Nobody Drives In LA -- An Interview with Alissa Walker

In the past most of my posts for Women's History Month have focused on historical figures. This year I decided to instead focus on living breathing women who're actively contributing to the vibrant cultural landscape of Los Angeles. This week's subject is Alissa Walker. Walker maintains the website, A Walker in LA; has written about design, architecture, cities, and transportation for the Los Angeles Times, Fast Company, Dwell, Slate, Wired, Los Angeles Magazine, Details, GOOD, the LA Weekly (and probably others); and is the urbanism editor at Gizmodo. She also co-created design east of La Brea, an organization that produces events that take place east of La Brea; is an associate produce for the KCRWpublic radio show DnA: Design and Architecture; is on the steering committee of Los Angeles Walks; and she just had a baby. 

Alissa Walker (image source: Zaki Mustafa)

I first met Alissa at a tour of Dodger Stadium organized by design east of La Brea (deLaB) to which I walked  -- a decision which produced the unexpected result of my being escorted by security. Walker rode her bike. I didn't realize at the time that I'd heard her interviewed on Notebook on Cities and Culture, which had made me want to talk to her about Los Angeles, which I'm only getting around to now. 

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ME: I've had people suggest to me that I've walked somewhere simply to show off and that biking is irresponsible and means that I don't care about my loved ones. Do you ever encounter hostility from people over your decision to walk, bike, or take public transit? If so, to what do you attribute that? 

ALISSA: Ha, walking to show off is definitely a new one! While it's not really hostility, I do think that especially like 10 years ago when I'd walk, bike or take transit somewhere in LA people would be really surprised -- like almost to the point of disbelief. I do remember some condescending moments in the early days when people would be like, oh my god, I'm so sorry you don't have a car, do you need a ride? Or they'd see me walking somewhere and email me later and be like, hey, is everything okay? 

Gerry Mulligan Tentette - "Westwood Walk"

When I'm deciding whether to walk, bike, bus, take the train, take a ferry, or drive somewhere in Los Angeles I go through a process of asking what means or combination of means will make the most sense for the occasion -- and yet I'm questioned all of the time about how I got somewhere and why I chose to come that way, even though my answer is always the same, "It made the most sense." Do you get that too and if so, to what do you attribute that? 

Yes, it's the best conversation starter! It's always like The Californians sketch on SNL, "I took the 704 to the 217 and got off at Wilshire to go to LACMA?" But I will say in the last five years or so when I get questions about how I got somewhere it's more because people are interested in doing it themselves. I get a lot of texts and Twitter replies from people asking transit advice, which I love! And then I tell them to post a photo of them out there walking or at a bus stop so other people can be inspired. 



What, if anything, do you say to people who happily take public transit whenever they visit another city but simply insist that public transit is non-existent or woefully inadequate and that they must, as a result, make every single journey (no matter how short) in their car? 

I always ask people just to try getting out of the car some of the time?whatever length of time they're comfortable with. Maybe it's a day, maybe it's a whole week. But I swear that even the attempt to take transit in LA will result in some pretty cool experiences and you will probably be able to see at least one benefit -- saving money, getting your time in the car back to do what you want, losing weight -- that will keep you coming back for more. I was hooked after one day riding transit. It made LA feel like a video game! 

Guy Clark - "LA Freeway"

What improvements would you like to see made with Los Angeles's train, bus, bike, and walking infrastructures? 

Obviously I'd like all the planned rail expansions to open yesterday, but it's great they're finally happening. I think the 405 expansion was a huge mistake and we should have invested in light rail instead. One of the coolest pedestrian projects is an Urban Trails app which isn't technically infrastructure but phone-guided walking tours that help point out connections between neighborhoods and the history within them.

"...you got your feet in L.A. But your mind's on Tennessee" (The Westside's Tennessee Ave,  no doubt)

What books, songs, films, radio dramas, &c do you think get Los Angeles right and which do you think get it particularly wrong? 

I produced a whole radio segment for Studio 360 tracing the history of the "Nobody Walks in LA"catchphrase, and it was pretty interesting to see the origins of such an engrained part of our culture (it actually originated not with the Missing Persons song, but with David Brenner's standup on the Tonight Show -- which was a riff on the Ray Bradbury short story "The Pedestrian"). That's probably the thing that people get the most wrong about LA. But it's a very funny thing that LA is going through right now. I'd actually say that for the first time, films and TV shows are interested in portraying the city as a real place with actualneighborhoods and streets and people. I watched Los Angeles Plays Itself the other day, an awesome 2003 documentary about this very topic, and I realized that luckily most of the stereotypical examples are now outdated.




