Neighborhoods
Articles about the neighborhoods of Los Angeles.
Victor Ponet, a Belgian LA land developer, undertaker and diplomat, bought 240 acres of the old Rancho La Brea in 1890. His new estate consisted mostly of poinsettia fields and was a couple of miles west of a small village that was only just becoming known as Hollywood. Fourteen years later Ponet had a six-hundred…
The Hollywood Sign is such an iconic structure that it never needs an introduction or description to first-time visitors who are guests. They know it well, having seen it untold times in movies, TV shows and news pieces. For sure they’ve seen a picture of it many times too. Interestingly if you next ask them…
One of the things we believe in at the Real Los Angeles Tours is talking about the good, the bad and the ugly aspects of history. It’s really the only way of looking at our past, if we ignore the nasty and ugly episodes then we are almost certainly dooming ourselves to continue making the…
A lot of people, both visitors AND locals don’t even think it’s possible to go bicycling in LA. Or even if it is, that it would be unsafe, not to mention downright dangerous. The car is king here – this ain’t Yurup (which is how we say Europe by the way). However, you may be…
One of DTLA’s many gems is Angels Flight, a funicular railway that connects Grand Central Market and the Historic Core to the Bunker Hill Financial District. In 2013 it was closed due to safety issues and it felt disappointing explaining to guests on our tours that the neglected, graffiti-covered, trolley cars were two of the most beautiful remaining artifacts of Victorian Los Angeles. Unused, rundown and…