Los Angeles One

12/08/2023

10/08/2023

Los Angeles times journalist, Miriam Gurba writes about the Edgar haircut

04/12/2022

California panel estimates $569 billion in reparations is owed to black residents

A California task force studying the long-term effects of slavery and systemic racism on black residents in the state has estimated a whopping $569 billion in reparations is owed to the descendants of enslaved people, according to a report.

The nine-member panel concluded that black Californians whose ancestors were in the US in the 19th century are due $223,200 each due to housing discrimination practices utilized from 1933 to 1977, the New York Times reported.

The work of the Reparations Task Force, which was created by legislation Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in 2020 — and the potential payouts –represent the largest reparations effort in recent history.

03/12/2022

Rising mortgage rates and persistently high real estate prices are causing potential home buyers in Los Angeles and other major cities to expand their searches to cheaper metro areas.⁠
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For Angelenos in particular, Las Vegas and San Diego have emerged as the two premier spots for people looking to purchase a home in a different city, according to a study by Redfin.

30/11/2022

Thousands of convicted pedophiles in California have been released from prison after only spending less than a year in prison, a recent analysis found.

"Statistics clearly show that pedophiles don't get reformed. They're going to come out and they're going to commit again," former Los Angeles s*x crimes prosecutor Samuel Dordulian told the Daily Mail.

Using California's Megan's Law website, the Daily Mail found that there were more than 7,000 s*x offenders convicted of "lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age," but released from prison in under a year of being convicted.

24/10/2022

Every major western city has a street enriched with flagship luxury emporia by brands like Gucci, Cartier and Louis Vuitton.

But Rodeo Drive, namely the three blocks north of Wilshire and South of Little Santa Monica Boulevard is special.

This palm-lined street takes conspicuous wealth to a whole new place, and has also been immortalised by movies, most famously Pretty Woman (1990) when Julia Roberts goes on the mother of all sprees.

For all but the extremely wealthy, Rodeo Drive is more of a visual experience, for window shopping, gawping at Bugattis and Ferraris and wandering the “European-style” cobblestone alley.

Rodeo Drive got its first luxury boutique with Giorgio Beverly Hills in 1967 and in 2003 was given a multimillion dollar makeover with the Rodeo Drive Walk of Style.

At the intersection with Dayton Way this is heralded by the shining sculpture “Torso” by Robert Graham.

24/10/2022

The only amusement park on a pier on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Park is free to enter and has 12 rides.

Inevitably, the Pacific Park and the Santa Monica Pier have appeared in hundreds of movies and TV shows, and like innumerable locations around Los Angeles was rendered in startling detail for the 2013 videogame GTA V.

First taking shape in the 1910s and revived in the 1990s, Pacific Park bills itself as the only admission-free amusement park in LA.

You pay for the individual attractions, among which is the steel West Coaster and the Pacific Wheel, which featured in Steven Spielberg’s 1941 (1979) is the world’s only solar-powered Ferris wheel.

A word on the pier, which is actually two structures joined together: The long and narrow Santa Monica Municipal Pier is from 1909 and was built to carry sewage pipes beyond the breakers, while the Pleasure Pier was started in 1916 by Charles I.D. Looff, responsible for Coney Island’s first carousel.

24/10/2022

In 1964 Universal Studios started offering tours of its studio lot to see sets and props that had already been inscribed in movie and television history at Universal City.

Before long this developed into a fully-fledged theme park.

Almost everything is based on Universal Studios productions, and updated every few years to stay current.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened in 2016 and has the Flight of the Hippogriff rollercoaster and the Forbidden Journey, a dark ride through Hogwarts.

A new arrival in 2019 was the epic Jurassic World: The Ride, a “shoot the chute” in the Lower Lot, replacing its Jurassic Park predecessor.

On the Upper Lot, the Studio Tour is still going strong, and entails an hour-long tram ride through sets like Courthouse Square (To Kill a Mockingbird, Back to the Future, Gremlins) and the house from Psycho (1960). On the way you’ll be in famous movies and encounter a couple of mishaps, like a flash flood and an earthquake.

