los DISTRIBUTION MANAGER: Salvador Ingles Los Angeles.

Angelesfacebook: Downtown News recently reported, he is DISTRIBUTION ASSISTANTS: Lorenzo Castillo, Gustavo Bonilla One copy per person. twitter: personally forNews a new Arts District DowntownNews art park. It L.A.paying Downtown will be a public amenity that comes online around the transit agency paid for the work, while employees from the Los the time the Sixth Street Viaduct replacement n the grand scheme of things, four seconds isn’t a lot of time.

EDITOR & PUBLISHER: Sue Laris EDITOR PUBLISHER: Sue Laris Angeles Department of Transportation handled the installation. opens in&2019.

When it comes to getting across a busy street, however, it can GENERAL MANAGER: Dawn Eastin Dawn Eastin This is a good start, but more must be done. Careful analysis GENERAL Hill has MANAGER: donated $1.9 million, which will cover the be a life saver. and consistent tweaking will be required. LADOT plans to accucreation of the 1.4-acre project with a stage, as well It is unknown whether any of the 15 recently unveiled “headEXECUTIVE EDITOR: Jon Regardie EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Jon Regardie WRITER: Kim mulate data from the intersections to determine whether the asSENIOR three years ofEddie programming.

Design details are start” intersections in Downtown Los Angeles will prevent a peSENIOR WRITER: Eddie Kim STAFF WRITER: Nicholas Slayton number of collisions and near-collisions go down. This should be still being worked out. The mechanism was the Maydestrian-vehicle collision, but we think the effort is a wise step. Too STAFF WRITER: Nicholas Slayton CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: Kathryn Maese started by Mayshared with the public so that people know whether the streets or’s Fund for Los Angeles, a program many people in Downtown and across the city have been hit by CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: Kathryn Maese Favre, Greg are becoming safer. orCONTRIBUTING Eric Garcetti WRITERS: to allow Jeff individuals to Fischer donate to efa car. It makes sense for local leaders to take whatever steps are S I N C E 19 7 2 CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Jeff Favre, Greg Fischer If the headstart signals work as hoped, then the program could forts that will make the city a better place. available, be they large or small, to counter the trend.

ART DIRECTOR: Brian Allison Los Angeles Downtown News be expanded to a wider swath of Downtown. People are on foot in ASSISTANT It is rare that we see this kind of generosity (Eli Los Angeles Downtown News last weekART wrote about the efART DIRECTOR: Yumi Kanegawa DIRECTOR: Brian Allison 1264 W. First Street, Los Angeles, CA 90026 the Financial District, Little Tokyo, the Arts District, Chinatown and Broad’s $140 million art museum comes to mind, fort, which involves 16 intersections in the Civic Center and Hisphone: 213-481-1448 • fax: 213-250-4617 ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR: Yumi Kanegawa PHOTOGRAPHER: Gary Leonard every other neighborhood.web: Truthfully, we are beginners in this efthough that’s a far different project in a far differtoric Core, mostly between First, Fifth, Main and Hill streets. The DowntownNews.com ACCOUNTING: Ashley Schmidt fort to focus on pedestrians.

Cities such as Washington, D.C., often ent neighborhood).

Then again, Hill has long been $150,000 project gives people on foot a roughly four-second ademail: realpeople@downtownnews.com PHOTOGRAPHER: Gary Leonard allow 40 seconds or so for pedestrians to cross. So a four-second tied to the Arts District MANAGER: in a unique way — the stovance before turning cars get a green light.

CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING Catherine Holloway facebook: jump is just the start. ryACCOUNT noted that he alsoCatherine produced Dorfman inStevens, Love, a Michael Lamb Theoretically, this means that pedestrians have a chance toSchmidt start ACCOUNTING: Ashley EXECUTIVES: Holloway, Brenda L.A. Downtown

In any case, we hope there will be another benefit:News a reduction in 2013 romantic comedy shot and set in the commuto cross the street before too-eager drivers attempt to make that SALES ASSISTANT: Claudia Hernandez the number ofHolloway jaywalking tickets. In thetwitter: past the LAPD aggressively nity. As he told Downtown News, “I hope to give right turn. There likely will be something of a learningADVERTISING curve, as MANAGER: CLASSIFIED Catherine CIRCULATION: Danielle Salmon handed out pricey citations to those who stepped into the crossback to the city that gave me so much.” those behind the wheel expect the light to changeEXECUTIVES: right away,Catherine and ACCOUNT Holloway, DowntownNews DISTRIBUTION MANAGER: Salvador Ingles Brenda Stevens, Michael Too often phrases like that are a cliché. In this inoften immediately start inching out into the intersection.

DriversLamb walk when the countdown clock had already begun, something DISTRIBUTION ASSISTANTS: Lorenzo Castillo, Gustavo Bonilla SALES ASSISTANT:over Claudia few knew was illegal. Giving©2016 pedestrians fourNews, extraInc. seconds will stance, however, his commitment to the area is unmight initially think that the signal is broken — hopefully timeHernandez Civic Center Los Angeles Downtown News is a trademark of Civic Center News helpfully lessen those encounters. assailable. will make theLosArts District — and they will become habituated to the traffic change. ©2016 CivicItCenter News, Inc. Angeles Downtown NewsDownis a trademark of Civic Inc. All rights reserved.

Center— News Inc. All rights reserved.

The headstart intersections be aDowntown world changer, they town a better place.

It’s the type of action we We credit 14th District City Councilman José Huizar for this The won’t Los Angeles News is the but must-read CIRCULATION: Danielle Salmon The Los Angeles Downtown News is the must-read newspaper for Downtown Los Angeles newspaper Downtown Los Angeles and is disare proactive and make sense in an for increasingly dense Downtown. hope an example forthroughout peoplethe ofoffices means careof Downtownmove, as it arose out of his office’s DTLA Forward initiative, a plan and issets distributed every Monday and who residences Los DISTRIBUTION MANAGER: Salvador Ingles tributed every Monday throughout the offices and Angeles.

Think of them as low-hanging fruit,ofsomething can be part of about the community and the future. he presented last year to enhance pedestrian safety in Downtown. residences Downtown Los that Angeles.

DISTRIBUTION ASSISTANTS: Lorenzo Castillo, One copy per person. the road to safer streets.

Now let’s see what the data reveals.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority also deserves praise, as One copy per person.

Gustavo Bonilla

Longer Crossing Times and Safer Pedestrians

I

EDITOR & PUBLISHER: Sue Laris GENERAL MANAGER: Dawn Eastin

S I N C E 19 7 2 Los Angeles Downtown News 1264 W. First Street, Los Angeles, CA 90026 phone: 213-481-1448 • fax: 213-250-4617 web: DowntownNews.com • email: realpeople@downtownnews.com facebook: L.A. Downtown News

twitter: DowntownNews

EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Jon Regardie SENIOR WRITER: Eddie Kim STAFF WRITER: Nicholas Slayton CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: Kathryn Maese CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Jeff Favre, Greg Fischer ART DIRECTOR: Brian Allison ASSISTANT ART DIRECTOR: Yumi Kanegawa

PHOTOGRAPHER: Gary Leonard ACCOUNTING: Ashley Schmidt CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING MANAGER: Catherine Holloway ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Catherine Holloway, Brenda Stevens, Michael Lamb SALES ASSISTANT: Claudia Hernandez CIRCULATION: Danielle Salmon DISTRIBUTION MANAGER: Salvador Ingles DISTRIBUTION ASSISTANTS: Lorenzo Castillo, Gustavo Bonilla

©2016 Civic Center News, Inc. Los Angeles Downtown News is a trademark of Civic Center News Inc. All rights reserved. The Los Angeles Downtown News is the must-read newspaper for Downtown Los Angeles and is distributed every Monday throughout the offices and residences of Downtown Los Angeles.

One copy per person.

March 14, 2016

DOWNTOWNNEWS.COM

Downtown News 5

DWP: Drama, Water and Power Rate Hikes, Reform Efforts and Constant Battles Make One City Department the Ultimate Reality Show

By Jon Regardie ity and county departments and municipal utilities regularly encounter problems that spark public rancor and bad press. Usually, however, attention soon shifts elsewhere. It’s cyclical, the nature of the beast.

C

THE REGARDIE REPORT For example, after a long period during which few people paid it any attention, the Southern California Gas Co. is dealing with the fallout from giving everyone in Porter Ranch about 30,000 times the daily recommended dose of methane. The Los Angeles Unified School District regularly endures controversy for everything from dropout rates to hinky computer systems. The Los Angeles Police Department had a decade of improvement, but now is facing pressure as violent crime rises. Under former head Lee Baca, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department was a hot mess with allegations of inmate beatings by deputies and other problems (new boss Jim McDonnell appears to be turning things around).

Then there’s the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power.

