Once upon a time in a funkier Los Angeles, Jonathan Gold found his voice…

Gentle reader...

Los Angeles has a way of getting deep under the skin of some writers, so that they become forever associated with the city and the city with them. Jonathan Gold, the beloved food and culture critic who died last month, was one of those distinctly L.A. writers.

His death, which was unexpected, crashed through town like a tsunami, and was memorialized with a quickly organized civic tribute in light, Gold's distinctive silhouette cast onto landmarks from City Hall to Santa Monica Pier. (When we realized that nobody had bothered to illuminate the historic Los Angeles Times Building where he'd last worked, we faked it in Photoshop.)

It's sad to note that the old Times is one of two newspaper buildings where Gold did most of his Pulitzer-winning writing, yet both are empty today. The streamline moderne Hollywood Reporter Building, home of The L.A. Weekly when Gold started out, was threatened with demolition; named a landmark, it's still derelict. And we're currently seeking to have the old L.A. Times so designated, to compel the Canadian developer owners to treat this iconic site with respect.

As the obituaries rolled in, many of them from writers who were mentored and inspired by Gold, we were moved. It was sweet to soak up all this deserved praise for a homegrown writer who celebrated our native foodways and the complex sauce of cultures they reveal, and who turned us onto some of our favorite dishes.

We remembered when he was a music critic, stretching out to document every hole-in-the-wall joint on Pico, then beyond. Before Yelp, when the internet was barely there, his was an inspired pilgrimage path into the heart of the secret city. Gold's Counter Intelligence inspired a delicious way for Angelenos to discover new neighborhoods and communities. Through dumplings and stews and tacos and fritters and exotic frozen treats, we came together in the aftermath of anxious times (riot, quake) and found we have more in common than not.

So, we mourn the passing of a great guy with a unique and positive vision. But where is the next Jonathan Gold going to come from? In 2018, it’s impossible for a smart kid to live cheaply in L.A. and fall backwards into their true writer's path like Gold did. Since 2001, 30,000+ Ellis Act evictions have devastated L.A.'s housing stock, almost every one of them preceding demolition of an affordable multi-family building. While City Hall cozied up to developers, our great city became unlivable.

Once upon a time, and not that long ago, Los Angeles was a place for dreamers. You could come from anywhere, get a crummy cheap apartment and find your way. Now, the struggle to survive can grind dreams away.

We believe in Los Angeles and in the special people who bloom in this soil. Our hope is that the politicians who made such a nice noise to send Jonathan Gold on his way last month (and will celebrate him again on the City Hall steps on August 26) will recognize that Los Angeles needs to be better, more equitable and kind, if we’re going to see his like again. International development companies that evict Angelenos and knock their buildings down just see profit. We see a magical place where new ideas are forged, if folks can just have the space to breathe.

Rory Carroll is a British reporter who spent the past six years chronicling Los Angeles for The Guardian. He's off to new assignments this week, and taking the measure of the place. For all that's wonderful, and there's plenty that is, the image that sticks with him is a woman scavenging food from a garbage can. Those are not foodways worth celebrating.

In honor of Jonathan Gold and of all Angelenos can be, let's fight to make this a real City of Gold, not of garbage. We believe it's possible, and when it is, your dreams are the limit. Bon Appétit!

We're back on the bus on Saturday with the Boyle Heights & Monterey Park melting pot tour, celebrating a century of immigration stories, small businesses, lovely landmarks and secret gems. Join us, do!

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LAVA'S FORENSIC SCIENCE SEMINAR - SUN. 9/23

Four times a year, we gather in the teaching crime labs of Cal State L.A. to explore the history and future of American forensic science. On September 23, join us for an inquiry into the Southside Slayer cold case serial killer investigation. Your $36.50 ticket benefits graduate level Criminalistics research.

COMING SOON

BOYLE HEIGHTS & MONTEREY PARK: THE HIDDEN HISTORIES OF L.A.'S MELTING POTS - SAT. 8/25... Come on a century's social history tour through the transformation of neighborhoods, punctuated with immersive stops to sample the varied cultures that make our changing city so beguiling. Voter registration, citizenship classes, Chicano Moratorium, walkouts, blow-outs, anti-Semitism, adult education, racial covenants, boycotts, The City Beautiful, Exclusion Acts and Immigration Acts, property values, xenophobia, and delicious dumplings--all are themes which will be addressed on this lively excursion. This whirlwind social history tour will include: The Vladeck Center, Hollenbeck Park, Evergreen Cemetery, The Venice Room, El Encanto, Divine's Furniture and Wing Hop Fung. (Buy tickets here.)

THE BIRTH OF NOIR: JAMES M. CAIN'S SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NIGHTMARE - SAT. 9/8... This tour digs deep into the literature, film and real life vices that inform that most murderous genre, film noir, rolling through Hollywood, Glendale and old Skid Row, lost lion farms, murderous sopranos, fascist film censors, offbeat cemeteries -- all in a quest to reveal the delicious, and deeply influential, nightmares that are author Cain's gift to the world. (Buy tickets here.)

