It's the first Friday of June, which means it's time to wish you all a Happy National Donut Day!

Of course, though this might seem like one of those hashtaggable "#National[Food Name Here]Day memes that get bounced on Twitter to provide the social media peer pressure of supporting a manufactured capitalist holiday meant to drive up sales of the said food item, National Donut (or Doughnut) Day has apparently been around since the 1930s.

The Militant noticed something while traveling around the South Los Angeles/South Bay area recently -- there's an awful lot of donut establishments with giant donuts on the roof. In fact, some 80 percent of America's giant donut establishments are right here in Southern California. We are the Giant Donut Capital of the World, and don't you forget it! The world-famous Randy's Donuts is the best-known example, located near LAX, and having the distinction of being the only giant donut establishment in the world to have a Space Shuttle pass by outside its doors.

But there are others, too; namely Kindle's Donuts on Century Boulevard and Normandie Avenue (where The Militant enjoyed a rather large Texas Twist donut with a cup of coffee), and Donut King II on Marine and Western avenues in Gardena.

Why the large concentration of giant donuts?

It just so happens there's a connection. In 1950, a local chain called "Big Do-Nut Drive-In" (believe the hyphens) opened 10 locations across Southern California. It was started by an entrepreneur named Russell C. Wendell, who sold donut making machines. With the rise in popularity at the time of drive-thru burger joints (like this one we all know and love), he felt the same could apply to donuts (or do-nuts). Most of his locations, designed by architect Henry J. Goodwin, had a 32-foot-diameter gunnite donut atop the building, angled towards the intersection. He opened the first location in Westmont (now Kindle's Donuts), followed by one in Inglewood (now Randy's Donuts), Gardena (now Donut King II), Culver City, Compton (now Dale's Donuts), North Hollywood, a second Inglewood location, Bellflower (now Bellflower Bagels), Van Nuys and Reseda. Five of the locations that are not currently in operation under another name have met the wrecking ball.

The Big Do-Nut Drive-Ins lasted a little over 25 years, as Wendell sold the stores to individual owners in the 1970s who continued their use as a donut shop. Wendell continued on in the drive thru restaurant business with another now-gone icon: Pup 'N Taco, which lasted from 1965 until Wendell sold the chain to Taco Bell in 1984.

These are the locations of the 10 Big Do-Nut Drive-Ins:


1. Big Do-Nut Westmont (Kindle's Donuts)
1950
10003 S. Normandie Ave
Purchased by Gary Kindle in 1977. Note the hyphenated "Do-Nuts" still remaining in the name, a vestige of the original Big Do-Nut name.



2. Big Do-Nut Inglewood - Manchester (Randy's Donuts)
1953
805 W. Manchester Blvd
Total So Cal icon. Purchased by Robert Eskow in 1976, named it "Randy's Donuts" after his son. In 1978 Eskow sold the shop to his cousins Ron and Larry Weintraub, who still own it today. Open 24 hours.




3. Big Do-Nut Gardena (Donut King II)
1954
15032 S. Western Ave
Open 24 hours.

4. Big Do-Nut Culver City (DEMOLISHED)
4101 Sepulveda Blvd
The site is currently a Goodwill donation center and bookstore.



5. Big Do-Nut Compton (Dale's Donuts)
15904 S. Atlantic Ave


6. Big Do-Nut North Hollywood (DEMOLISHED)
Magnolia Blvd and Laurel Canyon Blvd, SW Corner
This site is currently a parking lot for the neighboring Jons Market.

7. Big Do-Nut Inglewood - Imperial (DEMOLISHED)
Imperial Highway and Hawthorne Blvd


8. Big Do-Nut Bellflower (Bellflower Bagels)
17025 Bellflower Blvd
This location had the smaller, 23-foot-diameter donut. It is the only surviving Big Do-Nut Drive-In that is not operating as a donut shop per se -- although donuts are sold here.


9. Big Do-Nut Van Nuys (DEMOLISHED)
1959
7149 N. Kester Ave
This site is currently a car wash.


10. Big Do-Nut Reseda (DEMOLISHED)
1960
7208 Reseda Blvd
This location, the last to open in the Big Do-Nut chain, also had the smaller, 23-foot donut, mounted on a pole. The site is now a 76 gas station.


Mrs. Chapman's Angel Food Donuts
1950s
Various Locations, Long Beach

But Big Do-Nut wasn't the only giant donut game in town...There was also Angel Food Donuts which also started in the early 1950s. They boasted over twice as many stores as Big Do-Nut (21), but not all of them featured a giant donut, though most had much smaller donuts than Big Do-Nut. Fortunately,three of the giant donut locations still survive today, with the big-ass donuts intact:

Mrs. Chapman's Angel Food Donuts
3657 Santa Fe Avenue

Angel Food Donuts
3860 Long Beach Boulevard

Dunkin' Donuts (You gotta give credit to an East Coast transplant's effort to assimilate...though it was quite a struggle at first)
5590 East 7th Street



The Donut Hole
1958
15300 Amar Rd, La Puente

And while Big Do-Nut was the first drive-thru donut shop, this combo breaker outside of the South Bay area -- in the San Gabriel Valley, of all places, featured a donut shop that you can literally drive through. It was part of a small chain of The Donut Holes in the area, though this one on Amar Road was the only one with a giant donut, which appeared partially buried into the ground, and was a chocolate donut. Anyways, you can still come to this one anytime -- it's open 24 hours.

So for National Donut Day, don't waste your time at just any donut joint, go big! Go grab your donuts at one of Southern California's unique giant donut establishments. And if you do, Tweet a selfie from one (or more) of them with the hashtag #GiantDonut !

Just when you had your fill of CicLAvia last week, along comes another one! Well, kinda.

On Saturday, the City of Long Beach initiated its own ciclovia, or open streets, event, called Beach Streets (no, not Beat Street, but everybody say Ramoooon! (Ramoooon!)), which took place in Uptown Long Beach -- a route that involved a 3.3-mile stretch of Atlantic Avenue from Wardlow Road in the south to Harding Street in the north, at Houghton Park. Now, this technically wasn't the very first Beach Streets; as they did a small event in April using the already closed-off course of the Long Beach Grand Prix in Downtown Long Beach. But this was the first one that involved an open streets arrangement specifically for Beat, er, Beach Streets.

Now, the Militant is familiar with Long Beach; he even did a whole week of posts devoted to The International City in June 2011. But he had never been to this "Uptown" part of the LBC before. So this event was a treat and a half.

Being that The Militant lives somewhat north of Long Beach, he figured it would be an easy ride via the Red and Blue lines down there.

WROOOOONG.

When The Militant arrived at 7th Street/Metro Center, a Metro staffer said that there were no Long Beach trains, and that we had to take the Expo Line to the 23rd Street/LATTC/Ortho Institute/Lorenzo/Kind Of Close to Adams Station, get off, and ride a shuttle bus to the Blue Line Vernon station.

Boo Metro.

Despite the event, like CicLAvia, being sponsored by Metro, the transit agency also picked this weekend to shut down part of the Metro Blue Line between the Vernon and Pico stations due to station maintenance at Washington, San Pedro and Grand.  Umm, did that make any sense at all?

The Militant had to endure the 15-minute "bus bridge" ride, which only took 15 minutes, in actual travel time, but add on another 20 minutes to get off the Blue Line, board the shuttle bus and wait for it to fill up before departing. Argh.

So, The Militant arrived at the Wardlow station a lot later than anticipated, Thank You Metro. Grrr.

The coned-off temporary bike lane on Wardlow Road that led to Beach Streets.

After arriving there, he rode the .6-mile east on Wardlow to Beach Streets, which had a "temporary bike lane" set up for riders who came in from the Blue Line or from points east.

But here's where Beach Streets begins and The Militant's frustration ends.

Beach Streets! (The sign said "Welcome To/Beach Streets"; but that's the way it came out on The Militant's camera.

Beach Streets was pretty much like a CicLAvia-lite. He estimated no more than 30,000 people. Which was fine; Long Beach is a smaller city, and even if Metro's stupid Blue Line closure this weekend ruined it for prospective visitors, this event was really for the people of Long Beach. Being that Los Angeles' CicLAvia consistently pulls in a huge crowd every time, there was really no pressure to pack Atlantic Avenue at all. And in the world of Southern California open streets events, there should really be no competition. So 30K smiling faces should be chalked up as a success.

The Militant also noticed that there were a greater percentage of children on the route, which is not just a good thing, but a great thing -- their generation will not know of Beach Streets as an anomaly or something novel, but their reality. And by the time these kids grow up to be the movers and shakers of Long Beach, you can bet that these things will be happening all the time. So kudos to the Beach Streets organization for getting all the kids out.

The public art sculpture thingy in the median of Atlantic Ave.

The event also had a more small-town feel; there were much more bands playing (including not one, but two New Orleans-style brass bands - in different places!), more booths or tables along the sidewalk or closed intersections to give the whole thing more of a rounded-out street festival feel. The City of Long Beach even dedicated an area for an Emergency Preparedness Fair, so this event had multiple functions for many people.

The Militant also noticed the slower pace of the ride. Having gone to all 13 CicLAvias to date, there's a certain speed and flow of the ride that's uniform (well, depending on how much people are on the road at one time). He was biking rather fast but felt like the a-hole from Los Angeles who was trying to speed and weave his way through.

In all, Long Beach did an excellent job with this Beach Streets Uptown thing. And part of it might have been attributed to the fact that a number of people who were out today had already experienced CicLAvia over the past nearly five years, so many people knew what to do and what to expect. The other part is that surely their organizers took copious notes during the past CicLAvias and replicated some of its best practices, such as the 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. event span, permeable intersections for automobiles and volunteer crossing guards.

Humans, and even dogs enjoyed Beach Streets.

The Militant was also impressed by the Bixby Knolls area. So many restaurants and eateries, and so little time, he really needed to come back to this area sometime.

Downside? There really was no downside. Maybe the closest thing was that there wasn't too much in the way of historical points of interest along the route. There was one of Long Beach's Giant Donut locations (Angel Food Donuts on Long Beach Blvd), and there was the Rancho Los Cerritos adobe, but both were a few blocks west of the route.

The Militant looks forward to more Beach Streets events (They are going to have more of these, right?), and will definitely be there!

Now, as you may or may not know, CicLAvia, Beach Streets and other open streets events originated from Bogota, Colombia's Ciclovia, which happens every week.

So what we're looking at is this: There are 88 incorporated cities in Los Angeles County (you might know how they got their names by now), and if at least a couple dozen of them organize maybe one to four (or more) open street events each year, and schedule them so they don't conflict...BOOM! We can have an open streets event every weekend year round! 

Don't believe him? Just watch.

More pics from Beach Streets Uptown:

Welcome to Long Beach's Beach Streets Uptown!

Beach Streets: The first open streets event with a Navy ship!

Someones, uh, creative backyard greeting at Atlantic Ave and Del Amo Blvd.

A chalk art map of Long Beach on Harding Street. Proudly representing the LBC.

Did you hear? Today the Los Angeles Clippers officially announced their new logos and branding:


No wait, it's this one:

Okay...

Well, while the team and Teh Ballmer Himself thinks it's all that, The Militant, and perhaps the rest of Los Angeles, and maybe even the sports world as well, thinks it's kind of meh at best. While not hideous, it's...just kind of there.

Full disclosure, in case you don't know: The Militant is a lifelong Lakers fan, but he's not a Clippers hater. He was pulling for them during the NBA Playoffs this year, which have recently been won by some Bay Area team. But this is still a Los Angeles professional sports team, and they have been here for 31 seasons already, so you might as well deal with it.

Look, if you're going to make a logo, it better mean something, or at least stand for something. The Nike Swoosh, the McDonalds' Golden Arches. The NBC Peacock, etc. You'll know it when you see it.

The inter-nested "L-A-C" (or "C-L-A?") kind of L-A-C-Ks something. It's mildly clever, but it doesn't stand for anything. The basketball icon's lines suggest arrows and it looks like the "L-A-C" is being crushed like that trash compactor in the first "Star Wars" film.

The Ballmer has respected enough of the team's history to keep The Clippers in town, and even keep the name, which was a holdover of the previous San Diego-based franchise, a reference to the tall-sailed merchant ships that once sailed into that city's harbor. Clipper ships were popular in the mid-19th century as fast ships that carried freight across oceans with relative speed, the last of the wind-sailing vessels until steam engines took over the maritime transportation industry a few decades later. And FYI, clipper ships once sailed into Los Angeles Harbor back in the day, though Los Angeles was just a minor port city back then. Of course, once a year you can still see clipper ships sail in San Pedro.

But The Ballmer missed out on the biggest opportunity for the team's re-branding: Changing the team's colors. Colors are a big deal in sports fandom. Just ask any blue-blooded Dodger fan, for example. Red, white and blue might work in a patriotic sense but what does it have to do with Los Angeles or clippers?

A perfect example: Once upon a time, a basketball team moved to Los Angeles. Years later, the team's new owner wanted to change the team's logo and branding. Out were the team's blue and white and in were purple (originally called "Forum Blue") and gold, adapted from the owner's other sports team, the Los Angeles Kings (purple being a regal color). The owner was Jack Kent Cooke and the team was, of course, the Los Angeles Lakers. Since then, the Kings dropped their purple and gold and those colors have been synonymous with the Lakers ever since.

So the Clippers could have put more thought and time into this logo/branding thing and come up with a new color scheme and a kick-ass logo. Granted the new one looks a little more bold on uniforms, but stands to be rather dated in a few years. Maybe then they'll come up with something better.

Ballmer also missed out on the opportunity for The Clippers' official team mascot:

Have fun, Clipper fans!

Happy 25th Birthday, you Millennial, you!

Today marks the 25th Anniversary of Los Angeles' Metro Rail system, which began with the July 14t, 1990 opening of the Metro Blue Line, Los Angeles County's first modern train transit system, and the first rail line to serve the area in nearly 30 years.

You may or may be familiar with The Militant's Angeleno's award-winning Epic CicLAvia Tour posts, highlighting various points of interest along the various open streets routes, but did you know The Militant has done the same for the Los Angeles-to-Pasadena Metro Gold Line and the Metro Expo Line?

This time around, to celebrate a quarter century of Metro Rail, The Militant offers his Epic 25th Anniversary Metro Blue Line Tour, which points out historic, surprising, and off-the-beaten-path locations on or very near our first light rail route. Even if you've been a regular Blue Line commuter for the past 25 years, if you think you know the Blue Line, guess again!



1. 7th St/Metro Center Countdown Clock
1993
7th St./Metro Center Station,  Downtown Los Angeles

Riders waiting at the outbound platform at the 7th Street/Metro Center station may or may not have noticed a peculiar digital countdown clock situated on a pole in the middle of the tracks. It seems to count down regardless of whether there’s a train or not. What is it for?

In 1993, to speed up Blue Line travel times, the street signals along Flower Street and Washington Blvd. were synchronized to give priority to light rail trains along those streets. This timer clock allows train operators to time their exact departures in accord with the street signal synchronization, so that when the white light under the clock is lit and the train begins to depart under normal operating speed, the train will encounter a continuous series of green lights.

2. Pico Station
1990
Pico and Flower Streets, Downtown Los Angeles

Pico Station is where it all began; it was the first operational station in the history of Metro Rail. The station was the site of a public dedication ceremony kicking off the opening of the line (See The Militant's exclusive archived video of the event here). The Blue Line on opening day in 1990 was somewhat shorter than the line we ride today. For the first two months of operation, the Blue Line only ran from Pico Station to the Anaheim St. Station.

Back then, it was just located in a far-flung region of Downtown. It wasn’t until the late 1990s when the Staples Center was built that the South Park section of Downtown started to become revitalized. Today, the recent upgrades of the Blue Line stations have also given the station a minor facelift.
1924
1801 S. Grand Ave., Downtown Los Angeles

This historic venue through the years, easily seen from the nearby Blue Line Grand station, has hosted boxing matches (including the boxing competitions for the 1932 Olympic Games), wrestling bouts, roller derby events and concerts. The match sequences from the original Rocky movie was filmed here, as well as Bon Jovi's "Livin' On A Prayer" and Janet Jackson's "Control" music videos.

For the past decade the venue has been owned by a Korean Christian Church known as Glory Church of Jesus Christ (hence the large Jesus mural on its south wall).

5. Site of Washington Park and Chutes Park
1893
Washington Blvd and Hill Street, Downtown Los Angeles

The first permanent baseball field in Los Angeles isn't Dodger Stadium, nor was it South Los Angeles' Wrigley Field nor the Fairfax District's Gilmore Field. It was here at Washington Park, located near Washington and Hill, where the Pacific Coast League Los Angeles Angels of Los Angeles played from 1893 to 1925 (the first Washington Park stood from 1893 to 1912; the second was in use from 1912 to 1925. It was torn down in the 1950s. William Wrigley, the team's owner, left Washington Park after he was denied permission to build an underground parking garage. He then moved his Angels to his own Wrigley Field in 1925. Washington Park it was also one of the home venues of the USC Trojans football team before the Coliseum. Adjacent to Washington Park was an amusement park named Chutes Park that stood on the land where the municipal courthouse now stands.

6. Tacos El Gavilan/Site of 1st McDonalds in Los Angeles
1957
1900 S. Central Ave, South Los Angeles

What is currently a taco stand at the southeast corner of Central and Washington was once the first McDonalds in the city of Los Angeles (and the 11th McDs in the entire chain) which opened in 1957. As you may or may not know, McDonalds originated in San Bernardino in 1940 by the McDonald brothers, and was later taken over by Illinois businessman Ray Kroc, who turned the unique Southern California hamburger chain into the gargantuan unhealthy corporate chain we know today. The trademark side arches were present on this building (and a single arch present on the corner sign) up until the early 2000s. But hey, tacos are more healthy for you than McDonalds junk, so eat up.

