LA Downtown News 05-11-20

May 11, 2020 I VOL. 49 I #19

MISSION

VALIDATED Lincoln Carson’s James Beard nomination is bittersweet

Cherie Currire discovers music Page 9

The Music Center’s CEO Rachel S. Moore receives honors Page 10

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Real estate company to buy LA mall, reportedly add offices

By Connor Dziawura Los Angeles real estate company is reportedly planning to buy the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza and add office space to the mall.

The company, CIM Group, announced April 29 that it had signed a purchase and sale agreement for the 40-plus-acre, 869,000-square-foot property west of Downtown, at 3650 W. Martin Luther King Boulevard. The announcement did not disclose the purchase price, though it has been reported to be upward of $100 million.

As of print time, neither CIM Group or Chicago-based seller Capri Investment Group has responded to LA Downtown News’ requests for information.

“Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza occupies a pivotal location in a well-established Los Angeles community, centrally located and adjacent to a soon-to-open Metro light rail station,” Shaul Kuba, principal and co-founder of CIM Group, said in a statement.

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Macy’s and IHOP are not included in the sale. However, Kuba noted closed anchors Sears and Walmart amount to 300,000 square feet of vacant space.

“We have the opportunity to bring a fresh perspective to the future of the property viewed through the lens of the current climate and the acceleration of the already declining retail environment,” Kuba explained in the statement.

Though the company’s announcement did not mention specific plans for the mall, Kuba, via the statement, clarified residential use is not in the works despite the property being allowed for such. Instead, it has been reported that CIM Group is looking to add office space to the mall.

“Since 1947 this property has been a commercial property, and although current entitlements allow residential components, we believe that residential uses are not suitable for this property and it should remain a commercial property in our repositioning,” Kuba said.

Fourth annual Walk & Play LA goes virtual

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski hildren’s Hospital Los Angeles will hold its fourth annual Walk & Play LA presented by Disney on Saturday, May 16. In response to COVID-19, this year’s event will be virtual, designed for the whole family to take part in limited available indoor and outdoor spaces.

“COVID-19 has changed many aspects of our everyday lives, but it has not changed Children’s Hospital Los Angeles’s mission to create hope and build healthier futures for children,” said Children’s Hospital Los Angeles President and CEO Paul S. Viviano.

“Now more than ever, our everyday heroes require the support of the community to ensure our patients receive the lifesaving and critical care they need. Walk & Play LA gives everyone an opportunity to give back to the patients and essential health care workers at CHLA while staying active in the safety of their homes.”

The event’s virtual kickoff is 8:30 a.m. on the Facebook event page and features Grammy Award-winning sing-

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er-songwriter Jason Mraz, who will perform his single “Look for the Good.”

Other performers include Now United; the production duo Loote; DJ Dense of the LA Clippers, LA Chargers and 102.3 KJLH; and a warmup led by All Seasons Fitness Media’s celebrity trainer Dion Blast Jackson. iHeartMedia Los Angeles’ KOST 103.5’s on-air personality Ellen K and Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner and his wife, Kourtney, are honorary event hosts. ABC7 Eyewitness News anchor Coleen Sullivan will serve as the morning’s mistress of ceremonies. After the conclusion of the official program, participants will be encouraged to embark on a walk in the safety of their homes, backyards and neighborhoods.

Walk & Play LA participants can also take part in virtual sports clinics led by Barry’s Bootcamp, Fitness Blast, LA Galaxy Foundation, LA Kings and LA Chargers during the week leading up to the event.

Info: walkandplayla.org

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Covered help LETTERSCalifornia TO THE will EDITOR

MAY 11, 2020

SHELTON’S OPINION

Diseases don’t respect borders

Editor: Republicans have blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for showcasing her expensive double stainless-steel refrigerators and gourmet ice creams in her opulent St. Helena, California, home, but I have no problem with that.

What I do have a problem with is this: By not voting on more money for small business, she has essentially signed the death papers for many small business owners who simply cannot afford the prolonged closure of their businesses. Wake up, madam speaker, and do your job.

David Tulanian

Cut the clichés

Editor: Now that we are entering our third month of COVID lockdown, it might be time to abandon two clichés. From politicians to advertisers, we keep hearing “We are all in this together” and “We all want to get back to business.” But are we all in this together? I find it hard to compare the economic and social distress of median-income renters with the comfort of multimillionaire condo owners.

As to the broad-stroke assumption that everyone wants all aspects of the society reopened, there are plenty of online postings and articles that suggest the opposite. Some retirees, internet trolls and economic elites say that the current economic and social arrangement is actually just the new normal. I have even read a few well-intended folks who think this COVID tragedy is a cathartic shock that is restoring the Earth and human culture to spiritual health and harmony.

I would agree that everyone is mourning the death of thousands and all except a few benighted souls understand the discomforts of this dangerous time. However, we are not all sharing the same burdens. In addition, some people actually seem to like the new quieter, and more sober, Downtown LA. As we move forward, perhaps it would be better if we all relied more on science, clear reasoning and practical policies and a little less on feel-good clichés.

Oliver Cutshaw

Hey you! Speak up!

Downtown News wants to hear from people in the community. If you like or dislike a story, let us know, or weigh in on something you feel is important to the community.

Participation is easy. Go to downtownnews.com, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the “Letter to the Editor” link. For guest opinion proposals, please email christina@timespublications.com.

MAY 11, 2020

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Entertainment company turns headsets into face shields

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski he children’s entertainment company Spin Master is helping fill the need for PPE for front-line health care workers in California with face shields.

But the staff didn’t just pivot machinery to get the job done. They put their heads together and transformed its most successful game, Hedbanz, into a prototype face shield.

“When the whole pandemic started happening and we were starting to work from home, the staff reached out to see what we could do as a company,” said Diana Young, vice president of product development.

“We thought we could help 3D print face shields. We have 3D printers, but they’re really slow. Then someone on my team had the amazing idea to break apart three of our products and build a prototype. That happened on a Tuesday, and by Friday we were in production. It was amazing how fast it all came together.”

The LA model shop manager, Paul Sesto, asked if Spin Master could use the 3D printers to make face shields. Ian Patterson, a senior manager of engineering in Toronto, came up with the idea to use components from their products to mass produce face shields.

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The foam for the shields comes from Spin Master’s marshmallow foam furniture and the PET is a standard blister material that they use across many products.

More than 20,000 face shields are produced each day from three facilities. The shields have been individually packed in a sanitary environment and offer support for those on the fron tlines.

The hospitals in the Los Angeles area that are receiving PPE include Kaiser Permanente-Los Angeles Medical Center, Providence Holy Cross Medical Center and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Spin Master has distributed 107,000 units to 30 health care facilities across the continent in Toronto, New York and Mexico. California, the United Kingdom, France and Israel were next on the list.

“Our first target was hospitals,” she said.

“We’ve opened it up to more people who need help like nursing homes, the Torrance Fire Department, the Gardena Police Department, Kaiser Panorama City Hospital and Torrance Memorial Hunt Cancer Center.

“We sourced it and reached out to these places to go through official channels so we could get it straight into people’s hands.

We’re going to make these until people don’t need them anymore.”

Dr. Aaron Glickman, chief radiologist of Michael Garron Hospital in Toronto, wears a face shield from Spin Master, which has offices in Toronto and Los Angeles.

Photo courtesy Spin Master

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Newsom honored with charity bobblehead

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski alifornia Gov. Gavin Newsom’s resemblance has been emblazoned in clay, thanks to Wisconsin’s National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum.

The collectible will sell for $25, with $5 from each bobblehead sold going to the Protect the Heroes fund in support of the 100 Million Mask Challenge. Previously, the hall of fame and museum raised more than $175,000 through the sale of Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx bobbleheads.

Newsom’s bobblehead joins that of Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. They are scheduled for July delivery.

“It all started the beginning of this month, when we produced bobbleheads of Dr. Fauci,” said Phil Sklar, co-founder and CEO of the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum.

“We were getting some requests for him and we kept seeing him in the news. He’s somebody who’s be-

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coming a national hero and guiding this country through the pandemic. I wanted to honor Dr. Fauci.

Within a week, he’s our best-selling bobblehead of all time. We’ve sold 32,000.”

The scarf-laden Birx was a popular request, too. Sklar said it was a natural move to start memorializing governors.

“Gov. Newsom rose to the top of the list and one of the four that we’ve released,” Sklar said.

Daily, Sklar is surrounded by 6,500 unique bobbleheads, thanks to visitors from all 50 states. The only museum dedicated to bobbleheads, the facility opened February 1, 2019. Closed since mid-March due to the pandemic, the museum has 75% sports bobbleheads and 25% oddities.

He has yet to hear from Newsom.

A California Gov. Gavin Newsom collectible will sell for $25, with $5 from each bobblehead sold going to the Protect the Heroes fund in support of the 100 Million Mask Challenge.

“Tony Evers talked about us on Facebook. That was cool to see,” Sklar said. “Dr. Fauci commented about his. We’re pleased it’s raising so much money for a good cause.”

Submitted photo

5/31/20.

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Lincoln Carson’s James Beard nomination is bittersweet

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski incoln Carson said his May 4 James Beard Foundation nomination for Outstanding Pastry Chef is ironic.

The week before Carson’s nomination was announced, he was forced to shutter his 8-month-old restaurant, the critically acclaimed Bon Temps.

“I closed it permanently last week,” Carson said. “It was a new restaurant, less than a year old. It was breaking even on a week-by-week basis.”

The COVID-19 pandemic dropped it to takeout dining, something Carson only hosted to maintain just enough money to cover his employees’ paychecks and health care coverage.

“When you have that much debt that has to be repaid, it’s impossible to reopen it. A restaurant is built on cash flow,” he said.

“No cash flow; no business. Restaurants do not have a large rainy-day fund in the bank.”

Located in the Arts District, Bon Temps was a “modern French brasserie with industrial roots.” Since opening in June 2019, Bon Temps was recognized as one of Esquire’s

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Best New Restaurants.

Bon Temps was Carson’s first solo restaurant. Born in Beirut, Carson has worked in the business for more than 30 years, in celebrated restaurants like Le Bernardin and La Cote Basque.

“I’ve been doing it for a very long time,” he said. “Generally, I’m at the top of the game. It’s interesting. I finally went out and did it on my own—a restaurant on my own—and regardless of where we wound up with that, it got a lot of attention nationally.”

For the James Beard award, he is up against Juan Contreras, Atelier Crenn, San Francisco; Margarita Manzke, Republique, Los Angeles; Diane Moua, Spoon and Stable, Minneapolis; Natasha Pickowicz, Flora Bar, New York City; and Miro Uskokovic, Gramercy Tavern, New York City.

“It’s been a week. I’ll say that,” Carson said.

“I’m thrilled, though. Honestly, it’s good for the industry in general. I was very happy that the Beard Foundation decided to keep moving (despite COVID-19). There were a lot of really excellent people on the list who didn’t make it to the top five. We were all in very

good company.”

The nominees were announced on May 4, what would have been the 30th anniversary James Beard Awards in Chicago. During the past few months, the foundation has supported the relief and rebuild efforts, postponing awards activities to focus on the James Beard Foundation Food and Beverage Industry Relief Fund.

After consulting with the chefs and restaurateurs across the country, the foundation decided to announce the 2020 nominees and honorees, and set the dates for this year’s remaining awards events, which recognize the 2019 work.

The foundation boasts 60 categories in its various awards programs, including restaurant and chef, restaurant design and media.

The foundation will forego a physical ceremony for the media awards and instead will announce them on May 27. The restaurant and chef winners will be unveiled September 25 from Chicago, and they will be broadcast live via the James Beard Foundation’s Twitter feed.

“Some of the restaurants are temporarily closed, some are operating in another form,

such as takeout or meal-relief efforts, while others have already announced that they will permanently close,” said foundation CEO Clare Reichenbach. “Today we acknowledge the accomplishments of all the people behind these restaurants, and the need for everyone to fight for this industry that employs 16 million people and is a vital part of American culture.”

Other LA nominees include: Nightshade as Best New Restaurant; Jon Yao of Kato for Rising Star Chef of the Year; and Jessica Koslow of Sqirl for Best Chef: California.

Established in 1990, the James Beard Awards recognize culinary professionals for excellence and achievement in their fields and further the foundation’s mission to celebrate, nurture and honor chefs and other leaders making America’s food culture more sustainable for everyone. The foundation is a national not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization based in New York City.

“I hope this validates all the hard work me and my staff did,” Carson said. “The award isn’t about one person or one restaurant. It’s about an entire staff.”

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Callaghan Belle was inspired by her godmother, Anita Baker, while living in suburban Detroit.

Photo courtesy Callaghan Belle

LA singer is the ‘Belle’ of the ball

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski hen Callaghan Belle moved from Farmington Hills, Michigan, to Los Angeles, she was a ball of feelings—nervous, excited, anxious.

But she knew this was her chance to make it as a musician.

“I am an only child and I was very into music from the time I was little,” Belle said.

“It became a pretty isolating thing. I was writing and recording and doing everything on my own.

“So, coming to LA, I moved into a more collaborative community.”

Upon her move, the first person she collaborated with was singer-songwriter JoJo for a Netflix film.

“They said JoJo and I just freaked out because she was the reason I started singing,” Belle said. “I used to sing along to all her songs growing up. When I worked with her, I learned her resilience was incredible, because this was in 2018, so she hadn’t released anything in a long time.”

The singer-songwriter and producer recently released the single “Run into You,”

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which marks the beginning of a new chapter in her evolving sound.

“I’m so excited to share ‘Run into You’ with the world,” Belle said. “Essentially, the theme of this song is that you can’t fool karma. You can make and break promises, you can act like a sweetheart in public and a monster behind closed doors, but the truth will always find a way out. There’s playful energy surrounding what was obviously a heavy heartbreak, because sometimes people break you in such an unnecessarily crude and dramatic way that you have to laugh. There’s value in turning the tables a bit and making your own happy ending.”

Her father, Gerard Smerek, served as her engineer. (He’s so close to Anita Baker that she was named Belle’s godmother.)

“I was on the ‘Rhythm of Love’ tour with her,” she said. “It was a cool way to get a firsthand glimpse of really incredible singing every single night.

“My parents were funny because they didn’t want me to do music at all. They always say they would have rather me been a waitress or anything except in music. The

business isn’t always the friendliest.”

But those words didn’t stop Belle.

When the tooth fairy came for a visit, she brought notebooks instead of dollars.

She’s been writing music since then—and continues to do so. She has more new music coming out later this year, inspired by the lockdown.

“I actually have two different EPs coming out this year,” she said. “One is more pop, like easy fun stuff. Then I have another one that’s just straight-up acoustic—me and a piano. There are two different vibes, I guess.”

Though the moment for “Run into You” feels like a fresh start, it still comes as the product of a lifetime’s worth of work for the young artist, who signed her first record deal in high school. At age 15, she did her first co-write with Colbie Caillat for the

Grammy-nominated singer’s Christmas album. The Newton Brothers have frequently called on Belle’s songwriting in their film scoring work, where she co-wrote songs for Netflix-exclusive films, including 2017’s “The Bye Bye Man” and 2018’s “Extinction,” the latter of which was performed by JoJo, one of her musical inspirations.

Her previous release, the 2019 EP “Sovereign,” was produced and recorded by herself on a more anthemic, acoustically driven sound. Callaghan’s new work is a polished, radio-ready sound, which is nonetheless brimming with her own spirited, funny personality.

“I really want to tour someday to support this music. I just want to announce a show and have people show up. Is that a really low bar?”

Callaghan Belle callaghanbelle.com

MAY 11, 2020

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Cherie Currie introduces ‘miraculous’ new project

By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski iraculous” is how Cherie Currie describes her new album “Blvds of Splendor.”

In 2016, Currie was about to release “Blvds of Splendor” when she fell 12 feet while chainsaw carving on a hilltop scaffolding. The accident left Currie with partial facial paralysis and severe head trauma for more than 10 months.

“Something even more miraculous when you don’t believe it’s going to happen,” the effervescent Currie said.

“When I listened to the record for the first time after, maybe, nine or eight years, I could just see how good it really is. It’s a gift all over again. When you work so hard on something for so long, you lose sight of how great it is. I’m literally floored by how good the record is.”

The former singer of the 1970s Sunset Strip band the Runaways worked with a bevy of rock’s finest on the new album, including Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins, Slash and Duff from Guns N’ Roses, as well as Juliette Lewis, Brody Dalle and the Veronicas.

Drummer Matt Sorum, of Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver, produced the set.

“Cherie hadn’t made a record in a long time,” Sorum said. “We needed to make some kind of statement. When you make albums, you have to remain true to yourself and sound fresh. I brought in some younger guys to play on the record because it’s a good injection.

“My job was to get in the room and make sure the songs were good and the tones were great. As a producer, you put a good team together. We’d work long hours, but it was like I was just vibing with some friends. The album is the icing on the cake.”

The key was to allow Currie to have a good time.

“Traditionally, when you make a record, you vibe around the studio,” Sorum added. “People can feel the energy in that. There were situations when I made records and there were tensions that made the record really difficult to make. Sometimes those don’t turn out as good—there’s a bad vibe and a bad energy. This record was different. It was really fun to make.”

Currie and Sorum began working on the album when Currie was promoting “The Runaways” movie with Dakota Fanning as the shy blonde and Kristen

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Stewart as the fiery Joan Jett.

“Working with Matt Sorum was just shock and awe,” Currie said. “He’s just such a top-notch musician and producer. Then for him to bring in all of his friends—Slash, Duff, Billy Corgan, Juliette Lewis, Brody Dalle and the Veronicas—it was shocking, inspiring and extremely humbling.”

Currie admitted she was awestruck, especially at the sight of Corgan. However, her fellow musicians had quite a different take.

“Do you find me threatening?” she asked. “Juliette threw me out of my own studio. She was too nervous to sing in front of me. Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning as well. I don’t know what it is, because I think I’m pretty fun to be around, personally.

“There isn’t any negativity in my being, but for some reason, she didn’t feel comfortable singing in front of me. I wasn’t wearing a devil mask or anything. Maybe I should? I don’t know.”

Currie is modest when asked about the project, saying it is Sorum’s “brainchild.”

“This is his creation,” she added. “What he did was bring me because I had never worked with a producer who didn’t try to change me. He didn’t try to tell me that I wasn’t really delivering the way they want it to be or change my particular way of singing.

“The thing is, at my age, I have whatever is different from everyone else because it’s who I am. He didn’t try to squelch that. He nurtured that and he just made me a better artist.”

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Currie was planning on touring with her band, which includes her and actor Robert Hays’ son, musician Jake Hays.

She’s looking forward to returning to the road and there’s a benefit to that—fans will know the words to her songs.

Currie has since returned to chainsaw carving, with very little fear. After all, she doesn’t remember it.

“I was knocked out,” she said with a laugh. “I opened my eyes and I saw, over my face, this retired trauma surgeon from Cedars-Sinai. I was actually carving a piece at his property.

