04-06-15

APRIL 6, 2015 I VOL. 44 I #14

Downtown Is

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THE VOICE OF DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES

2 Downtown News

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AROUND TOWN

Huizar Deputy to Helm Arts District BID

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he Arts District Los Angeles Business Improvement District is getting a new boss, though he’s not traveling far. Effective April 6, the organization that provides cleaning, safety and other services to the growing community will be helmed by Miguel Vargas, the legislative deputy for 14th District City Councilman José Huizar. Vargas, a University of Southern California graduate, has worked for Huizar for three years. Dilip Bhavnani, the chairman of the board of directors for the ADLA BID, described Vargas as “extremely hard working, dedicated and passionate — a person who is going to be an invaluable resource in the neighborhood.”

Huizar spokesman Rick Coca said the councilman is happy for Vargas’ upward move. “It’s great,” said Coca. “The councilmember has always been one to encourage people to take the next step forward, and this is clearly the next step forward.”

Grid-Style Parking Signs Coming to Historic Core

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eciphering parking signs in Los Angeles can be a chore, and an expensive one, as a misinterpretation can lead to a $70 tick-

TWITTER: @ DOWNTOWNNEWS et. City Council members apparently agree, and plans are in the works for 100 “grid-style” Downtown parking signs that are supposed to be more visual and intuitive. The first two signs went up on Friday, April 3, and the rest will go up along Spring and Main streets between Second and Ninth streets in the coming weeks. No existing signs will be taken down. The pilot signs feature a large grid with days of the week represented by columns; the columns are marked with times, and blocks of red and green denote when parking is permitted on any given day. The city has budgeted $20,000 from its special parking revenue fund for the program, which will last for six months. If it’s deemed a success, it could be expanded to other parts of Downtown, Hollywood, West L.A. and the San Fernando Valley. The grid-sign idea was initially introduced via a motion by Second District City Councilman Paul Krekorian last fall.

Soho House to Open at 1000 Santa Fe Ave.

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100-year-old brick building in the everexpanding Arts District will be home to Los Angeles’ second Soho House. The London-based, members-only club has zeroed in on a six-story, 1917 structure at 1000 S. Santa Fe Ave., according to multiple sources familiar with the project. Allison Wagner, Soho House’s North American communications director, who would not confirm which building the company will move into, told Los Angeles Downtown News that the project is slated to open in 2016. The other local Soho House is in West Hollywood. The 62,000-square-foot

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edifice is two blocks south of the Ford Factory building, which San Francisco real estate giant Shorenstein Properties bought last April for $37 million. It is also near businesses including Besta and Stumptown Coffee. According to The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported a Soho House coming to the Arts District, the project will include a rooftop pool and artist studio rooms where guests may stay for weeks or months. Soho House was founded in 1995 in London. Memberships range from $1,000, for those under 27, to $2,800 a year.

Prices for the Downtown project have not been announced.

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he March 31 story “Decline of Spring Street Park Frustrates Neighbors” incorrectly stated that the organization Friends of Spring Street Park runs the facility. It is actually run by the city Department of Recreation and Parks, and the nonprofit Friends of Spring Street Park raises money to supplement services provided by the city. Additionally, park rangers monitor the facility and have coordinated their patrols with the LAPD. Many citations have also been issued.

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EDITORIALS

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April 6, 2015

Urban Scrawl by Doug Davis

What’s Next and Who’s Next on Grand Avenue?

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owntown Los Angeles is booming, with billion-dollar developments popping out of the ground in multiple locations. The Metropolis and Oceanwide Plaza complexes, both backed by Chinese money, are rising in South Park.

Hanjin International’s 73-story replacement for the Wilshire Grand is under construction at Seventh and Figueroa streets. While the value of the second phase of the J.W. Marriott Hotel may “only” be $500 million, it is now in the works at L.A. Live, thanks to developer Anschutz Entertainment Group and an improving tourist market.

It’s a different situation on some publicly owned land on Grand Avenue. There, developer Related Cos. recently suffered its latest setback in the effort to build a mammoth project designed by Frank Gehry. While we hope for the best, the current situation and a long history of difficulty make it hard to know if the project just east of Walt Disney Concert Hall will ever move forward.

Los Angeles Downtown News last month reported that Related in January stopped working with its development partner, SBE Entertainment, on the $850 million effort. This has thrown the project into question. SBE, owned by nightlife impresario Sam Nazarian, was both a financial partner and the planned operator of the complex’s SLS Hotel.

A Related representative last month told the Grand Avenue Committee, the joint city-county panel overseeing the project, that the search is underway for both a new equity partner and a new hotel operator.

However, even in this boom period there is no guarantee that the company will find what it seeks.

What exactly caused the split with SBE? Related hasn’t specified, which is frustrating considering the development parcels are owned by the taxpayers.

An SBE representative told Downtown News that it is considering legal options in the wake of a breakup it described as not justified.

Every development encounters hurdles, and projects the size of the Grand Avenue plan necessarily have it more difficult than others — it’s the ultimate risk-reward play.

However, the Related-SBE split comes in the wake of numerous past troubles for the project. After all, Related was selected by the city and county in 2004 to develop the land. Millions of dollars were spent on what was initially a $2 billion proposal. The recession took hold before a groundbreaking could occur.

Related has a good track record, and has worked to develop some of the parcels it was awarded. One plot was transferred to Eli Broad, and his $140 million art museum will open in September. Related also last October opened the Emerson, a $120 million apartment complex just south of the coming museum.

We’d like to think that Related can succeed, and as this page has noted before, the company stuck around at a time when other developers might have thrown up their hands and walked away. In addition to the financial downturn, dealing with the multiple government entities that oversee the parcels is no easy feat.

Still, details are in short supply at this point. We expect Related to provide more information, and to do so soon, on what went wrong, why it won’t imperil the project, and what will happen next.

Spring Street Park Problems — Follow the Money

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he Spring Street Park should be a jewel of the Historic Core.

The city spent $8 million to buy and turn a former parking lot between the El Dorado and the Rowan lofts into a community asset. The infrastructure and the ingredients for success exist: There’s a grassy hill and plenty of benches for relaxing, as well as a small toddler’s playground for the increasing number of families in the area. There is a dog run and open space for concerts or public events.

However, as Los Angeles Downtown News reported last week, instead of thriving, the park is deteriorating. There are a number of problems, some related to societal issues that won’t be resolved any time soon. Still, the most frustrating element concerns money: Although the city has received the $250,000 that should be used to hire security at the park, the facility does not have the uniformed staffing that is required to keep visitors comfortable.

This isn’t quite a travesty, but it is close. While the city continues to fumble the effort that could lead to permanent security guards — they’d likely need to be privately hired, as there are not enough Department of Recreation and Park rangers to permanently patrol the facility — the conditions are worsening and keeping some neighbors away. Residents of the adjacent buildings have reported seeing people urinate in the bushes. One man told Downtown News that he found used syringes near the playground.

City officials, including the office of 14th District Councilman José Huizar, need to get the funds flowing immediately.

The situation is frustrating because the Historic Core is woefully short of public recreation space. The park was first broached in 2009, and then-City Councilwoman Jan Perry helped secure the Quimby fees (paid by developers for the creation of green space) to buy the nearly one-acre plot. The park opened to fanfare in June 2013.

That date is important because it is also when Hanjin International, the developer of the $1 billion replacement for the Wilshire Grand Hotel, gave the city $3.8 million to be used for various projects as part of its community benefits package (major developments frequently include the allocation of funds to better the surrounding community). According to Huizar’s office, the money went into a trust fund so it could later be dispersed.

Why hasn’t the $250,000 promised for the Spring Street Park reached the facility? That’s a great question, and one that has not been satisfactorily answered. The topic of moving the money was taken up by a City Council committee in October, at a time when it was already long overdue. That came one month after a representative of Friends of the Spring Street Park, a nonprofit that raises money to supplement services provided by the city, had told Downtown News about the need and impending addition of a fulltime security guard. Although Rec and Park rangers have worked with the LAPD and have issued citations, there is not enough staff or money to meet current needs at the site.

