Downtown La

Downtown's Art Walk has become an institution for roving hipster aesthetes, curious warehouse-dwellers and food-truck aficionados. The work? It's hit-and-miss, but you can't argue with the one weekend a month when the Old Bank District sees Cairo-level street traffic of bright young things spilling out of tiny galleries and progressive museums in their angled-haircut finery. Downtown L.A., noon-9 p.m. Thu. www.downtown artwalk.com .

For a downtown once famous for emptying out with the evening commute, the raucous scene around Staples Center and L.A. Live as the Lakers, Kings and Clippers compete in playoff games stands as a testament to how much the central city's fortunes have changed. Thousands jam sidewalks. Crowded cafes and bars pulsate with music and laughter. The streetscape is so lively that a group of Christian evangelists descends on street corners with free Bible booklets. But travel a block or two in any direction and the crowds begin to thin out considerably.

D.J. Waldie correctly assesses the state of mind of a vast number of Angelenos ("A Man. A Plan. Now What?" Commentary, May 26). We are neglectful about Los Angeles' future. But thank God for Eli Broad, who cares enough to put his money where his dreams are in building a more glorious L.A. His willfulness in the planning process has aided the city in the same way the upper class in Italy patronized the art that sparked the Renaissance -- and a renaissance is what downtown L.A. needs. Lora Victorio Studio City Re "Grand Plan Approved to Give L.A. a Heart," May 24: While I was initially thrilled to see the new plans for downtown, I could see, once again, that the plans appear to have incorporated the already existing recipe for failure that keeps downtown from being what it should be. Simply put, the focus should not be on the buildings, it should be on the street.

To work in the file room of the downtown criminal courts building is to be a librarian of evils. Its shelves hold the official records of rapes, murders, robberies and thousands of other offenses prosecuted in the courthouse and the clerks there know the ugliness of society by name and case number. It is perhaps not surprising then that on his lunch hour, an employee named Marcos Saldana was drawn to a scene of natural beauty. It was a ravens' nest on the ledge of a building across Temple Street and Saldana watched each spring as the same pair of birds rebuilt the nest, hatched their chicks and taught them to fly. "Birds are beautiful," Saldana said, standing at his usual vantage point, a window in the L.A. courthouse's 13th floor snack bar. "They can fly away and go wherever they want, whereas we are stuck to the ground.

Re "Packing Up and Heading West" (Jan. 29): I wish to express my concern that theater planners who consider such a westward move have continually ignored the theatergoing audiences of the San Gabriel and Pomona valleys. The Mark Taper Forum, Ahmanson and Dorothy Chandler Pavilion are practically the only nearby professional theaters. As a longtime Angeleno and now resident of Claremont, I still subscribe to these theaters--as I must if I want to see challenging works of any import and quality.

Your May 20 article concerning a hotel for the L.A. Convention Center identifies a long-standing problem with that facility. I've been covering trade shows there as a reporter for various magazines for more than 10 years, and, yes, it needs a hotel close by. In fact, it probably needs three hotels. For years the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau has let various conventions send out maps of the convention center and "nearby" hotels, some of which are as far away as Long Beach and Pasadena.

Departing from their routine, the Kings planned to stay at a downtown hotel Wednesday night and conduct their morning skate at Staples Center before Game 3 of their playoff series against the St. Louis Blues. Goaltender Jonathan Quick saw a big benefit beyond making players feel as if they're on the road, where they're 5-0 in postseason play. "I think it's more like we want our rink to feel like it's our rink," he said Wednesday. "We've never practiced there. Four years I've been here, we've never practiced there.

The smiles should be wide and plentiful. The Dodgers' new owners should take over this week, meeting the media and greeting fans and officially liberating the team from its dysfunctional era. What could possibly wipe the smiles off the faces of Magic Johnson, Stan Kasten and Mark Walter? How about the Angels moving into a new ballpark in downtown Los Angeles, three miles from Dodger Stadium? As the Dodgers emerge from bankruptcy, the most compelling baseball story in town might well involve how the Dodgers and Angels handle their aging ballparks.

In preparation for the start of demolition this summer of the now-closed 936-room Wilshire Grand Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, the hotel will reopen its doors Thursday for the start of a massive sale of its furniture, plates, towels and television sets, among thousands of items in the building. Everything must go, including the kitchen sinks, which are priced at $350. "But our kitchen sinks are a little bigger than most," said Frank Long, president of International Content Liquidations Inc., the Ohio firm that is running what is expected to be a $2-million liquidation sale starting at 9 a.m. Long lines are expected.

Justin Lin, who directed the "Fast and the Furious" films, has bought actor-director-producer Vincent Gallo's penthouse in downtown L.A. for $2.6 million. The four-level loft features exposed brick walls, floating staircases and an in-unit elevator. There are two bedrooms and 21/2 bathrooms in the 4,300-square-foot open plan space. Three outdoor living areas add 3,100 square feet of space. The penthouse in the former National Biscuit Co. building was once leased to actor Nicolas Cage.

From cycling celebrations to protest marches to filming, street closures are a part of life in downtown L.A. But it's something altogether different this week for a section of Main Street from Arcadia Street to Cesar Chavez Avenue, where the road is being blocked to make room for a restoration effort involving one of the city's key pieces of public art, "América Tropical. " Part of an ongoing partnership between the city and the Getty, the only mural by Mexican painter David Alfaro Siqueiros that is still in its original location will be fitted for a protective canopy, starting today.

Under cloudless skies and a radiant sun, a couple of hundred Salvadorans dressed in white gathered early Saturday to name an intersection near downtown Los Angeles in honor of Msgr. Oscar A. Romero, a Catholic archbishop who was slain in 1980 during El Salvador's civil war and whom many consider a martyr. White doves were released; a tree was planted. Speakers recounted Romero's struggle on behalf of the poor and his assassination. His words - "If they kill me, I will be reborn in the Salvadoran people" - were invoked throughout the morning.

Police in downtown Los Angeles have seen cellphone thefts soar as smartphones like the iPhone become easily turned into pay-as-you-go phones. In the first quarter of this year, thefts of cellphones increased 32% in the downtown area. In the one-mile-square area of skid row, the increase is even more pronounced, said Los Angeles Police Lt. Paul Vernon. Individuals reported 54 cellphones taken in crimes within skid row in the first three months of 2012, compared with 115 during all of 2011.

A condominium in West Hollywood owned by comic actor Milton Berle and his wife, Lorna, has come on the market at $695,000. The Shoreham Towers condo has views of downtown L.A., Santa Monica and the ocean. The one-bedroom, 11/2-bathroom unit features an updated kitchen and motorized window shades. Floor-to-ceiling stacking glass doors open to a balcony with a counter and seating. The high-rise building includes a pool, a gym and a doorman. Berle, who died in 2002 at 93, was an early television star following work in vaudeville, on the stage and in radio.