The Great Los Angeles Walk

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Mid City Gets Into the Great Los Angeles Walk

GREAT NEWS from the Mid-City Neighborhood Council! They'll be sponsoring a water and supply station for this year's Great LA Walk! Here are the details, from Bruce Durbin of the Mid City Neighborhood Council:

The Mid City Neighborhood Council is going to sponsor a "Water & Supply Station" for the Great LA Walk. We will be setting up a table outside the Atomic Cafe, located at 5001 W. Washington Blvd. (on Washington, a block west of La Brea).

We will have free bottled water, snacks, sunscreen/band-aids, and also a limited number of token items to show our appreciation for this year's walk participants.

The Water & Supply Station will be set up between 10:30 and 2:30 - that should be enough time for participants to get to and out of Mid City. Also, Tony Shibatta, owner/proprietor of the Atomic Cafe, will also be offering a lunch special to GLAW participants.

Our particular stretch of Washington (between Crenshaw & Fairfax) has seen some positive changes in the last 5-10 years. The Nate Holden Performing Arts Center is finally beginning to regularly book mid-size theater, music and dance events, and business facade & sign improvements as well as landscaped medians were completed on the strip as part of a CRA grant.

New Korean & Salvadoran restaurants have been doing brisk business and although the economy has put a strain on financing, we think that the Midtown Crossing Shopping Center located at the junction of Venice/San Vicente/Pico) will eventually finish Phase II.

Atomic Cafe opened about two years ago and it was a total "game-changer" in that it finally brought out all the people in the neighborhood who were previously not interested in eating within their neighborhood. It has become an ad-hoc community gathering spot. We still have a lot of work to do, but we are making concerted efforts to attract some of the galleries/studios and other small businessess which may be getting priced out of the Culver City Arts District. We hope you enjoy our neighborhood!

For more on NHPAC (it replaced the old Ebony Showcase Theater): Click here.

Thanks to Bruce and the Mid City Neighborhood Council! More details to come over the weekend!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Tips From Metro On How To Take Public Transportation To And From the Walk

Thanks to Fred Camino, who has put together an extensive post on how to take Metro buses to and from this year's event.

My advice: Either plan with a friend and get to Venice Beach around 8 a.m., parking one car, then carpooling to USC (where you'll park the other car).

OR: Park at USC, walk to Venice, then eventually take Metro back to USC.

OR: Park at Venice Beach at 7 a.m., allowing yourself enough time to board a Metro bus to USC. That way, your car is waiting for you when you arrive.

We've tried and failed in the past to drum up enough interest to rent a bus to transport people back to the start line. But if any of you would like to take the lead, I can publicize your plans and hopefully get enough participants for you.

LINKS:
Go Metro to The Great Los Angeles Walk 2009 (Metro's The Source blog)

Google Transit

Metro Trip Planner

Great Los Angeles Walk T-Shirts Are Here -- Order Now!

Time to order your GREAT LOS ANGELES WALK shirt! Like last year, we're going through Cafe Press for the shirts. And like last year, we're not making a dime. The price you pay is the price that Cafe Press charges.

Shirts, of course, aren't necessary for the walk. But show your Great Los Angeles Walk pride! Go to www.cafepress.com/franklinavenue to order!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

ONE MONTH FROM TODAY: The Great Los Angeles Walk 4

Believe it or not, we're now just a month out from the annual Great Los Angeles Walk -- our annual urban hike from downtown Los Angeles to the ocean. The walk takes place on SATURDAY, NOV. 21, 2009

MEET AT 9 A.M. ON THE SIDE OF THE SHRINE AUDITORIUM -- on JEFFERSON, ACROSS THE STREET FROM USC PARKING LOT D (where you can park all day for just $8).

In 2006, we hiked down Wilshire. In 2007, it was Pico. And in 2008, we started at Sunset before walking the entire length of Santa Monica Blvd.

This year, we're heading south -- and once again diving into the history of Los Angeles. This year, we hit the ex-presidents: Washington and Adams.

