[Americana at Brand via Curbed flickr pool member chotda]

· State adopts new enviro-friendly building code standards [LA Times]
· Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle gets 21st Century upgrades [OC Register]
· Old Riversiders sue to save Old Riverside [Press-Enterprise]
· Valley businesses close as people stop buying stuff [Daily News]
· Visiting ancient LA: Olvera Street video on YouTube [viewfromaloft]
· Sales tax would throw oodles of money at Gold Line extension [SGV Tribune]
· Withdrawn: IndyMac customers take out a billion [LABJ]

Click the image above to view the full photogallery.

· Caltech's $31.2 million Annenberg Center breaks ground [Foothills Weeklies]
· Making our freeways more confusing, one dim bulb at a time [Franklin Ave]
· California bullet train bond screws the IE out of cash [Press-Enterprise]
· Get Smart: Knowing your Fannies and your Freddies [Daily Intelligencer]
· Dump tour! Bus tour will explore LA's big dump, 8/1 [Metropolis]
· Parking meter rates hiked; quarter hoarding begins [blogdowntown]
· BMW producing special electric Minis for California market [EarthTimes]
· Charge it: Credit card meltdown to follow mortgages? [Daily Sprawl]
· Design competition: Redesigning the public street [Daily Dose]

[Happy baby and vendor via Curbed flickr pool member susan catherine]

· Kaiser Permanente announces new Fontana mega-hospital [Daily Bulletin]
· Mortgage Meltdown: Scary! Fannie & Freddie Mac continue tumble [WSJ]
· Orange love: Irvine is 12th fastest growing city in US [OC Register]
· Gang takes to the water, lands on Catalina [AP]
· Landscape architects get appreciation as we densify [Planetizen]
· Banned: Palos Verdes Estates targets loncheros [Daily Breeze]
· Nude people sue over closure of OC nude beach [Daily News]

In the heady days of the real estate market, one of our favorite agents, Connie De Groot, had big hair. And why not? There were big commissions to be made. But as the market deflated, so has Connie's hair, and back in April, she debuted a sleeker, straighter style, leading us to call it: Connie's hair is a market indicator. She was recently on Fox news (her latest bright spot: Riverside County) and it's even straighter. Almost there, people.

[Gothic? via Curbed flickr pool member kingofthehill]

· Big Inglewood redevelopment project sits in limbo; fairness cited [LA Wave]
· Brentwoodians concerned about blight; fight street furniture [Palisadian-Post]
· Kinder, gentler: Gangs in the Valley committing fewer crimes [Daily News]
· Santa Monica delays outdoor dining smoking ban [Lookout News]
· "Vultures" buying up foreclosed properties for quick flips [CNNMoney]
· Save the roosters! Cockfighting ring cracked in South LA [LA Times]
· Inland Empire seeing wave of people selling their burial plots [Press-Telegram]

[The lovely Port of Long Beach via Curbed flickr pool member missabbyjean]

· Long Beach declares 6-month moratorium on check cashing businesses [P-T]
· Asteroid (maybe with alien babies) caused local fireball [PE.com]
· Old story, new publication: Foreclosures causing blight [CSMonitor]
· Statewide drought may lead to water rationing in LA [nbc4]
· Country's riskiest housing markets: #1 the IE; #7 the OC; #8 LA [Lansner]
· Local dog, Trakr, a 9/11 hero, will be cloned [nbc4]
· Wave of realty euphoria ends in M'hattan Beach. Inventory up [MB Confidential]

["Where shoes die" via Curbed flickr pool member susan catherine]

· The Kooks will help reopen the formerly decrepit Hollywood Palladium [scenestar]
· The evils of Google: Kids using sat photos to pool-crash [PSFK]
· McMansionsy: Big housing project proposed for hills above Brea [OC Register]
· Over Designed (and may we say Hideous). TLC's new show of poor taste [ATLA]
· More on the illegal trashing of LA. Yeah, it continues... [LA Times]
· Don't block my view! Malibu moves toward "view protection" law [Surfside News]
· Jumping the Starck: Philippe Starck gets own competition TV show [Unbeige]
· Gold Line route to Ontario down to Final 4 picks [Daily Bulletin]