7. Washington Blvd Buddha
c. 1941
1600 E. Washington Blvd, South Los Angeles

On your southbound Blue Line ride, look to the right just before the train curves towards the Washington Station and look for the "Hanson Tank" sign. To the left of the sign, and right above the main doorway is a tiny cubby-hole featuring a Buddha statue. Years ago, a Militant Elder told The Militant Angeleno that the buddhas were placed there to give Japanese Buddhists a clandestine place to worship after December 7, 1941. The Militant covered this location in an early MA blog post in October 2007.


8. Washington Tail Track
1989
Washington Blvd and Long Beach Avenue, South Los Angeles

Due across the street and due north of the Blue Line's Washington Station, there's a stretch of track that diverges from the Blue Line route that seems to head off into oblivion. The track is one of several along the Blue Line route that function as an emergency storage track for broken trains or so-called "gap" trains to replace trains that have been taken out of service due to technical issues.

The tracks follow the original Pacific Electric 4-track "speedway" alignment that led to the Pacific Electric Building at 6th and Main streets in Downtown Los Angeles. In fact if you follow the Washington Tail Track north to 16th Street, you can still see the old Pacific Electric tracks partially buried under the pavement!

The Washington Tail Track is rarely used nowadays, though in March the track was used to temporarily store the new Kinkisharyo light rail vehicle which was being tested on the Blue and Expo lines at the time.

9. Amoco Junction
1904 (discontinued early 1980s)
Long Beach Ave., south of 25th Street, South Los Angeles

About 6 blocks south of the Washington Station, look to your right and you'll see tracks in the street mysteriously end at the fence that protects the Blue Line tracks. Look westward and you'll see an abandoned rail right-of-way. That was, until 1958, the Pacific Electric Air Line trackage which went all the way to Santa Monica (and until the early 1980s as Southern Pacific freight track), and functions today west of Figueroa Street as the Metro Expo Line. During the Pacific Electric era, the Downtown-bound trains from Santa Monica headed all the way to Amoco Junction (named after the American Olive Company factory nearby) to join the 4-track "Speedway" trunk line and head north.

10.Site of South Central Farm
1994 (demolished 2006)
41st St between Long Beach Ave and Alameda St, South Los Angeles

This large, empty plot of land just east of the Blue Line tracks, a half-mile north of the Vernon Station was home to the 14-acre South Central Farm run by community members between 1994 and 2006. Acquired by the City of Los Angeles in 1986 via eminent domain from private landowners, it was originally slated for use as an incinerator site, a plan dropped due to community opposition. The City allowed the neighboring nonprofit Los Angeles Regional Foodbank to run the site as a community garden. Over 300 low-income families from nearby communities turned the land into one of the largest urban farming projects in America over 12 years. But in 2001, the land's former owner sued the City for breach of contract, because the incinerator plant was never built. Eventually the City settled with the landowner in 2003 and they began the process of re-claiming the plot, eventually evicting the farm in 2006. To this day, the land lies vacant.

The controversy attracted the support of various celebrities, public officials and philanthropic organizations, including a failed attempt by The Annenberg Foundation to purchase the land, but it did galvanize the community and led to the rise in urban farming activism, especially in the South Los Angeles area.

11.Augustus F. Hawkins Natural Park
2000
5790 Compton Ave, South Los Angeles

A few blocks west of the Blue Line's Slauson Station lies one of the best-kept secrets in South Los Angeles -- Augustus F. Hawkins Natural Park, an 8.5-acre surreal green oasis in the 'hood, featuring ponds, native plants, hiking trails, picnic areas and even wildlife. This former DWP pipe yard was converted into a re-created natural park, named after the late African American congressman who represented the area for 28 years, in 2000 by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which trucked in actual dirt from Malibu mudslides to the site to form the park's terrain. The park is popular with local residents seeking refuge from urban life, and the park is also popular with members of the local Audubon Society, who frequent the park to do bird sightings and bird counts.

12.Slauson Junction
1904
Slauson Ave and Randolph St, South Los Angeles

When passengers rode the Blue Line for the first time in July 1990, they were thrilled to have the train suddenly shoot up the elevated structure, with a towering view of the area below as the train stopped at the Slauson Station. While stopped here, you can see a piece of the Blue Line's Pacific Electric heritage by just looking to the east: The unmistakable curved "wye" tracks heading eastward formed another major junction to the PE's Long Beach Line trunk, as the place where trains bound for Fullerton, La Habra and Whittier diverged from the quadruple-tracked "Speedway."

Francis Nixon, the father of President Richard Nixon, was once a Pacific Electric motorman who navigated his Whittier-bound trains through this very junction.

13. Col. Leon H. Washington Park
8908 S. Maie Avenue, South Los Angeles

There are many parks that line the Blue Line route, but this one is unique for two reasons. As you head southbound and depart the Firestone Station, look immediately to your right and you'll see a park and recreation center. It's a Los Angeles County-run park called Colonel Leon H. Washington Park, named after the founder of the Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper (originally called The Eastside Shopper), the city's premier publication in the black community. The other reason is that the rec center here is a popular spot for NBA stars such as Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, Kevin Durant and others to play pick-up games and compete in the Nike-sponsored Drew League, a weekend summertime program where the biggest stars in basketball play with and against locals from the community.

14.Watts Pacific Electric Station
1904
1686 E. 103rd Street, Watts

Adjacent to the Blue Line's 103rd St/Watts Towers station is a mustard-colored building that was once the Pacific Electric's Watts depot. A popular stop along the old PE Long Beach Line, the building survived not only the PE's abandonment, but was the only wooden structure that was not set on fire during the 1965 Watts Riots. After a renovation project in the 1980s, the Watts Station has functioned since 1989 as a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power customer service center.

15.Dominguez Junction/Watts Towers
1903
Graham Ave and 105th Street, Watts

In the Pacific Electric era, this junction, where the overhead pedestrian bridge is located today, marked the end of the four-track "Speedway" which had express trains from 9th and Hooper streets in Downtown Los Angeles go to/from Watts in the center tracks, while the outer tracks handled local stops Dominguez Junction is where trains along the Long Beach trunk line headed west to Torrance, southwest to San Pedro and southeast to Santa Ana via Bellflower.

Directly adjacent to the former Santa Ana tracks are the famed Watts Towers, built by Italian immigrant Simon Rodia (who actually called his sculpture "Nuestro Pueblo") between 1921 and 1954. There is definitely a direct relationship to the Pacific Electric: Rodia used the rails on the PE Santa Ana tracks as a fulcrum to bend his steel bars into shape, enabling him to build his masterpiece.

16. Metro Rail Operations Center/Connector Track
1990
Willowbrook Ave at the 105 Freeway, Willowbrook

At the nexus of the Blue and Green Lines, just east of the Willowbrook Station is Metro's Rail Operations Center (ROC), where all of the 87-mile rail system's signaling, dispatching and security systems are manned and monitored. The building also houses a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department station, as part of their Metro system security operations.

Adjacent to the ROC is a non-revenue connector track that allows light rail vehicles to transfer between the Blue and Green lines for emergency or service purposes. The single track also allows light rail vehicles based out of the Metro Green Line yard in Torrance to move to the Long Beach yard, which houses a paint shop and heavier maintenance facilities. But in case you're wondering, the track is not equipped to handle revenue service from, say Long Beach to Redondo Beach.

The Willowbrook Station is due for a major renovation in the near future.

17.Blue Line Farmers' Market
2013
275 N. Willowbrook Ave, Compton

If you're a regular Blue Line commuter and need your fill of fresh, locally-grown produce, get off at the Compton Station on Thursdays from 3 to 7 p.m. and visit the weekly certified Blue Line Farmers' Market. Started in September 2013 to combat food desert concerns in the local community, the market has become a hit with locals and commuters alike.

There are currently 24 weekly certified farmers' markets at or near Metro Rail stations, visit them regularly!

18.Compton Creek and Rancho Dominguez Adobe Museum

The first waterway the Blue Line crosses isn't the Los Angeles River, but one of its tributaries, Compton Creek. You can see the 8-mile stream before approaching the Artesia Station and immediately east of the Del Amo Station. Be on the look out for horses, as there's an equestrian trail alongside it. The equestrian and cowboy culture of Compton actually predates its street gang reputation by several decades, and in fact lives on today in the form of a youth equestrian program called the Compton Jr. Posse.

Also located along Compton Creek, midway between the Artesia and Del Amo Stations east of the Blue Line tracks is the Rancho Dominguez Adobe Museum, highlighting the Spanish-era land grant roots and early California history of the Compton and Carson areas. Worth a bike ride from either of those stations!

19.Alameda Corridor
2002
Along South Alameda Street

Midway between the Artesia and Del Amo Stations is what appears to be a highway, which is actually Alameda Street. adjacent to it are a set of railroad tracks -- both the street and the tracks form the Alameda Corridor, a ground transportation system opened in 2002 that allows trucks and trains to easily access the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach -- important gateways for importing and exporting for not just Southern California, but the entire United States. Toys from China and cellphones from Korea pass through the Alameda Corridor in the form of intermodal shipping containers en route to Chicago or other U.S. destinations. The corridor began construction in 1997 as a way to consolidate the Union Pacific and BNSF railroads onto a unified, high-capacity, mostly grade-separated track to and from the port area. North of here, the tracks run in a trench alongside Alameda Street to railroad yards  southeast of Downtown Los Angeles.

20. Blue Line Yard
1989
4350 E. 208th St., Long Beach

Sandwiched between the 710 Freeway and the Los Angeles River is the Metro Blue Line Yard and Shops, otherwise known as Metro Division 11. It is here where Blue and Expo Line cars make their home and are cleaned, painted and serviced. Cars from other light rail lines also visit this yard for work that can't be performed at their respective home yards. Blue Line trains also stop near the yard regularly on a mini-platform to allow operator crew shift changes.

21. Pacific Electric Abutments
1901
East Bank of Los Angeles River, North Long Beach

As soon as your Long Beach-bound Blue Line train crosses the Los Angeles river, look to the right side of your train and you'll see about four concrete abutments next to the tracks. Those were part of the Pacific Electric Long Beach Line infrastructure -- the abutments supported the old Long Beach Line bridge that crossed the Los Angeles River.

22. North Long Beach Junction
1904
Long Beach Blvd, north of Willow Street

Look to the left after your train leaves the Willow Station and you'll easily see the now-paved-over right-of-way that diverged from here that formed Pacific Electric's Newport-Balboa Line, which reached the PE's southernmost point in Balboa Island. The line today supports parks and bikeways, as well as this bridge in Long Beach that still exists today, which The Militant covered in 2011.

23. Long Beach Loop
1990
Long Beach Blvd, 1st Street, Pacific Avenue and 8th Street, Downtown Long Beach

The first "extension" of the Metro Blue Line opened in September 1990 when the Long Beach Loop was completed, allowing Blue Line trains to run in a clockwise-loop around Downtown Long Beach before heading north to Los Angeles (Before September 1990, Long Beach Transit shuttle buses painted like Blue Line trains provided interim service on the Long Beach Loop). Early operation scenarios for the Blue Line planned for "Loop Only" trains (the original rolling head signs of Blue Line trains had such a designation) that ran continuously through the Long Beach Loop, but in reality they never had a need to happen.

24. Long Beach Bikestation
1996
223 E. 1st St, Downtown Long Beach

In 1996 the nation's first-ever Bikestation opened here in Downtown Long Beach, just yards away from what was then called the Transit Mall Station (now the Downtown Long Beach Station). It was a one-stop facility for bicycle commuters and recreational cyclists alike, as a place to park, maintain, rent or purchase bike accessories. In 2011, the operation moved into its current, very orange, expanded facility. The Bikestation was a pillar of Long Beach's bike community and bicycling infrastructure, which includes protected cycle track bike lanes, bike paths and several marked bike lanes across town.

25. Pacific Ave. Tail Track

Interactive map - click and zoom! Click here to view the map separately!

So we're already nearly 5 years into the CicLAvia thing, haven't we had enough already?

OF COURSE NOT!

Just when we got over the last CicLAvia, along comes the XIVth edition of America's largest open streets event (Oh you know it, baby), and the third of four this year (But wait a minute, the last Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour was number 10.0, why is this one 4.1? You might ask. Well, The Militant categorizes his CicLAvia routes into unique versions of routes, and since this route is basically a modification of the fourth unique route from April 2013 (The legendary 17-mile "To The Sea" edition), The Militant categorizes Sunday's route as 4.1. Got it?). But even though this one is but a slight change from the Epic Venice Boulevard Route, there's a lot more new sights to see, especially along Washington Boulevard/Washington place, plus some locales he forgot to add during the 4.0 posting. Anyways, you know the drill, Share this link on your Facebooks and Twitters, visit the sights yourselves -- and if you do, Tweet with the hashtag, #EpicCicLAviaTour to stroke The Militant's ego and make him feel like his several days of staying up late at night to research and write all this was worth his while. And most of all, Stay Militant and Enjoy CicLAvia this Sunday! See you or not see you on the streets!

1. Culver City Metro Expo Line Station/Site of Culver Junction
2012
Venice and National boulevards, Culver City

You may or may not have arrived at CicLAvia via the Metro Expo Line, which is the modern reincarnation of the Pacific Electric Santa Monica Air Line. Not only can you experience Los Angeles' transportation present, but you can glimpse its future (Phase 2 of the Expo Line, which opens next year, is clearly visible towards the west), and you're in the clear presence of its past -- this area is also the site of Culver Junction, where not one, not two, but three Pacific Electric Red Car lines converged, going to Santa Monica, Venice and Redondo Beach. TIP: Make sure you buy a Day Pass or that your TAP card is well-loaded before CicLAvia, so you don't have to queue at the ticket machines! The Militant says "You're Welcome."

2. Ince Boulevard/The Culver Studios
1918
Ince Blvd & Washington Ave, Culver City

As you make your first turn going westbound on the CicLAvia route, take note of the street name: Ince.

If you know your Culver City history, the town was a planned community built by landowner Harry H. Culver, a Spanish-American war veteran who worked for SFV pioneer Isaac N. Van Nuys and purchased a large section of the old Rancho La Ballona. In 1913 he established the town and filmmaker Thomas Ince moved his operation here from Pacific Palisades (via his Triangle Studios down the street -- more on this later...) and bought this section of land from Culver himself to establish the Ince Studio, which featured a large mansion fashioned after George Washington's Mt. Vernon residence, that remains in full view today. Ince's studio was sold to Cecil B. DeMille after his mysterious death and had changed hands and names over the years, finally adopting its current name of The Culver Studios in 1970. Legendary Hollywood films were shot this studio, including Gone With The Wind, King Kong, E.T. and The Matrix.

3. Pacific Electric Ivy Substation
1907
Venice and Culver boulevards, Palms

Downtown  Culver City is already rich in retail and artistic activity, and has a bevy of well-known eateries, like the popular Father's Office. The Militant can cover that in its own post (and kinda already did before). But welcoming people to Downtown Culver City along Venice Blvd (though technically located in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Palms), a block from the Culver City station is an appropriate link to the past - the Ivy Substation. The single-story Mission Revival-style structure served as a powerhouse for the Pacific Electric Railway from 1907 to 1953, when the Expo Line's predecessor, the Santa Monica Air Line, ceased operation. Today, it's a 99-seat venue for The Actor's Gang theatre company, renovated in the early 1990s. How interesting that a building originally built for transportation infrastructure was repurposed into a building for the arts, which in turn attract people using the new transportation infrastructure.

4. Culver Hotel
1924
9400 Culver Blvd, Culver City
This 6-story triangular building, originally named Hotel Hunt, opened in 1924 as Culver City's first skyscraper (it was the tallest building between Downtown Los Angeles and Venice)  and housed Harry Culver's personal office on the second floor. Numerous Hollywood stars have stayed here, such as Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Greta Garbo and Ronald Reagan, and most notably the little people actors who played the Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz during its filming down the street. Actor John Wayne was one of the later owners, and it was fully restored in the 1990s.

5. The Washington Building
1927
9718 W. Washington Blvd, Culver City

Culver City's other 1920s-era triangular building is just down the street from The Culver Hotel. Built by Charles E. Lindblade, a business associate of Harry Culver who also bears a city street name of his own, this Beaux Arts-style building was designed by Arthur D. Scholz and Orville L. Clark. As it is today, the building housed numerous retail and office businesses over the years, including the Culver City post office, the MGM Studios Fan Club and Lindblade's real estate company.

6. Kirk Douglas Theatre/Culver Theatre
1946
9820 W Washington Blvd, Culver City

Built in 1946 as The Culver Theatre, a 1,100-seat Streamline Moderne cinema designed by Karl G. Moeller that screened 20th Century Fox films as part of the Fox West Coast Theatres chain.
It was later operated by the National General and Mann Pictures chains, and finally as an independent theatre. It was split into three screens circa 1970s, and closed in 1989. In 1994, it suffered damage from the 1994 Northridge Earthquake and underwent a major $8 million renovation later in the '90s, re-opening in 2004 as The Kirk Douglas Theatre (with Spartacus himself as a the major contributor in the renovation), operated by Center Theatre Group. It currently features two stages, one seating about 300 and a smaller stage seating around 100.


7. Sony Pictures Studios/MGM Studios
1915
10202 West Washington Boulevard, Culver City

One can't mention Culver City without mentioning its massive movie lot, originally Thomas Ince's (remember him?) Triangle Studios operation until he moved to the Culver Studios property and sold this site to D.W. Griffith and Mack Sennett.  In 1918, the studio was sold to Samuel Goldwyn, which became Metro Goldwyn Mayer in 1924 (following the merger of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Studios and Louis B. Mayer Productions). It became the Columbia Pictures studios in 1989 and Sony Pictures Studios from 1992 to the present.

