Last December when I was in New York to moderate part of Designism 2.0, I stumbled into a tiny storefront on Mulberry Street where Good had set up shop for the month. Although I was only in NY for the week, I found myself there twice more in that short period of time: There was always something going on, which always happened to be completely different from the night before, yet seemed to attract the same kind of creative-cool crowd who always seem to crop up at Good’s events.

Back on their home turf (in case you didn’t know, they’re based in LA), the good people at Good have moved into an awesome new space on Melrose (it’s actually the old offices of Rios Clementi Hale) and they’re opening up the ground floor as a permanent installation/exhibition/gathering/partying space for the community. And to kick it all off, they’ve planned a series of installations/exhibitions/gatherings/parties called Good December. You can see the whole calendar, which includes field trips, a “local world’s fair,” collaborations with groups like 826 LA (where I volunteer) and conversations about food, energy and transportation. It’ll be just like going to the most killer office holiday party in town except it lasts for two weeks and everyone in the whole city is invited.

The smart and sassy masterminds behind Good December, Kyla Fullenwider and Jenn Su, tapped me to help curate two design events for the space, and I hope you’ll come to one or both. Next Monday, December 8, de LaB will present City Listening, a night of readings by local design and architecture writers. We have so many amazing people who are going to read their stories about Los Angeles. You can RSVP for that by emailing us at delab AT gelatobaby.com or just RSVP over on Facebook.

And then, on Thursday, December 18, I’m co-hosting GOOD Design: LA with Casey Caplowe, the magazine’s creative director. We’ve asked the best and brightest from the local design community—people like Barbara Bestor, Materials & Applications, Stefan Bucher, Artecnica, Space Collective, Frances Anderton—to come up with solutions to LA’s biggest problems. We can’t wait to see what they come up with. That’s 7-10pm and you can RSVP here.

Everything is free and open to the public, so if you’re in the neighborhood, don’t forget to drop into the Good Space anytime from 11am-5pm from December 5-19 or RSVP for any of the evening events. All details are here and I hope to see you there!

Having just moved to a new neighborhood, I’ve been frantically trying to nail down my local services—coffeeshop, farmers market, and most importantly, gelateria—by culling recommendations from my neighbors, longtime residents, and my best friend, Internet. But it wasn’t always so easy to find local information online. For that, you’ll want to thank one Sean Bonner, who co-founded the Metblogs family of more than 30 city-specific blogs back in the olden days of 2003. When I recently interviewed him for Good, Bonner put this whole conundrum so, so beautifully:

“People think the great thing about the internet is that you can connect with the world,” says 33-year-old Sean Bonner, one of the founders of Metblogs. “But I want to connect with the guy down the street. I want to know what my neighbor thinks is the best sandwich in town. Or a secret shortcut to get home at night.”

Bonner is a guy who has had an internet presence longer than most web hooligans have been alive (he’s still a web hooligan, though:  case in point). But he’s not stuck behind the computer, he’s actually out there working the neighborhood. He rides that shiny bike up there everywhere and in just the first few days I started following him on Twitter for research, he went to our ‘hood’s infamous gelateria Scoops almost every day. How could I not take his advice? “Neighborhood Watch” is in the September/October issue of Good.

And while I’m talking up Good, I should mention that they not only have a new home on the internet, Good.is, they’ve also moved into shiny new digs over on Melrose (I swung by there on Parking Day). They’ve got tons of stuff planned there for their month-long, end-of-the-year spectacular Good December, so I’ll be sure to keep you posted!