Happy PrezDay, L.A.

The Militant has no particular place to ride to today, no particular neighborhood to explore, so why not get topical?

Today of course is Presidents Day, borne from the practical merger of the birthdays of iconic Commander-In-Chiefs Washington and Lincoln, but now supposedly re-appropriated to celebrate all presidents. And especially this year, as a one handful of people will win the big reality show this coming November to be the next president, this can't be a more appropriate time to talk about the residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

We know that our next president will likely be a native of either Honolulu, HI, Chicago, IL or even the Panama Canal Zone, but has there ever been a native Angeleno as president?

Everyone knows there's been a native Southern Californian as president - Richard Nixon, born in Yorba Linda, raised in Whittier, the Quaker-bred son of a onetime Pacific Electric Red Car motorman. (perhaps that's why he was more pro-transit than some of his Republican bretheren, having supported federal funding for SF's BART and DC's Metro systems). There almost was another one more recently -- former 2008 Democratic candidate Bill Richardson was born in Pasadena.

No there's never been a native Angeleno president - yet, but history boasts candidates for both president and vice president who are locals.

Adlai E. Stevenson II ran unsuccessfully as the Democratic candidate for president in 1952 and 1956 against Dwight D. Eisenhower. A former governor of Illinois and grandson of a Vice President (under Grover Cleveland), Stevenson was born in a home in the West Adams district, just a few blocks north of USC.

Not too long ago, Republican vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp ran with Bob Dole in 1996, losing to Bill Clinton and Al Gore in re-election. Though known more as an NFL quarterback, U.S. Congressman from New York and a member of George H.W. Bush's cabinet (as HUD Secretary), Kemp was born in the City of Angels and is an alum of Fairfax High School and Occidental College, and also attended Cal State Long Beach.

So enjoy the rest of your Presidents Day. The Militant hopes you get some nice Presidents Day presents as you BBQ your turkey and enjoy some nice fireworks displays while your kids dress up in costume hunting for colored eggs.

Poppy-field, I Know About Poppy-field

Ah, another nice sunny Winter's day in the metropolis. On Sunday the Militant's top-secret duties took him to Inglewood, where he decided to forgo a freeway trip along the 101, 110 and 105 freeways in favor of a direct route down the Wilton/Arlington/Van Ness corridor, passing through familiar areas like Hollywood, Koreatown, Jefferson Park, West Adams and into rarely-seen neighborhoods like Chesterfield Square and Angeles Mesa. To the sheltered Angeleno, anything below the 10 is instantly dismissed as "The 'Hood" but at least along Van Ness Avenue, the 'Hood looked quite good - quiet residential streets with well-kept front lawns, some of them nicely tree-lined, and some corners bearing some sort of designed open space. The familiar aerial landmarks of towering palm trees and descending airplanes are there, but these streets look quite quaint. This area was, after all, originally developed as a suburb.

But what a time to be passing through Inglewood -- the city turned 100 years old last week and will be putting on some Centennial events later on this year. The onetime-City of Champions is in some sort of transition, having lost the Lakers, Kings and soon those horsies on the Prairie, it is searching for a new purpose, a new stimulus, and in the process trying to shake off its "ghetto" perception.

Its downtown area, though, doesn't look quite as nice as some of its residential neighborhoods. Generally barren, it's suffering from some sort of identity crisis as it attempts to bear a "Main Street" feel in some sections -- complete with the requisite diagonal parking arrangement and widened, landscaped sidewalk along a commercial area -- but other parts appear quite lifeless.

But there was at least one thing in Inglewood's downtown that appeared pleasing to the Militant's eye -- an empty lot, of all places, right at the corner of La Brea and Florence avenues, where a field of California Golden Poppies grow in striking abundance (pictured above). How strange, yet how beautiful, it looks.

Of course, all them pretty flowers won't last for long. The lot is slated for development by CB Richard Ellis to build a shopping complex (pictured left). The Inglewood city folks seem to be banking on building a hub in the area, as planes fly low over Century Blvd and a mostly-abandoned railroad track lies on the other side of Florence (which is part of the proposed Metro Crenshaw/Prairie Transit Corridor currently under study). Maybe that's where the next hundred years of the hometown of Vicki Lawrence and Mack 10 lies.

Thinkin' Of A Master Plan...

In the last episode of Militant Angeleno, the Militant found his way though the streets of Chinatown, watching a parade, lion dances and hundreds of tubes creating confetti explosions. But that was one whole week ago.

What exactly is going on here? (dramatic horn blast)

Has the Militant gone lazy? (another dramatic horn blast)

Has the Militant Angeleno scaled back his operations to weekly posts? (yet another dramatic horn blast)

Does this mean the end of the Militant? (okay, real long dramatic horn blast)

Stay tuned, Angelenos!

The Militant got up early for a change on a Saturday morning, yet not early enough that he needed the aid of Metro Rapid 754 to take him and his two-wheeled chariot down to Exposition Park for yet another community workshop meeting junta confab-type event. This time, it was for the Los Angeles Bicycle Master Plan regional meeting for the Central and South Los Angeles areas (the first in a series of four), which took place at the historic Los Angeles Swim Stadium 1932 Olympic Venue, now adaptively re-used as a recreational center for the local community.

Around 40 concerned cyclists were in attendance, making their presence known not only in the second-floor community room but in the overflowing bicycle racks (pictured right) that stood outside the building where the attendees parked.

The meeting was largely a primer session from Mia Birk of the Portland-based consulting group Alta Planning, who was contracted by the Los Angeles Department of City Planning to spearhead the community meetings and to help update the plan itself, which currently consists of a system of 300 miles of (mostly non-connecting) bikeways out of 7300 miles of City thoroughfares. Birk talked largely about methods and facilities employed in other cities in the U.S. (especially in Portland) and in other countries that adapt existing road structures into to a more bicycle-friendly infrastructure.

At one point, four profiles of people's attitudes towards bicycle riding which ranged from the "Strong & Fearless" hardcore down to those who wouldn't touch a bicycle with a ten foot pole. One attendee did point out that another demographic - the working poor who can't afford cars or even transit - were left out of the picture (The Militant already had his work cut out for him at this point), and it was pointed out that it was them who are the everyday bicycle commuters (even though they generally ride on the sidewalk). The consultants tried to shoehorn them into an existing group, which was a stretch, but it was apparent that there was some sort of socioeconomic disconnect on the part of the Portland-based group (though the Militant has seen working poor in Portland as well). Their presence was absent from the meeting, despite the fact that there were printed materials and live translators in Spanish.

Normally at these kind of community workshop meeting junta confab-type events, there's the requisite, interactive break-out sessions, which were planned towards the end of the meeting, as the consultants and City staff were ready with their maps and Sharpie markers. But the maps - which depicted the entire city - and not specific regions - were way too small to be of any practical use (like your fist would cover all of Downtown - that small). So attendees just used the time to chat amongst each other.

Participants were encouraged though to post their routes online via the bikely.com website, an international bike route resource, and save their routes with "LA BMP" in the title. The Militant will surely add his Los Feliz to Koreatown Vermont Bypass Bicycle Corridor route all up in there.

The Bicycle Master Plan Meetings continue in other regions over the next few weeks. The Militant orders you to be there, and hopefully ask for some larger maps:

The Westside: Wednesday, February 20 (that's like, this Wednesday)
6:30-8:30 p.m.
Felicia Mahood Multipurpose Center
11338 Santa Monica Blvd.
West Los Angeles

The Valley: Wednesday, February 27
6:30-8:30 p.m.
Marvin Braude Constituent Services Center
6262 Van Nuys Blvd. (Van New York Blvd?!?)
Van Noise

The Real Southside (aka Pedro, The Harbor area): Saturday, March 1
10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Banning's Landing Community Center
100 E. Water St.
Wilmington (okay, it's not quite Pedro)

The Eastside: Sorry, guess that means that they just don't care about you.

After this round of community workshop meeting junta confab-type events, the City and the consultants plan follow-up gatherings in November.

Following the meeting, around 20 cyclists went on a ride to the Watts Towers, organized by Strong & Fearless-category velocommuter and blogger extraordinaire Will Campbell. The Militant may or may not have joined the group, but operative reports indicated that it was a very fun and educational excursion into South Los Angeles on a beautiful day.

Golden Dragon Parade: Putting The "RAT" In "CELEBRATION"

You may or many not have been wondering what the Militant has been up to the past week or so, but to cut a long story short he spent it in his Compound's Sick Bay. Cold weather worsened his condition and he elected not to bore you readers to death by writing posts about the wonders of local HDTV sub-channels, of which the non-television watching Militant was forced to spend his time on while recuperating.

But Saturday was a whole 'nother story. He had gotten well enough to not only step outside the compound, but the 80-degree sunny and smogless Winter day was an instant lure to get his Militant Ass back on his bike and huff it down Sunset to Chinatown. For it's Chinese New Year, and there be a parade goin' on!

Over a hundred thousand people or all sorts of shapes and colors joined the Militant to see the 109th annual Golden Dragon Parade, organized by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles, is the City's ushering-in of the Lunar New Year, this time being the Year of The Rat.

The Militant arrived in time to park his bike at the Chinatown Branch Public Library and wander about, as the parade was already going on at Hill Street (the rest of Hill across the freeway was where the parade assembled), and would make a U-formation back down on Broadway, so he cut across the street to see the parade in its entirety.

The streets were already strewn with multicolored confetti, and in some places, burned-out red paper firecracker shells. The Militant soon learned that vendors sold $4 bazooka-like tubes of "Party Poppers" which, after a careful twist along its bottom, caused a spontaneous explosion of colored paper and foil bits (pictured left), which got carried by the wind into various directions. Most of the confetti pieces were curly, and the wind blew them into sections of the street where they accumulated over the duration of the parade.

The parade included the usual parade amenities: floats, dignitaries, marching bands, drill teams, but a Chinese New Year parade always has much more: martial arts displays, beauty queens, benevolent associations, drums, gongs and most of all -- lion and dragon dances. An added bonus this year was the inclusion of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Mascots (pictured right - and no one seemed to turn their backs this time).

At one point in the parade a CNN reporter and cameraman went around the crowd. The reporter was instructing the cameraman to film people speaking in Chinese, and was a bit frustrated when she couldn't find too many people speak the language. Umm...why not show the diverse array of Angelenos who were there to enjoy the parade and take in Chinese culture than to show the rest of the world that this parade was just a mere "Chinese thing?"

They did find a few Chinese-speaking people to film (not interview).

It was a great parade, on the best of all possible days, weather-wise. But 3/4ths into the parade it seemed to drag on. Finally, at the end, after the last dragon dancers, the crowd joined the parade and marched south on Broadway to a festival on the corner of Cesar E. Chavez and Broadway. But that wasn't all -- even after the parade, the sound of seemingly endless firecracker explosions and drums and gongs reverberated along the urban canyons of the Chinatown streets, including a group of lion dancers visiting various businesses on North Spring, in the shadow of a very-crowded Chinatown (M) Gold Line Station (Many people went Metro today, nice, nice!).

In years past, the Militant would visit Chinatown in the evening of the first Saturday of Chinese New Year and find nothing but long-burned-out firecracker shells marking any sign of a celebration. But now Chinatown seems more alive, happening and willing to party like it was 4706.

MORE PICS TIME!!!1

Seeing Red: A dance troupe performs with their loyal fans.


Oh Mickey You're So Fine: Yes, the Disneyfication of a community event is lame, but hey, when it's the Year of the Rat, why *not* have the world's most famous rodent as your Grand Marshal?


Mayor (Cheong)Sam: Antonio wishes the crowd a "Happy New Year" in Mandarin, Cantonese, English and Spanish.


Joy Luck: A serendipitously-placed Angels Walk kiosk in the foreground; KNBC's Ted Chen waves in the background.

Wave Like This: Miss Taiwan(-Los Angeles, the Militant assumes) and her court greets the paradegoers along Broadway.


We Built This City: Benevolent Associations like the one above were responsible for building today's Chinatown.


Join In The Parade: The crowd spills onto Broadway at the tail end of the procession.


(Lion) Dancing In The Streets: A troupe of lion dancers, accompanied by drums and gongs, overflow onto North Spring Street and tell the evil spirits to haul ass.

Happy Super Fat Tuesday, California!

Make no excuses. Get out and vote today.

A Dog-Gone Kinda Situation

There's been a lot going around town lately, most notably some high-profile political event in Hollywood on Thursday evening, but most of the Militant's adventures had to be put on the shelf this week for one reason:

The Militant's K-9 unit - a frequent companion of some of the Militant's pedestrian adventures - was missing.

The Militant last saw his K-9 unit this past weekend during the big rain storms. The dog frequently finds its way outside of the compound, only later to show up at the front porch the next morning, returned by an observant neighbor or being caught by the Militant a few blocks from the compound.

But this time was different.

On Monday evening, while the Militant was performing some highly classified duties, one of the Militant's siblings visited the compound, hoping to spend time with the K-9 unit, and texted the Militant asking whether the K-9 unit was taken for a walk.

"Negative," the Militant replied, somewhat concerned.

The next day, no K-9 unit at the front step, no observant neighbor and no sight of the K-9 unit anywhere.

The Militant had grown more concerned.

The day after, the Militant went on a search and rescue mission on his bike on several streets in the vicinity of the compound.

The search turned up fruitless (forgive the pun, but the Militant was barking up the wrong tree).

At this point, the Militant felt like singing a popular childhood nursery rhyme that dealt with a missing dog. You can say the Militant had a ruff, er, rough week, as he paused for the cause of the paws.

The Militant scoured Craigslist's 'Lost and Found' listings, hoping someone nearby might have found the Militant's mutt. One person who lived in an adjacent community posted the picture of a dog that bore a similar likeness to the Militant's K-9 unit, and the Militant replied, but he learned the posted pooch was of the opposite gender.

But ever the resourceful Angeleno, the Militant recalled that the City of Los Angeles' Animal Services department has several animal shelters (now PC-ized as "Care Centers") around the City. Before he planned a trip to visit one of them, he discovered that the City's animal Care Centers have an awesome website where one can search for their missing pets, filling in descriptive parameters and coming up with search results containing a photo and description of the animal, as well as which shelter it is located in.

The Militant went to the site of his local shelter, the North Central Care Center and searched for his K-9 unit. There was one that resembled Militant Mutt somewhat, but the Militant wasn't quite sure. The breed and estimated age in the description were way off.

By chance he tried his luck with some of the other regional shelters in the City. Just in case. Who knows.

He went to the West Los Angeles Care Center's site and searched for his K-9 unit there.

After looking through two pages of results, one dog comes up -- Hello, what's this? The correct gender, the correct breed, age somewhat close, been at the shelter since...January 28...The photo was a very close match...can this be?

On Thursday afternoon the Militant canceled his coverage of the presidential debate and rally in Hollywood to visit the West Los Angeles Cere Center with his sibling to settle this once and for all. Armed with several pictures of the K-9 unit, they arrived at the shelter on Missouri Avenue near the FOX11 TV studios and...

...They had moved a mile or so away on Pico. D'oh.

Shortly after arriving at the brand-spanking new shelter on Pico and Pontius, just west of the 405, and visiting the front desk, the Militant was told to go to the kennels to ID his missing K-9 unit.

It wasn't before long when they spotted the dog. It was most definitely the K-9 unit, absolutely positively.

There is a dog!

The K-9 unit sounded overwhelmed and traumatized, as the shelter staff reported to the Militant that it was discovered roaming the streets around the Beverly Center -- some six miles from the compound, most likely disoriented by its usual scent references having been washed out by last weekend's rain. Besides, the K-9 unit is simply not used to life in a sterile concrete cell, accompanied by the cacophony of several other K-9 units - likewise just as traumatized - barking in such close proximity.

After paying a fee covering vet care, food and boarding, a City dog license and, yes, getting the K-9 unit fixed (hasn't yet been done out of procrastination), the Militant will pick up his trusty, yet wayward, K-9 unit on Friday for its return to the compound.

The Militant does not know whether to punish the K-9 or grant it gratefulness like a reunited prodigal scion of Biblical lore. Regardless, the Militant is thankful his K-9 unit did not suffer the fate of being roadkill, and that our City has such a great online resource that allows people to search for their lost pets online without wasting time, money, gas and hassle.

My Name Is Los Angeles, And I Am Beautiful

The first day of sunshine after a winter rainstorm is usually the day postcard photographers scramble to take that moneyshot of the Downtown skyline and the snowcapped San Gabriels. When the Militant headed out today to perform a couple Militant duties, he looked northeast and saw them. Beautiful is the word of the day. Later, the Militant biked up Olive Hill at Barnsdall Park, took some pics, and just sat down and enjoyed the view. This was the first time in a long time where he recalled the snow level being so low.

He obviously wasn't the only one armed with a camera (pictured right). He saw at least three other photographers snapping the newly-blanched local mountains, some with fancy gear with telephot lenses, some digital cameras, some simple point-and-shooters.

The Militant found a social atmosphere as those of us who took pictures of the same thing commented on how beautiful they were. The Militant recommended to another photographer an even better vantage point in the park, unobstructed by buildings or trees. He also chatted with the woman above who had just pulled her car up alongside where the Militant was. The woman, in her 60s, commented that she had lived here for nine years and would like to share the pic to her friends in the East Coast, who think that the west is devoid of any beauty, just to prove them wrong.

She also commented on how the mountains to the west (the Verdugos) were more snow-covered than the San Gabriels. She assumed they were taller, but the Militant explained that the San Gabriels face the city, which is warmer because of all the concrete, and that the Verdugos are much closer to the forest, where the distance from the urban heat island keeps the temps down.

As the Militant types this, the grey skies are back. He's glad he had the opportunity to see the awesome splendor that towers over the City.

Sure, it snows in other places, even other cities with mountains, but the contrast of the white snow, the blue sky, the brown lower elevations, the greenery of the trees and the various other colors that make up the City displays a spectacular contrast and chromatic variety, as opposed to a homogenized, monochromatic blanketing of snow as far as the eye can see.

There's got to be a metaphor in that somewhere...

You Can Has Freeway Park!

Pssst...readers! Wanna be more Militant? Wanna be more involved in the community? Wanna play an active role in our City's future?

The proponents of the Hollywood Freeway Central Park are having a community-wide meeting on Saturday morning, January 26 at Selma Ave. Elementary School in Hollywood to discuss the proposal with members of the community and initiate community's thoughts and input on the park. Wanna see it happen? Militant Angeleno says, "Be There!"

The Militant may or may not be there, of course. But a number of his operatives definitely will be, as well as councilmen Eric Garcetti and Tom LaBonge, two local officials who the Militant is known to hang out with.

For those of you just catching up, the Hollywood Freeway Central Park is a proposal to build a structural cap over the below-street level section of the Hollywood Freeway between Bronson Ave. and Santa Monica Blvd. and create a 34-acre greenway and recreation space on it (Yeah, it's gonna cost a lot of dough...).

One of the Militant's first posts talked about the park plan as he attended a meeting of involved community members back in June of last year (and wrote about it in the first person, no less). Our City is extremely parkspace-deficient, especially in the Hollywood area, and though it won't even bring the area up to acceptable parkspace-per-resident levels, any addition of parkspace in the Hollywood area will be beneficial.

Sounds like a crazy idea? Other freeway cap parks exist in the country in places like Boston and Seattle. More closer to home, the half-mile long Margaret T. Hance Park in Phoenix, AZ sits over the 10 Freeway and is home to that city's Central Library and a Japanese Garden. Even closer, there are short freeway cap parks in San Diego (over the 15) and Memorial Park in La Cañada Flintridge (over the 210).

Though already some have come out in opposition. Aside from those who naturally have issues with the possible structural integrity (see Boston's Big Dig), terrorism or those asshats who would rather see the freeway widened and double-decked, there are some ultra-paranoid tinfoil hat-wearing conspiracy theorist freakos in the community who believe the City is supporting a park that will "never get built" and is just fronting it as a ploy to re-zone the area for superdensity and use eminent domain to kick out all the existing residents (Um, if the park never gets built, what incentive is there for developers to build a large parkside condo if there's no park in the first place?).

Of course, if you like to believe that stuff, kindly go to the nearest gun store, purchase a pistol, load it with bullets, point it to your own head, and pull the trigger, since anyone who's that cynical might as well not continue living anyway.

The proposed park over the Hollywood Freeway would be another jewel in Hollywood to benefit locals and tourists alike. Most of all it would provide a means for people, especially children, in the community to have somewhere to play (as opposed to the streets or private parking lots, like they do now), and it would ultimately re-unite neighborhoods that were divided when the freeway was built.

The First Last Great Hamburger Stand?

Like the Militant always says, you see more of the City when you're not driving in your car. So when the Militant rode up Western Avenue after watching the Kingdom Day Parade on Monday, he had an, as Blogging.la calls it, ICME moment.

Behold, on the west side of Western Avenue halfway between 30th and 31st streets, stands a boarded-up teal-colored shack, boasting itself as being "The Original Fatburger."

Fatburger's corporate history site makes only scant reference to its past - that the iconic La Cienega location is not the first Fatburger, and that the chain was founded by a Ms. Lovie Yancey in 1952.

The official site does show a photo of the original stand (pictured right) which does bear a strong resemblance to the main photo above (especially in the neon sign and the front awning) but no acknowledgment of its Western Avenue roots. Can anyone point to the Militant any solid proof that this was indeed the first Fatburger? And when did it close?

Similarly, Carl's Jr's corporate history lets you know exactly how much the late Carl Karcher invested in his hot dog cart operation, but doesn't mention that his most famous cart operated out of the corner of Florence and Western (Wiki Wiki Wiki). Does this street get any respect?

Though both chains are synonymous with the West, they now have grown to where their franchises can be found in other countries, even other continents. But it all supposedly began on this one street, which doesn't get any props for its history?

The Kingdom Rains, But A Little Drizzle Never Hurt the MLK Day Parade

The Militant thanks Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today, not just for his achievements, vision and legacy, but for the fact that the 23rd annual Kingdom Day Parade, the yearly Los Angeles procession held in the slain civil rights leader's honor, gave the Militant the perfect excuse he needed to go on his first Militant bike adventure of 2008. "Free at Last!" indeed.

After a Metro Rapid ride down to Dr. King's eponymous avenue, the Militant biked the rest of the way west in the light drizzle to catch up with the parade, which had just started a few minutes before. Near the intersection of King and Western, he biked past and through the parade's assembly zone: The marching bands originated on Western and turned west on King, while the floats, cars and other vehicles readied themselves on Western. Surely if the Militant had driven here, he would have been SOL, but since this is the Militant we're talking about, he deftly maneuvered his way across Western through various sidestreets, ultimately emerging near King and Arlington to get a nice view of the festivities.

The rain certainly didn't stop several thousand people from lining the 2-mile parade route, which headed west down King, then south on Crenshaw and hooking around Leimert Park on Vernon.
Celebrities, elected officials, community leaders, local broadcast personalities, labor unions, fraternal organizations, nonprofit groups, religious groups, marching bands, drill teams, step crews (pictured above) and equestrian units made this a true community parade - large enough to be a city event, yet small enough to be personal and interactive. When KCBS sportscaster Jim Hill rolled by in a convertible, one man shouted from the crowd and asked Hill his Super Bowl predictions. The sports anchor turned around, looked at the man, stretched out his arms, smiled and said, "Patriots!"

When a representative from the service organization 100 Black Men passed by, a woman shouted from the side of the street and asked him, "Hey 100 Black Men! What y'all do?"

"We do everything!" the well-dressed man proudly smiled from the convertible.

"I still wanna know what y'all do!" the woman responded, smiling back yet still not satisfied with her answer.

And when singer Stevie Wonder's convertible crawled by (pictured left), a short delay in the parade caused it to stop and an impromptu crowd formed right next to the car, pulled out their cameras and cameraphones to capture a glimpse of the Motown legend at such a close proximity (of course, the Militant got even closer to Stevie this past weekend, and impressed his fellow spectators by sharing with them some of the pics he took on Friday).

Though this wasn't the Militant's first Kingdom Day Parade, he did note what made this year's edition unique, aside from the weather (which partially cleared up halfway though the parade and not a drop fell since).

Most obvious, in this election year, and just 15 days before the California Primary Elections, was the presence of Barack Obama supporters, including a group that marched in the parade (most of whom were UCLA students), while other parade participants wore the candidate's buttons or stickers on their clothing. And thank the movie Drum Line for making marching bands hip and cool for a change. With the sound of bass drums thundering down the street, middle and high school bands pounded out hip hop-inspired beats - both old-school and new. Local favorite Crenshaw High's marching band, not only played, but danced Soulja Boy Tellem's uber-smash hit "Crank That." Now watch them Yuuuuuuuuuuuh!

At the parade's end in Leimert Park, participants and spectators alike intermingled to celebrate MLK Day as one. A stage at 43rd Pl. and Degnan Ave., sponsored by KJLH 102.3 FM provided entertainment, as well as a second stage a block away sponsored by Councilman Bernard Parks that featured jazz and gospel performers. The Militant biked his way through the wonderfully bike-friendly streets of Chesterfield Square and Leimert Park, which are some of the most beautiful-looking residential neighborhoods in the city.

The Militant unfortunately had to bike back to the compound early to make an appointment, but after the past few years of sleeping in, he was able to finally enjoy celebrating MLK Day, Militant-style.

More pics of the parade:

Hail to the (Fire) Chief: LAFD's Douglas Barry rolls by.

A Shriner from the Egyptian Temple zips through the route in his mini-car.

A drill team from a local middle school marches by.

Dancing to New Orleans brass band music, a Second-Liner from LA-LA (Louisiana to Los Angeles Organizing Committee) reminds us all that Mardi Gras is near.

KCAL 9's Pat Harvey gives the Militant a shout-out!

What other city in America has Stevie Freaking Wonder himself lead the crowd in singing "Happy Birthday" (his 1980 song about Dr. King) for their MLK Day festivities?