The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour 6.0 (Or 2.02)!!!!!!

Wel, well, well, we meet again. Time for another wonderful day of sun and smiles, and our third CicLAvia this year. The Militant returns again for yet another Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour, though we may or may not have been to these places before. The Militant has added a few new points of interest, so don't pass this up if you've followed his Epic Militant CicLAvia Tours before.

This route is more or less a mashup of previous routes from last year, which further convolutes The Militant's naming conventions for this particular route. Oh well, it may or may not be the 6th version of the CicLAvia route -- or is it just a variation of the second one? It don't matter. Check it out, check out the sites, spend your dough on food trucks or local businesses, and don't forget your sunscreen. See you or not see you on Sunday!

Note: Though The Militant likes to view the route from west to east for some reason, he has listed these sites from East to West, as some of the sites are related and make a little more sense when going that direction.

East-West Route (Boyle Heights to Mac Arthur Park)

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 six years ago and updated it to a more contemporary Eastside-style flavor. Don't call it gentrification, call it gentefication.

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

This is the new town square for Boyle Heights, anchored by the historic 1889 Boyle Hotel on the historic Cummings Block, 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 last year. 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. 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.

4. 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 98 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.

5. Keiro Retirement Home/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. 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.'

6. 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.

7. Site of Quaker Dairy, Original Little Tokyo Restaurant
1890
304 E. 1st St., Little Tokyo

On the southeast corner of 1st and San Pedro streets once stood the Quaker Dairy, a restaurant started on this site in 1890 by Sanshichi Akita, an immigrant from Japan. Though preceded five years earlier by another restaurant on First St (location unknown), this is the oldest traceable location of a Little Tokyo business. By the end of the 19th century, there were over 16 Japanese-owned restaurants in this stretch of 1st Street, creating what we know as Little Tokyo.

8. Los Angeles Sister Cities Monument
Circa late 1980s
1st and Main streets, Downtown

On the northeast corner of 1st and Main streets stands a pole bearing signs (in the "Blue Blade" style, no less) for every one of Los Angeles' 25 Sister Cities, each pointing towards their location. The signs range from Lusaka, Zambia (the farthest sister city, 10,017 miles) to Vancouver, Canada (the nearest, 1,081 miles) and everywhere in between. Nagoya, Japan is Los Angeles' oldest sister city (1959); Yerevan, Armenia is the newest (2007). Los Angeles, an Olympic host city (1932, 1984) also has that in common with sister cities Athens (1896, 2004), Berlin (1936), Mexico City (1968) and Vancouver (2010). Okay, the Militant is just filling up this paragraph with mindless trivia.

9. New Los Angeles City "Chevy Logo" Street Signs
2009
Various locations along 1st Street, Downtown

Speaking of Blue Blades, and since you're on 1st Street, don't forget to see Los Angeles' new street signs! Featuring a reflective background and typeface, the City Seal and shaped like the Chevrolet logo, these were the subject of The Militant's now-legendary recent post on Los Angeles street signs. Now you can see them for yourself!

10. Los Angeles Police Administration Building
2009
100 W. 1st St, Downtown

Having opened less than two years ago, there's nothing really historic about this building, but do stop and take a picture of City Hall's reflection from the facade's glass panel. It's like, the thing to do.

11. Old State Office Building Foundation
1931 (Demolished 1971)
1st and Spring streets, Downtown

Ever wonder about that park-like area across the street from City Hall, and why there appears to be a foundation but no building? It was once the site of the State Office Building (pictured left, looking north on Spring), which was built in 1931. Forty years later, the 6.4 Sylmar Earthquake rendered it unsafe, and it was demolished. The land was once an openly-accessible parkspace; the Militant remembers going to a demonstration there as a child (Oh this Militant stuff sure started early...)

• If heading on north leg towards Chinatown, skip to #22.

12. Site of the Wilcox Building, First National Bank
1896
2nd and Spring streets, Downtown

Remember Mr. Hollenbeck? He be makin' serious bank! Oh wait, he literally did. As was mentioned, he founded a bank called the First National Bank of Los Angeles, which made its original home here on the southeast corner of 2nd and Spring in what once stood the Wilcox Building. Check this out: First National Bank merged with the Farmers and Merchants Bank to become the Security-First National Bank, which became Security Pacific National Bank (1967), and was eventually purchased by Bank of America in the 199os.

13. Site of Hollenbeck Hotel
1884
2nd and Spring streets, Downtown

Man, this Hollenbeck dude got around! We're not quite through with him yet. Directly across Spring Street from the bank (on what is now a parking lot) stood the Hollenbeck Hotel, a pretty swanky, bougie inn back in the day. He owned not just the hotel, the entire block the hotel stood on (He sooo money!). As more hotels were being built in Downtown, this one eventually lost ground to its competitors and was demolished in 1933.

14. 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.

• If heading on south leg towards South Los Angeles, skip to #26.

15. 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!

16. Wilshire Grand Hotel Site
2017
Wilshire and Figueroa (SW corner), Downtown

Up until several months ago on that empty lot was the Wilshire Grand Hotel, formerly (in reverse chronological order) the Omni Hotel, Los Angeles Hilton, Statler Hilton and Statler Hotel.

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

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

17. City View Lofts/Young's Market Company Building
1924
1610 w. 7th St., Pico-Union

Ever wondered what's the deal with this 4-story Italian Renaissance-style building? It was built in 1924 as a liquor warehouse and original headquarters for Young's Market Company, which still operates today as the largest liquor distributor in the West. This building features actual marble columns and a decorative frieze made of terra cotta. The company, in the roaring, pre-depression 1920s, just felt like it. The building was looted and burned in the 1992 Riots and was rehabbed in 1997 to become the City View lofts. The building is in the National Register of Historic Places.