You moved to Los Angeles from St. Louis, Missouri, right? Are there any films that you feel like get Missouri or St. Louis especially right or wrong? 

Gosh, I can only think of a handful of movies set in St. Louis. Meet Me In St. Louis? Oh then there's of course the scene in Vacation where the tires are stolen off the Griswolds' car while they're in East St. Louis. I'd like to see more movies set there!

(Check out Show me the Mo Movies!!! - Missouri in Film and TV)

What are some of your favorite things that you notice on foot that you wouldn't notice on bicycle, car, bus, or train? 

So many things! I try to snap a photo of these things when I see them, and last year Los Angeles Magazinehad me write a weekly column where I'd post my photos and write about what I saw. There are bizarre things that you can really only see on foot, like this fake tree in DTLA, or everyday things with a special perspective that pedestrianism provides, like this beautiful McDonald's seating. One of the most amazing things that you can only really see driving but I never noticed until I was on foot is this spiral staircase in the middle of the 5. Oh, and the peacocks.



I mentioned in my interview with Karie Bible that it seems like there's a renewed interest in public space not just in Los Angeles but around the country. It seems like everywhere there are farmers markets, community gardens, open streets events, outdoor film screenings, &c and you recently spoke on that for the Third Los Angeles Project. It seems to me like the last frontier of the public resurgence is public transit. Do you agree and if so, to what do you attribute that? 

It may even be the other way around. In LA and many other cities, it's these new public transit investments which actually started in the last decade or so but are finally starting to really become part of the urban fabric. Now people can start to see a real way to live locally and publicly -- things like farmers markets, pocket parks -- because good transit helps enable that.

I get my news from a variety of domestic and foreign sources but I am routinely bemused, baffled, and annoyed at how continually both incredibly condescending and utterly disconnected New Yorkpublications are about Los Angeles. What is that all about? 

Dude. It's really just so 1990s to trash LA, but luckily we don't really care. However I have started a hashtag to track all the offenses at #LAHaters. Curbed did an awesome bingo card recently with all the stereotypes listed. We need to turn it into a drinking game.

Curbed LA's NYTBingo

Since we speak the same language, why do you think New Yorkers don't just read about Los Angeles from people who actually know what they're talking about? Is it because they don't know who they are? Who would you recommend following or non-fiction books do you recommend reading? 

I think they should just stay in their bubble. Their dirty-snow-on-the-first-day-of-spring bubble.



Obviously there's the City of Los Angeles and the County of Los Angeles but what are the boundaries of your "Los Angeles?" For example, does it exclude parts of Los Angeles city or county or does it include parts of the Inland Empire or Orange County? 

LA is a state of mind for sure. I'd definitely include the IE and OC -- but that's really a bigger question. I'd love to see you do a mapping exercise that explored this!



If you had first-time guests with wide-open minds and broad interests, what would you show them in Los Angeles? 

My favorite-ever thing to show people in LA is the Big Parade, a two day, 40-mile, 100-staircase walk from downtown to Hollywood. It is the best possible primer for the city because it shows you that the city was actually built around people, not cars. But it's also a great way to see great architecture, meet wonderful neighbors and of course have a lot of fun.

Are there any organizations or folks that you'd like to give shout outs to or anything else you'd like to say here? 

If you want to go on eastside design tours like the Dodger Stadium one you mentioned above, come todesigneastoflabrea.org and sign up for our newsletter. And if you want to join some fun walks that explore the city's thriving pedestrian culture, come to losangeleswalks.org!

John Mayall -- "Walking on Sunset"

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Southland Parks — Visiting Ascot Hills Park

Parks comprise more than 14% of Los Angeles’s landscape and the city is home to hundreds of these cherished public spaces. From the largest park within any American city (Topanga State Park) to the smallest pocket parks and parklets, I hope to showcase them one park at a time, in the series Southland Parks.

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Ascot Hills Park

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Ascot Hills Park is a fairly new, fairly large park in the Eastside neighborhood of El Sereno. Although its development as a park was first proposed in 1930, it took 81 years for it to actually become one. It thankfully took far less time to establish itself as a gem of a Los Angeles park which I first discovered in 2012 when I was taking care of a dog named Dooley. I was again housesitting when I decided to further explore with her.

Ascot Hills Park's main entrance

Ascot Hills Park is located within El Sereno and neighbored by Hillside Village to the south, Lincoln Heights to the west, Rose Hill to the northwest, and the rest of El Sereno to the north and east. 