A spokesman for Huizar said the delay stems from bureaucracy and the difficulties of moving funds through city channels. This is, in a word, ridiculous. Hanjin wrote the check nearly two years ago, and if a council committee can’t get the funds flowing, then who can?

The plan calls for security personnel to patrol the park from sunrise to sunset. This is vital, because a uniformed, trained guard could step in when someone is using drugs, urinating in public or engaging in another illegal activity. A guard could remind the people who let their dogs off the leash and onto the grassy hill that doing so violates park rules. With visible security on site, some of those who have stopped using the park might return.

A guard’s job is not to keep homeless individuals out of the park. The Downtown News story quoted an LAPD officer who pointed out that some Skid Row residents come to the Spring Street Park so they can escape streets that are increasingly violent. As long as homeless users abide the same rules everyone else does, they deserve the right to stay.

The park should be clean, safe for all, and host concerts and other events that draw and unite residents, workers and visitors to Downtown. If things don’t change in the very near future, then the Central City runs the risk of squandering what should be a great addition to the landscape. The worse the park gets, the harder it will be to bring users back.

Get the money flowing and get the security guards to Spring Street Park. Do it now, before the opportunity to have a prime public gathering space is wasted.

April 6, 2015

Downtown News 5

DOWNTOWNNEWS.COM

Slow Going at Shuttered Park and Plaza City Begins Hunt for Developer at Angels Knoll, But Land Will Likely Remain Fenced Off

By Eddie Kim n July 2013, the small Angels Knoll park on Bunker Hill and a public plaza at Fourth and Hill streets across from Grand Central Market were both fenced off. The park’s green grass died and turned brown. The plaza, which once drew neighborhood workers and residents to chat and eat lunch, still sits behind an expanse of chain link.

The closures stemmed from the dissolution of Community Redevelopment Agencies across California. The Los Angeles CRA owned the properties, and after its demise a so-called CRA successor agency began the convoluted process of selling its hundreds of assets. Most will be sold to private developers on the open market.

Given the growth in Downtown Los Angeles, the plaza and park remain among the agency’s most valuable properties.

Thus, it is one of just 10 sites around the city, and the only one in Downtown, where government officials are seeking to have a hand in the sales process. In January, the city entered into an agreement with the CRA successor agency to essentially be the middleman for a sale to a private developer.

That means a sort of mixed bag for Downtown. On one hand, the city can now help determine what gets built and who builds it.

On the other hand, the agreement lasts for three years, plus a possible 18-month extension, and the properties could remain fenced off during that time, even as the rest of Downtown booms.

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photo by Gary Leonard

The plaza at Fourth and Hill streets across from Grand Central Market has been closed for nearly two years. Although the city is starting to look at selling the site to a developer, there are no plans to remove the fencing.

“It’s one of those iconic pieces of land in town and it now has to be approached with a collective agreement,” said Hamid Behdad, a developer and vice chairman of the board that is overseeing the CRA successor agency’s property plan. “If the city has a good idea for the best development and can make an effort to facilitate a developer who has the same vision, it could be a great collaboration.

If things go south halfway in, well, that’s another story.”

Tall and Dense The site was once supposed to be the home of a third California Plaza skyscraper, following One Cal Plaza (completed in 1985) and Two Cal (1992). Those plans were felled by the reces-

sion of the early 1990s. In later years the park became a respite for Bunker Hill workers and was a key location in the film (500) Days of Summer. The plaza, also next to a Metro Red Line station, drew a mix of office workers on lunch break and homeless people.

Local real estate experts say it is one of the last major development sites on Bunker Hill, which is why the city wants a say in what happens there, said Josh Rohmer, a principal project coordinator with the City Administrative Office. A working group composed of multiple city officials and departments, including Continued on page 6

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the City Council, the CRA successor agency and Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office, is determining what would be best there.

“We will work closely with local elected officials to craft what the goals are,” Rohmer said. “Hypothetically, a councilmember could suggest the site is best for affordable housing. Then we could put together a [Request for Proposals] to attract an affordable housing developer, for example.”

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The Angels Knoll park near the Cal Plaza office complex also remains off limits. The once green grass has turned brown.

The city hopes to complete the initial assessment and launch a public bidding process for the land by the end of summer, Rohmer said. It’s unclear how much the plot will fetch, but early reviews suggest it is “north of $20 million,” according to Rohmer. It was originally acquired in 1961 for $2.7 million, according to CRA reports.

In the meantime, Downtowners will probably have to expect the hillside and plaza to remain shuttered. The city could technically reopen the sites, but spending money to maintain the park and plaza is not likely considering the land will, in theory, get sold in the near future, Rohmer noted. The city could consider partnering with area stakeholders, such as a business improvement district, to run and maintain the sites, but that depends on someone being willing to provide the money and resources.

Carol Schatz, president of the Downtown Center BID and the Central City Association, supports keeping the public spaces accessible, but expressed doubts about whether the BID or another group could afford to take on the responsibility.

“I’ve gotten complaints from stakeholders around there, but nothing much has happened,” Schatz said. “Obviously we need as much green space as we can get, but this is a future development site and [reopening] it may be a financial burden on the city or the BID. That’s something we need to carefully evaluate.”

Schatz is among those curious about what sort of project will be pursued on the site, noting that Downtown is deep in a development cycle that has 14,000 residential units being planned.

Both she and Behdad agree that whatever rises, it should be dense and tall.

“There’s already a lot of entitlements on that site, so whomever pays for the site has to understand it should be a maximum development,” Behdad said. “Is hotel and residential the best combo or hotel and commercial office? The market has to determine that.”

Fourteenth District City Councilman José Huizar, who will be a key player in the development discussion, expressed optimism that a diverse and inclusive project will arrive there.

“While we certainly want to see what proposals are brought forward for [the parcel], some sort of mixed-use high-rise development that provides linkage between Hill Street and California Plaza, as well as some public open or green space component, would be optimum,” Huizar wrote in an email.

The Angels Knoll development won’t be the only action at the intersection: Developer Equity Residential has announced plans to build a 33-story apartment tower across the street on a surface parking lot. The Chetrit Group, meanwhile, is aiming to open the renovated 11-story Clark Hotel, at 426 S. Hill St., this year. eddie@downtownnews.com

April 6, 2015

Downtown News 7

DOWNTOWNNEWS.COM

Fifth and Broadway Rite Aid Gets Probation, Fine, in Wake of State Investigation

A state Board of Pharmacy investigation of prescription drug sales and refills at the Rite Aid at 500 S. Broadway has resulted in a five-year probation settlement. The store was also fined $18,800.

Pharmacy Must Reimburse State and Post Public Notice of Probationary Status

By Donna Evans he Rite Aid at Fifth Street and Broadway, which Calif. Attorney General Kamala Harris accused last year of excessively furnishing tens of thousands of painkillers and anti-anxiety pills to customers, has been placed on probation for five years.

According to a Jan. 28 settlement with the state Board of Pharmacy that recently became public, Rite Aid may keep its license and continue to fill prescriptions as long as it pays $18,800 to reimburse the board for the cost of its three-year investigation, posts a sign alerting the public of its probationary status, follows all state and federal laws, reports to the board quarterly, and carries out a community service program valued at $15,000. The latter effort must provide healthcare-related services to the Downtown area.

The previous pharmacist-in-charge at 500 S. Broadway, Anne Chung, surrendered her license following the board’s December 2014 decision to suspend it for 90 days and to place her on probation for five years, said Virginia Herold, executive officer of the Board of Pharmacy. Chung is no longer able to practice in California, she added.

The disciplinary action has also been sent

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to a national database, so other boards of pharmacy across the country have access to the information if Chung applies for a license elsewhere.

The settlement resolves a 41-page complaint that Harris filed against the store and Chung in March 2014. Harris accused the Rite Aid of illegally dispensing tens of thousands of pills of hydrocodone, better known as the painkiller Vicodin, and anti-anxiety medication such as Xanax and Ativan, from 2009 to 2012. The complaint also accused the store and Chung of subverting an investigation by the Board of Pharmacy, as well as unprofessional conduct, gross immorality, incompetence, gross negligence and the “clearly excessive furnishing” of controlled substances.