The route will take us past some of L.A.'s most beautiful historic places -- such as the Automobile Club of Southern California headquarters, the Golden State Mutual Life headquarters, St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Roman Catholic church and much more. There's even Ray Charles' old recording studio.

And then there's the collection of historic homes. Wikipedia writes:

The West Adams area was developed between 1880 and 1925, and contains many diverse architectural styles of the era. Architectural styles seen in West Adams include the Queen Anne, Shingle, Gothic Revival, Transitional Arts and Crafts, American Craftsman/Ultimate Bungalow, Craftsman Bungalow, Colonial Revival, Renaissance Revival, Mediterranean Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival, Mission Revival, Egyptian Revival, Beaux-Arts and Neoclassical styles. West Adams boasts the only Greene and Greene house in Los Angeles. Its historic homes are frequently used as locations for movies and TV shows including CSI, Six Feet Under, The Shield, Monk, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Of Mice and Men.

We're working with several organizations in putting together a guide for us to walk and enjoy the architecture -- and also help figure out the best route.

We'll be walking a mix of Adams and Washington -- until we get to Culver City, where we'll have lunch and then exclusively hike the rest of Washington Blvd. all the way to Venice Beach.

As usual, we'll celebrate afterward at a location to be named later. If you'd like to host the post-walk event, or at least help organize it, please contact us at our franklin_avenue(at)yahoo(dot)com email address.

For those of you new to our annual event, it's quite simple: We walk. No agenda, no cause, no special reason -- just for love of Los Angeles. It's the Saturday before Thanksgiving, which means you can work off some pounds in preparation for the following Thursday's pigout. And this year's walk promises to be shorter than last year's longer hike -- so no complaints! (People run 26-mile marathons in a few hours all the time; you can easily walk 14 miles over the course of eight hours, with plenty of stops along the way.)

Anyone can join in... just email us at greatlawalk@mail.com.

And keep checking out the official Great Los Angeles Walk website -- GreatLAWalk.com -- for more details! We'll see you on Nov. 21.

Above, a YouTube video taken by a participant from last year's GREAT LOS ANGELES WALK -- SANTA MONICA.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

The Great Los Angeles Walk 4: Help Us Choose a Street

Now that Summer's pretty much over, fall's gonna go by fast -- and before you know it, it's gonna be the holidays again. For the last three years, we've kicked off the holiday season by throwing our annual Great Los Angeles Walk on the Saturday before Thanksgiving.

It's the perfect day to do it: The temps are cool, but not too cool; there are few other events going on that day; and everyone's looking to burn a few calories in preparation for the Thanksgiving gorge-fest they're about to embark on. So this year, count on the fourth annual Great L.A. Walk to take place on Saturday, November 21.

Mark your calendars. In the meantime, help us pick another street to hold this year's hike. As you know, we marched down Wilshire Blvd. in year one (2006), Pico in year two (2007) and Santa Monica Blvd. (with a touch of Sunset) in year three (2008).

All great streets. The best streets for the Great L.A. Walk include some interesting architecture and a lively environment. It gets a little harder from here: Olympic, for example, has long stretches of dull residential. Ditto Venice.

Eventually, we might consider altering the geography of the walk. But for now, I'd still like to stick to our 14-16 mile theme: Start in Downtown and work our way to the ocean.

So what are some of your suggestions? Sell me on Olympic. Dazzle me with why Venice or Washington make sense. Perhaps this is the year for a North-South street? All recommendations gladly taken.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

One Final Take: The Great Los Angeles Walk 2008 on YouTube

Great Los Angeles Walker Dru writes:

Just wanted to say thanks. This was my first time doing the walk and I really enjoyed it. It was lots of fun. I can't wait to do it next year!

I put together a video of the walk that I would like to share with you... Unfortunately the camera battery started running low around mile 4... Next year I'll be better prepared. Hope you like it.

It's pretty cool to see people give their take on how they heard about the race -- and why they're doing it.

Thanks again to everyone who participated! We'll see you next year -- as usual, the Saturday before Thanksgiving: Nov. 21, 2009.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

GREAT LOS ANGELES WALK 2008: 18.3 Miles Later, We Did It!

