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Breezing and Biking Along
By Paulie
Marvin Braude, a Los Angeles City Councilman from 1965 to 1997, left a legacy of many wonderful recreational areas for our Southern California community. His many efforts to make our community better and more enjoyable were acknowledged, when among many things, the Santa Monica Bike Path was renamed to honor him. The nineteen mile path from Pacific Palisades south to Redondo Beach came into being thanks to his support and vision. I’m sure Councilman Braude, an avid bicyclist himself, were he here today would be glad to see how the bike path still draws thousands of people, adults as well as the young and small. I sure he would gleefully join the week-end parade along the concrete ribbon that zips back and forth along the sand.
The bike path parallels the edge of beach closest to the parking lots, arcs around green belts and children’s playgrounds, and darts pass commercial enterprises encroached on the sand. What can I say? What could possibly be more southern California than cruising along with the breezy ocean winds in your hair and the vastly glittering Pacific at your side?
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A Dash of Lake Hollywood
By Paulie
I know there are many walks around town that are pleasant, but let me tell you about one that invokes the history of Los Angeles and how it came to survive as a city in a desert. Since it’s in an upscale neighborhood that tends to be a bit quiet about its existence, the hiking path is off the beaten path, right in our midst.
The walk we’re talking about is around the Hollywood Reservoir often called Lake Hollywood. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has an access road around the water that is easy to walk or jog and it’s in one of the most iconic of Hollywood settings: under the Hollywood sign, with a deep blue sky above, LA city spread out below into the distance, pine trees shedding needles and cones, slow moving ducks on glassy water, palm fronds and pampas grass hiding wild life on the shore, and plush homes cantilevered over the steep slopes. What more could there be? Since nothing is really perfect let’s toss in a little L.A. history of hubris and downfall.
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So Cal Stomp About
By Paulie
Nothing is more Southern California than the movies. It’s our very own homegrown industry and that puts us at ground zero in the dreams of the whole world. We see glimpses of the movie industry at nearly every turn: a recognizable face in the grocery store, a filming crew on location clogging a street, driving by the busy studios, or Variety at the newsstand with headlines like “Buffo! Socko!” The movie business surrounds us. We love it.
So with this in mind, let’s go on an easy hike where the milieu of making movies, really old movies to be sure, still lingers in the air. Here’s what we want for our outing: first it must be free as well as close to Los Angeles, and of course kid friendly and pet friendly, not too long of a hike, and of course easy to walk (say- wide hard-pack dirt paths that are flat). Oh, yes- and shaded. After all, this is Southern California. Believe it or not, there are hikes that do fit this description. One that quickly comes to our minds is the Corriganville Regional Park in Simi Valley. You’ve never been there? Well…
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