One of my favorite blogs to wander through is the Big Map Blog, which finds and shares truly exquisite historic cartography from all over the place — Los Angeles included, of course. Witness their most recent ridiculously detailed find from 1932: “Greater Los Angeles — The Wonder City Of America” from the Metropolitan Surveys company:

Click the above to enlargify it a bit, but if you wanna truly pore over aaaaall those details* in their high-resolution glory than boogie on over to its Big Map Blog page and download away!

* Such as a very interesting omission: the entire Los Angeles River.

It may come as little surprise to many of you that Los Angeles is one of the ten most segregated large urban areas in the United States. With a segregation level of 67.84 (where “1″ is the most integrated and “100″ is the most segregated), LA is only marginally less segregated than the City of Brotherly Love which weighs in at 68.41 or Cincinatti at 69.42.

Sigh.  From the very handy but depressing GasBuddy, gas prices are above the $3.50 mark all over the city, and some poor motorists in North Hollywood are seeing $4.00 a gallon.  The LA Times blames the rising prices on “unrest” in the Middle East, but exporting the blame is too easy. Politicians haven’t really followed through on vague promises to reduce dependence on foreign oil; we like big cars; and someone (not Ed Begley, Jr.) killed the electric car.  Public transportation, anyone?

You know those tiny pockets inside your regular front jeans pocket? The one that is supposed to be for a pocket watch or something? Schader Park is like that pocket – TINY!

This lovely little slip of a park is along Cloverfield Blvd, just south of Santa Monica (Click on the map image to go to the map.)

And it’s not large. But what it lacks in size it makes up for in charm, shady benches and lovely trees.

And that is all there is to say about this wee green space!

Tucked between Olympic Blvd., the 10 Freeway and what appears to be the Santa Monica City work yard, sits the lush green spot that is Stewart Street Park.

I was there on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend and it was pretty empty. Not sure if that was because of the holiday or if because it’s always pretty quiet in this tidy corner of East Santa Monica. With a number of office buildings nearby (The Lantana Building and Tribeca West to name a few) I can imagine this is a nice spot for office dwellers to come to for lunch when they just need some fresh air.

Here’s where to find this green retreat (Click on the image to take you to the google map.):

There is ample parking and very clean, bright, airy bathrooms – two each for ladies and gents.

The sinks are outside and I kinda dig ‘em:

There is a basketball court near the front of the park surrounded on three sides by shady trees. No other courts at this park, just the B-ball.

Beyond the basketball court was a baseball field ringed with a fence and this sign. Unfortunately there was no information on when the field would be completed.

Fortunately, just past the jungle gym, there is still plenty of field left unfenced for frisbee, catch or a rockin’ game of Freeze Tag, if you are so inclined.

At the end of this path, at the west end of the park are the swings. I was tempted to stop and enjoy them, but saved it for next time.

From the swingset end, looking back to Stewart Street.

I’m curious how busy this park actually gets on non holiday weekends. It seems a gorgeous spot to relax and unwind after a busy week. I hope it is well used and loved by it’s neighbors!

If you look at a map of Culver City, you’ll see there is an arm that reaches to the Pacific Ocean. This is “Culver West” and it’s nestled between Mar Vista and Marina Del Rey.

There is a sweet gem in that arm called Culver West-Alexander Park and if you are in the neighborhood and looking for a great spot to spend an afternoon, you will love this one.

I remember this park from the very early 90′s as I used to work in the Marina. The big field seen here used to have a baseball diamond and one year I spent many an early morning practicing softball with our company team. (Go Hurlers!) Even without a baseball diamond, you can NOT get bored at this park. I dare you!

There are basketball and tennis courts, BBQ pits and picnic tables, tons of jungle gyms and swings and even a community center. If you are a Westsider, check this spot out, bring the kids and grandparents and a big picnic. You never know what you’ll see here.

How to get there (click on the image to go to the Google Map):

You want sports? We got sports!  One tennis and two paddle tennis courts (this is where my honey and I play a lot.)

Here’s a close up of the mural at the end of the tennis court. It’s like being inside Wii Tennis!

In case you were wondering:

And also:

This happy mural greets  you when you park on Moore street. Handball courts (three) are here on the backside of the tennis court.

Wider shot of Basketball and handball courts with informal running path in front.

