Urban Living in California

News Brief

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – Eccentric tour bus company Esotouric has announced an open call for artists interested in painting the Hippodrome, a vintage school bus that has been the free shuttle (and “party bus” with poets, musicians and other entertainers) for the monthly Downtown Art Walk since June. Two artists will each paint a side of the bus. According to the detailed Hippodrome Transformed competition guidelines on esotouric.com, “The two winning proposals must reflect the theme of good times spent with genial people” and “use imagery evoking the glory days of life along Downtown’s Main Street and nearby environs in the years 1880-1950.” The judges include Dennis Van Justice of American Transportation Systems, owner of the Hippodrome, and the bloggers and staff of onbunkerhill.org, including Esotouric founders Kim Cooper and Richard Schave. Schave said there had not been any submissions as of Aug. 13, but a number of people have inquired about the contest. “We know there are people out there thinking, sketching, and letting things percolate in their brain,” he said. The deadline for entries is Sept. 26, and the winning artists or teams will be announced on Sept. 30. The transformed bus will premiere at the Oct. 9 Art Walk.

News Brief Courtesy of LADowntownNews.com

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – The City Council recently approved a yearlong pilot program that will allow more people access to a pool of shared cars. The city will team up with the company Zipcar to reserve parking locations for six to 12 cars near the USC campus that can be rented on an hourly basis (another location will be near UCLA). The program, which will be run by the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, should be up and running in about two months, said Alan Willis, principal transportation engineer for LADOT. In October 2007 Zipcar merged with Flexcar, which offered the same service Downtown. But the company closed the Downtown locations and opted to focus on the college market instead. Expanding the service will again allow users the opportunity to share cars for a fraction of what it would cost to rent them, city officials said. Zipcar members pay a $50 annual fee plus a $25 application fee and hourly rental rates start at about $6.

Former Rail Site Reborn as $78 Million Belmont Station Apartments

by Ryan Vaillancourt

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – In the first half of the 20th century, the Belmont Tunnel was a portal near the corner of Second Street and Glendale Avenue through which Pacific Electric Red Cars zipped Angelenos entering or leaving Downtown Los Angeles.

It stopped at Toluca Yard, a subway station on the route from Bunker Hill to Hollywood. The tunnel is now sealed and painted gray, a reminder that trains have not rumbled past since the 1950s.

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Courtesy of TheLoftExchange.com

The New High School for the Performing Arts is outfitted with everything from a broadcast studio to a 25 meter swimming pool. Read the rest of this entry »

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{ find out more at SFGreenMap.org }