Baked Ziti for All: When Will the Italian American Museum Open?

Early Vespa store, and site of planned museum via Italian American Museum
With Columbus Day here, the Daily News checks in with construction for that much-talked about Italian American Museum of Los Angeles, planned to open by 2012. Oh, the sad history of LA's forgotten Little Italy. Absorbed by Chinatown and Olvera Street, the "only signs that a large Italian community ever existed on these streets are the San Antonio Winery - the city's oldest - and St. Peter's Catholic Church where people from all over Los Angeles County still come to worship every Sunday," according to the Daily News. Additionally, there's the "the classic Little Joe's pole sign" on a now vacant lot (but site of a possible housing project). But if they've long been talking about new museum, there's never been a lot of movement (the web site references a 2011 opening). Still, the paper says that when the museum is finished--it's going in the 1908 Italian Hall near Olvera Street--it "will be the only museum in Southern California dedicated to the Italian American experience," according to the paper.
· Dennis McCarthy: Little Italy hidden in LA's tangled roots [Daily News]
· Italian American Museum [Official Site]