On this lot was filmed a countless list of Hollywood productions, most notably The Wizard of Oz in 1939 (you will be riding next to the actual Land of Oz, think about that...), and currently, TV shows like Jeopardy! and Wheel Of Fortune.

10. La Ballona Elementary School
1865
10915 W Washington Blvd, Culver City

This local school is literally some old school Culver City right heah! Established in 1865, it's one of the oldest schools in Los Angeles County still in operation. Back in the day, it had an enrollment of 158 pupils between the ages of 5-15, being taught by one teacher, a Miss Craft who made $50 a month, and the school year lasted seven months, since it revolved around the agricultural calendar of the surrounding area.
When it was established, it was in an unincorporated area that eventually became Palms, which was annexed to the City of Los Angeles in 1914. When Culver City was founded the year before, it had no schools within its boundaries, so another school was built in the area in 1916. Eventually La Ballona was annexed into Culver City in 1920.

9. NFL Network
2003
10950 W. Washington Blvd, Culver City

Well, well well. The TV network and web site run by the National Football League is based in an area that hasn't had a football team since 1994. Let that irony sink in for a second.

10. King Fahd Mosque
1995
10980 Washington Boulevard, Culver City

This Islamic house of worship was built in 1995 as a gift from Saudi Prince Abdulaziz Bin Fahd to serve the growing community of Muslims in the Westside, named after the king of Saudi Arabia at the time. Its facade features hand made marble tiles from Turkey, and a 72 foot-high minaret topped with a gold leaf crescent.


11. Tellefson Park/Rollerdrome Site
1976/1928
1105 W. Washington Pl, Culver City

There's a designated activity hub here at this 1.5-acre Culver City park, which was dedicated in 1976 as part of the U.S. Bicentennial celebrations. It was named after former Culver City councilman and city attorney Mike Tellefson, who served the city for 31 years. In 2013, the body of a suicide victim was discovered in the park.

But longtime Culver Citizens remember this site as a legendary roller skating rink called The Rollerdrome,  a wooden structure which opened in 1928 and had a characteristic rounded roof. Roller skating events were centered around the rink's organ, which was played by a live organist, and provided memorable evenings for local families and youths. It was torn down in 1970, which was a shame, since roller skating enjoyed a renaissance of sorts in the '70s.

12. Tito's Tacos
1959
11222 Washington Pl, Culver City

Many Angelenos already know of this longtime Westside (American) taco joint known as Tito's Tacos, which as we all know, was founded in 1959 by a businessman who may or may not be an actual Mexican guy named Tito. Everyone has their opinion on Tito's, but three things are indisputable truths: 1) It's a Culver City Institution; 2) It's not authentic Mexican food and 3) People come here for the nostalgia anyway. But this small business, currently owned by Señora Lynne Davidson, which makes roughly $310,000 in profits annually, has been in the news recently, and not in a good way to us CicLAvians.
See, Señora Davidson is threatening to sue Culver City government for lost revenue because the CicLAvia route will cut off access to her customer base (which crowd the tiny parking lot and forces motorists to circle the block and/or shortcut the lot from the little alley). The pro-CicLAvia city council has assured her she be trippin' over nothin' and everything will be aite, but she ain't got no time for dat.

So, CicLAvians, we've all heard this before. Business "A" is pissed at CicLAvia for "shutting down their business" during CicLA-Sunday. But CicLAvians swarm the place and the said business makes a lot of moolah. It's tempting to boycott, but it's perhaps a more powerful and more noble thing to prove Señora Davidson that she's just plain loca. So what else can you do?

You can also try their delicious burritos, chips and salsa -- enchiladas ooh, because the only thing better than a Tito's Taco, is two. Again -- the only thing better than a Tito's Taco, is two.

But seriously, Señora Davidson, you have no reason to fear CicLAvia this Sunday. Because we are coming. And you will get A LOT of business. And you can be rest assured that unlike your car-oriented customers, we won't be crashing into your wall. [MIC DROP]

UPDATE: It seems that Titogate has attracted a lot of negativepress for the 56 year-old Culver City institution. However, The Militant is happy to report that as of early Friday afternoon, Tito's Tacos has changed their tune (no, not their catchy jingle, that should never change) and has worked things out with the CicLAvia organization, who is providing support for Tito's bicycle and automobile customers alike. So drop the Tito's hate everyone, they cool now:

@militantangleno We will be OPEN on Sunday. Temporary bike racks will be provided by #CicLAvia for cyclists right next to us on Tuller Ave.

— Titos Tacos (@titostacos) August 7, 2015

@militantangleno We love cyclists! We have many on our staff like young Eduardo here. pic.twitter.com/sQ9a9qDYFq

— Titos Tacos (@titostacos) August 7, 2015

You can also park in the Tito's lot via Sepulveda. We'll have a traffic flagger there guiding cars through the alley https://t.co/pHoL0EagyF

— CicLAvia (@CicLAvia) August 7, 2015

13. The Oval District/Palm Place
1912
Area within Washington Place, McLaughlin Ave, Venice Blvd & Inglewood Blvd, Mar Vista

You might not see much from the street level, but this neighborhood just north of the CicLAvia route, a Historic Preservation Overlay Zone known as "The Oval District" is one of the first automobile-oriented property tract developments in Southern California.

When seen from a map or an aerial view. the streets of this 200-unit housing development of predominantly 1- and 2-story homes resembles an hourglass shape with an oval road in the center (which caught The Militant's eye and caused him to investigate the history of the place).

The 137-acre neighborhood was developed in 1912 by a Lillian Charnock Price (there is a "Charnock Road" two blocks north of Venice, BTW) who hired renowned landscape architect and urban planner Wilber David Cook, Jr. (who worked for legendary late 19th/early20th-century landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to design an "Aristocratic Suburb" marketed as “Palm Place."

The large-sized lots were unique, and park-like in their large setback from the street and the palm tree-lined parkways, but only a small number of homes were built. Price sold the development to Robert Sheman, who was the stepson of Moses Sherman, the developer of the Los Angeles and Pacific Railway, which built the original rail line on nearby Venice Boulevard. What was originally intended to be the first car-oriented development was going to be a transit-oriented development!

But those didn't sell either. The lots were still too large and pricey. So Sherman sold it to a financier group that marketed it as "Marshall Manor" in 1920 and interest began to pick up. But it wasn't until after World War II, when suburbanization was in vogue and Los Angeles' Westside development boom commenced, that the rest of the lots got built.

14. Mar Vista Hill (a.k.a. The 'Mar Vista' in Mar Vista)
1924
Centinela Ave & Rose Ave, Mar Vista

Everyone know that "Mar Vista" is Español for "sea view." But riding along Centinela or Venice during CicLAvia, you can't even see the sea. Where is it?

Well, The Militant will tell you where to see the "Mar Vista" in Mar Vista. He implores you to take a short detour from the CicLAvia route and continue north along Centinela Avenue, switch your gears (or pedal harder, you fixie heads), and go up the hill (Mar Vista Hill) until you reach Rose Avenue. Then turn right and go  up the hill to the open space that contains the baseball field and community garden. Look to the west, stand on top of the telephone poles laying on the ground in front of the small parking lot, and you can have a semi-unobstructed (damn you, DWP power lines!) view of Santa Monica Bay from the Palos Verdes peninsula to the Santa Monica Mountains.

Mar Vista Hill is a 203-foot-above-sea-level promontory that was once a garbage dump, and was later the site of the Venice Reservoir in 1940 (smart, huh). The reservoir was decommissioned in the 1960s and replaced with the baseball fields you see today.

So come on up to Mar Vista Hill, where you can see the sea, to see all that you can see!

Go visit Mar Vista Hill and tweet a pic of the ocean with the hashtag #EpicCicLAviaTour!


15. State Route CA 187
1964
Venice Boulevard between Lincoln Blvd and the 10 Freeway

You may or may not know that Venice Boulevard, in addition to being a two-time CicLAvia route, was also a Pacific Electric Red Car line, but did you know it's also a designated California State Highway?

In 1964, CalTrans designated State Route 187 starting at the Pacific Ocean. In 1994, it was shortened to the 5.4 miles from Lincoln Boulevard to the 10 Freeway.

The number "187" also happens to be a reference to the California Penal Code designation for murder, which is most likely why a young, '90s-era, pre-commercialized Snoop Dogg is standing by the sign in this photo.

17. Mario's Brothers Market
12904 Venice Blvd, Mar Vista

No deep history behind this neighborhood Mexican corner market on Venice and Beethoven, but the name caught The Militant's eye. He's seen some of you CicLAvians ride in CicLAvia in Mario/Nintendo cosplay, so this would be a perfect photo/selfie opportunity.

While you're here, support the business and buy something inside. Maybe it really is owned by a Mario. Or a Luigi. Ask where The Princess is. If they're successful enough, they might move to a larger location and rename themselves "Super Mario's Brothers."

Tweet a pic of yourself (or your group) in front of Mario's Brothers with the hashtag "#EpicCicLAviaTour"!

18. Venice High School
1920
13000 Venice Blvd, Venice

Venice's namesake secondary school was one of three on-location sites for Rydell High in the 1978 motion picture Grease, and was the school scene in the Britney Spears video for her debut hit, "...Baby One More Time." But it's also famous for its statue of legendary Hollywood actress and famous alumna Myrna Loy at the front of the school. Other famous alumni include Beau Bridges, Crispin Glover, the late Ivory Queen of Soul, Teena Marie and In-N-Out Burger founder Harry Snyder. Go Gondoliers!

19. Old Venice Civic Center
1911
681-685 Venice Blvd, Venice

Venice, originally founded as part of Santa Monica, seceded from that city in 1911 and for the next 15 years, functioned as an incorporated city. In 1926, due to political mismanagement and crumbling infrastructure, it was annexed into the City of Los Angeles. Its vestigial remnants of its civic government still remain, though. The old Venice City Hall still stands at 685 Venice Blvd (pictured), now the venue for Beyond Baroque Theatre. Next door on 681 Venice Blvd is the old Venice Police Station, now the home of the Social Public Arts Resource Center (SPARC), the community arts nonprofit that spearheaded the modern urban mural movement. It's interesting to note that both of these government buildings were adaptively re-used for arts purposes. The Militant is looking at the old LAPD Parker Center in DTLA and wonders if it could make some sort of badass performing arts venue...

20. Electric Avenue
1905
Electric Ave and Venice Blvd, Venice

No, '80s singer Eddy Grant didn't rock down to this street to take it higher (VROOOM!) But this street was so-named because it was one of the old Pacific Electric Red Car rights-of-way, which included Pacific Avenue (of course) and Venice Blvd. The railway, of course, was built to serve (and sell property in and around) Abbot Kinney's Venice of America development. Rock on to Electric Avenue towards Brooks Avenue and look to your left for actual remnants of Pacific Electric tracks at Millwood Avenue, Westminster Avenue and Broadway. If that kind of stuff excites you, be on the look out for The Militant's upcoming Pacific Electric Archaeology Map (view the preview edition map here, including Venice sites). And then we take it higher (Oh yeah)!

21. Abbot Kinney Blvd
1992
Abbot Kinney Blvd between Washington Blvd and Main Street

New arrivals to Los Angeles are likely oblivious to the fact that Venice's upscale arts and boutique corridor is technically one of its newest streets. Until 1992, that stretch was confusingly known as West Washington Blvd, which, along with Washington Street and Washington Way, was a source of disorientation among motorists. A small group of business owners lobbied to re-name the stretch after the community's founder. Ignorance of local history was so bad back then, that then-City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who grew up in the Westside, asked aloud at a Los Angeles City Council committee meeting, "Who is Abbot Kinney?" (Really, Zev?!?!) Thankfully, due to a street name change, and other things, we're a lot better at our Los Angeles history.

22. Venice Of America Centennial Park
2005
Venice & Abbot Kinney boulevards

This park, which neighbors the Venice-Abbot Kinney Memorial Branch Library and built for Venice's centennial year of 2005,  was made on the very same median that carried the Pacific Electric Railway tracks, and in honor of that, the design on the park's paving resembles that of railroad tracks. The Militant went there in a famous bike ride to Venice Beach in 2008 and encountered a bunch of ducks walking in this park.

23. Venice Traffic Circle and the Lost Canals
1929
Grand and Windward avenues, Venice

Traffic circles, or "roundabouts" as they're known in Britain, are not a common sight in the US, much less Los Angeles, though a dozen or so are known to exist here (more in a future post). So what up with this one? This part of Venice was part of Abbot Kinney's original "Venice of America," replete with its own canals. But unlike their Italian counterpart, these canals were not physically connected to the ocean, and the water had gone stagnant and kinda gross. By the 1920s, the Venice city infrastructure was falling apart (which meant little resources or political will to maintain the canals), and the automobile had started to conquer the streets of the Southland. So they were filled in circa 1929. The CicLAvia course on Grand Avenue was once the Grand Canal, and the traffic circle was formerly the location of a large saltwater swimming lagoon. The surviving canals, located south of Venice Blvd, were built by a different developer a couple years after Kinney's canals opened.

24. Windward Hotel/Pacific Electric Station
1905
Windward and Pacific avenues, Venice

The Windward Hotel, now a traveler's hostel, is not only the oldest hotel building in Venice, but its eastern ground floor entrance also functioned as Venice's Pacific Electric station. For the first half of the 20th Century, Venice was a popular western destination for the Red Cars, and the preferred way to go. North of Windward Way, there was no Pacific Avenue, but a dedicated "Trolleyway" for the Red Cars. When passengers disembarked at the Venice station before 1929, they were treated to an awe-inspiring view of the large lagoon (now the traffic circle) and canals just across the street, welcoming them to Venice of America. Now, for CicLAvia, when you arrive here, use your imagination and pretend to be transported back to a time when you didn't need cars to get around. On this day, it won't be that hard.

25. Pacific Electric Grand Canal Bridge
1905
Grand Canal at Venice Blvd, Venice

Ride just a few blocks down Pacific Avenue to Venice Boulevard to see Venice's characteristic namesake -- it's system of canals, built in 1905 by the aforementioned Mr. Kinney. The ornate concrete bridge spanning two side of the Los Angeles City parking lot near the Grand Canal is the original bridge that carried the Pacific Electric Venice Short Line tracks until 1950.

The Militant so far has a perfect 14 out of 14 CicLAvia attendance record, and having gone though this thing that many times, it can certainly feel nearly routine. He most certainly had a wonderful time (most likely because he showed up at the route relatively early and did not have to "rush the route" as he had to do in the past), but a certain well-publicized controversy that got diffused in time probably added some tension and drama to the mix, along with a Hollywood Happy Ending. And this CicLAvia was also great due to the fact that, hey, we were all headed to the beach again.

And sure, the day began cloudy and overcast, but by the afternoon, the day of the week lived up to its name for the 14th consecutive time, burning off the clouds to reveal a virtually cloudless, blue Summer sky, which wasn't even that hot for an August day.

The Militant hates clickbaitey listicles, but most people don't read stuff on the Internet these days that's not formatted in list form, so, he grudgingly presents these Ten Reflections on this past Sunday's "Culver City Meets Venice" CicLAvia:


1. Let's TACO Bout This

Certainly what would have been the proverbial Elephant In The Room was the much-publicized ranting of Tito's Tacos that doth protested the CicLAvia route running in front of their front door, only to do an about-face two days before the event, because maaaaybe they suddenly discovered that the negative backlash would cost them business either way.  At any rate, despite people not getting the update and still sharing two-days-old news articles on their social media feeds, Señora Lynne Davidson did not sue Culver City and the event went on without a hitch.

And as you can see by the photo above and below, the crowd was, at worst, equivalent to a normal weekend day there without an open streets event.


There were bike racks provided by "Some Non-Profit Organization" on the Tuller Avenue cul-de-sac adjacent to the Westside crunchy taco institution, as well as signs on Sepulveda directing regulars on cars to the alley to access the Tito's parking lot (like they never used the alley before).


Sra. Davidson's fears of not only a lack of customers (their parking lot was just as full as it is during the other 364 days of the year that there is no CicLAvia on Washington Place), but of customers not purchasing insanely mass quantities of tacos in those cardboard boxes, were unfounded, as many CicLAvians arrived in groups of their own and purchased tacos in mass quantities.

Twitter user @fig4all Tweeted this pic of Sra. Davidson being interviewed by KABC-TV's Eyewitness News crew, apparently showing her eating humble pie next to CicLAvians ordering their crunchy tacos:

Señora Davidson of @titostacos is happy. @CicLAvia attendees are happy. WE ARE ALL HAPPY! pic.twitter.com/vKVCllQHNl

— fig4all (@fig4all) August 9, 2015

However, upon watching the KABC news report, they quoted Sra. Davidson as having a "let's wait and see" attitude regarding the raw numbers from Sunday. Hmph.

You know, in a way, The Militant is kind of glad Titogate happened, because it set a clear precedent for a well-known local institution (that no doubt has name recognition) having initial concerns about not being able to get customers during CicLAvia. Granted, her initial impression of the event probably resembled a marathon or a bike race, not the reality of CicLAvia that we all know and love. But perhaps from here on out, this well-publiczed precedent set by Tito's Tacos can be shown clear to any future local institutions that find themselves on future CicLAvia routes.

And who knows, after all the numbers come in, Señora Davidson will sue on the grounds that the next CicLAvia route won't be going in front of her eatery.



2. Both Sides Now

Remember back in April, 2013 when we had that big-ass 17-mile CicLAvia where we all rode from Downtown to Venice Beach? And how, despite how totally awesome that was, that it kinda sucked because CicLAvians were only allowed to use the Westbound lanes of Venice Boulevard?

This time around, CicLAvians got to use BOTH sides of Venice Boulevard (mostly), eliminating that crazy bottleneck of traffic for most of the route. Of course, west of Lincoln, it was the same old thing as two years ago, though at least for just a short segment of the route:



3. Stand Up And Be Counted

Did you see these things along the route?


