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
Tag: The San Gabriel Valley
Happy 626, or, San Gabriel Valley Day!
Pendersleigh & Sons Cartography's watercolor and ink map of the San Gabriel Valley, available in art prints and on an array of merchandise Last year, on 18 August, I published a piece celebrating San Fernando Valley Day. You see, in the US (and nowhere else, really), people write dates month/day/year. I know, it makes no … Continue reading Happy 626, or, San Gabriel Valley Day!
Pan-Asian Metropolis — 素食夜市小吃園遊會 Happy Lantern Green Night Market
The other day, Una and I went to the 素食夜市小吃園遊會 Happy Lantern Green Night Market -- a 100% vegetarian (and mostly vegan) Taiwanese street food festival which took place in Alhambra. If that sounds on the surface impossibly niche, consider the following. Taiwan is the cradle of the night market. Taiwan is, after India, likely the second … Continue reading Pan-Asian Metropolis — 素食夜市小吃園遊會 Happy Lantern Green Night Market
No Enclave — Exploring Vietnamese Los Angeles
Metro Los Angeles is home to the largest population of Vietnamese outside of Vietnam. About two-thirds of the metropolis's population lives in Orange County -- home to the nation's oldest and largest Little Saigon. Los Angeles County, on the other hand, has the third-largest population of Vietnamese-Americans but one which is less than half the … Continue reading No Enclave — Exploring Vietnamese Los Angeles
Pan-Asian Metropolis – Visiting Moonlight Forest
A couple of nights ago, Una and I visited Moonlight Forest, a lantern festival currently taking place Wednesday through Sunday nights at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden. Its one of several local winter light festivals happening right now, along with Griffith Park’s LA Zoo Christmas Lights and Holiday Light Festival Train Rides, … Continue reading Pan-Asian Metropolis – Visiting Moonlight Forest
Los Angeles Linguistics Part 2: Regional Differences
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
There It Is, Revitalize It — The San Gabriel River
The San Gabriel River is one of three major rivers which drains and flows through the Los Angeles Basin. The river drains a watershed of roughly 1,850 square kilometers and is bounded by the watersheds of the Los Angeles River to the west and the Santa Ana River watershed to the southeast. For most of … Continue reading There It Is, Revitalize It — The San Gabriel River
Pan-Asian Metropolis — Los Angeles’s Asian Supermarkets
Supermarkets are wonderful places. My old landlord, a friendless and frankly unlikeable person, told me that Gelson's was her favorite place to spend Thanksgiving (alone). Joe Strummer wrote of getting lost in one, an experience apparently so traumatic that he required Mick Jones to sing his lyrics. The group Supermarket recorded just one song, called "Supermarket," the lyrics of which consisted … Continue reading Pan-Asian Metropolis — Los Angeles’s Asian Supermarkets
Nobody Drives in LA — Opening Day of the Gold Line Foothill Extension
Back in February 2013, my brother and I walked along the route of Metro's then-planned Gold Line Foothill Extension. Even though Foothill Extension is 18 kilometers long, thanks to detours and construction, our walk from Pasadena to Azusa ended up being stretched to 27 kilometers. The newly-opened train lane reduces that distance and travel time considerably. Now one can theoretically … Continue reading Nobody Drives in LA — Opening Day of the Gold Line Foothill Extension
No Enclave — Exploring Burmese Los Angeles
In 2010, 100,200 Burmese were counted by the US census and 15% of them lived in California. What "Burmese" means is slightly more complicated than it seems. Although “Burmese” refers to any citizen of Burma/Myanmar, regardless of ethnicity, the concept is closed entwined with that country's dominant Bamar ethnic group (from whom both “Burma” and “Myanmar” are both derived). … Continue reading No Enclave — Exploring Burmese Los Angeles
Eric Brightwell 