City of Los Angeles' Department of Recreation and Parks
President of the Board of Commissioners of the City of Los Angeles' Department of Recreation and Parks and Professor of Communication Studies at UCLA; author of American Avatar: The United States in the Global Imagination; former attorney
53 Pocket Parks to Fill Foreclosed Properties in South LA In the 12 acres between the Music Center and LA City Hall, block three of the new Grand Park was opened today with a ceremony featuring LA City and County officials. The Grand Park is a $56 million project to create more usable open space in the urban center. Another park project will spend $80 million on 170 acres, but they're not all in the same place. The City of LA is buying up foreclosed properties and turning them into more than 50 new parks scattered all over South Los Angeles. They are the brainchild of former lawyer, now UCLA Professor of Communications Studies and President of Mayor Villaraigosa's Recreation and Parks Commission, Barry Sanders.
Regulars at Borderline Bar & Grill reflect on the shooting This year there has been a mass shooting in America on average almost once per day. As you know, the most recent was the mass shooting in Thousand Oaks where 12 people were killed when a gunman opened fire inside a local bar. It was called Borderline Bar & Grill. KCRW’s David Weinberg talked to some of the bar’s regulars about what made the place special.
Jerry Gonzalez, Latin Jazz Heavyweight, RIP We interviewed Gonzalez twice on KCRW—in 1996 and 2000—and we hear excerpts from those Café LA visits in this special feature.