It’s not a Johnie’s Broiler any more—or a Harvey’s Broiler, which was its original name in the 1950s—but as the Press-Telegram’s Jonathan Smith reports, Downey’s classic Googie-style drive-in restaurant is back in business at Old River School Road and Firestone Boulevard after being nearly demolished in January 2007.
This is weird news—for me, anyway. Generally, I [...]

The awards just keep coming: now it’s the turn of Courtyard Lofts, the colorful, daring, North Pine loft complex, recently honored by none other than the American Institute of Architects (AIA) for its fine design.

While we’ve been watching our city as a whole wrestle with a $19.2 million structural budget deficit, it’s worth noting that some of its more independently wealthy agencies haven’t been doing too badly.
One is the Redevelopment Agency, which will, as the Press-Telegram’s Karen Robes Meeks points out, approve its own $106.7 million budget for FY [...]

A new Art Exchange plan preserves half of the Acres of Books building. Why did it take this long?

If you were born the year that city fathers dreamed up the idea for an Art Exchange downtown—and you were a guy—your voice would be changing, if it hadn’t already. You’d be breaking out, looking at dames, [...]

If you were born the year that they dreamed up the idea for an Art Exchange downtown–and you were a guy–your voice would be changing, if it hadn’t already.
You’d be breaking out, looking at dames, thinking about driving–maybe even growing a cheesy mustache. You’d be turning 15 this year–that’s how long the Art Exchange concept [...]

In the first 90 minutes of its first meeting this month, the city Redevelopment Agency board tackled more projects than it’s seen in … well, at least a month.
“This is what happens when you leave us alone for a month and we don’t have to have a meeting in January,” joked RDA Assistant Executive Director [...]

Perhaps.
As the Press-Telegram’s Karen Robes Meeks writes this morning, the Redevelopment Agency board on Monday will consider two possibilities for a so-called downtown Arts Exchange–an idea now 15 years in the works.
Both involve the so-called Broadway Block project–which last we heard, may not even have a developer–and, by association, the former Acres of Books building.
Apparently, [...]

It’s true: a documentary is in the works on that bookstore we once had
You’ve read–er, seen–the bookstore Acres of Books. Now, see the movie? It sounds like the next, futuristic step for those of us (almost all of us) who are too busy to take the time to, you know, really do stuff–like read.
But 15-year [...]

Sort of. Turns out there isn’t much to say which means there isn’t much to tell. I think.
All right! I finally got a call back from Long Beach Department of Development Services Communications Officer Victoria Ballesteros, and here’s what the Redevelopment Agency (which is part of the Development Services department) has to say about what [...]

Curious about the Broadway Block? So am I
This is your city, and this is how it works. I’ve been trying for two weeks–two weeks!–to get an update on the Broadway Block development, that piece of land once home to Acres of Books, Shades of Afrika, Terry’s Camera and Al’s Fingerprinting, and here’s how I’ve done: