Attempting map of South Los Angeles is bound to be contentious, but I’ve gone ahead and had a go at it anyway. No matter what anyone tells you there are no official borders of South Los Angeles and it would be hard to find two Angelenos in absolute agreement. The Los Angeles Times regards it as a 51.08 … Continue reading Mapping the Geography and History of South Los Angeles
LETS SHOW THESE FOOLS HOW WE DO THIS ON THAT WESTSIDE Just as Los Angeles has two Eastsides (one being the largely Latino enclave east of the LA River and the other being South Los Angeles east of the 110 and/or Main St) it also has two Westsides. One Westside is a collection of LA’s westernmost … Continue reading California Fool’s Gold — A South Los Angeles Westside Primer
STRAIGHT BILLIN’ THROUGH THE EASTSIDE In Los Angeles, usage of the term “Eastside” varies depending on the speaker. To most Angelenos — especially Latinos — “The Eastside“ refers to a group of neighborhoods immediately east of the Los Angeles River: Boyle Heights, Brooklyn Heights, City Terrace, East Los Angeles, El Sereno, Happy Valley, Hillside … Continue reading California Fool’s Gold — A South Los Angeles Eastside Primer
Since arriving in Los Angeles in the 1990s, I’ve always been surprised at how just many swimming pools there are — and how infrequently most of them (especially the private ones) are seemingly used… other than as bee graveyards to be occasionally skimmed by some unfortunate charged with dragging a pool rake across their otherwise … Continue reading Southland Parks — The Beaches and Public Pools of Los Angeles
From the 1900s through the 1970s, large numbers of migrants to Los Angeles gathered in themed picnics organized around their states of origin known as State Society Picnics or just State Picnics (although that sounds confusingly to me like an outdoor state banquet). They were known as “State Society Picnics.” The phenomenon was huge. One … Continue reading Southland Parks — Los Angeles’s State Society Picnics
In Europe, there are several formalized traditions of botanical garden design including the Dutch, English, French, Greek, Italian, and Spanish. In Asia, there are at least long-established Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Persian schools and May being Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, I’m focusing on Los Angeles’s Asian-style gardens. The tradition of Japanese-American nurseries stretches back to the 1850s when Japanese … Continue reading Southland Parks — A Directory of Asian Gardens in Los Angeles
Parks comprise more than 14% of Los Angeles’s landscape and the city is home to hundreds of these cherished public spaces. From the largest park within any American city (Topanga State Park) to the smallest pocket parks and parklets, I hope to showcase them one park at a time, in the series Southland Parks. ***** Yesterday, whilst … Continue reading Southland Parks — Visiting Los Angeles High Memorial Park
Los Angeles’s Pan-African Film Festival is currently in effect (February 10-17). I have a long-lasting love-hate relationship with it. On the one hand, their website (despite improvements this year) remains hard to navigate, is rife with typos, incomplete information and omissions. In other words, it’s inexcusably bad. How about a calendar, folks? In addition, every … Continue reading Los Angeles’ Pan-African Film Festival …a year heavy on Nollywood and South African films
SELACO – Southeast Los Angeles County Pendersleigh & Sons‘ Official Map of Southeast Los Angeles County Introduction to Southeast Los Angeles County One of my favorite aspects of the Southland is that there is no single, dominant center. Whereas many bemoan the region’s sprawl, I prefer to think of it as a vast, occasionally smoggy … Continue reading California Fool’s Gold – a Southeast Los Angeles primer
INTRODUCTION Most of my essays about Los Angeles begin similarly. A question is asked, an answer is hard to find or is deemed inadequate, and then I head straight down a rabbit hole. This one began when a friend asked a question that involved Altadena and a street there with a Japanese name. She then … Continue reading Pan-Asian Metropolis — Pasadena’s Lost Chinatown
Eric Brightwell 