The complaint cited numerous instances of prescription refills that appeared to be for more than personal use. One section of the complaint concerned a patient identified as R.P., who between Dec. 27, 2010, and Jan. 26, 2012, filled prescriptions for 2,045 hydrocodone pills at the Fifth and Broadway Rite Aid. Robert L. Stein, a professor of Practice for Pharmacy Law & Ethics at the KGI School of Pharmacy in Claremont, said in an email that he believes the Jan. 28 decision is rather “gen-

photo by Gary Leonard

erous” given the “enormity of the violations.”

He pointed to a 2013 Board of Pharmacy case against Thang Tran, who worked at Pacifica Pharmacy in Huntington Beach. The board found that Tran profited from repeatedly filling prescriptions, and subsequently revoked his and the pharmacy’s licenses.

“That case occurred prior to the Rite Aid case being adjudicated,” Stein said. “Yet, under similar facts and circumstances, Rite Aid was sanctioned far less severely. It seems the board was more deferential to a chain drug store than they would have been had the pharmacy been independent.”

Herold defended the settlement, saying it is not too lenient and that it has public components fitting the severity of the case.

“We think we got a good settlement,” Herold said. “They have to publicly post a sign that says they’re on probation — that serves as really good consumer awareness and will probably hamper sales at that location. We’re not trying to punish, we’re trying to protect the public.”

Herold added that the Board of Pharmacy felt Chung, the former pharmacist in charge, was the greater problem in this particular case.

Last November, when asked about the case against her, Chung refused to speak to a Downtown News reporter at her home in Mar Vista.

Workshop Coming In the wake of the ruling, and ongoing complaints about the sale of prescription drugs on the streets of Downtown, including near the entrance of the Fifth and Broadway Rite Aid, Herold said the Board of Pharmacy is working with City Attorney Mike Feuer’s office to hold an educational program for Downtown and Skid Row-area pharmacists. The April 30 workshop is intended to educate them on their responsibilities and what the law says in regards to controlled substance prescriptions, she said.

Feuer told Downtown News that the goal of the workshop is to focus on the problem of unlawful dispensing of medication, and to try to root it out before it sparks litigation.

Continued on page 11

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8 Downtown News

April 6, 2015

Downtown Is Blowing Up Movies Have Been Destroying the Central City for Decades. A New Video Game Takes Things Higher

By Eddie Kim olice cars careen down Figueroa Street, throwing sparks as masked gunmen rain down bullets from nearby buildings. Suddenly, a rocket-propelled grenade is fired — it hits an armored truck with a splash of flames and a plume of smoke, sending it tumbling off the Hope Street overpass. A helicopter hovers overhead, unloading its arsenal in a fruitless attempt to take down two robbers who are ziplining between skyscrapers.

These aren’t scenes from the shoot for a big-budget film, a common sight in Downtown Los Angeles. Instead, the explosive action comes courtesy of a new video game, one that features a meticulously modeled Downtown that players can wreak havoc in again and again and again.

Battlefield Hardline, developed by Visceral Games in conjunction with DICE and published by Electronic Arts, came out last month as the newest entry in the Battlefield series, which debuted in 2002. It is also the latest addition to the entertainment industry’s long-running love of destroying Downtown — just consider the community serving as an urban wasteland after a biological disaster in 1971’s The Omega Man, or U.S. Bank Tower being blown to bits by aliens in the 1996 spectacular Independence Day. The big difference here, obviously, is that Battlefield Hardline is a video game, not a film. Yet while it may be the most precise reproduction of modern-day Downtown in the video game world, it’s not the first. The lauded Grand Theft Auto V, which came out in 2013, featured “Downtown Los Santos,” with distinctive neighborhoods such as “Pillbox Hill” and “Mission Row” (get it?) intact.

Then there’s the impressive 2011 game L.A. Noire, which used scans of historical maps and photos to create a stunning and vi-

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image courtesy EA

Cops and robbers face off to explosive results in the streets of a digital Downtown in the new video game Battlefield Hardline. The game’s designers mapped out Downtown using photos and satellite imagery.

brant reproduction of late 1940s Downtown.

Battlefield Hardline takes place in numerous locations, not just Los Angeles, but the Downtown locale is one of the most prominent. In it, players can run guns blazing through Bunker Hill, the Financial District, the Historic Core and even parts of the Industrial District.

Evan Champlin, a senior multiplayer level designer for Visceral, played a key role in designing the game’s Downtown section.

He gave a preview of Battlefield Hardline last June, when he revealed a show-stopping portion of the Downtown level at the

E3 video game convention held at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

“It had to be urban and had to be large enough to have lots of vehicles, big [gameplay] events and a huge caper sequence,” Champlin recalled. “It felt like a natural choice to have it happen a few blocks from the convention’s actual location.”

Inspired by Michael Mann’s L.A. heist classic Heat — which had a mammoth shoot-out scene in the Financial District — Champlin began sketching out how a Downtown L.A. map would work in the game. He even noted the construction cranes sprouting

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April 6, 2015

Downtown News 9

DOWNTOWNNEWS.COM

image courtesy EA

In the game, Downtown is host to shootouts, car chases and bad guys ziplining between skyscrapers.

around the Central City, an observation that bore fruit in a segment in which a massive crane buckles and falls into the KPMG Tower at Fourth and Hope streets, ripping a hole into the facade that players can escape into.

Champlin and the rest of the Downtown level design team, who were based in Redwood City, near Palo Alto, used satellite imagery from Google Earth to get precise measurements and scale data. A few staffers also flew down to Los Angeles to shoot video around Downtown.

They spent hundreds of hours getting the architectural and structural details right.

“We had artists take photos and did research to see how different surfaces reacted to light,” said Chee Fong, who also helped design the Downtown level. “I think, holistically, we nailed it.”

Using so much energy and resources to

study and re-create Downtown’s streets and buildings had an unexpected upside for Fong and Champlin, who haven’t spent much time in the neighborhood.

“When we were staying at the Bonaventure hotel for E3, I would go for runs on Bunker Hill and I didn’t need a map,” Champlin said, laughing.

Popular Setting Such realistic depictions of urban settings are becoming increasingly common in video games, thanks to improving technology and the availability of digital maps and images.

While Downtown has been scaled down and tweaked to be more gameplay-friendly in Hardline, it’s eerie to navigate the dim segment of Lower Grand Avenue and pop out to see the towers of California Plaza looming overhead,

image courtesy EA

Even the freeways in Downtown get in the game. The design team for Battlefield Hardline did all of the Downtown work from its home base in Redwood City, near Palo Alto.

just as they would in real life.

There’s a reason that Downtown continues to be the setting for so many TV shows, movies and other forms of media, said Leo Braudy, a film critic and professor at the University of Southern California. L.A. is “everyone’s second city,” he said, and its iconic imagery — think freeways, the jagged skyline and wide beaches — continues to be seen across the world.

“It really dates back to the 1950s when, for the first time in a concerted way, films were leaving studio backlots to shoot in the real city,” Braudy said. “There’s a sense of L.A. as a mythic other place for people, and they have ideas of its geography without even having been here.”

That involves prominent landmarks, and history bears out Braudy’s assertion. In the 1955

version of War of the Worlds, for one, Martians blow up City Hall.

Both Champlin and Fong notice the Downtown backdrop everywhere now, saying they recognize sites in commercials and movies that are shot here. Champlin’s hope is that Hardline has the same effect on gamers that Mann’s Heat did on him when he was younger.

“I’m trying to evoke some of the same fantasies I grew up with about L.A. and its Downtown,” Champlin said. “Maybe I’m building that up for someone else now, too. There’s glamor and the not-so-glamorous, a dirty edge to the city. To capture that spectrum of life in a game is great.”

Just beware of the falling crane. eddie@downtownnews.com

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April 6, 2015

Sweet Roses and a Sour Mess Awards Honor a Dozen Downtown Projects; Bunker Hill Clutter Gets a Citrus Smack

photo courtesy Downtown Breakfast Club

The clutter in the rear of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was zapped by the Downtown Breakfast Club last week.

By Donna Evans or a number of Downtown projects, it was the best of times. For one part of the Music Center, it was the worst of times.

