It's Always Sunny in El Sereno*

February 1, 2016, 7:05 pm

≫ Next: It's Always Sunny in El Sereno, Part II: The Ascot Hills Adventure

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The seasonally-green Ascot Hills in El Sereno.

It was a lovely, post-rain windy day, the day that begs for photographs to be taken, and The Militant decided to crawl out of his compound, because he withers and wilts if he hasn't gotten enough sunshine. He decided to head to The Eastside because, believe it or not, he needed to make some new additions to his now-legendary Pacific Electric Archaeology Map (Note: The planned "Pacific Electric Week" of articles that was originally planned to accompany the map's debut last November has been postponed to an unspecified date due to additional Militant research...Stay Tuned!). Last month, a reader named "AJ" left a comment about some remnant track adjacent to Soto Street along the former Monrovia-Glendora main line, and today was the perfect break in El Niño business to go check it out.

The DTLA skyline from El Sereno.

The Militant headed down Mission Road to where it converged with Soto Street and Huntington Drive. He walked down that half-rural, half-industrial stretch of north Soto Street to bask in the sunshine, with the seasonably green (Yes, we do have seasons in Los Angeles, get with it) Ascot Hills to the east and the sprawling, solar-powered Forever 21 headquarters (which was once a large inventory warehouse for The Broadway back in The Militant's Lil'Mil days) on the west. After a fair distance, he entered the driveway of a satellite USC Health Sciences Campus facility and in the parking lot, saw the embedded remnants of the Pacific Electric Monrovia-Glendora Line double tracks, right there in the concrete, as if to preserve it for posterity (or for Militancy), or even as a Sid Graumanesque concrete monument for transit history tourists.

More Pacific Electric remnants!

The Militant took a moment to not only take a few snaps from his Militant Communications Device, but also touched one of the rails with his hands. Once he did that, he suddenly had a vision...he saw the Los Angeles of a long time ago, with the sight of large, red streetcars, rolling with the sound of thunder, and then he saw a Red Car pull away as a small child was crying, and then there was a rainstorm, and then he saw Kylo Ren standing with the Knights of Ren looking all bad-ass, and then the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi echoing from the outer realms of The Force saying, "Rey! Rey! These are your first ste..."

Oh wait, The Militant got that mixed up with something else.

He then continued to walk towards the USC facility to the end of the property where he saw the Valley Blvd PE Bridge from deck level, devoid of tracks but still covered with ballast stones. Again, The Militant felt a connection to the past. The Force of Pacific Electric history has definitely Awakened (Keep the puns going, Militant).

A deck view of the PE Valley Blvd Overpass bridge, paralleling north Soto Street.

The Militant enjoyed his walk in the sun, heading back north again, but to his chagrin, the Mission Road Viaduct, which was still standing the last time The Militant was around these here parts, is no more. Incidentally, on the same week where the 6th Street Viaduct is slated to finally commence its demise, The Militant has encountered the completed demise of this Viaduct, also in Los Angeles City Councilman Jose "Tha Bridgekillah" Huizar's 14th district.

Mission Road Viaduct, taken August 2015. Now you see it...

Mission Road Viaduct, February 2016. Now you don't.

R.I.P. Mission Road Viaduct. But do notice the stark contrast in color of the Ascot Hills in the background. The Militant can't stress this enough. YES, WE HAVE SEASONS IN LOS ANGELES.

The Militant was glad to take numerous pictures of both bridges and say his final goodbyes. This is why The Militant does what he does. May The Force of Los Angeles History Be With You (Okay, Militant, a bit predictable for an ending here, but acceptable).

*Technically, the track remnants, the USC building and the Forever 21 factory are on the west side of Soto Street and therefore would be in Lincoln Heights, and yes, The Militant is aware of this, but he spent most of the day in El Sereno, and the El Sereno side is what appears in the photographs. But don't you worry Lincoln Heightsiders, The Militant will cover your hood in due time.

↧

It's Always Sunny in El Sereno, Part II: The Ascot Hills Adventure

February 2, 2016, 7:07 pm

≫ Next: The Militant's Epic CicLAvia Tour XVI!

≪ Previous: It's Always Sunny in El Sereno*

Ascot Hills welcomes you.

Whenever there's more to the story, there's always a sequel (although these days it's only because the movie studios want to make more money), but after The Militant's recent little Eastside trek to El Sereno (and adjacent), he was inspired to check out the neato little verdant rolling hills east of Soto Street.

It turns out those hills have a name, Ascot Hills, and they contain a relatively new city park called Ascot Hills Park

Back in the 1920s, the area was home to a racing venue called the Legion Ascot Speedway, which attracted Angelenos from far and wide (this was still a couple decades before the Los Angeles Rams brought big-league professional team sports to town).

Finally opened in June, 2011, some 81 years before it was supposed to open.

Hey, better late than never.

The Militant was welcomed by a brown dirt path cutting through the mountain and leading up at a steep angle. He was concerned with not having the proper hiking gear, until he looked down at his feet and realized that his combat boots could function perfectly well as hiking shoes (A true Militant is always at the ready). So he walked up the path, rounded a hill and walked westward.

he was greeted by an awesome view of not only the Downtown Los Angeles skyline, but of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and even Catalina Island behind that. The Hollywood Sign and the outline of the Century City skyline can also be seen. To the north were the San Gabriel Mountains, including the snowcapped (yet overcast) Mt. Baldy. To the southeast he could also see Orange County's Saddleback Mountain in clear view.

This place is like the Eastside's Runyon Canyon -- except for the absence of the superficial self-centered showbiz (SSS) types and the lack of dog crap. And considering that he saw about 5 dogs being walked along his hike, he can say that Eastsiders are gar more responsible people.

The Militant also looked down towards nearby Montecito Heights where he could see the site of the now-removed Pacific Electric viaduct (R.I.P.).

The best part, however, was The Militant hanging out there in the Ascot Hills, waiting for the sun to go down. And although this was a generally cloudless sunset (and thus not an #epicsunset that fills up Twitter and Instragram feeds), it was nonetheless awesome.

Do make a chance to get here before Springtime ends; the hills are nice and green and native wildfllowers are known to grow here!

↧

The Militant's Epic CicLAvia Tour XVI!

March 2, 2016, 4:17 am

≫ Next: Erotic City (The Epic Militant Prince Map of Los Angeles)

≪ Previous: It's Always Sunny in El Sereno, Part II: The Ascot Hills Adventure

Interactive map! Click and drag to navigate. Larger map here!

It may be technically winter, but CicLAvia season has begun! We're now here in 2016 for the 16th-ever CicLAvia. This time around we return to the 818, albeit much more northeast to and through the communities of Panorama City, Arleta and Pacoima (which, if you're a longtime reader of This Here Blog, is Tongva for "Place of Running Water").

This is also the first CicLAvia in a truly suburban setting, the first CicLAvia that is not directly accessible by any of the Metro Rail lines (tsk tsk tsk...shame...), the first CicLAvia to cross an active mainline railroad track (be watchful at San Fernando Road, folks - you all wanna live to go to the next CicLAvia, right?) and the farthest from Downtown Los Angeles (18.4 miles away).

Now, being mostly suburban, The Militant thought this route would just have like less than 10 points of interest. But digging deeper into the community history, and making an unspecified number of Militant reconnaissance missions to the northeast SFV, The Militant came up with 20 - count 'em - TWENTY points of interest on or around the CicLAvia route (He could have gone with 22 but, The Militant does this stuff for free, so don't push it, K?)!

You'll also notice that The Militant has abandoned his old arbitrary CicLAvia route version numbering system, just because it's a pain in the ass to keep track of, so from here on out, he'll go Super Bowl/Olympics on y'allz and use Roman numerals. So get ready for sweet XVI!

Now before we begin, The Militant would like to name the Official Theme Song of the XVIth CicLAvia (You may or may not get a personal hug or high-five from The Militant if he hears you blast this song from your mobile sound system on Sunday):

Read on, and you'll see why. Come on, let's go!

1. The Plant/Site of GM Van Nuys Assembly
2003/1947
7876 Van Nuys Blvd, Van Nuys

This ginormous, sprawling car-oriented shopping center on the east side of Van Nuys Boulevard where one can catch a movie, buy some hardware or satisfy their "IN-N-OUT URGE" originally began its life as a large General Motors automotive plant (hence the name), pumping out Chevrolet trucks, other Chevy auto models, Buicks, Oldsmobiles and Pontiacs for nearly half a century, built mostly by residents who lived nearby, before closing down in 1992 to satisfy AQMD requirements. The plant was torn down six years later and Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude resurrected the site into the ginormous shopping center in 2003. GM still operates a testing facility east of the stores. The Militant may or may not have written part of this blog post at the Starbucks (his cup may or may nor have read, "Milton").

2. Kaiser Permanente Panorama City Medical Center
1962
13651 Willard St, Panorama City

Another major employer that made Panorama City is Kaiser Permanente's Panorama City Medical Center. Though it opened in 1962, it was envisioned as far back as 1948 when industrialist Henry Kaiser developed his residential neighborhood (more on this later), and a large plot of land by Roscoe and Woodman was set aside for the construction of a hospital.

3. Site of Van Nuys Drive-In/Vista Middle School
1948
15040 Roscoe Blvd, Van Nuys

In the post-war area, not only did the Panorama City community flourish with homes, shopping and industry, but what more appropriate way to take your shiny new Chevy made down the street to watch a drive-in movie? In the SFV, the Drive-In was king, but every king's reign comes to an end. The Van Nuys Drive-In was the last drive-in theater in The Valley, eventually sporting three screens (in 1983) with a capacity for nearly 900 cars. The drive-in closed for good in 1992 and was demolished in 1998. The property was purchased by the LAUSD, which built Vista Middle School on the site in the early 2000s.

4. Panorama Mall
1955
8401 Van Nuys Blvd, Panorama City

When it comes to shopping centers in the San Fernando Valley, North Hollywood's Valley Plaza might have been the pioneer, the Topanga Plaza might be the first enclosed mall (1964) and the Sherman Oaks Galleria might get credit for being ground zero of 1980s "Valley Girl" culture, but Panorama Mall deserves its own induction in the 818 Mall of Fame. It was part of Kaiser and Burns' plan for Pano to surround their hood with commerce and industry, as a place, unlike the regional shopping center behemoths of the time, where residents can simply ~~walk to~~ not have to drive very far to. Upon its opening as "Panorama City Shopping Center," it sported The Valley's flagship Broadway department store. It also housed Orbach's, Robinson's, and Montgomery Ward. In the mid-1960s, the shopping center focused on the indoor mall format. Having endured the decades, Panorama Mall was given a long-overdue internal remodeling a few years ago and now sports over 50 stores.

5. Chase on Chase
2009 (Built 1965)
8450 Van Nuys Blvd (corner Chase St - get it?), Panorama City

You would think that this location would be the product of some clever marketing. But corporations don't think that way. Rather, it was a matter of happenstance. Originally established as a Home Savings of America in 1965, it went under the guise of Washington Mutual in 1998 until WaMu was eaten up by J. P. Morgan Chase Bank a decade later. As fate would have it, this Chase Bank is on the corner of Van Nuys Boulevard and none other than Chase Street. You can't make this stuff up, folks. Now if there was ever a high-speed chase that ended up here, The Militant would explode.

6. Plaza del Valle
2000
8610 Van Nuys Blvd, Panorama City

Plaza del Valle (Plaza of the Valley), originally built in the 1970s as a strip mall is an outdoor shopping court, nestled behind the nondescript storefronts on the east side of Van Nuys Blvd between Chase and Parthenia streets (and the perfect counterpoint to the mostly-indoor Panorama Mall down the block), was heavily influenced by Downtown's Olvera Street. The old strip mall was re-imagined and re-built in 2000 by its non-Latino developers to serve Pano's growing Latino community. The complex features retail shops and stalls, eateries, fountains and an entertainment stage.

7. Pacific Electric San Fernando Valley Right of Way
1913
Van Nuys Blvd at Parthenia St, Panorama City

Now that The Militant made his epic Pacific Electric Archaeology Map and detailed where every passenger Red Car line went in Southern California, you all should know by now that Van Nuys Boulevard used to be a PE right of way (and if you didn't, then THE MILITANT IS DISAPPOINTED IN YOU!) So you wouldn't be surprised at all that the westward sweeping curve on Parthenia Street is where the line, which reached this part of The Valley in 1913, diverges from Van Nuys Blvd and continues westward, then northward again to San Fernando. Due to the rising costs of maintaining and operating the line (and not because of some silly Roger Rabbit Judge Doom conspiracy), it was partially shut down in 1938 (years before the supposed conspiracy happened, BTW...but no matter how many facts get shown in your face, you still continue to believe it, right? RIGHT?) up to Sherman Way, and the entire SFV line was closed in 192 (y'allz should have that memorized by now...).

8. Kaiser Homes
1948
Area bordered by Van Nuys Blvd, Osborne St, Woodman Ave & Roscoe Blvd, Panorama City

Whatup, homes? There's a bunch of them here east of Van Nuys Blvd here in Pano. When World War II was winding down in 1945, real estate developer Fritz B. Burns and industrialist Henry J. Kaiser purchased 400 acres of former dairy farms and alfalfa fiels for $1 million to build their own planned residential community consisting of affordable, pre-fab, single-story homes on winding streets to break up the SFV grid monotony. They built it, and they came.A General Motors factory set up shop down the street, space was reserved for a future hospital, and nearby breweries and aerospace companies also generated employment centers. A large shopping center was built, and Mr. Burns (no, not that one) brought his own personal reindeer to the Panorama Mall to delight shoppers each holiday season (and also found it an opportunity to market some houses to them). Of course, back then in the era of discriminatory housing covenants, you had to be white (and purely white, to be exact) to own these homes, a practice that was in place until the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1968. Today, the majority of residents who live in the former Kaiser Homes development are non-white and primarily of immigrant background -- predominantly Latino, as well as Filipino and Thai, providing the proverbial middle finger of justice extended to the legacy Burns and Kaiser.

9. Marty McFly House
1985 (Built c. 1950s)
9303 Roslyndale Avenue, Arleta

Months after Marty McFly traveled into the future, it couldn't be more appropo to take a short detour from the CicLAvia route southeast down Canterbury Ave, left on Kagel Canyon and right on Roslyndale to see the very house which portrayed the McFly family residence in the "Back to the Future" movie saga. NOTE: This is a private residence, please do not bother the current occupants, and please refrain from shouting, "HELLO, MC FLY?!" outside.

10. Back to the Future "Lyon Estates" Location
1985
Sandusky Ave at Kagel Canyon Street, Arleta

And if you haven't felt enough of The Power of Love yet, head back onto Kagel Canyon, turn right and stop at the intersection of Sandusky Avenue to see the very street where Marty McFly skateboarded down in the first "Back to the Future" film. It don't take money, don't take fame, don't need no credit card to ride this train (well, unless you're talking about a TAP card...).

11. Pacoima Mural Mile
2012

Van Nuys Blvd between Arleta Ave and Bradley St

Spurred by a local need to increase community pride and aesthetics, several local artists painted murals along the Van Nuys Blvd corridor in Pacoima and thus was born Pacoima Mural Mile. Famous native Ritchie Valens (more on him later) is a popular subject on these walls, as well as cultural icons from Frida Kahlo to La Virgen de Guadalupe to Danny Trejo. Think of this as an Epic CicLAvia tour within an Epic CicLAvia Tour! View the Pacoima Mural Mile map here: http://www.muralmile.org/#!/zoom/csgz/coq6

12. Ritchie Valens House
1947

13428 Remington St, Pacoima

This was the house that '50s rock star and Pacoima native Ritchie Valens purchased for his mother, Concepcion Reyes, in 1958 from the proceeds of his newfound "La Bamba" fame, and was also his final residence until The Day The Music Died on February 3, 1959. NOTE: This is a private residence, please do not bother the current occupants, and please refrain from shouting, "RITCHIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" outside.

13. Ritchie Valens Park
1994
10731 Laurel Canyon Blvd, Pacoima

The former Paxton Park, re-dedicated in 1994 to Pacoima's most famous native in order to spur community pride, Ritchie Valens Park isn't just a patch of grass with a famous person's name on the sign, it features a skate park, a baseball diamond, basketball courts, a swimming pool and a children's playground with historical and interpretive displays highlighting the life of the local Mexican American rocker, whose life was tragically cut short at the age of 17 on a Wisconsin plane crash. Weeeeeeeeeeeeell come on, let's go, let's go, go, everybody...to this nice little detour not too far away from the main CicLAvia route.

14. Metroink Antelope Valley Line/CA High Speed Rail Corridor
1876
Van Nuys Blvd at San Fernando Rd, Pacoima

This is the very first time a CicLAvia route will cross an active mainline railroad track, so please do not ignore the warning lights, bells and gates! These tracks were originally built in 1876 by the Southern Pacific Railroad to connect Los Angeles to Saugus, where continuing lines on to Ventura and the Antelope Valley were built. In the early 1990s, it was taken over by the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, otherwise known as Metrolink, for a commuter rail line from Union Station to Santa Clarita, which opened in October 1992. But on January 17, 1994, the earth shook violently and the 5/14 freeway interchange collapsed. To facilitate commuters coming in from the Antelope Valley during the post-Northridge Earthquake period, the line was extended to Lancaster (which wasn't planned to be built until 2004at the earliest under normal circumstances) thanks to FEMA funds and was opened IN ONE WEEK. In the near (or distant) future, running parallel to the existing railroad tracks will be the proposed California High Speed Rail system from San Francisco to Los Angeles (...which may or may not get built).

15. Tresierras Supermarket
1956
13156 Van Nuys Blvd, Pacoima

Established in San Fernando in 1944 to serve the growing Mexican American community in the area by Francisco and Pilar Tresierras while two of their sons served in World War II, and operating from this very location for 60 straight years, Tresierras Supermarket is a full-service
Latino supermarket featuring produce, dry goods, a carniceria and an in-house tortilleria. It's one of the long-time anchors of Pacoima's Latino community, serving local residents for generations. And we're quite sure that Ritchie Valens himself shopped here back in the day.

16. San Fernando Gardens
1942
10995 Lehigh Ave, Pacoima

This public housing project next to the northern terminus of the CicLAvia route features 448 apartments built in the World War II era by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles. It was built to house workers from the Lockheed aircraft factory in Burbank (though it's pretty far from Burbank -- no freeway and no PE line back n the day) and was unique in that it was racially integrated, and comprised the largest African American community in the San Fernando Valley at the time.

17. Ritchie Valens' Childhood Home
c. 1940s
13058 Filmore St, Pacoima

Though Ritchie Valens' birthplace is unknown, this was the very house where he spent most of his childhood in (after living briefly with an uncle in Santa Monica as a kid). At the age of 9, he taught himself how to play guitar at this very house and took it to Pacoima Jr. High School where he performed for his classmates and joined a local band, The Silhouettes as their singer, until he was discovered by record label owner Bob Keane, and the rest was history.

Duuuuude. The 4.2-mile CicLAvia route is kinda short. Let's go a little farther, shall we? Continue on Van Nuys and make a right on Foothill...

18. Discovery Cube Los Angeles
2014 (Built 2007)
11800 Foothill Blvd, Lake View Terrace

The de-facto successor to the nbow-defunct Childrens Museum of Los Angeles, which operated out of the Civic Center for most of its 20-year existence, this building was originally built in 2007 to house an expanded version of the museum. but after the nonprofit went bankrupt in 2009, this building sat as a white elephant on the corner of Foothill and Osborne for seven years, until the City entered a partnership with Santa Ana's Discovery Science Center and operated the intended Children's Museum site as "Discovery Cube Los Angeles" in 2014. But despite the museum's corner location, it's a horribly pedestrian-unfriendly experience just getting to the dang place, where one has to enter through the Hansen Dam Recreation Area's main entrance on Osborne Street, and drive some distance before entering the Discovery Cube parking lot. Whatup with that?

19. Site of Rodney King Beating
1991

Foothill Blvd, east of Osborne St, Lake View Terrace

Twenty-five years ago this weekat this very spot (just behind the Discovery Cube building on Foothill) was where African American motorist Rodney King was beaten by four mostly-white LAPD officers after a brief freeway chase (they didn't televise those things back then). But they did televise the grainy VHS handicam video (no smartphones back then, kids) that was shot by local resident George Holliday, who lived in the apartments on the north side of Foothill. The beating, after airing on KTLA a few days later, sparked outrage in the city's African American community and called to attention the issue and history of police brutality. The acquittal of the four cops over a year later triggered the largest riots in Los Angeles' history.