Since these instruments did not appear to be releasing poisonous chemicals designed to kill every CicLAvian on the route (removes tinfoil hat), these appeared to be counting devices of some sort to count how many participants were on the streets at CicLAvia, to be compiled later by some expensive Beverly Hills accounting firm (or most likely by CicLAvia themselves, in cooperation with UCLA or another local educational institution). We wait the number for this one!

4. Just A Lot More Bikes

CicLAvia The Organization likes to stress the fact that the event is not just for bicycles, and smaller routes like Wilshire Boulevard and the short-but-sweet Pasadena route last May certainly brought out more non-cyclists, but the non-bike minority seemed even smaller this time around.


5. People On Skates Pushing Strollers At CicLAvia Are A Thing

For the non bicycle-riding CicLAvians, The Militant did notice a number of people pushing strollers while wearing rollerblades or roller-skates like this dude above along Washington Place. The Militant has never really seen that many people do that in previous CicLAvias. Count it as a thing now.


6. That Taco Tuesdays Song

Twice during CicLAvia, The Militant happened to ride near the Midnight Ridazz Taco Tuesdays ride contingent, which featured a trailer adorned with a sugar skull y corazon y sound system blasting their Taco Tuesdays Theme Song, which The Militant can't seem to get out of his head.

7. Abbot Kinney - The CicLAvia-Adjacent Corridor

Arriving at Venice Beach, The Militant met up with one of his operatives at the route's end, wanted to get something to eat, but they were local enough not to fall into the tourist trap that is the Venice Beach Boardwalk. So they opted for Abbot Kinney Boulevard, just a short distance east. Although this street was not part of the CicLAvia route and had normal automobile traffic (as well as detoured Metro Bus lines), it might as well have been as the street was crowded with CicLAvians also patronizing their restaurants and shops. Certainly, past CicLAvias have had participants spill over into non-route streets, but this was the first time The Militant has seen this phenomena in such an obvious form. Be on the look out for more of these in the future.


8. Big Media Companies Along CicLAvia Are Weird

Thousands of people rode by Sony Picture Studios in Culver City, and the corporation gets props for being listed as one of the event's sponsors, but The Militant didn't see much participation from the media giant beyond that. No Sony employees riding the route? No celebrities? Not even some gratuitous promotion (and maybe some swag) of their films and TV shows? It's strange, stupid, yet totally not surprising for this Los Angeles native to see how disconnected "Hollywood" is from the community.

At the same time, down the street, the NFL Network had a banner saying "The NFL Network Supports CicLAvia, but they were not listed as one of the event's sponsors, nor was there any sort of interactivity from them outside their office (Best practice: Coca-Cola giving away drinks outside their Central Avenue bottling plant in previous CicLAvias). Apparently the NFL Network was special enough to have their own private auto-acces barrier driveway -- the only business along the route to have one. Wait, it's because we don't have an NFL team, right?

9. The #EpicCicLAviaTour

Many of you read The Militant's #EpicCicLAviaTour post from last week to gain knowledge and familiarity with the route, and some of you even tried to visit all 25 sites. And some of you really had fun with that. This makes The Militant smile (behind his bandana mask, of course).

@militantangleno This photo is for u! At @titostacos now. @CicLAvia 4eva! #epicciclaviatourpic.twitter.com/3MV9aTKIF9

— Sharon Houston (@sharon_houston) August 9, 2015

10.  Next Time Around...

The next CicLAvia is just two months away! It's going to be a familiar route for us CicLAveteranos. It's time to flip the scrip. The Militant may or may not try to walk the whole thing. It will also be a celebration of CicLAvia's 5th anniversary. It's definitely a part of our city and it's still growing.

Speaking of which, how bout some new routes? Venice isn't the only beach we have. How about a CicLAvia in San Pedro (how about ending the route at Point Fermin Park)? Or a Beach Cities CicLAvia?

That's A Wrap: The Green Line, wearing a promotional wrap reading, "Metro Green Line Open Summer '95." was the first line to feature wrapped rail cars.

Twenty years ago today, Bill Clinton was president, Richard Riordan was mayor, most of us kind of started recovering from the Northridge Earthquake, Michelle Pfeiffer's Dangerous Minds was the #1 box office hit, and TLC warned everyone to not go chasing Waterfalls.

And the Metro Green Line opened on a warm, sunny Summer Saturday.

Truth be told, The Green Line is probably the overlooked middle child of the entire Metro Rail system (which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, BTW...). It lacks the edginess and maturity of the Blue Line, lacks the heavy crowds and underground nature of the Red Line, and unlike the Purple, Expo and Gold lines, doesn't take people to interesting places like K-Town, the Westside or Pasadena and the Eastside, respectively.

The line was given the designated color of green to reflect the green freeway signage along the 105 Freeway, which it runs down the center of, and to represent the "green" environmental concession that created the rail line to the communities impacted by the construction of the freeway during the early 1980s to early 1990s.

The Green Line also never lived up to its planned expectations: Inspired by Vancouver, Canada's SkyTrain, it was supposed to be the first fully-automated driverless rail transit line in the United States. But the transit workers' unions cried foul, and the driverless plan was eventually dropped.

It was also supposed to serve the suburban gateway communities of southeastern Los Angeles County with the aerospace industry jobs of El Segundo...only to see the Cold War end just as the concrete was starting to get poured, which is the main reason why it's been dissed as "The line to nowhere." And we all know it was supposed to serve LAX at some point, what with the large concrete structure next to the Aviation Station veering northward (which will finally see use once the Crenshaw/LAX Line opens in 2019).

So, sympathizing with overlooked middle children everywhere (Or maybe The Militant is just saying that to hide the fact that he wasn't a middle child), The Militant is dedicating today's blog post to the Metro Green Line's grand opening 20 years ago today!

It was the first Metro Rail grand opening The Militant attended via Metro Rail; he may have driven to  an unspecified free parking spot in DTLA (it no longer exists, sorry), and taken the Red and Blue lines to the Imperial Station (now called the Willowbrook or Rosa Parks station), where the Blue and Green lines met.

MTA CEO Franklin White speaks at the dedication ceremony. And there were balloons.

There they had a dedication ceremony at the park & ride underneath the 105 Freeway with all of them dignitaries, and they had these large colored balloons strewn above the podium area.

The Militant distinctly remembers there was a small Bus Riders Union protest there and he even got into a little debate with a privileged wannabe-Marxist white guy BRU lackey who was trying to proselytize to The Militant -- a person of color of unspecified ethnicity -- that Metro Rail was somehow racist. Yes, the Green Line, which serves lily-white, wealthy communities like Lynwood, Willowbrook and South Los Angeles. Really now. At some point The Militant asked Privilege Boy a "gotcha" question and he couldn't give an answer. Ooh, moted, sucka!

Anyways, the speeches were done and we all got in the long-ass line, up the stairs to the platform to ride the train.

Always a joy to finally see the train come after waiting in line on Opening Day.

The trains looked exactly the same as the Japanese-made vehicles on the Blue Line. In fact, the trains made their home at the Blue Line's yard near the 405 in northern Long Beach for a couple years before the Green Line got its own yard facility a few years later.

Also, the cars were packed, mainly because for the first few years due to a lack of cars (and lack of riders), the Green Line ran single-car trains. It wasn't until sometime in early 1997 when the new, rounded Siemens P-2000 vehicles entered Green Line service and the line finally had two-car trains.

Back then you can have a clear view to the front window.

The Militant and his accompanying operatives rode their first Green Line train from the Imperial station to the "I-105/I-605" station (now just called the Norwalk station).

There, there was basically nothing, except a small fair at the Park & Ride lot where he got some free Metro Rail swag. But then it was straight back in line to the train going the other direction.

Nothing to see here in Norwalk really.

The Green Line has been criticized for not going all the way east to link with Metrolink's Norwalk station, which would have been a real awesome thing and connected commuters to places like Orange County and the Inland Empire, but all of the plans and funding for the Green Line was already in place by the time Metrolink was first conceived in 1990, and opened just two years later.

We're in El Segundo! Please check if you didn't leave your wallet behind!

It was time to head back to the Blue Line. There wasn't much to see here either, though there was a cool burger joint just a block or so away on Marine. And then there was the end of the line, a yellow bumping post to keep trains from falling off some 40 feet below. Twenty years later, though there's talk of extending the Green Line to the South Bay, there are currently no solidified plans to extend it in either direction.

Today the Green Line is the 5th busiest line in the Metro Rail system, carrying some 39,000 riders each weekday. Despite what it never became, it was the first rail transit line in the United States to go from suburb to suburb, avoiding the city center. It was the first Metro Rail line to open in its entirety, with no future phases or extensions to follow. It was also the first light rail line in the Metro Rail system to be totally grade-separated (and the only light rail line on the Metro to have zero automobile collisions!). The Green Line also had the first "wrapped" rail vehicles on the Metro Rail system, and though it was never automated, it was the first Metro Rail line to use the automated station call announcements, which are standard systemwide.

If the Metro Rail system map is an upside-down stick figure, The Green Line represents the arms. And you can't do too much without arms, so let's give props to the Green Line on its 20th birthday today! Happy Birthday, Metro Green Line!

Whatup, readers! The Militant is proud to debut what may or may not be the first installment of a new feature of The Militant Angeleno blog called, "Ask The Militant," an interactive post where interested readers query The Militant himself on their questions about Los Angeles.

First off, The Militant thought he first did this a long time ago, but after searching the blog archives, he probably didn't after all. See, people ask him questions all the time and he keeps promising to reply to them via a blog post. Guess it never happened after all.

Anyways, no time like the present, right? This particular question was originally asked back in 2012, but it wasn't until doing research on an upcoming epic Pacific Electric project recently that this email popped back into The Militant's consciousness and he finally had a definitive answer. So without much ado, [drum roll] Tun-ta-ru-run! At long last, heere is "Ask The Militant!"

Hello Militant Angeleno,

Relatively short time reader of your blog - only been following for the past [couple years] or so. I know you're interested in finding hidden/lost things in Los Angeles, and there are a few little L.A. mysteries in my area myself that I've been trying to figure out, but without much success. I thought you might enjoy trying to figure them out since you seem to be pretty good at it.

The first are mystery towns of "Alla" and "Alsace" that appear on Google Maps:


These also have corresponding entries in Wikipeadia, but with no information:
Alsace: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alsace,_California
Alla: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alla,_California

Pretty boring, but then you get into abandoned rails in LA and you start seeing these names as stations on routes.



Here is mention of Alla and Alasce on the Inglewood Line: http://www.erha.org/pewil.htm
Here is mention of Alla on the Culver to Alla line: http://www.abandonedrails.com/Culver_Junction_to_Alla
And here they are both mentioned again on the inglewood line: http://www.abandonedrails.com/Inglewood_Branch

Additionally, there is a park called Glen Alla Park right in the area: http://www.laparks.org/dos/parks/facility/glenAllaPk.htm

So the questions are, were these simply just stations? Were they small towns that didn't end up making it that were annexed by LA or other cities? Who was Glen Alla and why are there things named after him? And where does the name Alasce come from?

Anyways, I hope you find this interesting enough to look into, and even more hopefully you can find out some information about it. I think it would be a great post for your blog.

Cheers,
Joe Nascenzi
Playa Vista

Whatup Joe!

Thanks for emailing The Militant. First off, he apologizes for taking so long to respond. But hey, it's new to the readers of this blog!

The reason why you find these obscure names in Google Maps is because Google initially populated the maps using multiple map data sources, including historical and old railroad survey maps. As Google Maps became more commonly used, certain places got updated due to user feedback. So for "Alla" and "Alsace," they likely used this historical data to put in names of areas, that have been unknowingly long been out of use.

Anyways, "Alla," as you may or may not have found out already, is short for "Glen Alla." The name "Glen Alla" is not of a person, but a valley in County Donegal, in north Ireland.

Back then, that part of the Westside was basically nothing but marshes and wetlands (the Marina didn't even exist until the 1950s), but if there was something, like the few scattered houses and farms, there was a need to give the surrounding vicinity a name. Naming places after where the property owner came from was popular, like Los Angeles Harbor founder Phineas Banning naming Wilmington after his Delaware hometown. Don't know who exactly named it "Glen Alla," but it most likely was an Irishman (nope, not William Mulholland; he was an Eastside vato) who owned some land out there.

Alla Road street sign (Hey look, it's a 1985 Trapezoid Style!) in Del Rey.

The Pacific Electric Railway made an "Alla" a passenger stop and a junction, right where their Inglewood and Redondo-Del Rey lines met, approximately where Alla Road and Culver Boulevard intersect today. When the old PE right-of-way in the middle of Culver Boulevard was converted into a bicycle path in the late 1990s, the old rail property, which was sold by the Southern Pacific Railroad to the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (now part of Metro), was referred to as the PE "Alla Branch."

Glen Alla Park, with the Del Rey Farmers' Market on Friday afternoons.

Today, "Alla" is now considered part of the Los Angeles city neighborhood of Del Rey, home of Glen Alla Park and its Del Rey Certified Farmers' Market on Friday afternoons from 2 to 7 p.m.

"Alsace" is also a European location, named after a region in northeastern France. Louis Mesmer (1829-1900), an early American-era Los Angeles land pioneer was a man who came from the Alsace region of France and first worked here as a baker, later making money in real estate, most notably owning the old U. S. Hotel which once stood on 170 N. Main Street in Downtown Los Angeles (It's now the area between City Hall East and the old Parker Center), and playing a key role in the construction of the St. Vibiana Cathedral (now the Vibiana event center). He also bought land in what is now around the West Los Angeles/Culver City/Del Rey area. He was one of the people who first envisioned building a port near the Playa Del Rey/Ballona delta area, which eventually became realized as Marina Del Rey, nearly a century later.

Mesmer City, the town that never was.

In the 1920s, a developer had large plans for a failed project called "Mesmer City" in that area, and a street named "Mesmer Avenue" remains there, west of the 405.

The area you found as "Alsace" is directly adjacent (west) of this "Mesmer City" development. In fact, on the Pacific Electric's Inglewood Line, heading east, it was the stop after Alla and before Mesmer. So it's safe to assume "Alsace" was named by Louis Mesmer, perhaps because the broad plain surrounding Ballona Creek might have resembled the Rhine River plain of his homeland.

Alsace in 1972, when Hughes Airport stood there.

In 1940, 20th century tycoon Howard Hughes purchased 380 acres of the wetland area known as Alsace to build the privately-owned Hughes Airport for his Hughes Aircraft company. Famous former Long Beach resident, the Spruce Goose airplane, was built on those grounds.

The classic shot of The Huell at the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve greets visitors to Chapman University's new Huell Howser Exhibit, now open to the public.

No figure has been an influence and inspiration to The Militant Angeleno more than the late, great Huell Howser, a man who needs no introduction to readers of This Here Blog (and if he needed to be introduced, you probably shouldn't be reading This Here Blog). The untimely passing of the legend early last year kind of left The Militant literally dumbfounded, perhaps even to the point where he sort of stopped blogging. He was all set to go to Howser's unofficial official memorial at Griffith Observatory in January 2013, even going so far as to discover a Greek Theatre-to-Observatory hiking route to circumvent the clusterfuggin parking situation that day, but after learning that The Humble Huell Himself did not want a public memorial, The Militant wanted to honor his wishes. He since learned it was a nice event, though part of it became The Tom La Bonge show. But The Militant digresses...

On Saturday, Chapman University, the sole recipient of The Huell's archives (Well, at least the non-Videolog/Visiting... material, which remains KCET property) opened their new Huell Howser exhibit at their Leatherby Library building called, "That's Amazing! Thirty Years of Huell Howser and California's Gold"with a daylong event of the same name. The event attracted several thousand Huell devotees of all ages (the majority being over 50 though...) which also featured people who have been featured on some of his shows. The Triple-A was a major spinor of the event and gave away Cali maps with locations of California's Gold episodes.

The line for the Huell Howser exhibit was pretty damn long.

The main attraction was the exhibit, which has a long-ass line that queued around the building with a wait of almost an hour.  Sure, anyone can go to this exhibit Tuesdays through Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., with hardly any line, but dammit, The Militant don't go to Orange County that much, so he might as well stay in line!

It felt much like going to a Disneyland ride, which was just a few miles away (Guess this is what the O.C. is all about...). Once in the door, he heard the familiar Tennessee drawl of The Huell fill the room, almost as if he was there (or maybe an animatronic Huell greeting visitors before reciting The Gettysburg Address, no, wait...). But it was just a video screen showing a montage of The Huell (Even Huell had a montage).

Word.

Interactive stuff.

The master video tapes. Worth their weight in...wait for it... California's Gold.

Once inside, groups were led down a rather mundane-looking staircase to the basement level, and finally into the poppy-colored room, which had a California map on the floor with every Cali's AU episode's locale labeled accordingly. The exhibit followed Huell's life from childhood (his family dog was called "Hey Boy") to his early years in his native Volunteer State to the start of his KCET programs and CaliGold. There were also artifacts like a video camera, his desk, a case with mementos either from the show and given to him, as well as another room which had his personal book library, his shirt, and a room wherein all of his California's Gold (and associated shows - remember, Videolog and Visiting... ain't included) master tapes are stored. People can possibly view them eventually, albeit with archives staff approval. The archive staff person said they're real protective of The Huell's public image and didn't want anyone to see anything that was...un-amazing (hypothetically speaking, say, if The Huell cussed out someone on camera or something like that).

Huell Howser's editing desk. The rack of manila folders contained potential show topics at the time of his retirement in late 2012...shows that were never made!

A display case featuring various Huell Howser mementos.

The archives room (note his shirt in the back).

