[Curbed checks in with the under-construction mixed user at 8th & Hope Downtown]
This Week's Top Stories: This week we finally got to take a look at what the giant Macy's brick downtown (aka Macy's Plaza) may look like, and there's lot of glass, super graphics, and a revival of pedestrian friendliness. Data showing the growth of ridership on Metro from 2000 to present has been visualized in a pretty map thing. Curbed went inside the historic Wilshire Boulevard Temple to look at the gorgeous results of a two year long restoration. With the latest plan to improve Pershing Square being released, we looked back at the terrible square's history in pictures dating from 1866. The City Council voted to make murals legal once again in Los Angeles,but that entire thing about letting you or your neighbors paint some terrible mural on your house was thankfully not allowed. A charming little house designed by Hal Levitt in Encino with a swim-up pool is now available for $1.495 million. Gentrification, or at least its very early stages, has set its sights on Historic Filipinotown with large developments in the works for Temple Street. An unintentionally awful brick disaster above the Sunset Strip protected by ugly white wrought iron fences is now being offered for $2.575 million.