LOS ANGELES
DOWNTOWN
NEWS June 1, 2009
Volume 38, Number 22
INSIDE
Chamber steps up to combat homelessness.
6
A Burger Taste-Off 14
2
A big donation, Skid Row TV, and other happenings Around Town.
5
The readers speak out on parking garages and other plans for Broadway.
W W W. D O W N T O W N N E W S . C O M
Designs on Downtown A Look at Four Local Up-and-Coming Fashion Figures by Anna Scott staff writer
F Cornering the Downtown juice market.
8
Last chance to vote for the Best of Downtown.
11
Time to praise the firefighters.
16
Ballet Hispanico comes to Downtown.
16
or decades Downtown Los Angeles has been a behind-the-scenes fashion industry hub, a place where designers trawl for fabric and store buyers stock up at showrooms like the ones inside the behemoth California Market Center. In recent years, Downtown has raised its fashion industry profile on numerous fronts. It is the home to the 2-year-old Downtown Fashion Week and to a cluster of hip boutiques. It also serves as the headquarters for a growing crop of fashion designers, from fledgling labels to big names. Here, Los Angeles Downtown News looks at four of the local designers and teams drawing attention from fashion industry observers. From Jünker Designs, which has a track record of outfitting rock stars, to Odyn Vovk, headed by a designer just a few years out of high school, each is a unique addition to Downtown’s fashion set. Skin Game If there were such a thing as Victorian-era bikerwear, Skin.Graft would capture the look perfectly. The 2-year-old line, headed by two former stilt walkers and a onetime professional belly dancer, features plenty of leather, corseted waists, puffy shoulders and the occasional ruffle. Top-selling items include the jodhpur-style pants, the leather garter that wraps around the waist and loops around each thigh, and the “gun holster bag,” with wallet-like pouches on either side instead of weapon holders. “It all came out of us making costumes for ourselves,” said Katie Kay, 29, one of the designers (and the former belly dancer) behind Skin.Graft, on a recent morning in their Historic Core headquarters. “We’re really inspired by where we came from, even though we’ve grown a lot.” see Designers, page 12
Conserve Water, or Pay the Price New DWP Rates, Intended to Spark Conservation, Go Into Effect June 1 by Ryan Vaillancourt staff writer
Five great entertainment options.
18
18 CALENDAR LISTINGS 20 MAP 21 CLASSIFIEDS
photo by Gary Leonard
Alexis LaMontagna creates flirty, comfortable looks from her studio in the Cooper Design Space. She is one of a group of Downtown clothing designers drawing attention from the fashion industry.
I
f they have not yet received it, residents of the Jewelry District apartment complex the Chapman Flats will get a letter soon from the landlord. In it, building owner All Pacific Financial will ask them to be water wise. The letter urges residents to “Change your habits, but not your lifestyle,” and asks questions like, “Do you spend too much time in the shower?” The intent, noted project co-developer Mark Farzan, is to encourage “them to become more sensitive to our water shortage by telling them there are many ways to conserve water that people take for granted.” Residents of the property at Eighth Street and Broadway will not be the only ones asked to take a look at their water-use habits. Starting June 1, as the city prepares for its third consecutive summer
drought, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is implementing new shortage-year water rates that will force heavy users to pay a price. In the grand scheme, Downtown residents may see little impact. The new rate structure focuses primarily on single-family homes and water used for landscaping, said DWP Executive Director David Nahai. Since most Downtown property owners and tenants do not have significant landscaping needs, they are not expected to feel the same pinch as lawn-watering suburban dwellers, he said. “In terms of residential use altogether, about 40% of the water used is used outdoors, so that is where the opportunity lies to affect the savings we need quickly,” Nahai said. Under the new system, the DWP created two new, separate billing structures: one for single-family residents see Water, page 10
Since 1972, an independent, locally owned and edited newspaper, go figure.
photo courtesy of LA DWP
DWP Executive Director David Nahai is overseeing an increase in water rates as the city gets ready for its third consecutive summer drought.