LOS ANGELES
DOWNTOWN
NEWS Volume 37, Number 44
INSIDE
‘Joy Luck Club’ arrives
November 3, 2008
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FilmL.A.’s new leader, business buzz, and other happenings Around Town. The List: All the information you need on Downtown Los Angeles law firms.
W W W. D O W N T O W N N E W S . C O M
More Families Landing on Skid Row Aid Providers Report Significant Increase in Number of Children in Impoverished Area by Anna Scott staff writer
Rocking out at Staples Center.
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Urban Scrawl on Prop 8.
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he frustration was palpable inside the boxy, crowded room at the Midnight Mission on a recent Monday evening. Four women sat against the walls, on low stools or the floor. One cradled a baby. About 10 children, from toddlers to a teenager reading an English textbook, sprawled on blankets on the floor. On the other side of a glass door, a 12-step meeting full of men droned on. “This isn’t a place for families,” said Desiree Newton, an outspoken 31-year-old dressed in a rainbowstriped cardigan over a T-shirt. Newton, her husband and their
2- and 8-year-old daughters had been sleeping at the mission going on 10 nights, she said. “I don’t like it here. And if I can’t stand it, no other family can.” The Newtons were not alone. In the next hour, more than a dozen other parents and children trickled into the small room. When the 12step meeting ended in the adjacent room, mission workers replaced chairs with rows of rectangular, tray-like beds for the families. The situation in the room reflected a growing aspect of the national economic crisis. Officials at Skid Row shelters and other Downtown Los Angeles aid organizations say see Families, page 8
The New Hip Core Closing credits for a clothing store.
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Four Nightspots Coming to the Area Near Sixth and Spring Streets by Richard Guzmán city editor
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Stay healthy with The Body Shop.
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Reviewing ‘Spring Awakening.’
s a nod to the history of the building, the historic bronze doors are back, as are the stained-glass windows. The alley entrance is now off-limits and the interior has been remodeled with private VIP rooms, a 40-foot bar and a Brazilian walnut dance floor that holds about 1,300 people. The 1920 Stock Exchange building — where brokers once traded and which more recently served as the home to a lively club — is now Versus, a three-story venue at the forefront of a wave of new nightspots opening near Sixth and Spring streets.
The club, which debuted Oct. 25, precedes The Association, a 2,000-square-foot bar set to open inside the Pacific Electric Lofts this month, and Cedd Moses’ newest addition to area nightlife, the Santa Fe, a 3,000-square-foot tequila and mescal bar planned to open early next year in the Santa Fe Lofts. Also coming to the neighborhood, though still early in the planning stage, is a massive spot in the under-construction SB Spring housing complex by Downtown developer Barry Shy. The new arrivals are sure to continue Downtown’s evolution as a see Bars, page 10
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photo by Gary Leonard
Para Los Niños case manager José Mendez with Renee Martinez, Cesar Gonzalez and their three children. The family has spent much of the past 10 months on Skid Row.
The Real Housing Bubble Downtown Hotel Puts Guests on Display by Anna Scott staff writer
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owntown’s new Stay hotel continues its inauguration this month with a novel publicity stunt that has come with a few twists. In an effort to promote the budget hotel/youth hostel hybrid, a group of young guests are currently living in two ground-level rooms with storefront windows. The guests (three men in one room, one woman in the other) will be fully visible from the sidewalk throughout the day and into the night for passersby to gawk at until Nov. 18. “We just thought it was a good way to market the space,” said Stay designer Amy Price, who with col-
league Catherine Coan came up with the concept. “It’s created a lot of interest.” Sometimes, in fact, a little too much interest. One night shortly after the “live guests” moved in to the space at 636 S. Spring St., a longtime gritty block that is only recently changing, an apparently homeless man shook and then climbed the security gate pulled down over the woman’s room. Another time, a man urinated on the men’s window. The men have also been flashed. Twice. Still, in terms of security threats, “I don’t think that it has been as bad as we worried it might be,” said Bill Lanting, president of the Lanting see Stay, page 9
Five events you don’t want to miss.
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19 CALENDAR LISTINGS 23 MAP 25 CLASSIFIEDS
photo by Gary Leonard
Mez Ayvatyan (front), general manager of Versus, and Nico Bacigalupo, the club’s director of marketing, are at the forefront of a wave of nightspots opening up in the Historic Core. Their entertainment venue occupies the former Stock Exchange.
photo by Gary Leonard
Alicia Baker, photographed on Halloween morning, is one of the people being paid to live in a room with a window facing the street at the Stay hotel.
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