That was the situation at the 35th annual Roses & Lemon Awards. The event, hosted by the Downtown Breakfast Club, took place Thursday, April 2, at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel.

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The organization comprised of several dozen Downtown business leaders honored a host of area projects, restaurants and even a music festival. It also wagged its collective finger at the recipient of the sour citrus: The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion storage area facing Hope and First streets, which the club deemed an unsightly, tarp-covered mess among the splendor of the Music Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall and the coming museum The Broad.

“Can someone please tell the Music Center that there are storage facilities in and around Downtown and they shouldn’t be putting their [stuff ] all over the back yard,” quipped club member Hal Bastian, who handed out the Lemon.

The situation at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion “won” over Lemon nominees that included Downtown’s confusing sidewalk detours, the as-yet unidentified arson suspect who torched the Da Vinci apartment complex and bike lanes that perilously overlap with bus lanes.

Joan Cumming, a spokeswoman for the Music Center, said that performing arts companies use that portion of the complex to stage productions.

“Being a theatre [sic] is no excuse, I know, for being unsightly, but the world of the perform-

The Made in America Festival, which drew tens of thousands of people to Downtown on Labor Day weekend, was one of a dozen recipients of a Rose prize from the group of business leaders.

ing arts, with its large scale scenery, sometimes requires additional work space for construction and temporary storage when more than one production is being performed,” Cumming said in an email. “We are very aware of how this sometimes looks, but it is the look of a working loading dock.”

She said the eventual renovation of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion will remedy the situation.

Housing, Stores and More Rose awards were handed out to a dozen Downtown entities, with winners divided into several categories. Recipients in the “Urban Essentials” retail category were the Arts District Co-Op, a series of vendors and events that ignited a once sleepy corner of the community with streams of shoppers, musical acts and food trucks, and LA Boulders, an indoor climbing gym, also in the Arts District. A third Rose went to the Ace Hotel, which has enlivened the southern end of Broadway with a restaurant, bars and a revamped historic theater.

Honored in the “Home Sweet Home” category were the renovated Rosslyn Hotel Apartments, lauded for affordable housing and

developed by SRO Housing Corporation; The Elysian, a City West market-rate conversion of the old Metropolitan Water District headquarters created by the Downtown firm Linear City; and the Barker Block, a for-sale property, also in the Arts District. It was developed by CityView in partnership with Blackstone.

Other Roses went to Rising Realty Partners’ refurbishment of the PacMutual complex in the Financial District and South Park’s lauded restaurant Faith & Flower. Another food-oriented prize went to the Arts District’s Zinc Café & Market.

In a category dubbed the Rose Garden, all nominees received a prize. The recipients were the upgrade of Grand Central Market, the Made in America music festival held at Grand Park, and the Broadway Dress Rehearsal, 14th District City Councilman José Huizar’s effort to reduce vehicular traffic on Broadway and prioritize pedestrians.

“These are all great ideas that we would like to see more of,” said presenter and Breakfast Club member Shirley Spinelli.

Photos of the Rose Winners are at downtownnews.com. donna@downtownnews.com

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April 6, 2015

Restaurant Buzz

By Eddie Kim ombo’s Away: After the adored Mid-City restaurant Campanile closed in 2012, one of the biggest questions was: Where would chef Mark Peel land? The answer is, of course, Downtown! On March 26, Peel opened his seafood-centric eatery Bombo in Grand Central Market.

Highlights include the Seattle Fish Stew (with clams, mussels, shrimp and cod in a lobster broth), seared yellowtail on fried rice, fish and chips, and meatier items such as fried chicken and braised short ribs. One cool aspect of Bombo is that most of Peel’s dishes are cooked in gleaming steam jacket kettles, which line the counter in front of diners.

Bombo is open from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. but will expand hours for dinner service soon.

At 317 S. Broadway or bombofoods.com.

B

Feeling Buzzed: In 2013, Charn Bak opened Barista Society in U.S. Bank Tower, giving bleary-eyed office workers a much-needed pick-me-up. Bak closed the top-notch espresso and coffee joint earlier this year for a remodel, but another outpost has opened in the East Portal of Union Station. The menu in the glassy, marble-clad space features the usual suspects: espresso drinks, pour-over coffee and pastries from Mid-City’s SK Donuts. Most of the beans are being roasted on-site, but Bak said the shop will highlight some third-party coffees (such as Stumptown and Blue Bottle) as well. Hours are 7 a.m.-7 p.m. but will expand with the April 14 official opening to 5 a.m.-9 p.m. on weekdays and 6 a.m.-7 p.m. on weekends. It is the first of four locations that Bak hopes to open around L.A. this year.

At 800 N. Alameda St., (213) 626-6206 or baristasociety.com.

Yes B.S.: Chef Ray Garcia’s restaurant Broken Spanish will soon occupy the former Rivera space in South Park, but he’s got a more casual taco joint to man in the meantime.

B.S. Taqueria, located in the old Mo-Chica space on Seventh Street, began serving its elevated take on Mexican snacks and tacos on April 2. The menu features items such as lemon-pepper chicken chicharrones, crisp “rice and beans” and tacos with unconventional fillings such as bologna with photo courtesy of Bombo tangy escabeche.

Chef Mark Peel mans the steam kettles at his B.S. Taqueria is curnew seafood-centric eatery Bombo, located in rently open from Grand Central Market.

11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. on weekdays, though it will expand to weekends soon. Dinner service, from 5:30-11 p.m. daily, is scheduled to start April 20.

At 514 W. Seventh St., (213) 622-3744 or bstaqueria.com.

Still Winning: Arts District chef Ori Menashe hardly needs more accolades, considering his rustic Italian restaurant Bestia continues to be one of the toughest reservations in the city. Yet he’s got another award for the mantle, with Food & Wine magazine naming him one of the 10 Best New Chefs in the United States for 2015. It’s a bit of a strange choice, considering Bestia opened in late 2012, but it does add momentum to Menashe’s upcoming Middle Easternhued project in the Arts District at 500 Mateo St. Menashe was one of two California chefs on the list, with the other being Carlos Salgado of Costa Mesa’s red-hot Tacos María.

At 2121 E. Seventh Pl., (213) 514-5724 or bestiala.com.

Got juicy food news? Email eddie@downtownnews.com

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“The reselling on streets, the fraudulent prescriptions, they fuel ongoing addictions and create a negative effect on the community,” Feuer said. “Unlawful dispensing of pharmaceutical medication leads to criminal conduct and nuisance in neighborhoods that deserve better.”

The workshop is voluntary, Feuer noted, but he expects it to be well attended. In addition to his office and the Board of Pharmacy, the Los Angeles Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Historic Downtown Los Angeles Business Improvement District are helping put it together.

Stein expects the workshop will be a net positive for the community. However, he thinks other steps should also be taken, including having pharmacists consult the state’s Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES) database, which provides the history of the kinds of drugs that have been dispensed to a patient. If pharmacists see that the same medication was issued recently, or that multiple prescriptions have been issued by multiple prescribers in a relatively short time span — a practice commonly referred to as “doctor shopping” — the pharmacist should contact the prescriber and try to confirm the pills are, indeed, for a legitimate medical condition, Stein told Downtown News last November.

According to the Board of Pharmacy’s settlement with Rite Aid, the store at Fifth and Broadways could have its license revoked if it violates its probation.

Ashley Flower, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania-based chain, said Rite Aid is pleased with the outcome of the investigation and is also glad to have closure on the matter.

“We have implemented measures to ensure the store is in compliance with the terms of the stipulated settlement as well as all local, state and federal laws,” she said in a prepared statement. “In addition, the company will continue to actively collaborate with local authorities and community officials to ensure we are doing our part to provide a safe environment for our associates, customers and the community.” donna@downtownnews.com

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April 6, 2015

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Tens of thousands of cans of food will be stacked in imaginative ways in Downtown this week. Past creations for Canstruction L.A. include a tower of Dole pineapple cans by the firms NBBJ and Thornton Thomasetti, a replica of the Rolling Stones’ logo by LARGE Architecture and HKS Inc, and Gensler and Buro Happold’s “Minion Canon.”

e d u t i t t A o D A Cansa

t Doubles a a h T n n io it ib h Ex ns to Downtow r tu e R r e is ra Food Fund

By Channing Sargent ward-winning architecture and food drives are usually mutually exclusive. However, they come together in Downtown Los Angeles this week.