Close on the Mural at the Basketball court:

Plenty of stuff for the kids to clamber over and around:

And when it’s time to eat, there are plenty of shady spots to spread out and grill up some yummy picnic food.

There is plenty of parking on Moore Street and also in a small lot near the jungle gym/tennis court side of the park.

Alas, Fido will need to stay on the designated path. But it’s a sweet path!

And if you need to just chill in a grassy, shady spot, there is plenty of that too.

Read more about Richard Alexander, after whom the park was named. (Click picture for bigger version.)

Stop by some time! It’s a gorgeous little park and it’s all yours.

One of my favorite shortcuts in L.A. is Outpost Drive, which runs from Mulholland Dr. to Franklin Ave. I frequently use it when I want to get from the North Hollywood/Burbank area to La Brea and points west. It’s a fantastic way to avoid jam ups in the Cahuenga Pass and/or at Hollywood & Highland. This is, of course, very important during Hollywood Bowl season.

Skirting the Cahuenga Pass on Outpost Drive (click for bigness)

Last night as I was returning home from a lovely meet up with some fellow bloggers, I realized it was just about time for the Bowl audience to be leaving. So, I made my way over to Outpost and started up the hill. I was delightfully surprised to find that most of the entire route has been repaved and is an exceptionally smooth ride. Previously, it was so bad that when I got a new car a few years ago, it took me many months to even subject it to the trek.

I do have a few other bypasses I like to take to get “over the hill” if I’m traveling at peak traffic times. The shortcuts don’t always guarantee getting to my destination any earlier, but I’d rather be moving than just sitting on a congested freeway or street.

Do you have a favorite shortcut or tip for circumventing traffic in this city? Leave it in the comments below.

(Photo courtesy of Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times / May 6, 2010)

For those of you wishing to join us this Sunday in remembrance of a local icon, below is the proposed route for Sunday’s Memorial Walk in honor of Dr. Marc Abrams, who passed away this week.

Bring water and sunscreen! We will assemble for the walk on Sunday, July 25 at noon. Meet in the grassy field next to the Silver Lake Recreation Center at 1850 W. Silver Lake Drive. Parking may be a challenge in this area, so I suggest riding a bike, walking or taking the Metro to the starting point. The # 201 bus stops at W. Silver Lake Drive and Moreno, which is walking distance to the Silver Lake Recreation Center.

Please stay on sidewalks and observe all traffic rules. No jaywalking or impeding traffic.

12:30 PM – Begin at Silver Lake Recreation Center at 1850 W. Silver Lake Drive, continue north on W. Silver Lake Drive for 1.3 miles

1:00 PM – Turn left on Rowena, continue for 0.2 miles

1:05 PM – Turn left on Hyperion, continue south towards Monon for 0.2 miles

1:10 PM – Turn left on Griffith Park Blvd, stay on Griffith Park for 1.3 miles, until it dead ends at Sunset Blvd. (in front of Mornings Nights Coffee Shop)

1:45 PM – Stop at the triangle park across from Mornings Nights Coffee Shop at 1523 Griffith Park Blvd for a break, get water, etc.

2:00 PM – Turn left on Sunset Blvd. towards downtown

2:10 PM – Stop at the mural at 2943 W. Sunset Blvd, next to Local restaurant

2:20 PM – Turn left on Silver Lake Blvd, continue for 0.8 miles

2:30 PM – Arrive back at the Silver Lake Recreation Center

Those wishing to do an extended walk at this point should continue around the Reservoir on Silver Lake Blvd for 0.8 miles, turn left on Armstrong for 0.3 miles, then left on Tesla Avenue, then left on W. Silver Lake Drive for 1 mile.

Sorry for the giant image (which you can clickify to embiggen) but I think you’ll agree it’s worth it. BoingBoing just posted a link to a scan of a 1934 Los Angeles Times article about the lizard people who live under the city which was found on Vokoban’s flickr stream. We’ve covered the lizard people before, but this new (old) map should make them much easier to find yourself.