While the troubles at other agencies and departments come and go, at the DWP the problems come and come. Mishaps are mainstream at what may be the least trusted utility outside

of Flint, Michigan.

Billing disputes? The DWP has ’em. Leadership turnover? That’s a check. Political tangles?

Yes sir-ee! High-profile pipe bursts? Bingo!

Questions about how public money is spent?

Mais, oui!

You could get a good reality show or soap opera out of the department. The title could be “DWP: Drama, Water & Power.”

Why raise the issue now, when things have been this way for years? Well, because the City Council is ready to green light rate hikes that will boost the average customer’s bill about 3% a year for five years, meaning a total increase of approximately 20%. Initial approval came in a 12-2 vote March 2, and the lack of a unanimous decision means the council will vote again Tuesday, March 15. Expect the same result.

This happens as politicians are kinda sorta hopefully maybe coming up with a framework to reform the utility, even if the details of said alterations seem to be forever up in the air.

Low Rates Here is one of the most interesting things about the DWP: Despite the coming rate hikes, the consensus has long been that its customers pay less for water and power than do other people in the state. Department General Manager Marcie Edwards sought to make the point last July when she spoke at a Los Angeles Current Affairs Forum luncheon in Downtown. Cus-

213.627.8166 808 W 7th St., Los Angeles, CA 90017 (Corner of 7th & Flower)

The Los Angeles Department of Water & Power may be the least trusted utility outside of Flint, Michigan.

photo by Gary Leonard

tomers’ annual bills, she said, are 25% less than what people pay in San Diego, and 20% below rates in San Francisco. She added that the department ranks in the top quartile of the nation for power reliability, and I think she won a $1 bet with someone for actually using the word “quartile” in public.

The problem is, the department does an abysmal job of communicating its low rates and achievements, and seems to have a monthly Stick-Your-Foot-in-Your-Mouth Day. Though Edwards is widely credited for effectively running the department, she too had a gargantuan gaffe: Last spring, she co-signed a letter with DWP union head Brian D’Arcy that slammed a city audit — supported by Mayor

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Eric Garcetti and many others — of a pair of controversial agency trusts.

People were stunned when Edwards, who was appointed by Garcetti, went rogue. In a fantastic bit of political theater last May, Edwards publicly apologized before the DWP Board of Commissioners. It was the best backslide since vintage Michael Jackson.

Edwards soon regained her footing. At the Current Affairs Forum she cited a list of achievements, among them the DWP selling its stake in a coal plant in Arizona as part of an overall aim to eliminate coal reliance.

That will hopefully help stop the planet from looking like the terrain in Mad Max: Fury Continued on page 20

TWITTER: @ DOWNTOWNNEWS

6 Downtown News

One Huge Art Project Prominent Downtown Figure Returns as The Hauser Wirth & Schimmel Gallery Arrives in the Arts District

By Nicholas Slayton aul Schimmel has had an outsized influence on the Downtown Los Angeles art scene. He joined the Museum of Contemporary Art in 1990 as chief curator and spent more than two decades in the post. He put together the landmark 1992 exhibition Helter Skelter: Los Angeles Art in the 1990s, and assembled other highlights such as 1998’s Out of Action: Between Performance and the Object, 1949-1979, and 2011’s Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981.

It all ended abruptly in 2012, when he was forced out following a clash with then-museum Director

P

E 5 photo by Gary Leonard

Iwan and Manuela Wirth founded the gallery powerhouse Hauser & Wirth in 1992. The Downtown complex is their sixth project.

Jeffrey Deitch. That sparked an uproar in the Downtown art world (Deitch would resign one year later), as well as rampant speculation about when and where Schimmel would return.

The when was Sunday, March 13. The where is the Downtown Los Angeles Arts District.

Schimmel is a partner and vice president of Hauser Wirth & Schimmel, a massive gallery and arts complex housed in a revitalized, seven-building compound at 901 E. Third St. It marks the sixth location for Hauser & Wirth, a high-end, Switzerlandbased gallery powerhouse that specializes in contemporary art.

Hauser Wirth & Schimmel repurposes a 116,000-square-foot complex that began as a grain mill and contains a collection of late 19th- and early 20th-century buildings. The gallery team inked a 10-year lease for the property in 2014 (there are two additional five-year options). The firm Creative Space undertook the transformation. The price of the renovation was not revealed.

The genesis of the Arts District space dates to the 1990s, when Schimmel met gallery president Iwan Wirth. Hauser & Wirth (originally a partnership with Ursula Hauser; Wirth would later marry her daughter, Manuela) opened a New York City location in 2009, and then began searching for a home in Los Angeles. Schimmel came aboard and, after looking at spaces in Culver City and West Hollywood, they settled on the former Globe Mills complex in the Arts District. Their other partners in the project are Manuela Wirth and Marc Payot, a vice president with the gallery.

Wirth said the Downtown location was a good urban counterpart to Hauser & Wirth’s rural space which opened in Somerset, England in 2014.

“I’m not a developer. I go where I feel is best,” Wirth said during a recent visit to the Arts District space. “Downtown has always been the future. Twenty years ago they said it would change. Now it is finally happening.”

Unique Hybrid Hauser Wirth & Schimmel is a unique animal, with a variety of elements rarely found in a single institution.

Like all galleries, it has art for sale, and there will be private facilities with pieces set aside for collectors or larger

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photo by Gary Leonard

The Hauser Wirth & Schimmel gallery has transformed seven century-old buildings in the former Globe Mills complex at 901 E. Third St. One of them showcases a series of hanging sculptures by Ruth Asawa.

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March 14, 2016 organizations. Those rooms may be off limits to regular gallery visitors, and the wares will include work by artists represented by Hauser & Wirth.

Yet in other ways, the Downtown space is inspired by the programming found in museums, with large exhibitions featuring works on loan that are meant to be enjoyed, not bought.

The inaugural exhibit is Revolution in the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women, 19472016. Co-curated by Schimmel and art historian Jenni Sorkin, it features nearly 100 works from 34 artists and runs through Sept. 4. Pieces on display include sculptures from post-WWII artists Louise Bourgeois and Ruth Asawa, as well as Eva Hesse and younger figures such as Liz Larner and Senga Nengudi.

The exhibition was inspired by Ursula Hauser’s personal collection, according to Wirth. Schimmel said that with the size of the gallery, there was an opportunity to create a theme over a wider period of time than just a decade, and that the exhibit showcases the artists’ evolution and influence. About 20% of the art in the show is is for sale.

Wirth and Schimmel said a philanthropic, rather than a commercial, focus will make the space inclusive and draw people in. Admission to the large exhibits will be free.

“It’s not a gallery made first and foremost for the collector. It’s about what’s good for the artist,” Schimmel said. “If we wanted to make a machine that sells, we’d make a nice white cube and put it up in Beverly Hills and put in things that easily fit in people’s homes.”

Hauser Wirth & Schimmel also includes a number of community elements. A 6,000-squarefoot courtyard and walkway connecting Second

Downtown News 7

DOWNTOWNNEWS.COM and Third streets are open to the public. There is also an on-site bookshop, dubbed Artbook. Run by the company Distributed Art Publishers, it will stock tomes centered around art and design from the 20th century, and feature displays related to current exhibits.

Then there is the Hauser & Wirth Book & Printed Matter Lab, an area dedicated to the gallery’s publishing side. It will be used for panel discussions and smaller art installations.

The gallery arrives as the Arts District has undergone, and continues to see, tremendous change. Ironically, many of the artists who lived and created in large lofts back when Schimmel first joined MOCA have been forced out of the area due to rising rents and property values. Yet, like another recent arrival, the A+D Architecture and Design Museum at 900 E. Fourth St., Hauser Wirth & Schimmel ensures that a creative element remains in the community.

The new gallery is already helping the Arts District, said Yuval Bar-Zemer, a developer with the firm Linear City and a board member of the Arts District Community Council.

He said that Hauser Wirth & Schimmel accomplished a lot in a single move, in part by repurposing an old complex and preserving some of the community’s historic character, and in part by providing a platform to showcase prominent artists.

“What the gallery certainly does is it reflects

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The opening exhibit is a survey of sculptures created by women.

Nearly 100 works by 34 artists are on display.

photo by Gary Leonard

the type of uses of space that people would like to see come to the Arts District, as opposed to fancy retail stores you can find in a mall,” BarZemer said.

The galleries, bookstore, book lab and courtyard opened on Sunday, and additional elements will come online throughout the year. Manuela, a 5,000-square foot, Southerninfluenced restaurant helmed by chef Wes Whitsell, is scheduled to open in the summer.

A vegetable garden that will be planted in the courtyard will provide ingredients for the eatery and serve as a seating area for guests.

Also in store are arts activities such as a speaker series and educational events for children.

In addition to being a cultural center, BarZemer thinks the gallery will be a magnet for the community.

“I expect to see more galleries and more art organizations gravitating to the space and helping to improve the experience of the Arts District,” he said.