18. Gen. Douglas MacArthur Monument
1955
Southeast corner of MacArthur Park, Westlake

It's sort of strange how a monument to the park's namesake seems almost invisible (Gen John Pershing, MacArthur's WWI counterpart, could totally identify). In fact, most people don't know it's even there, but on the southeast shore of the lake is a dormant memorial fountain featuring a statue of the WWII general overlooking a model of the Pacific theatre (no, not that one) where he led allied forces to eventual victory. It was designed and built in 1955 by Roger Noble Burnham, who previously sculpted the Tommy Trojan statue on the USC campus and taught at the Otis Art School, formerly located nearby.

Northern Route (To Chinatown):

19. Grand Park
1960, 2012
Open space between Grand Avenue and Spring Street, Downtown

Grand Park isn't really a new park, but a renovation and re-branding of what used to be the Los Angeles County Mall.  Since then, it's become Los Angeles' new town square, hosting everything from concerts, to festivals, to weekend movie screenings, to holiday programs, to just a place where kids can splash around in the fountain. The Militant was there on its opening day back in July 2012!

20. 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. At the moment, its facade is covered in scaffolding and tarp, as part of 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.

21. Site of Los Angeles' French Quarter
c. 1830s-1960s
Aliso Street and Arcadia Street, Downtown

Beleive it or non, Los Angeles had a French ethnic enclave, called The French Quarter. Before today's Hollywood Freeway trench and nearby parking lots was a bustling community of Franco-American businesses and institutions. When Frenchman Jean-Louis Vignes bought up land on the Yangna village site a few blocks east on Aliso Street, he essentially became the anchor of our French community. In 1912, businessman Marius Taix opened the Champ D'Or Hotel on Commercial Street and then opened his namesake restaurant in the same building in 1927. But the most famous constibution to our French Quarter was Philippe Mathieu's restaurant, which opened in various locations in the area. In 1918, his restaurant on 246 Aliso Street gave birth to The French Dip sandwich. But urban development (and cultural assimilation by the community) destroyed the French Quarter. In 1951, Philippe's moved a few blocks north to their present location on Alameda Street due to Hollywood Freeway construction, and Monsieur Taix's restaurant moved a decade later to Echo Park.

22. 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.

23.  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!

24. 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.

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

The new 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.

Southern Route (To South Los Angeles):

26. The I.N. Van Nuys Building

1911
210 W. 7th St (at Spring), Downtown

A 100-year old, 11-story Classical-style building built by banker and landowner Isaac Newton Van Nuys (who owned much of the San Fernando Valley, including his eponymous community). Designated as a Historic Cultural Landmark (#898) in 2007, what was once Los Angeles' most expensive office building ($1.25 million in 1911 dollars) was converted to senior housing. Do check out its unique parking structure, at 719-721 S. Spring St.

27. Great Republic Life Insurance Building
1927
756 S. Spring St., Downtown

The Militant just loves old buildings with their names imprinted on their front and ornate bas-relief designs in the upper financial floors. This 13-story Beaux Arts style building is one of those, home to the Great Republic Life Insurance company, built right before the Great Dperession. This and many other financial institutions up and down Spring Street were part of the "Wall Street of the West." And since this is 2011, think of CicLAvia as #OccupyWallStreetOfTheWest. Today, it's home to the Great Republic Lofts.

28. National City Bank Building
1924
810 S. Spring St., Downtown

Another fine example of 1920s Beaux Arts architecture is the National City Bank (not to be confused with the City National Bank) Building. They just don't make 'em like this anymore. Today, it's home to the National City Tower Lofts.

29. ANJAC Fanshion Buildings
Built various years in the 20th Century
Various Locations along Broadway, Spring and Santee Streets, Downtown

The ANJAC Fashion Buildings (you'll see a whole bunch of 'em) are a collection of older buildings re-purposed for use as rented showroom, warehouse or manufacturing spaces for the local clothing industry. They're all owned by Steve Needleman, who also owns the nearby Orpheum Theatre. One of the ANJAC buildings on nearby Broadway was the site of an historic 3-week garment worker's strike in 1933 that  put Chicano organized labor on the map.

30. Spring/Main Junction 
c 1890s
Spring and Main Streets at 9th Street, Downtown

This very Manhattanesque portion of Downtown Los Angeles might not be The Great White Way, but it did serve as a junction point for both the Pacific Electric and Los Angeles Railway trolleys back in the day. The triangular park in the middle, recently ornamented with public art once served as a passenger platform for the streetcars. The building at the very tip of the corner, just north of it was once the local Anheuser Busch brewing company headquarters. More historical pics here, here, here and here.

31. Harris Newmark Building

1925

127 E. 9th St., Downtown

This 12-story building was at one time the tallest building in Los Angeles, built in honor of Harris Newmark, an early Los Angeles leader, businessman, landowner and philathropist. He helped to found the city of Montebello and helped shape Los Angeles' Jewish community through his leadership and charitable giving. It was once home to Sam's Deli, a local eatery institution that operated from 1963 to 2003. In the '90s, the building was carefully restored using the original blueprints. It now functions today as The New Mart (get it?) 

32. Security Pacific Bank(!)

c 1990s or 2000s
9th and Cecilia streets, Downtown

Now here's a sight that longtime Angelenos haven't seen in a long time - the interlocking "S" logo of Security Pacific National Bank. Once upon a time, there were actually large banks founded and headquartered in Los Angeles. Security Pacific, a major bank whose heritage dates back to 1868 was swallowed up by the big, evil Bank of America in 1992. The Militant discovered recently that this apparent vestige of days gone by is actually more recent, as a new but unrelated Security Pacific began in 2005 and went out of business just three years later (the bank space in this building is vacant and currently available for lease). Judging by the condition of the sign, this may or may not be the case.  

33. Dude, Where's My 9th Street?
1928
9th Street-Olympic Blvd at Ceres Ave.

Chalk this one up, along with the two San Vicente Boulevards, as one of the great street mysteries of Los Angeles. While heading east on 9th Street, the thoroughfare inexplicably becomes Olympic Boulevard, only to vanish into oblivion. Olympic, on the other hand, resurfaces west of San Julian and heads all the way Santa Monica's 5th Street. The Militant is only announcing this as a public service just so you won't think anyone was f'ing with your mind as you head east on 9th.

34. Central Market 

c 1930s
1227 E. Olympic Blvd, Downtown

This wholesale market operated in partial competition to the much larger wholesale market just a few blocks east, but it's in a supplementary role nowadays as a wholesale meat and poultry facility.

35. Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market

1918, expanded in 1986
Central and Olympic Blvd, Downtown

Anyone who says Los Angeles, or even Downtown Los Angeles, isn't a 24-hour city, has obviously never been here. From about 2 a.m. to 2 p.m. (the action begins at 4 a.m. and ends before 10 a.m.), trucks roll up to unload fresh-from-the-farm produce in bulk for purchase. This market is mostly for supermarkets, distributors and restaurants, but anyone can purchase at the vendors here (you just have to take home a big-ass crate of apples rather than just a couple pounds). The Grand Central Market performed this role all but briefly before it was maxed out, and a new produce market, on 7th and Central was built closer to the railroad tracks in 1918. In 1986, the facility was expanded to what you see today. Check out this YouTube video of how the market looked like in 1963!

36. Yellow Car Tracks

c. early 1900s
12th Street at Central Avenue, Downtown

Look at the cracks and crevices in the street, just east of the crosswalk: TRACK! These tracks carried the Yellow Cars of the Los Angeles Railway's 2 Line, which ran from South Central through Downtown to the City Terrace area in The Eastside. Look carefully and you can see the old school inlaid brickwork in between the tracks! And unlike #26 above, the tracks are verified to be there!

37. Coca Cola Building

1936
1334 S. Central Ave, Downtown

Coca-Cola has been locally bottled in Los Angeles since 1895, with about five different locations in the Downtown area throughout history. But this is by far the most recognizable. A ship-like design by Robert Derrah (who also crafted Hollywood's likewise-nautical-flavored Crossroads Of The World) makes this one of Los Angeles' most unique buildings. And they'll be handing out free Coke and related beverage samples!

38. African American Firefighter Museum (Fire Station 30)

1913, 1997
1401 S. Central Ave, Downtown

Originally built as LAFD fire station 30, it was one of two "Blacks Only" stations between 1924 and 1955, when the fire department was integrated and the station de-commissioned. In 1997 the building  was converted into a museum to celebrate the contributions of African Americans in the LAFD and to highlight the long and painful struggle to integration and racial equality. The LAFD of today has a black Fire Chief, which would never have been possible without the struggles, stories and service of the people recognized at this museum. Definitely check it out.

The End Of An Era...

On Wednesday, September 25, 2013, the Dodgers played the hated San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park. Trailing 6-4, it was the top of the 9th, Adrian Gonzalez on 1st. Hanley Ramirez is at the plate, full count. Giants closer Sergio Romo throws, Ramirez grounds-out. The game is over.

The camera shows the Giants teammates congratulate each other on the field, and then the screen shows a montage of game highlights. Vin Scully bids all a "Good night." Then a short video segment of season highlights flash before the screen, with the above graphic displayed, then fades.

It was the end of an era.

Now in terms of this season, our Dodgers, having already clinched their National League West title, will go on to postseason play next week, and may or may not become World Champions by the time the month of October is done. But in terms of the team's 55-year history in Los Angeles, it was the sad ending of a longtime tradition in Los Angeles.

See, Wednesday's game was not only the last game of the season on KCAL, it was the last regular-season scheduled Dodger game to be shown on free broadcast television. Starting next year, all Dodger regular-season games will be shown on Time Warner Cable's new SportsNet LA, a team-owned cable TV channel that was the result of an $8.5 billion deal with the cable provider.

For those of you who are TWC subscribers, no big deal, You'll enjoy the 2014 season and beyond just like you always have. And for those who have other cable providers, depending on if they pony up the dough to TWC, they may or may not carry SportsNet LA. But for those of us (like The Militant) who do not have cable television...tough shiyat.

The Militant watched every inning of the game like a series finale. But this was bigger than your Dexter or Breaking Bad (shows The Militant never seen before 'cuz they on cable), this was a series that has been on local TV since 1958. The cast may change, the writing might be better some years than others (It's been really good this year - at least since late June...), but the premise and the setting are what draws him in year after year. And now, he can't watch his favorite show (The Militant doesn't really watch much else on TV, so "Just getting cable" isn't really justified).

Of course, this is not without precedent. The Lakers were the first local team to enter a deal with TWC. So, gone are the days of watching a Lakers game on broadcast television, where the likes of Kareem, Magic, Shaq and Kobe inspired the hoop dreams of many a Southland youth. Or even provided a means of entertainment for first-generation immigrants finding a way to connect with and integrate with mainstream culture.

The same goes for baseball fans. The Militant (and countless others) grew up watching Dodger games on KTTV 11 for decades, they were even more part of the Summertime pastime than going to the games, if you weren't privileged enough to have access to season tickets. Your day would even revolve around them. When The Militant was growing up, his ballpark hero was Steve Garvey. So even when he did go to the games, the TV broadcasts made the players the larger-than-life stars that we admired. When Fernandomania struck Los Angeles in the early 1980s, watching #34 on the mound on broadcast TV made many a kid in East Los Angeles or Echo Park look up to a hero that reminded them of themselves. Likewise when Hideo Nomo and Chan Ho Park played over a decade later, many in the Asian American community found their own ballpark heroes to look up to. When the games moved on to KCAL 9, we followed suit. It was the same Vin, same game, same team, same uniform and same tradition we've enjoyed in this City for over half a century already.

But sad to say, the babies born today, unless they're privileged enough to be born into a family with cable TV, won't be able to watch a Dodger game on television. They might not even get to see a game called by Vin Scully. Will they be interested in the Dodgers at all? Will they be interested in baseball at all (even the Angels games are all-cable now)? Will they be interested in sports at all, since the Lakers, Clippers and Kings and Galaxy also have all-cable coverage (Apparently, only the Anaheim Ducks and Chivas USA still have games on broadcast TV (both on OC's KDOC 56, and also KWHY 22 for the latter).

What kind of local fans will we have 20, 30, 40 years from now? Will they support the teams, admire the players, go to the games?

Of course, there's always the NFL games on Sunday and Monday...a sport without any teams that represent this city, hmph.

As far as the Dodgers, he'll have to do with the radio now. At least there's still Vin Scully to provide the mental imagery of the game...for the time being, at least.

Happy 10th Birthday, Metro Gold Line!

Remember "Discover Gold?"

A decade ago today, The Metro Gold Line, Los Angeles' first light rail line in the 21st Century opened on one hot Saturday. Originally planned as an extension of the Metro Blue Line to Pasadena, it's the only direct transportation link between the Los Angeles and Pasadena downtowns (The 110 Freeway ends short of it).

The Militant, who has yet to miss an opening day for a Metro Rail line, was there, and remembered waiting in a long-ass line that snaked around the Gateway Plaza parking garage (the one some of you park in to ride the Dodger Stadium Express bus to games). It took nearly forever, but The Militant got on his train, rode all the way to the Sierra Madre Villa station, where the celebration had already ended in the parking structure there, and headed back.

Old-school Gold Line vehicles, now since replaced with the silver/gray Italian-built Ansaldobreda trains.

A few things have changed since Opening Day; the original 13.5-mile line is now nearly 20 miles long, having been extended from Union Station to East Los Angeles back in 2009. Originally an under-performing line due to its apparent slowness (something the Expo Line knows all too well), it now carries over 42,500 riders per day. Also, the orange-striped white Siemens light rail vehicles no longer run on the line, having been moved to their new tours of duty on the Green, Expo and Blue lines. And a few of the stations have changed their names: Lincoln/Cypress (originally Lincoln Heights/Cypress Park), Heritage Square (originally French Ave), Highland Park (originally Avenue 57) and South Pasadena (originally Mission).

Long-ass lines that day in the parking structure!

The future's bright for the Gold Line: In just two years it will be extended even farther into the SGV, terminating in Azusa with a station near Azusa Pacific University and Citrus College (The Militant won't miss that one fo' sho!). And by the next decade, the line will function as it was originally planned, when the two-mile Regional Connector tunnel is completed under Downtown Los Angeles. But alas, most of what the "Gold Line" is known for will no probably longer be named as such. Potential plans for the line may likely integrate the Union Station-to-Azusa section into the Blue Line, leaving the Eastside segment remaining Gold (and turning the Expo line into "Gold") in the process.

If you're feeling nostalgic for re-living the line circa 2003, take The Militant's Ultimate Gold Line Tour, which came out in 2009, and shows you places of significant interest along the old school Union Station to Sierra Madre Villa route.

Happy Birthday, Metro Gold Line! Here's to many more years, in whatever form you may or may not become!

The Militant Takes On The Natural History Museum's 'Becoming Los Angeles' Exhibit!

Though The Militant Angeleno blog is not a history blog per se, it was intended at its founding six years ago to educate what The Militant found back then to be a largely lost and clueless blogosphere in terms of basic knowledge and appreciation of life in Los Angeles. Back then, many transplants and natives alike still clung on to inaccurate pejorative generalized assumptions of Los Angeles, which were designed on purpose to deflate the pride and morale of this city's populace in the name of self-degradation. One of them was, "L.A. [sic] Has No History."

Really now. Even a settlement founded five minutes ago has a history. There is a backstory behind the hows and whys of the existence of that settlement, and the people who founded it. Not to mention that the settlement is now no longer five minutes old, but seven minutes old.

Despite that explanation, there are still some suckas who still insist that "L.A. [sic] Has No History." So instead of inflicting bodily harm on various people, The Militant decided to assume an identity and start a blog. The rest is history. Pun may or may not be intended.

The Natural History Museum is one of Los Angeles' first major civic institutions aimed at a populace that was inevitably bound to be more than just a sleepy agrarian town. A direct product of the "City Beautiful Movement" that swept the United States around the turn of the 20th Century, the museum opened 100 years ago on November 6, 1913. Along with the Los Angeles Aqueduct, which opened the day before, these were civic benchmarks of a place that was undergoing a metamorphosis, as citrus groves and avocado orchards bordered by dirt roads were being transformed into commercial districts and neighborhoods bordered by paved streets.

