1.

It was a nice day for a ceremony. But the reality is that they're still a long way from starting real construction. There's still a forty-foot-tall pile of dirt that they need to haul away before they can do much of anything.

Also: the latest word from LAUSD is that they now plan to tear down the old Coconut Grove too. Originally, they had promised to remodel the Grove and turn it into the new auditorium for the school. But now they're saying the Grove's structure is too decayed to salvage.

2.

Its really sad to see whats going on there, but the fact is that the area changed, the people in that neighborhood need schools, we won't ever see the limos driving down Wilshire and dropping off people in tuxes and furs, just not going to ever happen again. If it means leveling the whole site than thats what has to happen. Schools are whats needed there and not any of the former buildings.

3.

we won't ever see the limos driving down Wilshire and dropping off people in tuxes and furs, just not going to ever happen again

Actually, we see that now, but they're all Korean (and they don't wear tuxes and furs). Wilshire Center is as important to the city's nightlife now as it was 70 years ago.

4.

Thanks Pete. I personally will not drive down Wilshire Boulevard past the Ambassador. Too painful. The joke is that rapid gentrification is changing the needs of LAUSD and by the time this school is built, it won't be needed without the closure of other, older schools. I read about it in the LA Times, but my wife heard a first hand account of this: a friend from her book club works at Vine Street elementary, where she said they have let two teachers go due to declining enrollment. (As any parent can tell you, to let two teachers go means you have at least 40 less kids.)

5.

Sad to see an icon go. But after they tore down the Brown Derby to build the Pink Mini Mall, what else would you expect? I was in the Ambassador about 4 years ago, shooting a music video, and I was a little fearful of getting beaned by falling ceiling plaster. It was in pretty bad shape and I can understand why it needed to be demolished. It would be great to save some parts of it, but maybe a school is a better use for the parcel.

6.

I would rather have too much school capacity, because that means additional room for population growth. Of course, the population growth needs to happen here on the Westside where the jobs are, not in Koreatown, but maybe the Wilshire subway will be done by the time that's an issue.

7.

Pete: Would rather have the Ambassador than a school ON THAT SITE any day. LAUSD recently abandoned a site a mile away, when they could have built there instead of tearing down the Ambassador (But hey, since they now abandoned the other site, we are getting a Lowe's in my neighborhood; Big Box retail is so much better than preserving the Ambassador.) If you really think this fight was simply about school capacity, you are naive.

8.

Well, between Belmont/Vista Hermosa and that elementary school in Echo Park, we've all learned that LAUSD's land acquisition practices are idiotic.

9.

Great...anchor baby school...your tax dollars paying for illegal immigrants.