Come on weekdays outside the school holidays to avoid the crowds.

24/10/2022

There are things in every city that locals avoid like the plague, but visitors can’t afford to pass up.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is in that vein, commending actors, musicians, directors, musical and theatrical groups and even 16 fictional characters with stars in the pavement.

A little less than half of all the stars are dedicated to someone in the film industry.

In case you didn’t know, the stars are made of brass and terrazzo and in spring 2019 there were more than 2,600. The Walk of Fame, begun in 1958 with an initial 1,588 honourees, is on 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street.

Some 24 new stars are laid each year, at a cost of $40,000 (payable by the nominee or sponsor), and honourees are obliged to show up to their unveiling ceremony.

The Barrymore acting dynasty is the best-represented single family, with a total of six stars.

24/10/2022

There are things in every city that locals avoid like the plague, but visitors can’t afford to pass up.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is in that vein, commending actors, musicians, directors, musical and theatrical groups and even 16 fictional characters with stars in the pavement.

A little less than half of all the stars are dedicated to someone in the film industry.

In case you didn’t know, the stars are made of brass and terrazzo and in spring 2019 there were more than 2,600. The Walk of Fame, begun in 1958 with an initial 1,588 honourees, is on 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street.

Some 24 new stars are laid each year, at a cost of $40,000 (payable by the nominee or sponsor), and honourees are obliged to show up to their unveiling ceremony.

The Barrymore acting dynasty is the best-represented single family, with a total of six stars.

24/10/2022

An obligatory day trip whatever your age, Disneyland Resort is two theme parks, Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure, linked by the outdoor shopping area, Downtown Disney.

It all began in 1955 with Disneyland Park, overseen by Walt Disney himself.

Fair to say that Disneyland Park is the original modern theme park, divided into “lands” and crammed with rides that have passed into legend, like Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

A new land, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, designed in collaboration with Lucasfilm, opened in 2019. And, naturally, the Main Street parades are a big part of the fun, especially for smaller visitors.

The newer Disneyland California Adventure opened in 2001 and channels the excitement and adventure of the Golden State.

This park is steeped in the glamour of old Hollywood, and the thrill of Disney’s Marvel and Pixar movies.

Guardians of the Galaxy Mission: BREAKOUT! is a new arrival, featuring the cast from the movies and music hand-picked by director James Gunn.

24/10/2022

At the turn of the 20th century the developer Abbot Kinney conceived a miniature version of Venice’s canals, marketed as the Venice of America.

Replenished by the Pacific through sea gates at the Marina Del Rey Breakwater, these cute waterways were built in 1905 but had become outmoded by the late-1920s and over the next few decades were allowed to fall into disrepair.

The canals were finally revitalised in the 1990s and form a highly desirable and pedestrian-friendly residential neighbourhood, roughly a quarter of the size of the original development.

Just a stone’s throw from Venice Beach you can go for peaceful waterside strolls, cross charming little footbridges and spot ducklings in the water in summer.

As ever, you’ll surely know these waterways from movies, in this case A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).

24/10/2022

Over tens of thousands of years until Los Angeles was developed, animals would be trapped and preserved in the tar at what is now Hancock Park by .

Heavy oil from the Salt Lake Oil Field would seep to the surface, becoming viscous natural tar as its lighter fractions evaporated.

The tar would be covered with a layer of water or dead leaves, waiting to lure unsuspecting mammoths, sabre-toothed cats, bison, horses and dire wolves and preserve them intact.

The pits have yielded some 400 animals and are an ongoing excavation site (there’s a viewing area at Pit 91). The many discoveries are documented at the adjacent George C. Page Museum, which opened in 1977 but has a history going back to 1913. Here you can see some of the remarkable specimens given up by the pits and get to know the science behind the process, while in the grounds are life-sized models of the animals claimed by the tar.

24/10/2022

As opposed to the action-packed Universal Studio Tour, a visit to Warner Bros. close by in Burbank is less about razzle-dazzle and more about the craft of making films and TV shows.

