The Angeleno Behind Proposition 13

Thirty-Five Years Ago, Howard Jarvis Changed the Golden State Forever

In the mid-1970s, when I was a law student at Pepperdine and California state chairman of a conservative volunteer group, the Young Americans for Freedom, we began to get visits at the YAF offices from a brusque older gentleman named Howard Jarvis.

I had heard Jarvis during his appearances on Ray Briem’s late-night talk show on KABC radio, on which Jarvis made the case that real property taxes were too high and that somebody damn well ought to do something about them. When he started dropping by our offices, at 1250 …

by James Lacy | June 6, 2013

How L.A.’s Fame Began

The Early Days of the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts Were Not Easy. But Art Never Is.

by Darryl! L.C. Moch | June 3, 2013

It was a warm day in September 1985, on the campus of Cal State Los Angeles, when the doors officially opened for the Los Angeles County High School for the …

My $2-Per-Month Catholic Education in 1930s Los Angeles

The Nuns of St. Columbkille Brought Out Our Best (Except in My Penmanship)

By Manuel H. Rodriguez | April 24, 2013

We lived in a white, wood frame house a half-block east of 61st and Main Streets in South Los Angeles. It was a pleasant and quiet neighborhood. Our street was …

Born Into the Cycle, Part One

My Grandmother's Life In Watts Was Tough. My Mother's Life Was Tougher.

by Lakesha Townsend | April 18, 2013

Watts is the place I call home. It’s also the place I want to leave. It’s my comfort, and it’s my trap. When I was growing up, I didn’t want …

The Sky Is Falling, Again

The Sequester and the Booms and Busts of Aerospace

by Peter Westwick | March 29, 2013

Have the budget cuts in Washington, known as the sequester, brought on another great decline of California aerospace, the business that built L.A.? The history of Southern California’s aerospace industry …

My Skanky Button-Mashing Hideaway

Drawings From the Now-Gone Pak Mann Arcade in Pasadena

by Darin Beaman | January 24, 2013

Pak Mann Arcade, on Colorado Avenue in Pasadena, seemed to be on a downward slide for its entire existence. It was always skanky. Sweat- and Big Gulp-soaked linoleum. The place smelled like …

Los Angeles Who We Were