INTRODUCTION I recently explored Downtown's Historic Core neighborhood. The exploration was undertaken in two parts. I first began exploring the district a few days before Christmas. Thus the days were short and the sun set when I was only halfway done. The distractions of the holidays caused me to forget about finishing the task for … Continue reading California Fool’s Gold — Exploring the Historic Core
Most metropolitan areas -- at least the ones I'm familiar with -- are divided both into neighborhoods and larger, multi-neighborhood administrative divisions or regions. Paris has its arrondissements, New York City its boroughs, Busan and Seoul have gu (구), Taipei has qū (區), St. Louis and New Orleans both have wards, Mexico City has municipios, and on. Their names vary, then, but the concept is generally the … Continue reading Los Angeles Linguistics Part 2: Regional Differences
2017 is my tenth year of exploring and writing about Los Angeles communities. In 2007 I explored Granada Hills, Montebello, and Alhambra, and titled my series California Fool's Gold in homage to Huell Howser's California's Gold (1991-2012). In 2014 I spun off a related series, Urban Rambles, in which I undertake short, small, loosely structured walks of various corners of Southern California. … Continue reading Urban Rambles – Exploring Bronzeville with Maya and Michael
In Los Angeles, I regularly find myself so spoiled for choice that it sometimes leaves me distressed; but really, there are surely worse problems than being presented with too many great possibilities with how to spend one’s time. On Sunday there was a nine kilometer hike in the San Gabriel Mountains which culminated with a … Continue reading Swinging Doors — A Gold Line Beer Crawl
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
Although not native, many Moreton Bay Figs (Ficus macrophylla) dot the Southern California landscape. The oldest of these Australian immigrants might be those planted by agriculturalist Elijah Hook Workman on the Los Angeles Plaza in 1875. Around that same time, one was planted in Anaheim which later served as the model for the Disneyland's Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. One planted … Continue reading Those Useless Trees — The Aoyama Tree
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