The standard tour lasts between two and three hours and packs in a visit to the Sound stage where the Big Bang Theory is shot, as well as the Archive and Prop House, bursting with props and costume from countless movies including the Harry Potter series and the DC Universe.

The Backlot has jungle, Midwest town, New York and Western sets that will ring a bell straight away, while the Picture Car Vault holds a fleet of cars from Warner Bros. productions, counting several Batmobiles.

A newer attraction is Stage 48: Script to Screen, a self-guided walk through an interactive sound stage, ushering you through the production process and displaying the set from Central Perk in Friends.

24/10/2022

In October 2012 the Space Shuttle Endeavour, which took part in 25 NASA missions from 1992 to 2011, rolled through the Los Angeles streets from LAX to the California Science Center.

At the time of writing in 2019 the shuttle was still in a temporary pavilion, and the exhibition, available with a Special Exhibit or IMAX Theater pass, shows off this staggering piece of hardware, along with some of its fittings like the Space Potty, galley, tyres from its final mission and the SPACEHAB Logistics Module, a kind of workshop for astronauts.

Though undoubtedly impressive, Endeavour is just one exhibit at a museum brimming with interactivity, relating ecosystems, world-changing inventions, air and space, how our organs and cells work and showing off a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird outside.

There’s always a choice of well-curated special exhibitions and of course the IMAX Theater, seven storeys high.

24/10/2022

Before the Getty Center there was the Getty Villa, commissioned by J. Paul Getty in the 1970s after the previous gallery on his property in Pacific Palisades ran out of space.

The Getty Villa is down the hill on the same land, looking out onto the Pacific.

The building, completed in 1974, is a reproduction of a lavish 1st-century CE Roman villa: The Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum to be precise.

Reopened in 2006 after a long-term renovation, the Getty Villa holds the Getty Museum’s collections for Greek, Roman and Etruscan antiquities, spanning 6,000 years up to 400 CE.

The exhibition picks from a gigantic reserve of 44,000 pieces and over the last couple of years has been rearranged in a loose chronological order.

The must-sees are plentiful, and among them are the “The Beauty of Palmyra” funerary relief (190-210 CE), Statue of a Victorious Youth (300-100 BC), the Caeretan Hydria (525 BC) and the ensemble of frescoes from the Villa Numerius Popidius Florus at Boscoreale (1-79 CE).

24/10/2022

An eccentric neighbourhood and seaside resort, the world-famous Venice is Los Angeles at its most cosmopolitan and independent.

Although gentrification has crept in, the 2.5-mile Venice Beach Boardwalk is still prowled by outlandish characters, and teems with tattoo parlours, cannabis shops, international cuisine, countless street vendors and a big cast of street performers.

The skate plaza and Venice Muscle Beach are two world-famous signatures, as is the snaking Strand trail on the cusp of the massive sandy beach with its constant stream of cyclists and skaters.

Seek out the historic arcaded buildings, harking back to the original development at the start of the 20th century when the to***co millionaire Abbot Kinney created his own version of Italy’s Venice.

The boardwalk is the second most-visited place in Southern California, but will never feel oppressive thanks to the wide-open expanse of sandy beach and the grassy foreshore tufted with palms.

24/10/2022

The largest art museum in the western United States, and one of the largest museums of any description in the country, LACMA on Wilshire Boulevard’s Miracle Mile is in a mishmash of seven buildings on a 20-acre site.

The collections are mind-bendingly vast, covering all ends of the earth and from the ancient times to the present.

For the smallest summary there are inventories of Greek, Roman And Etruscan art, American and Latin American art, modern and contemporary art, Islamic art, Asian art, decorative arts, photography and film as well as eye-catching permanent art installations.

If all this leaves you overwhelmed there are some works that you can’t leave without seeing, like Diego Rivera’s Portrait of Frida Kahlo (1939), Mulholland Drive: The Road to the Studio by David Hockney (1980), Titian’s Portrait of Jacopo (1532), The Swineherd by Paul Gauguin (1888) and Chris Burden Urban Light installation at the Wilshire Boulevard entrance.