The other major attraction to the Chapman University event was the screening of the new documentary, A Golden State of Mind: The Storytelling Genius of Huell Howser, a 50-minute glimpse into his life and worth ethic, which begins with his early Tennessee days, follows his career to New York and Los Angeles, and features interviews with California's Gold production staff, subjects and The Huell Himself. Even a 2012 FunnyOrDie.com Huell Howser parody is featured. The end of the documentary talks of his demise in January 2013 and one of his last shows, a 2012 California's Gold episode focusing on Jacaranda trees, which many found symbolic and introspective with regards to his condition at the time.

You can see the exhibit any time now, but if you missed the documentary screening, don't worry, Chapman plans to screen it again later this year and perhaps make a DVD out of it, with a possible airing on KCET sometime in the future.

Whether you're watching Huell's shows via Chapman's online video archive, at the university exhibit itself, or on good ol' KCET, it's easy to feel as if Huell Howser is immortal. And in a way, he is now, living on for all eternity through his numerous shows. But there were shows he never got to shoot, places he'd yet to discover, and even in the 15 months since he left us, new people, places and things worth discovering.  Huell can never be replaced (though The Militant once confessed to one day being his successor), but it's the mission of The Militant, and many others out there, to fill in the void, however little we can.

And what would The Huell say to us today? Well, assuming The Militant were in fictional San Dimas and traveled in time via a funky phone booth outside of the Circle-K, going back in time to pluck Huell Howser from the not-so-distant past, he would probably say, "Be amazing to each other."

This dude's shirt says it all.

Welcome to La Habra, home of...uh, La Habrans?

After attending the Huell Howser Day festivities at Chapman University on Saturday, The Militant, along with one of his operatives, decided to head up the 57 to La Habra and survey some damage from the previous night's La Habra Shakes quake-o-rama.

After exiting Imperial Highway and heading west (no, his operative was not a big nasty redhead), we looked intently for some earthquake damage. Perhaps some broken glass, perhaps a fallen masonry wall, anything to report to you, the blog-reading public!

The Militant drove and drove...hmm. Nothing.

We turned north on Beach Boulevard. The Militant spotted a cracked window at the True Value Hardware store on Beach Blvd and Lambert Road. Hmmm, maybe....

This may or may not be earthquake damage. No, really.

The "X"-shaped crack had some vinyl tape on the top two extremities. The tape looked clean and therefore relatively new, but its relationship to the earthquake cannot be determined for sure.

We drove on east on Whittier Blvd, discovering La Habra (of all places, right?) has an El Cholo Spanish Cafe, but NOT discovering any quake damage. We went into a residential neighborhood to see if there were any downed walls...nada.

We turned west on La Habra Blvd (we spotted two glass company trucks parked in a liquor store parking lot -- perhaps done with their installation), and back south on Beach. Right after leaving the La Habra city border at Hillsborough Drive, we spot some yellow police tape along the sidewalk just half a block south and...lo and behold...EUREKA!

We found damage! Woot!

At last, confirmed earthquake damage! This masonry wall fell over out into the sidewalk. And since people out in this part of town don't even bother to walk, you can rest assured that no one was hurt.

So there you go, we did not come up empty-handed after all! Yes, there was some damage from the #LaHabraShakes, but it wasn't very obvious. The town largely looked as if nothing happened. For those of you who did sustain damage, The Militant hopes it's manageable and all repairs are relatively easy and affordable.

If any of you spotted any quake damage, please share with The Militant in the comments or via email or Twitter!

On Monday, The Militant joined about 55 people and five hipsters on a tour of the new 2014 season renovations at Dodger Stadium, as well as a glimpse of things most fans, especially the disadvantaged ones who can only afford tickets in the upper tiers (i.e. The Militant), don't get to see.

Now, The Militant has toured the stadium before (which included a foodie conversation with Andre Ethier and seeing Mr. Scully's back), and last year The Militant got to post about the 2013 stadium renovations -- the first permanent stamp on the facilities since Our New Guggenheim Overlords took over (The Militant will not use this post to gripe about the whole Time Warner Cable debacle, and the team's disappearance from many (non-cable-privileged) households, though he just did, indirectly).

This Janet is also in control. She gave us an awesome tour of the new Stadium improvements.

But this year, there were new goodies in store, and who better than to show it than Janet Marie Smith,  the Dodgers' Senior Vice President of Planning and Development. In case you're not familiar with her name, she's been a longtime sports executive with a background in architecture and urban planning. As an architectural consultant, she was responsible for the much-emulated retro ballpark design at Orioles Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore. She also oversaw the conversion of the 1996 Olympic Stadium in Atlanta to Turner Field. So, she definitely knows her stuff.

She talked about changing the look and function of the Dodger Stadium grounds while at the same time keeping the design faithful to the early 1960s design, namely claiming some of the parking lot blacktop space to expand the stadium perimeter. The first part of that was achieved last year, with  the Reserve Level plazas, created to establish the clear separation of stadium grounds and parking lot, and provide more people/activity space, as well as to establish unique landmarks for each level and area (because of that, did you know that Dodger Stadium was the 7th most Instagrammed site in the entire world in 2013?).

Let's look at the numerous photos that took The Militant a long-ass time to resize and upload, shall we?

Gotta love the signage on this one.

Smith consulted with Peter O'Malley and discovered an unused late-'50s design for stadium signage.  These signs faithfully employ not just the look, but the materials as well.

Da-da-da-DA-da-DAAA...CHARGE! Juicing up is frowned upon for players, but perfectly welcome for your mobile devices. These charging stations are found just outside the Reserve Level.

Ever wanted to know what the Dugout Club looks like? Here ya go. The field level is right above.

Deep below Field, near the Dugout Club entrance, is all 40 of the Dodgers' Gold Glove awards on display.

On the opposite side, the team's 1981 World Series trophy (the '88 trophy is getting polished).

Kershaw's Cy.

The Press Interview room. Everyone got to play Donnie for a few secs.

Deep below the 3rd base-side Field Level stands is a corridor...

...THE BAT-ROOM!

Pump You Up: The Weight Training Room!

Look out Jamba and Robek's -- The Dodgers have their own smoothies! Found in the Weight Training Room

Matt Kemp knows this room pretty well.

We found the stash.

At the end of the corridor, we end up in the land of Wilson and Jansen. Above the new bar that overlooks the bullpen. Get it? Some Sanrio surprises at the Stadium. The new plaza outside of the Right Field Pavilion. If you liked it, then you should've... Los Angeles has yet another eatery called "Tommy's." Lasorda was asked to pick the bobble head that would get the life-sized treatment outside his restaurant. He picked the Hall Of Fame one. The visitor's bullpen. There's also a bar overlooking this one too. Excellent idea, huh? The pedestrian walkway at the Sunset Gate got new striping and lighting. It's also meant as an entrance for bicycles (they assume people will be walking and not riding their bikes up the hill...)

The Militant is hungry for a Dodger Dog now. Even more, he's hungry for some baseball. He may or may not be there on Opening Day on Friday, but he's definitely ready for the season! Go Dodgers!

Click here to open the actual interactive map, because the new Google Maps suck ass.

Yes, friends, it's an exciting week for Los Angeles. Dodger baseball season returns to The Stadium on Friday, and this Sunday, CicLAvia season begins!

This time, the route returns to IronicIconic Wilshire Boulevard, a route first used in June of last year. The Militant already wrote one of this legendary Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour posts for that one, but he felt it was time for a minor update.

So after much more Militant research, he adds six additional points of interest to the tour, and even slightly updates some of the other points as well.

You know you totally want to eat this up, so here it is, Los Angeles!

1. One Wilshire Building/Wilshire Bookend Palm Trees
1966
624 S. Grand Ave, Downtown

Built during the first wave of modern skyscrapers following the repeal of Los Angeles' building height limit laws, this building, designed by architectural rockstars Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (who also went on to craft Chicago's Sears Tower, among many others) stood for most of its life as the address of legal and financial institutions. After a renovation in 1992, this building is now the location of CoreSite, a major data colocation center, which carries the primary Internet connections for Los Angeles (without this building, you can't read this!)

Take note of the row of palm trees, planted here in the 1970s: They are meant to evoke the end of Wilshire Boulevard, as on the opposite end, at Santa Monica's Ocean Avenue, 16 miles from here, you will also find a row of palm trees.

2. Wilshire Grand Center
2017
Wilshire and Figueroa (SW corner), Downtown

This big-ass hole in the ground used to be the Wilshire Grand Hotel, formerly (in reverse chronological order) the Omni Hotel, Los Angeles Hilton, Statler Hilton and Statler Hotel.

On this site will rise the new Wilshire Grand Center, Los Angeles' (and the West's -- suck on it, Transbay Tower SF!) tallest building at 73 stories and 1,100 feet (kinda sorta, there's a spire, you see...). It will also be Los Angeles' only modern skyscraper without a flat roof. It will house Wilshire Grand Hotel 2.0 and a bunch of shops and condos.

The building will also have a "sky lobby" up at the top and will be the first skyscraper anywhere to sport a mohawk.

The current construction site is the location of "The Big Pour" - which lasted from February 15 -16, where 21,200 cubic yards (81 million pounds) of concrete were continuously poured - earning it a Guinness World Record for that feat.

3. L.A. Prime Matter Sculpture
1991
Wilshire and Figueroa (NW corner), Downtown

Wilshire is full of awesome-looking public art. Here's one relatively-recent sculpture right at the northwest corner of Wilshire and Figueroa. Designed by the late Venice-based artist Eric Orr, who had a penchant for utilizing elemental themes in his art, L.A. Prime Matter features twin 32-foot bronze columns that feature water sliding down its faces, and during random moments, FIRE emanates from the middle channels of the columns! The effect is total bad-ass, and its bad-assnes is magnified at night.

Hopefully participants in a bad-ass event like CicLAvia would get an opportunity to see the pyrotechnics!

4. Urban Chew (April Fools!)
2013
North side of Wilshire Bridge over 110 Fwy

The Militant just discovered this peculiar public art installation by artist Matthew Kasmirofsky while witnessing the Big Pour. About 160 pieces of gum, made of either actual gum pieces or latex rubber, were placed here in an art piece described by the artist as "a commentary on contemporary consumerist culture," especially how things are easily and carelessly discarded after a short time. Kasmirofsky has done similar public art installations in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Montreal and Stockholm.


5. Site of George Shatto Residence/Good Samaritan Hospital
1891
Wilshire Blvd and Lucas Ave, Downtown

Before it was named Wilshire Boulevard, it was once called Orange Street, and on the corner of Orange and Lucas was a Queen Anne-style mansion belonging to George Shatto, a real estate developer who first developed Catalina Island and the city of Avalon. If you read the Epic CicLAvia Tour 4.0 post, his name is brought up as one of the famous Angelenos buried (in a rather ornate pyramid) at Angelus Rosedale Cemetery.

But check this out! Take a look at the picture above, and pay close attention to the masonry wall going uphill that fronts Lucas Avenue. Now, on CicLAvia Sunday, look at the exact same spot, on the northwest corner of the intersection. The house is gone, but the original wall still remains!

Good Samaritan Hospital, which was founded in 1885 and moved to the current site in 1911, is also the birthplace of many native Angelenos, including mayor Eric Garcetti.

6. Site Of "Redbeard" Pirate Lynching (April Fools!)
1879
1675 Wilshire Blvd, Westlake

In 1878 a man known as Cochran "Redbeard" O'Connor, a self-described "pirate," sailed into San Pedro Harbor and arrived into Los Angeles via railroad. He went on a notorious public rampage described, by the old Los Angeles Herald as, "Six months of public drunkenness, vulgarity, and lewd and lascivious behavior, which cannot be fully described in the pages of this publication." Other historical accounts of O'Connor purport he engaged in public displays of urination, indecent exposure, masturbation and groping. Police attempted to arrest him several times, but he somehow eluded them. Finally, on March 27, 1879, he was found attempting to defecate on the front yard of a mansion on Orange Street, when an angry mob chased him down. He was hung by a sycamore tree that stood near where the Home Depot stands today. According to a later Los Angeles Herald article, His boat in San Pedro Harbor was burned and sunken. O'Connor was buried in an unmarked grave at Evergreen Cemetery.

7. Los Angeles Teachers (a.k.a. 'Stand And Deliver') Mural
1997
Wilshire and Alvarado, Westlake

Art imitates life imitating art imitating life in this mural by popular Salvadoreño American muralist Hector Ponce depicting actor Edward James Olmos, who portrayed Garfield High School math teacher Jaime Escalante in the 1988 movie Stand and Deliver, standing next to the real-life Escalante, and delivering a mural that's part-Hollywood, part-Los Angeles, part-Latino pride, part Eastside pride and if the Internet were as accessible back in 1988 as it is today, would make one epic photo meme. And it's painted behind the 1926 Westlake Theatre, which is slated for renovation into a community-baed performance arts venue sometime soon. Celebrate the 25th anniversary of Stand and Deliver by having the ganas to stop by.

8. Gen. Harrison Gray Otis Statue
1920
Wilshire Blvd and Park View Ave, MacArthur Park

Gen. Otis is perhaps the most visible statue at the park, which predates MacArthur's WWII service. This general served in the Spanish-American and Philippine-American wars, and also fought as a Union soldier in the Civil War. But in Los Angeles, he is most known for being the founder, owner and publisher of the Los Angeles Times. So why is he here? His Wilshire Blvd mansion, called The Bivouac, was located across the street, was later donated to Los Angeles County and became the original campus of Otis Art Institute. It's thought that his statue is pointing to the site of the Elks Lodge, but he's probably just pointing to his old house. 


9. Bryson Apartment Building
1913
2701 Wilshire Blvd, MacArthur Park

This 10-story Beaux Arts apartment building, built 100 years ago, was the 20th century precursor to today's fancy modern 21-century high-rise residential developments. Built by developer Hugh W. Bryson, it was built in a part of Los Angeles that was known at the time as "the west side" (let's not open that can of worms right now, okay?). It was one of Los Angeles' most luxurious apartment buildings, and had a large neon sign at the roof (characteristic of these kinds of developments back then). Several Raymond Chandler books reference The Bryson. The 110,000 square-foot building is also part of the National Register of Historic Places and a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.

10. LaFayette Park
1899
Wilshire Blvd and LaFayette Park Place, LaFayette Park

Clara Shatto, the widow of George Shatto (remember him?) donated 35 acres of her land to the City of Los Angeles in 1899, which was once oil wells and tar pits. Her late husband wanted it turned into a city park, and so it became Sunset Park, which existed for 19 years before the locals wanted it renamed to honor the 18th-century Frenchman who was a hero in both the American and French revolutions. Gotta give LaFayette park some props for living so long in the shadow of its more famous neighbor, MacArthur (Westlake) Park.

11. Bullocks Wilshire/Southwestern Law School
1929
3050 Wilshire Blvd

Perhaps one of the most iconic examples of Art-Deco architecture in Los Angeles, this former Bullocks Department Store was designed with a tower to resemble a New York-style skyscraper in then-unabashedly low-rise Los Angeles. It was the epitome of shopping in style in its heyday, with its own rear parking lot and other auto-centric amenities. It ultimately fell victim to the 1992 Los Angeles Riots and was closed down the next year. In 1994, the nearby Southwestern School of Law bought the building and incorporated it into its campus, restoring much of the Roaring 1920s Art Deco aesthetics.

12. Shatto Place
c. 1880s
Wilshire Blvd and Shatto Pl, Koreatown

Gee, we can't get seem to get away from that George Shatto guy, can we? George and Clara owned a plot of land here on this street, which was once home to some of the most beautiful mansions in Los Angeles at the time. Although Clara sold the land in 1904, George stipulated that all properties on the street maintain the character of the exquisite homes there, which was challenged several times until the late 1920s, when the homes started to be demolished in favor of more modern commercial development.

13. Brotherhood Mansion Site (April Fools!)
1898
3183 Wilshire Blvd, Koreatown

The first automobile in Los Angeles took to the streets in 1897 and Delbert J. Walford, businessman and early automobile enthusiast, (and one of the first Angelenos to own a car), created the Most Benevolent Brotherhood of the Horseless Carriage (a.k.a. "The Brotherhood"), perhaps Los Angeles' first-ever car club. Members would offer repairs to stranded motorists, free of charge, hold Saturday afternoon salons to educate the public about the automobile, and offer driving classes for a very small fee. Some though, considered the organization to be a cult-like group, where members lived inside the mansion, maintaining strict standards on uniform dress and hats. In 1903, the group published a 106-page, eerily prophetic utopian (autopian?) manifesto, The Automobile For A Most Glorious California, envisioning a network of "automobile super-roadways" spanning several lanes wide, the creation of "automobile gardens" built around cities and communities oriented towards the car, developed far from the urban core. They also shunned and criticized the use of streetcars, bicycles and long-distance pedestrian travel. Now here comes the strange part: In August 1909, Walford and all of the members who were have known to have lived in the mansion vanished without a trace, leaving all material valuables (aside from their automobiles) behind. Their whereabouts were never found and the mansion was razed in 1917. Ironically, the site is now the location of the Wilshire/Vermont Metro station.

14. "The Vermont" Highrise Apartment Development
2014
Wilshire Blvd and Vermont Ave., Koreatown

What's with the construction? It's a 30- and 25- story highrise mixed-use apartment development called "The Vermont" by J.H. Snyder Co. which is slated to open sometime this year. It's Metro-accessible, but who the hell can afford the rents for this place?

15. Consulate Row
Various locations along Wilshire Blvd between Vermont and Crenshaw

Some 62 countries have consular offices in the Los Angeles area and 41 of them have addresses on Wilshire Boulevard. Proximity to various foreign financial institutions on Wilshire, as well as nearby Hancock Park, where many consul-generals have traditionally resided, are the main reasons for such a high concentration of consulates on this stretch of Wilshire. The consulate offices for Bangladesh, Bolivia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, South Korea, Nicaragua, Peru, The Philippines, Sri Lanka and Taiwan are all located on Wilshire between Vermont and Crenshaw. Many of them display their national flags in front of their respective office buildings. How many can you spot during CicLAvia?

