Singing Hallelujah with Hundreds of Angelenos

Why You’ll Find me at the Claremont Sing-Along Messiah on Sunday (For the 32nd Year in a Row)

On Sunday, the wood-paneled concert hall at Pomona College will be filled with people from Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties singing George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah.” I’ve taken part in the Claremont Sing-along Messiah every year since it started in 1982, and I always get goose bumps. It is an absolutely thrilling experience to be in the middle of several hundred people who are singing together.

You can almost feel the anticipation in the air as people enter the Bridges Hall of Music and find a seat in one …

by Cecilia Cloughly | December 20, 2013

I Can Make Your Parking Tickets Disappear

Curbing Your Car in L.A. Can Be Hazardous to Your Bank Account. So I Did Something About It.

by Michael Brouillet | December 16, 2013

I like to think of myself as a pretty smart guy, but when I moved to Los Angeles from San Antonio, Texas I quickly tallied up $1,500 in parking tickets. …

Donna Bojarsky

The L.A. Macher Who Wants To Create Some Non-Deadbeat Civic Elites

by Sarah Rothbard | November 7, 2013

I’m late meeting Donna Bojarsky for lunch at Ray’s and Stark Bar, the restaurant in the courtyard of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She’s waiting for me—until she’s …

How I Made Guns a Women’s Issue

Betty Friedan and Pink Handguns Mobilized Angelenos—and Me—Against Violence

by Ann Reiss Lane | October 16, 2013

The phone call from Betty Friedan caught me by surprise. The surprise was not that the feminist icon called me. We were friends. It was that she called to order …

Becoming the Mama of MacArthur Park

It Took Time, Persistence, and Tamales To Revitalize a Neighborhood

by Sandra “Mama” Romero | September 20, 2013

In the summer of 1998, my friend Joe Colletti convinced me to come and work with him in MacArthur Park. The job was to put together a new street vending …

Getting Off My Duff in Carson

Homeowners In My City Banded Together to Wake Up Shell Oil. Now I Need to Wake Up, Too.

by Jose Luis Gonzalez | August 27, 2013

Sitting at the bus stop on Moneta Avenue, I watch cars pull into and drive away from Veterans Park. People visit the SportsComplex at the park or fill the bleachers …

Connecting Los Angeles