As of 2019 there were plans to give the campus a bit more uniformity with a massive building designed by Peter Zumthor, with an opening date slated for 2024.

24/10/2022

In a second “Christmas present” in 1912 Griffith J. Griffith put up the funds for the park’s Greek Theatre and the Griffith Observatory, which wouldn’t be completed until 1935. Of all the many enduring landmarks in Los Angeles, this three-domed Art Deco monument holds a certain mystique.

The Griffith Observatory is posted on the south face of Mount Hollywood, the highest peak in the park, and the sight of the city rippling in the sun or twinkling at night from Observatory’s terraces are the stuff of dreams.

We can’t begin to list the movies and TV shows that have made the most of this location, but James Dean’s Rebel Without a Cause(1955) is the one that put the observatory’s in the world’s gaze.

The 25-metre, copper clad central dome houses the Samuel Oschin Planetarium, which screens Centered in the Universe, a hi-res trip through time, via discoveries by Ptolemy and Galileo, and space, through the Milky Way, and landing back on the Griffith Observatory’s front lawn.

You can also peer through telescopes and explore more than 60 space-oriented exhibits.

24/10/2022

In 1896 the Welsh mining magnate Griffith J. Griffith presented over 3,000 acres of Rancho Los Feliz to the City of Los Angeles as a “Christmas present”. Since then the park has added another 1,000 acres, making it one of the largest urban parks in the United States.

Griffith Park is a rough-hewn wilderness, incorporating a chunk of the Santa Monica Mountains and streaked with trails for walking and horseback riding.

The Los Angeles Zoo is here, and there are two public golf courses (Harding and Wilson), train and pony rides for youngsters, tennis courts, lots of concession stands and picnic grounds.

The Hollywood Sign is in the park’s boundaries, and can be reached on a tough hike.

Just above is a majestic but unmarked 360° viewpoint, taking in both Hollywood and Burbank behind.

On GetYourGuide.com, the Hollywood Sign and Griffith Park 2-Hour Hiking Tour is a guided adventure through the park, stopping every so often to let you appreciate the Los Angeles cityscape and give you titbits about the park, the sign and Hollywood’s riveting history.

24/10/2022

Among the world’s great research libraries, the Huntington in San Marino, Los Angeles County, holds more than nine million items, from the 1000s to the 21st century.

For an everyday visitor, the Library Exhibition Hall draws from these enormous reserves, showing a captivating miscellany, from Medieval manuscripts to documents from Abraham Lincoln’s life.

The library is in 120 acres of lush botanical gardens, with magnificent living collections of orchids, bonsai, cycads and camellias.

You can saunter past lily ponds, and through a subtropical garden, desert garden, Japanese garden and Chinese garden.

Don’t ignore the trove of painting, sculpture and decorative arts at the Huntington Art Gallery, with works by Rogier van der Weyden, Gainsborough and American artists like Mary Cassatt, Edward Hopper and Andy Warhol.

24/10/2022

The main branch of the J. Paul Getty Museum is in Brentwood, surveying Los Angeles from its hilltop roost.

The museum’s founder was petro-industrialist Jean Paul Getty, who left another $661m to the institution when he passed away in 1976. This went towards a spectacular and labyrinthine new complex, the Getty Center, which opened in 1997 after almost two decades of planning and construction.

Linked to its lower car park by a hovertrain, the Getty Center is a multifaceted attraction.

You’ll fall in love with architecture by Pritzker Prize-winner Richard Meier, the ever-changing Central Garden, the Cactus Garden, the outdoor sculpture and the knockout views, not to mention the astonishing art collection within (Medieval times to the present). Allow as long as possible to bask in the illuminated manuscripts, Italian, Flemish and Dutch painting from the 17th to the 19th century, the huge assortment of Impressionist painting and exquisite decorative arts.

Irises by van Gogh (1889) and Rembrandt Laughing (self-portrait, 1628) are not to be missed.