City Hall Event Elects for Deep Focus on Issues

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While Stan Lee’s Los Angeles Comic Con is set to overtake the Los Angeles Convention Center on Friday, political junkies will have their own chance to geek out the following day at City Hall.

BallotCon, the first-ever ballot measure convention, will take place Saturday inside City Council chambers. The daylong gathering will allow members of the public to discuss and debate all 17 statewide measures on next month’s ballot.

Animated videos will feature prominently, according to event organizer Nate Kaplan, a former council aide who founded SeePolitical, a voter educational nonprofit, a few years back.

“With so many measures on this November’s ballot, I was looking for a way to cut through the clutter,” Kaplan said. “The purpose of BallotCon is to educate voters but to do so in an entertaining way.”

Sure, there are other election forums, but this is one of a very few where all the statewide ballot measures will be discussed. (Sorry, local ballot measures such as Los Angeles County’s Measure M transportation sales tax will not be covered.)

The discussion of each proposal will begin with a short animated video produced by SeePolitical, followed by panel discussions. Attendees can then stroll outside the council chamber to pick up more information at tables manned by representatives for and against each one.

Kaplan said he expected between 500 and 1,000 people to attend all or part of the six-hour convention. There will be free food provided by Homegirl Café (a division of Homeboy Industries) and free parking in the City Hall garage for those who RSVP in advance.

For those who cannot attend, the entire proceeding will air live on the California Channel and excerpts will air on KABC-TV (Channel 7).

Crepes Coming

A new sit-down restaurant has rolled into Union Station.

Café Crepe, a Canadian-based casual chain that also has a location on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, opened last week in the space formerly occupied by Union Bagel. The eatery has a 10-year lease with station owner Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The restaurant also has an option to extend the lease for an additional five years.

Café Crepe, which offers savory and sweet crepes for around $10 apiece, is expected to generate about $1.4 million in base rent revenue for Metro during the lease and up to an additional $850,000 based on potential sales volume, according to the county authority.

Metro has plans to turn the transit hub into a destination in its own right, said Ken Pratt, director of property management at Union Station.

“By creating a destination, it also brings in revenue,” said Pratt. “We are a public entity. If we bring in dollars, as well as introduce more and more people to mass transit, then we’ve indeed served the public well.”

A craft brewery, weekly farmers market, and retail carts are also in the works for the station, which already has regular programming such as concerts and light shows.

“Union Station is coming alive in so many aspects,” said Pratt. “It’s an exceedingly bright future.”

Judges on Move

The newly completed federal courthouse on the corner of Broadway and Hill Street won’t be empty much longer. While a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the $350 million, 10-story, glass cube-like building took place earlier this month, the courthouse is scheduled to officially open its doors on Nov. 7.

Some IT staff is already operating out of the shiny new structure, which serves as the L.A. branch of the U.S. Central District Court. Clerk support staffers, such as administration and jury management personnel, are scheduled to begin the move on Nov. 1, said Randall Schnack, chief deputy of judicial services for the court, in an email. Judges are expected to follow later that week and adhere to a moving schedule that’s been built based on judge preferences.

Three to five federal judges will make the migration each week until the relocation is complete in the third week of December, Schnack said.

Once everyone has been relocated, there will be about 200 clerks and judicial office personnel working there on a daily basis – not including bailiffs, U.S. marshals, and other support staff such as cafeteria employees, he said.

The 633,000-square-foot building is one of the safest courthouses in the country, according to officials. The building, designed by the downtown office of Skidmore Owings & Merrill, was constructed to resist earthquake damage and outside threats such as bombs.

Staff reporters Howard Fine, Caroline Anderson, and Hayley Fox contributed to this column. #DTLA is compiled by Managing Editor Omar Shamout. He can be reached at oshamout@labusinessjourn

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