JULIE WALMSLEY

The July/August issue of Quill , the magazine of the Society of Professional Journalists , is now out. My Freelance Toolbox column in this installment covered the advantages and disadvantages of coworking.

The Los Angeles Mall is city-owned and thus bolsters the General Fund, the biggest pot and largest deficit among the city's accounts. Retail spaces at the Los Angeles Mall, which sits below City Hall East between Main and Los Angeles streets, go for between $1 and $2 per square foot, according the leasing documents available. The rent at the coffee/smoothie shop that used to be a Robek's is $1.45 per square foot. The same proprietor is taking over a separate kiosk where rent is actually higher than an enclosed retail space. There, she will pay $1.65 per square foot. Leasing space requires submission of a proposal as if responding to a standard city request for proposal, and commitment to paying a living wage. But like private sector applicants to a property manager or owner, the shops must demonstrate business acumen and financial solvency. Café Michel will be replaced by Filipino restaurant Pili Manila Grill. There, the rent is $1.35 per square foot.

My piece on longtime Larchmont destination Chevalier's Bookstore is now up at Larchmont Ledger and needing a correction. In a conversation with his friend and fellow bookworm, Bert Deixler, Holter proposed buying the store. The two local residents approached Winthrop, and by the end of October they were the new owners of Chevalier’s. It was actually Deixler who suggested buying the store to Holter, not Holter's idea. Holter at the time said, "Yeah right!" and brushed off the suggestion. But after thinking about it and seeing the barren store again, he changed his mind. More backstory on Chevalier's, and the other two independent bookstores I wrote about, Stories on Sunset in Echo Park and Skylight Books in Los Feliz, is here .