Westside Pavilion Shopping Center

Dozens of supporters hoisting blue-and-white campaign signs practically cheered themselves silly when Laura M. Lake recently announced her plans for a grass-roots political assault on Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky. "We've beaten Zev before, and we'll beat him again," Lake pledged as she formally kicked off her campaign in the shadow of the Westside Pavilion shopping center. "We will retake the 5th District block by block and house by house."

Tips for surviving one of the worst heat waves on record: Pour a frosty drink. Or see a flick inside a frigid movie theater. But forget about getting that clunky air conditioner fixed right away. As the temperatures continued to soar Monday, so did Southern California's interminable search for everything cool. Outdoor workers started before dawn so they could cut out early. Others toiled into evening as customers scrambled for electric fans, ice cream and anything to keep the heat away.

A West Los Angeles businesswoman who has suddenly emerged as a key witness in the defense effort to exonerate O.J. Simpson has been sued at least 34 times in recent years on allegations that include defrauding or failing to pay suppliers, customers, landlords, attorneys, a national hotel chain--and her elderly aunt, court records and interviews show.

The warm smell of grilled corn wafts from a sidewalk barbecue. Bells jangle on the cart of a paletero, an ice cream vendor. And a middle-aged man sits on a tarp in a vacant lot, fervently singing the praises of the wrenches, pliers and screwdrivers spread before him. To the 5,000 street vendors of Los Angeles, mostly immigrants from Latin America, these are the sounds and images of their native lands and of fledgling entrepreneurship in their new home.

For most people, the Northridge earthquake is little more than a faded memory. But for Wanda Raynard, it has been a living nightmare that she wakes to every day. For these past four years, the 72-year-old widow has lived in a rental house, unable to return to her home of 39 years due to a drawn-out dispute with her insurance company over the cost of quake repairs.

To a proper San Franciscan, assured of urban advantages that go back to Victorian times, Southern California's ambitious new architecture for the arts comes as a shock and an omen. The tide of civilized life seems to be flowing south, like the north's water, economic power and dwindling political strength.

As a child growing up in Los Angeles Tract 7260, Steve Saltzman played in a quiet Westside neighborhood marked by leafy oak and jacaranda trees and curving hillside streets. He can still point out the pink, two-story home where he was born 37 years ago and the small white house his grandmother built for $6,000 in 1933. But today there's a new look about the old neighborhood. Above the rooftops of the carefully preserved, neatly tailored homes loom the towering offices of Century City.

You're an outsider heading to the Westside of Los Angeles - not the beach cities, but Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Westwood and the nearby well-heeled neighborhoods south of the Santa Monica Mountains. This means you'll be well-fed, well-rested and perhaps more closely watched by the issuers of your credit cards. And while the dollars fly, you may learn a little about wealth, fame, geography and Persian desserts. For instance, you'll realize that Beverly Hills, like the "Mona Lisa" and certain leading men, is smaller than you might expect (5.7 square miles)