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Starters
Observing race in L.A.
Roberto Lovato, former president of the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission, lives in New York now and writes for New America Media. He contributes a piece to the current Nation called The Smog of Race War in LA.
These days, Chris Bowers wakes up every morning to a vivid reminder that crossing borders can get you killed in South LA's Harbor Gateway area. Just outside the fence in front of his rented stucco house on Harvard Boulevard is a silver scooter, an assortment of dried flowers and a dozen candles bearing religious messages written in Spanish and English--a makeshift memorial to Cheryl Green, the 14-year-old whose murder last December by members of the 204th Street Gang sparked accusations of Latino "ethnic cleansing" of African-Americans.
Politics
Un-planning as usual
The City Council decided to sell off the air rights to the convention center without figuring how added density would affect downtown, the Times says, quoting experts.
"There's no vision or larger plan about where to put high-density corridors, or what is going to be the impact of this density on traffic," said Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, chairwoman of UCLA's urban planning department. Steven P. Erie, director of the Urban Studies Program at UC San Diego, said the city's projections for sewer, transportation, public safety and other needs would have to change to accommodate the crush of people in a small area that would result from the construction of very high condominium or apartment towers.
Media
Ellies finalists
Sandra Tsing Loh makes the list at the National Magazine Awards for the second year running, this time for book reviews in The Atlantic Monthly. Playboy is up for fiction, plus Ruth Reichl's Gourmet has three nominations and Wired and Mother Jones a pair each. Winners are announced May 1.
Ray Richmond up close and personal
The Hollywood Reporter blogger chats with Mediabistro.
Programming note
KPCC's Frank Stoltze guest-hosts on "Off-Ramp" on Saturday, noon on 89.3 FM. Los Angeles Magazine contributor Ed Humes stops in to talk about Intelligent Design.
LAT delivery driver arrested
Hit and run of a bicyclist is the charge in Newport Beach. Daily Pilot
Noted
Match Day for medical students
Yesterday was the day that "fourth years" all across the country found out where they will be overworked and exhausted as interns and residents. Brent Hopkins in the Daily News tags along.
On the river with Jenny
LA Observed contributor Jenny Price's latest Los Angeles River guided tour picked up Zach Behrens of LAist, who took some nice pics.
L.A. obituaries
Steven Criqui, artist was 43
Complications of cancer claimed the Highland Park artist who captured Los Angeles "'in all its blank, sun-bleached, abject beauty," Christopher Knight of the Times wrote in a 2004 review. LAT
Gerry Ann Schabarum, 70
The wife of retired county supervisor Pete Schabarum died after a year-long battle against a staphylococcus infection that may have begun with a pedicure. Pasadena Weekly