On Thursday, April 9, the annual Canstruction L.A. show will open in the Farmers and Merchants Bank Building in the Historic Core. For three days, the creations of 11 teams of designers, architects, builders and engineers will be on display.

The catch is that the large structures are made entirely out of cans of food. After the show closes on Saturday, the sculptures will be disassembled and the construction “materials” will be donated to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.

It is no simple endeavor. The teams spend dozens of hours or more planning and working on their creations. A jury of architecture, media and culinary experts will dispense prizes in categories including Best Meal, Structural Ingenuity and even Best Use of Labels.

The event by its nature sounds whimsical, and it is. However, there is a serious side as well: In 2014, Canstruction L.A. utilized and donated 27,249 pounds of food and raised $15,799.

“This year we expect a lot more, because we have more teams competing than ever before,” said Julie Taylor, vice chair of the Canstruction L.A. Steering Committee, which helps organize the event.

The exhibition’s local arm was born a decade ago, when Taylor learned about Canstruction New York. She contacted the organizers and asked who was staging it in Los Angeles. When she learned there was no local show, she stepped up.

For several years Canstruction L.A. bounced to various locations. Three years ago Taylor contacted the organizers of the Downtown Art Walk about working together. It was a success, and this week’s opening event coincides with the Downtown happening on the second Thursday of every month.

Canstruction actually starts the evening before Art Walk, with “build night.” That’s when the teams load in to the Old Bank District building with their supplies and drawings. They have 12

A

hours to complete their projects before public viewing opens at noon on Thursday.

“Build night is always incredibly satisfying,” said Claudia Imhof, an associate at KPFF Consulting Engineers, who will be participating this week. “With most of the projects my firm works on, we’re just doing the engineering, but someone else like a contracting firm is doing the actual build. But with Canstruction, we get to actually build it ourselves.”

Imhof’s team has an impressive record. In 2011, they won the Best Use of Labels competition with a structure called “CANopoly”: It was a giant replica of the portion of the Monopoly board featuring the community chest.

The chest appeared to be on the board with the lid open and tilting back. Imhof noted that the cans used to build the threedimensional chest had to be different sizes. Otherwise, she said, the perspective would be off. In addition, her team had to be very detailed with color to replicate the game board. For example, the border of the chest was one color, while the infill was another.

That’s not the only unique creation. Taylor said highlights over the years have included a giant Oscar statue made out of gold cans of tuna — it was dubbed “The aCANemy Awards.” Another year, a team built a can-made model of LAX. “Every year, we’re blown away by the level of talent showcased in these structures,” said Taylor.

Stacking Effect Build teams can be comprised of up to five people. Each team gets a 10-by-10-foot floor space. Taylor said some teams spend months planning, modeling and doing practice builds in anticipation of the night. Teams are responsible for supplying their own cans, the expense of which they can either raise money for or simply buy. Teams generally use anywhere from 3,000 to 6,000 cans in their structures, she said.

Cans utilized in the structures cannot be altered in any way, and original labels must be left intact and cannot be obscured.

All structures must be self-supporting, utilizing no load-bearing

materials other than the cans themselves.

John Durant of the architecture firm HNTB noted that there are numerous challenges beyond just design and weight. Cans by their nature are not a very stable building material.

“Some cans have a lip, some cans don’t,” said Durant, who this year is on the steering committee and is not building. “Some cans stack together differently, and some don’t stack at all.”

Still, Durant has found a way to work with the cans. He was part of a team from the firm NBBJ that won Canstruction awards in 2013 and 2014.

Durant said the process begins with using computer software to make a “can manifest” of the design. In 2013, he recalled, the team bought 200 different kinds of cans in various sizes, shapes and colors to determine which looked best and which was the easiest to stack. Last year, NBBJ’s structure “Pineapple Twist” featured a tower of Dole pineapple cans that twisted nearly 180 degrees. The tower was completely freestanding. Durant said that instead of structural support, it was cross-balanced for stability.

Canstruction can have unintended effects. Megan Dietz, from the firm LARGE Architecture, said she can’t go to a grocery store without studying cans on the shelf.

“I see them in a whole different light now,” said Dietz, whose team was recognized for a design modeled after the iconic Rolling Stones’ lip logo.

Finding the right shades of red for the lips and tongue in can labels, she noted, was an unexpected challenge.

The biggest surprise for Taylor is not that the crowds come out, but what they get to gander at.

“We’ve had UFOs and beautiful abstract things like a huge threaded screw,” Taylor said. “Every year we see sketches of what the teams plan to do and we wonder how are they ever going to build that out of cans.”

But somehow, every year, they do.

Canstruction L.A. runs Thursday, April 9, noon-10 p.m., and April 10-11, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. in the Farmers and Merchants Bank Building, 401 S. Main St. or canstructionla.com.

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April 6, 2015

Downtown News 13

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Water and Musical Power Los Angeles Master Chorale Artistic Director Grant Gershon (left) will guide the company through Tan Dun’s “Water Passion After St. Matthew” on April 11-12 at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

L.A. Master Chorale Brings Big Voices and 10 Illuminated Water Bowls to the Stage

By Heidi Kulicke he Los Angeles Master Chorale is known for its ability to have more than 100 voices come together in perfect harmony.

Over its 51-year existence, the group has won Grammys, released lauded albums and taken international tours.

This weekend, the Master Chorale and its longtime artistic director, Grant Gershon, will be joined onstage by some unlikely co-stars: 10 illuminated, sound-producing water bowls.

They will be placed there as the Master Chorale returns to a piece it first performed to acclaim more than a decade ago. On SaturdaySunday, April 11-12, the group will take the stage at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Downtown Los Angeles for composer Tan Dun’s “Water Passion After St. Matthew.”

The performance, an enchanting musical tribute to composer J.S. Bach, uses water as a musical medium. The 90-minute work carries the audience through an aural journey featuring moments of intense frenzy and calming silence. Tibetan finger bells, clashing river rocks and dramatic thunder sheets accompany traditional Chinese opera and various whispers, shouts and chants.

Water will take center stage as percussionists manipulate it through flowing, dripping, splashing and crashing motions in illuminated bowls.

The percussionists will be joined on stage by the Chorale, soprano and bass soloists, and a cellist and a violinist, among others.

T

Dun, an Oscar- and Grammy-winning composer, wrote “Water Passion” in 2000 as a commissioned tribute to Bach in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of his death. The Chorale first performed it in 2005 at Disney Hall.

A decade later, said Gershon, the experience still resonates.

“Of all the performances we’ve done, this is the one people ask us the most about,” said Gershon, now in his 14th season atop the Master Chorale. “It’s really satisfying to come back to this piece after being away from it for 10 years. Right away as I studied the score, my own experiences during this time away began to unlock new depths of the piece.”

When Gershon first conducted “Water Passion,” he said it was a stretch for him as an artist.

He noted that it presented unique challenges for a conductor, with traditional notes in the score sometimes giving way to a giant circle or squiggly lines. There was even, he said, one spot where the music resembled a cross.

Ultimately, Gershon said, he had to interpret the work in a new way. That was particularly hard at the start: He still vividly remembers studying Dun’s piece on an airplane when he got the score and looking at the first page for about two hours.

“It took time and concentration and imagination to unlock what was lying there on the page,” he said. “As a musician, there’s something very satisfying about feeling like you’ve had to open yourself up to solve a mystery and then explain it to the audience, which was in this

photo by Gary Leonard

case the other musicians.”

One of those musicians was percussionist Theresa Dimond. She appeared with the Chorale during the 2005 performance and will be onstage manipulating the wet stuff again this week. She said “Water Passion” is unlike any other piece she has tackled.

“Tan Dun has a very intense ear for sounds in nature and specifically pulls from all types of sounds that can be made in water,” she said. “It’s a wonderful piece that brings meaning to water.”

The sounds, she noted, include objects that can be played in water, as well as the human hand in water. Bottles with water make bubbles, and a strainer-like tool runs the water down like a waterfall. The sounds are amplified for the audience.

