Recently in Commentary
Where We Are:
The palm is definitely found; CEQA is severely questioned; Proposition 13's doubters have their own. And "where we are" gets a bit clearer.
Cakewalk:
The finer pleasures of Big Lots, a store for our times.
Notes of a Native Daughter:
This year I spent time with four men who changed education here, back in 1965 when de facto segregation was the norm in California, when violently-enforced segregation was the law of the South.
West Is Eden:
These kinds of people, they reside in the places that last. In our character. In our choices. In our minds and our hearts.
Where We Are:
Messing with the wet concrete of a new sidewalk is a trope of suburban comedy -- Dennis the Menace meets exasperated workman. But what persists after is a different kind of challenge.
Where We Are:
Plastic? Disposable? Shallow? A palm tree at least 150 years old is a reminder that Los Angeles has a durable, authentic past.
Cakewalk:
The mayoral runoff is almost upon us, and every four years I think about how great it would be if all of us could vote for mayor. By "all of us" I mean everybody in the county.
West Is Eden:
How often do we step ahead when standing still is what matters?
Where We Are:
The breakwater that separates Long Beach from the Catalina Channel was one of the great works of construction in the 1940s. Today, the City of Long Beach is moving closer to taking some of the breakwater down.
Where We Are:
Once a corporate record of how Southern California was electrified, the Edison collection at the Huntington Library is now something more -- time machine, site of enigmas, and zone of investigation of the city's modern dichotomies.
Cakewalk:
It's been 21 years since the April 29 that will live in local infamy. But what are those who weren't even around back then think about it?
West Is Eden:
Starving sea lion pups are washing up on Southern California beaches in record numbers -- at a rate five times the norm. It has gotten so bad the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has declared an "unusual mortality event."
Where We Are:
Commencement address delivered to the graduates of the Master's Program in Urban Sustainability of Antioch University Los Angeles.
Where We Are:
Architect Richard Neutra explored domesticated modernity in his mid-20th Century homes. House-proud collectors today pay a premium to own one. Now you can build your own "new" Neutra. But why?
Cakewalk:
Tony Wafford fights the good fight -- mostly alone -- for HIV awareness in places that need it the most.
West Is Eden:
What happened to us? When did we become so elevator-silent, so dour, so proper, so scrunch-faced, so mature?
Where We Are:
Looking at the "found photographs" in the Huntington's archive of Southern California Edison photographs and finding why the darkness is such chilling fun.
Where We Are:
Many of the images were taken by by G. Haven Bishop whose work, almost entirely unknown today, has the subtlety and richness of Julius Shulman's photographs.
Cakewalk:
My neighbors and new friends are definitely moving, something I just can't seem to accept.
Where We Are:
Would expressly shielding cities from liability lead to more dog parks? Lawyers, insurance providers, city council members, and legislators don't necessarily agree that it would.
SoCal Focus is a daily blog about the people, places and issues in and around Southern California.
I Am Los Angeles: Strings of Success
Sasha is content just to be living his life on his own terms, doing something he thoroughly enjoys: building and playing guitars.
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