Taken in Encino | Photo by fotonomous via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr

On Monday, we observed Los Angeles' birthday (really, it was Labor Day), but today is the actual birthday of Los Angeles. In an LA Times' editorial today, they ask an important one: "where do L.A. natives go to reconnect with the city's history?"

Not Chinatown they say, the original one is where Union Station stands today. And both Chinatown and Olvera Street are crassly described as "an ethnic theme park conceived by downtown business interests." How about the Ambassador Hotel & the Coconut Grove? The Brown Derby? Red Cars(!!)? Gone. Gone. Gone. (or "vanished with barely a trace.")

In a place with so little history left to preserve, the efforts of preservationists can sometimes seem comical, like the crusade to save an architecturally generic Tower Records store on Sunset Boulevard because some famous rock stars used to sign albums there. Nonetheless, such battles are welcome in a region that has paid a price for its headlong obsession with modernity.

Still, we love you, Los Angeles. You've got your troubles--that's for sure--but we're here to stay. Happy Birthday!