20. Hansen Dam
1940
11770 Foothill Blvd, Lake View Terrace

Built in response to the Great Los Angeles Flood of 1938 that caused catastrophic flooding near the Los Angeles River in The Valley, the City tapped the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a 2 mile-long, 97 foot-high flood control dam on the site of Homer and Marie Hansen's horse ranch (apparently you get naming rights in exchange for eminent domain). It's designed to contain and control runoff from the San Gabriel Mountains, entering the dam area from Bug Tujunga Canyon, where water ultimately enters the Los Angeles River via the Tujunga Wash (and millions of gallons of water just get wasted in the ocean...). But the area, which also sports a large park and recreation area, can also be a part of Los Angeles' water future as the area sits on a large aquifer. The LADWP has long-term plans to clean up the SFV aquifer in the future to allow more harvesting of local groundwater (which currently comprises 10-15 percent of our city's water source), and open the possibility of stored or recycled water.

Oh yeah, if you made it this far, DO NOT PASS UP THE OPPORTUNITY to ride your bike on the dam itself (there's a dedicated bike path)!

Happy CicLAvia and STAY MILITANT!

↧

Erotic City (The Epic Militant Prince Map of Los Angeles)

May 6, 2016, 12:16 am

≫ Next: The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XVII!

≪ Previous: The Militant's Epic CicLAvia Tour XVI!

View larger map here.
Dearly beloved...

We R gathered here to salute this man called Prince Rogers Nelson, who left this life 4 the afterworld on April 21. Though he's undoubtedly associated with being a proud hardcore native of Minneapolis, Prince has left his mark on the City of Angels as well, even briefly claiming residence here in 2006.

Prince also associated himself with a few Los Angeles-area natives in his career: Revolution band member, keyboardist Lisa Coleman is a native Angelena (and half-Mexican). And protege and "Purple Rain" co-star Apollonia Kotero was born and raised in Santa Monica.

In tribute 2 a major icon of The Militant's generation (an unspecified generation lettered somewhere between W and Y), on the day that this city throws a public memorial event at City Hall, The Militant has decided to make another one of his Epic maps, this time saluting Prince. Sure, you would expect such a map to be made by The Militant Minneapolitan, but it's not like this town doesn't love purple things originally from Minnesota.

This map contains movie and video shoot locations, recording studios, his onetime residence in the hills above West Hollywood and every single one of the concert venues he ever graced the stage on in this town. After all, this town gave made literally made him a star. Did you know that Prince played his first concert outside of Minneapolis right here in Los Angeles?

He no doubt played at all the major concert venues in town, with The Forum being the place he played in the most, having graced the stage 23 times there. Prince was also a man ahead of his time, realizing the potential of Downtown Los Angeles, where he not only shot music videos and films here, but opened a night club in DTLA, just eight months after the Los Angeles Riots.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE EPIC MILITANT PRINCE MAP OF LOS ANGELES!

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The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XVII!

May 11, 2016, 12:39 pm

≫ Next: The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XVIII!

≪ Previous: Erotic City (The Epic Militant Prince Map of Los Angeles)

View larger map here!
The 17th CicLAvia is upon us this Sunday, and it takes us to Watts and the historically industrial cities of southeaster Los Angeles county. First off, for those who haven't been to the area before, this map might not make sense; only a quarter of the route falls within the city of Los Angeles, but it made a lot more sense once you see that it ties together several pedestrian-oriented retail corridors: Pacific Boulevard in Huntington Park, South Gate's Tweedy Mile and Lynwood's Plaza Mexico shopping center. And unlike the last CicLAvia in the San Fernando Valley, this one is accessible by both the Metro Blue (Firestone and 103rd St stations) and Green (Long Beach Blvd station lines.

The Militant visited the area last weekend for his Militant research and discovered this region is the land of historic movie theatres, formerly the home of several large industries (which, though have been gone for over 30 years, their effect on the area is long-lasting) and a local burger chain called Bobo's Hamburgers. But there are other great places to eat along the route, as you'll see below.

The Militant creates these guides to give the CicLAvian a deeper understanding of the history and the living community along these streets, so if you learned something (or have something to add), please share in the comments below or share via a tweet.

You know you've been waiting for it, so here's The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XVII!

1. California Theatre
1925
6528 Pacific Blvd, Huntingron Park

This CicLAvia route is full of historic theatre buildings, and the first stop on the Epic CicLAvia Tour is definitely one of them. Built in 1925 as the 1,500-seat Fox California Theatre, it was designed by architects George Lindley and Charles Selkirk, who also designed Glendale's Alex Theatre. The cinema screened Fox pictures from the 1920s on. In the 1980s, the cinema became a three-plex, and later became a two-screener, finally closing in 2006.

2. Eastern Columbia Building
c. 1930s
6604 Pacific Blvd, Huntington Park

Most of you are familiar with the emerald-colored Eastern-Columbia Outfitting Company's onetime flagship store building in Downtown Los Angeles along Broadway, but the California store chain also had a location right here in Huntington Park. And like its famous Downtown mother, this one had a pyramid-shaped roof and a clock. Today, the building houses a jewelry store and a clothing outlet.

3. Warner Theatre
1930
6714 Pacific Blvd, Huntington Park

This next historic theatre was built in 1930 as part of the cinema chain owned by Warner Bros. Pictures to showcase their latest releases (which included the Warner Beverly Hills, San Pedro's Warner Grand Theatre and the Warner (now Wiltern) on Wilshire. Architect B. Marcus Priteca, who also designed the San Pedro and Beverly Hills Warner theatres, as well as Hollywood's Pantages Theatre, drew up this 1,468-seat movie palace, which eventually became part of the Pacific Theatres chain. In the 1980s, the cinema became a two-plex, specializing in peliculas en Español, eventually closing down in the 1990s. In the 21st century, there has been a move to restore the theatre to its former glory, especially after the city of Huntington Park designated it a historic building, but the current owner has adaptively reused the venue as a retail space.

4. Underground Arcade
C. 1980s
6901 Pacific Blvd, Huntington Park

Deep within the recesses of Huntington Park lies a subterranean arcade, usually open from 11 a.m. yo midnight every night that offers unlimited play of its video, pinball and billiard games for just $3 ($2 after 6 p.m.). Yeah the place is all tagged up, maybe 20% of the video games don't work, and you wouldn't want to go near the restrooms, but there's no place like it anywhere in Southern California (props to Erick Huerta @ElRandomHero for the tip).

5. Los Angeles Railway Right of Way
1920-1963
Pacific Blvd, Huntington Park

The northern leg of Sunday's CicLAvia route was once traversed by the Yellow Cars of the Los Angeles Railway, our more urban-centric streetcar system of the early half of the 20th century. The Los Angeles Railway's "J" line ran from Jefferson Park in the west through Downtown Los Angeles and down into Huntington Park, The line terminated a few blocks from here, turning east on Florence Avenue before zig-zaging south again on Seville Avenue down to Santa Ana Street. The line ran from 1920 to 1963 and was one of the last Yellow Car lines in operation.

6. Bobo's Hamburgers
7300 Pacific Blvd, Walnut Park

In the mood for a burger round these here parts? You might want to forego an In-N-Out, a Fatburger or any burger joint using a variant of the name "Tom" for one of the Bobo's Hamburgers (no, not Bob's Burgers) locations, which are native to this area. The family-run chain opened in 1975 and in addition to this location on Pacific Blvd, you can find two other Bobo's Hamburgers on this CicLAvia route on 2709 E. Firestone in South Gate, 1220 E. Firestone in South Los Angeles, and one just a few blocks east of Long Beach Blvd, on 3390 Imperial Highway in Lynwood. This is Bobo's Country. You cannot escape the wrath of Bobo's Hamburgers.

NOTE: If heading west on Firestone Avenue, skip to #18.

7. Elizabeth Bakery
1977
8903 Long Beach Blvd, South Gate

At this first junction of CicLAvia legs at Long Beach Blvd and Firestone Ave is this South Gate institution that has been baking up cakes, bread, pan dulce and pastries since 1977. In addition to baked goods, they also sell bionicos, juice, raspados, sandwiches, tamales, and also will bake whole turkeys to order during the holiday season.

8. Teatro Los Piños (Vogue Theatre)
1937
8903 Long Beach Blvd, South Gate

This Art Moderne-style cinema, originally called the Vogue Theatre (strike a pose) was built in 1937 and designed by celebrated and prolific architect S. Charles Lee, who designed 250 theatres in the Los Angeles area, and also crafted the Los Angeles Theatre and Tower Theatre on Broadway in DTLA, The venue, now known as Teatro Los Pinos still functions as an active teatro today, hosting concerts, comedy shows and occasional movie screenings.

9. Site of General Motors South Gate Assembly
1936
2720 Tweedy Blvd, South Gate

Much like the last CicLAvia in Panorama City, South Gate's economy largely revolved around a General Motors automobile factory, which employed as many as 4,000 workers and operated from 1936 to 1982, churning out Buicks, Oldsmobiles and Pontiacs throughout much of its history. There were also two other auto factories in the area - a Studebaker plant in Vernon and a Willy-Overland facility in Maywood. After the 1960s, the GM factory made Chervrolets and Cadillacs before closing down for good in 1982 due to lower American car sales and air quality concerns. The site was later razed and is now the site of the LAUSD's South East High School complex.

NOTE: If heading east on Tweedy Blvd, please skip to #14.

10. Sushinaloa
2013
10350 Long Beach Blvd, Lynwood

Imagine if there were a food truck out there on the streets that sold Mexican-style fusion sushi. Now imagine that there's no food truck but an actual brick-and-mortar eatery in Lynwood, right along the CicLAvia route, no less. Enter Sushinaloa, the best Mexican-Japanese fusion in the Los Angeles area since Fernando Valenzuela met Hideo Nomo. But apparently Sinaloan-style sushi is an actual thing, and The Almighty Jonathan Gold has given this place his imprimatur, so, hit up this place before everyone else does.

11. Plaza Mexico
2004
3100 E Imperial Hwy

This massive suburban-style retail center is a re-creation of Mexican plazas (sort of like the Plaza del Valle (from the March CicLAvia) on steroids), with a layout inspired by the ancient city of Monte Alban, is part-outdoor mall, part-tourist attraction. And in a total So Cal twist, the owners of the mall are San Gabriel Valley-based Korean real estate developers. Donald and Min Chae owned the former Lynwood Marketplace and Lynwood Town Center and, dictated by demographics and dollars, decided in 2001 to invest $20 million into transforming their shopping centers into a Mexican-themed marketplace.

12. Pacific Electric Lynwood Depot
1917
3780 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Lynwood

Originally built in 1917 on 11453 Long Beach Blvd to serve the Pacific Electric Railway's Santa Ana Line, the Mission Revival-style station was moved in the 1980s and later restored to make way for construction of the 105 Freeway. Now the offices of the Greater Lynwood Chamber of Commerce. Contains plaque dedicating building to former Lynwood mayor John D. Byork.

13. Weird Al Yankovic's Childhood Home
3636 Burton Ave, Lynwood

A short bike ride south of the CicLAvia route will take you to the childhood home of Lynwood's greatest product, parody rocker "Weird Al" Yankovic. This video confirms that he grew up in this modest home next to Lynwood Middle School on Burton Avenue, where he lived here from 1959 to the early '70s, when he went off to college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. It was here where he started to learn the accordion, after a door to door salesman offered music lessons to a six year-old Alfred Yankovic. And the rest is music history. Note: This is a private residence, please do not bother the current occupants.

14. Tweedy Mile
Tweedy Blvd between State St and Hunt Ave, South Gate

The city of South Gate, as you might remember, was named after the South Gate Gardens of the old Cudahy Ranch.The old downtown of South Gate evolved into Tweedy Mile, the main drag of the town, featuring shops, restaurants, entertainment venues and civic and cultural institutions. The street was named after the Tweedy Family, headed by patriarch R.D. Tweedy, who came here from Illinois in 1852. The family soon owned about 2,000 acres in the area. Tweedy Mile is also home to the city's two biggest annual events, the Tweedy Mile Classic Car Show in March and the Tweedy Mile Festival in June.

15. Allen Theatre
1924
3809 Tweedy Blvd, South Gate

Yet another historic cinema along the CicLAvia route, this single-screen 673-seat movie house opened as the Garden Theatre (a reference to the old Home Gardens tract it was located on) in 1924, and was remodeled in 1936 when it was renamed the South Gate Theatre. In the 1940s, it was purchased by the Allen Brothers, who ran several cinemas in the area. It was showing films until the 1980s, and later became a live music venue. It was closed in 2007, but recently undergone renovation, and some of the South Gate locals have told The Militant that the theatre will re-open this October as an arts venue. Even better, the Allen will give a sneak preview this Sunday and reportedly be open during CicLAvia with live music performances!

16. South Gate Veteran's Memorial Fountain
1954
Tweedy Blvd and Walnut Ave, South Gate

Located on the south end of South Gate Park, this memorial fountain, originally dedicated to South Gate's World War II and Korean War vets, and later dedicated to veterans of all wars since, features an eternal flame (how cool), while a memorial marker lists the names of local vets. Also of note is the U.S. Army M60A3 Patton tank on display, located a few yards west of the fountain.

17. Legacy High School Complex
2012
5225 Tweedy Blvd, South Gate

The eastern terminus of Sunday's CicLAvia route is along the campus of the Los Angeles Unified School District's Legacy High School Complex, which opened in 2012 after a quarter century of planning. Originally the site of a pesticide factory and other heavy industrial properties, the 36-acre plot of land was the center of controversy as the ground was heavily contaminated, mirroring the LAUSD's more (in)famous toxic campus project site, the Belmont Learning Complex just west of Downtown Los Angeles. It took an entire decade and $22 million to excavate the land 30 feet deep and import uncontaminated soil into its place to build the school campus.

18. Firestone Tire & Rubber Factory
1927
2525 Firestone Blvd, South Gate

One of South Gate's largest industries was this Firestone Tire and Rubber factor, built on a former 40-acre bean field y along Firestone Ave (hence the street name) between Alameda Street and Santa Fe Avenue. Company owner Harvey Firestone (no, not Harvey Fierstein) made the first tire himself, which rolled out of the assembly line on June 15, 1928. The Firestone factory was also followed up in the region by other large tire factories, such as Goodyear and Uniroyal, and for a time Los Angeles was the largest tire-producing region in America. The plant closed down in 1980 when the plant's 2,000 workers were laid off. Coupled with the GM plant's closure in 1982, that ended an era of heavy industry in the city of South Gate. But unlike the GM plant, the Firestone tire factory's building still stands today (East Los Angeles College has been eyeing it as a satellite campus).

19. Alameda Corridor
2002
Along South Alameda Street

Adjacent to Alameda Street is a set of below-grade freight 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 directly to railroad yards southeast of Downtown Los Angeles.

20. 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.

21. Ted Watkins Memorial Park
Dedicated 1995
1335 E. 103rd Street, Watts

Originally built in the 1930s to memorialize Western actor Will Rogers, this 28-acre Los Angeles County park was re-named in 1995 after the late Ted Watkins, a local community activist and the founder of the Watts Labor Community Action Committee, which he started in 1965, just months before the Watts Riots. The aftermath of the rebellion heightened the purpose of his nonprofit agency, which dealt with social services, community development and empowerment for the Watts area. The park also features a youth baseball field built by the Los Angeles Dodgers, a newly-built community swimming pool and gym with basketball courts.

22. Hawkins House of Burgers
1939
11603 Slater St, Watts

Forget those lame-ass newbie overpriced East Coast transplant burgers. Forget even In-N-Out, Tommy's or Fatburger. You might even need to forget Bobo's. Because Hawkins House of Burgers might just be the king of them all. The Hawkins family has been operating malt shops, markets and this eatery since 1939 (though the current hamburger business opened in the mid-1980s). They make all their burgers to order, use fresh angus beef, real smoked bacon (none of that supermarket stuff) and fresh ingredients, all at real decent, unpretentious prices. You might have to wait as long as 20 minutes, but it's all worth it. Hawkins House of Burgers is perhaps the biggest institution in Watts after Simon Rodia's steel towers, and some of the burger stacks are probably just as tall.

23. Pacific Electric Watts Depot
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.

24. Watts Towers
1921
1727 E. 107th St, Watts

You all know the story by now: Italian immigrant Sabato "Simon" Rodia collects scrap reinforced steel bars (using the adjacent Pacific Electric Santa Ana Line tracks as a fulcrum to bend them) and other found scrap material from rocks to broken glass to bottle caps, and builds 17 structures on his property over a period of 33 years. Then in 1955, he up and left for Northern California and never came back. Now that you know the story, see them up close for yourself. You don't deserve to call yourself an Angeleno if you've never visited the Watts Towers before.

25. Locol Watts
2016
1950 E. 103td St, Watts

LocoL, the affordable healthy fast food venture from Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson, opened here in January and had lines around the block. Things have settled down since them (The Militant ate here last Saturday and was the only one inside when he ordered), but no doubt the joint's proximity to CicLAvia would no doubt start those lines up again. Get your Burgs, Foldies and Yotchays and wash it down with some Apple Line agua fresca.

Enjoy CicLAvia, see you or not see you on the streets this Sunday and STAY MILITANT!

↧

The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XVIII!

August 12, 2016, 11:06 pm

≫ Next: 2017: A Militant Preview

≪ Previous: The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XVII!

Interactive map! Click here for larger version!

Welcome to CicLAvia XVIII, the third CicLAvia in 2016! Our Epic CicLAvia Tour returns to iconic Wilshire Boulevard for the first time since April, 2014, but this time it's a little, uh. Not As Epic - in size at least. But it's for good reason -- Metro is diggin' on Wilshire again for the new extension of the Metro Purple Line subway, which will take a while. Now why the fine folks at CicLAvia didn't do a re-route up Western for a block and run a parallel route west on 6th Street, ending at Fairfax is beyond The Militant's control, but hey. that only means it's Cut-And-Paste time for this edition of the Epic CicLAvia Tour post, which he decided to slap together and do a quickie update for continuity's sake. Enjoy CicLAvia on Sunday. You may or may not see The Militant on the streets!

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

On this site is currently rising 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 and 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, which is being built at this moment!

The current construction site was the location of "The Big Pour" - which lasted from February 15 -16, 2014, where 21,200 cubic yards (81 million pounds) of concrete were continuously poured - earning it a Guinness World Record for that feat.

Before the skyscaper, the site was home of the Wilshire Grand Hotel, formerly (in reverse chronological order) the Omni Hotel, Los Angeles Hilton, Statler Hilton and Statler Hotel.

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.

The sculpture, though, has been out of service since Fall of last year, where it has been undergoing a restoration project, which will be completed later this year. Once finished, the flames will go off every hour on the hour. Now that is bad-ass.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

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

This 30- and 25- story highrise mixed-use apartment development is called "The Vermont" by J.H. Snyder Co. which opened in 2014. It's Metro-accessible, and it has a friggin'Pizza Rev, but who the hell can afford the rents for this place?

12. 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?

13. 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.

14. 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!

15. 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.

16. 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.

STOP! That's it folks. The route ends here. It goes no further. Maybe you can spend your extra time on this route walking up and down the street and playing some Pokemon GO (The Militant has heard there's a Scyther nest at Lafayette Park).

↧

2017: A Militant Preview

January 4, 2017, 3:07 pm

≫ Next: Los Angeles Is...Defined By Its Street Signs

≪ Previous: The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XVIII!

Whatup and Happy Militant New Year! Congratulations on surviving 2016 -- you've made it! We have a year ahead of us that may or may not be the greatest or worst year ever (of course he says that every year)!

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
16 - Kingdom Day Parade
Los Angeles' 32nd annual celebration of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday gets underway on the 16th 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.

18 - El Segundo's 100th Anniversary
The legendary South Bay city just below LAX, named after an oil refinery and the mythical place where countless A Tribe Called Quest fans have left their proverbial wallets, is turning 100 years old. Incorporated on January 18, 1917, the city will hold a Birthday Bash at El Segundo Library Park on Wednesday the 18th from 3-5 p.m. The city will also throw a Centennial Ball formal at the Automobile Driving Museum on Saturday, January 21st.Gotta get, got gotta get it.

28 - Dodgers 2017 Fan Fest, Dodger Stadium
Yes, we miss Dodger baseball. Yes, we miss Vin Scully. Yes, we came pretty damn close to our first World Series visit since '88. Yes, there's some [sighs] unfinished business from last season. But the core of last year's team is pretty much intact heading into '17, and hey, this free event at the Stadium will give us all an excuse to wear our Dodger Blue for the day.

29 - 2017 NHL All-Star Game, Staples Center
Staples Center again hosts the NHL's All-Star Game (perhaps the most inconsistent and confusing in format in all of professional sports), this time with the league celebrating its 100th anniversary.

FEBRUARY
4 - 118th 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 in Los Angeles for the 118th year. This year will be The Year of The Rooster (hopefully Huy Fong Foods will be a sponsor as its legendary Sriracha sauce was born on the streets of Los Angeles Chinatown), or, taking into account who's going to be in charge of this country in a few weeks, The Year of The Cock.

