Ice Cream, History and Trolleys New and Old

A fellow militia member tipped off the Militant to this event: A fete touted as The Great Los Angeles Ice Cream Party will take place on Labor Day, September 3 from 2-5 p.m. at Heritage Square in Northeast Los Angeles. The event, created as a personal endeavor of a staff member from Councilman Grieg Smith's 12th District office, will celebrate the 226th birthday of the City as well as benefit the Heritage Square Museum, which preserves and presents the history of Southern California from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s. The event(and ice cream) is free, but participants are encouraged to make donations to the museum in $10, $20 and $35 increments in exchange for tours, museum membership and raffle prizes. Participants are also encouraged to RSVP in order for the organizers to obtain the appropriate amounts of ice cream. Parking is free, or you can go Militant style and ride the (M) Gold Line there.

Layin' Down The Line

Speaking of the Gold Line, the Militant snapped these pics of rail construction of the (M) Gold Line extension to the Real Eastside on his recent reconnaissance mission in the Little Tokyo/Arts district area:

Looking north on Alameda, the "ramp" from the
recently-completed aerial structure that crosses over
the 101 freeway takes shape.

Looking towards the opposite direction, the Little
Tokyo/Arts District station platform comes together.

Looking west on 1st Street, a few tracks are
looking forward to...um...getting laid.

Construction dude welds the rails together.
On a hot Summer day.

When you take pictures in Downtown,
you're expected to make the obligatory skyline shot.

Blast From The Past

From looking towards our rail future, we now look back to our rail past in this rare YouTube video of the Pacific Electric Red Cars, which shows some of the trolleys in Downtown, Santa Monica, Venice and Culver City (which, as the video shows, was chosen by Henry Culver to be specifically located along the PE tracks (talk about a transit-oriented development before its time)). It was shot by a Culver City resident and filmed as a home video back in the day:

Hooray for segues!