Schimmel and Wirth, meanwhile, hope that the community will enjoy the space the way they envisioned. There certainly are plenty of options.

Hauser Wirth & Schimmel is open WednesdaySunday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (until 8 p.m. on Thursday). At 901 E. Third St., (213) 537-0858 or hauserwirthschimmel.com. nicholas@downtownnews.com

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TWITTER: @ DOWNTOWNNEWS

8 Downtown News

March 14, 2016

Why Can’t Metro Charter Find a Home?

Developers Keep Rejecting Lauded Downtown School. Now Timing Is Critical

By Eddie Kim hen Metro Charter Elementary School opened in September 2013, it was hailed as vital proof of Downtown Los Angeles’ emergence as a place for young families.

The school’s arrival was the culmination of two years of volunteer work from parents who saw a need for an elementary school in the heart of Downtown that they could walk to.

They raised $250,000, found a space in South Park’s California Hospital Medical Center, and recruited students — about 80 of them in kindergarten through second grade.

W

The number of students doubled to about 160 in year two and kept growing. Today, the school has approximately 205 kindergarten through fourth grade students and a staff of 16 teachers and administrators. It aims to add a fifth grade in the 2016-2017 school year.

By all accounts Metro Charter Elementary is one of Downtown’s great success stories. Yet despite its track record and long waitlist, the school faces a critical problem: It has been unable to find a permanent home.

The 12,000-square-foot hospital space was always intended to be a temporary location.

For more than a year now, Metro Charter board

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member Apurva Pande, also an architect working in the Historic Core, has been leading the hunt for a permanent home in Downtown.

Pande said he and other school officials reviewed more than 30 locations in 2015, and the board pursued 16 in particular. In numerous cases they whipped up engineering and buildout plans, and crunched numbers to make sure a spot would have a realistic budget.

Time and time again, they were turned down.

Pande and others are baffled and disheartened that, amid a development boom, nobody seems willing to offer a long-term lease — they’re looking for 30 years — to a community-

focused tenant like Metro Charter. Arguments that a high-quality school is something residents with children need have failed to make an impact on developers leasing or selling luxury units, or other property owners.

“All we want is a home in Downtown. We’re offering competitive rents and a track record of success in the classroom and financially,” Pande said. “But it’s been really hard to meet a broker, sense a lot of early optimism, and then do so much diligence for each property only to be rejected after several weeks.”

The drawn-out process has led to questions about the future of the school. Principal Kim Clerx said she speaks with concerned parents on a daily basis.

“Five or 10 years ago, maybe we could’ve found space easier,” Clerx said. “The nature of the deal is asking someone to give us a home

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Downtown News 9

DOWNTOWNNEWS.COM Widespread Problem Metro Charter is not alone in its struggle for a permanent home. A number of high-achieving charter schools around the state face the same problem, said California Charter Schools Association spokesman Jason Mandell.

The appeal is clear, with more than 40,000 students on waitlists for charters around Los Angeles, he said. Private property owners, however, often fail to see the merits of a school and its stable long-term tenancy, he said.

“It’s possible that the next step in the process is for government and business and community members to collaborate and create solutions like with the Adaptive Reuse Ordinance,” Mandell said, referring to the 1999 city policy that helped kickstart residential development in Downtown by tweaking zoning rules. “Maybe some policy adjustments would make other community organizations more viable. We see real growth in charter schools across L.A., but landlords need to support that demand.”

Metro Charter supporters have even reached out to the office of 14th District City Councilman José Huizar. Huizar has long expressed support for families and community-driven organizations in Downtown, but it remains unclear what he can do.

“Besides some of the market challenges, the school’s footprint needs and unique requirements to meet state standards present additional challenges,” Huizar said in a statement to Los Angeles Downtown News. “But I am hopeful that we will ultimately find a location that is both welcoming and suitable to Metro Charter’s needs.”

The difficulty raises a question everyone hopes can be avoided: What happens if, a year from now, Metro Charter still cannot find a home?

Some charters have sought to use Proposition 39, a state law that requires local school districts to give up unused classroom facilities to a charter in need of space. Metro Charter explored Prop 39 last year, and officials at Castelar Elementary School in Chinatown last month received a notice that Metro Charter could utilize some of its space under the state rule, sparking a minor outcry from some Castelar parents.

Pande, however, said the Prop. 39 plan Metro Charter had been offered by the L.A. Unified School District is not an op-

for 30 years, so I understand that’s a big decision. But the length of the process so far has been surprising.”

Tighter Quarters The next school year starts in August, which is five months away.

Metro Charter got a lifeline last week. On Friday, March 11, Pande said the hospital agreed to let the school stay for one more year (though the deal has not yet been signed).

Still, Pande knows that is only a reprieve. The goal remains to find a home for the 2017-18 school year.

Just last month, Metro Charter was reviewing a space in City West and was close to a deal — until one of several partners in the negotiation backed out.

Pande and others have looked in the Historic Core, South Park and even two buildings in Skid Row. Over time, Pande said he realized that most property owners simply don’t want a school, and don’t understand why they should take on Metro Charter instead of holding out for a hotel or condominium buyout or a splashy retail and office play.

“No commercial tenant would have to do the diligence and pre-construction work we’ve been presenting. Our plans were not rejected because of our numbers,” Pande argued. “It’s someone who doesn’t live in Downtown not understanding why there could be a school in their property.”

Several brokers familiar with Downtown commercial space suggested that schools face a unique challenge even amid the residential and cultural renaissance in the Central City.

Gibran Begum, managing director of the Downtown office of brokerage firm Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, has seen schools struggle to find space in communities like Santa Monica and Brentwood in addition to Downtown, he said.

“In many cases, a school needs to do the hard work of educating property owners who know nothing about schools,” Begum said. “They worry about lawsuits or providing parking or too many kids running around. You have to do a lot of work as a nonprofit school to find a landlord and the best space.”

Begum notes that even if a nonprofit outfit like Metro Charter can offer competitive rents, it can rarely outbid a hypothetical national developer or big-time hospitality group.

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A scene from the day in September 2013 that Metro Charter Elementary School opened. The school has outgrown its home in California Hospital Medical Center, but is having difficulties finding a new location. Numerous Downtown developers have said no to having the school on their site or in their building.

tion, as it would chop the school in three and spread them out around the city.

Meanwhile, Pande is continuing the hunt for a permanent home, with hopes that a Downtown property owner will ink a deal in time for the 2017-18 school year. He was unable to provide a contingency plan if negotiations fail.

“It’s shocking, frankly, that people don’t want a school. Everything else gets into a space. How many more retail shops and bars could we need?” he said, sighing. “I feel like we’re doing everything right and doing so much work. We just need someone to see the potential.” eddie@downtownnews.com

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ction JCNM

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JANM Shows Focus on Photography Clubs and Internment Camp Images

By Nicholas Slayton n the early part of the 20th century, art groups featuring Japanese immigrants and people of Japanese descent flourished along the Pacific Coast. Chief among those were photography clubs where amateurs and professionals alike balanced a new medium with traditional aesthetics.

That world, like so much else, was shattered with the onset of World War II and, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the forced internment of tens of thousands of people of Japanese descent.

A pair of recently opened exhibits at the Japanese American National Museum in Downtown Los Angeles look at both periods, the photography clubs and the internment.

Making Waves: Japanese American Photography, 1920-1940, focuses on the clubs that sprung up in the interwar period. The exhibit is in tandem with Two Views: Photographs by Ansel Adams and Leonard Frank. That show features the work of two prominent shooters, with Adams’ photos of people held at the Manzanar Internment Camp, and Frank’s images of Japanese Canadians in camps in British Columbia.

JANM CEO Greg Kimura said that even though the exhibits were organized separately, they complement each other, showing how the cruelty of internment destroyed cultural expression among Japanese Americans.

“This is vindication. Life is short, art is eternal,” Kimura said. “So much of the art was lost and the artists and others’ careers were cut short, but we have a lot of the material to properly honor them.”

Natural Patterns Making Waves focuses on the photography clubs, which formed when equipment was expensive and the hobby required a serious time commitment. It was curated by Dennis Reed, a professor emeritus of art at Los Angeles Valley College. He said the seeds of the project were planted 36 years ago, while he was going through magazine and photography collections from the 1920s and ’30s.

“In 1980, I came across a photo by a guy named Shigemi Uyeda,” Reed said. “It was so modernist, but I could tell it was done in the ’20s. It seemed every time I opened a magazine from the

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The JANM exhibit Two View features photographs taken in World War II internment camps by Ansel Adams and Leonard Frank.

Adams’ images include (left) “Richard Kobayashi, farmer with cabbages.”

Among Frank’s shots, which were taken in a camp in British Columbia, is “Family at Slocan/New Denver?”

’20s, I saw these clubs’ work reproduced.”