MARCH
5 - 626 Golden Streets
The San Gabriel Valley was all set to have a mega ciclovia event of their own on June 26 of last year (6/26, get it?), but the smoky side-effects of the San Gabriel Complex wildfireunfortunately put BikeSGV's plans on the back-burner (pun intended). Fortunately, it was re-scheduled for the much safer (and much cooler) 3/5/17, when fire danger is extremely low. This route will connect the SGV communities of South Pasadena, San Marino, Arcadia, Monrovia, Duarte, Irwindale and Azusa, and will be accessible via Metro Gold Line, of course.

8 - Wilshire Grand Center Grand Opening
At 1,100 feet at its tallest point, it may or may not be the tallest building in Los Angeles, or the West Coast, but it looks pretty damn awesome so far. Once the site of the World's Largest Concrete Pour, this building will open its doors as DTLA's newest hotel and be a shining new jewel in the city's skyline.

19 - XXXII Los Angeles Marathon
Running 26.2 miles from Elysian Park to Santa Monica, the Marathon this year is moved a month later to a less-rainy mid-March date, just before the Spring Equinox.

26 - CicLAvia - Culver City Meets Venice
The (count 'em) 20th CicLAvia will take us back to Culver City and Venice on a redux of the August, 2015 route. Only this time around, the folks at Tito's Tacos will not have a shit-fit at the idea of Washington Place being closed for the day and will enjoy the throngs of crunchy taco-munching cyclists queuing up on the sidewalk.

TBA - Los Angeles State Historic Park Re-Opening
Don't call it a comeback. Okay, call it a comeback, but it's been here for years. The former Southern Pacific freight train yard known as The Cornfield (due to corn sprouting out from seeds spilled from hopper cars), after much public wrangling, became Los Angeles State Historic Park in 2001, but was closed in 2014 for renovations and improvements. The park, which will re-open in Spring of this year, is guaranteed to knock you out.

APRIL
3 - Dodgers Opening Day, Dodger Stadium
It's tiiiiime for Dodger baseballllll, at long last.Welcome to the post-Scully era. Don't worry, we will brave this together. At least we know our Boys in Blue will be Playoff Material once again this season (here we go again!). This year the season opens with the very sad (and Kemp-less) San Diego Padres in town.

22-23 - Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, USC
Los Angeles' favorite annual literary event is back in April as the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books returns to the University of Southern California campus for the sixth time (and the first time Westsiders can travel to the bookfest via the Metro Expo Line).

29 - Los Angeles Riots 25th Anniversary
April 29, 1992 is more than just a Sublime song. This year, in a world without some of its major players (Rodney King and Darryl Gates are now gone), and in an era where the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the Trump Administration inevitably clash, whereby the mass media will again talk about race relations as a black-white binary yet again, whereby nothing has really changed. But The Militant digresses.

JUNE

2-4 - Lummis Day Festival, Highland Park
The 12th 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.

11 - CicLAvia - Glendale to Atwater
Ready for an all-new CicLAvia route? The second big Cicla this year will take you between Atwater Village and the city of Glendale. This must mean one thing - there will be an all-new Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour guide post to research and write! WOOT!

25 - Militant Angeleno's 10th Anniversary!
Ten years ago, a bored, frustrated and freakishly anonymous native Angeleno (with a penchant for referring to himself in the third person) took matters into his own hands and created what may or may not have been a cultural phenomenon with the debut of the Militant Angeleno blog! The city has or has not been the same ever since. But one thing is for certain -- his true identity has managed to remain a secret all this time! Celebrate with The Militant online and what may or may not be The Militant's first public appearance ever! Stay Tuned and #StayMili10!

JULY

8 - 9 - 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 37th Lotus Festival will feature the culture of Bangladesh. 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!

SEPTEMBER
1 - 24 - Los Angeles County Fair, Pomona
The best fair in all of Los Angeles County (well, okay, it's only county fair...) gets underway on September 1st. An annual tradition since 1922 (with the exception of the World War II years), it's time once again to load up an all that fried food.

4 - Los Angeles' 236th Birthday
Our beloved city turns 236 years old!

17 - Judgment Day for the Los Angeles 2024 Olympic Bid
The International Olympic Committee convenes on this date in Lima, Peru to decide the host city of the Games of the XXXIIIrd Olympiad, which will take place in 2024. Will Los Angeles or Paris get to host the summer games for a third time? Or will the IOC give it to first-timer Budapest? Stay tuned...There will be a public rally that day for Los Angeles 2024 supporters (of which there are many) to celebrate or not celebrate. The Militant, of course, may or may not be there.

20 - Culver City's 100th Birthday
The city that gave the world the Helms Bakery, the Spruce Goose, Drew Barrymore, MLB Hall of Famer Gary Carter, Tito's Tacos and The Wizard of Oz turns a century this year, having been incorporated on September 20, 1917. Whatever or whenever's planned, at least we can all ride the Expo Line to the big party.

OCTOBER
26 - Metrolink's 25th Anniversary
Believe it or not, this year, we will have regional commuter rail for a quarter century. Opened October 26, 1992, the system grew from three modest lines into the 'burbs into a seven-line, 534-mile network. Expect some 25th anniversary events, or at the very least some 25th anniversary logo sticker slapped on the commuter coaches.

27 - Grand Central Market's 100th Anniversary
Opened to the public on October 27, 1917, the granddaddy of Los Angeles food courts has been embedded into the historical and cultural fabric of our region. Hopefully the folks who run the market won't be too busy kicking out its longtime tenants to celebrate an entire century of feeding generations of hungry Angelenos.

TBA - 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 7th birthday on the streets where it (mostly) all began.

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 2018...

30 - The Forum's 50th Anniversary
Envisioned by Los Angeles Kings' daddy and former Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke as the regions premier indoor sports venue. the once-and-always Fabulous Forum has witnessed NBA championships, Olympics and countless concerts and events. On December 30th, The Forum celebrates half a century of its fabulousness.

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Los Angeles Is...Defined By Its Street Signs

January 12, 2017, 3:47 pm

≫ Next: El Centennial Party That's Segundo To None*

≪ Previous: 2017: A Militant Preview

The streets of Los Angeles are not just mere infrastructure, but they create geographical identities, local cultures, microcultures and sub-cultures, and become the live stage of the urban theatre of daily life in The City of Angels. And the most significant identifier of those streets are the City's street signs.

Since The Militant is celebrating his 10th anniversary online this year (#StayMili10), he'd like to revisit one of his most legendary, epic posts.

On March 24, 2011, The Militant wrote a post on the history of street sign styles in Los Angeles. It gave Angelenos the ability to distinguish between Blue Blades and Black Blades, Shotguns and Trapezoids.

It got such a reaction that it became the second-most read post ever on This Here Blog, and it also prompted a sequel later that month, going back farther into the history of Los Angeles street signs.

In fall of last year (meaning 2016, we can say that already), Filmmaker and Mar Vista resident Ian Rutherford completed a clever short film, $500 and four months in the making, called "LA.Is" that describes, though images of Los Angeles (and some neighboring city) street signs and set to a spoken-word poem (voiced by Tania Hunt) some of what Los Angeles represents.

Observe, and enjoy:

"The idea sort of came about just by driving around L.A.," Rutherford explained to The Militant via email, on the origins of his short film. "I'm a location scout and I kept seeing signs that were fun and unusual. Future street was the one that sort of convinced me to pursue the short. Also, I knew about Rutherford street several years ago and that was always in the back of my mind pushing me to do something."

Rutherford filmed the signs starting in June, 2016 and spent his weekends filming them, guided by a working Google map.

He also wrote the poem himself.

"Some verses came to me beforehand (sunset/sunrise). Some verses were written in the car (detour/chase/marathon). It was a slow writing process until I found the cadence in my head. Once I had that, it wrote itself...Every verse references something I love about L.A., even though it may seem abstract to others (future/vintage/future i was thinking about architecture, like Googie and Mid-Century). The only topic I didn't cover in verse is food. Never found the right way to express myself there."

Great work, Ian! The Militant was smiling under his camouflage bandana mask. No pictures of course, but take him at his word. Militant Approved!

↧

El Centennial Party That's Segundo To None*

January 19, 2017, 1:14 pm

≫ Next: The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XX!!

≪ Previous: Los Angeles Is...Defined By Its Street Signs

The northernmost city in the South Bay celebrated its 100th Birthday on Wednesday, exactly a century to the day the city that was named after an oil refinery was officially incorporated. Though a town settlement had existed just east of the coastal dunes on the former Rancho Sausal Redondo since 1912, the town was not formally incorporated as a city until January 18, 1917.

El Segundo...knows how to party...

Throughout its century-old history, El Segundo owes its claim to fame to Standard Oil, the aerospace industry, it's love-hate relationship with LAX, and a certain '90s hip-hop tune. The city is also the corporate home of such institutions as Mattel Toys, DirecTV and the Los Angeles Lakers.

The city luckily dodged the potential rain on this overcast day with a Birthday Bash at El Segundo Public Library Park, along the town's Main Street, just across from the city's eponymous High School (the on-location site for the '80s movie War Games and alma mater of baseball hall of famer George Brett), The family-oriented celebration had live entertainment in the park's gazebo, carnival games, a petting zoo, some really tall dude on stilts, a historic photo exhibition sponsored by the Friends of El Segundo Public Library, a centennial photobooth and the city's fire department had trucks on display. There was free food as well, though unfortunately it wasn't enchiladas and fruit punch, but there was free bottled water, kettlecorn and birthday cake. The city also sold El Segundo Centennial merchandise from a booth.

Photo time!

Historic pics!The Militant loves this kind of stuff!

When the party ended at 5 p.m., The Militant visited the El Segundo Public Library next door to check it out and also found a historical display of veterans' and other mementos:

El Segundo history on display at the library.

Thanks to a tip from Twitter user @fuccitim, it was on to the official unofficial after party just a half mile down the street to The Tavern on Main, where the 15 year-old local hang had food and drink specials for just 100 cents to celebrate the city's birthday.

100-cent specials at The Tavern on Main!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EL SEGUNDO!

The Militant spent $5 on his food and booze, which included two sliders, a gringo beef taco, a beer and his favorite - the historically-inspired "Standard Oil Birthday Shot" consisting of vodka, blue curacao and cranberry juice. Salud!

The city will also throw a Centennial Ball formal at the Automobile Driving Museum on Saturday. Tickets are reportedly sold out already (but if they're not serving any of those Standard Oil shots, then it's not worth it anyway...).

Though The Militant was just a clandestine interloper from the city on the other side of Imperial Highway, he had a great time on the city's centennial birthday, especially since he was more familiar with the coastal and business park periphery of the city than the quaint Main Street section of town. He also learned a few things from the event: That the town's old Pacific Electric station was demolished in 1970 (booo!) and that Mattel Toys runs a factory store that's open to the public.

But best of all, The Militant was happy that he finally found what he was looking for!

*You're next this September, Culver City. You gonna top this?

↧

The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XX!!

March 23, 2017, 5:41 pm

≫ Next: The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XXI!!

≪ Previous: El Centennial Party That's Segundo To None*

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

Ahhh, Spring is finally in the air. A time for more daylight, colorful native floral blooms, Dodgers baseball and...CicLAvia! The first Cicla of 2017 brings us back to a virtual re-run of the August 2015 "Culver City Meets Venice" route from The Heart of Screenland (which will be celebrating its 100th birthday this September) to Abbot Kinney's canal city via Mar Vista - although there's a minor modification - the addition of two streets and an alleyway forming a pedestrian zone in Mar Vista between Centinela and Grand View avenues.

This is the 20th iteration of CicLAvia, and The Militant still has yet to miss a single one. So for those of you 20-timers who will be on the streets this Sunday, The Militant will celebrate by pouring a Dos Equis at an unspecified bar or restaurant along the route. If you happen to spot him (not very likely, but who knows?) Then drinks are on The Militant!

You should know the drill by now, 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're also in the clear presence of its past -- this area was 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.

8. 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. King Fahad Mosque
1995
10980 Washington Boulevard, Culver City

This Islamic house of worship was built in 1995 as a gift from Saudi Prince Abdulaziz bin Fahad 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

During the last "Culver City Meets Venice" CicLAvia in August 2015, a minor controversy erupted when the restaurant's owner threatened to sue Culver City government for potential lost revenue due to the CicLAvia route, and everyone, including The Militant got all in on that, but ultimately, cooler heads prevailed, and after an intervention by the CicLAvia organization, Tito's Tacos warmed up to the route, and likely did a 180 once crowds queued up along their sidewalk service windows. Titogate 2015 was now history. The moral of the story? Never fear CicLAvia, and a little communication and understanding goes a long way.

12. 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.

13. The Mar Vista Pedestrian "Canals"
2017
CicLAvia route between Centinela and Grand View avenues

The end of the CicLAvia route might be more associated with canals, but this newly-added section of the course features a pedestrian-friendly (a.k.a. Dismount City, folks!) zone of activities in the Mar Vista area. The zone includes the Mar Vista Farmers' Market, a couple cafes, a yoga studio and a pet store that features a pet adoption event (on National Puppy Day Weekend, no less).

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.

16. 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"!

17. 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." The main Moderne-style school buildings, built in 1935-37 were designed by local architects John C. Austin and Frederick M. Ashley, who also designed the Griffith Observatory.
The campus is 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!

18. 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...

19. 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)!

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. 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.

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The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XXI!!

June 6, 2017, 3:12 pm

≫ Next: The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XXII!!

≪ Previous: The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XX!!

Interactive map! Click and drag to navigate. To view larger version, click here.

The 21st iteration of CicLAvia (and the second one of 2017) brings us the first all-new alignment since the Southeast Cities route from May, 2016. Which means...it's time for another Militant Angeleno Epic CicLAvia Tour guide!

[cue fanfare music]

This time around, we're on the second route not served by Metro Rail (though it is Metrolink-accessible), and visit the Los Angeles community of Atwater Village and the Jewel City of Glendale. Even though this route is a mini-CicLAvia route of just a little over three miles, there's tons of historical and notable points of interest along this route, and in fact, The Militant had to pare down the list just so he doesn't stay up until 5 a.m. like he usually does when he does these posts (ya, really)! So, without any delay...let's get it started!

1. Glendale-Hyperion Viaduct
1928
Hyperion Avenue, Silver Lake/Atwater Village

This 400 foot-long concrete arch bridge links the community of Silver Lake in the south with Atwater Village in the north, traversing the Los Angeles River below. Designed by Merrill Butler, who also designed another iconic Los Angeles River bridge downstream, the Sixth Street Viaduct (R.I.P.), the bridge replaced an old 1910 wooden crossing that was severely damaged during a 1927 flood. The current bridge was built later that year and opened in September 1928, which was also dedicated to World War I veterans and honorarily dubbed "Victory Memorial." In 1988, the bridge appeared in the movie, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?(and thus a smaller replica of the bridge was later built at Disney's California Adventure theme park in Anaheim, paying homage to the original Walt Disney Studios' neighborhood (located where the Gelson's supermarket stands today)). Recently, the bridge was Ground Zero in a 2013-2015 controversy over whether the eventual renovation of the bridge should be designed in a more bicycle/pedestrian-friendly manner vs. a more automobile-centric design.

The Militant visited this bridge in July of 2007 in a very early MA blog post.

2. Pacific Electric Bridge Abutments and Red Car Mural
1929 (dismantled 1955); 2004
Los Angeles River at Glendale Blvd, Atwater Village

If you follow The Militant, you should know by now that his legendary epic Pacific Electric Archaeology Map from 2015 features a set of seven concrete bridge abutments across the Los Angeles River as one of the remnant traces of Red Car infrastructure. A bridge once rested on these abutments from 1929 to 1955 that carried the beloved trolleys between Downtown Los Angeles to Burbank. In 2004, local Atwater Village muralist Rafael Escamilla painted a mural on one of the abutments, which faces Red Car River Park, which was part of the old trolley's right-of-way. The line continued up Glendale Blvd and on to Brand Blvd in Glendale, before veering west on Glenoaks Blvd to Burbank.

3. Black Eyed Peas Recording Studio
Opened 1996
3101 Glendale Blvd, Atwater Village

This nondescript brown two-story building on the corner of Glendale Blvd and Glenfeliz Ave features a recording studio (on the 2nd floor) owned by Los Angeles hip-hop/pop group Black Eyed Peas. Their first few albums were recorded here, including this '90s-era jam. Though the group uses more high-end recording facilities around the world, and will.i.am now has his own home studio in his Los Feliz residence, the facility is still used by members of the band and their extended musical family.

4. G-Son Studios/Beastie Boys Recording Studio
Opened 1991
3208 1/2 Glendale Blvd, Atwater Village

The Peas aren't the only hip-hop influence on da AWV. Groundbreaking NY rap trio the Beastie Boys transplanted themselves to this part of Los Angeles during the 1990s (influenced by their producer and musical collaborator, the Los Angeles-raised Mario Caldato, Jr.) and recorded the albums, Check Your Head,Ill Communication and Hello Nasty here in this loft space, known as G-Son Studios, located above today's State Farm insurance office. The facility was also the headquarters of the Beasties'record label and magazine, Grand Royal. The studio was sold in 2006.

Oh yeah, R.I.P. MCA.

5. Atwater Village Redwood Tree
1964
Glendale Blvd median at Larga Ave., Atwater Village

You don't have to travel 203 miles to a national park in the Sierra Nevadas to see a redwood tree -- you can see one right here in Atwater Village during CicLAvia! This lone redwood was planted in the Glendale Blvd median by community members in 1964 and today stands at nearly 90 feet tall. Each December, the redwood is lighted by the Atwater Village Chamber of Commerce as a Christmas tree and the lighting ceremony has been an annual holiday community event for over 20 years.

6. Seeley's Furniture Building
1925/1946
1800 S. Brand Blvd, Glendale

Built in 1925 as a Spanish Baroque bank building by local architect Alfred Priest, the George Seeley Furniture Company took over the building in 1931, expanded it in 1939, and in 1946 got the Streamline Moderne make-over that remains today. The furniture store with the iconic large red neon sign was in operation until 1994, when the company closed for good. The building underwent an $8 million restoration and re-opened in 2012 as a collection of leased offices and artists' studios now known as Seeley Studios.

7. Forest Lawn Memorial Park Glendale
1906
1712 S. Glendale Ave, Glendale

Past the world's largest wrought iron gates at the entrance is the original location of the Southern California cemetery chain and the final resting place of over 250,000 people, including the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Walt Disney (no, he was not frozen), Michael Jackson and someone you know. Forest Lawn was founded in 1906 by businessman Hubert Eaton, who wanted to re-invent the cemetery by doing away with large tombstones and emphasizing landscaping and art. He also innovated the industry with an on-site mortuary. The large white building at the top of the hill with the cross on top of it (changed to a star during the Christmas holiday season) houses a free museum with rotating exhibitions, as well as the world's largest framed canvas painting, the 195-foot long The Crucifixion, completed in 1896 by Polish artist Jan Styka, who brought it to the U.S. to be displayed at the St. Louis 1904 World's Fair. Too large to be transported back to Poland, it remained in the U.S. and was lost for years until Eaton bought it in 1944 and constructed the building to display it. The Militant once rode his bike here to pay his respects to a departed operative, but was told by security that bikes weren't allowed. He asked the security where in the Forest Lawn's policies were bikes not allowed (it does not appear in any signs in the park) and the security staff couldn't find it. So there.

8. Glendale Train Station
1924
400 W. Cerritos Ave, Glendale

Originally known as the Tropico depot (more on this later), this Spanish Colonial Revival station, designed by MacDonald & Cuchot and opened in 1924, was built by the Southern Pacific Railroad, eventually serving Bay Area-bound trains such as the Daylight and the Lark. Amtrak took over train service in 1971. In 1982-1983, the Glendale station was a stop for the short-lived proto-commuter rail experiment known as CalTrain which ran from Los Angeles to Oxnard for all but 6 months. In 1989, the City of Glendale purchased the station from the Southern Pacific and in 1992, the station found real commuter service in the form of Metrolink, which serves Ventura County and the Antelope Valley. The station was renovated in 1999 and expanded to a multi-modal transportation center.

9. Tropico
1887
Glendale south of Chevy Chase Drive

The southwestern section of Glendale was once an independent town named Tropico. With fertile soil formed by the floodplains of the nearby Los Angeles River, the area was famous for its strawberry farms. It also grew a business district centered at San Fernando Road and Central Avenue (pictured left), and Forest Lawn Memorial Park was born as part of Tropico in 1906. The town became incorporated in 1911, but in 1917 its residents voted to be annexed to Glendale. Not much remains of any reference of Tropico, except for the Tropico Motel (401 W. Chevy Chase Dr) and the Tropico U.S. Post Office (120 E. Chevy Chase Dr).

