Los Angeles Downtown News Online has posted a long story about the city’s attempts to revitalize the historic Broadway district, part of which is old Route 66.

Many similar efforts have failed. But because the downtown area is gaining more residents, there’s some urgency and hope that a Broadway revival will be for real.

For the first time, many of the area’s key stakeholders are at the table, including theater owners, landlords, business leaders and community groups. The shared vision, initial plans for which could be completed by year’s end, would turn Broadway between Third Street and Olympic Boulevard into an entertainment destination. It would diversify the largely Latino shopping hub with new retail, nightclubs, creative offices and live shows in renovated theaters.

One of the big issues Broadway will have to tackle is a lack of parking. Officials are looking at using a nearby garage, encouraging pedestrian use and perhaps establishing a trolley line. And planners are agonizing on how to let the downtown district evolve naturally, yet still use zoning and ordinances keep it desirable.

There’s more in the article, including a lot of interesting ideas, for other urban planners to chew on.

We’ve noticed that more cities are taking advantage of the Internet and YouTube in particular in an effort to draw visitors and tourists.

Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., is one of them. It has posted a nicely produced three-minute video that briefly explains the history of Route 66 and Rancho Cucamonga’s current links to it.

The embedding for the video is turned off, but you can view it here.

Here’s a few more videos from Dwayne of New Zealand.

Most of the footage here is in Oklahoma. It’s interesting to watch his companion get a bit freaked out by a severe thunderstorm in the western part of the state. It’s routine stuff for locals, but foreigners and non-natives tend to become frightened by them.

More Mother Roading in western Oklahoma:

The Arizona Republic today published a compact guide to the portion of historic Route 66 that veers miles away from Interstate 40 from Seligman to Kingman.

There’s a lot more than that, but the article is good for starters.

This is a welcome addition. Route 66 has a news site (you’re looking at it, obviously), and now the Lincoln Highway does, too.

Brian Butko, author of “Lincoln Highway: America’s First Coast to Coast Road,” has launched LincolnHighwayNews.com in the past few days. In three days, he already has items about Niland’s Cafe, new Lincoln Highway signs in Goshen, Ind., original LH bricks, and others.

Frankly, I can’t think of a better person to launch such a site about “the Father Road.” And I’m grateful that Brian gave a shout-out to Route 66 News for the inspiration for his site.

A few of you roadies probably know that David Knudson, executive director of the National Historic Route 66 Federation, and his wife Mary Lou are based in Lake Arrowhead, Calif., in the mountains above Los Angeles.

Hearing about the grave conditions caused by wildfires in Southern California, including Lake Arrowhead, I called David on Tuesday to check his well-being. His answering machine picked up, and I left a message.

On Wednesday evening, David called. He and his dog are staying in a modest motel room away from Lake Arrowhead because the entire region has been evacuated. His house is still intact. At last report, he said, the closest wildfire to his home was 10 miles away.

His wife, Mary Lou, was admitted to a hospital several days before for a nonfire-related ailment.

David said the fire conditions obviously are unpredictable. But the winds appear to be dying down, and he’s optimistic he can return home by the weekend.

More YouTubes from Dwayne of New Zealand.

Here’s one from western New Mexico, with images of Gallup’s neon:

Arizona sights, including Flagstaff, Holbrook, Williams, Oatman, the Black Mountains and the Painted Desert:

On to California and the isolation of the Mojave Desert and the congestion of Los Angeles. Warning: There is brief nudity at the beginning; Dwayne must have spent a little too much time in the desert heat.

Dwayne of New Zealand has posted a bunch of new videos from his recent Route 66 trip.

Some Mother Road sights from Illinois, although I don’t think the apocalyptic soundtrack of “Gimme Shelter” fits:

More from Illinois and Missouri, including a lot of footage of Rich Henry and his pet rabbit Montana at Henry’s Rabbit Ranch:

Here’s the second part of Missouri, with plenty about BowlingShirt.com in St. Louis and a side trip to Branson:

Part 3 in Missouri, with plenty of footage of the splendid Sinclair station re-creation at Gay Parita:

POPS on Route 66 in Arcadia, Okla., has posted several videos, many of which appear to have been produced by OklaTravelNews.

This one has interesting comments by Route 66 writer Michael Wallis and POPS architect Rand Elliott:

Here’s a video from when the 66-foot-tall pop bottle was erected:

Here’s a video of a reporter for Food and Wine Magazine being interviewed about an article about POPS:

And this is basically a commercial for POPS:

I recently received a message from Yves Barbreau of France, who plans to take an ultra-marathon team to America in September 2008 so it can run one marathon a day in eight days, on each of the eight Route 66 states.

It is called Team Globules, boasting a two-time French marathon champion and a winner of the European 100-kilometer race. It apparently does fundraising for research into Evans syndrome, an immunity disorder.

Here’s an excerpt from Yves’ blog, as translated from French by Google:

The Team will travel to the WBC route 66 from east to west, as is the tradition by wearing the colors of the A.F.S.E.!

On the trail of Thelma and Louise, she will leave Arkansas, transferred to Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona (Grand Canyon) to finish in Southern California in the Mojave Desert, where is the famous “road motel Baghdad coffee, which gave its name to the film!

Route 66, 2,448 long miles (about 4,000 km) retains a mythical character immortalized in books, movies, songs; It remains a symbol of the American deep off the beaten track, a nostalgic evocation of the age gold of a vanished America.

The blog says the team will run in six states, but Yves’ e-mail said Team Globules will run in all eight Route 66 states. Either way, it’s no idle feat.

The translator tripped over the reference to Bagdad Cafe, which is in the Mojave Desert down of Newberry Springs and was a foreign film by the same name. The movie has enticed a lot of Europeans to travel the Mother Road.

I’ve already given Yves advice on where to run so the team can be on the real Route 66 for long stretches, avoid the interstate, and run in relative safety.