Seventh Street Los Angeles

Merchants in the heart of downtown Los Angeles are finding it difficult to get into the holiday spirit this year. In what should be their busiest season, the shopkeepers instead are coping with a decline in customers and an increase in vandalism, and they blame the Southern California Rapid Transit District. Metro Rail subway construction has snarled traffic in a two-block section of 7th Street, between Figueroa and Hope streets, disrupting pedestrian access to stores, cafes and businesses.

Merchants in the heart of downtown Los Angeles are finding it difficult to get into the holiday spirit this year. In what should be their busiest season, the shopkeepers instead are coping with a decline in customers and an increase in vandalism, and they blame the Southern California Rapid Transit District. Metro Rail subway construction has snarled traffic in a two-block section of 7th Street, between Figueroa and Hope streets, disrupting pedestrian access to stores, cafes and businesses.

The U.S. arm of a Japanese developer is proposing an unusual $400-million office-hotel-retail complex that it hopes will help revitalize downtown Los Angeles' Seventh Street, a once-glistening row of smart shops that has since faded. But the fledgling project is already generating controversy because it could mean the destruction of two old--some say historic--buildings.

The U.S. arm of a Japanese developer is proposing an unusual $400-million office-hotel-retail complex that it hopes will help revitalize downtown Los Angeles' Seventh Street, a once-glistening row of smart shops that has since faded. But the fledgling project is already generating controversy because it could mean the destruction of two old--some say historic--buildings.

The proposed design of the Grand Avenue Plaza development downtown by Pacific Atlas Development is as distinctive as it is controversial. Encompassing a city block bounded by Seventh, Eighth and Olive streets, and Grand Avenue, the design attempts to meld a variety of uses in a variety of styles in three stages of development.

Your diet is on a roll and you want to keep it that way. So do your calorie-watching friends. It's your turn to throw a dinner party but you would hate to blow the diet. Can you get away with a dietetic menu? Certainly, if the food looks and tastes like a million bucks. So we asked a few of Los Angeles' top chefs whose health awareness matches their aesthetic sense for suggestions when planning a light party menu. Many of the ideas are based on existing items on the restaurants' menus.

The proposed design of the Grand Avenue Plaza development downtown by Pacific Atlas Development is as distinctive as it is controversial. Encompassing a city block bounded by Seventh, Eighth and Olive streets, and Grand Avenue, the design attempts to meld a variety of uses in a variety of styles in three stages of development.