Pendersleigh & Sons Cartography's oil paint and ink map of Ascot Hills Park

Ascot Hills Park is unstaffed and open from dawn to dusk. Should you find yourself (or more likely, your car) locked within, there is a phone number posted near the entrance to the parking lot at the park’s southern end which you can call. It's fairly undeveloped, although there are signs everywhere of recent improvements throughout, especially near the southern end where the parking lot, restrooms, outdoor classroom are all located.

Kewanee Street Entrance

At the northern end of the park, it's not always obvious where the park begins and ends. There are fences around the reservoir but some of the entrances look less like entry points than barriers. Where Lynfield Street meets Kewanee Street, the latter street is gated and padlocked.  Behind it I saw some homes and no warnings to trespassers so I went around the gate.

Kewanee Street Entrance

Although it more resembles the exit of a minimum security prison, the photo above is seemingly of proper entrance into the park. On top of the ridge, there's a sign which confims to the visitor that they are in the park.

Ascot Hills Park sign

Hole in the fence with Lincoln Heights and Rose Hill behind

The first time that I came to Ascot Hills Park I trudged up the western face only to discover it surrounded by a rusty fence topped with barbed wire. However, I was was relieved that there are many gaps in the fence which allow passage. I'm not sure who cut them, but they're found throughout the park's perimeter.

Underneath the heavy tagging the sign says something like "Take a bag, leave a bag."

Before the opening of Ascot Hills Park, most of the larger open spaces in the Eastside were cemeteries: Evergreen Cemetery in Boyle Heights, Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles, and several smaller ones. There were nice neighborhood parks like City Terrace Park, Hazard Park, Hollenbeck Park, Lincoln Park, and Rose Hill Park. There were other undeveloped open spaces like Elephant Hill and Mount Olympus II (aka Flat Top Hill) but aside from Ernest E. Debs Regional Park in Montecito Heights, there were no big, official, parks. The opening of Ascot Hills was, to use a vastly overused term, a "game changer."

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The first humans to arrive in the Los Angeles Basin came at least 13,000 years ago and were likely the ancestors of the Chumash. Around 3,500 years ago the ancestors of the Tongva (or Kizh) arrived from the Sonoran Desert to the east and in the vicinity of the modern park established the village of Otsungna. In the 18th century, they were subjugated by the Spanish, who in addition to introducing Catholicism, slavery and disease, also introduced  the now prevalent wild mustard.

Wild mustard, brought by the Spanish

There are several theories as to why and how exactly the plant was brought from the Mediterranean to Southern California but sharing a climate, it proliferated and was grazed upon by livestock and Spaniard alike.

The Repetto Hills, which include Ascot Hills Park, are located around the northeastern corner of the Spanish pueblo of Los Angeles’s original area of four square leagues. Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821 and controlled the land until 1848, when the US defeated them in war. Two years later the city of Los Angeles was incorporated. A small section of what’s now Ascot Hills was located within the city's original boundaries but most was annexed in 1915, part of the Bairdstown Addition.

Hillside Village from Ascot Hills

The Ascot Hills got their name from the New Ascot Speedway, a midget car racetrack which opened at the southern edge of the hills in 1924. Between then and 1936, 24 race car drivers lost their lives on the track. After it closed the grandstand was burned down and  the property was soon after developed as Hillside Village.

The empty and probably haunted caretakers house

The LADWP acquired property in the hills in the 1920s. An earthen dam was used to created a reservoir and the caretaker’s house was constructed off Bowman Boulevard. A large area surrounding the reservoir was used by the utility for training. In 1964, when a portion of the property was granted to the Los Angeles Unified School District who upon it constructed the Paul Williams-designed Woodrow Wilson High School. The original reservoir was taken off-line in 1987 and was replaced with a new storage tank in 1990.

The 1990 reservoir

In 1930, at the behest of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, an ambitious, visionary plan was drawn up by the Olmsted Brothers and Harland Bartholomew & Associates titled Parks, Playgrounds, and Beaches for the Los Angeles Region which, had it actually been implemented,  would've included the Ascot Hills within a vast greenbelt around the city. 

The entrance to Ascot Reservoir

In 2000, a proposal was made to flatten the hills and install football (soccer) fields and baseball diamonds — plans which were shut down in large part by action from students at Woodrow Wilson High School. Ground finally did break on the park in 2005, at which time it was scheduled for completion in 2007. Sixteen hectares opened in 2006 whilst, disappointingly, the rest sat fallow behind padlocked fences when the $3 million dollars allocated for the development of the park were frozen. In 2010, the threat of a lawsuit against the city got the ball rolling again and lo and behold, the rest of the property officially opened in 2011.

Walnuts on the hill and what looks to me like a walnut seedling

Toyon

The Ascot Hills covered by grasslands dotted with a few California Walnuts (Juglans californica) and on the eastern face, toyon shrubland.