“I have no recollection of the fear I must have felt.

I actually finished the carving and I did have to take time off. I stayed out of the public eye because I had some damage to my face and a lot of nerve damage. That took a lot of time to heal. But, yeah, I enjoy carving as much as I have the last 20 years.”

Cherie Currie cheriecurrie.com chainsawchick.com

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Cherie Currie, who prowled stages around the world in the 1970s with the Runaways, has released a new album, “Blvds of Splendor.”

Photo courtesy Robert Sebree

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MAY 11, 2020

Rachel Moore inducted into 240-year-old academy

By Bridgette M. Redman hen Rachel Moore takes her place among the scholarly and intellectually elite of our nation’s history, it won’t just be to accept an honor for which she is highly flattered.

She wants to use it as an opportunity to change the world.

The Los Angeles Music Center CEO, Moore thinks big and inclusively. It’s one of many reasons she is being inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, an organization founded in 1780 by John Adams, John Hancock and 60 other scholar-patriots.

The original class included George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, and over the years the American and honorary foreign members have included Alexander Hamilton, Charles Darwin, Duke Ellington, Willa Cather, Eudora Welty, Robert Frost, Martha Graham, Margaret Mead, Martin Luther King Jr. and Antonin Scalia.

When she meets with their commission on the arts, she wants to take a deep look at questions on what the future of the arts will look like, especially after the COVID-19 crisis.

“It is more relevant than ever to think about who the arts are taking to,” Moore said. “It is such a powerful glue to bring people together, a source of healing. People are grieving not just because of people they love and have lost, but anniversaries or weddings or graduations, life events they’ve missed. The arts will be so important around that as well. I hope those are some of the questions that can be discussed in a thoughtful way.”

Moore’s career arc began in Davis, the child of economics professors at the UC Davis. It was the ’70s, a time Moore describes as being very aspirational. The nation was still on a high from finishing a race to the moon, and people had big ideas about what they could do.

“I was really fortunate to be raised in Davis, which is a place, certainly when I was growing up, where people were encouraged to follow their dreams,” she said.

In addition to Davis, her family spent time in India and Saudi Arabia, so she learned early about diversity.

“This is incredible to learn as a younger person,” Moore said. “It has informed my work post-dance career.”

Moore started dancing at the Davis Arts Center, a studio that became a sanctuary to her. She could go and get away from what-

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ever was troubling her—which was usually her annoying brothers, she says.

“It was a place where I could learn this art form and really believe that the arts create something special in the world,” Moore said.

When she was 13, Robert Joffrey of the Joffrey Ballet came to UC Davis to teach a class. He offered her a scholarship to go to Rachel Moore is the CEO of the Los Angeles Music Center.

Submitted photo

New York. Her parents said absolutely not but then realized this was more than a hobby for her.

Dance consumed her teenage years.

“What a gift as a teenager—to have something to be really focused on, to have something you wanted to achieve, to have a direction is really helpful,” she said. “I was incredibly honored to be able to dance

with the American Ballet Theater. It was a difficult thing. I was young and very naïve moving to New York to be able to dance with some of the greatest dancers and theater artists and travel the world performing, but what an incredible gift it was.”

After an injury, Moore left dancing and went into arts management and earned an arts management degree from Columbia.

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versations,” Moore said. “The dancers didn’t understand the board members and found them scary. The board members weren’t really sure of dancers and found them scary. I felt like I was this bridge and we were able to solve a lot of problems.”

These problems ranged from getting new dance floors and larger physical therapy offices to fighting for more women choreographers. She says that hearkened back to her time in India and Saudi Arabia.

“People who may on the surface look different aren’t very different. At root, we all have the same human core. I wanted to bring that sensibility to an art form I really love,” Moore said.

It’s a vision that she brought Los Angeles.

Moore expressed the importance of the Music Center’s work needing to deepen the cultural life of every resident of Los Angeles County.

“We’re going to have to engage people’s life in the arts in new and different ways,” Moore said. “How do you personally involve yourself in the arts? How are we really embracing the diversity of LA County in what we are doing as an arts institution?

Those are areas that will be really interesting to talk to with fellow members of the academy.”

Anawalt added, “What she wants to do and is doing is flattening the city to the

Her resume has since included the director for the Boston Ballet Center for Dance Education, the executive director of Project STEP in Boston, the managing director of Ballet Theatre of Boston, and the executive director and CEO of the American Ballet Theatre.

She joined the Music Center as CEO in October 2015.

Sasha Anawalt, the director of the arts journalism program at the USC, has followed Moore since she was a corps de ballet dancer in the 1980s.

“When you’re a critic, you know dancers from how they move and what they do,” Anawalt said. “You form a relationship as a critic even with people who are in the corps de ballet. You know and care about them. She always stood out to me because she is tall and red-headed and beautiful and amazing.”

Anawalt and Moore agree that the transition from dancer to administrator was one for which Moore was equipped.

“Her strength and power and her astonishing vision is that she understands money,” says Anawalt. “She understands politics.

She understands people.”

Moore said she bridged between the artistic community and business.

“Having economists as parents, I was never afraid of numbers or of financial con-

best of her capacity to allow for more democracy. She is allowing for more access.

She literally took the Plaza and squished it down and opened it up so that people can come. It’s not la-di-da land. You don’t have to have $100 to go and see something.

Quite a few times you can come for free and you can perform yourself and engage in dance yourself and bring your guitar and play yourself.”

Moore said the Plaza Project was in the works before she arrived but has gotten greater momentum in part because of Grand Park across from it being revisioned as an arts park. They now make sure that the Park and the Plaza speak to each other. She said the Plaza used to be a very upand-down place, not a place you hung out in, so they made it flat and open, made the stairs less steep, and put in escalators and gardens.

“It is really welcoming. This is our front door, and anyone can come,” Moore said.

“When we’re open, there are food options at many different price points. You don’t have to be wealthy. You could come to the Plaza and have a burger and sit with kids and have them be screaming and running around the fountain. We have screens that allow us to do digital programming, which will be a big part of our future.”

Their original plan was to have every Fri-

day night this summer to be a free dance night with a teacher coming out and teaching such things as samba under the stars and having up to 5,000 people dancing together. That’s all on hold now as Moore and the Music Center figures out how they will reopen and keep people safe amid a pandemic.

Moore has put a lot of thought into it.

For the Music Center, she is focused on their facilities and on their programming.

“Because we have these open spaces like the Plaza and the Park, we’ll start to do activities outside before we open the proscenium,” Moore said. “We can social distance in different says. We will phase that in as we go forward.”

She said there are two issues. Science has to prove everything is safe. She said they have a close partnership with the county and public health officials. The second issue is how to get people feel safe after they’ve been told for so long to isolate.

“We can look to the arts to build that fence of trust and community again,” Moore said. “Our programming team is really deep in thought of how we are going to help people lay claim to these spaces, what we are going to put on stage that will resonate with people after this incredibly tragic moment. So, it is both programmatic and physical, both emotional and physical.”

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12 DOWNTOWN NEWS

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MAY 11, 2020

WELCOME!

WE ARE OPENING DOORS TO THE FUTURE WITH VIRTUAL TOURING. WE ARE TEMPORARILY CLOSED FOR INPERSON TOURS BUT WOULD LOVE TO MEET YOU SO CALL THE LEASING OFFICE TODAY TO SET UP YOUR LIVE VIRTUAL TOUR.

SELF-GUIDED tours and virtual tours now available at all properties

An exciting multi-million dollar remodel is nearing completion and will provide our residents additional cutting-edge amenities with a higher standard of living. Call today to schedule a tour or visit our web site for more information.

VIRTUAL TOURS IN DOWNTOWN L.A.