Hi Duk Lee (이희덕) died on 7 March at the age of 79. Two weeks passed before his death was reported on the website L.A. Taco. Only then did the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Korea Times, KTLA, NBC, and ABC run stories on the passing of this pioneer, whose name and accomplishments remain unknown to most Angelenos, including … Continue reading Pan-Asian Metropolis — Hi Duk Lee, the Father of Koreatown (1939-2019)
2017 marks the tenth anniversary of me exploring Los Angeles for my online series, California Fool’s Gold. For the occasion, I’ve turned to fellow explorers to see where they’d want to go and published my accounts on my newer series, Urban Rambles. My friend Machiko Yasuda and I recently explored Mid-City but she suggested another ramble, … Continue reading Urban Rambles — Exploring Koreatown Malls with Machiko
NB: Since the initial publication of this blog entry, Koreatown’s borders have been expanded and made official by the city. A new map reflects this but the text of the blog entry does not. This blog entry is about the Los Angeles neighborhood of Koreatown. In recognition of you, the blog readers’ votes, … Continue reading California Fool’s Gold — Exploring Koreatown (코리아타운)
INTRODUCTION There are no reliable figures of how many Oaxacans live in Los Angeles but, suffice to say, it is almost certainly a larger community than in any other US city and one of, and perhaps the, largest outside of Mexico. There have been efforts for at least ten years to get the city to … Continue reading No Enclave — Oaxacan Los Angeles
Peru (Spanish: Perú; Quechua and Aymara: Piruw) is a country in South America. It is considered a “megadiverse’ country, the habitats of which include the arid planes of the Pacific coast, the alpine peaks of the Andes, and the tropical Amazon basin. It is also home to a highly diverse human population of about 34 … Continue reading No Enclave — Peruvian Los Angeles
GRIFFITH PARK DRIVE CLOSURE IN GRIFFITH PARK On 27 June, a small stretch of Griffith Park Drive is being closed to cars as part of a pilot program [UPDATE: It’s permanent now]. Inevitably, there were the NIMPS (Not In My Parking Spaces) who cried that they and people like them would no longer be able … Continue reading Nobody Drives in LA — Re-Claiming Los Angeles’s Streets
The Grand Tour, for the unfamiliar, was a custom that arose in Britain in the mid-1600s, which involved upper class young British men touring around Europe as part of their cultural education. By the 1800s, the custom had spread from the British upper classes to the nouveau riche of Europe, the Americas, and the Philippines. … Continue reading Nobody Drives in LA — The Los Angeles Grand Tour
It’s Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and so I thought it might be nice to shine a spotlight on some of Metro Los Angeles‘s many Asian American artists, the subject of this week’s post. It was a bit of an undertaking for many reasons. There are and have been many Asian American artists who’ve at … Continue reading Pan-Asian Metropolis — 200 Asian Angeleno Artists
In February, Catalina Villegas reported for Spectrum News that the vendors at the North Hollywood Swap Meet were given notice that they had until 31 March to vacate the building in which some of them had worked for more than 25 years. Instead of taking the news quietly, a group of vendors, aided by The … Continue reading Los Angeles Swap Meets
Los Angeles is a multilingual metropolis. There are roughly 19 million people in Metro Los Angeles and, according to the late, renowned linguist, Vyacheslav Ivanov, there are at least 224 languages spoken in Los Angeles County. Ivanov also estimated that there are roughly 180 local publications written in languages other than English. Although a less … Continue reading No Enclave — Language Schools of Los Angeles
Eric Brightwell 