Free culture in L.A.
When Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced today that the city was dumping the $7 admission cost for L.A. Municipal Art Gallery and opening it wide for the poor and possibly huddled masses, I'm sure the same question was on everyone's minds: L.A. has a municipal art museum?
Apparently so, and apparently it's at Barnsdall Art Park, that strange hill thing off Hollywood Boulevard that I never really paid any attention to as I was screaming by, trying to avoid all the motorists confused by upcoming Hollywood and Sunset boulevards intersection.
If you never heard of it, don't despair. Practically no one else did either. According to the infogenerators at the Mayor's office, only 14,591 people visited the gallery, "a 60.9% drop from a peak of 37,403 visitors in 1989." I guess they're hoping this free thing will change that.