In the rainy season the hills were brilliant green. As winter nears its end, most of the grasses are now yellowing but it's still quite beautiful. The dry grasses rustled, as did the leaves of the trees. The air smelled of eucalyptus and mustard and the breeze carried swirling clouds of pappus.

My head is filled with the images taken from too many films and the shimmying vegetation reminded me of swaying-grass classics like Onibaba, The Wind Will Carry Us, and especially, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia.

A small riparian woodland exists along the banks a small stream in which I was surprised to discover fish! It flows south from the Ascot Reservoir and is lined with non-native eucalyptus, evergreen conifers, palms, at least one Peruvian pepper, an interesting, green-branched tree that I don't know the name of, and other species I couldn't identify.

Peruvian pepper

I also spied flowering California bush sunflower, California poppies, Matilija poppies, datura, and monkey flower, among others.

California poppies

California bush sunflower

Datura wrightii (aka "Indian Whiskey")

Monkey flower

Matilija poppy

Aside from the wild mustard, invasive non-natives that I recognized included milk thistles growing near the stream, castor beans along the eastern fence, and creeping up the northern face from yards below, a Mediterranean geranium, South African ice plants, and an aloe vera.

Milk thistle

There were obviously a lot more animals around than I managed to see as I could only hear lizards scurrying in the undergrowth, spied uncounted holes probably dug by ground squirrels, and saw all kinds of wild animal dung. There was the expected tagging of rocks, garbage cans, and signs -- the markings of one of life's lower forms.

I did manage to catch sight of crows and a hawk scuffling midair, loads of house finches, a ladybird beetle, about four rabbits, and a whole lot of white garden snails. There’s been a bobcat sighted in Debs Park but I don’t know of any showing up in Ascot Hills Park… yet! I looked for tracks too, but the ground was pretty hard and the only that I could identify were made by bicycles or athletic shoes.

House finches

Ladybird beetle

White garden snails

Although the park's mostly undeveloped state makes is easy to immerse oneself in, there are things reminding you that you’re in a city. Jets can regularly be heard flying overhead and the voice of an unseen child yelling at his parents carried across the valley. They joined the symphony of cawing crows, chirping finches, hammering woodpeckers, and roosters crowing from nearby yards. At one point I could hear a motorist blasting banda and toward the end of our exploration we were treated to an ice cream truck bumping a weird 808 techno gospel version of "Bringing In the Sheaves" on continuous loop.

The KLAC AM 570 and KFWB 980 towers in the distance

There are two clusters of radio towers just outside the park. The cluster of three towers to the park's southwest belong to KLAC AM 570 and KFWB 980 and we didn't get very close to them. 

Approaching the KMPC 1540 towers from the south

KMPC 1540 towers from the north side of the hill and some California walnuts

To the park's northeast is a cluster of six towers owned by KMPC 1540. Those towers are surrounded by a fence, guarded by two aggressive dogs, and also enclose several small, dilapidated structures which I hoped housed a hermit. However, as we walked down the hill we passed a seemingly normal man speaking Korean on the phone as he approached his van -- so probably not a complete recluse.

If you’d like to get involved with the park, there are several organizations serving it including the Ascot Hills Park Green Team, the Ascot Hills Park Advisory Board, Hermon Church, Los Angeles Recreation and Parks, and North East Trees.

Woodrow Wilson High in the distance

Credit in picking up trash and planting natives also has to be given to high school students at Woodrow Wilson High, members of the office of José Huizar, and members of the nearby communities.

Left to right: The skylines of Long Beach, Boyle Heights, Downtown Los Angeles, Koreatown, and Miracle Mile.

FURTHER READING

Trails & Open Space: Ascot Hills Park Opens in El Sereno by Zach Behrens

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Eric Brightwell is an adventurer, writer, rambler, explorer, cartographer, and guerrilla gardener who is always seeking writing, speaking, traveling, and art opportunities. He is not interested in writing advertorials, clickbait, listicles, or other 21st century variations of spam. Brightwell’s written work has appeared in Amoeblog, diaCRITICS, and KCET Departures. His work has been featured by the American Institute of Architects, the Architecture & Design Museum, the Craft & Folk Art Museum, Form Follows Function, Los Angeles County Store, Skid Row Housing Trust, and 1650 Gallery. Brightwell has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Magazine, LAist, Eastsider LA, Boing Boing, Los Angeles, I’m Yours, and on Notebook on Cities and Culture. He has been a guest speaker on KCRW‘s Which Way, LA? and at Emerson College. Art prints of his maps are available from 1650 Gallery and on other products from Cal31. He is currently writing a book about Los Angeles and you can follow him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.