calvinfleming/LA Weekly Flickr Pool

Mural at Sunset Junction, 2010

By Tyler Trykowski

Could gays of the 1980s imagine what it would be like to be gay in 2013? From the Supreme Court pondering marriage equality to NFL players weighing how best to come out, the way we're gay today is nothing like it's ever been before.

And for that modern gay man, West Hollywood may not be the mecca it once was. Instead, young gays are flocking to Silver Lake and other low-key Eastside neighborhoods.

Frank Rodriguez argues as much: "The gay ghetto is dead," he declares to me one morning, gesturing at his phone. "This," he says, "is what's replaced it."

More »

Courtesy of Gage Middle School

Students & faculty play flag football at Gage Middle School

Huntington Park was dubbed the city with the fattest kids in California in 2012, which prompted students and faculty at heavily Latino Gage Middle School in Huntington Park to team up and try slim down the student body's bodies.

After an article posted by L.A. Weekly and headlined "Huntington Park Has the Fattest Kids in California; Manhattan Beach has the Skinniest," many parents and students spoke out in the comments section. While some blamed not enough public parks or awareness programs, others blamed fast food and the cost of raising a large family with a poverty-level income.

Gage Middle School has decided to try and cut the fat. "The students reacted angrily to the article, and felt that it was a dubious honor that they wanted to shed," explains teacher Ruben Hernandez.

Here's how:

More »

Boss Tweed Circa 2006

Echo Park is, depending on your point of view: the poor man's Silver Lake, the rich man's Highland Park, the Williamsburg of the West Coast, a 40,455-person working-class burg full of diversity and a wee bit of gang violence. Or, it's that strange little neighborhood you drive through getting to Dodger Stadium.

But, bar none, it is the greatest neighborhood in Los Angeles (sorry Holmby Hills, you were this close).

Any great neighborhood in L.A. must have "location." Verdant, ravine-filled Topanga Canyon might be the cat's pajamas, but it's like a 45-minute drive to see a movie. Echo Park, however, is near practically everything that matters, save for the Pacific Ocean and the Museum of Jurassic Technology.

It's a stone's throw from Chinatown, a short bike ride from downtown L.A., Silver Lake and Los Feliz. It's also surrounded by four, count em, four major freeways:

More »

cyan79 / Flickr

Sorry, Silver Lake.

You've been replaced as L.A.'s top hipster neighborhood, as far as we're concerned. The in-the-know readers of Curbed LA have declared this week that Atwater Village, and not the stereotypical icon of L.A. cool, Silver Lake, is the site's "neighborhood of the year" for 2012.

Yep:

More »

Parker Michael Knight / Flickr

What's the most-romantic neighborhood in Los Angeles?

Los Feliz? Hollywood? Larchmont Village?

No: Angelenos prefer a beach with bustle.

Santa Monica ranked as the top spot across the board in the latest Match.com "L.A. Dating" survey:

More »

Anna Jones

CicLAvia, the bike ride that closes down miles of L.A. streets for your pedaling pleasure, announced an all-new route for its Oct. 7 shindig.

And it's somewhat of a hipster happening, taking you to Chinatown, the new Grand Park, "downtown's bustling cafés and pubs," and Little Tokyo, according to a statement from organizers.

It all happens ...

More »

HomeFinder.com

Can L.A. privatize a view?

Should the posh dead-end streets throughout the Hollywood Hills -- which offer the best views in Los Angeles, and allow access to some of the city's coolest hiking trails -- be gated off to protect homeowners from tourists and riff-raff?

In three different instances (a number that Hollywood attorney Richard MacNaughton fears will grow, unless a legal precedent is set), L.A. City Councilman Tom LaBonge has moved to erect temporary 18-month gates in the Hills, on the basis that "serious and continual criminal activity" was threatening his rich constituents who live there.

But what millionaires in the Hills consider to be "serious and continual" crime...

More »

CathrynDC

Updated at the bottom with a statement from Verizon and some additional background. First posted at 8:09 a.m.

It's a data-hungry world, and now we want it wherever we are. Thus cellphone companies have been on a quest to find new locations for its data towers. Not only that, but they've had to get creative with how the towers appear.

And so the "cellphone tree" -- towers made to look more incognito -- was born. See that vertical tree-like pole? Perfectly natural. There are palm tree cell phone towers and pine tree cell phone towers.

Verizon Wireless wants to put one of the latter in Glassell Park, but ...

More »

The $1.5 million Ferris wheel at the Santa Monica Pier is going to look like a hamster wheel next to this thing.

It's called a "Great Observation Wheel," and it's manufactured by British company Great City Attractions. Models in Asia, Australia and Europe are up to 60 metes in diameter and generally much more classy-looking than America's Ferris, with futuristic glass pods to sit in and a setup/takedown time of a couple weeks. All very sleek and efficient and, well, Euro.