16. Gaylord Apartments
1924
3355 Wilshire Blvd

Though the building's prominent neon sign has been source of many a snicker by immature junior high school kids, this building represents some serious history. It was named after Wilshire Boulevard's namesake, Henry Gaylord Wilshire, who was known as a wealthy real estate developer and outspoken socialist (Does that make sense?), who donated a 35-acre strip of barley fields to the City of Los Angeles on the condition that it would be free from railroads or trucking.

The building itself is a 13-story Italian Renaissance-style apartment building that actor John Barrymore (a.k.a. Drew's grandpa) and then-presidential candidate Richard Nixon once called home.

17. Brown Derby Site
1926
3427 and 3377 Wilshire Blvd

The now-defunct "The Brown Derby" local chain of restaurants were synonymous with Hollywood glitz and glamour. The Wilshire Boulevard location was the first of four (the others were in Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Los Feliz). In close proximity to The Ambassador Hotel and its Cocoanut Grove swing/jazz club, this was the original hipster joint back in the day, only back then the hipsters were actually cool and looked good. In 1937 the building was moved across the street and closed in 1975. In 1980, a shopping center was built on the site and the iconic dome structure was incorporated into the shopping center that exists today. It's situated on the third floor, above The Boiling Crab seafood restaurant. It's something to ponder on while you wait 90 minutes for your table.

Note that the pictures for #13 and #14 connect vertically - that's the Gaylord Apartments behind the Brown Derby!

18. Robert F. Kennedy Inspiration Park/Ambassador Hotel Site
2010
Wilshire Blvd between Catalina Street and Mariposa Avenue

The Militant wrote a post in 2010 about this unique public space dedicated to Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated just yards away at the Ambassador Hotel, which was demolished in 2005 and where the LAUSD's sprawling and costly  RFK Community Schools campus now stands. There's Kennedy quotes on public art installations and benches for you to chill on. There's also speakers playing recordings of some of the jazz music that was performed at the hotel's famed Cocoanut Grove swing and jazz club.

On April 18-19, the school campus will host the first-ever K-Town Night Market with food, vendors and live entertainment.

19. Site of DeBeers Paradise Flower Garden (April Fools!)
1897
Wilshire Blvd and Normandie Avenue, Koreatown

Everyone knows that The Bird of Paradise is Los Angeles' official flower, but how did it become so popular? South African trade importer and horticulturist Wouter DeBeers, who built the DeBeers mansion and gardens in Garvanza, bought a plot of land on Wilshire Boulevard at Normandie Avenue in 1896 in hope of building a second home closer to the city. Having discovered he lacked the funds for constriction, and not wanting his land to remain vacant, imported several Bird of Paradise plants from his native Durban and grew an exotic plant garden on the plot, called "Paradise Flower Garden." Visitors were amazed at the orange bird-like flowers that seemed to flourish with little watering. DeBeers later sold seedlings and eventually became profitable enough to finance construction of his mansion, which he eventually built in 1905. The residence and legendary garden were eventually razed in 1919. The popularity of the flower in Los Angeles was largely credited to DeBeers.

20. Wiltern Theatre/Pellissier Building
1931
Wilshire Blvd and Western Avenue (duh...), Koreatown

The 12-story structure, designed by Stiles O. Clements, is Los Angeles' emerald-green temple to all that is Art Deco. Originally operating as the "Warner Theatre" (Specifically the Western Avenue location of Warner Bros. chain of movie theaters; The Warner Theatre in San Pedro is another example), The Wiltern (named so since 1935) has seen many cycles of decay and rebirth, most recently in the 1980s, when preservationists renovated the theatre to a performing arts venue. The contemporary Wiltern Theatre has been operating since 1985.

21. The Last House On Wilshire
1918
4016 Wilshire Blvd, Hancock Park

Wilshire Boulevard was once a prestigious address for many a prominent Angeleno, from General Otis to, yep, George Shatto (don't worry, this is probably the last Shatto reference in this post). But after the 1920s, Wilshire became undeniably commercial and even the most dignified free-standing household succumbed to the wrecking ball.

Except this one, standing (quite nicely) on 4016 Wilshire, just yards west of Wilton Place. Built in 1918, this six bedroom, three bathroom, 3300 square-foot single-family home is literally the last of its kind on Wilshire. The earliest recorded owner, John and Katherine Neeland (circa 1921), of Canada, sold it in 1925 to Elmer & Clara Neville. The Neville family trust still owns the house to this day. If you owned the last house on the street, you'd hang on to it, right?

22. Crenshaw Tar Pits (April Fools!)
Discovered 1902
Wilshire and Crenshaw boulevards, Hancock Park

Everyone knows about the world-famous tar pits of La Brea just down the street, but did you know there's a (much smaller) tar deposit by Wilshire and Crenshaw? Look around towards the back end of the parking lot on the southwest corner and you'll find less than a dozen tar puddles and seeps peeking through the pavement.


23. Rimpau Blvd/Rancho Las Cienegas
1823-1920s
South of Wilshire Blvd between Norton Avenue and La Cienega Boulevard, Hancock Park

You may or may not notice that all of the streets south of Wilshire from Norton Avenue to just past the Fairfax Avenue terminus of the CicLAvia route run in a diagonal fashion, akin to the way Downtown Los Angeles streets run. Why? This was once part of the old Rancho Las Cienegas Spanish land grant, which was given in 1823 to Francisco Avila, once mayor of Spanish-era Los Angeles. In 1866, the land was divided among his four children, one of whom was his daughter Francisca, who married a German dude named Theodore Rimpau...Does that name sound familiar? Yep, it's the namesake of Rimpau Blvd. The last remaining rancho land was eventually sold and subdivided by Theodore and Francisca's sons in the 1920s.

24. E. Clem Wilson Building (aka Samsung Building)
1929
Wilshire Blvd and La Brea Ave, Miracle Mile

At 191 feet, it was once the tallest commercial building in Los Angeles (honoring the height-limit restrictions at the time). Built during the first wave of commercial migration from Downtown Los Angeles, this structure originally housed legal and medical offices belonging to Jewish professionals, and was part of the genesis of the Jewish community in this area (centered on Fairfax Avenue). The building once featured a large mast on top to serve dirigible blimps(!) but is most famous for the massive 4-sided neon advertisements installed on the crown in the 1960s: First,  Mutual of Omaha Life Insurance, then Asahi Beer and now Samsung Electronics.


25. The Los Angeles "Hair District"
c. 1970s
Wilshire Blvd between Cloverdale and Burnside avenues.

The Militant wrote about this interesting little business corridor five years ago, noting an unusually high concentration of wig, weave and human hair retailers along this part of Wilshire.

26. The Desmond's Department Store Building
1928
5500 Wilshire Blvd

This is the building that started it all, the archetype that led to many miracles on this mile of Wilshire Boulevard. The Wilshire location of Desmond's Department Store was the first high-end department store on Wilshire, and the retail development anywhere to sport a rear parking lot, and a main entrance that faced the back, rather than the street, as well as large circular display windows to attract motorists.

The 10-story building will soon be adaptively-reused into 175 (luxury, The Militant can assume...) apartments which will open sometime next year.

27. A.W. Ross Monument
1956
5700 Wilshire Blvd (Wilshire Blvd and Curson Ave)

"A. W. Ross, founder and developer of the Miracle Mile. Vision to see, wisdom to know, courage to do."

The story goes: Real estate developer A.W. Ross bought an 18-acre stretch of property along Wilshire Blvd in 1921 for $54,000 and in less than a decade's time, turned that stretch of dirt road, oil fields and farmland into Los Angeles' bougiest stretch of retail, which boomed -- of all times -- during The Great Depression. You can call that a miracle.

Ross was considered an innovator in his day; he brought large-scale, ritzy retail developments to his district, all with rear parking lots, and all made to be visible at 30 miles per hour. Left-turn lanes and synchronized traffic signals were credited to Ross.  Streamline Moderne and Art Deco architecture flourished thanks to Ross' development.

In 1956, this bronze bust was placed on this landscaped traffic island to honor the man who brought the "town" out of Downtown and stretched it out like Laffy Taffy.

But little else is known about A.W. Ross (no, he was not affiliated with the Ross Dress For Less stores). Where did he come from? What was his real estate dealings before the his purchase of Wilshire? What did "A.W." stand for, anyway?

28. Some Hairy Elephants In Some Oily Lake
16,000 B.C.
5801 Wilshire Blvd, Miracle Mile

You may or may not know about this place, built in 1976, and if you don't, there's really no hope for you.

George Allan Hancock, who owned the Rancho La Brea Oil Company, donated a large plot of land to the Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science and Art, who dug the area for Ice Age-era fossils. In 1965, the "Art" part of the LACMHSA (pronounced, "Lakum-Hissa") outgrew Exposition Park and the County gave it its own digs at the western end of the Rancho La Brea site.

29. The Berlin Wall
2009
5900 Wilshire Blvd, Miracle Mile

You already know Wilshire Boulevard is full of local history, but it's also home of world history. An art installation from The Wende Museum called The Wall Project features ten actual sections of the Berlin Wall brought here for the 20th anniversary of its fall (Note to Millennials: Google "Fall of the Berlin Wall," it was a pretty big deal in world history back in the day) and decorated by several famous artists. As you may or may not know, Berlin is one of Los Angeles' 25 Sister Cities.

30. May Company Building/LACMA
1939
6067 Wilshire Blvd, Miracle Mile

Many people know the May Company Building - today part of the LACMA campus, and tomorrow the new home of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Museum - as a Streamline Moderne department store. But did you know it was instrumental in moving Los Angeles' Jewish community from The Eastside and Downtown to Fairfax Avenue?

It all began in 1881 when Asher Hamburger, a well-respected Jewish merchant, opened his People's Store on Main Street in Downtown. The business grew and moved in 1911 to a much larger building on 8th and Broadway and was then known as A. Hamburger and Sons Co until 1923, when the company merged with the Missouri-baed May Company. The new operation, formally known as May Company California, was largely run by the Hamburger family and enjoyed much support and patronage by the local Jewish community.

The opening of the aforementioned E. Clem Wilson Building attracted Jewish professionals farther west. In 1935, there were four synagogues along the Fairfax corridor. In the years following the 1939 opening of May Company's new flagship store on Wilshire and Fairfax, the Jewish population boomed, the number of synagogues tripled by 1945. Post-War growth continued the population boom along Fairfax.

Enjoy your CicLAvia and STAY MILITANT!

Last November, The Militant came out with a list of the origins of the 88 incorporated cities of Los Angeles County, satisfying the curiosities of transplants, immigrants and natives alike, many of whom take such place names for granted.

That post literally made history of its own, becoming the most-read Militant Angeleno blog post of all time, garnering (to date), just a couple hundred views shy of 10,000 (the #2 most-read post only has a little more than half of those stats).

This time, The Militant takes on the land on the other side of The Orange Curtain. Home to famous theme parks, an agricultural heritage, a major league baseball team with a geographical identity crisis, and lots of suburban sprawl, The County Known As Orange also gave the world Richard Nixon (Yorba Linda), Michelle Pfeiffer (Santa Ana), No Doubt (Anaheim), Tiger Woods (Cypress) and the Fender Stratocaster electric guitar (Fullerton).

More recently (like really, really recently), Orange County became the home of the Huell Howser archives and a certain earthquake you might have felt a few days ago.

Like its larger neighbor to the north, which, before 1889, it was once a part of (finalized in 1951 when the county split from the 213 area code), Orange County's cities were named after town founders, saints, Mexican ranchos, topography, marine mammals and oil byproducts. English, Spanish, Invented Spanish, Latin and German contributed to the names of the incorporated burgs of Oh-See.

So after much Militant research, here it is, the etymology of Orange county's 34 cities, in alphabetical order:

Aliso Viejo– Invented Spanish for its native Sycamore trees (Los Alisos) and its proximity to Mission Viejo.

Anaheim– Founded in 1857 by 50 German American settlers of Bavarian heritage from San Francisco. They called the area “Annaheim” (Home of Anna, with “Anna” referring to the Santa Ana River).

Brea– Spanish for “Tar.” A merger of the former towns of Olinda and Randolph, which were located on the Brea-Olinda Oil Field, where tar was abundant.

Buena Park– Invented Spanish for “Good Park,” refers to a green area near today’s Artesia and Beach boulevards that was known by locals as “Plaza Buena.”

Costa Mesa– Formerly "Harper," was renamed in 1920 to the Spanish name for “Coastal tableland,” referring to its location and topography.

Cypress– Formerly "Watertown," and later "Dairy City, "was named after the original Cypress Elementary School. The school planted a row of cypress trees to protect itself from the Santa Ana Winds.

Dana Point– Named after author Richard Henry Dana, Jr, who wrote a book in 1840 called Two Years Before The Mast, which was set in the area. He described it as “The only romantic spot on the coast.”

Fountain Valley– Formerly "Talbert," was re-named in 1957 after the local artesian wells in the area created by the high underground water table.

Fullerton– Named after land developer George H. Fullerton, who was affiliated with the Santa Fe Railway, and was instrumental in bringing the railroad to the area.

Garden Grove– Named in 1874 by early settler and founding father Alonzo Cook, who held a vision of how he wanted the young village, located on an open plain, to look like.

Huntington Beach– Formerly "Pacific City," it was named in 1909 after the Huntington Beach Company, a real estate firm owned by Henry Huntington, who also founded the Pacific Electric Railway.

Irvine– Named after James Irvine, an Irish immigrant who owned much of the land the city now stands on.

La Habra– From Mexican-era Rancho La Habra (mountain pass), which traversed the Puente Hills. See the Los Angeles County list for its cross-county counterpart, La Habra Heights.

La Palma– Formerly "Dairyland," named after La Palma (Spanish for ‘the palm”) Blvd.

Laguna Beach– Derived from early town post office named “Lagona” (misspelled Spanish after the local wetlands, or lagoon), was later changed to “Laguna Beach.”

Laguna Hills -" Laguna" + these little mountain things called "Hills."

Laguna Niguel– "Laguna" + "Niguel," which was the name of an indigenous Acjachemen (a.k.a. Juaneño) village located in the area, along Aliso Creek.

Laguna Woods– "Laguna" + "Woods," for the bushy chaparral area in the hills, and since "Laguna Hills" was already taken. Formerly named "Leisure World." Consider it an upgrade.

Lake Forest– Formerly called "El Toro," was named after the pair of manmade lakes and the forest of Eucalyptus trees in the area.

Los Alamitos– Named after Rancho Los Alamitos - Spanish for “Little Cottonwoods,” after the clusters of cottonwood trees noticed by early Spanish settlers.

Mission Viejo– Invented Spanish for “Old Mission” (correct Spanish is "Vieja Mision") – a reference to nearby Mission San Juan Capistrano.

Newport Beach– Named in 1870 by landowners James Irvine, Robert Irvine and James McFadden, who agreed to name the newport in the area where the steamship The Vaquero unloaded, “Newport” (duh).

Orange– Formerly "Richland," was re-named in 1875 due to another Richland in Orange County. Was named after the first consistently successful crop to grow in the area after years of trial and error (the rest is history).

Placentia– Named by city founders after the latin word for “Pleasant.”

Rancho Santa Margarita– Named after St. Margaret, an early Christian martyr from Antioch (no, not that one).

San Clemente– Named after offshore San Clemente Island, which was named by Spanish explorer Sebastian Vizcaino, who first arrived on the island on November 23, the feast day of St. Clement, the 4th pope.

San Juan Capistrano– Named after the Mission San Juan Capistrano, which was named after St. John of Capistrano, a 14th-century Italian priest.

Santa Ana–In the early 1770s, Fr. Junipero Serra called the area “Vallejo de Santa Ana” (Valley of St. Anne). St. Anne, the mother of Mary, and Jesus’ grandma, is the patron saint of expectant mothers.

Seal Beach– Originally named "Anaheim Landing" and later re-named, "Bay City," it was re-named again (due to conflicting with Bay City in northern California), this time after the California Sea Lions that were a familiar sight along the coast.

Stanton– Named after Seal Beach founder and land developer Philip Stanton, who agreed to take on this town's sewage utilities after a number of landowners opposed dedicating some of their land for a sewage plant.

Tustin– Named after town founder Columbus Tustin, a carriage maker from northern California.

Villa Park– Formerly Mountain View, the town was forced to change its name in due to conflicting with the city of Mountain View in northern California (man, these Orange County city founders sure lack originality...). You can't lose with invented Spanish around here.

Westminster– Founded as a Presbyterian temperance colony in 1870, was named after the Westminster Assembly of 1643, which created the basic tenets of the Presbyterian Church.

Yorba Linda– Named after Bernardo Yorba, early 19th-century Mexican-era grantee of Rancho Cañon de Santa Ana, upon where the modern Yorba Linda stands.  The town was named in 1907 after landowner the Janns Company combined “Yorba” with “Linda” (Spanish for “beautiful”).

Ah, the shopping mall. The grand cathedral of consumerism. Like the hamburger and surfing, it wasn’t invented in Los Angeles, but we created the archetype by which it is widely known, as well as an entire culture built around it.

The brand-spanking-new The Village at Westfield Topanga, which opened on September 17, is the latest rookie drafted onto the Southland shopping mall roster. Though technically, it’s an outdoor-centric extension of the existing Westifeld Topanga mall, which stands on the other side of Victory Boulevard.

It’s perhaps one of the few outdoor malls that are not a product of one Rick Caruso (shouting at the sky, shaking fist in the air: “CARUSOOOOOOOOO!!”), although Caruso deserves the credit and/or blame for making them the de facto standard for the modern So Cal shopping center. Instead, this one is owned by the great Australian shopping mall megaconglomerate, Westfield, which runs yet another shopping center directly to the south, the Westfield Promenade.

The Militant decided to take a nice long ride on the Metro Orange Line to Warner Center and check this mutha out.