10. Dinah's Fried Chicken
1967
4106 San Fernando Rd, Glendale

Just a couple blocks west of the CicLAvia route is Glendale's iconic Dinah's Fried Chicken, serving its popular boxes of fried chicken and gizzards since 1967. Established by a group of golfers, the Dinah's soft-of-chain operated a handful of restaurants around Southern California that were independently owned and operated but shared common recipes and branding (the Dinah's Family Restaurant in Culver City is the other remaining establishment). The 2006 motion picture, Little Miss Sunshine made Dinah's world-famous as their brightly-colored fried chicken buckets were featured in the film.

11. Chevy Chase Drive
c. 1920s
Chevy Chase Drive, Glendale

When The Militant was much younger (known as Lil'Mil), he used to wonder, when the family car drove through Glendale, why that guy from Saturday Night Live had a street named after him. It turns out the street was not named after the comedian born Cornelius Chase of Fletch and Clark Griswold fame (the name was apparently a nickname given to him by his grandmother), but after Scottish folklore, namely a story entitled The Ballad of Chevy Chase. The story refers to an apocryphal battle (the "chase") in the Cheviot Hills (no, not that Cheviot Hills) of Scotland (a.k.a. "Chevy") that thwarted off an invasion of the country. Why the Scottish reference? The Jewel City was developed in the 1880s by Leslie Coombs "L.C." Brand, a Scottish American businessman and real estate dude, whose name adorns the city's main street. And also, if it's noot Scottish, it's crap!

12. Riverdale Roundabout
2008
Riverdale Dr and Columbus Ave, Glendale

Since the last CicLAvia (Culver City meets Venice) in March featured a traffic circle, it's only fitting that you visit Glendale's only traffic circle, where Riverdale Drive intersects with Columbus Avenue, just a few short blocks west of the CicLAvia route. In 2008, Riverdale became Glendale's bike-friendly guinea pig, with the street re-configured with bike lanes to form an east-west corridor linking various parks within Glendale. So yes, you can visit this traffic circle via Glendale's existing bike infrastructure.

13. St. Mary's Armenian Apostolic Church
1926/1975
500 S. Central Ave, Glendale

Los Angeles might have Little Armenia, but Glendale has Big Armenia, with a population of 40% of all Glendalians being of Armenian descent. Though Glendale has had an Armenian community dating back to the 1920s, the majority of them arrived in the late 1970s, when the diasporic Armenian community in Lebanon fled that country during its civil war, and when Armenians in Iran likewise left when the Shah fell from power and the current Islamic fundamentalist regime took over. They settled in Glendale as it was close to the existing Armenian community in East Hollywood (now Little Armenia), yet more affordable to live. In the 1990s, another wave of Armenians arrived in Glendale, this time from the former Soviet republic of Armenia, after the dissolution of the USSR. The community established its first house of worship in a small building on Carlton Drive in 1975, and in 1988, the growing congregation took over the 1926 Colonial-style former First Church of Christ Scientist on Central Avenue. Although the St. Mary's wanted to build a dome on the structure in the 1990s to match the traditional church architecture of the motherland, the building's historic preservation status prevented them from doing it.

14. Glendale Galleria
1976
100 W. Broadway, Glendale

Built as a means to invigorate the Glendale economy and to fill a regional void for The Broadway department store between Panorama City and Pasadena (the local chain was one of the mall's development partners and the anchor tenant), the Glendale Galleria opened on October 14, 1976. And while its sister shopping center in Sherman Oaks laid claim as the, like, total epicenter of 1980s Valley Girl culture, the more alliterate Glendale Galleria went on to become the fourth largest shopping mall in Southern California and the first location for chains such as Panda Express, The Disney Store and The Apple Store. Designed by architect Jon Jerde, its layout and style became an archetype for indoor shopping malls across the country during the 1970s and 1980s. The mall was expanded with a new eastern wing across Central Ave in 1983 and underwent a 21st century facelift in 2012 in the wake of the opening of its next-door neighbor, The Americana at Brand.

The Militant may or many not have had his first date at this mall. In November 1992, during his first visit to California after winning the presidential election, then-president-elect Bill Clinton did some Holiday shopping at the Galleria with a crowd of over 30,000 to greet him (The Militant may or may not have been there, and may or may not have caught a glimpse of him in his limo as he left).

15. Max's Of Manila Restaurant/Cattleman's Ranch
1980
313 W. Broadway, Glendale

In addition to a large Armenian community, Glendale is also home to a notable Filipino immigrant population. This rustic-looking building is the first American location (opened 1980) of a major Philippine restaurant chain, specializing in Filipino-style fried chicken (sounds like a culinary theme for this CicLAvia...). If this building looks familiar, the facade is used as the setting for Louis Huang's Orlando restaurant Cattleman's Ranch in the hit ABC TV series, Fresh Off The Boat.

16. Security Trust and Savings Bank/Site of Glendale Pacific Electric Depot
1923
100 N. Brand Blvd, Glendale

The first "high-rise" (as in over two stories) building in Glendale was this Classical style six-story building on the northeast corner of Brand Blvd and Broadway, designed by Alfred Priest (who also designed the Seeley's Furniture building down the street). This was the home of the Security Trust and Savings Bank, which was a popular local bank chain in Southern California at the time. The bank took over the former First National Bank of Glendale (founded by L.C. Brand) in 1921 and eventually became Security Pacific Bank, and is now part of the Bank of America borg. Before the bank building was built, this was the site of the Glendale Pacific Electric depot, built in 1906 to serve the electric railway line that ran up and down Brand Boulevard. L.C. Brand sought the help of his friend and fellow real estate guy Henry Huntington to build his electric trolley line through Glendale to help sell property tracts and to spur development. The rest is history. You can say the place has Brand's brand all over it. This building has a historical marker placed by the city recognizing the bank building's history and the PE station that stood here prior to it.

17. The Alex Theatre
1925
216 N. Brand Blvd, Glendale

Designed by the architectural firm of Meyer & Holler (who also designed Grauman's Chinese and Egyptian theatres in Hollywood), The Alexander Theatre (named after Alexander Langley, of the Langley family that operated theatres around Southern California at the time) opened in 1925 as a venue for vaudeville entertainment, silent movies and staged plays. In 1939 the iconic facade and spire was built, designed by Lindley & Selkirk. The theatre also features a Wurlizer pipe organ, which was played by a live organist, which was the typical soundtrack for silent movies. The design of The Alex made it a popular location for world premieres of motion pictures, and from the 1940s to the 1980s, it existed as Glendale's premier movie palace. It was renovated in 1993 and is now owned by the City of Glendale for arts programming (The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra makes its seasonal home here) and special events.

18. Porto's Bakery
1982
315 N. Brand Blvd, Glendale

Three things are absolutely guaranteed at Sunday's CicLAvia: 1) Sunny skies; 2) Smiling faces; and 3) A seriously long-ass line in front of Porto's.
The legendary bakery was founded by the Porto family, who fled Fidel Castro's Cuba in the 1960s. The original location was actually in Silver Lake, on Sunset Boulevard and Silver Lake Drive (Los Angeles' Cuban community was once concentrated in the Echo Park-Silver Lake vicinity). In 1982, the family moved the bakery to Glendale where they actually did it and became legends. After over 45 years in business, Porto's sells 1.5 million cheese rolls and about 600,000 potato balls each month, and a little Yelp hype last year didn't hurt either. Porto's now boasts locations in Burbank, Downey, Buena Park and soon in West ~~Covfeve~~ Covina. Soon, places outside of Southern California will be clamoring to have a Porto's in their town, and numerous Porto's imitators will open up, each with lookalike beige, brown and yellow boxes, boasting that they're better than the original. It's good that this CicLAvia route is only three miles, so you can enjoy the route in its entirety while spending most of your day in the Porto's line.

19. Glendale Federal Savings Building
1959
401 N. Brand Blvd, Glendale

All you Mid-Century Modern fetishists, prepare to have an archigasm at CicLAvia! This quirky 10-story building, originally the home of Glendale Federal Savings, was designed by Peruvian-born architect W.A. Sarmiento, who made some bank out of drawing up bank buildings. But this was his most well-known structure, recognized by the Los Angeles Conservancy, which features an external elevator bank. Glendale Federal merged with California Federal in 1998, and today it's part of Citi Bank. The building is now home to the Hollywood Production Center (despite not actually being in Hollywood).

20. Vierendeel Truss Bridges
1937-1938
Verdugo Wash at Geneva Street, Glendale
Verdugo Wash at Glenoaks Blvd, Glendale
Verdugo Wash at Kenilworth Ave, Glendale

We began our Epic CicLAvia Tour with a bridge, so it's appropo that we end it with a bridge. Verdugo Wash, a 9 1/2-mile tributary of the Los Angeles River, runs south from La Crescenta paralleling the 2 Freeway, and west paralleling the 134 Freeway, where it flows in to the river near the Los Angeles Zoo area. As a part of President Franklin Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration program, the War Department's U.S. Engineers (the predecessor of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) built a series of eight steel bridges (using local steel manufactured by Consolidated Steel Corp. of Los Angeles) traversing Verdugo Wash, all in the Vierendeel Truss design, which was invented in 1896 by Belgian engineer Arthur Vierendeel. Unlike standard truss bridges, there are no diagonal members. Glendale is the home of the only Vierendeel Truss Bridges in the United States, the first of which was built at the Verdugo Wash's Central Avenue crossing. Brand Boulevard had a twin bridge, which had a separate girder bridge for the Pacific Electric in the middle. In the mid-1980s, all but three of the bridges (at Geneva Street, Glenoaks Avenue and Kenilworth Avenue) were torn down by the City of Glendale and replaced with boring concrete bridges (You can say that Glendale had some truss issues). Today you can admire the last remaining Vierendeel Truss bridges in America.

The Militant wants to raise a fist and give massive props to the Tropico Station Glendale blog, which provided an additional source of research info for this post! Happy CicLAvia on Sunday, and see you or not see you on the streets!

↧

The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XXII!!

August 9, 2017, 1:04 pm

≫ Next: The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XXIII!!!

≪ Previous: The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XXI!!

Click here to view bigger version or to save on your mobile device!

Check out this slick video of the CicLAvia route:

And check out The Militant's video on San Pedro, made in 2011:

2017 marks the year when we go on a not one, not two, not three, not four but FIVE CicLAvia schedule. The third route of 2017 and the 22nd event takes us down south - way south - to the Harbor area, where we ride between the port communities of Wilmington and San Pedro, both communities that have been part of the City of Los Angeles since 1909. The Militant was extra excited as this is an entirely new route, which meant hours upon hours of Epic Militant Research that needed to be done to bring this to you. So without delay, here we go, yo!

NOTE: When sharing pictures or selfies of any of these locations along your CicLAvia ride on Sunday, don't forget to tag #EpicCicLAviaTour when posting on social media!

1. Phineas Banning Museum
1864
401 East M St, Wilmington

It's appropo that we start our journey (both literally and metaphorically) here. Phineas Banning was one of them 19th century white dudes who basically did something and changed the shape, size and function of the city of Los Angeles forever. Born in Delaware in 1830, he worked as a young man in the shipyards of nearby Philadelphia. He moved to Southern California at the age of 21, but instead of doin' it wagon style cross-country, he took a long-ass boat ride to pre-canal Panama, and took another long-ass boat ride on the Pacific side to this sleepy fishing village called San Pedro, where he worked a number of odd jobs, including driving stagecoaches (it's like being an 1850s Uber driver). The stagecoaches worked between San Pedro and Los Angeles, and after he made some mad bank driving ~~Ube~~ stagecoaches, he launched his own startup - BanningStagecoaches.com. Then he started buying up vacant marshland property near San Pedro and named it after his Delaware hometown of Wilmington. He also was a big visionary type and thought the whole San Pedro-Wilmington are would make a nice port for Los Angeles. Back then, the city was looking at making Santa Monica a port. That big thing he did? He went next level on all them fools and built a railroad from Los Angeles to San Pedro. The City was all like, "Dude, we got a port now." The reason why the City of Los Angeles has a big skinny stick in the bottom is because of Banning. The reason why millions of tons of cargo goes in and out of ships in this area today is because of Banning. The reason why the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are the largest ship terminal complex in the United States is because of Banning. The Greek Renaissance Revival structure in the middle of this 20-acre park in Wilmington was his residence from 1864 to 1885. The City of Los Angeles bought the site in 1927 for historic preservation.

2. Avalon Palm Trees
1931
Avalon Bl between Pacific Coast Highway and East I St, Wilmington

Palm trees are everywhere in Los Angeles. Okay, so what? Well, these palm trees had a purpose for being here. Considering the City of Angels will be hosting its third Olympic games in 2028, these 218 Mexican Fan Palm trees are a remnant of an early Olympic legacy. They were planted here along Avalon Boulevard in 1931 as part of a citywide beautification effort for the 1932 Olympic Games. Speaking of Avalon Boulevard, did you know that it was originally named Canal Street before 1926? There was once a canal there, which was filled in 1851 and turned into a dirt road.

3. The Don Hotel
1929
906 Avalon Blvd, Wilmington

Opened in July, 1929, The Don Hotel (not to be confused with this guy, but rather its owner, a man named Don Hundredmark) was the most prestigious hotel in Wilmington during the pre-war period. Constructed to cater to tourists going to and from Catalina Island, it became an important gathering place in the area, with luminaries such as William Randolph Hearst and Bing Crosby once staying there. After falling into decay through the 20th century, the building was restored in the 1990s and turned into senior apartments in 1999. The landmark “The Don” neon sign atop the building is a restored sign put up in 2000 that was given the Hollywoodland treatment – it once read, “Don Hotel.”

4. Granada Theater
1926
632 Avalon Blvd, Wilmington

Once Wilmington’s landmark neighborhood Vaudevillian, and later motion picture, theater, it was built with with Renaissance Revival influences and a lighted prominent marquee. The only example of the property type remaining in the area. It was built by C.L. Post (of the Post Cereal family) in 1926 as part of the West Coast Theatres chain. In 1927, Fox Theatres purchased West Coast Theaters and changed the name to the Fox Granada. After falling into decay, it was resurrected (no pun intended) as a church in the 1990s, but was sold in 2015. It is now owned by the nonprofit Wilmington Granada Friends group that hopes to bring it back to its original use as a community entertainment venue.

5. Wilmington Municipal Building
1928
544 N. Avalon Blvd, Wilmington

Originally built in 1928 as the Seaboard Branch of California Bank, this Neoclassical style building has Corinthian columns and pilasters and decorated arches. And that corner clock! More recently, the building, now owned by the City of Los Angeles, is used as the office of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce. It was also the former field office for Councilwoman Janice Hahn during the 2000s decade.

6. Wilmington Waterfront Park/Harry Bridges Blvd
2011
Harry Bridges Blvd between Lagoon Ave and Figueroa St, Wilmington

Wilmington Waterfront Park, which opened in 2011, was created a decade ago as a project to provide a 30-acre buffer zone in the form of public open space between the Port of Los Angeles and the residential community in Wilmington. The park features green space/landscaping, paths and walkways, benches, water features, pedestrian bridges, restrooms, drinking fountains, binoculars and a children’s playground. The project also widened Harry Bridges Boulevard.

And who, exactly, is Harry Bridges? He was a 20th century labor leader in the West Coast best known for forming the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) in 1937. The union is a huge presence in the blue-collar port communities of Wilmington and San Pedro. Labor unions are richly embedded in San Pedro history, as you will see ahead.

7. The Southernmost End of Figueroa Street
Figueroa Street at Harry Bridges Blvd, San Pedro

This is the extreme southernmost end of the longest street entirely within Los Angeles City Limits (sorry, Sepulveda, you go through so many other cities), Figueroa was named after General Jose Figueroa, the governor of Mexican-Era Alta California from 1833 to 1835. The 25 mile-long thoroughfare runs up through Harbor Gateway and South Los Angeles through Downtown Los Angeles to the extreme opposite end, just north of the 134 Freeway, right below Eagle Rock’s eponymous geological landmark (Yes, that picture is a trapezoid style sign taken in Downtown Los Angeles, thanks for paying attention).

8. Gaffey Street Incinerator (a.k.a. The “San Pedro” Tower)
1954
1900 Gaffey St

This 154-foot tower, viewable from the CicLAvia route, as well as to all vehicles rolling into ‘Pedro on the 110 South, was constructed in 1954 as a smokestack for the City of Los Angeles’ Harbor Incinerator. See, back in the old days, there were no landfills and certainly no recycling, so people burned their trash and it made the air all crappy, but hey, that’s the way they rolled. Fortunately, it only polluted San Pedro for three years, as it was shut down in 1957 due to air standards requirements (Hooray!). Somewhere along the way, the letters “SAN PEDRO” were painted on the smokestack, and it became a beloved landmark and a source of local pride for residents of ‘Pedro. There are no plans to demolish the smokestack, despite it not being operational for 60 years.

9. Vincent Thomas Bridge
1963
CA State Route 47 between Harbor Blvd and Ferry St, San Pedro

As the sole suspension bridge in Southern California, the teal-colored Vincent Thomas (no, not "St. Vincent Thomas") Bridge has traversed the Port of Los Angeles' Main Channel between mainland San Pedro and Terminal Island for over 50 years. The 1,500 foot-long passage was named after the California State Assemblyman who represented the San Pedro area from 1941 to 1979 (longest of any Assemblymember) and lobbied since the 1940s to have a large bridge built that would support the trucking traffic coming into and out of the harbor area. For its first 37 years, tolls (25 cents, later 50 cents) were collected (Assemblyman Thomas himself paid the first toll on opening day) for westbound traffic, which were discontinued in 2000 after the bridge paid for itself. At 335 feet tall, its towers are the tallest structures in the Harbor area, which are also lit at night. Also famous (and infamous) as a location for movie shoots and suicides, the bridge is San Pedro's iconic landmark, which can even be seen (on a clear day, of course) from Griffith Park.

10. Battleship USS Iowa
1942/2012
Berth 87, 250 S Harbor Blvd, San Pedro

This storied US Navy battleship served in both the European and Pacific theatres of World War II (including carrying President Franklin Roosevelt to an important wartime summit with Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin), the Korean War and the Cold War. In April 1989, an unusual turret explosion onboard killed 47 sailors, sparking numerous conspiracy theories as to its origin. The ship was retired in 1990 and was moored in Philadelphia and Newport, Rhode Island before being sent to Suisun Bay in Northern California where it stayed from 2001 to 2011, and finally arrived in San Pedro in 2012 where the Navy donated it for its present use as the Pacific Battleship Museum.

11. San Pedro Waterfront Red Car Station
2003
6th St and Sampson Way, San Pedro

The Militant is known for sharing many stories about the Red Cars of the Pacific Electric Railway, that once rolled through Southern California, including creating an Epic Militant Pacific Electric Archaeology Map in 2015. In 2003, a small, 1.5-mile re-creation of part of a Red Car route known as the San Pedro Waterfront Red Car Line was built along the waterfront between the Cruise Center on Swinford Street and 22nd Street as a tourist attraction using two replica cars and, occasionally, one restored historic Red Car. In September 2015 the Waterfront Red Car ceased operation due to the re-alignment of Sampson Way. The City of Los Angeles, which operated the line plans to revive the trolley line in a few years after the redevelopment of the Waterfront area (of course, the City said the exact same thing about Angels Flight Railway in Downtown after they dismantled it in 1969, and it took 27 years to re-open that…). Anyway, one of the stations of the San Pedro Waterfront Red Car is here, unused. It’s kind of a shame The Militant has to point this out as another Red Car relic.

12. Los Angeles Maritime Museum/Municipal Ferry Terminal
1941
Berth 84, 600 S. Sampson Way, San Pedro

Built as part of President FDR’s Works Project Administration program, this Streamline Moderne building, designed by Derwood L. Irvin opened in 1941 as a ferry terminal. From 1941 to 1963, a pair double-decker ferry boats shuttled between downtown San Pedro and Terminal Island, just across the channel, which was home to several tuna fish canneries, and until 1942, a thriving Japanese community. Supplanted by the opening of the Vincent Thomas Bridge, the ferry operation ceased the day before the bridge opened. In 1976, the former ferry terminal building was adaptively re-used as the Los Angeles Maritime Museum, the largest of its kind on the West Coast, with exhibits dedicated to San Pedro’s fishing, commercial diving, merchant marine and naval histories.

13. San Pedro Municipal Building
1928
638 S Beacon St, San Pedro

One of three satellite city halls in the City of Los Angeles (the other two are in Van Nuys and West Los Angeles), this seven-story building, designed by Charles O. Britton opened in 1928 (the same year as our current main City Hall building), houses the local offices of 15th District Councilman Joe Buscaino, several City departments, a satellite City Council meeting chamber and a currently-unused courthouse and jail on the top floor.

