LOS ANGELES
DOWNTOWN
NEWS Volume 38, Number 46
INSIDE
Thanksgiving in Downtown 13-16 W W W. D O W N T O W N N E W S . C O M
November 16, 2009
The MOCA Makeover Downtown Museum Comes Back From the Brink And Celebrates Its 30th Anniversary With a 500-Piece Show by Anna Scott staff writer
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Urban Scrawl on MOCA’s comeback.
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Play 4th and Long Football and win prizes.
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A shake-up at the top of Art Walk.
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The Pershing Square ice rink is back.
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A new wave of boutique hotels.
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photo by Gary Leonard
MOCA Chief Curator Paul Schimmel (left) and philanthropist Eli Broad check out Collection: MOCA’s First Thirty Years. The exhibit features more than 500 works.
Settlement Could Give El Pueblo Lease to Entity Suing the City Old LA, Which Signed a 1984 Deal to Develop an Historic Site, Could Get Another Crack at Large Property by Richard Guzmán
In 1984, a group called Old LA signed a 25-year lease to develop and run the Pico-Garnier Block at El Pueblo. Little progress has been achieved. In 2004, the group, which now includes politically connected Andy Camacho, sued the city over the site.
city editor
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photo by Gary Leonard
Trying to Figure Out the New City Attorney by Jon Regardie
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19 CALENDAR LISTINGS 21 CLASSIFIEDS
ore than 2 million people visit El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument every year. Although most gravitate toward the colorful shops on Olvera Street, many also find their way to the historic buildings on the south side of the attraction. They often peek in the windows of the 1870 Pico House, the largest
building in El Pueblo and the city’s first three-story edifice. But when they look inside the building with the inviting brick courtyard, they are likely to see it empty. Occasionally city officials hold meetings on folding tables and chairs. On some occasions there are temporary art exhibitions. Although for decades there has been talk of putting in a restaurant, retail, offices and even a theater, the building, along with others in the area called the Pico-Garnier Block, has sat nearly unused. The culprit is a double whammy of a flawed lease first signed a quarter century ago (but terminated 12 years later) and a lawsuit filed against the city in 2004. Lawsuits in Los Angeles are nothing unusual, and legal machinations can stymie major projects for years. What sets the El Pueblo situation see El Pueblo, page 8
Hurricane Carmen executive editor
Reviewing Po Boy Tango.
he Museum of Contemporary Art’s new exhibit features hundreds of paintings, sculptures, photographs and other works by big names like Jackson Pollock, Ed Ruscha and Jean-Michel Basquiat. But it’s not just size and star power that make The Collection: MOCA’s First Thirty Years stand out — the exhibit marks both the museum’s 30th anniversary and a dramatic comeback for an institution whose future was in question just a year ago. “No 30-year journey is without bumps,” said philanthropist Eli Broad last Thursday during a preview
event for the new exhibit at MOCA’s Grand Avenue headquarters. In the past 10 months, he said, “MOCA has made the greatest turnaround of any art institution in recent years.” In late 2008, MOCA was mired in a major financial crisis brought on by rising spending and a plunging endowment. MOCA Director Jeremy Strick resigned in the wake of the news and the museum closed the Geffen Contemporary annex in Little Tokyo to cut costs. Planned exhibits were canceled and in January the museum slashed its budget and reduced its staff by 20%. Now, however, MOCA appears to see MOCA, page 17
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here are two things I know about City Attorney Carmen Trutanich: First, the guy can talk. Give him a microphone and he’ll go off, riffing on about 9 zillion subjects, dropping in some legal jargon almost no one but him understands, THE REGARDIE REPORT
and then sprinkling in a few things that, from a PR standpoint, might be better left unsaid. In the same way that watching Kobe with a basketball makes you go, “Wow, did he really just do that?” listening to Hurricane Carmen can make you go, “Wow,
did he really just say that?” The second thing I know about Trutanich is that I can’t really figure him out. He’s a big jumble of juxtapositions, a guy who seems passionate about protecting the city but is ready to lob verbal grenades at its leaders. He’s a politician who loves to repeat that staffers in his office are not allowed to talk politics. Although during his victorious run against Jack Weiss he seemed to court the media, which in response swirled around him like charmed guppies, these days he appears to loathe reporters, and will eagerly state, even without being asked, how the press gets things see Trutanich, page 10
photo by Gary Leonard
Since taking office on July 1, City Attorney Carmen Trutanich has dealt with billboards, medical marijuana and the Anschutz Entertainment Group. He said that under his watch, his office is 27-0 in trials.
The Voice of Downtown Los Angeles