Located in Woodland Hills' Warner Center district (a.k.a. "The Downtown of The Valley," although The Militant thinks the much-more centralized and pedestrian-oriented Van Nuys is more deserving of that title), named so due to the area (including the land The Village now sits on) once belonging to one of the Warner Brothers (no, it wasn't Wakko or Yakko) as a horse ranch from the 1940s to the 1960s.

The Village's design is very SFV: Low-rise (the tallest building is two stories, not including the parking structure, of course), sprawling, and the architecture harkens back to the agricultural and light industrial structures which where once common in the Valley landscape. The ivory-colored facades look a bit odd, though -- one would assume that every store was either a Banana Republic or Sees Candies.

The SFV backyard aesthetic of The Village at Westfield Topanga's street furniture.

But it's also a very 21st-century setup: Aside from the outdoorsy feel, the place is abound with native and drought-tolerant plants -- no expanses of manicured green grass anywhere in sight (save for  artificial turf). The folksy "street furniture" resembles the type of furniture one would find in a San Fernando Valley backyard. And there are elements of appropriated urban hipsteresque accoutrements: Randomly-placed "little library" book kiosks, bocce ball enclosure, doggie treat/dog waste bar receptacles, and yes, a designated space for food trucks. The drinking fountains even have water bottle dispensers (which have digital counters; The Militant's water bottle was the 970th and 974th bottle filled at this particular dispenser), and he's even heard of a large rainwater capture cistern on the property. Very cool. But The Village succeeds in integrating the outdoor food commons of the Costco (long the hallmark of big box shopping center suburbia) into its outdoor mall layout.

"Look honey, food trucks! I think we should try some of those exotic soft tacos!"

But here's what totally blew The Militant away, and made this otherwise average outdoor mall worthy of mention on This Here Blog: The public art incorporated into the shopping center is very...militant.

It kind of hit him as The Militant walked the long stretch of Owensmouth Avenue after alighting from his Orange Line bus, trying to find out where exactly this new-fangled "Village" place was. He was ready to ask the few people walking along the street where it was when he spotted a large parking structure in the distance and finally saw "The Village at Westfield Topanga" sign on the corner of Owensmouth and Victory (which was a long-ass walk, he'll get to that later).

A dirt hiking trail beckons the militant along the northern (Victory Blvd) side of The Village at Westfield Topanga!

Walking westward on Victory, he saw the dirt hiking path that ran parallel to the sidewalk. Almost luring The Militant in to chose the dirt path option than the sanitary concrete option. So hiking path it was. And then he saw it.

It was a large billboard-sized mural, depicting a very natural San Fernando Valley 300 years ago, with  labeled images of the native flora and fauna of the SFV done in great detail, centered around the he Los Angeles River, depicted in its once-naked glory.

A section of the one of the very militant natural history murals at The Village by artist Elkpen

And then he saw another, which focused on the human history of the San Fernando Valley, depicting a cast of characters from Tongva medicine woman Toypurina (though she was actually a San Gabriel Valley gal), Father Juan Crespi, Isaac Van Nuys, William Mulholland to Amelia Earhart. There's even a little Red Car (labeled "Red Car") in the mural.  Yet another mural explains the importance and relationship of water, and even educates the public on what a watershed is.

"Our thinking about The River is evolving."

Like, whoa.

These murals, which were placed on the outside wall of the new Woodland Hills Costco (part of The Village shopping complex) were done by local muralist Elkpen (a.k.a. Christian Kasperkovitz), who is known for her nature-centric murals with a decidedly educational/awareness bent (see her "Birds of Hollywood" mural on Fountain Avenue). Elkpen's Los Angeles River/SFV History murals are part of a project called "Meet Connect Become" which explores the murals' subject matter in deeper perspective through the medium of the Internet (YOU NEED TO VISIT THIS WEBSITE! THIS IS AN ORDER! http://meetconnectbecome.com/home.html).

In addition, Westfield partnered with UCLA's School of Arts and Architecture for some of The Village's other public arts pieces.

Nova Jiang's "Red Car" sculpture at The Village.

As if The Militant wasn't already blown away by those Elkpen murals, on the Topanga Canyon side, hanging above the 2nd floor rafters above the main plaza was a sculpture of a Pacific Electric Red Car, depicted as an oversized plastic model kit. Very clever. The sculpture was done by UCLA Art school alum Nova Jiang, and a stylized map of the Pacific Electric system (with the San Fernando Valley stops emphasized) dons the wall on the floor below (surrounding the beverage vending machines).

This is like...wow.

The Militant didn't really buy anything at the stores but he was hankering for an ice cream on this 90-degree So Cal Early Autumn night. He found it at Sloan's, which looked exactly like a 6 year-old girl's candy store fantasyland, and a place The Militant would probably feel embarrassed to be in, but dude...it's ice cream, so he got himself a waffle cone full o' dat.

After consuming his cone, he wandered about the rest of The Village. There was a kids' play area, a KCSN-FM studio storefront (no one was inside, the station seemed to be on auto-pilot), and a "trolley" that transports shoppers to the larger Westfield mall on the other side of Victory.

While walking along the Topanga Canyon side of the complex, he spotted this:

From Crate & Barrel to the Los Angeles River.

It's a good mile hike to the Los Angeles River's headwaters on Owensmouth, but props to Westfield for taking this whole Los Angeles River thing seriously. This is amazing.

Now, since The Village has a hiking path along its western and northern perimeter, and they hope to have people hike in the oppressive heat of the San Fernando Valley, you'd think they'd want to make it more transit-friendly. The Village is equidistant from both the Metro Orange Line's Canoga and Warner Center stations (0.7 mile), but who wants to walk nearly a mile when it's 95 degrees outside? Perhaps it might be prudent to have an additional Orange Line station at Owensmouth and Victory, or at least get those cheesy Westfield trolley buses to serve the Orange Line terminus at Warner Center.

But the place is still new, and some of its businesses, most specifically its eateries, are still not yet ready for primetime at the time of this writing (they will be by this weekend). It's just another outdoor mall, really. But do check out those public art pieces. Hopefully people will pay attention and appreciate their Valley on a more deeper level.

A certain state/local agency believes that the first 5 years of a child's life is crucial for its development and eventual success and well-being later in life. Our little youngster CicLAvia is now old enough for Kindergarten and during its first 5 years of life, it's taken us all over Los Angeles from Venice Beach to East Los Angeles, from North Hollywood down to South Central (and even Pasadena as well). Our little kindergartener has been well-loved by Angelenos, and well-cared for by its parents and godparents. Since it was born, it even has younger siblings born in places like San Diego and Long Beach. So, this child is off to a very happy start in life, and like every happy youngster, never fails to make us all smile. Happy 5 years, little CicLAvia!

As you may or may not know, The Militant has been doing these local CicLAvia guides ever since the second CicLAvia in April 2011. Though this "Heart of L.A." ride -- the 15th iteration of CicLAvia since it be can in 2010 -- runs through some very familiar territory, especially for you veteran CicLAvians (all you 15-timers, let's hear ya!), this is a City that's known for change, and even in the past 5 years, certain places have changed with a look towards the future. This Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour guide also reflects that, with a few updated locations added to the route, including a couple sites that will never look the same again.

To celebrate 5 years of CicLAvia, The Militant invites you to comment or tweet (Hashtag #EpicCicLAviaTour) some of your favorite memories from the past 5 years.

Happy CicLAvia and STAY MILITANT!

1. Hollenbeck Park
1892
4th and St. Louis streets, Boyle Heights

John Edward Hollenbeck was a rich dude in the late 19^th century who founded the First National Bank of Los Angeles (more on this later) and purchased parcels of land in Downtown, the San Gabriel Valley and the Eastside, where he made his home. Hollenbeck was also credited with the creation of what is now called Exposition Park. His sister married his friend, James George Bell, who founded...Yep, you guessed it! After Hollenbeck's death in 1885, his widow, Elizabeth, donated a 21-acre parcel of land, which was essentially their front yard, to the City. One of the Los Angeles’ oldest parks, it was established in 1892 and continues to function today.

The biggest financial news headline on Tuesday was the announcement that the Chicago-based Walgreens drugstore giant will be buying its rival, Rite Aid Corporation for $17.2 billion.

Now for most people in the United States, that simply meant another corporate acquisition. But for those of us here in the West Coast, specifically Southern California, that meant the future of our beloved Thrifty Ice Cream was in question.

Now if you're too young, or too new to these here parts, here's a little 'splainin'.

Thrifty Ice Cream is the last vestige of the Los Angeles-based Thrifty Drug and Discount Stores, which was purchased by  the Pennsylvania-based Rite Aid Corporation back in 1996. Back then, the biggest concern was also the fate of the beloved award-winning ice cream, made locally in El Monte and sold by the cone and by the pint in Thrifty counters, as well as in prepackaged form in the stores' frozen goods section.

The ice cream was -- and still is -- a part of Southern California life (as well as West Coast life, as Thrifty stores stretched to Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon and elsewhere in the Golden State), originally conceived as a way to attract more customers into its discount stores.

The Thrifty (though many a local used the possessive-but-not-correct possessive form "Thrifty's") chain was a local institution, which started in Downtown Los Angeles by the Borun Brothers in 1919, becoming Thrifty Drug and Discount Stores in 1935. The chain grew, particularly in the post-war era as suburbanization flourished throughout Southern California. The stores were initially drug stores, but they sold other types of merchandise, from clothing to toys to sporting goods. In fact, they very much resemble today's Target stores, albeit in a smaller footprint (though Target itself has recently announced some smaller-sized urban stores opening in the near future -- what comes around, goes around).  In the early '70s, Thrifty even purchased Big 5 Sporting Goods. Thrifty was the king of the world as far as drugstores were concerned. The only other drugstore playaz in town were Sav-On Drugs, Longs Drugs (both of which were assimilated into the CVS borg in 2007) and much smaller dealios like Horton & Converse (which still exist today).





The Militant grew up close to one unspecified Thrifty store. They had everything. He got Star Wars figures, board games and even his first stamp collecting kit there. They even sold bikes and baseball gloves. Before Militant Papa took the family out to fishing trips to Long Beach or the Salton Sea (before it got nasty), he not only bought his rods, line and bait there, but his fishing license as well.

Things changed in the 1990s, though, as pharmacies -- the mainstay of Thrifty stores since its inception -- were being more integrated into supermarkets and department stores. Thrifty also took a hit during the 1992 Riots as many of its stores were burned, looted or vandalized.

Ultimately, the beloved ice cream was retained by Rite Aid and turned into a subsidiary, as the new corporate ownership understood the cultural and nostalgic value of the frozen treats (though they make you pay for your double scoop of Rocky Road at the regular check-out counter).

Now, we're faced with a new corporate acquisition, and through the Rite Aid brand will remain for the foreseeable future, we still want to tell our Chicago-based drugstore corporate overlords (who might not even know of the existence of Thrifty Ice Cream) that they can do what they want with the Rite Aid brand per se, but keep our beloved Thrifty Ice Cream.

Now there is some hope: Walgreen's purchased NYC drugstore chain Duane Reade in 2010 and the Big Apple is full of Walgreens-owned, DR-branded drugstores. Maybe, just maybe, they could possibly take things to the next level even revive the Thrifty Drug brand like dinosaur DNA encapsulated in molasses, but knowing full well how other local institutions have been treated by their own Chicago-based corporate overlords, don't hold your breath.

In the not-so-distant future, there will only be two: Walgreens and CVS (of course, many intersections already sport those two chains across the street from each other). All we're saying, oh mighty Walgreens Corporation, is this: You keep our Thrifty Ice Cream and we won't shop at CVS. It's as simple as that. Deal?

In the meantime, let's use the power of social media and shame let Walgreens know what one of the largest consumer markets in the country wants: Tweet to @walgreens #SaveThriftyIceCream (or RT The Militant's tweet), or let them know on their Facebook page!

P to tha E, yo.

So how was your Summer? You might have watched the hottest blockbusters, attended some awesome outdoor concerts or spent some time at the beach...

...But The Militant hardly did any of those things.

Now, you may to may not know that The Militant has written things like his insanely popular Epic CicLAvia Tour posts, of which he has done for every single CicLAvia route in the last five years. And he has also dedicated an entire week of special posts to places like Long Beach or the San Gabriel Valley (Okay, he didn't do an entire week for the SGV, but he owes you 626ers another one, he promises!). He has even done posts throughout September 2011 dedicated to our native people, flora and fauna.

The Militant has spent the past five months hard at work on his most epic of epic works ever. His passion project, if you will. Something he's shed a lot of blood, sweat and tears over (but mostly gas, TAP card value, pedal power, hiking mileage and solitary reading): An interactive map detailing all of the existing remnants of the Pacific Electric Railway.

This is not the map you're looking for. You can hardly read it :P

Now, if you don't know what the Pacific Electric is, then you might as well close the browser window right now. But just in case you've suffered amnesia, the Pacific Electric was the 1,100-mile rail transit system that spanned across Southern California before the era of freeways. Its legendary "Big Red Cars," as their trains were affectionately known round these here parts, not only transported people, but played an unprecedented role in So Cal's population, economy, culture, growth and human geography. For the sake of reference, The Militant will use the terms "Pacific Electric,""PE" and "Red Cars" interchangeably. As a corporate entity, the Pacific Electric lasted from 1901 to 1953. But the rail system and infrastructure that comprised the PE stretched to as far back as the 1880s, and the Red Cars themselves, though no longer painted red, rolled on our local rails until 1961. And even today's Metro Rail system, unfairly compared to its older and much more expansive predecessor, is still, by all intents and purposes, a direct descendant of the PE (more on this later).

Throughout this week, The Militant will be doing posts on various aspects of the PE that you may or may not have known before, including some things that will totally change the way you see Los Angeles, like forever.

For now, though, let's get to that map.

The Pacific Electric was perhaps the main reason The Militant Angeleno became a Militant Angeleno in the first place (after seeing an article in the old Los Angeles Reader in the late 1980s). After learning gradually about locations where remnant tracks or stations remained, he had always wanted to create a list or map -- as comprehensive as possible -- with their exact locations.

The advent of Google's Google Maps changed the game, and this playa wanted to throw down.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, natives and transplants, here it is, at long last: The Militant Angeleno's Pacific Electric Archaeology Map [cue the John Williams score]:


The full-size version of The Militant Angeleno's Pacific Electric Archaeology Map can be seen here so you can inevitably add it to your Bookmarks (you know you want to):


How To Use This Map
This is an interactive Google Map, which means you can click, drag, and zoom using your navigational device of choice. The Militant highly recommends you zoom in as close as possible, as some icon locations are directly next to each other, and might not be visible in the zoomed-out views of the map.

The map features various elements: Track and Track Remnants, Stations and Depots, Infrastructure, Electric Power Substations, Public Art, Surviving Red Cars and the PE Lines themselves. Click on the icon representing each of them and a pop-up window featuring a photograph of the location (Virtually all visited and taken by The Militant himself unless otherwise specified) which features the address and a description.  Think of all of Southern California as a living Pacific Electric museum, and this is your guide to the exhibits. And this map is by no means a passive virtual coffee table pictorial. The Militant encourages -- no -- commands you to go out and visit these locations yourself, to see with your own eyes and experience the ghosts of the Pacific Electric first-hand (and sure, The Militant doesn't mind at all if you take PE selfies (please hashtag #PacificElectric though).

Track and Track Remnants 
Click on the purple track icon to view the locations of known remaining Pacific Electric track. Many of them are still peeking out of the pavement in the street, some are hardly visible. But some tracks are fully intact. A great deal of the track is abandoned, though several miles of former PE track have been re-purposed as freight track and is still in use. The thing about railroad track is that the rails themselves, when still in use, are replaced over time. Often times, the rails have the year that the steel was forged embossed on the rails themselves. But the wooden ties the rails sit on could be originals from the PE era, though they themselves can also be easily replaced. The Militant used his best judgment according to research and the visual condition of the tracks. All of the track sections on the map represent the ones still existing from the PE era. Removed or fully-covered track is not represented. A number of streets still have PE track buried in the pavement (Hollywood Boulevard, The Militant is looking at you), but unless at least the tops of the rails can be seen, they do not qualify for inclusion in the map.

Stations and Depots
Click on the circular Pacific Electric logo icon to see the two dozen station structures, ranging from large buildings, to depots, to simple passenger shelters, still in existence. Some have been moved from their original location, but as long as they still exist, their present location is listed on the map (their original location is listed in their description). Some have been preserved to their original look, but others have been re-purposed as restaurants or other businesses. In many cases, historical plaques and some sort of historical designation can be found on or near these remaining structures, as they are still proud elements of the histories of their respective communities.

Infrastructure
Click on the black bridge icon to see the over 40 extant bridges, foundations, abutments, bridge supports, tunnel portals and non-station structures from the Pacific Electric. Some of these are obvious sights, easily seen from a street, such as Torrance's iconic El Prado Bridge, but many of them are quite off the beaten path, such as various bridges over the Los Angeles, San Gabriel and Santa Ana rivers (in those cases, they are accessible from bike trails). You may or may not have seen some of these structures before and have never known they were PE artifacts! Note that the PE also ran a bus system called Motor Coach Lines. Though some of their structures are still existing as well, The Militant did not include them in this map (Rail bias, yeah).

Electric Power Substations
Click on the red lightning bolt icon to see the 10 remaining electric power substations. The substations were buildings that housed the transformer systems that took electricity from the regional Southern California Edison or Los Angeles DWP power grid and converted the juice to the 600 or 1200 volts that fed the overhead wires to power the Red Cars. They literally put the "Electric" in "Pacific Electric." And since they were all built in the early decades of the 1900s, they are far more architecturally ornate than their modern-day, utilitarian Metro Rail counterparts (which are also much smaller due to advances in technology).

