Downtown

Re "Old shop reveals an L.A. treasure," Column One, Aug. 2 In the late 1950s I worked at the Security Bank at 5th and Spring streets in downtown L.A. The Dutch Chocolate Shop (which was open then but under another name that I can't remember) was our favorite spot for a morning or afternoon break. I knew nothing of tile maker Ernest Batchelder then, but I thought his creation was cute and different. One night I was driving by and saw workers hosing down the interior (all chairs and tables were on the sidewalk)

The man who came up with the phrase "beautiful downtown Burbank" is not happy that NBC is considering moving "The Tonight Show" back to New York City. "Burbank is a great little place," said Gary Owens, who coined the phrase from his radio days then made it famous when he was the announcer on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" from 1968 to 1973. "If you are in show business in any way, shape or form, you must be here. "  Johnny Carson, who moved "The Tonight Show" from New York to Los Angeles in 1972, also used the "beautiful downtown Burbank" line but never tried to take credit for it. PHOTOS: Classic 'Tonight Show' moments "He said, 'We're using "beautiful downtown Burbank," and I told him, 'That's fine - not a problem,'" Owens recalled.

The grand opening of a Target store in downtown Los Angeles - and the prospect of freebies for the first shoppers - dragged a crowd of locals out of bed Sunday morning. By 7:30 a.m., about 100 people - many clad in sweat pants and rubbing sleepy eyes - were lined up outside the front doors of the store, tucked into the Figat7th shopping center. Standing at the head of the line was Louis Salazar and his brother William, who had been waiting outside since 2 a.m. They were up early, anyway, to watch the space shuttle Endeavour on its way to Exposition Park.

It's a crisp Saturday night in a gritty industrial area of downtown L.A., and a line stretches in front of a warehouse on an eerily silent street. Dozens of men in ties and women in satin dresses and pearls wait for the doors to open at Sneaky Nietzsche. Launched in late August and recurring weekly through the end of October, the event is billed enigmatically as "a theatrical exploratorium and musical experiment for the senses," and few attendees seem to know what to expect. "I don't even know where I am right now. I don't know what this is," one twentysomething man says.

Cat Harris and her daughter visited the Last Bookstore in downtown Los Angeles in March. As they left, they noticed this group of young men shouting from a window above to get the attention of the young women on the street below. "I tend to carry my camera wherever I go, so I just couldn't pass on this photo opportunity since they looked fun and unique," Harris said. Each week, we're featuring photos of Southern California submitted by readers. Share your photos on our Flickr page or reader submission gallery . Follow us on Twitter or visit  latimes.com/socalmoments for more on this photo series.

A vacant lot near the Glendale Galleria shopping center in downtown Glendale has sold to an apartment developer for nearly $16 million. The 1.38-acre site at 111 N. Brand Blvd. is approved for residential and retail development. Buyer Holland Partners of Vancouver, Wash., plans to build 235 apartments on top of shops and restaurants. The property's urban location close to the Galleria and the Americana at Brand shopping centers helped attract an array of institutional and private bidders, real estate broker Paul Darrow of Marcus & Millichap's Institutional Property Advisors said.

People enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner a day early on 5th Street downtown, where the Los Angeles Mission served turkey and the trimmings. People flocked to the site as celebrities and politicians pitched in to help provide a good meal to the homeless and the needy.

Anastasia McAteer writes that "it's disappointing that after so much good press, downtown is still perceived so incorrectly by the majority of Los Angeles, and people continue to perpetuate the 'ghost town at sundown' stereotype" (Letters, Sept. 1). Spare me the political correctness. I worked in downtown Los Angeles for well over two years (at the bottom of Bunker Hill, 5th and Grand), and found it to be appalling, depressing and disgusting. If downtown is so convenient, as McAteer asserts, how come there is no food to be had on downtown's streets between 3 and 7 p.m.?