Tag Archives: Los Feliz

I Went Hiking in the Silver Lake Hills Today

It’s a beautiful summer Saturday and I was invited for a hilly walk with my friend Michael. I hadn’t seen him in person (had seen him in Zoom) since before the pandemic so it was really nice to be with another human being!

Gorgeous morning, gorgeous neighborhood and superb company! Could not have asked for more. It’s such a beautiful area, I can really see why I liked living there for so long (from 1984-1994 and again from 2006-2010). It’s really easy to see why it’s so popular.

Enjoy the photos!

Looks like Mediterranean – but it’s Silver Lake
Smart and classy.
View of Silver Lake, looking north toward Los Feliz and Griffith Park
Great view of the highlands and lowlands of Silver Lake.
DTLA from the hills.
Yes, yes, and yes!
A rock wall on Rock St.
House (mansion?) under construction at the top of the hill.
Reservoir from above.
Staircase from the street to the road which encircles the reservoir.
Love this hill street with the staircase at top.
Mexican sage ( I think) whatever it is, it’s glorious.
The Silver Lake Meadow. Wasn’t there when I lived in the ‘hood initially. Great improvement!
Tamir Rice, Michael Brown. Part of the series of names of black people murdered by cops woven into fencing around Silver Lake Reservoir.
Michael at the smoothie joint (post-walk).

Car-Free in L.A.? The list of where to live.

Magnolia Boulevard in Valley Village

I was happy this piece in Metro’s The Source highlighted NoHo (specifically the NoHo Arts District) as one of the places in L.A. where it is most conducive living Car-Free or Car-Lite.

I live in Valley Village, which I guess I’d call NoHo-adjacent, and by this proximity, can also boast to be a good option for the Car-Free.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised over the (now two years, how time does fly) time I’ve lived here at how convenient the neighborhood is to my specific lifestyle – as the referenced Walkscore website puts it, “most daily errands do not require a car.” What they don’t tell you is what the criteria are for walkability distance, i.e., I know from personal experience that what I think is a reasonable walk another person might think of as a death march.

But truly, the usual places one needs: grocery, drugstore, movie theaters, restaurants, library, coffeehouse, yoga studio, park, gym, elementary, junior and senior high schools, public transit stops, farmers market, gay and other bars, etc. are all within easy walking or easy walking and biking distance.

The other neighborhoods The Source deems perfect for Car-Free living include Culver City, Koreatown, DTLA and Pasadena. I would also have included Los Feliz, my former neighborhood, which still has a huge place in my heart – and is very conveniently located to all amenities and is also a hub for Metro lines, bus and rail. And, it’s got Griffith Park. Hard to beat that.

How do you say “Los Feliz?”

Enjoyed this. I’ve always been of the camp who pronounced it “Loss – FEE-liz”, instructed as I was, not only by native Angelenos, but also by Joan Crawford as “Mildred Pierce,” who has one of her namesake restaurants in this neighborhood.

What better guide could there possibly be? It’s also the location where a lot of my novel “The Forest Dark” takes place, locations real and somewhat imagined. Indeed, I lived there for four years on Rosalia Road, and, if you count the adjacent Silver Lake location of a former apartment on Auburn Street, a grand total of about 15 years.

Funny how some SoCal Spanish place names can be anglicized, like “Los Feliz” or “Los Angeles” but others resist this – such as “La Cienega” or “Sepulveda,” which are still pronounced in the correct Spanish way. I can’t tell you how long it took me to learn to pronounce these when first living in L.A. All these years later I’m still working on “Tujunga.”

Trebor Healey Reading at Skylight Books

[youtube]http://youtu.be/Yr-lWN7kvB0[/youtube]

Author Trebor Healey was at Skylight Books yesterday to read from both his new novels, which coincidentally have been released around the same time by different publishers. In the video above, he reads from “Faun,” which definitely sounds like a unique (and often really funny) take on teenage wasteland!

His other new novel is “A Horse Named Sorrow,”, concerning a journey, both real and metaphorical, and centering on a great love set during the height of the AIDS epidemic in the early nineties.

Can’t wait to read both!

Yet More Farmer’s Market Pix, this time Studio City

Something easy for lazy Sunday of a 3-day weekend: More pictures from a Farmer’s Market, to add to the ones I’ve already posted on the blog of Los Feliz and Palm Springs.

Today I bought tomatoes, broccoli, eggs, peaches, spicy greens mix, and a chocolate chip muffin (which is already gone) and carried it all home in a backpack on my bike.

In addition to the pony rides at this Market, there’s a petting zoo. Next time, I’ll take pictures there.