Reed organized an initial show in 1986. The JANM exThe exhibit Making Waves includes images from the Pacific Coast photography clubs of the early 20th century. Shown is Harry Hayashida’s 1935 shot “Streamline.” hibit features 103 prints, with more than half of those collected in the last 30 years.

The images represent a culture adapting to new techMany people know about the more than 100,000 Japanese nology. In still lifes and nature prints, the photographers Americans who were displaced in the United States, including echoed traditional Japanese art, focusing on patterns and those held at the Manzanar War Relocation Center at the foot of depth. Many of the photos show stark contrasts of dark and the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. Fewer people, howevlight, with compositions similar to film noir.

Reed said that, despite the quality of the work, most of the clubs er, realize that approximately 22,000 people in Canada were sent to camps after the country decreed that no one of Japanese anwere unknown to the art scene and the wider world. cestry could be within 100 miles of the West Coast.

“At the time, so few people knew about these photographers deSherri Kajiwara, a curator with the Nikkei National Museum spite their work being published in the United States and Europe,” and organizer of the Two Views traveling show, said the Canahe said. “That was even the case here in L.A. and Little Tokyo, where dian internment and removal were just as harsh as the one that many of them worked. Unfortunately it’s still the case today.” took place in the United States.

The clubs largely disappeared after the Japanese Americans Adams, the esteemed landscape photographer, focused on returned home at the end of World War II. Some photographers resilience during his time at Manzanar. His 40 images on display lost their negatives in the war years. Beyond that, Reed noted capture a number of beaming faces and families going on with that in the post-war years there were few magazines and other their lives, despite the conditions. Some depict people playing venues brave enough to publish work by someone with a Japasports and children going to school. nese last name.

Frank’s photos are more architectural in nature. He was commisKimura said JANM plans to work with other museums and culsioned by the B.C. Security Commission, Kajiwara said, to document tural centers to get the exhibit on the tour circuit. Though it closes the removal and internment process. Most of his shots were taken at JANM on June 26, he expects it to live on beyond Los Angeles.

“These artists represent to us a lost generation,” Kimura said. “We in 1942 as he followed the path Japanese Canadians took, from the West Coast to temporary camps and then internment camps. thought that the moral obligation was to honor the art that they His work looks more at the spaces than people. At the Hastings produced, and to reflect a great sacrifice they made. It’s not just the Park camp in British Columbia, Frank focused on buildings, and incarceration but also the extinguishing of all of this great creative was able to capture the squalor the people lived in. He took stark potential. We thought it was a way to redeem the artists.” photos of crowded dormitories and medical examination rooms.

Inside the Camps Kimura said that JANM was drawn to the exhibit not just beTwo Views, as the name implies, features the work of two phocause of the fame of the photographers, but because it shows tographers in neighboring countries who, for different reasons, started documenting the internment period. The exhibit was cu- another view of racially motivated segregation and internment.

Making Waves and Two Views are at the Japanese American rated by Bill Jeffries and Grace Eiko Thomson and first mounted at the Nikkei National Museum in British Columbia. It is in Down- National Museum, 100 N. Central Ave., (213) 625-0414 or janm.org. nicholas@downtownnews.com town through April 24.

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Restaurant Buzz Filipino Flavors Galore, Gallery Eats and More Food Happenings

By Eddie Kim eading West: The huge One Santa Fe apartment complex has plenty of places to dine, including the vegan cookery at Cafe Gratitude and ediBOL, the home of heirloom grains. Up next is Westbound, a sleek bar and restaurant from Sarah Meade, who served as operations manager of Studio City’s Firefly and Tiki No in North Hollywood. Meade is bringing in executive chef Gary Nguyen (of Melisse and Downtown’s now-closed Alma) and barman Mitch Bushell. The restaurant will open next month, and Nguyen and his cooks will be working in an open kitchen, serving snacks such as gravlax with goat cheese in a “charcoal cone” and fresh brioche bread with seared foie gras and rhubarb. Bushell’s cocktail program, meanwhile, offers three categories of drinks: “Classics,”“Iterations of Fruit” that highlight a single fruit’s versatility, and “Reworked, Stolen or Borrowed.” Check out the Always With a Charm, with dry French Rancio Sec wine, pineapple drinking vinegar, cardamom bitters and Salers Gentiane aperitif. Cocktails are $15 and food ranges around $12-$30.

At 300 S. Santa Fe Ave. or westbounddtla.com.

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Grill in the Los Angeles Mall, across from City Hall, with an opening slated for June. “The Filipino food movement is already really strong in San Francisco, and I see more and more of that here,” Arceno said. “I want to show off my grandmother’s recipes to the masses.” The fastcasual Pili will offer entrees such as chicken adobo (stewed with vinegar, soy sauce and spices), grilled marinated steak with onions, and pancit, the common dish of stir-fried glass noodles with vegetables and other ingredients. Arceno’s highlight is her grandmother’s “fresh” vegetable lumpia, which tweaks the commonly fried egg-roll like snack with a light crepe-like wrapper.

Coming to 201 N. Los Angeles St. or piligrill.com.

Artful Food: The Hauser Wirth & Schimmel gallery is putting a little art back into the Arts District. It’s also bringing some food and drink in the form of Manuela, a 5,000-square-foot restaurant.

Led by chef Wes Whitsell (Soho House New York, Larchmont’s Osteria La Buca), Manuela will be an all-day joint serving refined dishes with a Southern flair influenced by Whitsell’s upbringing in rural Texas. The restaurant will have an open-air feel with indoor and outdoor seating. The menu will feature open-fire cookery and some products harvested from an on-site vegetable and herb garden. Expect an opening this summer. As for the namesake? That would be Hauser Wirth & Schimmel’s own Manuela Wirth.

Coming to 909 E. Third St. Double Play: Grand Central Market got two shiny new tenants last week, with the opening of the anticipated Golden Road brewpub and District Market, a new spot for fresh produce. Golden Road, which is head-

Filipino Invasion: Filipino flavors are becoming The Next Big Thing in L.A., as evidenced

by Charles Olalia’s Ricebar on Seventh Street and Alvin Cailan’s Amboy in Chinatown. Count in Kanel Arceno, who is readying Pili Manila

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Dishes at One Santa Fe’s upcoming Westbound bar and restaurant include scallops nestled into a “charcoal cone.” The menu comes from chef Gary Nguyen.

photo courtesy of Westbound

quartered in Glendale, is offering 20 taps of draft beer, divided into flavor categories like “hoppy” and “darkish.” There’s also food in the form of a Midwestern specialty: pierogi, or large pan-fried dumplings filled with everything from bacon and cheddar to duck confit with kabocha squash. The menu also has salads, hot vegetable sides and sweet parfaits, but the pierogi are the focus, with three for $7 or two sides and three pierogi for $12. In the center of the dining hub is District Market, which replaces the old-school grocer that used to operate there. Now there are gleaming cases of local produce, with an emphasis on organic fare. District Market is the first retail collaboration between Michael Dodo, president and CEO of West Central Produce, and Fritz Stelter, co-founder of Field Fresh Foods, a top Southern California produce processing company.

At 317 S. Broadway or grandcentralmarket.com.

Crafty Eats: Glitzy eateries promising “seasonal” ingredients and a “curated” small-plates experience are fun and all, but Downtown still runs on neighborhood joints with good food and better prices. Say hello to Craft Chicken & Pizza, a new family-run shop in the fourth-floor food court of a nondescript Fashion District building. As the name suggests, there is pizza, both in classic cheese and pepperoni form, as well as specialties such as the bulgogi pizza with marinated beef, bacon, green peppers and corn. There’s also fried chicken, a few pastas, side dishes and, bizarrely, Halo-Halo, the delicious Filipino shaved-ice dessert with tropical fruit preserves and flan. Best of all, you would be hard-pressed to crack $10 for a meal. Craft Pizza & Chicken is open Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

At 735 E. 12th St. or (213) 749-1407.

Got juicy food news?

Email eddie@downtownnews.com.

TWITTER: @ DOWNTOWNNEWS

12 Downtown News

March 14, 2016

Five Lines of Fun The Best Submissions From Our St. Patrick’s Day Limerick Contest

S

t. Patrick’s Day isn’t just about green beer, corned beef and parades. It’s also about leprechauns, pots of gold and limericks.

All of those come together each March, not just for the holiday, but for Los Angeles Downtown News’ annual St. Patrick’s Day Limerick Contest. We opened up the fiveline festival a few weeks ago, and once again area residents, workers and visitors picked up the pen (or turned on the computer) and displayed their creative side.

Below are some of our favorite entries, including a couple prize winners. The winners were selected by the editorial staff of Downtown News.

Thanks to all who submitted.

By Wendy Wainwright One of our biggest woes Was having no food market close Now there’s Ralph’s and Whole Foods And Smart & Final to choose But when will you come, Trader Joe’s?