And you thought we were all crazy! We did it, we hiked 18.3 miles from Union Station to the ocean on a beautiful Southern California Saturday.

For the third annual Great Los Angeles Walk, I chose the longest course yet. And yet we attracted the biggest crowd yet too.

Approximately 150 of us (some say more, some say less, several of us settled at the 150 estimate) gathered early in the day (some had been up super early, parking in Santa Monica and then taking the bus out east) for the event. We started at Union Station at 9 in the morning, and after a quick detour through Olvera Street, made it on to Cesar Chavez Blvd. From there, Cesar Chavez quickly turned into Sunset, and we hiked on, through Echo Park, past Dodger Stadium and on to Silver Lake.

At Sunset Junction, we peeled off onto the start of Santa Monica Blvd. We continued, onward past the Hollywood Freeway (and the former Hollywood Star Lanes site, RIP), and into Hollywood. We scored some free water from the Jackson Hewitt tax prep company, walked past Hollywood Forever cemetery, and into West Hollywood. Groups broke for lunch at several Weho spots... and many of us reconvened right at the West Hollywood/Beverly Hills border at 2 p.m.

From there, we walked the dirt sidewalk of Bev Hills (apparently they're resurfacing the bike path) and made it to the intersection of Santa Monica and Wilshire (home to the first walk in 2006!). Several of us walked into the old Trader Vic's restaurant at the Beverly Hilton, where an auction was taking place -- the famed Pickford estate. Furniture, clothes, photos... some reasonably priced (including a menu from a 1930 William Randolph Hearst dinner!). Onward, we passed by Century City and the Mormon temple... and then under the 405, and soon, as we hit Santa Monica, we began to feel the cool ocean breeze.

Santa Monica is always a snap, as the numbered streets help count down to the finish line.

Here's the crazy part: Some walkers sprinted so fast, they got to the finish by 3:15 (I worry that they didn't get a real sense of the route, having sped by so fast!) The bulk of us, including me, got to the end between 5 and 5:30 -- still faster than last year, when we walked 2.5 miles less, yet got there at the same time. (We were pacing around 20 minutes a mile -- check out my Great LA Walk Twitter feed to see.)

A handful of walkers did it right: They got to the end at around 6:30, having taken their time to explore sites along the way. Whatever the pace, most made it to the Britannia Pub after all to toast their feat. And rest their feet.

I've uploaded a ton of photos at our Flickr group site: www.flickr.com/groups/greatlawalk. If you were on the walk, feel free to add your pics to the group as well!

And please send me the web addresses to your blog posts and photo collections, we'll post all the links here, for easy access.

PHOTO STREAMS:

:: Check out the Franklin Avenue shots here.

:: Anthony's got some great shots here.

:: The Atwater Village Newbies' shots here, and blog post here.

:: Scott Lowe of Tropico Station fame has some pics here, and a post on the day here.

:: Will Campbell's shots here.

:: Pamela "Meekorouse" put her pics here.

:: Jeremy Miles ("Beautiful Freaks") took these shots. He blogs about the adventure here.

:: Sean "Ztainment"'s shots are here.

:: El Daybeh's shots are here.

:: Follow Raul's pics here. He also recaps the day at his blog here. Raul's crew also gets points for being most creative -- re-enacting the number for each mile marker (above, they do "8"s for mile 8 -- Martel).

:: Sha in LA's shots are here.

:: Melanie's pics are here.

:: See Todd's shots here. Todd has his blog recap here. He definitely took full advantage of modern technology with the walk!

:: David Johnson's shots can be found here.

::LA_OC_Foodie has put his pics here.

:: Abby Phoenix has posted her pics here.

:: Pics here by Miss Martini.

:: Three-time Walker WALT! has his pics here.

:: Caroline on Crack's pics are here, and her blog post here.

:: Scott's shots are here. These are some of Maria's faves; Scott has a good eye of details that a lot of us missed!

:: Justin Canada's pics are here.

:: Joni, the Accidental Yogist, has her recap here.

:: Frenchy But Chic's blog post is here.

Now, some of my shots from this year's event: