01-18-10

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LOS ANGELES

DOWNTOWN

NEWS Volume 39, Number 3

INSIDE

January 18, 2010

TIFFANY AUCTION

Let’s Do Lunch!

Tiffany auc aucTion ion house anTiques

PREVIEW: Jan. 22nd and 23rd, 11-5pm AUCTION: Jan. 24th at 11am

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WWW.TIFFANYAUCTIONS.COM | 213.746.1373 | 1201 S. Grand, Across from EVO at 12th & Grand

W W W. D O W N T O W N N E W S . C O M

The Downtown Park Push Community Largely Devoid of Green Space Sees Four New Proposed Projects by AnnA Scott StAff writer

Athletic Club’s themed hotel rooms.

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Get to know your local sports bar.

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All the latest Restaurant Buzz.

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owntown is giving new meaning to the word “grassroots” these days, with four largely community-driven park projects in the works. Proposals are moving forward to create small green spaces in Chinatown, South Park, the Historic Core and the Financial District. Taken as a whole, the moves, if successful, could vastly alter the look and feel of Downtown, creating significant new oases amid the urban landscape. The push for more Downtown parks has received ample attention from residents and local leaders during the past two years. But with the city facing a severe budget deficit that has hindered traditional park creation efforts, the current plans are distinguished by a high level of participation from community members and a focus on creative funding avenues: Three of the projects will see Parks, page 12

photo by Gary Leonard

(l to r) Rick Morris, Geralynne Krajeck and Bill Cooper are part of a community group that hopes to purchase an approximately one-acre parking lot at Ninth and Hill streets and turn it into a park.

Going to the Dogs

Ballroom Blitz

Arts District Program Employs Low-Income Men to Train and Socialize Canines

L.A. Live Debuts a Key Component of The $1 Billion Convention Center Hotel by AnnA Scott StAff writer

by ryAn VAillAncourt StAff writer

A huge art show comes Downtown.

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Elvis, before he was the king.

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Five events you don’t want to miss.

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21 CALENDAR LISTINGS 24 MAP 25 CLASSIFIEDS

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bout 10 years ago, Cliff Richardson was living under the Sixth Street bridge, scratching out the troubled life of a drug addict. There was a community of homeless people residing there, but Richardson’s closest companion may have been Bullet, a small mixed breed dog so smart it seemed she crossed streets only when the light turned green. One of the places Bullet would walk to was an alley off Seventh Place — a small side street just blocks from the bridge in the Arts District — where activist photo by Gary Leonard Lori Weise had a makeshift Henry Acosta (left) and Cliff Richardson (right) kennel and free kibble for are two of the first participants in Lori Weise’s homeless individuals to Jobs With Dogs program. Weise (middle) runs feed their canines. Downtown Dog Rescue in the Arts District. Fast forward to today, past Richardson’s repeated run-ins with the law and multiple Annenberg Foundation to support “state vacations” as he calls them, her program Jobs With Dogs. The and he still makes a habit of visit- project seeks to employ homeless, ing Weise and her dogs on Seventh low-income and under-employed Place. But now when Richardson individuals to walk and socialize stops by, instead of just grabbing the dogs, some of which are up for some dog food, he helps walk, so- adoption. cialize and train her pack of more The initiative is not new: Weise, than a dozen rescues. who houses the shelter at the Last year, Weise, who runs the Modernica furniture warehouse nonprofit Downtown Dog Rescue, where she’s the manager, has been secured a $20,000 grant from the see Dogs, page 10

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t first glance, a hotel ballroom does not seem very glamorous. It brings to mind staid business meetings, rubber chicken and maybe a bar mitzvah or wedding celebration. At the new $1 billion Convention Center headquarters hotel, the ballrooms are anything but standard. The collection of party and meeting spaces are the largest, and by far the most expensive, in Los Angeles. The four-story Gallery Collection, as the center is called, holds three ballrooms: the 26,000-square-foot

Diamond Ballroom on the top floor; the 20,000-square-foot Platinum Ballroom on the third level; and the 17,000-square-foot Gold Ballroom on the second floor. The facility also holds nine meeting rooms and two boardrooms. The Gallery Collection accounts for $80 million of the overall budget for the 1,001-room Ritz CarltonJ.W. Marriott hotel tower, said Tim Leiweke, president of L.A. Live developer Anschutz Entertainment Group, during a recent tour. The ballrooms alone have the capacity to host 5,000 people simultaneously see Ballroom, page 8

photo by Gary Leonard

The Diamond Ballroom inside the new Convention Center hotel is the largest ballroom in the city. It is part of the building’s Gallery Collection, a meeting and events hub that alone cost $80 million.

The Voice of Downtown Los Angeles


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