Entries tagged 'dtla'

Raw Materials Art Supplies is closing

tl;dr We love you, but Raw Materials Art Supplies will be closing permanently at the end of the year.

that was really hard to write. it was a decision that has been looming for a while, but our hand was forced by the looming legal threat explained there. now i am out in the market looking for new employment, which is not something i had ever really planned on having to do. but the more i uncover new opportunities, the more excited i get about the possibilities. certainly not the best timing, either calendar-wise as everything slows down for the holidays, or market-wise as the tech job market goes through an upheaval, but i am remain cautiously optimistic.

pet project la has closed their location on spring street. they moved around and changed owners a few times, but had been around almost as long as our store.

when we were looking for a new location, we looked at the rest of the retail space available in that parking garage. it wasn’t right for us, but it did have real alley access and being in a parking garage would have been convenient.

the property at first and broadway in downtown that was supposed to be turned into a park now could be used for temporary homeless housing. it’s just an even dirt lot right now, not really used for much of anything. it was a food truck parking lot during the recent july 4th festivities, and there are usually encampments on at least a couple of the adjoining sidewalks. i have a feeling that it being adjacent to grand park will make it impractical to use for temporary housing.

this is what it looked like almost 18 years ago:

UCLA to expand in downtown L.A. with purchase of historic building - Los Angeles Times

UCLA purchased the 11-story, Art Deco-style Trust Building on Spring Street, and expects to begin classes in it later this year — initially through its large Extension program.

this is fantastic news for the neighborhood.

i’m not entirely sure what went down between vault vintage supply and the landlord of the building formerly known as the sb tower, but looks like it involved a dead body and didn’t go well.

i’m excited to hear that the grand central market is going to see some upgrades. it was almost twelve years ago when i was serving jury duty and stumbled on the grand central market for lunch, which helped the plant the seed for me to move downtown a couple of years later and set the stage for all the awesome things that have happened since.

the market seemed to be having a fairly rough go of it ever since i moved downtown, even before competition like the new ralphs market opened. the hours didn’t really accommodate the new residential influx, and few of the vendors seemed to notice what was happening in the neighborhood around them. i am optimistic that with many of the existing vendors having long-term leases already, they won’t be priced out, and their presence should help keep the market grounded and accessible to the diverse downtown community.

saeed farkhondehpour, developer of the medallion at 4th and main in downtown los angeles, plans to challenge the downtown women’s center’s plans to open a second-hand store because he thinks “a lot of people will not want to come shop near secondhand stores.”

so the toy district, where you can find blocks of stores selling nearly the exact same items, would somehow be tarnished by a second-hand store run by a non-profit organization in a space that is currently just a building behind an iron fence.

yeah, i don’t buy it.

the goodwill in downtown los angeles, on broadway between 2nd and 3rd, closed yesterday as explained by the los angeles times the day before it closed. we were planning to bring by a donation last week, but got rained out. now we’ll have to trek to the next-closest drop-off location when we finally get our act together.

kimura photomart is closed. last day was may 29, according to another sign. #dtla #littletokyo

filming on a @metrolosangeles bus in #dtla

smiling graffiti cat at 3rd and main. #dtla #graffiti

graffiti on the steps of st. vibiana cathedral. #dtla

the christmas tree at city hall is big. the wires holding it up don't look good. #dtla