Susan Straight's new novel draws on her experiences of growing downtown LA and its surroundings to create an image of a neighborhood 'reeking of cheap liquor and hurt.'
She describes how the Golden Gopher, a small dive bar on 8th street turned hipster hangout is able to 'capture all the weirdness of the city.' Although the bar itself has since been fully re upholstered and its dingy past turned into a motif, the surrounding block remains occupied by low rent hotels and an unchanged cowboy bar named El Gaucho.
Hector Tobar compares Straight to Raymond Chandler and John Fante for her ability to accurately depict the soul of the city through hidden lives of the LA basin's residents. He suggests you "enter into that imaginary L.A., and afterward you too may notice a little more as you wander through the real one. Perhaps you'll pause at a doorway or two and wonder about the tales that lie within."
FULL STORY: Where Hopes and Desperation Collide
Don't Cement Our Future: Rethinking LA’s Landscape After Fire (and Floods)
A call for regenerative approaches to rebuilding that work with nature rather than against it.
Preserving Altadena’s Trees: A Community Effort to Save a Fire-Damaged Landscape
In the wake of the Eaton Fire, Altadena Green is working to preserve fire-damaged but recoverable trees, advocating for better assessment processes, educating homeowners, and protecting the community’s urban canopy from unnecessary removal.
LA’s Trees Absorb More Carbon Than Expected, But Can’t Do It Alone
A USC study finds that Los Angeles’ urban trees absorb more carbon than expected, but while they provide crucial environmental benefits, they cannot replace the urgent need for systemic emissions reductions.
What ‘The Brutalist’ Teaches Us About Modern Cities
How architecture and urban landscapes reflect the trauma and dysfunction of the post-war experience.
‘Complete Streets’ Webpage Deleted in Federal Purge
Basic resources and information on building bike lanes and sidewalks, formerly housed on the government’s Complete Streets website, are now gone.
The VW Bus is Back — Now as an Electric Minivan
Volkswagen’s ID. Buzz reimagines its iconic Bus as a fully electric minivan, blending retro design with modern technology, a 231-mile range, and practical versatility to offer a stylish yet functional EV for the future.
Ratepayers Could Be on the Hook for Data Centers’ Energy Use
Without regulatory changes, data centers’ high demand for energy would be subsidized by taxpayers, according to a new study.
City Nature Challenge: Explore, Document, and Protect Urban Biodiversity
The City Nature Challenge is a global community science event where participants use the iNaturalist app to document urban biodiversity, contributing valuable data to support conservation and scientific research.
A Lone Voice for Climate: How The Wild Robot Stands Apart in Hollywood
Among this year’s Oscar-nominated films, only The Wild Robot passed the Climate Reality Check, a test measuring climate change representation in storytelling, highlighting the ongoing lack of climate awareness in mainstream Hollywood films.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research