Wendy had the best limerick. Yay Wendy!

She wins a $50 gift card to Patina Restaurant Group.

Then there’s John Hertz, who sent five limericks, including an intro limerick, three main limericks and one he sent us for the contest back in 2006. Here are three of his submissions:

By George Herod Pancake — that was his name Not on Earth for fortune or fame He welcomed new people and sights Took long walks on spring nights While hoping Downtown traffic won’t be the same

By Kyle Ebert We all know that it would have sucked If an earthquake had brought down the ’duct But this three years of crap While they bridge Sixth Street’s gap Leaves all of us drivers feeling stuck

By John Hertz I’ve sent limericks in before They flew o’er the transom of your door You said you might need them Then you had to read them Heaven help you, now here come some more

By Lauralee A. Markley Brass stars sparkle the ground Culture and diversity explode all around Seeking riches and fame These streets Hollywood actors claim The red velvet carpet paves the way to Downtown

By Christina Anastasia I passed not Hope, but Olive and Spring Glancing at moonlit L.A. to sing Dreams of angels dancing Downtown In nothing but a see-through gown Believing I was in heaven on a prayer and a wing

By John Hertz Oh, what shall I do with these strangers?

They’re so different from me, what a danger!

Yet the fact you’re so strange Means you’ve things to exchange It’s more nourishing, be a free-ranger

By Arlene Paige Should anyone come to Downtown They’ll see many a sight quite renowned But try as they will Up and down Bunker Hill The homelessness crisis gets us down

By Pete Sullivan It was said the man likes a drink But the Downtowner started to think If it wasn’t too batty I’ll wait for Saint Patty And with that he gave me a wink

By K.D. Winiki Ian broke his neck on the high-wire He must keep his head level — no higher With L.A.’s new digs so high Their tops he’ll never spy Not unless a ’copter he’d squire

By Dean Wong Not feeling so lucky, ya say All work, more work and no play Come Downtown, lift ya mood Great people, places and food And it’s something you can do today

By John Hertz Hickory dickory dock Living Dowtnown is nothing to mock We’re central, it’s cool Out city’s a jewel So the Westside can put it in a sock We were so impressed by John’s work that he also gets a prize. We’re giving him a $25 gift card to Patina Restaurant Group.

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March 14, 2016

A Jolly, Green and Giant Celebration Pershing Square to Throw One of Downtown’s Biggest St. Patrick’s Day Parties

By Nicholas Slayton t’s not hard to find a watering hole with huge crowds of loud people on St. Patrick’s Day. Plenty of places in Downtown Los Angeles will be offering green-tinted lager, pints of Guinness, corned beef sandwiches and endless revelry (see accompanying story).

Of course, not everyone is looking for the ingredients that lead to a pounding hangover. That’s where Pershing Square comes into play. On Thursday, March 17, from 11 a.m-2 p.m., the park in the heart of the Financial District is holding its annual St. Patrick’s Day celebration.

While there will be a beer garden, that is just a small part of what’s in store.

The event, which is free and open to the public, has family- and office-friendly elements, with music, food and in-control revelry. It helps that the happening is pitched to the lunchtime work crowd. There will be a station for people to grab beads and hats. Holiday-themed cutouts will be set up for photographs.

I

“The only thing we won’t be having is the fountain on with the green water, because of the drought,” said Louise Capone, the facility manager for Pershing Square.

The event begins at 11 a.m. with a performance by the Los Angeles Police Department’s bagpipe players. The kilt-clad performers will be joined by the Los Angeles Fire Department’s color guard, which will present the flags.

Students from the Cleary Irish Dance school will perform as well. Expect jigs and hornpipes.

The bands start at noon. First up is U2 tribute act Hollywood U2, which will bust out covers of classic hits

by Bono and the gang, and since it’s St. Patrick’s Day you can be pretty sure “Sunday Bloody Sunday” is on the set list. Also performing are Celtic rockers Bad Haggis, led by Eric Rigler, who has contributed music to films such as Braveheart and Titantic. It’s the latter band’s first time performing at the Pershing Square event.

Since it’s lunch time, there will be food trucks on site. The Deli Doctor will serve, appropriately

Ready for the Revelry Five More St. Patrick’s Day Events in Downtown

By Nicholas Slayton housand of people will visit Pershing Square on St. Patrick’s Day. They’ll enjoy the food trucks, free music, photo ops and more.

That said, Pershing Square’s party only runs for three hours, and is over at 2 p.m. That is barely a green-tinged appetizer for those who wait all year for the St. Patrick’s Day revelry.

There are, as always, a number of Downtown Los Angeles destinations for the St. Patrick’s Day party crowd. The opportunities run the gamut, with festivities that start at dawn and run deep into the night. They take place everywhere, too, from the Arts District to the Financial District and beyond.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t warn that St. Patrick’s Day celebrations can lead to excessive drunkenness and unverified claims of Irish heritage. Please drink carefully and have the Uber and Lyft apps installed. With that out of the way, here are big five ways to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in Downtown.

T

An Epic Street Party: Sometimes the best place to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day is an Irish pub. Luckily, Downtown has Casey’s Irish Pub, which once again on March 17 will stage a massive bash that flows out of the bar and onto a block of Grand Avenue. The bar will open at 6 a.m., and at 11:30 a.m. the actual celebration on Grand Avenue begins. DJs will perform throughout the day and there will be numerous indoor and outdoor bars, plenty of green beer and the copious cocktails endemic to the holiday. Also, expect $10 deals on corned beef and Reuben sandwiches, as well as slices from Pellicola Pizza. Festival and bar admission is free before 3:30 p.m. After that, it’s $20 for the street party and $10 for the pub.

At 613 S. Grand Ave., (213) 629-2353 or 213dthospitality.com/ projects/caseys-irish-pub.

Angel’s Pint: Angel City Brewery in the Arts District will open

The St. Patrick’s Day celebration at Pershing Square regularly draws thousands of people.

The 11a.m.-2 p.m. event will feature a U2 cover band, food trucks, the LAPD’s bagpipers and more.

photo by Gary Leonard

enough, corned beef sandwiches, while Downtown Dogs will have its fare of franks, and the brilliantly named Crepes Bonaparte will go the extra step, preparing some green crepes. There will also be a beer garden with a variety of brews for those who need to get a pint in early.

Capone said previous St. Patrick’s Day events have brought up to 4,000 people to Pershing Square, and she hopes to see a similar turnout this week. The celebration is scheduled so that

people can take a break during the work day, enjoy the festivities and then go back to the office.

“It’s the biggest party you can have in three hours,” she said.

The Pershing Square St. Patrick’s Day celebration is Thursday, March 17, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at 532 S. Olive St., (213) 847-4970 or laparks.org/ pershingsquare. nicholas@downtownnews.com

at 2 p.m. for the holiday. Alongside the brewery’s usual offerings, there will be two specialty beers on March 17: an Imperial Irish Ale and an Irish Red Cask Ale. There will also be food trucks to deliver an Irish version of Los Angeles culinary fusion — expect options including corned beef tacos. The soundtrack comes from the Vignes Rooftop Revival and the Pretty Polly Band, and a comedy show will start at 9 p.m. The party goes until midnight At 216 S. Alameda St., (213) 622-1261 or angelcitybrewery.com.

Madness in a Glass: St. Patrick’s Day isn’t the only March event that draws people in colorful clothing to bars where they boast about their past — there’s also the NCAA basketball tournament, AKA March Madness. Tom’s Urban at L.A. Live is shrewdly honoring both with drink specials running throughout the month. It makes perfect sense, as the bracket-busting tournament starts on, yes, Thursday, March 17. The restaurant and bar is offering Irish-inspired drink combos such as a Brew and a Dew (a Guinness pint and shot of Tullamore Dew whiskey) for $13.

A medley of Tullamore Dew and apple juice is $6.25. Less Irish but still on special is the “Bucket o’ Buds,” five Budweisers or Bud Lights for $20.

At 1011 Figueroa St., (213) 746-8667 or tomsurban.com.

Some Music With That Pint: Another annual Downtown St. Patrick’s Day tradition takes place in the Toy District, though it’s no child’s play. The Escondite is back with its fifth annual St. Patty’s Extravaganza, which means loads of live music, plenty of corned beef and cabbage and, yes, a ridiculous amount of Guinness pints. There will be live music on the small stage all day, with acts such as Ian Fitzgerald, Skin and Bones and King Corduroy. The doors open at noon and the party continues until 2 a.m. Please, pace yourself.

At 410 Boyd St., (213) 626-1800 or theescondite.com.

Dance a Jig: Some people want more than pubs and outdoor beer gardens on March 17 — they want to dance. Fortunately for them, the Downtown

photo by Gary Leonard

The venerable Casey’s Irish Pub on Grand Avenue is back with its all-day St. Patrick’s Day Party. It fills not just the bar, but the street, too.

groups Happening in DTLA and DTLA Rendezvous are throwing The DTLA St. Patrick’s Day Party at The Reserve on Spring Street. The club opens on Thursday at 5 p.m. and the party continues until 2 a.m.