The Venice Neighborhood Council, along with the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, is looking at setting one up...

More »

Beverly Hills vs. Metro.

Beverly Hills schools have been in a battle with Metro over its plans to tunnel under the famous 90210 high school as part of the "Westside Subway Extension."

As our Patrick Range McDonald reported in an LA Weekly cover story, the line has essentially been bent from a more straight shot down Santa Monica Boulevard to coincide with plans by a friend-of-L.A.-Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to build a skyscraper on "sleepy" Constellation Boulevard. And that would put the subway and tunneling under Beverly Hills High.

This week Metro, where Villaraigosa holds much sway, issued a report stating that seismic activity begs it to move the subway stop to Constellation. The school district is pissed:

More »

'Slums of Beverly Hills' ... as if.

Los Angeles has the largest homeless population in the nation. There's 48,000 people on the streets in L.A., more than enough to replace each person in Beverly Hills -- and then some. (That would be somethin' ... ).

Interestingly, that gilded city would be surrounded by L.A. if it weren't for West Hollywood. This week the Beverly Hills Courier reports that the city's latest homeless count came up with ... 37 people on the mean streets of B.H.

How does Beverly Hills keep the homeless out?

More »

Councilman Greig Smith

Damien Newton of LA Streetsblog has an interesting piece about a potential conflict between bike activists and neighborhood councils, though it may wind up in peace, love and harmony.

Backstory: City Councilman Greig Smith, who represents district 12 in the Valley, has offered a motion forcing the L.A. Department of Transportation to get input and final approval from the relevant neighborhood council when putting in new bike amenities, e.g., bike lanes. To Newton at Streetsblog, this seemed like it was setting up a conflict between bike activists and neighborhood councils, and would ultimately be viewed by the cyclists as a backdoor way to prevent new bike lanes -- a hostile power grab by autos in the never-ending conflict with cyclists. But maybe not.

More »

Councilman Paul Krekorian

The City Council this week moved $1.3 million and five full-time positions from the Community Development Department to the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, which oversees the city's 91 elected neighborhood councils.

Neighborhood council types cheered and breathed a little easier, as it seemed a sign that a plan hatched by Mayor Villaraigosa earlier this year to save money by merging DONE with CDD is dead, at least for now.

More »

Gregory Bojorquez

L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti

Yesterday, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved entitlements for a massive high-density project in Hollywood, where a 28-story residential building, a 7-story hotel, and a 17-story office tower are planned for construction at Columbia Square on Sunset Boulevard.

City Council President Eric Garcetti, who represents the neighborhood where the project is located, said the redevelopment of the landmark site will usher in a "new Golden Age" for Hollywood, but some community activists aren't so sure.

More »

Proposed site for Vendome Palms Apartments in Silver Lake

Last Friday, the Los Angeles City Council approved a $6.2 million loan to a non-profit housing organization so it can build a 36-unit apartment complex for the homeless and mentally ill near Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake, much to the chagrin and surprise of community activists in that area.

"We hadn't heard anything about this (project) since 2008," says Scott Crawford, a member of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council who's not speaking for that group. "There was no public notice whatsoever."

More »

Gail Goldberg, who hoped to bring high-density, transit-oriented development to Los Angeles but was accused of being too friendly to builders, has resigned as the city's top planner, leaving a key vacancy. The Weekly is reaching out to people all over the city to get their ideas about the type of person who should replace Goldberg, and what vision that person should bring to Los Angeles and its future. If you have your own ideas, Email us.

So far we've heard from Damien Newton of Streetsblog LA.

This time, Jay Handal, West L.A. Neighborhood Council chairman, weighs in, and he's pessimistic.

More »

Gail Goldberg, who hoped to bring high-density, transit-oriented development to Los Angeles but was accused of being too friendly to builders, has resigned as the city's top planner, leaving a key vacancy. The Weekly is reaching out to people all over the city to get their ideas about the type of person who should replace Goldberg, and what vision that person should bring to Los Angeles and its future. If you have your own ideas, Email us.

First up, Damien Newton, proprietor of Streetsblog LA, which advocates for smarter development that is friendlier to pedestrians, street-life and bikes.

More »

DiCastro knows how to get these fixed.

In these lean budget times, services are being cut, which means more trash, potholes and unwanted liquor stores in your neighborhood, in a city already known for having well enough of all of the above. City workers have many more demands on them and are being asked for contract concessions, and so are more surly than usual.

Add it up, and L.A. residents have to learn how to master the byzantine ways of city government to get some help in their neighborhoods. Allan DiCastro, president of the Mid-City Neighborhood Council, or MINC, has mastered it, insofar as it can be. After the jump, DiCastro explains what you have to do to get the city to solve your problem.

More »