Dun, a native of China and a practicing Buddhist, wrote the piece to reflect the ascension of Christ, and it includes themes such as rebirth, spiritual cleansing and redemption. However, “Water Passion” is presented in a way that will resonate regardless of religious or spiritual background, Gershon said.

Gershon understands the hesitation some might experience when deciding whether or not to attend a show built around water. The performance is unique, he acknowledges, but he thinks it is worth it for the deep, emotional experience it delivers.

“It has a resonance with all types of people,” he said.

Along with the water bowls, there is another element that is different from most Master Chorale performances: the presence of Yuanlin Chen, a digital sampler. Still, Dimond maintains that people should be willing to take a sip of the new.

“Modern or new music is often really fun for the performer, but doesn’t always translate well to the audience,” Dimond says. “That’s not the case with ‘Water Passion.’ It translates wonderfully to the audience, and really is a beautiful piece of music.”

The Los Angeles Master Chorale performs “Water Passion After St. Matthew” on Saturday, April 11, at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m. at Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., (213) 972-7282 or lamc.org.

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April 6, 2015

Dressing Up for the Opera P h otos b y G a r y L eon a rd

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he line started forming outside of the parking lot at 330 S. Alameda St. around 8 a.m., some two-and-a-half hours before the gates opened. By the time L.A. Opera’s one-day costume shop sale closed on Saturday, March 28, more than 4,000 people had perused the wares.

Approximately 1,000 costumes from productions such as The Barber of Seville, The Birds and Salome were on the racks, and crowds scooped up everything from accessories to dresses to “diva” costumes worn by leads such as tenor Plácido Domingo. About 750 pieces were purchased, and the items left over will be sold at discounted rates to schools around the county (anything remaining after that will be donated to charity). The sale comes as the costume shop leaves its 14year home for a space on 14th Street in the Industrial District, thanks to rising rents in the searinghot Arts District, according to Senior Director of Production Rupert Hemmings.

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April 6, 2015

DT

CALENDAR LISTINGS EVENTS

Tuesday, april 7 Celebration of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl Ace Hotel, 929 S. Broadway, (213) 623-3233 or acehotel.com.

7:30 p.m.: If you’re sick of seeing the best minds of your generation destroyed by March Madness, stumble down to the Ace to catch the 16th anniversary celebration of Ginsberg’s classic poem.

Participants include Devandra Banhart, Will Forte, Courtney Love, Van Dyke Parks, Amy Poehler and Tim Robbins.

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Don’t Miss List sy N a tu isto ry M use um

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hursday, April 9, finds the Downtown Art Walk in full spring bloom as the monthly event adopts the theme “Art & Literature.” Down at the Art Walk Lounge at 643 S. Spring St., street artist Morley will show off his latest literary effort alongside comic illustrator Gavin hignight and artist Ellen Cantor. Per usual, the outer limits of Spring Street Park should be packed with vendors and the streets will be festooned with visitors of all ages seeking out myriad pleasures from the transcendent to the carnal. In the historic Core or at photo by Gary Leonard downtownartwalk.org. pho

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

April 9, 9 p.m.: Watch out ladies, Puerto Rican reggaeton sensation Cosculluela is here!

Blue Whale 123 Astronaut E. S. Onizuka St., (213) 620-0908 or bluewhalemusic.com.

April 6: Open Loose.

April 7: Aditya Prakash Ensemble and Julian Le Trio.

April 8: The one and only Matt Yeakley Group.

April 9: Korpela/Sirota/Manukyan.

April 10: Joshua White Quartet.

April 11: Jeff Babko Band.

April 12: Urban Renewal Project is a band, and not another document commissioned by the City of Los Angeles for the improvement of Downtown.

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

April 6, 8:30 p.m.: Odessa looks like she’s getting in on the Lana Del Rey game at what is not exactly the ground floor.

April 11, 9 p.m.: +10 life points to Bright Light Bright Light for having a knockin’ cover version of the Pet Shop Boys classic “West End Girls.”

Club Nokia 800 W. Olympic Blvd., (213) 765-7000 or clubnokia.com.

April 7, 6 p.m.: The Vans Warped Tour Kick-Off Party features a smattering of punk bands and the horrible recognition that the thing you attended when you were 13 is still happening all Continued on next page

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ROCK, POP & JAZZ

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sunday, april 12 2015 MTV Movie Awards 777 Chick Hearn Court, (213) 763-6030 or nokiatheatrelalive.com.

5 p.m.: Tonight’s award show should give you an idea of what is considered “good” by those who still want their MTV.

es, you are correct. April 10 is not the “First Friday” of the month, but rather the second. however, the initial Friday of April was Passover. Now that that is out of the way, it’s time to return to the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park for another installment of the First Friday series that offers lectures, concerts and an all-around hip-kid soiree. Intellectually stimulating tours of the galleries as well as a talk on L.A. wildlife are but an appetizer for the sonic main course. KCRW DJs Raul Campos and Anthony Valadez will spin before Burger Records’ latest adolescent signees, Cherry Glazerr (shown here), take the stage.

Then comes White Fence, a noisy mod rocker who gave his band the same name as a longstanding Boyle heights street gang. Doors open at 5 p.m. At 900 Exposition Blvd., (213) 763-3466 or nhm.org.

o to c

saTurday, april 11 DakhaBrakha at World City W.M. Keck Amphitheatre, 111 S. Grand Ave., (213) 9720777 or musiccenter.org.

11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.: Two free shows highlight the creatively arranged sounds of contemporary Ukrainian folk music.

MUSIC IN ThE MUSEUM, ART ON ThE STREETS AND A MOVIE IN LITTLE TOKYO ARE ON ThE DOWNTOWN CALENDAR

Y

1

Thursday, april 9 Downtown Art Walk Historic Core or at downtownartwalk.org.

5 p.m.: Galleries swing their doors wide open, the yawning streets clutch wildly at all who stride upon them and bars and restaurants make their monthly rent.

Friday, april 10 First Fridays Natural History Museum, 900 Exposition Blvd., (213) 7633466 or nhm.org.

5 p.m.: Tonight’s event will be just like those Night in the Museum movies except with less A-list celebrities and many more lectures, tours, live bands and bars.

By Dan Johnson | calendar@downtownnews.com

pho

Wednesday, april 8 Julia Meltzer and Laura Nix at Aloud Central Library, Mark Taper Auditorium, 630 W. Fifth St., (213) 228-7500 or lfla.org.

7:15 p.m.: Documentarians Julia Meltzer and Laura Nix chronicle their work piecing together the narrative of an all-girls school in Damascus, Syria.

Downtown News 15

DOWNTOWNNEWS.COM

3

A

ppreciation of cinema requires a certain suspension of disbelief. So bear with us as we share the news that on Wednesday, April 8, at 7 p.m., the Japanese American National Museum will host a screening of Big Trouble in Little China. To encapsulate: A film set in San Francisco’s Chinatown will appear on the big screen in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo. Still with us? Great. Pre-sale tickets are available online to see the John Carpenterhelmed classic, which includes access to a post-show Q&A featuring actors from the movie. BTW: The show is part of JANM’s film series dubbed Big Trouble in Little Tokyo. At 100 N. Central Ave., (213) 625-0414 or janm.org.

5

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punk DIY sensibility collides with Ukrainian folk music on Saturday, April 11, when DakhaBrakha visits the W.M. Keck Amphitheatre at the Walt Disney Concert Hall for two free shows as part of the Music Center’s World City program. The band makes good on its name, which translates to “give-and-take” in Ukrainian, with contemporary songs that appear as if conjured by magic from drums, a cello and an accordion. For more than a decade the quartet has been kicking it Kiev style. Online ticket reservations are available, and some free seats will be offered at the doors of the 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. shows. At 111 S. Grand Ave., (213) 9720777 or musiccenter.org.

B

ack in 1967, Woody Guthrie’s troublesome, hippie-inclined son Arlo Guthrie released his debut full-length album, Alice’s Restaurant, featuring a title track done monologue style. The 18-minute-plus song detailed an autobiographical trash-dumping incident that found Arlo unbelievably ineligible to fight in Vietnam.