The venue, a former Los Angeles headquarters for Bank of America, will be lit up green, with three bars serving drinks and DJs on hand to get people dancing into the night. The bars will have happy hour specials and there will be giveaways. The Reserve’s spiffy dress code is still in effect. Also, be sure to wear green.

At 650 S. Spring St., (213) 327-0057 or thelareserve.com.

THE DON'T MISS LIST

EVENTS

MONDAY, MARCH 14 Timothy Morton at SCI-Arc SCI-Arc, 960 E. Third St., (213) 613-2200 or sciarc.edu.

7 p.m.: Architectural theorist Timothy Morton contends that “every house is a haunted house,” which is a nice if tricky way of seguing into his world view.

TUESDAY, MARCH 15 Jamaica Kinkaid and Sarah Ogilvie at Aloud Central Library, Mark Taper Auditorium, 630 W. Fifth St., (213) 228-7500 or lfla.org.

7:15 p.m.: A Stanford linguist and a noted author collide in an intellectual journey into the genesis of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Throwback Art, a Spelling Celebration and Photos of Bob Dylan Come Downtown

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16 Dr. Wyatt Decker at Town Hall-Los Angeles City Club, 555 S. Flower St., (213) 628-8141 or townhall-la.org.

11:30 a.m.: Those subscribing to wacky new age body cults or ravenously pounding stem cells at home are invited to listen as the vice president of the Mayo Clinic expounds on the horizons of regenerative medicine. photo courtesy Library Foundation of Los Angeles

By Dan Johnson | calendar@downtownnews.com

ROCK, POP & JAZZ

Belasco 1050 S. Hill St., (213) 746-5670 or thebelascotheater.com.

March 15, 8 p.m.: Portland-reared jazz acolyte and Libra Esperanza Spalding.

March 17, 8 p.m.: Soulful underpinnings and choppy big beats mark the work of producer/performer FKJ. Blue Whale 123 Astronaut E. S. Onizuka St., (213) 620-0908 or bluewhalemusic.com.

March 14: Get in the room with Lynosphere.

March 15: Late Night Jazz Orchestra.

March 16: Julian Coryell Group.

March 17-18: Mark de-Clive Lowe Church.

Continued on next page

1

Don’t Look Back is a curious title for the Museum of Contemporary Art’s retrospective of 1990s art. That’s because the just-opened exhibit at the palatial Geffen Contemporary at MOCA does precisely that, looking two decades in the past, to a time when grunge, the birth of the Internet and Clintonian politics were guiding forces. The show features a variety of art representing the breadth of mediums and talents from Paul McCarthy to Catherine Opie to Cady Noland to Mark Dion (his “When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (Toys ‘R’ U.S.)” is shown here).

Don’t Look Back is divided into six zones, with monikers such as The Outmoded (think art touching on 35 mm cameras and VHS tapes) and Noir America, with works that dig into the country’s love affair with guns. MOCA is closed on Tuesdays and the exhibit continues through July 11. At 152 N. Central Ave., (213) 621-2766 or moca.org.

2

When we heard that the Library Foundation and the L.A. Public Library would host an event titled A Very L.A. Spelling Bee, we assumed it would be a collection of private school kids showing off the fruits of their expensive education. No! The reality is much juicier. At 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 19, the OC Register’s Gustavo Arellano challenges contestants to spell words in Spanish, English or both. There are youth (ages 12-17) and adult (18-plus) divisions. That’s just the start, as the event at the Central Library also features puppet shows, poetry and dictionary readings. At 630 W. Fifth St., (213) 228-7500 or lfla.org.

On Saturday, March 19, the sound-proof glass window on the east side of the 400 block of Hewitt Street in the Arts District will shimmy and dance as rollicking electro guru Benjamin John Power brings his Blanck Mass to the trailer-equipped majesty of Resident. The indigent and those still hung over from St. Patty’s Day will be drawn to the sight of this Bristol beat master like moths to a flame. Inside, the pristine sound system will thump and churn with noisy, bit-crushed bits of droning sonic joy pulled from Blanck Mass’ 2015 release Dumb Flesh.

Those who fight their way through the outdoor smoking section into the concert space itself will be handsomely rewarded with a chaotic brand of big rhythms treading a careful line between chaos and splendor. At 428 S. Hewitt St. or residentdtla.com.

SATURDAY, MARCH 19 Shaolin Festival Chinatown Historic Central Plaza, 943 N. Broadway, (213) 680-0243 or chinatownla.com.

5-8 p.m.: You came for the martial arts performances and kung fu lessons, but you’ll stay for the vegetarian cooking demonstration and the meditation sessions.

3

photo by Alex de Mora

SUNDAY, MARCH 20 Miranda July at MOCA MOCA, 250 S. Grand Ave., (213) 621-2766 or moca.org.

3 p.m.: The eccentric artist dishes on her collaborator and fellow artist Catherine Opie.

Pershing Square Easter Egg Hunt 532 S. Olive St., (213) 847-4970 or laparks.org/ pershingsquare.

Noon-4 p.m.: Get an early jump on the festival of the bunny.

The day features face painting, magic, bounce houses, music and an appearance by the Easter Bunny. There are also four egg hunts for various age groups, starting at 12:30 p.m. with one for kids 4 and under.

photo courtesy MOCA

DT

CALENDAR LISTINGS

THURSDAY, MARCH 17 Ellen Malcolm at Aloud Central Library, Mark Taper Auditorium, 630 W. Fifth St., (213) 228-7500 or lfla.org.

7:15 p.m.: You may know Malcolm as the founder of Emily’s List. She’s present and accounted for tonight to draw connections between her own feminist-oriented online initiative and the increasing (and long overdue) prominence of strong women in the American political sphere. Expect someone to mention Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Immigration: Art/Critique/Process REDCAT, 631 W. Second St., (213) 237-2800 or redcat.org.

March 17, 4 p.m. and March 18, 10:30 a.m.: This two-day symposium approaches America’s immigrant crisis from the cross-cultural perspective of art. Assessments, solutions, confrontation and abstraction take the day.

Downtown News 15

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Sometimes you want it that way — with California girls and no scrubs and a little bit of MmmBop to coax your genie from its bottle while 2 become 1. Girlfriend, we’ve all had bad blood, but straight up tell me would you like to dance with somebody, to feel the heat with somebody? Because of you, The Regent is saying bye, bye, bye to its usual waterfalls of sophisticated music programming to deliver a dark horse evening of irreplaceable chart toppers from the last two decades. From Hanson to Whitney to Katy to Taylor to Bieber to Mariah, the Candi Pop Bubblegum Dance Party on Friday, March 18, will be the stuff of teenage dreams. At 448 S. Main St., (323) 2845727 or theregenttheatre.com. image courtesy The Regent

4

Bob Zimmerman of Hibbing, Minn., built a career out of equal parts knowing iconography and a willful penchant for breaking with convention.

Now through May 24, the life and times of Zimmerman, who you may know as Bob Dylan, are on display at the Grammy Museum. Bob Dylan: Photographs by Daniel Kramer, features 50 images the New York-based photographer and filmmaker took during the crucial period of 196465, when the folk singer’s newfound fame was seguing toward his climactic and polarizing performance with an electric guitar at the Newport Folk Festival.

The Grammy Museum is open seven days a week to facilitate your lust for peak Dylan. At 800 W. Olympic St., (213) 765-6800 or grammymuseum.org.

photo by Daniel Kramer

March 14, 2016

Send information and possible Don’t Miss List submissions to calendar@downtownnews.com.

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Continued from previous page March 19: Gillian Margot/Geoffrey Keezer/Carlitos del Puerto/Munyungo Jackson.

March 20: Ganvya and Rajna.

Bootleg Bar 2220 Beverly Blvd., (213) 389-3856 or bootlegtheater.org.

March 14: Fell Runner continue their tribute to the once regal Homestar Runner.

March 15: Former Dead Moon players Fred & Toody offer us all a taste of Oregon.

March 16: Frog Eyes use the descriptor “drunken” twice in their bio. Does this mean we can expect a full-fledged blackout or just a sauced serenade?

March 18: Tonight’s Nick Waterhouse show has sold out, potentially thanks to his willingness to bag on Huntington Beach bro culture.

Escondite 410 Boyd St., (213) 626-1800 or theescondite.com.

March 14: The Jazzaholics just got their 90-day chip and promptly went on a Chet Baker bender. Their sponsor was extremely disappointed when they turned up with vinyl in their collection.

March 15: Cody Hudock Band used to be known as CHB before the pharmaceutical industry invented a bowel obstruction ailment by that same name.

March 16: Ian Fitzgerald will perform for you.