14. Site of Liberty Hill
1923
5th St and Harbor Blvd, San Pedro

This site was ground zero of the San Pedro Maritime Strike, a major labor action in Spring of 1923 by the Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union 510, which involved 3,000 longshoremen protesting low wages, poor working conditions and the state’s Criminal Syndicalism Law, which was responsible for the imprisonment of several union activists. The strike immobilized 90 ships in the Port of Los Angeles. The strikers occupied a parcel on this site, which they called "Liberty Hill." On May 15, writer and activist Upton Sinclair got involved in the strike and read the Bill of Rights aloud to the picketers. He and three others were arrested by the LAPD, of which the arresting officer told him, “We’ll have none of that constitution stuff.” That incident led to the formation of the Southern California chapter of the ACLU. The union finally got most their demands in a contract over a decade later, in 1934. The Syndicalism Law was eventually ruled unconstitutional in 1968. The event also inspired the name of a nonprofit social justice organization that was founded in 1976. A historical marker on this site commemorates the strike and Sinclair's arrest.

15. Warner Grand Theatre
1931
478 W. 6th St, San Pedro

This iconic Art Deco landmark was designed by B. Marcus Priteca, best known for designing the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack Warner (a.k.a. The Actual Warner Brothers) commissioned Priteca to design a trio of Southern California Art-Deco Warner chain theaters in Beverly Hills, Huntington Beach and San Pedro. This is the only surviving example of the three. Known as "The Castle of Your Dreams,” it was the first sound-equipped theater in the South Bay area and had all of the facilities required for Vaudeville shows (which were never performed). After being in decay since the 1960s, the City of Los Angeles purchased the building and is used for arts and culture events. It has also been undergoing a slow but ongoing renovation process intended to restore the theater to its 1930s condition.

16. Croatian Cultural Center of Greater Los Angeles
1928/1997
510 W. 7th St, San Pedro

Over 10,000 Croatian Americans live in and near San Pedro, the largest concentration in the western US. Most of them settled in this coastal Mediterranean village that reminded them of home from the 1860s to the 1960s. Notable Croat Angelenos include Rudy Svorinich, Jr., Los Angeles City Councilman from 1993 to 2001 and Carmen Trutanich, Los Angeles City Attorney from 2009 to 2013 – both native San Pedrans. But longtime State Assemblyman Vincent (Tomasevich) Thomas, yes, the bridge's namesake, was a 2nd-generation Croat American raised in San Pedro. The most well-known Croat from the area was Martin J. Bogdanovich, a Croatian immigrant who founded a tuna canning empire in 1917 that was later known as the Star-Kist Tuna Company. In 1997, Svorinich arranged to have the City purchase this former 1920s bank building for use as a cultural center for the Croatian American community. Recently, there was a proposal to move the Croatian Consulate General from Bentwood to this building, but apparently things didn't go as planned.

17. Fort MacArthur (Middle Reservation)
1914
Pacific Ave and Meyler Rd, San Pedro

Named not after the same military MacArthur guy as MacArthur Park, but in fact his father, Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur (a man so nice, he was named twice), this installation was originally designated by President Grover Cleveland in 1888 for use as a military installation. It was formally established in 1914 and used as a major U.S. Army training ground for World War I soldiers. It continued its purpose in World War II as a defense installation along the Pacific coast.The Fort site actually occupied a large part of southern San Pedro -- the location close to the CicLAvia route is known as the Middle Reservation, which housed barracks and administration buildings and still is run today as a military installation, this time since 1982 as an annex of the Los Angeles Air Force Base. The Upper Reservation once housed barracks and a missile launch site and is now Angels Gate Park, which is also home of the Ft. MacArthur Museum. The Lower Reservation, which housed ships and amphibian vessels, is now the Cabrillo Beach Marina.

See you or not see you on the streets this Sunday! Happy CicLAvia!

↧

The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XXIII!!!

October 5, 2017, 2:49 am

≫ Next: The Militant's Epic CicLAvia Tour XXIV!!!!

≪ Previous: The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XXII!!

Interactive Map! Click on green points to view hotspots, or click here for larger view.

It's October, which means we celebrate the 7th anniversary of CicLAvia, its 23rd iteration, and say "hola" to the HOLA route (Heart of L.A.), which is not necessarily the original CicLAvia route, but does contain some elements of it, and pretty much the centralized essence of it.
If this route seems somewhat familiar, it's a modification of the October 5, 2014 route, minus the long eastward jaunt through Boyle Heights and into East Los Angeles proper. Unfortunately we're not going to go that far this time. but fortunately, it won't be so damn hot like it was that day, either! But lest you think this Epic CicLAvia Tour post is just some cut-and-paste job from the 2014 guide, he did care enough to make a few additions this time around.
So there it is folks, take it:

1. Eastside Luv
2006 (Built 1940)
1835 E. 1st St, Boyle Heights

One of The Militant's favorite hangouts in the Eastside, this bar, started by a bunch of friends who grew up in nearby City Terrace, took over the former Metropolitan bar eight years ago and updated it to a more contemporary Eastside-style flavor. Don't call it gentrification, call it gentrification. In the decade or so of the establishment's existence, it has already established its own traditions, namely the Thursday night themed karaoke nights, paying tribute to artists such as Latin superstars Juan Gabriel, Selena and Esteban Morrissey.

2. Mariachi Plaza
1889
1st St and Boyle Ave, Boyle Heights

This is the new town square for Boyle Heights, where Mariachi musicians have been hanging out to get picked up for since the 1930s. The Kiosko, or bandstand, that sits in the plaza is actually not that historic. It was given as a gift from the Mexican state of Jalisco, who literally shipped it over in 1998 where it was assembled in place. But it only gets used once a year for the Santa Cecilia Festival around every November 21.
The plaza is also home of the Metro Gold Line station of the same name, which opened in 2009. The unique lending library Libros Schmibros relocated here in 2011. This place could warrant a Militant blog post in itself -- no, an entire week of posts! Don't miss the Farmers Market events there every Friday and Sunday!

3. Boyle Hotel (Cummings Block)
1889
103 N. Boyle Ave, Boyle Heights

This brick Queen Anne-style building, built in 1889 and designed by architect W.R. Norton was one of the first commercial buildings in Boyle Heights, and is one of the longest-standing commercial buildings in all of Los Angeles. The hotel was an important social and political center in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and in the 1960s, started to become a popular lodging spot for Mariachi musicians. It recently underwent a major renovation which created 51 low-income housing units and three street-level retail units, one of which will be the new home of nearby Libros Schmibros bookstore.

4. Simon Gless Farmhouse
1887
131 S. Boyle Ave., Boyle Heights

Back in the totally radical '80s...That's the 1880s, Boyle Heights was an open, rural area and French Basque immigrant Simon Francois Gless built a Queen Anne style house on his sheepherding farm at this location. Today, the house is a City Historic Cultural Monument and is a home that's rented out to -- Mariachi musicians! Just a few blocks west of here is Gless Street, and you might have heard of Simon's great-granddaughter -- actress Sharon Gless, who starred in the series Cagney and Lacey, which aired a century after her arrière-grand-père first settled in Boyle Heights.

5. Neighborhood Music School
1947 (Built 1890s)
358 S. Boyle Ave, Boyle Heights

The Neighborhood Music School is exactly what it is. But it's also a Boyle Heights institution. Originally founded 100 years ago when it was located on Mozart Street (orchestral rimshot), the school moved to this Victorian home in 1947 where it still offers music lessons to local youth and the public can drop by on weekends to attend free recital concerts.

6. Sakura Gardens/Jewish Home For The Aging
1974/1916
325 S. Boyle Ave, Boyle Heights

With Boyle Heights being a historically Jewish and Japanese community, how's this for an ultimate Boyle Heights institution? This property was originally built in 1916 as the Jewish Home for the Aging (now operating in Reseda), and in 1974, the Keiro Senior Health Care organization, basically their Japanese American counterpart. In 2016, nonprofit Keiro sold the facility to the for-profit Pacifica Senior Living, though not without controversy. The new owners renamed it "Sakura Gardens." With the Hollenbeck Palms retirement home just down the street (and site of the John Edward Hollenbeck Estate, remember?) Boyle is a popular corridor for Senior Livin.'

7. Metro Division 20 Subway Car Yard & Site of Old Santa Fe LaGrande Station
1992 / 1893
320 S. Santa Fe Ave (visible from the 4th Street Viaduct), Arts District

Take a break from riding/walking/skateboarding/pogo-sticking/etc. and take a glance off the north side of the bridge from the west bank of the River. This facility is where the 104 Italian-built subway cars of the Metro Red and Purple line cars are stored, repaired, serviced and cleaned. This was also the temporary storage and repair site of the Angels Flight railway cars after the fateful 2001 accident. The Militant actually visited this facility back in May 1992.

The subway cars are also serviced on the site of the old Santa Fe Railway La Grande Station (hence the name of the street) that was on Santa Fe and 2nd. Built in 1893, it was precisely where midwestern transplants arrived in Los Angeles after paying their $1 train ticket from Chicago. In 1933, the landmark dome was damaged by the Long Beach Earthquake and subsequently removed. In 1939, it was rendered obsolete by the opening of the new Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal a few blocks north.

8. Site of Southern Pacific Arcade Station
1888-1914
4th and Alameda streets, Downtown Los Angeles

Before there was a Union Station, there were various rail passenger terminals in Los Angeles, many of them just a short distance from the Los Angeles River. On what currently stands as a large shopping mall, this was the original site of the Southern Pacific Railroad’s Arcade Station which served passengers up until 100 years ago. A popular landmark of this station was a young palm tree, which was moved a century ago to Exposition Park where it stands today, much taller, in front of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Unfortunately for indie rock fans, the Arcade Station was not devastated by a Fire, but was dismantled and replaced by a new station, the Central Station, located one block south.

9. Site of Metro Regional Connector Little Tokyo Station
2021
1st Street and Central Avenue, Little Tokyo

Just a few years from now, Metro will open its Regional Connector project, a new subway under Downtown Los Angeles that will re-align three light rail lines into two and provide continuous, transfer-free service from Azusa to Long Beach and East Los Angeles to Santa Monica. Although Little Tokyo already has a Gold Line station just yards away, that will be demolished and the station replaced with a new underground facility where the current construction activity exists. It's rather fascinating, and it's one way Little Tokyo will more resemble Big Tokyo. The businesses around the station have been impacted by construction, so make sure you support them, not only during CicLAvia but after!

10. Astronaut Ellison S. Onizuka Space Shuttle Memorial

1990

Astronaut Ellison S Onizuka and San Pedro streets, Little Tokyo

Nestled in Little Tokyo’s Weller Court shopping center, just behind Shinkichi Tajiri’s Friendship Knot sculpture, is a seemingly random model of a launch-position space shuttle and its booster rockets. But upon closer inspection it’s a memorial to Ellison S. Onizuka, the Hawaii-born NASA astronaut who in 1985 became the first Japanese American in space. Later that year, he was the Grand Marshal of Little Tokyo’s Nisei Week Parade. But on January 28, 1986, Onizuka and six other astronauts were on that fateful final mission of the space shuttle Challenger, which exploded following its launch. The local Japanese American community created a memorial organization in Onizuka’s name that awards science scholarships to Japanese American youth, and in 1990, this 1/10th-size scale model of the shuttle, built by Isao Hirai of Hawthorne, was dedicated as a memorial monument to the astronaut.

11. Site of Terasaki Budokan2019
237 S. Los Angeles Street, Little Tokyo

Another anticipated addition to Little Tokyo is this budokan (Japanese for "martial arts hall"), which has been a long-standing dream for the Japanese American community, going back over 40 years. After a long period of fundraising and dealing with bureaucratic red tape, the facility, named after the late Dr. Paul Terasaki, whose foundation kicked in $3.5 million of the project's cost, broke ground this past Summer. A percentage of the funding was also contributed by the LA84 Foundation, which came from the profit surplus from the 1984 Olympics. After this venue opens in 2019, might it become a karate or judo venue for the 2028 games?

12. Site of Historic Broadway Station
2021
2nd and Spring streets, Downtown Los Angeles

The CicLAvia route also follows part of the Metro Regional Connector route, with the second of the three new stops being here on Broadway and 2nd Street, which will serve the historic theater district, Gallery Row and parts of the Civic Center.

NAVIGATIONAL NOTE:
• If heading north to Chinatown, skip to #22.
• If heading south to the Theatre District, skip to #17.

13. Pacific Electric Tunnel
1925
Toluca Street south of 2nd Street, Downtown

For 30 years, Los Angeles' first subway tunnel allowed the Pacific Electric's Red Cars to bypass the traffic of Downtown's surface streets and sped up the travel times to places like Burbank, Santa Monica or the San Fernando Valley before it was abandoned in 1955. Soon after, the area surrounding the tunnel portal and adjacent electric power substation became blighted and a haven for the homeless and graffiti artists, while the tunnel itself became part garbage dump, part urban spelunking adventure (The Militant has been in the tunnel before). In 2007, a large apartment building designed for upscale, gentrifying types was built on the site of the Red Car yard, thus blocking the tunnel and dashing any hopes of it being revived as part of our modern rail system (it's been holding up well structurally for nearly 60 years without any maintenance whatsoever). But if you look at the back of the property, you can see the boarded-up tunnel with an artistic homage to its former purpose (and do browse the apartment building's lobby for some PE photos and diagrams).

14. Vista Hermosa Natural Park

2008

100 N. Toluca Street, Echo Park

The Militant loves to poke fun at the failures of the Los Angeles Unified School District, but once in a while, those failures turn out to be wonderful things. Take for instance the Belmont Learning Center, at one time the LAUSD’s costliest boondoggle, which was stalled and scaled back due to environmental concerns (there used to be oil wells around here). The school district gave up a portion of its land to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, who in turn built a really beautiful oasis of California native plants and a killer view of the DTLA skyline. The Militant covered its opening back in 2008. It’s more than worth visiting during CicLAvia, or at any other time.

15. Bob Baker Marionette Theater

1953

1345 W. 1st St, Echo Park

Los Angeles native Bob Baker, who has been working puppets since the age of eight, and has built an impressive resume doing puppetry for various television and movie projects, founded this theater with Alton Wood in 1961, purchasing this single-story building, formerly a scenery workshop for the Academy Awards. Since then, he has been running America's longest-operating puppet theater company, even to this day at the age of 90. Going to this theater is one of those things every Angeleno must do before they die (or move away -- same thing). In 2009, the building became a legit Historic-Cultural Monument of the City of Los Angeles.

16. Echo Park Recreation Center
1948
Glendale Boulevard at Temple Street

You might pass this tennis court and nearby swimming pool every day and wonder, "Who the hell would put a tennis court/swimming pool right next to a freeway?" Well, no one put them next to a freeway, but they put the freeway next to them. Before 1948, Echo Park wasn't just a pretty little lake with lotus flowers and paddle boats, but it was a park park, with recreation facilities and everything. It stretched as south as Temple Street. But it stood in the path of the almighty Cahuenga Parkway (now the Hollywood Freeway, or "The 101"), which cut the park in two. Hmm. That sounds familiar...

• South Spur to Broadway Theatre District:

17. Bradbury Building
1893
304 S. Broadway, Downtown

A building that's famously meh on the outside, but OMG from the inside, this building has been featured in movies from Chinatown to Blade Runner to 500 Days of Summer. Designed by Sumner Hunt and modified by George Wyman, this 5-story structure was designed to look like the 21st century from 19th century eyes. Despite the ahead-of-its-time design, this building has nothing to do with sci-fi author Ray Bradbury, but was named after developer and 1800s rich dude Lewis Bradbury.

18. Grand Central Market
1917
317 S. Broadway, Downtown

Everyone knows this is Los Angeles' premier public marketplace, and the Militant probably doesn't need to include this since you may or may nor already be getting your Eggslut on (The Militant, on the other hand, prefers tacos and tortas from Roast To Go, and will incite a riot in the event that eatery is kicked out by gentrification). But The Militant is including it in this Epic CicLAvia Tour guide only for the fact that Grand Central Market is turning 100 years old this year! The market will have a day-long 100th birthday celebration on Friday, October 27.

19. Biddy Mason Park
1991
331 S. Spring St (entrance on Broadway), Downtown

Born as a slave in Georgia, Bridget "Biddy" Mason was a renaissance woman of her time. Having followed Mormon settlers west, she gained her freedom when California became a slavery-free Union state. As a nurse, she founded the first child care center in Los Angeles and later became a lucrative property owner and philanthropist, having founded the First AME Church, now a major institution in Los Angeles' African American community. She died in 1891 and was buried at ...Evergreen Cemetery (which you might have also seen earlier...see how things all tie together?). A century after her passing, this mini-park in DTLA, on the site of her house, was built and dedicated.

20. Broadway-Spring Arcade Building
1924
541 S. Spring St (entrance on Broadway), Downtown

This unique building is actually three, opened in 1924 on the site of Mercantile Place, a 40-foot street cut between 4th and 5th streets connecting Broadway and Spring. Mercantile Place was a popular shopping and gathering locale in the early 1900s. Having fallen into decay by the 1970s, it was recently renovated and is now famous for, some of the newest, hottest eateries in town (Guisados DTLA is located here, BTW). It also becomes an artistic venue during the DTLA ArtWalk.

21. Clifton's Cafeteria
1935
648 S. Broadway, Downtown

The sole survivor of 10 kitschy and theatrical themed cafeterias founded by Clifford Clinton around Southern California (and now you know what inspired the Fry's Electronics stores), this location known as Brookdale, was the second in the chain and the most iconic. The current incarnation of the restaurant opened in 2015 after half a decade of renovation by new owner Andrew Meieran, who kinda made it quasi-hipsterfied, but at least preserved the decor even though the food costs like twice as much as it used to. But do go down to the basement level, near the restrooms, just to glance at the world's oldest continuously-lit neon light.

• North Spur to Chinatown:

22. U.S. Federal Courthouse

2016

145 S. Broadway, Downtown

This big glass cube that is responsible for blocking your view of the Downtown Los Angeles skyline from Grand Park used to be a hole in the ground was once the site of the Junipero Serra State Office Building, which was damaged in the 1994 Northridge Earthquake and abandoned and demolished in 1998. This 10-story, 400-foot-tall U.S. Federal Courthouse building (don't we already have a few of those?), designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill, opened in 2016. Do check out the embossed bald eagle situated over the main entrance on 1st Street.

23. Site of 1910 Los Angeles Times Bombing

1910

Northeast corner of Broadway and 1st Street, Downtown

This longtime empty lot, previously identified in this CicLAvia tour as the foundation of a state office building condemned after the 1971 Sylmar Earthquake has some additional history. It was recently dissevered to be the location of the 1910 bombing of the (then) Los Angeles Times building, which happened 104 years ago this week. The dynamite bombing was discovered to have been the work of Ortie McManigal and brothers John and James McNamara, all affiliated with the Iron Workers Union, in what was meant to protest the newspaper's staunchly anti-union practices. 21 people died when the 16 sticks of dynamite exploded just outside the building at 1:07 a.m. on October 1, 1910, the explosion was exacerbated by natural gas lines which blew up a large section of the building. The Times since built a new building in its place, and later relocated across 1st Street to its current location. Today, the lot is being readied for an expansion of Grand Park.

24. Site of Court Flight
1904 (demolished 1943)
Broadway between Temple and Hill streets, Downtown

With Angels Flightfiiiiiiiiiinally up and running again (fingers crossed), it's time to pay tribute to the city's other funicular, its cousin to the northeast, Court Flight. Built in 1904, it went up the northern end of Bunker Hill and was next to a former road called Court Street, hence its name. Even shorter than its more famous cousin at 200 feet, it ran steeper at a height of 200 feet. It was burned by a fire in 1943 and never reconstructed. The hill was eventually chipped away. The north side of the stairways going up to the Court of Flags (wonder if that was intentional there) in today's Grand Park is the precise location of ol' Courty.

25. Hall Of Justice
1926
Temple Street and Broadway, Downtown

No, you won't find Superman or any of the Super Friends here. But this building, the oldest surviving government building in the Los Angeles Civic Center, was built in the mid-1920s as the original Los Angeles County Courthouse and Central Jail (which once housed the likes of Busy Siegel, Sirhan Sirhan and Charles Manson), as well as the headquarters for the Sheriff's Office, the District Attorney and the County Coroner. This Beaux Arts-style building was designed by Allied Architects Association, an all-star team of local architects put together to design publicly-funded buildings. The building is currently undergoing a major renovation project to modernize the facilities and repair damage from the 1994 Northridge Earthquake. It is slated to re-open as a LEED Gold Certified building (gotta be sustainable, y'all) in 2015, and the Sheriff's and District Attorney's offices will return.