[Vehicle segregation via Curbed flickr pool member -JP-]

· Budget crisis! Sorry golfers, your greens fees are going up [Daily News]
· Gas prices on the march: Suburbanites feeling the pain at the pump [IHT]
· And of course that story has an Inland Empire spin [WSJ]
· Local cities feeling the pinch of smaller tax revenues [OC Register]
· Metro ponders fare increases to cover cost of fuel [Daily News]
· Bloody hell. CA's native plants can't survive climate change [LA Times]
· Finally, some good news. City lights up Wilshire Blvd for residents [angelenic]
· This makes us happy: A boat house in Van Nuys [LA Taco]

[Picture via The Jewish Daily Forward, by Julius Shulman of Neutra's Kun House]

· Hero fish used to combat mosquito pools left from foreclosures [PE.com]
· Playa Vista's evicted Indian remains find new home at base of LMU [Argonaut]
· Scary: Angeleno flavor on far, far Eastside [LA Eastside]
· June 21st is Go Skateboard Day in LA. Go skateboard [Hustler of Culture]
· Urban archeology at Anaheim's Wonderland Plaza [Synthetrix]
· ConstructionWatch: LAPD's new parking garage [Blogdowntown]
· Hermosa Beach still trying to get funds for kick ass surfing statue [Easy Reader]
· LA's Jewish architectural history through the lens of Julius Shulman [Forward]

[From Malibu to Westwood, Atwater Village Newbie's helicopter tour via Curbed LA flickr pool]

· Builders in IE begging for help, fee deferrals [Daily Bulletin]
· Scientologists leave Pasadena building an empty eyesore [Star-News]
· Editorial: Slowdown, death of big projects allow for breather [Daily Breeze]
· Taggers attack million dollar homes in Santa Monica [ktla]
· Drug dens: Two Pacoima homes now off-limits to gangs [Daily News]
· Pure evil: Foil balloon causes Long Beach power outage [Press-Telegram]
· LA Times 2-hour commute story misses the point [CP&DR]

[The Ambassador West Campus in Pasadena]

· Bad traffic engineers costing IE money; let us turn! [PE.com]
· Plans for Pasadena's Ambassador West property halted, again [Star-News]
· Listing prices mean nothing!! Blah, blah. But they're down $6,500 [LA Land]
· Old Timey LA: They were getting Tourained out of a home [OnBunkerHill]
· How green is that trendy new "eco-friendly" bamboo flooring? It depends [Slate]
· Study: As gas nears $5/gallon, many will drive less [Press-Telegram]
· Tire iron wielded at gas pump line cutter! We're all going insane! [OC Register]

The best posts usually originate in our comments. To give appreciation to our amazing (and sometimes angry) commenters we feature their broad strokes of wisdom in a tidy comment roundup.

1) Does $65 Million Brentwood Casino Come With Free Drinks? "This is what you get when you hire the local Elks Lodge as your interior designers."

2) Reader Rant: Parking Tickets in Pasadena "Let's admit that this isn't merely a Pasadena problem. I've been illegally TOWED in Los Angeles and ticketed incorrectly in Weho and in both cases, recently an unpleasant anal raping instead of justice."

3) Class Attack "I personally view graffiti as a big fuck you to a civilization that has been saying as much to its own people. I'm not interested in painting on walls, but I definitely share that feeling."

4) Questions from A Bitter Renter: Is the Inland Empire Forever Screwed? "The BIG problem with the IE is that it has no character. It is full of malls (shopping, outlet, mini) and chain restauants. That is why the IE is undesirable for many urbanites. (Kind of like downtown LA - oh, did I say that? yes, I did...)"