LOS ANGELES
DOWNTOWN
NEWS Checking out the Jim Wood Apartments.
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Train fans ride the Downtown rails.
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Budget cut fights, Pershing Square lights, and other happenings Around Town.
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New proposals could change the look of Chinatown’s squares.
W W W. D O W N T O W N N E W S . C O M
July 27, 2009
Volume 38, Number 30
INSIDE
Downtown Living
Lawsuit Ruling Puts Housing Plan in Question Victory by Geoff Palmer Could Deal Precedent-Setting Blow to Villaraigosa’s Mixed-Income Ordinance by Anna Scott staff writer
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ne of Downtown’s biggest developers last week won a court case challenging the city’s affordable housing law. It could deliver a damaging and, some attorneys say, precedent-setting blow to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s efforts to increase the city’s low-income rental housing stock. Geoff Palmer, who has created thousands of Italian villa-inspired apartments in several projects in City West, sued the city in February 2007 to avoid having to include below-market rate rents in his upcoming 350-unit Piero II project. An 18-year-
old guideline for the area, the Central City West Specific Plan, requires developers of large projects in the community either to replace any low-income units that were demolished on the development site after 1988 or, if no units were razed, price 15% of the residences in each project for low-income workers. Developers can also pay for the city to build the units elsewhere. Some low-income units have been constructed in the area, though many of the large developments never materialized. A Superior Court judge ruled in Palmer’s favor in December 2007. The city appealed the ruling. see Lawsuit, page 17
photo by Gary Leonard
An Appeals Court judge last week ruled that the city was wrong in requiring developer Geoff Palmer to include affordable housing in a City West project.
In With the Indie Crowd Scenes from the Best Of Downtown party.
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Cupcakes, trucks and other Restaurant Buzz.
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Historic Downtown Gets a Starring Role in ‘500 Days of Summer’ by Anna Scott staff writer
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owntown Los Angeles has appeared in hundreds of films, if not more. Sometimes it’s a stand-in for New York City, Washington, D.C. or other metropolitan areas. Other times, the community is depicted as a futuristic or post-apocalyptic wasteland, or even just as a place where a lot of things blow up. In the new film 500 Days of Summer, however, the Central City steps out of the background and takes a rare starring role — as itself. The film, which opened in wide release on Friday, July 24, was shot
almost entirely in Downtown and goes so far as to treat the area as an actual character. The plot revolves around an aspiring architect, Tom (played by Joseph GordonLevitt), who finds inspiration in Downtown’s historic buildings. The script references many real structures and places as it provides an out-of-sequence look at the 500-day relationship of Tom and his love interest, Summer (Zooey Deschanel). “We did some research into the history of Downtown and decided to localize it and shoot it all in Downtown Los Angeles,” said director Marc Webb, who makes his see 500 Days, page 28
The Taxman Cometh
New works take the REDCAT stage.
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City Tries Public Shaming for Top Scofflaws, Though Some Downtown Firms Allege Unfair Practices by Richard Guzmán
The dogs run Cathedral plaza.
city editor
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23 CALENDAR LISTINGS 25 MAP 26 CLASSIFIEDS
photo by Chuck Zlotnick
Tom (Jason Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel) spend time at Bunker Hill’s Angels Knoll park in the film 500 Days of Summer. The film that opened in wide release last week was shot last year in Downtown.
City Controller Wendy Greuel hopes to embarrass tax scofflaws into settling their debt with the city. Last week, she noted that 16 businesses have recently paid a total of nearly $3 million in delinquent taxes.
he city of Los Angeles has launched a new tool in the effort to recoup more than $100 million in delinquent taxes — public shaming. Whether it will work remains to be seen, but a handful of companies that do business in Downtown have found themselves on a new city Office of Finance list of the biggest scofflaws. City Controller Wendy Greuel drew more attention to the
matter last week, and even noted some success. At a July 22 press conference in front of City Hall, she showed off an oversized check for nearly $3 million, the amount of money recovered from 16 delinquent taxpayers since the list was launched in February. “We have a $500 million budget deficit in the city of Los Angeles. We have $107 million that is owed to us by debtors and sometimes embarrassment works,” said Greuel. see Taxes, page 17
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