What I presume to be Sylmar fire smoke (or just low hanging clouds):

Today I saw this lone protester outside the Mormon temple in Los Angeles:

Click to big-ify

The moon was pretty impressive from my balcony last night:

It would have been more impressive if I could have found my camera’s zoom lens…

Ever wonder what neighborhood in Los Angeles is most similar to your favorite neighborhood in New York City? Well, according to some real estate agents, here’s the answer:

* SoHo is like Pico/Robertson, Silver Lake, Central City East, Los Feliz
* Harlem is like El Sereno, Lincoln Heights, West Adams, Cypress Park
* Morningside Heights is like El Sereno, West Adams, Cypress Park, Lincoln Heights
* Yorkville is like West Adams, Cypress Park, El Sereno, Lincoln Heights
* East Village is like South Park, Los Feliz, Silver Lake, Palms
* Upper West Side is like Pico/Robertson, Leiment Park, Mar Vista, Mount Washington
* Financial District is like Pico/Robertson, Central City East, Palms, Silver Lake
* Garment District is like Palms, Mid City West, Los Feliz, South Park
* Gramercy is like Westwood, Mid City West, Los Feliz, South Park
* Midtown is like Westwood, Civic Center/Little Tokyo, Hollywood Hills, Mid City West
* Little Italy is like Atwater Village, Leiment Park, Mount Washington, Central City East
* Central Park is like Pico/Robertson, Leiment Park, Crenshaw, Mount Washington
* Upper East Side is like Leiment Park, Westwood, Pico/Robertson, Central City East
* Washington Heights is like Boyle Heights, Southeast Los Angeles, Cypress Park, Jefferson Park
* Chelsea is like Mid City West, Los Feliz, Hollywood Hills, Silver Lake
* Chinatown is like South Los Angeles, Jefferson Park, Chinatown, Chinatown
* Clinton is like Mid City West, Westwood, Silver Lake, Los Feliz
* Greenwich Village is like Los Feliz, Mid City West, Hollywood Hills, South Park
* West Village is like Hollywood Hills, Los Feliz, Mid City West, Westwood
* Lower East Side is like Jefferson Park, South Los Angeles, Chinatown, Cypress Park
* Murray Hill is like Westwood, Mid City West, New Downtown, Downtown
* Hamilton Heights is like Boyle Heights, Cypress Park, Southeast Los Angeles, West Adams
* North Sutton Area is like Brentwood, Beverly Glen, Crenshaw, Westwood
* Carnegie Hill is like Cypress Park, Lakeview Terrace, Chinatown, Eagle Rock
* Battery Park is like Central City East, Leiment Park, Pico/Robertson, Atwater Village
* Tribeca is like Jefferson Park, South Los Angeles, Glassell Park, Chinatown
* Inwood is like Boyle Heights, Hyde Park, Jefferson Park, Southeast Los Angeles
* East Harlem is like Central City, Lincoln Heights, Southeast Los Angeles, West Adams
* Rosebank is like New Downtown, Porter Ranch, Wholesale District/Skid Row, Boyle Heights

My neighborhood of Palms is most similar to the Garment District. But not THAT Garment District, the other one.

Via L.A. Land.

The current view from my roof, which I’m sadly not allowed to go up onto:

I’m going to head down to the beach to do a sunset tomorrow. Maybe.

In addition to the Smoot turning 50, Philippe’s, the restaurant that (potentially) invented the french dip (one of my favorite sandwich types), is turning 100 on Monday.

Last year it was Copyright Infringement High, now it’s Copyright Infringement Elementary:

How do you think E. B. White feels about this?

Evidence that gas prices have gotten out of hand: two shot in bicycle drive by.

Nobody ever wants to see Pac-Man crying… it’s just too sad.

The mistake attorneys and judges say is the most common among those who choose to represent themselves in traffic court? Admitting guilt.

While I recently moved from DC to LA, I’ve still been keeping tabs on the old city via Metroblogging. This is probably of interest to almost nobody, but I was surprised to see a staff exodus from the DC site this morning… the following people have abruptly quit: Tom Bridge, Don Whiteside, Tiffany Bridge, bhrome and David. They’ve all apparently ditched to work on a new site, We Love DC.

They’re oddly silent about the fact that there’s been an obvious mass exodus taking away half of their authors. I’m curious if there’s some dispute with Sean Bonner and the larger Metroblogging sphere? The lack of pronouncement is puzzling. It’s vaguely Violet Blue-ish in its awkward silence.

So, did someone insult someone? Is someone not getting paid enough? What’s going on at MetBlogs people?

Like I said, this is likely of interest to almost nobody.

UPDATE: Two more gone – Brittany and Wayan. Is there going to be anybody left at the end of the day? The DC Metblog is starting to look like a hollow shell of a website.

That being said, Sean Bonner and Tom Bridge were both kind enough to respond indicating that there’s no mysterious plot or internal power struggle or really ANYTHING interesting going on. Still, it’s going to be sad to see what will likely be sparse posting at the formerly lively site.

Los Angeles’s Mayor Villaraigosa and Police Chief Bratton celebrate a 7.2% drop in crime, not including homicide. What? The homicide stats? Well, homicide is up 4.3%… but look at the 7.2% drop in crime!

I saw a bunch of these posters in Hollywood and was drawn in because they decried the shooting of what appears to be a ten year old by the LAPD. “Yegads,” I thought, “how did the LAPD manage to shoot a ten year old?”

As I got closer I noticed that the man was 21 when he was shot, not ten. The poster’s maker used an 11 year old photo. Now, look, I have a lot of sympathy for the friends and family of anyone shot and killed by anyone, but it’s awfully misleading to use the picture of a child to draw people in to your rally.

The story itself, according to the LATimes, is that Chaudhry was sleeping in the bushes outside an apartment building when two police officers approached him and asked him for ID. There was some interaction and then he stabbed one of the officers in the hand. The officer then shot Chaudhry three times in the stomach.

The family seems to question (1, 2) the official story, but doesn’t really provide an alternative one. They mostly seem mad that the police took a full month to notify them of the shooting (seems like a fairly reasonable complaint considering that he had ID on him).

I just thought the use of the picture in the poster was interesting.

UPDATE: Thanks to a commenter, here’s a more recent picture of him from Facebook: