Southland Parks

03/12/2023

It's that time again for the annual "in case you missed it the first time around" countdown. Beginning at the bottom, here's my least-viewed post from 2023. With a mere 60 views, it was about .5% as popular as the most-viewed post. Maybe it drowned in an algorithmic sea of summer posts about the coast. Whatever, I love pools and beaches!

Since arriving in Los Angeles in the 1990s, I’ve always been surprised at how just many swimming pools there are — and how infrequently most of them (especially the private ones) are seemingly used…

12/10/2023

Happy Spooky Season. Ever wondered what the deal with the Semi-Tropic Spiritualists was? Ever visited that abandoned cabin and wondered what happened there? Well stop asking the Oujia Board and read on!

https://ericbrightwell.com/2023/10/11/houses-of-the-hallows-the-semi-tropic-spiritualists-and-the-semi-tropic-park/

16/11/2022

It's time for the 2022 countdown!

Coming in dead last at No. 43 -- my piece about our grand but forgotten tradition of state society picnics, which, ironically, used to attract tens of thousands of Angelenos. This piece only attracted 29 readers! 😲

From the 1900s through the 1970s, large numbers of migrants to Los Angeles gathered in themed picnics organized around their states of origin known as State Society Picnics or just State Picnics (a…

15/09/2022

This week's post - just in time for the temporary return of milder temperatures - the almost forgotten story of Los Angeles's State Society Picnics, in which Angeleno transplants from every state congregated in the tens of thousands for almost a century.

From the 1900s through the 1970s, large numbers of migrants to Los Angeles gathered in themed picnics organized around their states of origin known as State Society Picnics or just State Picnics (a…

20/08/2022

This week's post -- Silver Lake's first street-to-plaza conversion, Sunset Triangle Plaza, turns ten. A big renovation is in the works. Your input on how to improve this community hub is requested. Here is some history and some of my suggestions.

https://ericbrightwell.com/2022/08/19/greater-streets-visiting-silver-lakes-sunset-triangle-plaza/

It’s the tenth anniversary of Silver Lake’s Sunset Triangle Plaza. In its first decade, Silver Lake’s first (and thus far, only) street-to-plaza conversion has truly emerged as one of the primary h…

17/02/2019

In Angeles National Forest!

"Intrepid cougar tracker Robert Martinez sits down with writer and SoCal explorer Eric Brightwell to share some astounding L.A. wildlife stories, footage, and photos. Many Angelenos are aware that the built environment has displaced deer, coyote, skunk, and raccoons; more recently, the arrival of a lone mountain lion in Hollywood's Griffith Park has publicized the plight of big cats in the overdeveloped Santa Monica Mountains. But Robert and his lions inhabit a different Los Angeles: a secret kingdom overlooking the city, where bears, foxes, eagles, and bobcats act out their daily dramas relatively undisturbed, as they have for thousands of years."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dv3Njk2kd7M&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1iuV1IybXaWksO78IdpgOxMSTThnpJir0a2Ag01kvSY1INiBfasmJb36w

Intrepid cougar tracker Robert Martinez sits down with writer and SoCal explorer Eric Brightwell to share some astounding L.A. wildlife stories, footage, and...

02/10/2018

No post in which I explored Elysian Park the oldest (not really) and second largest (not really) park in Los Angeles!

INTRODUCTION The other day, I explored Elysian Park, because it was leading in the California Fool’s Gold neighborhood poll. When I created that poll, I hadn’t yet created Southland Parks. While El…

17/06/2018

I'm working (slowly) on a more substantial guide to pocket parks... but in the meantime, here's the shortest of listicles (perhaps appropriate given the subject matter).

L.A. is home to some gargantuan green spaces—these are not those