On Monday, April 6, at 8 p.m., Arlo himself will visit Walt Disney Concert Hall to commemorate photo courtesy The Music Center the 50th anniversary of Alice’s Restaurant. Sure, the actual golden anniversary of the song and album is two years off, but if you’re keeping track of such things, then you’re just doing what The Man wants. At 111 S. Grand Ave., (213) 972-0777 or musiccenter.org.

4

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

16 Downtown News

TWITTER: @ DOWNTOWNNEWS

Continued from previous page these years later.

April 11, 9 p.m.: It pains us to tell you that Motley Crue’s Nikki Sixx is making pop rock under the moniker Sixx:AM. Escondite 410 Boyd St., (213) 626-1800 or theescondite.com.

April 12, 10 p.m.: RT N the 44s.

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

April 10: Giuseppe Ottaviani.

April 11: Brodinski.

Grammy Museum 800 W. Olympic Blvd., (213) 765-6800 or grammymuseum.org.

April 6, 8 p.m.: Axe man Steve Vai does his thing for this installment of the Great Guitars program.

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

April 11, 6:30 p.m.: As far as we can tell, we’re talking about a Korean boy band when we say Team Angel Presents: Teen Top My Dear Angels is playing tonight.

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

April 6: DFMK, Spokenest, Sapphic Musk and Pizza Wolf.

April 7: The Mo Odds, Way to Go Genius, Sir Coyler & His Asthmatic Band and Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicides.

April 10: Woolly Bandits, Dirty Eyes, Electric Mind Machine and Veneer.

April 11: Noncon, Lysongang and Henchmen 21.

April 12, 3 p.m.: Fools on Stools.

April 12: Hopeless Jack & The Handsome Devils, Lightnin’ Woodcock and Mountains of the Moon.

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

April 9, 8 p.m.: Brooklyn hip-hop adherents and Flatbush Zombiers collaborators The Underachievers have their own night.

April 13, 9 p.m.: A little glitch with a main course of drum and bass means the neighbors likely won’t dig tonight’s show from Squarepusher.

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

April 7, 10 p.m.: The Makers assumed they were part of an elaborate April Fool’s prank when they stumbled upon that fresh crime scene last week. Listen for notes of depression, shock and the recognition of one’s own mortality in this week’s improvised jazz show.

Staples Center 1111 S. Figueroa St., (213) 742-7326 or staplescenter.com.

April 14, 7:30 p.m.: It’s hard not to smile when you’re in the company of Barry Manilow.

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

April 8: Like a Villain, Sister Mantos and Draag.

April 9: Kimya Dawson, Open Mike Eagle and Pablo Das. April 10: Death Valley Girls and Wild Wing.

April 11: True Neutral & Signor, Benedick The Moor, Bubblegum Octopus, Femoral and GRYPT. Walt Disney Concert Hall 111 S. Grand Ave., (213) 972-0777 or musiccenter.org.

April 6, 8 p.m.: Arlo Guthrie celebrates the 50th anniversary of “Alice’s Restaurant.”

Please, no presents.

NISSAN OF DOWNTOWN L.A.

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

April 6-9: Get animated about anime with The Last: Naruko the Movie. It references Armageddon, the moon getting close to Earth and a bunch of other things.

April 6-9: Jean Luc-Godard himself directs Goodbye to Language 3D, which digs deep into the 3D experience. One of the stars is, we kid you not, Godard’s own dog, who plays a dog named Roxy.

IMAX California Science Center, 700 State Drive, (213) 744-2019 or californiasciencecenter.org.

Galapagos 3D. If it was good enough to blow Charles Darwin’s mind, it’s probably good enough for you!

Forces of Nature promises a panoply of nature’s worst destruction..

Experience the gripping story full of hope, crushing disappointment and triumph in Hubble 3D. Japanese American National Museum 100 N. Central Ave., (213) 625-0414 or janm.org.

April 8, 7 p.m.: Kurt Russell is a truck driver in a heap of trouble in John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China.

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

April 6, 8:30 p.m.: Enjoy 1960s avant garde cinema with mythological connotations in The Films of Gregory J. Markopoulos.

Regal Cinemas LA Live 1000 W. Olympic Blvd., (213) 763-6070 or lalive.com/movies.

Through April 9: Furious 7 (11 and 11:30 a.m., 12:50, 1:20, 2:10, 2:50, 4:10, 4:40,

April 6, 2015

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$9,499 2007 Nissan Altima 2.5S ....................... $10,999 Winter Frost, Only 80k miles. N141561-1/7N464819 2012 Nissan Sentra 2.0 .......................... $13,999 Certified, Black, 14K miles. N132228-1/CL746295

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$16,288 2012 Toyota Rav4 ................................... $16,888 Red, Certified, Traction Control. T151232-1/132035 2012 Honda Accord Sedan .................... $18,988 Black, 4dr I4 Auto Ex-L, Leather, Loaded. T141826-1/202016 White, 2WD Reg I4 at 2.7LI4, Auto, 47k Miles. T151393D1/007572

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$27,989 2013 Mercedes E350 .............................. $39,881 Certified, Prem Pkg 1, Special APR Available. 8037C/DA748520 2012 Mercedes E63 AMG ....................... $63,991 Certified, Nav Syst, Turbo, Low Miles. 7935C/CA547027 AUDI OF DOWNTOWN L.A. 2012 Mercedes C250 Coupe .................

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$12,988 2011 Honda Civic ................................... $14,988 4dr, Snroof, Alloys, Only 26,000 miles! A151035D1-BE023539 2013 Honda Fit Sport ............................ $16,988 Auto, Only 17,000 miles! A151102D-1/DC063175 PORSCHE OF DOWNTOWN L.A.

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Downtown News 17

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MORE LISTINGS

n movie theaters across the country, Cinderella has largely given way to Furious 7. In Downtown Los Angeles’ Ahmanson Theatre, the story of the ultimate fairytale princess is still going strong. A highly Editor & PublishEr: Sue Laris praised version of the Rodgers and GENErAl MANAGEr: Dawn Eastin Hammerstein musical starring Paige ExEcutivE Editor: Jon Regardie Faure is running through April 26, sENior writEr: Eddie Kim and it benefits from strong perstAFF writEr: Donna Evans formances and a crafty, updated coNtributiNG Editor: Kathryn Maese book by Douglas Carter Beane. Fran coNtributiNG writErs: Jeff Favre, Greg Fischer Drescher is wonderfully annoying as the stepmother, Art dirEctor: Brian AllisonKecia Lewis sparkles as the fairy godmother Marie, and AssistANt Art dirEctor: Yumi Kanegawa Andy Huntington Jones enlivens the PhotoGrAPhEr: role of aGary dullLeonard prince. Just wait for the quickAshley changes in the ball scene.

AccouNtiNG: Schmidt Cinderella runs through April 26 at clAssiFiEd MANAGEr:135 Catherine Holloway the AdvErtisiNG Ahmanson Theatre, N. Grand AccouNt ExEcutivEs: Yoji Cole, Catherine Holloway, Ave., (213) 972-4400 or Brenda Stevens centertheatregroup.org.

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

photo by Carol Rosegg

Editor & PublishEr: Sue Laris GENErAl MANAGEr: Dawn Eastin

ExEcutivE Editor: Jon Regardie sENior writEr: Eddie Kim stAFF writEr: Donna Evans coNtributiNG Editor: Kathryn Maese coNtributiNG writErs: Jeff Favre, Greg Fischer

sAlEs AssistANt: Claudia Hernandez circulAtioN: Danielle Salmon

5:40, 7:40, 8:10, 9:10, 9:50 and 11:10 p.m.); Get Hard 9995 or bobbakermarionettes.com.

Art6:20, dirEctor: Brian Allison (11:10 a.m., 12,Art 2, 2:40, 4:50, 5:30, 8:20, 10:10 and 11 April 11-12, 2:30 p.m.: The puppets are getting downright AssistANt dirEctor: Yumi7:30, Kanegawa p.m.); Home (1, 1:40, 3:50, 6:40 and 9:20 p.m.); Home 3D agrarian as Bob Baker’s marionettes sojourn into the American PhotoGrAPhEr: Gary Leonard (11:05 a.m., 4:30, 7:20 and 10 p.m.); The Divergent Series: heartland in Something to Crow About.

