#koreatown

#koreatown

At the helm are Liz Gutierrez and chef Michael Fiorelli, colleagues and friends who wanted to open a casual, easygoing pizzeria where folks can come in and order pies skillfully shaped by a former fine dining chef. Fiorelli looks at ease in his compact kitchen, preparing pizza, pasta, Caesar salads, and beautifully made sandwiches using Bub & Grandma's bread; first-timers won't go wrong ordering the Fiorelli classic pie with tomato, Parmesan, and mozzarella.

May Sun stood on Wilshire Boulevard in Koreatown on Tuesday morning, looking through the fence at the memorial she and another artist designed to honor Robert F. Kennedy near the site of his 1968 assassination. Graffiti smeared the monument. Scattered trash included a potato chip bag, a smashed beer bottle and a sneaker. Weeds poked up from neglected garden beds and dozens of orange sandbags sat on ledges and columns, for no apparent reason.

On Friday morning, all that remained of the sprawling homeless encampment on Manhattan Place was a giant pile of trash and items former occupants had made their home. The encampment, on a vacant lot in Koreatown, existed for months. It was home to roughly 10 people and drew repeated complaints from neighbors in nearby apartments and condos. They said the homeless neighbors there were noisy, aggressive and posed a fire risk when they broke into an adjacent streetlight to steal power from the grid.

He set up camp, and as other followed suit, began to build a little community: Toward one corner of the 15,000-square foot lot, Gilbert erected a pickleball net he said he found near Wilshire Boulevard. Behind the net, where people volley from time to time, is a small garden of tomatoes, cannabis and onions that he tends to. There are at least two barbecues, one propane, one charcoal.

The replacement of car spaces with ADUs in infamously parking-strapped Koreatown is made possible by Senate Bill 1211, which passed last year. Under that law, local agencies are not required to replace parking spaces for tenants if the spaces are demolished by owners and property managers to make way for ADUs in an effort to increase housing density. To show their opposition to the removal, tenants of the apartment building, at 5th and Kingsley, set up a peaceful protest using a long white plastic table and outdoor chairs to occupy some parking spaces.

It's two fingers in an L shape, framing a box with the No 7, a replication of Son Heung-min's signature celebration. Nearby, fans are banging on drums, shouting Ole ole ole ole, LAFC I love you. Wherever even in my dreams, I'll follow you, in a mixture of Korean and Spanish, a chant adapted from one belonging to fans of the Suwon Samsung Bluewings in the K-League, Korea's top division.