March 17: The St. Patrick’s Day Blowout promises bands aplenty, corned beef, profusions of green shamrocks, booze and more booze.

March 18: The Gabe Rosen Trio doesn’t appreciate the lingering stench of Guinness.

March 19: King Corduroy, a band name harkening back to the first roads set into the American wilderness.

Exchange LA 618 S. Spring St., (213) 627-8070 or exchangela.com.

March 18: Manufactured Superstars.

March 19: Chris Liebing.

Microsoft Theatre 777 Chick Hearn Court, (213) 763-6030 or microsofttheeatre.com.

March 16-18: You’ll want to bring earplugs, steel-toed boots and a collapsing baton to endure the savage mosh pit at Yanni.

March 19, 8 p.m.: Invasion Del Corrido is the Mexican folk music variety show Donald Trump has been trying to warn you about.

Orpheum Theatre 842 Broadway, (877) 677-4386 or laorpheum.com.

March 18, 8 p.m. and March 19, 3 and 8 p.m.: Je’Caryous Johnson presents Married But Single.

Pershing Square 532 S. Olive St., (213) 847-4970 or laparks.org/pershingsquare.

March 17, 11 a.m.: The St. Patrick’s Day Festivities include Bad Haggis (the band) and Hollywood U2 (also a band).

Redwood Bar and Grill 316 W. Second St., (213) 652-4444 or theredwoodbar.com.

March 14: Gonzo Phonic.

March 15: Roxy’s Birthday with Princess Frank, Dinner Whore and Barrio Tiger.

March 17: Scotch Apostles and Trail of Beer Cans.

March 18: The Bloodhounds headline the Benefit for Sonny Vincent.

March 19: JQ & The Revue, The Blackerbys and Schitzophonics.

March 20, 3 p.m.: Guitars a Go Go. The Novo (formerly Club Nokia) 800 W. Olympic Blvd., (213) 765-7000 or thenovodtla.com.

March 16, 9 p.m.: Young Thug is apparently collaborating with Elton John. No, Tim Rice isn’t jealous — his tear ducts were just full.

March 18, 9 p.m.: Tonight’s Hopsin show might mark the first time in Los Angeles history that audience members have been willing to pay $10 to see something from Panorama City.

March 19, 8 p.m.: The Dynamic Duo is a hip-hop collective from South Korea.

The Regent 448 S. Main St. or theregenttheater.com.

March 15: Cast off your dull cares with synth pop gurus and textural savants the Junior Boys.

March 16: Magma is the jazz metal pit of molten earth your mother warned you about.

March 18: The Candi Pop Bubblegum Dance Party encourages you to dispose of your double bubble responsibly.

March 19: A legit ’90s night as “Show Me Love” songstress Robin S emerges on stage to remind you of what it was like to take ecstasy when Clinton was in office.

Resident 428 S. Hewitt St. or (323) 316-5311 or residentdtla.com.

March 14, 8 p.m.: Pompeya, a cross between a doomed Italian city of wealth and privilege and a tropical fruit.

March 19, 9 p.m.: There will be thick beats aplenty with Blanck Mass.

Seven Grand 515 W. Seventh St., (213) 614-0737 or sevengrand.la.

March 15: There was brief talk in The Makers camp of donning Slipknot-esque masks during performances, but this suggestion was tabled in favor of continuing to make improvised jazz with the band’s already sufficient supply of faces.

The Smell 247 S. Main St. in the alley between Spring and Main or thesmell.org.

March 18: The Red Pears, Beach Bums, The Pedestrians and Aggressive N’ Rude.

March 20: Moi, Disposable Thumbs, Smiling Beth and Outsider.

Teragram Ballroom 1234 W. Seventh St. or teragramballroom.com.

March 16: With a band name like The Revivalists and a press photo that prominently features suspenders, this evening could only be about Americana.

March 18: Jerry Paper sounds like Tim & Eric look.

Downtown News 17

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Downtown Independent 251 S. Main St., (213) 617-1033 or downtownindependent.com.

See website for schedule.

IMAX California Science Center, 700 State Drive, (213) 744-2019

LAST WEEKS ANSWERS

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✤ Live Lobster and Crab ✤ Delivery, Minimum Order $15 ✤ Lunch Special $4.95 – Mon.-Fri. 11-5, Sat.-Sun. 11-3 ✤ Party Tray Available 739-747 N. Main St. Los Angeles, 90012 213.680.3333 Regentchinainn.com FREE PARKING

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short film program Black Radical Imagination.

REDCAT 631 W. Second St., (213) 237-2800 or redcat.org.

March 14, 8:30 p.m.: Expect unorthodox projection and a lush wealth of celluloid as Sandra Gibson and Luis Recoder bring their Dark Chamber Disclosure to Bunker Hill.

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Journey to Space 3D brings audience members along on an E-ticket ride of exploration to the red planet.

Ewan McGregor is the voice of Humpback Whales 3D. Not that the whales aren’t significant enough in their own right, but Obi-Wan narrating means we’re dealing with serious power brokers here. Power brokers who know a good whale story when they see it.

MOCA 250 S. Grand Ave., (213) 621-2766 or moca.org.

March 17, 7 p.m.: The future fringe and explosive underground of the African-American experience are on display in the

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Walt Disney Concert Hall 111 S. Grand Ave., (323) 850-2000 or laphil.com.

March 18, 8 p.m.: The man, the myth, the legend: Herbie Hancock.

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March 14, 2016

18 Downtown News

TWITTER: @ DOWNTOWNNEWS

March 14, 2016

March 14, 2016

DT

CLASSIFIEDS REAL ESTATE RESIDENTIAL

To place a classified ad in the Downtown News please call 213-481-1448, or go to DowntownNews.com Deadline classified display and line ads are Thursday at 12pm.

FORfor RENT All submissions are subject to federal and California fair housing laws, which make it illegal to indicate in any advertisement any preference, limitation, or discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, ancestry, familial status, source of income or physical or mental disability. We will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. All persons are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised are available on an equal opportunity basis.

LEGAL

AUTOS & RECREATIONAL

FOR RENT

the LOFT expert!

CIVIL SUMMONS LOFTS FOR SALE

TheLoftExpertGroup.com Downtown since 2002

Bill Cooper

213.598.7555 FOR RENT

LOFT/UNFURNISHED

OLD BANK District The original Live/Work Lofts from $1,500 Cafes, Bars, Shops, Galleries, Parking adjacent. Pets no charge Call 213.253.4777 LAloft.com

EMPLOYMENT RESTAURANT/HOTEL JOIN THE SPRINGTIME CAFE’ FAMILY. Now Hiring Cashiers, Delivery People and Kitchen Help. Shawn (858) 337-8445 Nima (619) 488-7504

AUTO SALES

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DowntownNews.com

Downtown News 19

DOWNTOWNNEWS.COM

SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES CASE NO. YD 021506 PLAINTIFF: PHALA YOUNG VS DEFENDANTS: RANDY YOUNG To the person who received this “Request for Order”: if you wish to respond to this “Request for Order”, you must file a “Responsive Declaration to Request for Order” (form FL-320) and serve a copy on the other parties at least at least nine (9) court days before the hearing date unless the court has ordered a shorter period of time. You do not have to pay a filing fee to file the “Responsive Declaration to Request for Order” (form FL-320) or any other declaration including an “Income and Expense Declaration” (form FL-150) or “Financial Statement” (Simplified) (form FL-155).

The name and address of the court is: Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles 825 Maple Avenue Torrance, CA 90503 Case Number: YD021506 Dated: Dec. 28, 2015 Hearing Date: May 12, 2016 Hearing Time: 8:30 Hearing Department: SWH Hearing Room: 180 The name, address, telephone number, and fax number of defendant’s attorney or without an attorney is: Randy Young 28634 Bay Meadows Avenue Moreno Valley, CA 92555 Pub. 02/29, 03/07, 03/14, and 03/21/2016.

TM

Downtown since 2002

Bill Cooper 213.598.7555 TheLoftExpertGroup.com DRE # 01309009

Bill Cooper 213.598.7555

TheLoftExpertGroup.com BRE #01309009

Voted BEST Downtown Residential Real Estate Agent!

Very large 3 bdrm.

2 bath, 2 car garage $2500/mo OLD WORLD Charm. Olympic and Highland. Very large 3 bdrm. 2 bath, 2 car garage. Private fenced yard. All appliances included, Stove, refrigerator, washer and dryer, carpet & drapes $2500/mo. 323-934-5666.

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On Select Spa Treatments or Massages $49 each

• LEASING NOW $2,200-$3,350 • PRIVATE PARKING • 12-14 FT. CEILINGS • ARTS DISTRICT

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Monthly from $795+ utilities paid.

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SPACES FOR RENT

Your number 1 source for Loft sales, rentals and development!

DowntownNews.com

IN FASHION DISTRICT

Live/Work Space $1.00/sqft.