26. Fort Moore Pioneer Memorial
1957
451 N. Hill St, Downtown

Way, way, waaaaay back before we had tall building and freeways, Downtown Los Angeles (well Los Angeles, period back then) had a bunch of hills, Bunker Hill being the most famed one. There was also Fort Hill, the site of a Mexican-American War encampment. On July 4, 1847 the facility was called Fort Moore (and the hill Fort Moore Hill), after Captain Benjamin D. Moore of the U.S. 1st Dragoons regiment, who was killed six months earlier in a battle near San Diego. The 1st Dragoons and the Mormon Batallion established the new fort and raised the U.S. flag during the first-ever observed Independence Day in Los Angeles. This event was immortalized in a bas-relief stone monument made in the 1950s. Speaking of forts, the very street you're riding (or walking, or skating, or scootering, or stand-up-paddling, or pogo-sticking) was once called "Fort Street," which inevitably led to directional problems some six blocks south of here. The monument also includes a fountain, which was shut off in 1977...due to the drought at the time. So where's the actual hill, you ask? It was bulldozed away in the late 1940s to make room for the 101 Freeway (is this a recurring theme for this CicLAvia or what?!)

37. Chinatown Gateway Monument
2001
Broadway and Cesar E. Chavez. Avenue, Chinatown

Designed to be the symbolic entrance to Los Angeles' Chinatown District, The Chinatown Gateway Monument, a.k.a. the Twin Dragon Towers Gateway, depicts two dragons grabbing at a central pearl, which symbolizes luck, prosperity, and longevity. The 25-foot-tall structure was put up in 2001 and occasionally emanates steam coming from the dragons' mouths. Unlike Anglo dragons, the creatures in Chinese folklore are the good guys, meant to scare away evil spirits.

38. Buu Dien
c. 1990s
642 N. Broadway (Facing New High St, south of Ord), Chinatown

If you're ever in some TV trivia contest on your way to being a millionaire and the host asks you, "What is the Militant Angeleno's favorite Vietnamese banh mi place west of the Los Angeles River?" you won't need to call a lifeline, because the answer is Buu Dien. When the Militant has only $4 in his pocket and wants to get a meal in Downtown, this is his go-to joint. A literal hole in the wall in every regard, this place serves bomb-ass (do people still use that phrase) Viet sammiches for less than $3 a pop. And the bread is awesome. And nice and warm. Plus they also serve up spring rolls, desserts, pastries, Vietnamese coffee and pho (never had it here yet, but The Militant's favorite pho WOTLAR is Pho 79 just up the street). People complain about parking in his micro-mini mall, but this is CicLAvia!

39. Capitol Milling Co.
1883
1231 N. Spring St, Chinatown

One of the last visible vestiges of Los Angeles' agricultural industry, this family-owned flour mill operated from 1831 to 1997, before moving its operation to a much larger facility in Colton. The facility that still stands today was built in 1883. The mill supplied flour to clients such as Ralphs, Foix French Bakery and La Brea Bakery. In 1999, the family-owned operation was purchased by industry giant Con-Agra Co. The historic building, built even before the railroads arrived in Los Angeles, still has a horse-tethering ring, back to the days when grain was hauled by horse carriage from farms in the San Fernando Valley.

40. Old (New?) Chinatown Central Plaza
1937
Gin Ling Way between Broadway and Hill, Chintown

The northern terminus of CicLAvia is no stranger to public events; it was made for them. In the Summer it hosted three very popular Chinatown Summer Nights events. But don't let the "Old Chinatown" neon sign fool you -- This is actually Los Angeles' new Chinatown, which dates back to the 1930s. The real Old Chinatown was several blocks south, where a thriving community of Cantonese-speaking immigrants

lived near the river, north of Aliso Street. Of course, they were kicked out in the early '30s to make room for Union Station. So they moved a few blocks north, in the former Little Italy, and they've been there ever since. Well, not really, since some of them moved east to the San Gabriel Valley and were supplemented with Mandarin-speaking immigrants from Taiwan and Mainland China. But you get the idea.

Happy CicLAvia, Los Angeles! Enjoy, GO DODGERS and STAY MILITANT!

↧

The Militant's Epic CicLAvia Tour XXIV!!!!

December 9, 2017, 7:06 pm

≫ Next: In The Valley of Nostalgia: The Valley Relics Museum

≪ Previous: The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XXIII!!!

Click here for larger map!

The year closes with CicLAvia XXIV, the fifth of five Los Angeles open streets events in 2017! Our Epic CicLAvia Tour returns to iconic Wilshire Boulevard for the first time since August, 2015, this time with an extra half-mile added at the east end of the four-mile route, incorporating a small section of previous "Heart of L.A." CicLAvia iterations. So this Epic CicLAvia Tour guide is basically a re-run of the 2015 route, with a few extras added on for your enjoyment. Enjoy CicLAvia on Sunday. You may or may not see The Militant on the streets!

1. Spring Street Park
2013
428 S. Spring St, Downtown

A former parking lot turned into urban park in June 2013 to satiate the open-space and recreational needs of the new DTLA residential population, this plot of land, in its short history, has already accumulated a list of challenges with regards to its management, upkeep and (ab)use, from un-leashed dogs to people misusing the facilities. Nevertheless, the space does perform its role as a green oasis within the built city core.

2. Broadway-Spring Arcade Building
1924
541 S. Spring St, Downtown

This unique building is actually three, opened in 1924 on the site of Mercantile Place, a 40-foot street cut between 5th and 6th streets connecting Broadway and Spring. Mercantile Place was a popular shopping and gathering locale in the early 1900s. Having fallen into decay by the 1970s, it was recently renovated and is now famous for, of all things, vendors selling rock band t-shirts. It also becomes an artistic venue during the DTLA ArtWalk. And The Militant probably doesn't need to mention that this building is home to the DTLA Guisado's.

3. Site of Original Ralphs Supermarket
1873
6th and Spring streets, Downtown

Before the Hotel Hayward building was built in 1905, George A. Ralphs (see, that's why there's no apostrophe) and his brother Walter B. started the Ralphs Bros. Grocers on the southwest corner of 6th and Spring. Their company still continues to this day, and in 2007, the company that started in DTLA returned to the area after some 50 years.

4. St. Vincent Court
1868
St. Vincent Ct and 7th Street, Downtown

You'd hardly knew it was there, but this alley nestled between Broadway and Hill (blink and you'll miss it!), with its decorative brick pavement and European decor, seemingly belongs to another world. Originally the site of a Catholic college that was the predecessor of today's Loyola Marymount University, today it's a unique food court featuring Armenian and Middle Eastern eateries. The Militant calls it, "Littler Armenia." Check out this Militant Angeleno post on St. Vincent Court from 2008 for more info.

5. 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.

6. Wilshire Grand Center
2017
900 Wilshire Blvd, Downtown

On this site rises 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...). Opened on June 23, it is the city's only modern skyscraper without a flat roof, the only Los Angeles building since Hollywood's Capitol Records tower in 1956 to feature a spire, the first skyscraper anywhere to sport a mohawk, and it also has its own irreverent Twitter account. ;)

Owned by Korean Air (hence the red and blue taeguk LED logo), the tower houses the 900-room Hotel Intercontinental with its 70th-floor Sky Lobby and the unique Spire 73 skybar, with wonderful views of the south and west (the sunset vista from here is not to be missed).

The building's construction site was the location of "The Big Pour" - which lasted from February 15 -16, 2014, where 21,200 cubic yards (81 million pounds) of concrete for the tower's foundation were continuously poured - earning it a Guinness World Record for that feat.

Before the skyscaper, the site was home of the Wilshire Grand Hotel, formerly (in reverse chronological order) the Omni Hotel, Los Angeles Hilton, Statler Hilton and Statler Hotel.

7. 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, recently renovated, 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 every hour on the hour! The effect is total bad-ass, and its bad-assnes is magnified at night.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. 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.

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

This 30- and 25- story highrise mixed-use apartment development is called "The Vermont" by J.H. Snyder Co. which opened in 2014. It's Metro-accessible, and it has a friggin'Pizza Rev, but who the hell can afford the rents for this place?

16. 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?

17. 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.

18. 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 #17 and #18 connect vertically - that's the Gaylord Apartments behind the Brown Derby!

19. 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.

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. MaDang Courtyard
2010
621 S. Western Ave, Koreatown

The heart of K-town is essentially the revived district once known as Wilshire Center, a mid-rise commercial district which emerged in the mid-1960s, filling in the commercial real estate gap between Downtown and Miracle Mile. By the late 1980s, the district had fallen into disarray, with many businesses closing down or moving out, culminating around the time of the 1992 Riots (the iconic Bullocks Wilshire closed down in 1993). With the old guard having moved out, it allowed opportunities for the then-scattered Korean business community, fueled by an abundant supply of investment money from South Korea, to move into the vacant retail and office spaces and expand Koreatown into the large district that exists today. Enter MaDang Courtyard, which opened in 2010. This dense, triple-story urban mall represents not only the modern Koreatown, but a more of a visual semblance of Seoul, as opposed to the re-purposed commercial spaces of the old Wilshire Center. Anchored by the CGV Cinemas multiplex, which screens current Hollywood features, Korean films and Korean-subtitled versions of mainstream blockbusters, you can't get more K-town than that (for a non-food establishment). But speaking of food establishment, there's also a Hansol Noodle location here, a Paris Baguette (despite the francophone name, it's a South Korean bakery cafe chain), a Lemon Tree kids' play cafe and Japanese imports Daiso (picture a Nippon version of the 99 Cents Only store) and pastry chain Beard Papa's. It's like a trip across the Pacific (minus the jet-lag).

Happy CicLAvia! See you or not see you on the streets on Sunday!

↧

In The Valley of Nostalgia: The Valley Relics Museum

December 14, 2017, 12:40 am

≫ Next: The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XXV!!!

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Neon and on and on at the Valley Relics Museum.

The San Fernando Valley might be known for being the archetypal Southern California suburb, for a notable early 1980s teenage female linguistic dialect, and yes, uh, pr0n, but if you love and appreciate your local history as much as The Militant does, you'll know that it's a place that has changed over time, from agricultural farmland to suburban wonderland, to the modern quasi-urban districts that are currently springing up on both ends of the 818 along the 101. Now, The Militant doesn't get over to the other side of the hill that much, but when it does, it actually matters.

This past weekend, one of his operatives totally wanted to go to the Valley Relics Museum, a relatively new (opened 2013) exhibition of SFV nostalgia, most of which is the personal collection of Burbank native and North Hollywood resident Tommy Gelinas, who started exhibiting his collection over a decade ago in his NoHo art studio. Gelinas has also been responsible to salvaging and maintaining several iconic signs and artifacts from across the Valley (and a little beyond) after their original public purpose was shut down forever.

After a quick Saturday morning trip up the 101 to the 170 to the 5 to the 118, we arrived at a quiet industrial park nestled between Topanga Canyon Blvd and the Metro Orange Line (yes, this place is totally transit-accessible), and through the doors is some 4300 square feet of space jam-packed with SFV and general Southern California nostalgia. Where to start?

The Valley Relics Museum's Busch Gardens collection! The Militant loved this aerial view which shows the old theme park's exact location near Roscoe and Woodley. The park was replaced by an expanded Budweiser plant, and only the pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks near Woodley remains.

The first room has some photos and memorabilia of various SFV institutions, from the aerospace industry (Lockheed and Rocketdyne called the Valley home) to ground-based transportation such as the Pacific Electric and the RTD. An adjoining room has behind-glass knicknack displays featuring such sights as the old Busch Gardens theme park in Van Nuys and some 1984 Olympic memorabilia (including not only an Olympic torch, but an accompanying manual book).

The Western memorabilia room, including several Nudie's Rodeo Tailors store artifacts, curated by Julie Ann Ream.

Another room is packed with movie and TV Western memorabilia (including remnants of the iconic North Hollywood Western apparel store Nudie's Rodeo Tailors), curated by Julie Ann Ream, whose grandfather, Taylor "Cactus Mack" McPeters was an actor in several Hollywood Westerns, who worked alongside such icons as Roy Rogers, Gene Autry and John Wayne. Preserving the artifacts of her grandfather, her other Western actor relatives and their peers has become her personal passion, and on most days Ream is on hand to talk about her collection and her Western family members' stories.

The main exhibit room contains antique iconic store restaurant signage and a collection of classic BMX bikes (an SFV invention)!

The rest of the museum is the main exhibit room, which encompasses over 2/3rds of the total space. Front and center is Gelinas' collection of classic '70s-era bicycle motocross (BMX) bikes, which originated in The Valley. The characteristic rigid frame was invented by Gary Littlejohn in North Hollywood and the open suburban spaces of the SFV allowed for large BMX dirt tracks to be built. Futhermore, BMX manufacturers like Mongoose, Redline, Champion and Robinson were all based here in The Valley.

Some relics from The Palomino, including a ticket stub from a 1979 Elvis Costello concert there!

The room also contains a large collection of now-gone store and restaurant signage, several of which are neon like the original sign from North Hollywood's Palomino nightclub (which featured now-legendary country and rock music acts from 1949 to 1995) and more conventional signage, such as the original Googie-style Henry's Tacos sign from Studio City.

A 1958 newsstand ad insert for the old Los Angeles Mirror (the old afternoon paper that eventually merged with the Los Angeles Times), touting the SFV as, "L.A.'s Happiest Half-Million" (that population has since grown by over 3 1/2 times).

The room also contains many signs familiar to those from, yet not unique to the Valley per se, such as a Pioneer Chicken revolving sign saved from the Olympic Blvd. location, '70s and '80s-era Jack In The Box (the chain originated in San Diego) signage, which also includes the old-school drive-thru clown speaker (even earlier than the type that was blown up in the infamous 1980 commercial) as well as the incandescent Tiffany Theatre sign rescued from its now-demolished West Hollywood location.

A few iconic Valley trios also make their presence here: Statues of Alvin, Simon and Theodore of The Chipmunks fame (born in Van Nuys), and Yakko, Wakko and Dot from The WB's Animaniacs (who, of course, lived in the studio's water tower in Burbank).

Exit Through The Gift Shop: Do buy some of Valley Relics Museum's t-shirts of classic now-gone Southern California businesses. Because you will look so awesome rocking that Pup'N Taco shirt!

Not only can you see some Valley relics, but you can wear them as well. The mini gift shop by the entrance sells shirts of now-gone So Cal institutions like Pup'N Taco, Malibu Grand Prix, Fedco, Zody's, Muntz TV, Saugus Speedway and legendary rock stations KMET and KNAC, among others. The sales of the shirts support the museum, so be generous!

The collection does not explore the comprehensive history of The Valley; aside from an 1865 letter penned by Issac N. Van Nuys himself, much of the Valley Relics at this museum cater to the collective memories of Baby Boomers and Generation-Xers spanning the second half of the 20th century. So there are hardly any relics from the SFV's agricultural era. But still, Gelinas and the rest of the folks that run the museum must be given massive props for preserving the relatively recent history of The Valley. The staff have mentioned that some patrons have brought parents or grandparents who suffer from Alzheimer's Disease into the museum, and the sight of familiar memories from the exhibits instantly woke up something inside of them.

Yes, History can be that powerful, folks.

Both fortunately and unfortunately, the place isn't that big. Fortunately, you can enjoy the place in under two hours, and unfortunately, you can only enjoy the place in under two hours. But apparently there's more collection that they don't have the space for. The museum is planning to move into larger digs sometime in 2018, with one potential location being an old airplane hangar at Van Nuys Airport, but the museum has also explored even a Santa Clarita Valley location (Blasphemy!).


The Valley Relics Museum is transit-accessible! It's just two blocks south of the Metro Orange Line and MetrolinkChatsworth Station (something that didn't really exist during the RTD era...

Yes, this MA blog post is probably some four years late, and some of you might have already been here already, but a museum open only 50 or so times a year, coupled with a busy Militant schedule can cause that. But better late than never. And hey, The Militant is actually blogging about something other than an Epic CicLAvia Tour. That in itself is something to celebrate! Woo-hoo!

But if you haven't been here before, and especially if you're an SFV native or grew up in the 818, make sure to pay a visit to the museum this Saturday (those t-shirts make great presents, BTW), or at least add it to your New Year's Resolution list for 2018, before they move into their new location. And then visit them again when they have more stuff to display!

Valley Relics Museum, 21630 Marilla St, Chatsworth. Open Saturdays only, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Free admission (but do kick them at least a few bucks to keep their nonprofit operation open). Accessible via (M) Orange Line and Metrolink (Chatsworth Station) - bike or walk two blocks south along the Orange Line bike path.

↧

The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XXV!!!

April 19, 2018, 2:56 am

≫ Next: The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XXVI!!!!

≪ Previous: In The Valley of Nostalgia: The Valley Relics Museum

To see larger map view, click here.

Here we go, folks, CicLAvia season has officially begun! There are uh...[an unspecified number of] CicLAvia open streets events in this here year of 2018. The first one of the year takes us allllllll the way to the farthest eastern reaches of Los Angeles County, like almost even San Bernardino County here, for the "Heart of the Foothills" route.

Okay, The Militant is going to step on his soapbox here for a second: WHY IS THERE A CICLAVIA ALL THE WAY OUT IN FAR, FAR, FAR, FAR EASTERN SGV?!?! CicLAvia is supposed to take place within the City of Los Angeles or in neighboring cities (Pasadena - you cool). It's also sponsored by Metro, who's ponying up a lot of dough to put on an even that's NOT EVEN IN ITS SERVICE AREA. Also, the SGV has their own regionally-branded event, 626 Golden Streets. SO WHY IS THIS A CICLAVIA?!?! Especially when the City of San Fernando, which is 1) A neighboring city to the City of Los Angeles; 2) Well within Metro's service area (shout-outs to Metro Local Line 94) BUT THEY HAD A NON-CICLAVIA-BRANDED OPEN STREETS EVENT IN MARCH.

What next, CicLAvia Las Vegas Strip Meets Downtown Vegas?

Pardon The Militant, it's just that he NEVER misses a CicLAvia, and this time he has to either take a one-hour Metrolink ride or drive all the way out to the route early Sunday morning (or even spend the night in a nearby hotel...). It seems as though this whole event was a total oversight, or there's some sort of shady activity going on, or...who knows what. The Militant has voiced this on Twitter and the normally-responsive CicLAvia account has been tight-lipped about staging a CicLAvia out there in BFE-adjacent. C'mon CicLAvia organizers...don't forget what the 4th and 5th letters of your name stand for.

Alright, take a deeeeep breath, Militant.

[inhales....exhales]

Okay, rant is over. The reality is that there's a CicLAvia, and The Militant has to travel a long-ass distance to get to it. FINE.

So here's your stinkin' Epic CicLAvia Tour...for the 25th time.

It's 6.7 miles from Claremont to San Dimas, via Pomona and La Verne (not Shirley). Lots of history yadda yadda yadda. Lots of old train stations, former railroad hotels and institutions of higher learning. That's basically it.

1. Marston Quadrangle
1923
College Ave & 4th St, Claremont

This open green space at the heart of Pomona College's campus not only marks the original site of the college (which started out here in 1887 in a former railroad hotel building), but in 1923 the Quad became the central commons area for the expanded campus, fashioned after the one at the University of Virginia (founded by some dude named Thomas Jefferson). The Quad was envisioned by the college's first president as a "college in a garden" borrowing aesthetic elements of East Coast Ivy League schools, but set in the Mediterranean climate setting of Southern California. The Quad was named after George White Marston, a San Diego-based philanthropist who was the first president of Pomona College's Board of Trustees. The Quad continues to be used as a public open space for recreation and formal events.

2. Claremont Depot & Pacific Electric Right of Way
1927
1st Street & College Ave, Claremont
Claremontmight be known as a college town, but it started out as a railroad town. In 1887, it was founded by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway who built a wooden Gothic train depot on this site and named it "Claremont," because they felt like it.Forty years later, the station was replaced by a Spanish Colonial Revival building designed by company architect William H. Mohr (who also designed the station's older sister and familiar sight to Gold Line riders, the 1916 Monrovia Depot, as well as the 1918 San Bernardino Depot). Trains that originated in places as far as Chicago stopped at this station until 1967 when the station closed for business. The city of Claremont, recognizing its historic importance (it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982), purchased the building in 1989, and in 1993, it saw new life again as a train station, this time serving Metrolink commuters between Los Angeles and San Bernardino. A packing house a few doors to the west also served Santa Fe freight trains, shipping local citrus fruit to points east.

This location not only served Santa Fe trains, but Pacific Electric Red Cars as well. First Street, where the CicLAvia route runs, once had the Pacific Electric Right of Way running in its median. The photo above, taken by Jack Finn, shows the intersection of 1st St and College Ave (looking east) exactly 70 years ago! The building on the right was the Pacific Electric's own train depot, which was unfortunately demolished in the 1960s. In addition to having train stations past and present, this location will also have a future rail stop in the form of a Metro light rail station as part of Phase 2 of the Metro Foothill Extension, opening by 2026.