Public Art
Click on the artist's palette to view the many PE-related public art installations scattered around the Southland. Though not a part of the Pacific Electric per se,  the legend and legacy of the PE has inspired artists throughout Southern California to create murals, sculptures and other art installations that were inspired by or pay homage to the iconic Big Red Cars. Most of these pieces were created in the 21st century -- indicative of both the importance of public art in today's world, as well as the historic and cultural stature of the PE. Nearly all of these art pieces pay homage to the PE lines that ran in the exact location or in the vicinity that the artwork is located in. Mural-wise, many of the pieces were done by three artists: Atwater Village's Rafael Escamilla, Long Beach's Jose M. Loza and Art Mortimer, who painted period-piece murals in the coastal and inland extremes of the PE system. The PE-inspired public art is a key element in conveying the history of our old transportation system.

Surviving Red Cars
Click on the red trolley car icon to see where over 40 remaining Red Cars can still be found, in some form, in Southern California. Most of the beloved Red Cars, upon the system's decline, were either sold off to transit systems overseas (such as Buenos Aires, Argentina and Cairo, Egypt), or unceremoniously buried at sea off the coast to create artificial reefs. But some Red Cars still survive. Most can not only be seen but can be ridden at Perris'Orange Empire Railway Museum, and a few are scattered around Southern California as historical display items, or even re-purposed as buildings. The two replica Red Cars that ran in the recently-closed San Pedro Waterfront Red Car line are included, as they did run on an original PE route and virtually carry PE DNA through their dimensions and functions. However, the little Red Cars that run around Disney's California Adventure theme park in Anaheim, though a heartwarming Disney-fied tribute, are not included in this section, as they did not run on any original PE line, nor are they accurate replicas of original cars. They are included in the "Public Art" category, though.

The Lines
Click on the red lines on the map to see exactly where the PE passenger routes went (there were also PE freight lines, many of which shared track with corporate parent Southern Pacific, but those are not listed on the map, and likewise the PE's Motor Coach Lines bus network is not part of this map). Another thing that must be mentioned is the separate-but-related Los Angeles Railway (LARy) system (a.k.a. The Yellow Cars), also founded by Huntington. Those lines were not included on this map (Sit tight, folks, The Militant might make his own map for the LARy one day). Many historic maps of the PE exist, but none give the exact locations of the routes. This map was meant to get Southern Californians to understand were exactly the lines ran. You might live or work right near, or even along a former Red Car line and have never even known it! The lines were meant to represent all of the locations where the PE's tracks ran at one time or another. Keep in mind that not all of the lines existed all at once -- some lines were shut down as early as the 1920s. Also, most of the lines on the map are a comprehensive representation of the entire route. The PE network used trunk lines that were shares by multiple routes, which then branched out into various destinations. The full route is listed in the description. This was perhaps the most research-intensive part of this map-making process. The Militant used the Electric Railway Historical Society of Southern California's PE website, Harry Marnell's PE line pages, Abandoned Rails.com, various PE books, the maps archive at the Los Angeles Central Library and the 1981 Caltrans Inventory of Pacific Electric Routes (thank you Dorothy Peyton Grey Metro Library!) as main sources of information.

You can also view larger-sized photos, plus additional pics at The Militant's Photobucket site:
http://s24.photobucket.com/user/militantangeleno/library/Pacific%20Electric%20Map?sort=3&page=0

So there it is, take it. If you happen to find any errors, or know of another location where PE artifacts can be found that have not been included in this map, please contact The Militant ASAP at militantangeleno@gmail.com.

Whatup and Happy Militant New Year! It's 2016 already, and we have a year ahead of us that may or may not be the greatest year ever (of course we say that every year)!

2016 is already a year of big changes, or the changing of the guard, as many notable people are leaving their beloved roles that we've known them play for years. On New Year's Day, Bob Eubanks and Stephanie Edwards already made their final Tournament of Roses Parade broadcast after 35 years (Entertainment Tonight alums Leeza Gibbons and Mark Steines take over the reins in 2017).

2016 is also the year of Pershing Square's Sesquicentennial, having been dedicated in 1866 by Mayor Cristobal Aguilar as "La Plaza Abaja" (relative to the main plaza in El Pueblo, located a bit higher up on the map). But time has somehow erased the exact date of the dedication, so let's just celebrate its 150th birthday all year long!

Here's a calendar of upcoming events and milestones in Los Angeles to look out for in the year ahead. Of course, in between them will be the new and the unexpected, which will seal them in their own places in history.

JANUARY
18 - Kingdom Day Parade
Los Angeles' annual celebration of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday gets underway on the 18th along Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard between Crenshaw and Western, and then south on Crenshaw to Vernon (it's broadcast live on KABC Channel 7 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.). It should be interesting as the parade will end in a construction area, as Crenshaw Boulevard is currently undergoing the building of the upcoming Metro Crenshaw/LAX Rail Project.

25 -The 6th Street Bridge Closes - For Reals This Time
After a big-ass farewell party in October, it was revealed that the 1932 6th Street Viaduct would close on January 4, 2016 before being replaced by its Version 2.0 upgrade. So The Militant recently took a bike ride on the bridge to say his final goodbyes, where a number of photographers, dog-walkers and lowrider trucks also wanted to bid their own adios. But stop the presses, L.A. City Councilman and 6th Street Bridge Fanboy Jose Huizar himself tweeted to The Militant that the 6th Street Bridge 1.0 would be open for another couple more weeks:

@militantangleno@calwatch : the latest: Jan 25th #6thstbridge closes. Feb 5th demo begins.

— Jose Huizar (@josehuizar) January 3, 2016

So there you go. Enjoy the bridge before the 25th. If there's yet another delay after that, Huizar owes us another party, with War performing in concert again.

30 - Dodgers 2016 Fan Fest, Dodger Stadium
Welcome to the post-Mattingly, post-Greinke era. Like The Militant himself, a lot is still unknown. Will the Dodgers get more pitching? Will the Dodgers even make the postseason? Will the Dodgers finally be seen on television by the majority of its fans? Who knows. But this free event at the Stadium will give us all an excuse to wear our Dodger Blue for the day.
 
FEBRUARY
14 - XXXI Los Angeles Marathon
Do you love Los Angeles? Do you love running 26.2 miles from Elysian Park to Santa Monica?Then this is where you're spending your Valentine's Day, either running on the streets or cheering on the runners.


21 - 116th Golden Dragon Parade, Chinatown
The streets of Los Angeles' Chinatown will be alive with drums, firecrackers, lion dances and those confetti bazookas everyone loves to fire off as the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration takes place. This year is The Year of The Monkey, so this year is gonna be b-a-n-a-n-a-s.

TBA - Metrolink 91 Line Perris Valley Extension Opening
Southern California's 388-mile commuter rail system will get its first line extension in over 20 years this month as the 91 Line is lengthened 24 miles farther east to the Inland Empire city of Perris.  

MARCH
5 - Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Opening
The first of two Metro Rail line extension openings this year kicks off on the first Saturday in March as the Metro Gold Line is extended 11.5 miles from East Pasadena to Azusa, also serving the San Gabriel Valley cities of Arcadia, Monrovia, Duarte and Irwindale (Do you remember how all of those cities got their names? If not, you might want to brush up). Upon the opening of this extension, the Metro Rail system will grow to just over 99 miles in length.

6 - CicLAvia - The Valley
The 16th CicLAvia will mark a return to the 818 for the first open streets event of 2016. This time around, it's a 4-mile stretch of Van Nuys Boulevard running through Panorama City, North Hills, Arleta and Pacoima (Which reminds The Militant, its time to start his research on the next Epic CicLAvia Tour post). Take note, though, this will be the first-ever CicLAvia where the course is not serviced by a Metro Rail station (there are Antelope Valley Line Metrolink stations a few miles from the Pacoima terminus, though). This is going to be interesting. Plus, let's hope the Godzilla El Niño we're getting this year will at least take a breather on the first Sunday of this month.

APRIL
9 & 10 - Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, USC
Los Angeles' favorite literary event is back on the second weekend of April as the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books returns to the University of Southern California campus for the fifth time.

12 - Dodgers Opening Day, Dodger Stadium
It's time for Dodger baseball, at long last.It will be a bittersweet season opener as new skipper Dave Roberts begins his managerial career and legendary announcer Vin Scully prepares to end his. And would ya know it, the Dodgers will be facing none other than the Arizona Diamondbacks during the home opener, and you just know it's going to be a Kershaw vs. Greinke showdown on the mound.

13 - Kobe Bryant's Final Lakers Home Game, Staples Center
Wednesday, April 13 is the Los Angeles Lakers' final home game of the season, and barring a playoff berth miracle of some sort, the Lakers will just end their season on this date, with the Black Mamba playing the final game of his 20 season-long legendary career.

19 - Angel Stadium's 50th Anniversary
Angel Stadium of Anaheim, originally known as Anaheim Stadium, opened on April 19, 1966.The stadium gave Gene Autry's major league baseball team with a historic geographical identity crisis a home all to itself after being roommates with the Dodgers at Chavez Ravine for its first five seasons.

MAY
15 - CicLAvia - Southeast Cities
The second CicLAvia of the year will take us to good ol' Watts for the very first time, as well as venturing outside of the city limits on an as-yet-unspecified route venturing into the neighboring 'burbs of Huntington Park, Walnut Park, Florence-Firestone, South Gate and Lynwood. Check the CicLAvia website this Spring for full route information.

29 - City of Monterey Park Centennial
The 626 city of Monterey Park was incorporated on May 29, 1916. The San Gabriel Valley city is currently in the process of organizing several events to celebrate its centennial later this year.


TBA - Metro Expo Line Phase 2 Extension Opening
It's not quite the "Subway To The Sea," but we'll take the Streetcar To The Sea since it's finally coming this Spring, the second of two rail openings this year. The Metro Expo Line, which initially opened four years ago, will finally be complete as the 6.6-mile extension opens with seven new stations between Culver City and Santa Monica. This summer is gonna be pretty awesome as Angelenos will finally be able to ride a train to Santa Monica Beach for the first time in 63 years. Upon the opening of this line, the Los Angeles Metro Rail system will grow to a total route length of 106 miles. But let's hope and pray those Westside drivers will finally get their act together and not drive their cars onto the paths of the light rail trains.

JUNE
3, 4 & 5 - Lummis Day Festival, Highland Park 
The 11th annualLummis Day gets underway during the first weekend of June, celebrating the history of the Northeast Los Angeles area. This is the one time of the year where all the new hipsters in the neighborhood will learn who exactly Charles Fletcher Lummis is and pretend to care.

TBA - Los Angeles Kings Stanley Cup Parade, Downtown
It's an even-numbered year, which means our Los Angeles Kings will likely win another Stanley Cup (as they did in 2012 and 2014), which is not entirely out of the question, as the team is currently 1st place in the NHL's Pacific Division. Go Kings Go!

JULY
9 & 10 - Lotus Festival, Echo Park
Having attended these since he was a Lil'Mil, this is one of The Militant's favorite annual city festivals, taking place in the middle of the year, during the Summer, next to a lake with a wonderful view of the Downtown skyline. This year's 36th Lotus Festival will feature the culture of South Korea. With the issues of budget, lake renovation and the dearth of lotus plants now behind us, we can all focus on trying to get the fireworks show back on the festival's Saturday night. The festival is just not the same without it!

AUGUST
7 - CicLAvia - Iconic Wilshire Boulevard
The third CicLAvia of 2016 brings us back to Wilshire Boulevard for the third time (and for the first time since April 2014) this Summer. It will likely be the same linear route between Grand and Fairfax avenues. You've all done it before, and it's not even a long CicLAvia route, but you're all gonna be there anyway, right?

SEPTEMBER
2 to 25 - Los Angeles County Fair, Pomona
The best fair in all of Los Angeles County (well, it's only county fair...) gets underway on September 2nd. An annual tradition since 1922 (with the exception of the World War II years), this year's edition should be very interesting, especially in light of recent accusations of corruption within the fair's organizing body, the Los Angeles County Fair Association. 

4 - Los Angeles' 235th Birthday
Our beloved city turns 235 years old!

OCTOBER
2 - Vin Scully's Final Broadcast
Barring a postseason appearance, this is the last regular season game for the Dodgers and may or may not be the last time we will hear the great Vincent Edward Scully, the voice of the Dodgers since 1950, call a game. The Dodgers play the hated S.F. Giants on the road, a great way to cap off a most legendary career.

9 - CicLAvia - Heart of L.A.
It's October, which means its time for the classic "Heart of L.A." route, emanating from Downtown into Westlake and the Eastside. Celebrate CicLAvia's 6th birthday, the last CicLAvia of 2016 and the 19th CicLAvia event on the streets where it (mostly) all began.

NOVEMBER
28 - Los Angeles Zoo's 50th Anniversary
The original Los Angeles Zoo opened in Griffith Park and was in operation from 1912 to 1966. The current, 133-acre location of the Los Angeles Zoo opened on November 28, 1966, two miles north of the old location, in the former spot of a temporary post-World War II public housing project and a small airport. With 2016 being the big 50th year, expect some Golden Anniversary celebrations this year and most likely a special edition of this year's Holiday Zoo Lights display.

DECEMBER
All Month - Holiday Light Displays
"Tis the season - again! In addition to the Los Angeles Zoo's annual holiday light display, there are a number of neighborhoods around town that put up ginormous Christmas light displays on their houses and yards. Take your pick from Christmas Tree Lane (Santa Rosa Avenue) and the Balian Mansion in Altadena,  Christmas Tree Lane (Daisy Avenue) in Long Beach, Candy Cane Lane in Woodland Hills, another Candy Cane Lane (Acacia Avenue) in El Segundo and Sleepy Hollow (Calle Mayor) in Torrance. Before you know it, we'll be doing this all over again, this time, looking ahead to 2017...

A vision of the future on the past and present.

On Saturday, the 6th Street Viaduct got some major love with a big-ass farewell shindig on the bridge itself in the form of the 6h Street Bridge Festival. Most of you were there so The Militant will spare the big explanation. But it was hosted by Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar (who never sounded more amp'ed up, and had some cool live music performances, culminating with a free concert set by Los Angeles' very own WAR. The bridge will be closed on the first week of 2016, so make your last visits now!

The bridge was immortalized in art.

Lowrider heaven. Just to let you know you're in The Eastside.

Los Angeles' contribution to funk music, the band WAR, playing all of their hits (though they skipped "The World is a Ghetto").

LED lighting and a smartphone-bearing crowd. What could look more early 21st Century than this?

Fireworks end the night. But the bridge will remain for the rest of the year.

With the Holiday Season and the regular NFL season both finished, it's time to look forward to some baseball, and on Saturday, thousands of Dodger fans returned to Dodger Stadium for the second annual Dodger Fan Fest.

It was a semi-game day atmosphere, with cars in the parking lot, Dodger Dogs being consumed for the first time in 2016 and players in uniform (or at least wearing their jerseys), with everything but a ball in play, and a way to rev fans up for the upcoming 2016 baseball season (with Spring Training just weeks away).

The Militant decided to check out the fun, and took his familiar Metro Bus and hike up the street to be soon known as Vin Scully Avenue. Unlike the usual games, he was able to gain entry into the field level (well the tickets were free) and walk onto the field, which had the base paths cordoned-off for kids to run the bases, some baseball-themed games and rides, and a couple stages where Dodger players and broadcast personalities made appearances. And, for a fee, you could get a Dodger player or legend to sign a John Hancock for you.

Of course, this offseason left us with many changes: We have a new manager in former outfielder Dave Roberts (heading a generally-new coaching staff) no Greinke, a couple new pitchers, no more organ player and a whole lot more questions than answers. Will we get into the playoffs again? Will Kershaw dominate? Will Ryu return to form? Will new pitchers Maeda and Kazmir deliver? Will our bullpen improve? Will young players like Puig and Pederson be more consistent?

It was cool to be in the presence of blue-bleeding and blue-wearing Dodger fans for the first time since mid-October, but, maybe it was the overcast nature of the day, but the event felt a little...blah.

The smell of garlic fries wafting in the air prompted The Militant to queue in a very short line for an $8.25 tray of that stuff, which was far less salty, greasy and garlicky than usual. Honestly they haven't been the same since the Gordon Biersch license expired, but The Militant had no choice but to smother the dang thing in ketchup, mustard and onions for any semblance of flavor. Whatup?!

And then there was the dreadful organ music. Dunno if it was a recording or someone on the Dodger Stadium Roland Organ, but it definitely wasn't The Great Nancy Bea Hefley. The bouncy, cheery, ragtime-influenced playing of Hefley was tragically absent in place of someone (or a recording of someone) playing '70s and '80s pop songs that sounded like they were being played at a funeral. Even the great Hefley adds that wonderful cheery ragtime bounce when she does her renditions of '70s and '80s songs.

And thought it was great to see some Dodgers players again, it kinda gets old to hear some of them say,"We're gonna win the World Series this year!" as they have been saying every year (of course, that's what every MLB team says before the start of the season...). At least The Great Tommy Lasorda, who normally says that, gave us a more general, "We owe you fans a championship!" statement, which can't be argued with.

Lasorda: "We owe you a Championship!"

 Maybe The Militant is getting older. Maybe these Dodger doldrums will fade away come April. Or in late October. Or maybe he would have had more fun if he had more cash to blow on autographs, souvenirs, or had his own Lil'Mils (that he knows of) to run around the bases with.

One thing's for sure, the "wait" for "next year" is getting shorter and shorter.

Additional pics, because it happened:

L to R: So Cal native and new OF Trayce Thompson, Joc Pederson, 'Dodger Talk' co-hosts Kevin Kennedy and David Vasseigh.

We asked for a new skipper, and here he is. Will he kick ass right out of the gate or will he require a learning curve?

Kenley Jansen with the save.

All was not lost, The Militant got some free Carne Asada flavor packets from Chef Merito.