Office Space ......$1.25/sqft.

Industrial ............$1.00/sqft.

Stores to Rent (213) 622-9513

Children’s Performing Group

Sunshine Generation Singing, dancing, performing and fun!

For boys & girls ages 3 and up!

SunshineGenerationLA.com 909-861-4433

Is your teen experiencing • School problems?

• Conflict at home or with friends?

Adolescent support group now forming Ages 13-17 Low fee

Call Marney Stofflet, LCSW

(323) 662-9797

4344 Fountain Ave. (at Sunset), Suite A Los Angeles, CA 90029

Los Angeles Union Station Master Plan Program Environmental Impact Report PUBLIC SCOPING MEETING

Join Our Professional Live/Work Community of Startups and Entrepreneurs in the High-Tech, Entertainment, Fashion, Legal, Finance, Consulting, Real Estate, Advertising Industries and More

Touring Daily 877-338-1010 1010wilshire.com stay@1010wilshire.com 1010 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90017 ASK ABOUT OUR NOW MOVE-IN RENTING SPECIALS! For Filming & Events: filmingandevents @ 1010wilshire.com Also visit our Oceanside property at 1010oceanside.com

Fully Furnished All-Inclusive Turn-Key Suites

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) is the Lead Agency responsible for preparing the Program Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) for the Los Angeles Union Station Master Plan in compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The intent of the PEIR is to evaluate and disclose the environmental impacts of the Master Plan. The Master Plan was developed with three programmatic goals: transit optimization, destination, and connectivity. Through completion of the Master Plan, and associated PEIR, a comprehensive roadmap will be provided for the station. This roadmap respects Union Stations architectural heritage and preserves its functionality as a multi-modal transit center through the 21st Century. Current transit operations will be improved; future transit growth will be accommodated; unused and underutilized spaces in the historic station will be revitalized; entitled development opportunities will be managed; and connectivity to surrounding neighborhoods, between transit modes and through the station will be improved.

Learn about the project and share your thoughts on the scope and content of the information addressed in the PEIR. Thursday, March 31, 2016 6pm-8pm Metro Headquarters, One Gateway Plaza, 3rd oor Board Room, Los Angeles, California 90012 Spanish and Mandarin translation provided. Other ADA accommodations and translations available by calling 213-922-2499 at least 72 hours in advance.

Live/Work - Up to 67% Tax Deductible

Voted Best Rooftop in Downtown L.A.

Scoping materials and information on where to submit comments will be available at the meeting and on Metro’s website (www.metro.net/lausmp). Comments on the content of the PEIR will be accepted through April 19, 2016 no later than 5:00 pm at ADDRESS and CONTACT FOR COMMENTS: Elizabeth Carvajal, Metro Transportation Planning Manager Union Station Master Plan One Gateway Plaza, M/S 99-23-4 Los Angeles, CA 90012 Email: lausmp@metro.net

CNS#2855889

TWITTER: @ DOWNTOWNNEWS

20 Downtown News

March 14, 2016

DWP, 5

Downtown, it’s not just big business anymore!

It’s our business to make you comfortable... at home, downtown. Corporate and long term residency Call Now Fo is accommodated in high style at the Towers Apartments. Contemporary singles, studio, one r bedroom and two bedroom apartment homes provide fortunate residents with a courteous full service lobby attendant, heated pool, spa, complete fitness center, sauna and recreation room Move-In Spec with kitchen. Beautiful views extend from the Towers’ lofty homes in the sky. Mountain vistas and ial slender skyscrapers provide an incredible back drop to complement your decor. Far below are a host of businesses s ready to support your pampered downtown lifestyle. With spectacular cultural events nearby, even the most demanding tastes are satisfied. Downtown, it’s not just big business anymore. Visit the Towers Apartments today.

GRAND TOWER

255 South Grand Avenue Leasing Information 213 229 9777 Community Amenities: ~ 24 Hr. Manned Lobby ~ Concierge ~ Pool / Spa / Saunas ~ Fitness Center ~ Gas BBQ Grills ~ Recreation Room

Re New no ly va ted

Apartment Amenities: ~ Refrigerator, Stove, Microwave & Dishwasher (most units) ~ Central Air Conditioning & Heating ~ Balconies (most units)

On-site: ~ Dry Cleaners / Dental Office / Restaurants

PROMENADE TOWERS

123 South Figueroa Street Leasing Information 213 617 3777 Community Amenities: ~ 24 Hr. Manned Lobby ~ Pool / Spa / BBQ Grills ~ Fitness Center ~ Covered Parking

Apartment Amenities: ~ Refrigerator, Stove & Dishwasher ~ Central Air & Heating ~ Solariums and/or Balconies

On-Site: ~ Convenience Store / Beauty Salon

MUSEUM TOWER

225 South Olive Street Leasing Information 213 626 1500 Community Amenities: ~ 24 Hr. Manned Lobby ~ Concierge ~ Pool / Spa / Saunas ~ Fitness Center ~ Gas BBQ Grills ~ Recreation Room

Apartment Amenities: ~ Refrigerator, Stove, Microwave & Dish washer (most units) ~ Central Air & Heating ~ Balconies (most units)

8 7 7 - 2 65 - 714 6

TOWERS T H E

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RESIDENCES: SINGLES • STUDIO • ONE BEDROOM • TWO BEDROOM

Road, but few know about it. Instead, if you mention the DWP, more people will recall the spectacular 2014 Westwood pipe burst that unleashed 20 million gallons of water and almost turned UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion into Noah’s Basketball Court. Or they’ll mention the debacle after the DWP “upgraded” its billing system and thousands of people received outrageously inflated bills. Many of those who called for help ended up waiting hours on the phone to speak with a service representative.

Old Stuff The above problems speak to a key issue: The department has a lot of ancient stuff. The former billing system was based on the computer language COBOL, which is about as common in 2016 as Aramaic. Many DWP pipes, utility poles and other infrastructure are well beyond their use-by date.

That’s why, even though some protested the rate increase, the general feeling is that the DWP needs the money to make upgrades and take environmentally appropriate 21st-century steps.

Overshadowing all this is the T word, which for once doesn’t mean taco or Tuesday. Instead, it’s trust, and so much has gone wrong for so long that many Angelenos lack faith in the department.

Intriguingly, some of the distrust stems not from the DWP, but rather the aforementioned union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18. Its capo, D’Arcy, is a cross between an old-school political strongman and a professional wrestling action figure, always ready for a fight and unfazed at the prospect of picking the wrong side. In 2013 the IBEW spent heavily supporting Garcetti’s mayoral opponent, Wendy Greuel. Garcetti’s team effectively turned this against Greuel, and he campaigned on promises to reform the DWP. Then came the clash over a pair of mysterious department trusts, the Joint Safety Institute and Joint Training Institute, which somehow give department employees instruction beyond what the DWP already provides. Although about $40 million has gone to these bodies over a decade, D’Arcy fought tooth and nail against efforts to reveal how the taxpayer money has been spent. Hence the audit fracas.

The IBEW is separate from the department. Yet most Angelenos don’t realize this. They just hear about the fights and take it as more evidence that the DWP is a shambles.

That brings everything back to reform. With rates set to rise, there are issues far more significant than $40 million in trust money.

Despite his campaign pledge, Garcetti spent a couple years stepping softly over departmental reform, though he scored a notable victory in 2013 when he hammered out a labor contract that froze raises for DWP employees — who generally make significantly more than their counterparts in City Hall — for three years.

Now City Councilman Felipe Fuentes is taking the lead, and has proposed a ballot measure with a suite of changes, including creating a full-time, paid, professional board to oversee the department. He also wants to cap the amount of money the DWP gives to the city each year — it’s known as the transfer, and comes from a special tax that you, yes you, pay on your DWP bill. Additionally, Fuentes is pushing for the department to conduct its own hiring, rather than go through the city, a more cumbersome process.

Plenty of politicians are weighing in on the various elements, and also are expressing opinions on another crucial aspect: whether the mayor and/or City Council should have the power to hire and fire the GM and appoint the professional board. This brings up one of the golden rules of watchdog-ism: Be careful when the politicians are the ones talking about the best ways to eliminate political interference in a utility.

What’s best? Who knows? All of the above ideas have arguments and counter-arguments that can sound legit, and it’s all complicated by the fact that the DWP, over time, has become something of a Bizarro World due to inconsistency at the top.

At the Current Affairs Forum event Edwards noted that the department went through an amazing 19 GMs in 23 years.

This lack of stability is precisely what allowed the IBEW to gain such a powerful hand.

The fight is on, and in coming months the phrase “DWP reform” may be heard almost as often as “nut-job Trump.” What that reform means and how far it goes is anyone’s guess. Just be aware that, as is always the case, everyone involved has an agenda that likely benefits them more than the public. regardie@downtownnews.com