3. Adobe de Palomares
1854
491 Arrow Hwy, Pomona

If you know your local history, you'll know that before the 1850s, Southern California was part of Mexico and the land was divided into large areas known as ranchos, granted by Alta California's governor to various aristocrats and prominent military figures, to use for cattle grazing, farming and homesteading. Ygnacio Palomares was one of these dudes, who in 1837, was co-granted Rancho San Jose (today all four of today's CicLAvia cities, as well as Azusa, Covina, Diamond Bar, Glendora and Walnut). Señor Palomares built his first adobe a few miles south in Pomona, and in 1854 built a new single-story, 13-room, 20-acre hizzouse right here in north Pomona. It was a popular overnight stopover point between San Bernardino and Los Angeles (remember, no freeways or even paved streets back then). It was abandoned in the 1880s and restored in the 1930s, later purchased by the city of Pomona. In 1940, the adobe became a museum, and the city even allowed Palomares descendants to live in the adobe as caretakers. The last family member lived there until 1958. It is considered one of the most complete extant examples of Mexican rancho-era Southern California adobes. Check it out!

4. Pomona Depot
1941
Garey Ave & Santa Fe St, Pomona

Adjacent to today's Pomona North Metrolink station is the original Santa Fe Railway depot serving Pomona. Built in 1941, it is much newer than (and not as architecturally ornate as) its sister stations down the line, but it served legendary Santa Fe trains like the El Capitan from Chicago to Los Angeles via Pasadena until 1967. It served Amtrak trains until 1996 when the Northridge Earthquake damaged several bridges enough to re-route the line through Orange County. In 1992 the modern-day Metrolink station opened several yards west, and this building was converted into a Metrolink operations center.

5. Metro Gold Line La Verne Station

2026
E. St & Arrow Hwy, La Verne

There's nothing here yet, but the empty space on the northeast corner of E St. and Arrow Hwy will become the La Verne station for Metro's Phase 2 Foothill Extension light rail line. Not only will it serve the nearby University of La Verne campus, but it is pretty dang close to the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds, just over a mile southeast of the station. When the line opens by 2026, expect shuttle buses to take riders to the Pomona Fairplex every September.

6. Church of the Brethren

1889/1929
2425 E St, La Verne

This church has played a huge role in the ity of La Verne. Originally known as "Lordsburg" after real estate developer Isaac Lord, who got the Santa Fe Railway to build a station on his property, the region attracted tourists and later transplants from the midwest due to a fare war between the railroads and the rapid popularity of Southern California due to its weather and agriculture. In 1889, a man named M.M. Eschelman, a member of the Church of the Bretheren (a German-based Christian denomination with a pacifist theology akin to that of the Quakers and Menonites), was responsible for establishing a Brethren-affiliated college that would eventually be known as University of La Verne. The current church building was designed by architect Robert H. Orr and built in 1929.

7. University of La Verne
1891
1950 3rd St, La Verne

Church of the Brethren member M.M. Eschelman arrived in town (then known as Lordsburg) in 1889. He sought to establish a church-affiliated college, after starting one such school in Kansas. He convinced town founder Isaac Lord to sell his unsuccessful railroad hotel to Eschelman, and Lordsburg Academy was established in 1891. The town's population grew, with many residents being church members. After Mr. Lord died in 1917, the town was re-named La Verne, a French phrase meaning "Spring-like" or "growing green." It was coined by local ranchers who described the foothills as such. With that, Lordsburg Academy became La Verne College, and University of La Verne in 1977. The university is now officially non-sectarian, but maintains traditional and organizational ties to its founding church.

8. Kuns Park/Kuns House
1939/1911
1600 Bonita Ave/2449 Magnolia Ave, La Verne

This 2.5 acre green space is the oldest park in La Verne. Built as part of the original Lordsburg tract, it was once part of an 18-acre ranch owned by Henry L. Kuns, the son of David Kuns, one of the four founders of Lordsburg Academy (now University of La Verne). In 1911, the younger Kuns, then the mayor of Lordsburg, had his 7-bedroom Edwardian Tudor/Craftsman Bungalow house built on the property. Kuns himself planted the carob tree at the northeast corner of the park. He died in 1930 and his heirs refused to pay the property tax, so the park was bought by the city in 1938 at an auction for $200. The green space later became an official city park. The house was passed on from family members to other owners, and went on the market in 2012 following the death of its owner at the time. The University of La Verne eventually purchased the house to function as the university president's residence, bringing the house's connection to the academic institution full circle.

9. San Dimas Circle K
301 E. Bonita Ave, San Dimas

(DISCLAIMER: This was not the actual Circle K store depicted in the 1989 motion picture, "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure."That one was filmed in Tempe, AZ. [BOGUS!])

Despite the above disclaimer, if you choose to get a CicLAvia selfie/group selfie here, you may or may not encounter a couple of excellent local dudes there who have encountered a bodacious time travel experience. You also may or may not encounter a dude named Rufus who is known to appear in the parking lot in a telephone booth (If you're under 30, you'll have to Google that). Also, do not be alarmed if you see yourself come out of that telephone booth, explaining you you that they're you and have come from the future. After all, The Militant has heard that strange things are afoot at the Circle K.

And if not, there's always the hot dogs.

10. Jedediah Strong Smith Statue
1992
245 E. Bonita Ave, San Dimas

In front of San Dimas City Hall stands a bronze statue of some dude taking a knee, although it doesn't look he's engaged in prayer or protest. It's actually a public art monument created by sculptor Victor Issa in 1992 entitled, "A Welcome Sight." The dude is a man named Jedediah Strong Smith, a 19th-century explorer who was the first person to lead a party of Americans by land into California (then part of Mexico) in 1826. His group left Great Salt Lake in August of that year, crossed the deserts, and according to his journal, reached the crest of the San Gabriel Mountains by November and looked down at the valley below. His pose and the sculpture's title were meant to reflect his expression as he looked down into what would be known as The 626. His connection to San Dimas was that his party camped in an area filled with mud springs on November 26, 1826 en route to Mission San Gabriel. San Dimas' former name was La Cienega Mud Springs. If the dude's name sounds familiar, he is the inspiration behind the folkloric character Jebediah Springfield on "The Simpsons." Interestingly, Jebediah Springfield's town square statue also depicts him also standing on one knee. Wait a minute...Mud Springs...Springfi...OMG NO WAY!

11. Metro Gold Line San Dimas Station
2026
San Dimas Ave & Railway St, San Dimas

The Phase 2 of the Metro Gold Line's Foothill Extension, which broke ground in December 2017, will stop at this location just south of downtown San Dimas by 2026, en route to its eventual terminus in Montclair. Of course, by then the line will no longer be called the Gold Line, but the Blue Line (or the A Line), which, thanks to the Regional Connector, will merge the current light rail lines to Long Beach and Azusa into one long-ass one.

12. The Walker House
1887
121 N. San Dimas Ave, San Dimas

Known as the most historically significant building in San Dimas, this Queen Anne structure, designed by the Newsom Brothers, was originally built in 1887 to be a local railroad hotel (the second building built in town) until Kentucky transplants James and Sue Walker purchased it for their family residence in 1889. Multiple generations of the family lived in the house until the 1970s. In 1972, it made the National Register of Historic Places, functioned as a restaurant at one time, and in 2000 it was purchased by the Redevelopment Agency of the City of San Dimas, who performed a major restoration on the house completed in 2009. Today it is home to the San Dimas Historical Society, the San Dimas Festival of Arts and the Lucabella restaurant.

13. Pacific Railroad Museum/San Dimas Santa Fe Depot
1934
210 W. Bonita Ave, San Dimas

By now, you've pretty much got the hang of it: The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fay Railway built a railroad from Chicago to Los Angeles and en route ran the tracks through here in 1887 and pretty much established most of the cities we see today. The existing historic train station was built in 1934 to replace the original wooden depot. The last train served it in 1967 and was re-purposed as the offices of the San Dimas Chamber of Commerce and later a senior center. In 1994, the nonprofit Pacific Railroad Society purchased the depot and made it into a railroad museum, which also has a stretch of the original track that Santa Fe laid here in 1887. The Militant visited the museum (and Downtown San Dimas) in 2009.

Happy CicLAvia on Sunday! As always, see you or not see you on the streets!

↧

The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XXVI!!!!

June 21, 2018, 2:51 pm

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≪ Previous: The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XXV!!!

Interactive map! Click and drag to navigate. Larger map here!

Love reruns? This Sunday's 26th CicLAvia would fill the bill, as it's a reprise of the March 6, 2016 route, which The Militant covered here. That one went through the communities of Panorama City, Arleta and Pacoima (which, if you're a longtime reader of This Here Blog, is Tongva for "Place of Running Water").

Like the last CicLAvia located in BFE-afjacent eastern San Gabriel Valley, this route is also not accessible by any of the Metro Rail lines (tsk tsk tsk...shame...), but at least Earth Day's Heart of The Foothills route was well-accessible by Metrolink. For this route, there are two Metrolink stations several miles away, but none are directly along or adjacent to this CicLAvia route. So, if you drive here, The Militant won't trip (because that's what he did, too...). However, Metro wants to eventually make the entire CicLAvia route part of a 9.2-mile light rail line serving Eastern SFV.

This 3,8-mile route is rather short and is limited to one street -- Van Nuys Boulevard between Roscoe Boulevard and San Fernando Road. So while there are only six points of interest on this CicLAvia route proper, The Militant has included 15 more within a quick bike detour away from the boulevard.

Anyways, for the sake of continuity, The Militant presents a slightly-updated redux of his previous Epic CicLAvia Tour of this route!

SEE YOU OR NOT SEE YOU ON THE STREETS THIS SUNDAY!

1. The Plant/Site of GM Van Nuys Assembly
2003/1947
7876 Van Nuys Blvd, Van Nuys

No, despite the name, this is not a nursery or pot dispensary. This ginormous, sprawling car-oriented shopping center on the east side of Van Nuys Boulevard where one can catch a movie, buy some hardware or satisfy their "IN-N-OUT URGE" originally began its life as a large General Motors automotive plant (hence the name), pumping out Chevrolet trucks, other Chevy auto models, Buicks, Oldsmobiles and Pontiacs for nearly half a century, built mostly by residents who lived nearby, before closing down in 1992 to satisfy AQMD requirements. The plant was torn down six years later and Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Braude resurrected the site into the ginormous shopping center in 2003. GM still operates a testing facility east of the stores.

3. Wat Thai Los Angeles Temple
1976
8225 Coldwater Canyon Ave, North Hollywood

This Teravada Buddhist temple is the spiritual and cultural center of Los Angeles' Thai American community. It is also home to a massive outdoor Thai food bazaar that was popular in the last decade (The Militant posted about it in the early days of This Here Blog, you know, when he used to blog several times a week) before being so successful. it was shut down (by neighbors who complained about parking issues). Now that those issues have been ironed out (and that you don't have to park a car anyway), ride on down here, because the weekend food bazaar made a comeback in 2016, and you can now enjoy it as part of your CicLAvia experience this Sunday!

4. Site of Van Nuys Drive-In/Vista Middle School
1948
15040 Roscoe Blvd, Van Nuys

In the post-war area, not only did the Panorama City community flourish with homes, shopping and industry, but what more appropriate way to take your shiny new Chevy made down the street to watch a drive-in movie? In the SFV, the Drive-In was king, but every king's reign comes to an end. The Van Nuys Drive-In was the last drive-in theater in The Valley, eventually sporting three screens (in 1983) with a capacity for nearly 900 cars. The drive-in closed for good in 1992 and was demolished in 1998. The property was purchased by the LAUSD, which built Vista Middle School on the site in the early 2000s.

5. Panorama Mall
1955
8401 Van Nuys Blvd, Panorama City

When it comes to shopping centers in the San Fernando Valley, North Hollywood's Valley Plaza might have been the pioneer, the Topanga Plaza might be the first enclosed mall (1964) and the Sherman Oaks Galleria might get credit for being ground zero of 1980s "Valley Girl" culture, but Panorama Mall deserves its own induction in the 818 Mall of Fame. It was part of Kaiser and Burns' plan for Pano to surround their hood with commerce and industry, as a place, unlike the regional shopping center behemoths of the time, where residents can simply ~~walk to~~ not have to drive very far to. Upon its opening as "Panorama City Shopping Center," it sported The Valley's flagship Broadway department store. It also housed Orbach's, Robinson's, and Montgomery Ward. In the mid-1960s, the shopping center focused on the indoor mall format. Having endured the decades, Panorama Mall was given a long-overdue internal remodeling a few years ago and now sports over 50 stores.

6. Chase on Chase
2009 (Built 1965)
8450 Van Nuys Blvd (corner Chase St - get it?), Panorama City

You would think that this location would be the product of some clever marketing. But corporations don't think that way. Rather, it was a matter of happenstance. Originally established as a Home Savings of America in 1965, it went under the guise of Washington Mutual in 1998 until WaMu was eaten up by J. P. Morgan Chase Bank a decade later. As fate would have it, this Chase Bank is on the corner of Van Nuys Boulevard and none other than Chase Street. You can't make this stuff up, folks. Now all that's missing is Chase Utley leading a high-speed chase that ended up here, The Militant would asplode.

7. Plaza del Valle
2000
8610 Van Nuys Blvd, Panorama City

Plaza del Valle (Plaza of the Valley), originally built in the 1970s as a strip mall is an outdoor shopping court, nestled behind the nondescript storefronts on the east side of Van Nuys Blvd between Chase and Parthenia streets (and the perfect counterpoint to the mostly-indoor Panorama Mall down the block), was heavily influenced by Downtown's Olvera Street. The old strip mall was re-imagined and re-built in 2000 by its non-Latino developers to serve Pano's growing Latino community. The complex features retail shops and stalls, eateries, fountains and an entertainment stage.

8. Pacific Electric San Fernando Valley Right of Way
1913
Van Nuys Blvd at Parthenia St, Panorama City

Now that The Militant made his epic Pacific Electric Archaeology Map and detailed where every passenger Red Car line went in Southern California, you all should know by now that Van Nuys Boulevard used to be a PE right of way (and if you didn't, then THE MILITANT IS DISAPPOINTED IN YOU!) So you wouldn't be surprised at all that the westward sweeping curve on Parthenia Street is where the line, which reached this part of The Valley in 1913, diverges from Van Nuys Blvd and continues westward, then northward again to San Fernando. Due to the rising costs of maintaining and operating the line (and not because of some silly Roger Rabbit Judge Doom conspiracy), it was partially shut down in 1938 (years before the supposed conspiracy happened, BTW...but no matter how many facts get shown in your face, you still continue to believe it, right? RIGHT?) up to Sherman Way, and the entire SFV line was closed in 1952 (y'allz should have that memorized by now...).

9. Kaiser Homes
1948
Area bordered by Van Nuys Blvd, Osborne St, Woodman Ave & Roscoe Blvd, Panorama City

Whatup, homes? There's a bunch of them here east of Van Nuys Blvd here in Pano. When World War II was winding down in 1945, real estate developer Fritz B. Burns and industrialist Henry J. Kaiser purchased 400 acres of former dairy farms and alfalfa fiels for $1 million to build their own planned residential community consisting of affordable, pre-fab, single-story homes on winding streets to break up the SFV grid monotony. They built it, and they came.A General Motors factory set up shop down the street, space was reserved for a future hospital, and nearby breweries and aerospace companies also generated employment centers. A large shopping center was built, and Mr. Burns (no, not that one) brought his own personal reindeer to the Panorama Mall to delight shoppers each holiday season (and also found it an opportunity to market some houses to them). Of course, back then in the era of discriminatory housing covenants, you had to be white (and purely white, to be exact) to own these homes, a practice that was in place until the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1968. Today, the majority of residents who live in the former Kaiser Homes development are non-white and primarily of immigrant background -- predominantly Latino, as well as Filipino and Thai, providing the proverbial middle finger of justice extended to the legacy Burns and Kaiser.

10. Marty McFly House
1985 (Built c. 1950s)
9303 Roslyndale Avenue, Arleta

Just a couple years after Marty McFly traveled into the future, it couldn't be more appropo to take a short detour from the CicLAvia route southeast down Canterbury Ave, left on Kagel Canyon and right on Roslyndale to see the very house which portrayed the McFly family residence in the "Back to the Future" movie saga. NOTE: This is a private residence, please do not bother the current occupants, and please refrain from shouting, "HELLO, MC FLY?!" outside.

11. Back to the Future "Lyon Estates" Location
1985
Sandusky Ave at Kagel Canyon Street, Arleta

And if you haven't felt enough of The Power of Love yet, head back onto Kagel Canyon, turn right and stop at the intersection of Sandusky Avenue to see the very street where Marty McFly skateboarded down in the first "Back to the Future" film. It don't take money, don't take fame, don't need no credit card to ride this train (well, unless you're talking about a TAP card...).

12. Pacoima Mural Mile
2012

Van Nuys Blvd between Arleta Ave and Bradley St

Spurred by a local need to increase community pride and aesthetics, several local artists painted murals along the Van Nuys Blvd corridor in Pacoima and thus was born Pacoima Mural Mile. Famous native Ritchie Valens (more on him later) is a popular subject on these walls, as well as cultural icons from Frida Kahlo to La Virgen de Guadalupe to Danny Trejo. Think of this as an Epic CicLAvia tour within an Epic CicLAvia Tour! View the Pacoima Mural Mile map here: http://www.muralmile.org/#!/zoom/csgz/coq6

13. Ritchie Valens House
1947
13428 Remington St, Pacoima

This was the house that '50s rock star and Pacoima native Ritchie Valens purchased for his mother, Concepcion Reyes, in 1958 from the proceeds of his newfound "La Bamba" fame, and was also his final residence until The Day The Music Died on February 3, 1959. NOTE: This is a private residence, please do not bother the current occupants, and please refrain from shouting, "RITCHIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" outside.

14. Ritchie Valens Park
1994
10731 Laurel Canyon Blvd, Pacoima

The former Paxton Park, re-dedicated in 1994 to Pacoima's most famous native in order to spur community pride, Ritchie Valens Park isn't just a patch of grass with a famous person's name on the sign, it features a skate park, a baseball diamond, basketball courts, a swimming pool and a children's playground with historical and interpretive displays highlighting the life of the local Mexican American rocker, whose life was tragically cut short at the age of 17 on a Wisconsin plane crash. Weeeeeeeeeeeeell come on, let's go, let's go, go, everybody...to this nice little detour not too far away from the main CicLAvia route.

15. Metroink Antelope Valley Line/CA High Speed Rail Corridor
1876
Van Nuys Blvd at San Fernando Rd, Pacoima

This is the very first time a CicLAvia route will cross an active mainline railroad track, so please do not ignore the warning lights, bells and gates! These tracks were originally built in 1876 by the Southern Pacific Railroad to connect Los Angeles to Saugus, where continuing lines on to Ventura and the Antelope Valley were built. In the early 1990s, it was taken over by the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, otherwise known as Metrolink, for a commuter rail line from Union Station to Santa Clarita, which opened in October 1992. But on January 17, 1994, the earth shook violently and the 5/14 freeway interchange collapsed. To facilitate commuters coming in from the Antelope Valley during the post-Northridge Earthquake period, the line was extended to Lancaster (which wasn't planned to be built until 2004 at the earliest under normal circumstances) thanks to FEMA funds and was opened IN ONE WEEK. In the near (or distant) future, running parallel to the existing railroad tracks will be the proposed California High Speed Rail system from San Francisco to Los Angeles (...which may or may not get built).

16. Tresierras Supermarket
1956
13156 Van Nuys Blvd, Pacoima

Established in San Fernando in 1944 to serve the growing Mexican American community in the area by Francisco and Pilar Tresierras while two of their sons served in World War II, and operating from this very location for 60 straight years, Tresierras Supermarket is a full-service
Latino supermarket featuring produce, dry goods, a carniceria and an in-house tortilleria. It's one of the long-time anchors of Pacoima's Latino community, serving local residents for generations. And we're quite sure that Ritchie Valens himself shopped here back in the day.

17. San Fernando Gardens
1942
10995 Lehigh Ave, Pacoima

This public housing project next to the northern terminus of the CicLAvia route features 448 apartments built in the World War II era by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles. It was built to house workers from the Lockheed aircraft factory in Burbank (though it's pretty far from Burbank -- no freeway and no PE line back n the day) and was unique in that it was racially integrated, and comprised the largest African American community in the San Fernando Valley at the time.

18. Ritchie Valens' Childhood Home
c. 1940s
13058 Filmore St, Pacoima

Though Ritchie Valens' birthplace is unknown, this was the very house where he spent most of his childhood in (after living briefly with an uncle in Santa Monica as a kid). At the age of 9, he taught himself how to play guitar at this very house and took it to Pacoima Jr. High School where he performed for his classmates and joined a local band, The Silhouettes as their singer, until he was discovered by record label owner Bob Keane, and the rest was history.

