Suddenly Sylmar

One of the Militant's great joys is visiting the many communities of this great City. The Militant has covered both The Eastside and The Westside, and has ventured 24 miles south of Downtown Los Angeles to San Pedro. This time The Militant heads 24 miles the other direction, to Los Angeles' northernmost 'hood -- Sylmar.

For most Angelenos, Sylmar is famous for just two things: The eponymous 6.7 earthquake in 1971 (which was actually centered five miles to the northeast in Canyon Country) and the visible terminus of the 419-mile Los Angeles Aqueduct.

But there's so much more to Sylmar than historical quakes and one MF'er of a waterslide.

Okay not that much, but it's got some interesting places of note...

Compared to the rest of the City, or even the Valley, Sylmar is somewhat different. Most of its population of nearly 80,000 lives in the usual SFV suburban tract homes or large apartments, but a great deal of Sylmar is rural or semi-rural -- A horse in a stable is just as common a sight as a car in a garage.

Originally called "Morningside" and settled in the mid-1800s, having named two of its major streets after then-U.S. presidents John Tyler and James K. Polk, Sylmar was named so because of the many olive groves that once grew in the area, originally planted by the friars from nearby Mission San Fernando who found the immediate area's climate uncannily similar to certain olive-growing regions in Spain. In the 1890s, over a thousand acres of the pitted fruit were planted and Sylmar olives were known throughout California as da shiznit. On certain days, the wind would ripple the treetops like waves in the ocean. Thus Syl ("sylva" or forest) + mar (sea) = "Sea of Trees."

The Militant was on a mad search for these olive trees, which were seemingly away from view in Sylmar's main drag, which is the Foothill Blvd corridor from Maclay Avenue in the south to Bledsoe Street to the north. But alas, The Militant finally found the last vestiges of the old groves along...Olive View Drive (duh...).

On the corner of Olive View and Bledsoe, a ranch-style house sits on a large property that's mostly covered in a grove of mature olive trees. And to add to the quintessential nature of the scene, under the tree, there was a horsie (pictured left)!

The nearby mountains, thrusting thousands of feet above the Valley floor, are also popular with hikers and mountain bikers. Across the street, a pack of MTB'ers were loading up their bikes back into their cars, congratulating themselves after a long, rewarding ride.

Also across the street is a major icon from the earthquake of 41 years ago.

Olive View-UCLA Medical Center stands on the other side (pictured right), rebuilt 16 years after the quake, which caused several sections of the building and its parking structure to collapse. The entire structure was on the verge of collapse due to its weakened structural integrity, and the entire building was demolished two years later. The quake occurred just one month after the building re-opened after a 1962 fire. Today, it's operated by LA County and serves the health needs of the region's lower-income residents. A few of its own hospital staff could be found walking home or waiting for the Metro Local bus.

The facility originally opened in 1920 as a tuberculosis hospital, as the warm climate of the area was favorable for respiratory health patients (this obviously before the smog era). Ironically, the location of the building -- on an alluvial plain (where mountain runoff water traditionally flows) below a mountain range --caused it to be extremely vulnerable to liquefaction during the '71 temblor.

Speaking of history, just a few blocks down Bledsoe Avenue from the hospital is the 4-acre Pioneer Cemetery (pictured left), the final resting place of over 600 Valley residents interred between 1889 and 1939. A handful of Civil War vets were laid to rest there.  It after being threatened with abandonment in the late 1950s, the Native Daughters of the Golden West successfully fought to preserve it and got the cemetery State Historical Landmark status.

Okay, so where to the living hang out then? Like many SFV communities, there are chain stores galore, but Sylmar boasts its own local hangs.

Places like El Chaparral Mexican Restaurant on Foothill, opened in 1967, which is a local archetype of large chain Mexican restaurants like Acapulco or El Torito. Gary's Sports Lounge, just south on Foothill by Hubbard Street, is the old standby dive bar in the neighborhood.

But perhaps the most unique hang in Sylmar is Buffalo Bruce's Mercantile (pictured right). Tucked away behind a strip mall on Hubbard and Foothill, blink and you'll miss it. But if you're ever curious how a hippie-dippy coffeehouse and wild west barbecue joint can somehow coexist, then this place is worth a visit.

Sylmar has its own Metrolink station on the Antelope Valley Line, which is several blocks further west along Hubbard, so despite its relatively isolated location, it's still transit-accessible. Metro buses also serve Sylmar of course...but even The Militant doesn't want to endure a bus ride that long!

The Militant strongly believes that all of Los Angeles' communities have their own distinct charm, you just have to look sometimes. The next time you're in the north Valley, try your own olive tree hunt or try to discover what even The Militant couldn't discover in Sylmar.

A Peak Worth Croaking About

If you're a big statistics/metrics geek, you will easily notice that the Militant Angeleno doesn't do much when the weather is cold and the days are dark. So it wasn't until a nice warm President's Day when the Militant decided to step out of his compound for a change and finally get inspired to get down to blogginess.

By now you've heard about the big hubbub regarding The Hollywood Sign, and why it's been temporarily altered the past few days - the first legal alteration of the sign since 1992 when the sign was used to promote the Ralph Bakshi animated film, Cool World (Remember, Holli Would?).

By the way, if you are so moved by the sight of 50-foot tarps bearing red and black letters urging that private development not take place up there, pause for the cause and make a contribution by the April 14 deadline. The Militant sure will.

Since the sign will be brought back to normal on Wednesday, the Militant thought it would be great to take some pics of it for posterity, so up he went into them thar hills, to a semi-secret location near the Hollywood Reservoir (or should that be the Save The Peak Reservoir?).

But apparently it wasn't that secret, as a bunch of folks got up there, by foot, by car, by bike, by Segway and by Time Machine to bask in the lovely summer-like weather in mid-February that only Los Angeles can offer.

Wait, what? TIME MACHINE?!

Okay, okay, not an actual time machine, but car owned by a dude named Paul Nigh, who tricked-out his own Back To The Future replica DeLorean car (puictured right). The owner said that the frame was salvaged from a Universal Studios backlot junkyard and built up from that. Likely inspired by the aforementioned lovely weather, he let curious and fascinated Gen-Xers and other movie fans snap pictures and take a seat in the iconic wing-door automobile (free of charge), playing amusing sound effects from the thing and bragging about how the original movie car's designer has seen and admired it.

The Militant didn't want to leave just set - due south was a breathtaking view of the Los Angeles basin, with the Baldwin Hills, Rancho Palos Verdes, the Pacific Ocean and even Catalina Island visible in the distance. Yes, it was one of those days.

But as the Militant left the area, he discovered something more far more fascinating than just a nice warm sunny day and a temporarily-altered landmark.

Upon sighting a gated archway with a bronze plaque on it (The Militant is instantly attracted to plaques (no not that kind), signifying the construction of the Toyon Tanks which hold the water source for the Save The Peak Reservoir), the Militant pulled over and saw four dudes hiking on a nearby incline. It didn't take long for the Militant to find out what brought them there. He could hear it right away.

Instead of describing it in words, let the magic of streaming video show you:





Yes, it was a swamp full of croaking frogs, right up here in the Save The Peak Hills. The Militant couldn't actually see any frogs (them critters are pretty elusive as it is), but as the video proves they are clearly heard.

A swamp full of frogs, up in the hills hundreds of feet above the City's streets, in the middle of our wonderful metropolis.

The Militant sure loves surprises like that.

Ea-gle, Ea-gle, ROCK YOU!

Though the Militant hasn't made much good on his New Year's Resolutions to increase his output lately, the recent phenomenon is mainly attributed to the fact that lately he hasn't strayed much from The Militant Compound, and when he does, it's in a part of town already covered in This Here Blog.

The Militant is no stranger to the venerable Northeast Los Angeles community of Eagle Rock, but he's noticed he hasn't yet given the place the props it deserves, so passing by the vicinity on Thursday, he decided to give some hot Militant Love on the MA Blog.

The community may be well known for its pizza institution, hipsters or the one-time residence of the President of the United States, but by far it's known for its eponymous geological feature: The Eagle Rock.

The 12 million year-old conglomerate rock formation stands like a sentry just north of the 134, a familiar sight for this Militant ever since his childhood, whenever the Militant's family trips took him to the Rose Parade or to relatives' houses in the San Gabriel Valley.

But something always bugged him about The Rock (no, not that one). It was the description of the geological feature: that the rock formation resembles "an eagle in flight."

Flight? WHUT? He don't see no wings! It's obviously an EAGLE HEAD. When the Militant's parents drove Lil' Mil down the 134 back in the day, they'd tell him, "Look at the Eagle Rock!" and Lil' Mil would say, "Yeah! I see the head of an eagle!" THE HEAD OF A FREAKING EAGLE! Yet no book, publication or website ever acknowledged this. Are they crazy or what? AN EAGLE HEAD!

Lookie:
What are these historians? Blind? See the beak? See the eye? IT'S AN EAGLE HEAD.

If they can't see it, and you can't see it, then - surprise - the Militant is the first Los Angeles writer/historian to acknowledge it as A FREAKING EAGLE HEAD.

Anyway, the Militant decided to take a closer look at the thing - and was pleasantly surprised. Most people simply pass this thing on the freeway at 65 miles an hour and never give it any more thought.

But at the foot of the rock - right at the very northernmost reach of Figueroa Street - is a neato little public park, with benches and all, decorated with native flora (pictured left). There's also a narrow, 1-mile hiking path called the Eagle Rock Canyon Trail, which the Militant walked for a few yards, ultimately deciding to cover this hike in a future blog post (don't wanna put all his eagle eggs in one basket!).

It turns out the little park and the trail are relatively new, just installed nearly two years ago by The Collaborative Eagle Rock Beautiful. Feel free to visit the park and walk the trail (treaded shoes/boots recommended) and you just might see native tobacco plants used by the Tongva Indian tribe and the caves used as a hideout by desperados ages ago.

He also discovered one lucky Eagle Rock resident lives right below the rock - there's a single-story house right at the base. Imagine looking up at that every morning (surely the occupant must take the whole thing for granted by now...).

The Militant spent the rest of the day with nearby operatives who weren't aware of the history, which wasn't very fun. But the Militant can change all that one day by taking them on a little hike...