Santa Monica Boulevard

A team of engineering and seismic experts announced Wednesday that a controversial proposal to build the Westside subway extension under Beverly Hills High School is safer than a fault-ridden route beneath Santa Monica Boulevard. The panel, assembled by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to analyze two possible alignments through Century City, also concluded that tunneling can be done under the campus and nearby homes without endangering or disrupting the community.

East Hollywood ArtCycle Where: Santa Monica Boulevard between Vermont and Virgil avenues When: 2-10 p.m. Saturday Price: Free Info: (323) 739-4269; artcyclela.com

Los Angeles has long been synonymous with traffic jams and exhaust fumes, but a vocal cycling subculture is rising fast, creating a handful of increasingly important bike-related events aimed at getting Angelenos to embrace their streets as public cultural spaces. From the city's annual Bike Week, a community event-filled celebration of pedal power, to CicLAvia, an event that shuts down 71/2 miles of streets stretching from East Hollywood to Highland Park to give free reign to as many as 100,000 cyclists, L.A.'s bike scene continues to step out of its peripheral existence and fuse with local culture.

Much of the conversation at a West Hollywood march Saturday was on a subject many would like to avoid: age. About 40 people listened to music and speeches at West Hollywood Park before taking up signs proclaiming, "Make every day a celebration" and "Age is not a number, it's a spirit," and strolling down Santa Monica Boulevard. It was all part of the Age March, a type of event not commonly encountered in the Southern California world of Botox and anti-age remedies. Barbara Rose Brooker started the walk in San Francisco about a year ago, after writing a book called "The Viagra Diaries," about love and sex after 60. Organizers plan to hold marches in New York and Washington, D.C., as well.

Plans have been unveiled for a $184-million luxury condominium tower on a highly sought-after site on Santa Monica Boulevard between Beverly Hills and Century City. Miami developer Crescent Heights said it is seeking approval from Los Angeles officials to build a 283-unit tower at 10000 Santa Monica Blvd. The condos would range from 1,200 to 2,000 square feet, which is on the small side for the local luxury market, and are priced at an average of $1.5 million. The project "is styled to be modern, elegant, chic and environmentally friendly," spokesman Steven Afriat said.

The site of a former department store in Beverly Hills considered one of the most desirable pieces of real estate in the country sold for $148.3 million on Tuesday to investors from Hong Kong and Singapore. Joint Treasure International, a Hong Kong-based private equity firm, purchased the 8-acre parcel at the intersection of Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards. The firm intends to develop luxury condominiums on the site. "This is an incomparable site that cannot be replicated," said Daniel Yiu, senior advisor to Joint Treasure, which specializes in global real estate.

The reaction to the Proposition 8 ruling Wednesday was exuberant and swift along Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. "I think it's great," said Steven Tobey, 46, of West Hollwyood, who was sitting outside a French bakery when he saw the news on his phone. "I'm not highly political, but I think it's a civil rights issue." Tobey was legally married in 2008 to his partner of 11 years. "It was something we wanted to do because we could," he said. "We wanted to be part of the movement."

Talk about lack of decency. A thief made off with a painting of Sir Winston Churchill that hung for decades at Ye Olde King's Head Pub, the classic English pub on Santa Monica Boulevard in Santa Monica, proprietors say. The culprit purloined the enormous oil painting of the legendary British prime minister at the very moment pub patrons and staff were most vulnerable: business hours, between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. "They just took it...

A Camarillo woman was charged Monday in the slaying two years ago of an aspiring model who was found dead in her Santa Monica condo. L.A. County prosecutors formally charged Kelly Soo Park, 44, in the killing of 21-year-old Juliana Redding. Park's roommate, Ronnie Wayne Case, also was arrested by Santa Monica police detectives, but the district attorney's office declined Monday to charge the 34-year-old, pending further investigation. Authorities remained tightlipped about Park's connection to the slain model, or any potential motive, saying that detectives may still be tracking other suspects.

EVENTS From its humble beginnings 40 years ago, the L.A. Pride Festival has grown into one of the nation's premier gay-pride events, attracting thousands to celebrate community and equality. In addition to raising social and political awareness of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues, the festival offers live music, dancing, food and drink, and exhibitors. Sunday's parade runs along Santa Monica Boulevard and ends at the festival site, where a one-minute silent celebration will be held.