More than just an old-ass building with dinosaur bones that occasionally becomes a hip venue for KCRW DJs, attaining centenarian status also meant re-asserting itself as an important and vibrant  institution of learning and discovery to a city that's undergoing a new kind of metamorphosis in the 21st Century. With that, they unveiled the new "Becoming Los Angeles" permanent exhibit earlier this month. The Militant was faithfully there on Thursday to Check. It. Out.

"Becoming Los Angeles" basically explains the transformation of Los Angeles in ecological and sociopolitical aspects from Tongva nation to Spanish pueblo to Mexican rancho to Californian town to American city. The Militant realizes that it's a herculean task to condense 232 years of written history (and the few thousand years of unwritten history that precedes it)  into 14,000 square feet of museum space. Though it's not perfect, it most definitely succeeds at explaining (to newbies and hardcore militant history buffs alike, and everyone in between) the hows and whys of the origins of this grand city that we live in.

The Militant will not attempt to give you a play-by-play rundown of the entire exhibit. He doesn't intend to not only because he thinks it's important that you visit this exhibit yourself and come away with your own experience of learning our city's history, but because he doesn't want to end up writing another overtly long-ass blog post that takes him into the wee-hours of the night and causes him wake up in the early afternoon, only to discover that maybe 30 people have bothered to read his volunteer dissertation (now you know why The Militant doesn't blog as much these days).

He will say that it's a largely aesthetically-pleasing , U-shaped exhibit, which is information-packed but not uncomfortably overwhelming. He will also say that even a militant Los Angeles history buff like The Militant learned a thing or two he either didn't know before, or was explained in much more coherent terms, like how cow poop was instrumental in changing the Los Angeles landscape (The Militant won't spoil it for you, if you didn't know already, then wait for the exhibit to break it down for ya). Incidentally, "poop" is the Museum's preferred synonym for feces/excrement/droppings/doo-doo/caca/shit, as its use is consistently used in the other exhibits (Dino poop, anyone?). He will also additionally say that some of the historical artifacts included here were mind-blowing in their inclusion, such as the actual table where The Freaking Treaty of Cahuenga was signed (to think that THE John C. Fremont and THE Andres Pico actually sat there...[mind blown]).  He will even more also additionally say that your Los Angeles History Geekdom can accurately be  measured by the amount of time in minutes (or hours) that you gaze at the Downtown Los Angeles Circa 1940 scale model and view it from various angles (and take photos of it). Mark The Militant's Word!

The Militant also stepped back and looked not just at the displays themselves, but at the people perusing them, with curiosity, delight and even various levels of expertise. It was quite a sight to see 21st Century Latinos make connections with their 19th Century counterparts, a number of which we get to be acquainted with by face and name via biography.  One of the visitors commented on the picture of Eutalia Perez de Guillen Marine, who lived to the age 112(!) and said she reminded her of her own great-grandmother, and how Señora Eutalia's eyes can "look into your soul." Others were equally fascinated by the 103 year-old Rogerio Rocha (Man, what were these people eating back then, that's what The Militant wants to know!), a blacksmith of Fernandeño Indian heritage who owned his own property in the SFV but lost it to Teh White Man when American property laws went into effect in the 1850s.

And for those who know your historical figures, people like Abel Stearns, Biddy Mason and Harris Newmark, among many others, get their due props here.

As The Militant mentioned earlier, "Becoming Los Angeles" isn't perfect. Though not adversely impacting the exhibit in any major way, he feels it could be much better if the following can somehow be addressed:

- The Native American section (described specifically as "Tongva-Gabrieleño" as various tribal factions have their own variations on the name) seems kind of nominal. Maybe it's because The Militant dedicated an entire month of posts on the original native Angelenos,  but you figured the people who have been here milennia longer than the Spanish, Mexicans and Americans combined should get a little more display love. We see some nice stone artifacts, but little in the way of what they looked like and what their environment was like. It would also have been awesome to see a map of Tongva villages overlaid on a modern Los Angeles like what The Militant did.

- The Pobladores display, though featuring a neato scale diorama and a full roster of the 44 founders of El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Rio Porciuncula on September 4, 1781 by name, age and gender, still seems to be missing something. Maybe it's the (lack of) adequate lighting (these are the founders, c'mon!), maybe it's the awkward positioning in the exhibit (it's placed in a corridor, painted black, possibly easy to overlook), maybe it's way the description was written, which doesn't seem to make it plainly obvious why the Pobladores were dispatched from Mission San Gabriel and why they stopped where they stopped.

- On a similar note, the Pacific Electric display, though containing some nice mementos of our former rail transit system, doesn't seem to relay to the passing eye that it's presenting the history of a transportation system -- i.e. no pictures or models of streetcars.

- More interactive displays. The interactive video presentation of the Los Angeles Aqueduct was well done, The Militant expected a little more of that with the technology we have today. Maybe a display of how the freeway system grew over the years (many Los Angeles n00bs just assume it was built all at once when it, like today's Metro Rail system, was actually planned, funded, built and opened in phases).

- While the exhibit rightfully covers the impact of the motion picture industry, including some early artifacts, though it references the film industry's east coast origins, it doesn't explain why it ended up here (supposedly to escape possible lawsuits stemming from Thomas Edison's exclusive patent of the motion picture camera, and Hollywood, once located along a railroad line, was close enough to the Mexican border where scofflaw filmmakers could escape the country in a jiffy).

- The photo gallery along the walls towards the end of the exhibit have no captions/credits. Dunno if it's not finished yet, but it would help to have explanations for the pictures (The WWII photo display of multiethnic Angelenos involved in the war, flanking a photo of San Gabriel native Gen. George S. Patton looked nice though).

