LOS ANGELES
DOWNTOWN
NEWS March 30, 2009
Volume 38, Number 13
INSIDE
Party at the Museum 12
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Regional Connector meetings, Skid Row moves and other happenings Around Town.
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Months after a financial crisis, MOCA looks at a major expansion in Little Tokyo.
W W W. D O W N T O W N N E W S . C O M
On the FAST Track With Downtown Skyscrapers on His Resume, Developer Jim Thomas Sets His Sights on Alleviating L.A.’s Gridlock
New members of the MTA board.
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Urban Scrawl on the City Attorney’s race.
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Famima bets big on Downtown.
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All the latest Health news.
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by AnnA Scott StAff writer
J
im Thomas has transformed the Downtown Los Angeles skyline during his decades as a developer, with projects including the iconic U.S. Bank Tower. Now the 72-yearold hopes to leave his imprint on the city’s streets too, by helping to fix L.A.’s traffic woes. Approximately two years ago, Thomas commissioned a $300,000 study by the RAND Corporation on short-term, affordable solutions to the region’s gridlock. The report, released in November, lists 13 recommendations.
Thomas has also formed a nonprofit, public-private entity called Fixing Angelenos Stuck in Traffic to help implement the RAND recommendations. FAST recently launched what Thomas expects to be a three-year outreach process, spreading the word about the study to the area’s wealth of neighborhood councils, labor and business groups and other community organizations. A website, fastla.org, is also a major component of the campaign that Thomas hopes will create a grass roots groundswell of traffic activists. “What we’re really driving at is getting see FAST, page 7
Power Play Erupts At Louie Louie, You Gotta Go $232 Million Long-Awaited Seventh Street Restaurant Arts School And Market Launches This Week Five Months Before Opening and With No Principal, Officials Duel Over Whether to Make Facility a Charter Campus
Tom Morello’s quiet side.
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Five great entertainment options.
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14 CALENDAR LISTINGS 16 MAP 17 CLASSIFIEDS
photo by Gary Leonard
Downtown-based developer Jim Thomas has created the organization Fixing Angelenos Stuck in Traffic, or FAST. He is advocating a series of small fixes to help L.A.’s traffic woes and hopes to create a groundswell of public activism.
by AnnA Scott StAff writer
L
ast Tuesday afternoon, the exterior of Bottega Louie Restaurant and Gourmet Market looked much like it has for the past few months; thick paper covered the windows and glass doors, obscuring any glimpse of the interior. The sprawling space on the other side of those doors and windows, however, bustled with some of the establishment’s 250 employees. Inside, executives, servers, baristas, chefs in stiff white coats and others were all preparing for the opening this week.
Bottega Louie, an upscale market and sit-down eatery on the ground floor of the Brockman Building at 530 W. Seventh St., opens on Thursday, April 2, after nearly three years in the works. The establishment has been compared to gourmet grocery chain Dean & Deluca. “It’s a scary time to be opening a business,” Bottega Louie President Daniel Flores admitted last week. He was seated at a table in the 10,000-square-foot space, taking a break from overseeing staff preparations. “But I think the value we’ll bring to Downtown is very big. We see Bottega Louie, page 8
photo by Gary Leonard
Less than five months before its scheduled opening, the state-of-the-art High School for the Visual and Performing Arts still does not have a principal. Two candidates have accepted the job, only to reverse course and turn it down. by ryAn VAillAncourt StAff writer
F
ive months from its planned opening, the $232 million High School for the Visual and Performing Arts remains entangled in a bitter political battle over who should control and run the landmark facility: the Los Angeles Unified School District or a charter
organization. Additionally, the school at 450 N. Grand Ave. is without a principal, as this month the second high-profile East Coast candidate who had initially accepted the job reversed course and turned it down. LAUSD Supt. Ramon Cortines assumed oversight of the school last see Arts School, page 6
photo by Gary Leonard
Daniel Flores, president of Bottega Louie, which opens on the ground floor of the Brockman Building this week. The project has been three years in the making.
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