The NYTimes has a super cool map of 100 Netflix rentals showing distribution by zip code in twelve cities, including LA. For those of us interested in how cultural taste intersects with and reinforces demographic and economic differences, clicking through the titles is pretty fascinating. There are some fairly obvious examples of stuff white people like, as in the Mad Men map pictured here (click to make it bigger). Lakeview Terrace, not so much. Other titles defy expectations (well, mine at least). It surprises and depresses me, for example, that Confessions of a Shopaholic seems to have universal appeal. And when you get tired of looking at the distribution pictures, you can get a healthy dose of snark by reading the blurbs about the films, which include, because it’s the New York Times, some solid LA mockery. They describe The Soloist thusly:

These are a few of the ghosts who haunt Los Angeles, that Mecca of Fabulousness where you can go for weeks (and invariably by car) without smelling the reek of other people’s desperation. That helps explain why Hollywood types tend not to set their camera sights on homeless men, women and children, unless they’re good for a little uplift (as in the Will Smith vehicle “The Pursuit of Happyness”). Homeless people are generally, pardon the pun, bummers–they also can’t afford tickets.

City rivalry aside, this is really nifty. If you’re anything of a map geek or a movie geek, check it out.

(Thanks to Google Maps Mania for the link.)

What an excruciating existence it must be, running a winery in Malibu. (Cielo Farms)

So I thought only Europe had “Appellation d’origine contrôlée” or “Indicazioni Geografica Tipica”–legally defined & demarcated areas where specifically-named wines are grown–but I guess the US has them too. D’oh! I can’t believe *I* didn’t know that. And I called myself a wine snob. If you’d like to sample wines from the uber-local “American Viticultural Area” known as the “Malibu-Newton Canyon,” Pourtal in Malibu is hosting a month-long extravaganza of  local hoity-toity booze. While you may have to jostle a few Malibuian boob jobs & facelifts to get over to their pouring station, it could be worth it just to develop a taste for the terroir.

My curiousity piqued about these local wine-growing regions (like, who the hell owns that little winery in the Sepulveda Pass that’s only visible from the Getty tram? What region is that?), I read up on these areas a little more. Looks like you can get even more specific with an AVA called “Saddle Rock Malibu“–you have to read the way these legally-binding boundaries are written up. It’s nuts. The map geek in me wants to walk all the “unnamed, unimproved road[s] that meander”. Sounds like a metaphor for life, eh? Perhaps the only solution is some of that local vino.

Click through to read some of these geek-tastic descriptions of the Malibu area’s wine regions. For info on Pourtal’s local wine tastings, go here. They include Semler & Saddlerock, Cielo, Rosenthal, Hoyt, Malibu Sanity, Malibu Vineyards and Griffin Family Vineyards.

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How sweet is this?  On Monday, LA DOT started a public beta for receiving live tracking information of your friendly neighborhood DASH service.  If you go to http://dtdash.com on your computer or phone, LADOT has provided four equally convenient ways for you to get your bus information:  1) you can live track your downtown DASH using Google Maps; 2) for the minimalists, you can simply use drop down menus to plug in your route and stop to get expected arrival times; 3) for those of us without Internet-equipped phones, call (213) 785-3858 and navigate the phone menu to hear arrival information; and 4) for those of us who don’t like talking to machines, but don’t mind texting one, figure out your stop number, and send a text to dtdash[stop number] to 414111.

Now, if we can get this set up for the MTA, that would be awesome.

This friendly gasoline machine has been dispensing sage advice for over ten years now.

I used to work at the nearby mall–there’s an afterschool art-education program there, and I used to teach art to kids there. Whenever I could, I’d go here for gasoline. You can find it at the corner of Woodman and Riverside Drive in Sherman Oaks (map).

It’s not the cheapest gas in town, but it’s clearly the most articulate.

Read the rest of its sagacious advice after the jump…

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Just noticed this while looking something up. I know there are a few people who tend to disagree with this, but now that Google is making this official OMG WTF?

Pedestrians are not as plentiful in Los Angeles as cars, alas. So most likely if you saw this, it was on the intertubes and not at a crosswalk.

Total Crisis Panic Button has been installed (at crosswalks) all over Los Angeles by Jason Eppink, a New York-based mutimedia artist. He’s even included a Google map to assist in locating them.

And if you hate those huge video billboards as much as I do, his treatment in 2007 of the smaller street-level version might compel you to take similar action, thanks to this how-to video.

Eppink’s other projects can been seen at his site, Senseless Venn Diagrams.

Via Urban Prankster