Office Park Life — Visiting Park DTLA

Although the earliest office parks first appeared in the 1950s, their golden age was the 1980s, when they sprang up like boxy, shiny, fairy rings in the liminal spaces between cities and suburbs; drawn beyond the edges of cities by baby boomers who'd discovered in fleeing to the suburbs, they'd created for themselves a fresh hell in … Continue reading Office Park Life — Visiting Park DTLA

California Fool’s Gold — Exploring Bunker Hill

BUNKER HILL The story of Bunker Hill is the story of at least three neighborhoods -- maybe more. There's the posh, Victorian neighborhood of the late 19th Century. There's also the diverse, working-class neighborhood celebrated in noir fictions of the early 20th Century. Today, there's the contemporary neighborhood, a collection of corporate high-rises and high culture. As an explorer … Continue reading California Fool’s Gold — Exploring Bunker Hill

Nobody Drives in LA — Exploring Downtown’s Calvin S. Hamilton Pedway

With bicycles, buses, ferries, planes, rideshares, sidewalks, subways, taxis, and trains at Angelenos’ disposal, why would any sane person choose car-dependency? Nobody Drives in LA celebrates sense and sensibility in transportation. If you've been downtown there's a good chance that you've noticed the concrete overpasses above the streets, but probably never thought much about them. My curiosity was only sufficiently … Continue reading Nobody Drives in LA — Exploring Downtown’s Calvin S. Hamilton Pedway

California Fool’s Gold — A Downtown Los Angeles Primer

BEAT CITY DOWNTOWN  As regular (and probably irregular) readers of Eric's Blog know, I'm a bit of a Southern California wonk and a big part of my focus is writing about the culture, character and history of the many diverse communities of Los Angeles and Orange Counties. Although so far there have been around 800 votes … Continue reading California Fool’s Gold — A Downtown Los Angeles Primer