19. Discovery Cube Los Angeles
2014 (Built 2007)
11800 Foothill Blvd, Lake View Terrace

The de-facto successor to the nbow-defunct Childrens Museum of Los Angeles, which operated out of the Civic Center for most of its 20-year existence, this building was originally built in 2007 to house an expanded version of the museum. but after the nonprofit went bankrupt in 2009, this building sat as a white elephant on the corner of Foothill and Osborne for seven years, until the City entered a partnership with Santa Ana's Discovery Science Center and operated the intended Children's Museum site as "Discovery Cube Los Angeles" in 2014. But despite the museum's corner location, it's a horribly pedestrian-unfriendly experience just getting to the dang place, where one has to enter through the Hansen Dam Recreation Area's main entrance on Osborne Street, and drive some distance before entering the Discovery Cube parking lot. Whatup with that?

20. Site of Rodney King Beating
1991

Foothill Blvd, east of Osborne St, Lake View Terrace

Just behind the Discovery Cube building on Foothill) was where African American motorist Rodney King was beaten in March 1991 by four mostly-white LAPD officers after a brief freeway chase (they didn't televise those things back then). But they did televise the grainy VHS handicam video (no smartphones back then, kids) that was shot by local resident George Holliday, who lived in the apartments on the north side of Foothill. The beating, after airing on KTLA a few days later, sparked outrage in the city's African American community and called to attention the issue and history of police brutality. The acquittal of the four cops over a year later triggered the largest riots in Los Angeles' history.

21. Hansen Dam
1940
11770 Foothill Blvd, Lake View Terrace

Built in response to the Great Los Angeles Flood of 1938 that caused catastrophic flooding near the Los Angeles River in The Valley, the City tapped the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build a 2 mile-long, 97 foot-high flood control dam on the site of Homer and Marie Hansen's horse ranch (apparently you get naming rights in exchange for eminent domain). It's designed to contain and control runoff from the San Gabriel Mountains, entering the dam area from Bug Tujunga Canyon, where water ultimately enters the Los Angeles River via the Tujunga Wash (and millions of gallons of water just get wasted in the ocean...). But the area, which also sports a large park and recreation area, can also be a part of Los Angeles' water future as the area sits on a large aquifer. The LADWP has long-term plans to clean up the SFV aquifer in the future to allow more harvesting of local groundwater (which currently comprises 10-15 percent of our city's water source), and open the possibility of stored or recycled water.

Oh yeah, if you made it this far, DO NOT PASS UP THE OPPORTUNITY to ride your bike on the dam itself (there's a dedicated bike path)!

Happy CicLAvia and STAY MILITANT!

↧

It's Coming...

September 1, 2018, 12:11 am

≫ Next: THE MILITANT'S EPIC ANNOUNCEMENT!

≪ Previous: The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XXVI!!!!

You're gonna have to wait until Tuesday for this. But The Militant promises it's going to be pretty big (Such a tease, he knows...).

↧

THE MILITANT'S EPIC ANNOUNCEMENT!

September 4, 2018, 4:00 am

≫ Next: The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XXVII!! (Limited Version)

≪ Previous: It's Coming...

First off, HAPPY 237th BIRTHDAY, LOS ANGELES!

The Militant Angeleno has attended all 26 CicLAvias since the event began in October, 2010. And since April, 2011, The Militant has published his Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour guides, detailing historic and unique points of interest in the various communities along each CicLAvia route.

This time will be different*. The Militant, together with Ted Rogers from the bicycling advocacy blog Biking in LA are collaborating to bring you The Militant's Epic CicLAvia Tour - LIVE! A guided 8-mile bicycle tour (skateboards, scooters and rollerblades welcome too, though if you're on foot, you'd better know how to run fast!) through Grand Avenue, Wilshire Boulevard, Western Avenue, Melrose Avenue and Vine Street from Downtown Los Angeles to Hollywood.

This will be an historic event as The Militant Angeleno will make his first formal public appearance! (Whoa, WUUUUUUUT?!?! NO WAY!) Way! He will be co-guiding the tour along with Ted Rogers.

We will be meeting at 12 noon near the Grand Hub (near Walt Disney Concert Hall in Downtown.

To register for the tour and get full tour information and details on exact meeting location, RSVP at militantangeleno [at] gmail [dot] com by Friday, September 28.

The Militant and Ted look forward to meeting you on September 30!

*The Militant will still be publishing his Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XXVII guide in advance of this CicLAvia, but it will be a simplified version of the complete tour, which you'll get by joining us on September 30!

↧

The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour XXVII!! (Limited Version)

September 27, 2018, 9:42 pm

≫ Next: The Militant's Epic CicLAvia Tour Live! - What You Need To Know!

≪ Previous: THE MILITANT'S EPIC ANNOUNCEMENT!

Click here for bigger version of this map!

The route of this 27th iteration of CicLAvia, "Celebrate LA," which happens to be an extension of the current "Iconic Wilshire Boulevard" route (truncated lately due to Metro Purple Line subway construction) will offer something different for the 8 year-old open streets tradition: An 8-mile street celebration centered around music to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. In keeping with the theme, this Epic CicLAvia Tour guide will not only feature some music-related points of interest along the route, but will also feature all four of the LAPhil's indoor home concert venues (all of them located on or just around the corner from Grand Avenue, BTW).

The Militant will also be doing something different: He is conducting an Epic CicLAvia Tour in person for the very first time. Collaborating with Ted Rogers of the cycling advocacy site Biking in L.A., The Militant will come out of the shadows and be your personal tour guide for the CicLAvia route! Ya really!

Needless to say, The Militant is totally stoked (and admittedly a little nervous, but hey...) about appearing in person for ya'llz!

This is also the largest Epic CicLAvia Tour guide to date! Why? Why not! It's just that epic!

Also, you will notice that some of the points of interest on this particular Epic CicLAvia Tour are missing some numbers. That is actually intentional - there are 10 points of interest on the route that have been left off of this published version. But they will be covered on the Epic CicLAvia Tour Live! guided bike tour on Sunday. Which means, if you want the whole Epic CicLAvia Tour experience, you'll just have to join us (An updated version of this tour guide with the 10 missing points of interest will be published next week)!

Remember, to join the tour, and get full details on where exactly we will meet (it will be somewhere near Grand Avenue and 2nd Street and we will meet at 12:00 noon on Sunday), RSVP by shooting an email to militantangeleno [at] gmail [dot] com!

So here goes, see you ~~or not see you~~ on the streets on Sunday!

[Note: This blog post may or may not contain some formatting errors. This is out of The Militant's control and is the fault of Blogspot.com's sorry-assed user interface. So deal with it!]

1. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (LAPhil's 3rd Home)

1964
135 N. Grand Ave, Downtown

The third home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra from 1964 to 2002, it was originally the primary component of The Music Center, Los Angeles County's complex of arts venues, also including the Ahmanson Theatre and the Mark Taper Forum. Named after its primary donor, the wife of Los Angeles Times publisher Norman Chandler, who was also the daughter of the founder of the Buffums' department store chain (in existence from 1904 to 1991), Mrs. Chandler (1901-1997) was a major supporter of the arts in Los Angeles. The venue, designed by Welton Becket, lives on as the exclusive home of the Los Angeles Opera.

2. Walt Disney Concert Hall
(LAPhil's 4th Home)

2003
111 S. Grand Ave, Downtown

The fourth and current home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra opened in October, 2003. The iconic stainless steel structure was designed by Frank Gehry (like duh, you didn't already know that already). The project began in 1987 when Lilian Disney, widow of Walt Disney, donated $50 million for the construction of a new concert hall addition to the Music Center.

4. Site of Philharmonic Auditorium
(LAPhil's 2nd Home)

1906-1985
427 W. 5th St, Downtown

Built in 1906 as the Temple Auditorium, it was a mixed-use theatre/Baptist church designed by Charles F. Whittlesey, at the time the largest theatre building west of Chicago. It was also known as Clune's Theatre. In 1920 the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra moved in for its second season (thereby renaming the building "Philharmonic Auditorium"), where it remained until the opening of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in 1964. It was demolished in 1985 where it became a surface parking lot until recently, where it is currently being developed as the Park Fifth mixed-use project.

6. Trinity Auditorium (LAPhil's 1st Home)

1914
855 S Grand Ave, Downtown Los Angeles

This nine-story Beaux-Arts building designed by Harry C. Deckbar was the first home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra during its debut season in 1919. The building originally functioned as a mixed-use Methodist Episcopal church and hotel complex and was once owned by USC during the 1980s-1990s. It is currently being renovated into a hotel again.

8. Wilshire Grand Center
2017
900 Wilshire Blvd, Downtown

On this site rises 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...). Opened on June 23, it is the city's only modern skyscraper without a flat roof, the only Los Angeles building since Hollywood's Capitol Records tower in 1956 to feature a spire, the first skyscraper anywhere to sport a mohawk, and it also has its own irreverent Twitter account. ;)

Owned by Korean Air (hence the red and blue taeguk LED logo), the tower houses the 900-room Hotel Intercontinentalwith its 70th-floor Sky Lobby and the unique Spire 73 skybar, with wonderful views of the south and west (the sunset vista from here is not to be missed).

The building's construction site was the location of "The Big Pour" - which lasted from February 15 -16, 2014, where 21,200 cubic yards (81 million pounds) of concrete for the tower's foundation were continuously poured - earning it a Guinness World Record for that feat.

Before the skyscaper, the site was home of the Wilshire Grand Hotel, formerly (in reverse chronological order) the Omni Hotel, Los Angeles Hilton, Statler Hilton and Statler Hotel.

9. 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.

10. S. Charles Lee Office and Residence
1903/1935
1648 Wilshire Blvd, Westlake.

Architect S. Charles Lee was famous for designing some of Los Angeles' ornate theaters along Broadway, including the Los Angeles Theatre and the Tower Theatre (a.k.a. The Apple Mac Tower Pro Theatre). He moved his family to a two-story Victorian house on Wilshire and in 1935 built his Regency Moderne-style office right in front of it, a unique live-work space arrangement of its time.

11. 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-based performance arts venue sometime soon.

12. Gen. Harrison Gray Otis Statue
1920
Wilshire Blvd and Park View Ave, Westlake

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. BTW, Gen. Otis was the grandfather of Dorothy Chandler's husband, Norman.

13. Bryson Apartment Building
1913
2701 Wilshire Blvd, Westlake

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 and designed by Noonan & Kysor, 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.

14. Lafayette Park
1899
Wilshire Blvd and LaFayette Park Place, Westlake

Clara Shatto, the widow of 19th-century real estate developer George Shatto 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.

15. 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.

16. 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?

18. Wilshire 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 #17 and #18 connect vertically - that's the Gaylord Apartments behind the Brown Derby!

21. MaDang Courtyard Mall
2010
621 S. Western Ave, Koreatown

The heart of K-town is essentially the revived district once known as Wilshire Center, a mid-rise commercial district which emerged in the mid-1960s, filling in the commercial real estate gap between Downtown and Miracle Mile. By the late 1980s, the district had fallen into disarray, with many businesses closing down or moving out, culminating around the time of the 1992 Riots (the iconic Bullocks Wilshire closed down in 1993). With the old guard having moved out, it allowed opportunities for the then-scattered Korean business community, fueled by an abundant supply of investment money from South Korea, to move into the vacant retail and office spaces and expand Koreatown into the large district that exists today. Enter MaDang Courtyard, which opened in 2010. This dense, triple-story urban mall represents not only the modern Koreatown, but a more of a visual semblance of Seoul, as opposed to the re-purposed commercial spaces of the old Wilshire Center. Anchored by the CGV Cinemasmultiplex, which screens current Hollywood features, Korean films and Korean-subtitled versions of mainstream blockbusters, you can't get more K-town than that (for a non-food establishment). But speaking of food establishment, there's also a Hansol Noodle location here, a Paris Baguette (despite the francophone name, it's a South Korean bakery cafe chain), a Lemon Tree kids' play cafe and Japanese imports Daiso (picture a Nippon version of the 99 Cents Only store) and pastry chain Beard Papa's. It's like a trip across the Pacific (minus the jet-lag).

AND NOW, A BREAK AT THE HALFWAY MARK...

The CicLAvia route visits Western Avenue for the very first time. But this isn't the first car-free, open street event that's popular with cyclists. In fact, they've been doing it 122 years ago...

This photo, taken in 1896, shows a group bicycle ride up an unpaved Western Avenue (back then called County Road), back in the agricultural days. What comes around, goes around!

22. Selig Building
1931
269 S. Western Ave, Koreatown

This single-story black and gold terra cotta Art Deco storefront building (like total LAFC style, yo!) designed by Arthur Harvey was originally the Alvin C. Selig men's formalware store when it opened in the 1930s and later became a Crocker National Bank branch and video store. Today, the newly-renovated building is subdivided into separate retail spaces, which includes The Dolly Llama Waffle Master restaurant.

24. US Post Office - Nat King Cole Station
1987 (Dedicated 2002)
265 S. Western Ave, Koreatown.

Formerly the United States Postal Service's Oakwood Station, it was dedicated to singer Nat King Cole in 2002, who lived nearby on Murfield Rd. and 4th Street in Hancock Park from 1948 to his death in 1965. The facility is slated to move to a new location nearby as the current building will be demolished for redevelopment.

25. Original Home of See's Candies
1921
135 N. Western Ave., Koreatown

Canadian immigrant Charles See, along with his wife Florence, their children and his mother Mary, moved to Los Angeles where they opened a candy shop at this location in November, 1921 using Mary's recipes from when she helped run her late husband's hotel in southern Ontario. The operation soon blossomed into multiple stores, even booming during the Great Depression, and can be found in 17 states. The candies are made here in California, at its factories on La Cienega Blvd and in South San Francisco. The original See's Candies location is currently a Tom N Tom's (a.k.a. Korean Starbucks) coffee shop.

28. Hollywood Melrose Hotel

1927
5162 Melrose Ave, Hollywood.

This three-story building was designed by S. Charles Lee (remember him?) and opened in 1927 as the Hollywood Melrose Hotel. It later became rental units known as the Melrose Arms and Monte Cristo Island Apartments. In 1992 it made the National Register of Historic Places and was returned to an inn in 2010, re-branded as the Hollywood Historic Hotel which is now run by the Armenian family that owns the Edmon’s Unique Furniture and Stone Gallery business on the ground floor.

30. Raleigh Studios
1914
5300 Melrose Ave, Hollywood

Standing in the shadow of its much more famous neighbor across the street, this independent motion picture facility was founded in 1914 as the Fiction Players company studios, and later on as Clune Studios (Yes, the same William H. Clune that owned what later became Philharmonic Auditorium) in 1915. This studio facility was later associated with stars like Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin. It was the filming location of classic TV shows like "The Adventures of Superman" and "Gunsmoke" (1950s); "Dallas," and Madonna's "Like A Prayer" music video (1980s) and Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped Box" video (1990s).

34. Site of Gold Star Recording Studios
1950-1984
6252 Santa Monica Blvd, Hollywood

Since this CicLAvia is focused on music with various musical performances along the route, this site was home of Gold Star Recording Studios, which lasted from the 1950s to the early 1980s. In the 1960s, it was most associated with (pre-murderer era) producer Phil Spector, who recorded The Beach Boys' hit "Good Vibrations" here, as well as parts of their legendary Pet Sounds album. The studio was used by countless artists such as Ritchie Valens, Herb Alpert, Sonny and Cher, The Monkees, The Go-Gos, The Chipmunks, John Lennon, The Who and Jimi Hendrix. The Militant covered this spot back in 2008.

35. Wild Card Boxing Gym
1995
1123 N. Vine St, Hollywood

Founded and still operated by legendary boxing trainer Freddie Roach, this facility has been the choice training spot for amateur and professional boxers for the past two decades. Boxers such as Mike Tyson, Oscar De La Hoya, Manny Pacquiao, Miguel Cotto and Julio Cesar Chavez, among many, have trained in this 2nd-floor gym perched above a nondescript minimall. And oh yeah, this places smells like nasty-ass humid BO. The Militant was here back in 2007.

37. Pickford Center/Mutual-Don Lee Studios
1948
1313 N. Vine St, Hollywood

Functioning today as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study, this is the oldest building in Hollywood built for television production. It opened in
1948 as the headquarters of the old Mutual-Don Lee (that's Lee as in Mt. Lee, home of the Hollywood Sign) broadcast network, which birthed an early TV station, KTSL (for Thomas S. Lee, Don's son). In 1950, CBS took over the operation and years later it was the home of KHJ (now KCAL) Channel 9. In 1964, public TV station KCET began broadcasting here until it moved 3 1/2 miles east to Los Feliz in 1970. ABC took over the facility until the 1990s, when AIDS Project L.A. located its offices at the former studio. The Academy has used the old Don Lee studios since 2002.

38. Site of NBC Studios
1938-1962
1500 N. Vine St, Hollywood

Before The Peacock Network was associated with "Beautiful Downtown Burbank," it called the northeast corner of Sunset Boulevard and Vine Street its (West Coast) home. It began life as Radio City West (after NYC's Radio City), and the broadcast facility became influential in the industry, prompting rivals ABC and CBS to locate their western headquarters in close proximity. Local affiliate KNBC channel 4 was born here in 1949 (then known as KNBH, later becoming KRCA in 1954). It took on the KNBC call sign when the operation moved out to The 'Burb[ank] in 1962. The iconic Streamline Moderne studio building was torn down and replaced with a Home Savings and Loan bank branch (now operating today as Chase Bank). The Sunset & Vine retail/residential complex across the street gave an architectural nod to the NBC building with Streamline Moderne touches).

39. Hollywood Brown Derby Site/Metro Bike Hub
1929-1985/2017
1628 N. Vine St, Hollywood

Did you know that Metro's Hollywood Bike Hub facility, which opened last year, stands on the very site of the Hollywood Brown Derby restaurant? This was the second location of the legendary local restaurant chain.(See Point #18) Back in the Hollywood Heyday of the first half of the 20th century, it was like the lunch and dining hotspot for famous film stars and industry moguls. But perhaps the biggest star associated with the Hollywood Brown Derby was the Cobb Salad, invented here circa 1937. Named after Brown Derby co-owner Robert Cobb, it was an improvised mish-mash of leftover salad ingredients, either made for theater mogul Sid Graumann or by Cobb himself as a late-night meal (depending on which version of the legend). The restaurant closed down in 1985 and the iconic Mediterranean-style structure was burned in a fire two years later. It was finally demolished in the mid-1990s after the Northridge Earthquake.

41. Hollywood and Vine
1887
Hollywood Blvd and Vine St (duh), Hollywood

Originally part of Hollywood pioneers Horace and Ida Wilcox's ranch (Ida was the one who dubbed the former Cahuenga Valley (named after the Tongva village known as Cahug-na) the name "Hollywood"), two dirt roads were cut through it: the east-west Prospect Avenue and Weyse Avenue running north-south. In 1903, a Methodist church was built on the southeast corner, soon followed by a number of businesses. When Hollywood was annexed to Los Angeles in 1910, Prospect and Weyse went all showbiz by changing its name to Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street and a decade later, the corner became world famous due to being a hub of radio and movie-related businesses. The Pacific Electric Railway's Western and Franlin Ave. Line even terminated here during that period from 1908 to 1940. Today it is ~~arguably~~ the World's Most Famous Intersection (seriously, try to name a more famous corner), and in July of 2018, a diagonal "scramble" pedestrian intersection was installed by the City.

42. Capitol Records Building/Hollywood Jazz Mural
1956/1990
1750 N. Vine St, Hollywood

You may or may not already know that the Capitol Records building is: a) The world's first circular office building (designed by Louis Naidorf of Welton Becket associates -- the same architectural firm that designed the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (Point #1), at the opposite end of the CicLAvia tour (How's that for full circle [pumps fist]?)); b) Designed like a stack of records; and c) The FAA warning light atop its spire spells "HOLLYWOOD" in Morse Code. What you probably didn't know was that Capitol Records, founded in 1942, was the first major record label headquartered in the West Coast, and that the building was largely financed by the profits made from its premier artist at the time, Nat King Cole (See Point #24). Also, to make yet another connection to another point on this CicLAvia tour, this is one of two skyscrapers in Los Angeles with a spire, the second being the Wilshire Grand Center (Point #8). Dude, is everything like interconnected or what?! And speaking of Nat King Cole, Capitol's classic crooner is depicted front and center in the 88 foot-wide mural facing the building's south parking lot, "Hollywood Jazz, 1948-1972" by African American muralist (and Lynwood native) Richard Wyatt, Jr. painted in 1990 and restored in 2011.

So there it is! Stay Militant and Happy CicLAvia on Sunday! See ya!

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