HOTEL HORRORS & MAIN STREET VICE - SAT. 9/15... Through the 1940s, downtown was the true city center, a lively, densely populated, exciting and sometimes dangerous place. But while many of the historic buildings remain, their human context has been lost. This downtown double feature tour is meant to bring alive the old ghosts and memories that cling to the streets and structures of the historic core, and is especially recommended for downtown residents curious about their neighborhood's neglected history. (Buy tickets here.)
SPECIAL EVENT: CURSE OF THE SHE-DEVIL: A TRUE STORY OF REVENGE, BETRAYAL, BOMBS AND REAL ESTATE IN 1919 LOS ANGELES - SAT. 9/22... In this sequel to his popular tour about the 1910 Bombing of the Los Angeles Times, arson and bomb detective Mike Digby takes us on a scrupulously researched journey through early Los Angeles, exposing a brazen conspiracy to kill, maim or terrorize anyone who stood in the way of a beautiful young woman inheriting the fortune of her estranged husband. While following the forensic leads of the unfolding case on a route rich in time capsule crime scenes, Mike will compare and contrast the historical investigation to the modern crime analysis methods he has used in his law enforcement career. And every passenger gets a copy of Mike's new book about the case. (Buy tickets here.)

EASTSIDE BABYLON - SAT. 9/29... Go East, young ghoul, to Boyle Heights, where the Night Stalker was captured and to Evergreen, L.A.'s oldest cemetery. To East L.A., where a deranged radio shop employee made mince meat of his boss and bride in the shadow of the world's biggest tamale. To Commerce, where one small neighborhood's myriad crimes will shock and surprise. To Montebello, scene of a horrifying case of child murder. That's Eastside Babylon, our most unhinged crime bus tour. (Buy tickets here.)
Additional upcoming tours: Charles Bukowski's L.A. (10/6), Echo Park Book of the Dead (10/13), Raymond Chandler's L.A. (10/20), The Real Black Dahlia (10/27) and Special Event: Elmore Leonard in Hollywood (11/10).

OUR HISTORIC L.A. PODCAST

In Episode #129, Preserving Dynastic Los Angeles County Landmarks in the 21st Century: The Chandlers’ Times Mirror Square & The Bixbys’ Rancho Los Cerritos, we showcase one well-preserved landmark and another facing the wrecking ball. Click here to tune in. New: find stories on the map!

AND FINALLY, LINKS

Hideous blob proposed to obliterate Barney's Beanery, a rare example of a Route 66 roadhouse in the heart of Los Angeles. The scraps of Barney’s facade propped under this mess add insult to injury.

Say goodbye to your neighbors, and know your rights, as landlords push "legacy tenants" out with cash for keys offers.

The ugly forced closure of historic Ports O' Call Restaurant has taken a tragic turn.

A judge will decide if the City of Los Angeles, real estate lobbyists and DLANC illegally disenfranchised the largely black homeless population seeking to form their own Skid Row Neighborhood Council.

We remember nudging our friend David Kipen to open Libros Schmibros in Boyle Heights. Three storefronts on, he's struck gold in the historic Cummings Block—now with rolling ladders!

One day, we'll see the last news story about the ill-considered Downtown L.A. streetcar proposal. Maybe this thoughtful list of cheaper, cooler alternatives will be the one?

When Tail o' the Pup became a museum piece, we felt blue. But somehow, the iconic storefront is coming back as a commercial enterprise, and that's just swell.

RIP Valley Cleaners, an obsolete bit of roadside signage that made us happy every time we waited to make a left turn up Fremont and now has disappeared.

While the city races to demolish Parker Center, it's considering its tiny neighbor, the derelict Children's Museum, as emergency shelter. A suit seeks to preserve the larger landmark as permanent supportive housing.

Flat Top and its LAPD radio broadcast station was on the market for less than $2 Million and the City of L.A. didn't buy it. The new owner can name his rent, and did.

Broadway in Downtown L.A. has the country's largest collection of historic theaters, but nobody wants to put on a show. Apple's long-rumored plans for activating the Tower Theater are underwhelming.

Photos from our debut Mansonland tour, including the very special surprise of a guided tour of Sybil Brand correctional facility, where Susan Atkins freaked her cellies out with tales of psychedelic slaughter.

While the Los Angeles Times was owned by Chicagoans, the town went to hell. Just a few months into local ownership comes this long story about how illegal hotels are exacerbating L.A.'s terrible rent and demolition crisis.

The State Historic Resources Commission recommends (video, at 1:30) the Beverly Fairfax Historic District for listing on the National Register.

From the 1947project crime history archives: SBM Skid Row Stabber Seeks Souls For Satan. But all charges against Bobby Joe Maxwell have now been dropped and The Skid Row Stabber is a cold case.

The Pobladores Project Database shines a light on those mysterious non-native folks who called pre-statehood California home.

Worrying. What changes does USC have planned for the Gamble House that made the longtime director tender his resignation?

Catching up on posting LAVA Sunday Salon videos, here’s Gordon Pattison on lost Bunker Hill & the 2nd Street Cable Car

Serious concerns about spending public money to demolish L.A.'s historic affordable housing stock for brand new low-income developments that only welcome U.S. citizens.

Today in preservation as public policy news, keep an eye on Assembly Bill 2263, which aims to promote adaptive reuse by cutting back on parking requirements.

An academic tenant signs on to activate the long vacant Herald-Examiner building.

The campaign to protect Silver Lake's streamline moderne steel Texaco station is a perfect preservation test case.

A sad announcement from The Art Deco Society of L.A.: the Queen Mary won't even talk to them about plans for future Art Deco Weekends. ADSLA has done so much good to activate the ship over the years, and deserves better.

yrs,
Kim and Richard
Esotouric