The United States Olympic Committee board of directors unanimously approved a U.S. bid to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the USOC announced today. Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., remain under consideration, with the selection of a U.S. bid city to be made in early 2015. [...]

“All four cities have presented plans that are part of the long-term visions for their communities,” said USOC CEO Scott Blackmun. — teamusa.org

According to the terms of the proposed draft order, every taxi in Los Angeles would have to become accessible via a mobile application similar to the ones used by Uber and Lyft. These applications will require certification by the Taxi Commission, which can then specify things like pricing maximums and limits on hours worked in a single shift, and can perhaps even set up a rating and complaint system for passengers. — the New Yorker

On November 8th, a group called the North East L.A. Alliance (NELA Alliance) held a public art performance titled “Procesion de Testimonios: Evicting Displacement,” which sought to bring attention to changes in Highland Park. The procession began along the most visibly gentrifying corridor, York Boulevard, and the group served mock eviction notices to businesses the group didn’t feel were “culturally inviting, affordable and displaced long-time businesses,” according to organizer Melissa Uribe. — nextcity.org

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on Monday proposed the most ambitious seismic safety regulations in California history that would require owners to retrofit thousands of building most at risk of collapse during a major earthquake.

Garcetti’s recommendations target two of the riskiest types of buildings in Los Angeles built before 1980: concrete buildings and wooden structures built atop weak first floors, such as those on top of carports and garages and supported by slender columns. — LA Times

It's not going to look like 'Apocalypse Now' by any stretch of the imagination.
The Marine Corps has held similar training in recent years in Atlanta, Memphis and other cities. The military worked closely with the Los Angeles Police Department and notified property owners so no one will be caught off guard — CBS

“When they came out of the quarters they could see it was fully engulfed,” fire department spokeswoman Katherine Main told the paper. “It was a building under construction in the framing phase. Almost 1 million square feet and a city block.” — RT

When Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne looks at L.A., he sees the city shaped by immigrants. Landmark buildings in Koreatown that adapt and evolve with a new generation. Houses in Arcadia that allow Chinese homeowners a proud, conspicuous place in a new country. Street life across the region that takes its cue from the way Latino neighborhoods blur the line between public and private. — latimes.com

The median per capita income in Los Angeles is $27,900. The average rent for a two-bedroom apartment—and, frankly, this sounds low to us—is said to be about $1,400.

You can do the math. It's very difficult to keep a roof over your head in this town.

Yet another analysis has confirmed this. The folks at Rent.com looked at median rent and median income in America's largest cities and concluded that L.A. is one of the five worst places in the nation for renters. — LA Weekly

A hundred and some years ago, an aesthetic force called the City Beautiful movement professed the theory that grand public buildings, lovely civic palaces, could inspire Americans to become good citizens. [...]

Since the 1960s, though, it seems as if great civic architecture has become an embarrassment. Politicians who love to cut ribbons find it hard to justify paying for beautiful on top of functional. The result is a style I call Sunbelt Stalinism [...]. — latimes.com

The AIA Los Angeles chapter hosted a festive night of celebrations for their 2014 Design Awards, which honors architectural excellence by L.A.-based architects. The eventful awards ceremony took place at the Bradbury Building, the Million Dollar Theater, and Grand Central Market — three historic landmarks in Downtown Los Angeles. — bustler.net

Calling the cost of housing one of Los Angeles’ biggest challenges, Mayor Eric Garcetti on Wednesday announced a goal for 100,000 new homes in the city by 2021.

In a speech to business leaders at UCLA, the mayor outlined a plan to increase funding for affordable housing, subsidize development around transit stations and cut the red tape that many developers say drives up the cost of building in the city. — LA Times