AccouNtiNG: Ashley Schmidt Insurgent 3D (1:30, 4:20, 7:10 and 10:20 p.m.); The Divergent The Marriage of Figaro Series: Insurgent (12:40, 3:40, 6:30 and 9:30 p.m.); Cinderella Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., (213) 972clAssiFiEd AdvErtisiNG MANAGEr: Catherine Holloway (1:10, 4, 6:50 and 9:40 p.m.); It Follows (11:50 a.m., 2:30, 5:20, 7219 or laopera.org.

AccouNt ExEcutivEs: Yoji Cole, Catherine Holloway, Brenda Stevens 7:50 and 10:40 p.m.); Kingsman: The Secret Service (11:20 April 9, 7:30 p.m. and April 12, 2 p.m.: Figaro hits the scene in sAlEs AssistANt: Claudia Hernandez a.m., 2:20, 5:10, 8 and 10:50 p.m.). the Mozart classic that, inevitably, you have hummed some part circulAtioN: Danielle Salmon of during your life. distributioN MANAGEr: Salvador Ingles Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella distributioN AssistANts: Lorenzo Castillo, Gustavo Bonilla Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., (213) 972-7211 or Bob Baker’s Something to Crow About musiccenter.org. ©2015 Center News, Inc. Los1345 Angeles News is a trademark April of Civic Center Bob BakerCivic Marionette Theater, W. Downtown First St., (213) 2507-10, 8 p.m., April 11, 2 and 8 p.m., April 12, 1 and 6:30

THEATER, OPERA & DANCE

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.

LAST WEEKS ANSWERS

Regent China Inn Authentic Chinese Cuisine in Chinatown

✤ 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

distributioN MANAGEr: Salvador Ingles

p.m.: Fran Drescher appears in this staging of the classic fairytale about romance, social status and evil stepsisters.

She Kills Monsters Loft Ensemble, 929 E. Second St., (213) 680-0392 or loftensemble.org.

April 11, 8 p.m. and April 12, 7 p.m.: Role playing games get the theatrical treatment in this satirical journey through the heart of the absurd and fictional heroic quest.

Sleepaway Camp Editor & PublishEr: Downtown Independent,Sue 251 Laris S. Main St., (213) 617-1033 or downtownindependent.com.

GENErAl MANAGEr: Dawn Eastin April 7, 9 p.m.: Every Tuesday this irreverent stand-up ExEcutivE Editor: Jon comedy cavalcade takes upRegardie residence at the Downtown Independent.writEr: Eddie Kim sENior

distributioN AssistANts: Lorenzo Castillo, Gustavo Bonilla

stAFF writEr: Donna Evans coNtributiNG Editor: Kathryn Maese coNtributiNG writErs: Jeff Favre, Greg Fischer

Art dirEctor: Brian Allison AssistANt Art dirEctor: Yumi Kanegawa

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PhotoGrAPhEr: Gary Leonard AccouNtiNG: Ashley Schmidt

clAssiFiEd AdvErtisiNG MANAGEr: Catherine Holloway AccouNt ExEcutivEs: Yoji Cole, Catherine Holloway, Brenda Stevens sAlEs AssistANt: Claudia Hernandez

OPEN HOUR: circulAtioN: Danielle Salmon (Sun~ Thurs) 11:00am~10:30pm distributioN MANAGEr: Salvador (Fri and Sat)Ingles 11:00am~11:00pm distributioN AssistANts: Lorenzo JOE’S AUTO PARK 319 E. 2ndCastillo, St. #206 Gustavo Bonilla 213-687-7780 UNION BANK

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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

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ExEcutivE Editor: Jon Regardie sENior writEr: Eddie Kim stAFF writEr: Donna Evans coNtributiNG Editor: Kathryn Maese coNtributiNG writErs: Jeff Favre, Greg Fischer Art dirEctor: Brian Allison AssistANt Art dirEctor: Yumi Kanegawa

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213-228-8999 | farmerboysla.com 726 Alameda St. (Bay & Alameda)

PhotoGrAPhEr: Gary Leonard AccouNtiNG: Ashley Schmidt clAssiFiEd AdvErtisiNG MANAGEr: Catherine Holloway AccouNt ExEcutivEs: Yoji Cole, Catherine Holloway, Brenda Stevens sAlEs AssistANt: Claudia Hernandez circulAtioN: Danielle Salmon distributioN MANAGEr: Salvador Ingles distributioN AssistANts: Lorenzo Castillo, Gustavo Bonilla

©2015 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.

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April 6, 2015

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April 6, 2015

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April 6, 2015

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CLASSIFIEDS ANNOUNCEMENTS Volunteer opportunities TYPE 1 DIABETES clinical research opportunities. You may be compensated for time and travel. CALL FOR MORE INFORMATION 858-245-1963

EMPLOYMENT professional

Training and Development Specialist for clothing wholesale co. in L.A. Mail resume to Top Top Clothing, Inc., 700 E. Jefferson Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90011

Market Research Analyst for clothing wholesale co. in L.A. Mail resume to Top Top Clothing, Inc., 700 E. Jefferson Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90011

employment serVices ADMIN ASSISTANT Appointment coordination,Event and meeting planning,Make travel arrangements,Record Keeping ,Bookkeeping,Scheduling,send your resume and salary expectations to: gerel098@gmail.com 562-666-3004 restaurant/Hotel RESTAURANT SUPERVISOR M/F, FULLTIME POSITION, $15.75/HR, 4 YR. EXPERIENCE REQUIRED, ENGLISH/ SPANISH SPEAKING, CALL FOR APPOINTMENT AT 213484-9800, 323 370 0860

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April 6, 2015

Speaking With Downtown’s Coffee Champ G&B’s Charles Babinski Discusses the Local Brew Scene

By Eddie Kim &B Coffee co-owner Charles Babinski was a runner-up at the 2012, 2013 and 2014 U.S. Barista Championships. He finally took home the trophy at this year’s event, held in February in Long Beach.

How did the representative of the stand in Grand Central Market do it? By blowing the judges away with his espresso, cappuccino, and a signature drink that blended coffee with juniper syrup, pine tree honey and a grapefruit reduction (yes, really).

Babinski heads this week to the world championship in Seattle.

We talked with him about the Downtown coffee scene.

G

Charles Babinski, co-owner of Grand Central Market’s G&B Coffee, recently won the 2015 U.S. Barista Championship. He is now on to the world championships, which begin April 9 in Seattle.

photo by Gary Leonard

Los Angeles Downtown News: The barista competition is a big deal within the industry, but how does it affect what the average person drinks at a shop?

Charles Babinski: They’re a great way for people to highlight new ideas and throw out postulations, if you will. It’s about repping coffees or flavors or concepts that might not have a home in the commercial market. So before coffee shops were serving single origin espresso regularly, barista competitors were. Before light roasts became big in shops, barista competitors were serving it.

Q: It’s been almost two years since you opened in Grand Central Market. What’s it been like?

A: I’ve lived in Downtown for the majority of my time in L.A. But when we started, some people, from other parts of L.A., didn’t think it was a good idea to open in Grand Central Market. Downtown was still getting into that last gear, I guess.

Now we see people on weekends coming from all over L.A. just to see Downtown. When we began, it was more like Australian and German tourists.

Q: There’s a huge number of independent coffee shops in the area.

What strikes you about the scene?

A: Downtown is one of the more concentrated places for great coffee in the U.S. L.A. coffee is just coming into its own, in general. This is a great place to sell coffee. Having worked in places like Chicago and New York, it was amazing to see people who were so nice and so willing to try anything here. “$5 for coffee? Sure!” They gave it a chance.

Q: Do you still drink cheap coffee from, say, a corner store?

A: Yeah. Being a coffee professional, it’s less of a snobby mentality — “Oh get this away, it’s gross!” — and more just understanding that it’s one grade of coffee, and it comes from this place. There’s still something amazing about coffee as a drink.

When it’s really great, it goes to a new level. But even that $1 coffee is very compelling.

G&B Coffee is at 324 S. Hill St. or gandbcoffee.com. eddie@downtownnews.com