JULIE WALMSLEY

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.

The Pershing Square-adjuacent mill co-working space Blankspaces , stylized as b:LA for the hipsters whose office budgets it is trying to magnetize, was once the department store Schulte United. Councilmember Huizar, among others, did a relaunch of sorts for 529 S. Broadway last year, highlighting its changes over the years, and rebranding it as a center for creativity. On my way out of Blankspaces after nearly a year at multiple locations (and other unpleasant coworking experiences before that), I thought I had the scoop on this trivia, fascinated as I am by a time when going out to a department store was a big deal. But Bianca Barragan covered the conversion of the space last year for Curbed.