LOS ANGELES
DOWNTOWN
NEWS
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Building upgrades, a library suicide attempt, and other happenings Around Town.
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A Downtown resident discovers the Vista Hermosa Natural Park.
W W W. D O W N T O W N N E W S . C O M
April 27, 2009
Volume 38, Number 17
INSIDE
Bargain Lunches
Broad Approach for Broadway Effort to Revitalize Historic Street Sees Progress, Challenges After One Year by AnnA Scott StAff writer
Violin virtuoso at an elementary school.
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Arts high school won’t be a charter.
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Urban Scrawl on the new police building.
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F
or years, reviving Broadway has been one of the most difficult challenges facing Downtown Los Angeles. With the street’s heyday as a destination for movies, dining and shopping decades in the past, the historic corridor has seen multiple plans offered. All of them failed. Just over a year ago, another ambitious effort was launched to turn the thoroughfare into a major, entertainment-focused destination. Fifteen months later, those working on the project appear to have gained more ground than any of the other recent revival attempts.
At the same time, much work and many challenges lie ahead, with questions about money and private participation still to be answered. On Jan. 28, 2008, at a splashy event at the Los Angeles Theatre, 14th District City Councilman José Huizar launched Bringing Back Broadway, an initiative to revitalize the corridor between Second Street and Olympic Boulevard. The effort hinges largely on reactivating the street’s 12 faded movie houses. Plans also include reviving the Downtown streetcar after a 45-year hiatus, building a new parking garage — which could cost upwards of $50 million between acquisition see Broadway, page 8
photo by Gary Leonard
Fourteenth District Councilman José Huizar, shown here on Broadway shortly before launching his Bringing Back Broadway initiative, has big plans for revitalizing the street. While he has made significant progress in the past year, much remains to be done.
A New Era for the Natural History Museum
Rent Drama Continues at El Pueblo
Exposition Park Facility Gets $91 Million Upgrade
More Debate About Below-Market Rates; Past Official Calls Lack of Deal One of His ‘Great Failures’
All the latest Health news.
by richArd Guzmán
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city editor
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he quest to raise rents for merchants at El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument continued last week, as a former president of the appointed panel that oversees the department described how he tried, and failed, to raise rents more than a decade ago. “[The leases] was one of the great failures of our commission,” Philip Bartenetti, the ex-head of the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical
Misbehavin’ at the Ahmanson.
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Monument Commission, stated during a meeting on Tuesday, April 21, in the Pico House. He appeared at a session organized by El Pueblo’s Budget and Operations Committee, which has been charged with reviewing rents at the monument and coming up with recommendations on what new rates should be. Bartenetti, along with members of Chief Legislative Analyst Gerry Miller’s office, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo’s office and 14th District City Councilman José see El Pueblo, page 6
photo by Gary Leonard
The Natural History Museum in Exposition Park has completed a $91 million renovation of a 1913 building. The first of three new exhibits will open next summer. by AnnA Scott
Celebrating Cinco de Mayo.
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17 CALENDAR LISTINGS 18 MAP 21 CLASSIFIEDS
StAff writer
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he Natural History Museum in Exposition Park last week unveiled the first piece of a $91 million renovation, the largest in the 96-year-old institution’s history. NHM officials on Thursday, April 23, opened the doors to the museum’s newly renovated historic centerpiece, a 1913 building that will eventually house three major exhibits. The renovation marks the first completed phase of a project intended to physically update, and
reinvent, one of Los Angeles’ oldest museums. “The primary thing is transforming the space and changing the way that we do exhibits,” said Paul Haaga, president of the museum’s board of trustees. “If you think of the real old days, natural history museums were curio cabinets: ‘Here’s our stuff, you’re welcome to look at it.’ The new museum we’re inventing really engages you in multiple ways.” The restored facility will open to see Museum, page 7
photo by Gary Leonard
David Louie, chair of El Pueblo’s Budget and Operations Committee, at a Feb. 24 meeting. The department is conducting a study to determine what rents for the street’s 78 merchants should be.
Since 1972, an independent, locally owned and edited newspaper, go figure.