- The Internet! Dude, no mention whatsoever of The Internet's 1969 birth in a UCLA computer lab?! Whatup with that?

The exhibit ends with a photo montage projection of historic events from the 1940s to the 2010s and a video of the Los Angeles cityscape framed by questions that lead the visitor to ponder the city's future.
Because we are also a living part of Los Angeles history.

Do The Militant a favor and visit this exhibit. Give yourself about one and a half to two hours to enjoy the whole thing. Don't rush it (The Militant sorta did towards the end but it worked out in his favor since there was a power outage at the museum on Thursday afternoon). And after you do visit it, encourage your friends and family to visit it. And especially tell your friends/relatives transplanting themselves from Out East, Flyover Country and Up North to visit it, especially within their first month in town.

Los Angeles never lacked a history. But for the longest time we lacked a common mechanism in which to learn it. It's not something the LAUSD teaches its kids (nor is it something the LAUSD wants its kids to learn, especially in this era of standardized testing and their overall systematic decimation of learning). It wasn't until websites, blogs and social media made it easier to learn the hows and whys of this grand city, and glimpse into the way our familiar streets looked like to previous generations.

Visiting the "Becoming Los Angeles" exhibit is probably one of the most important things you should be doing as an Angeleno. Though obviously not hyper-comprehensive, it's complete enough that it gives a baseline history that should form the basis of our common understanding of local history. And it stimulates our curiosities enough that if we want to learn more, we can. Militant-Approved!

Too bad it had to take 100 years to make all this happen.

'Take Me Out' To A Los Angeles Tradition

It's a wonderful time to be a Dodgers fan. As of July 22, the team entered sole possession of first place in the NL West, just 22 days after being in last place. Yes, just 22 days from "suck" to "success," thanks to The Puig, Hanleywood, a more consistent rotation, a more improved pen, keeping Brandon League away from save situations and overall better health. Enjoy this one:

While The Militant was watching Sunday's game where The Boys In Blue swept the Washington Nationals, announcer Steve Lyons (yeah, we know...) made a comment about baseball's 7th Inning Stretch, how it may or may not have been originated by president William Howard Taft during the Washington Senators' Opening Day game in 1910 where the famously portly Commander-In-Chief stood up in the middle of the 7th and took a stretch to relieve the fatigue of sitting in a seat that was too small for him. The other spectators, seeing this, stood up along with the prez, and a tradition was born.

The other tidbit uttered by the unfortunately non-Vin Scully broadcasters was that the baseball anthem, "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" was first played at a baseball game in Los Angeles during a high school match in 1934.

"I find that hard to believe," quipped Lyons, fueling fire to the stereotype that Los Angeles was pretty much an empty desert until East Coast transplants arrived here, circa 1998 or so.

The story behind the song goes like this: It was written back in 1908 by Tin Pan Alley songwriters Jack Norworth (lyrics) and Albert Von Tilzer (music). Norworth was riding the subway in NYC (then brand-spanking new, only in existence for four years) when he saw an advertisement that read, "Baseball Today - Polo Grounds." The song was written with the songwriters having never been to a baseball game before (and hadn't even done so until over 20 years after the song was written).

And did you know the song as we sing it at Dodger Stadium, and at other stadia, is not the whole song? You're only singing the chorus part of the song! Here's the complete song, verses included, for y'allz:



The song was popular back in the days before records or even radio. People bought the sheet music and played and sang it themselves. It was also a popular pastime song in movie theaters - The audience sang it while the guy in the projector booth changed the film reels. But it would be some 26 years before it would be played at an actual baseball game, mainly because public address systems didn't exist until 1929.

Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" (now known as an Internet meme) is a song that came out 26 years ago, just to give you some perspective.

Several historical accounts mention "Take Me Out..." as having been first played at a high school baseball game in Los Angeles before being played at the World Series in St. Louis later that year.

But...which high school? 

It would be pretty awesomesauce if a certain high school's sports program took credit for it and literally ran the bases with it. Imagine having that distinction. Of course, Los Angeles schools don't care a thing about preserving their own histories, since teaching local history is banned in the LAUSD (assuming it was an LAUSD school). One account lists it as a "prep school" (which would likely make it a private school) and this page says it was first played "before the first game of the Los Angeles high school baseball season."

Well, there is a high school called "Los Angeles High School" which was founded in 1872 at Temple and Broadway in Downtown, moved to Fort Moore Hill in 1891 (right at pretty much the site of today's Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts) and moved to its current Olympic Blvd location in 1917. It once had an ornate gothic edifice (pictured left) which was damaged in the 1971 Sylmar earthquake and destroyed by an unrelated, though mysterious, fire later that year. Today's ugly-ass penitentiaryesque '70s-era school building is what replaced a beauty of a campus.

Interestingly, Los Angeles High does boast baseball-related alumni such as former Brooklyn Dodger Mel Almada, who in 1933, became the first Mexican American to play in the major leagues as a member of the Boston Red Sox. Other players include former NY Giants catcher Harry Danning and former Yankees outfielder Bob Meusel.

But perhaps the greatest Los Angeles High alum to make an impact on baseball was not a player, but a young woman named Rosalind Weiner who was eventually elected to the Los Angeles City Council in 1953 and became the driving force in City Hall in bringing the Brooklyn Dodgers to their new home in Los Angeles.

Sounds like the stars were aligned for that one. So, unless any other school wants to take credit for it, you Los Angeles High Romans might want to steal this historical base.

"Take Me Out To The Ball Game" is a tradition of America's national pastime, performed over the years at the old Wrigley Field, at Gilmore Stadium, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, at Dodger Stadium, at Anaheim Stadium if you wanna count that, at Dedaux Field, at Jackie Robinson Stadium and at countless high school fields all over town where countless major league players once played. But one of them, whichever it is, was the originator.

If anyone out there has any solid leads on the exact high school that originated "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" in 1934, please contact The Militant [militantangeleno at gmail dot com] immediately.

Miracle Smile: CicLAvia Takes On Wilshire Blvd

When The Militant first heard that there would be another CicLAvia added between the April and October editions, he was stoked. Then when he found out the route was a simple 6-mile stretch of Wilshire, he was bummed. But then when it was revealed that the event's hours were finally extended to 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., he was stoked again.

The six-mile course was the shortest to date and the first one to not incorporate any parts of previous routes. Billed as "Iconic Wilshire Boulevard," The Militant couldn't help but read that as "Ironic Wilshire Boulevard." No, not because of all the hipsters blasting Daft Punk's Random Access Memories album on their iPod boom boxes, but because Wilshire was, for all intents and purposes, a road developed for the car. H. Gaylord Wilshire donated his land along the former Orange Street on the condition that it not have streetcars or commercial trucks run along the thoroughfare. And when developer A.W. Ross pulled a Miracle some three decades later, the stores were built to autocentric scale. So how ironic, yet how appropriate, to have the street closed to cars and open to human-powered transport.

The six-mile course wasn't actually that bad. Though it lacked the sense of adventure and accomplishment of April's Sea-cLAvia, it was short and sweet enough to enjoy multiple times over if one wished. At no point did The Militant feel the need to rush the route (whereas he always did before).  There were shops, green space and historical wonders galore. There was almost something for everyone - yoga, zumba and KBBQ. And it was also quite walkable. The Militant probably walked almost two miles of the route (of course, with the large dismount areas at the ends, everyone walked 1/6 of the route).

Since two months fly by just like that, here we are...and there it went. Time flies when you're having fun, and despite the longer CicLAvia hours, the final CicLAvia of the Villaraigosa administration still went by all too quickly. Still, the two additional hours were much MUCH appreciated since The Militant was not only able to ride the entire course and back, but was able to chill out along the route. One downside though, was the lack of the 30-minute or so grace period after the official end of CicLAvia's hours, that grey area where cars aren't sure whether they should be back on the road yet, so, at least for part of the route, CicLAvia goes on extended play.
Not so this time. In fact, it was 3:55 p.m. when LAPD cruisers and City vehicles sweeped through Wilshire telling cars, in a stoic loudspeaker voice to "move to the right." So while CicLAvia might have gained two hours on paper, in reality, because there was never anyone keeping us off the route before the start time anyway, we really only gained half an hour.

How about CicLAvia follow this formula: One hour per mile, plus one, equals the appropriate length in hours of a CicLAvia event? Sunday's route was 6 miles, plus one equals the 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. span of the event. Perfect. Ergo, this just means that the 16-mile "To The Sea" route via Venice Boulevard will have to be 17 hours long next year [wide grin].

This being the first CicLAvia to experience June Gloom, Sunday's seventh iteration of CicLAvia may or may not have broken the streak of cloudless CicLAvia days, but as the afternoon wore on, the sun shone through the rest of the day. Never fails. The Despicable Me 2 blimp also never failed to stalk us.

Of course, one asshole (most likely talking on their cellphone like all motorists do) decided to stage an AutoLAvia for a few yards and strike and injure a cyclist. Unfortunately, The Asshole In The Car got away. If such a thing happens again at CicLAvia, The Militant hopes all you CicLAvians mob together en masse, force them to stop, force the asshole out from their car, dangle a noose from the nearest tree and proceed with the lynching, wild west style.

That aside, why don't we ask some experts what they thought of Sunday's CicLAvia? Thanks to a couple of his San Dimas-based operatives, The Militant was able to obtain a phone booth and travel back in time to gather some of the most influential white males in the history of Wilshire Boulevard! Joining us in our panel of experts (If you read the recent Epic CicLAvia Tour post, these names should be familiar to you by now...) is developer and Great Depression-era Miracle Mile founder, A.W. Ross; late 19th-century real estate magnate George Shatto and last, but certainly not least turn of the 20th century land developer, publisher and failed politician H. Gaylord Wishire.

MA: Gentlemen, thank you for being here.

George Shatto: We cannot see your face, young sir.

MA: The Militant's face is irrelevant to the topic. What did you think of Sunday's CicLAvia?

Gaylord Wishire: It was delightful to see so many bicycles on my street. They come in so many colors. Just like the people riding them. But I was much bothered by the trucks parked along the road. I specifically told the city, no trucks allowed on my street.

MA: Oh, those are food trucks, sir.

GW: Food trucks? Where are they delivering them to?

MA: They're not delivering food, they're selling food.

A.W. Ross: Food-selling trucks? Why, that's just nifty! I oughtta try that sometime on The Mile!

MA: No, don't do that, you'll mess up the space-time contin...oh never mind.

GW: Ross, was it you who erected these horrid capitalist edifices on my street?

AWR: Why, yes I did.

GW: You...swine!

AWR: Why, I oughtta pound you!

MA: Gentlemen! Gentlemen! Let's all just calm down. We're here to talk about CcLAvia. Mr. Shatto, your thoughts?

GS: What in criminy's name happened to my house? What happened to the other houses?

MA: Well, it's now a hospital. They demolished your house after you die...err...uhh...feeling awkward right now.

GS: I died? When?

MA: Die...di...dial..ed...dialed the telephone. Yes, that's it.

GS: What is the "telephone," exactly?

MA: Never mind. Hey, did you know a bowling alley was named after you?

GS: You don't say!

MA: Back on topic...Mr. Ross, what were your impressions of CicLAvia?

AWR: What happened to all the cars?

MA: Well, CicLAvia is a day where we close off the streets to cars.

AWR: Now why in tarnation's name would you ever want to do that?

MA: Well, because there's too many cars on the streets these days.

AWR: And that's a swell thing!

MA: No, because we have congestion and air pollution now.

AWR: Bah, that's just a bunch of applesauce.

GW: What does he know? That Ross is nothing but capitalist swine.

AWR: Oh dry up, Gaylord!

GW: Do you want to settle this in fisticuffs?

MA: HEY HEY GUYS! STOP! PLEASE!

GS: Is anyone interested in investing in some Santa Catalina Island property?

[Ross and Wilshire engage in a fistfight]

MA: Okay, gentlemen, thank you for participa...YO, SECURITY!

[The three panel guests were quickly escorted back into the phone booth time machine. Huh? "Station?" Who said that?]

Enjoy The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Photo Gallery!

What's left of the Wilshire Grand Hotel, soon to be the freaking tall Wilshire Grand Center building.

CicLAvia has clearly gone to the birds this time.

The Militant sincerely hopes this dude's tongue was planted firmly within his cheek with this one.

Gen. Otis directs CicLAvians to the yoga class at Mac Arthur Park.

JAIME: Hey Edward James, do you think Los Angeles is a bike-friendly city now?
EDWARD JAMES: Olmos!

Stupid tall bikes were soooo April 2013. This is the newest bad-assness right now.

Homeboy kept following us the whole time.

Los Angeles County presents the highest-capacity bike rack ever made.

And the Oscar goes to...

Wilshire Hopscotch at Crenshaw.

...'Til the Po-Po shuts us down.

The Militant's Epic Militant CicLAvia Tour 5.0!!!!!

View The Militant Angeleno's CicLAvia Tour 5.0! in a larger map

Wait a minute, didn't we just have a CicLAvia a couple months ago? You mean we don't have to wait until October? WOO-HOO!!!

Yes, fellow Angelenos, we have a third CicLAvia this year, albeit a short one. At six miles, it's the shortest and simplest route to date (Just Wilshire Boulevard between Grand and Fairfax avenues). Ironically, it's also the longest CicLAvia chronologically: The CicLAvia folks have finally listened to our pleas and will have CicLAvia run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. this Sunday! You heard right! Six miles in seven hours! It is also the first completely new route, which does not encompass any part of a previous CicLAvia route, though it crosses or closely parallels them.

Since the route is short and incredibly flat, there's talk about this being the most walkable route yet. The Militant may or may not ditch his bike and hoof it this time around! Maybe...argh. But if you want your very own preview of what Sunday's route will look like (at least from the sidewalk) check out the first four minutes of this video:


Well, we know why you're all here -- to check out interesting things compiled by the doesn't-blog-too-much-anymore Militant Angeleno (but he Tweets often...). So here goes!

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 Hotel Site
2017
Wilshire and Figueroa (SW corner), Downtown

What we see today as the Wilsh...ZOMG IT'S GONE!!!!

Oh well, up until a few months ago on that empty lot was the Wilshire Grand Hotel, formerly (in reverse chronological order) the Omni Hotel, Los Angeles Hilton, Statler Hilton and Statler Hotel.

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

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

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

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

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

4. 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 incoming 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

What's with the construction? It's a 30- and 25- story highrise mixed-use apartment development called "The Vermont" by J.H. Snyder Co. which is slated to open next year. It's Metro-accessible, 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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enjoy your CicLAvia and STAY MILITANT!

A REAL 'Taste Of The Eastside'

About a month ago, there was a certain unspecified food festival that took place in a location that was not located East Of The Los Angeles River that had the audacity to use the word "Eastside" in its name. Now, if you've been reading This Here Blog for a long time, you May Or May Not Know Damn Well Know that certain geographically-clueless gentrifying forces have co-opted the "Eastside" name with no regard to the people who live on the East bank of the Los Angeles River who have taken pride in their regional identity for decades longer than the faux-Eastsiders have even been here. And of course, The Militant has had his own well-publicized say in all of that.

But here's some good news, this Saturday, June 1, get to go to a REAL Eastside festival, which takes place in Boyle Heights, and see what The Real Actual Authentic Puro Eastside is all about (the wannabe Eastsiders just call it "Chololand" or don't even acknowledge it exists). It's the 2nd Annual Eastside Community Festival, which takes place at the campus of the Neighborhood Music School, a 99-year old Eastside educational arts institution. Have authentic, inexpensive Eastside-made food, have a chat with REAL Eastsiders and learn about the organizations that work hard to build real, hipster-free community activities, such as PUENTE Learning Center, Alma Family Services, the East Los Angeles Community Corporation, our mobility amigos at Streetsblog Los Angeles (who DO know where The Eastside is), and more. But the biggest whammy of them all is the participation of the world-famous Eastside phenomenon Caine's Arcade, which will set up some games and certainly sell some Fun Passes for the day. Dude, Caine's Freaking Arcade! No faux-Eastside event can claim THAT!

So come one, come all, it's FREE, and not only that, but it's transit-accessible! Take the Metro Gold Line to the Mariachi Plaza station, and walk three blocks south on Boyle Ave. Or better yet, ride your bikes down 1st Street and head down Boyle! There May Or May Not be bike parking, but you'll find a way. Besides, it's been a long-ass time since The Militant has plugged an event, much more written a blog post! See you or not see you there!