Results tagged “olverastreet”

OK, so Halloween is over, no more dressing up and having fun. Wrong! The fun never stops! Dia de los Muertos in Los Angeles means days of face-painting, music, giant puppets, sugar skulls and even special bread. So get out there and let the celebration continue!

              

Last Saturday at the annual Blessing of the Animals hundreds of pet and animal owners journeyed to Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles where Cardinal Roger M. Mahony presided over the ceremony steeped in tradition.

                     

Sunday was the final evening of the Olvera Street Merchant's Dia de los Muertos celebration. It seemed like the entire city showed up, crowding the narrow streets and gazebo. Blessings were given in the street center, cleansing the faithful with smoke that billowed from small clay pots. Shops sold sugar skulls, mariachis played, and the lines at taco stands grew as the hour of the procession neared.

Los Angeles' 227th birthday is actually on September 4, but early this morning was the annual Pobladores "Walk to Los Angeles" nine-mile Re-enactment.

What are you kids doing indoors on a beautiful day like this? Go outside and play!

Changes could be brewing over at Olvera Street where a Downtown News investigation looks at the cost of rent, which is currently well below market rate. The area, which is run by a City of Los Angeles department not quite self-sufficient yet:

Yesterday it was (the best) taquitos (in the city) from an Olvera Street stand; today it is flautas from an upscale Downtown restaurant, as photographed by LAist Featured Photos contributor hinducow. Normal flautas these are not -- try this on for California size: they are Chicken flautas filled with avacado from Noe at the Omni Hotel on Olive Street.

LAist Featured Photos contributor kpeII submits this Eye Nosh photo with a bold statement -- these taquitos from Cielito Lindo on Olvera Street are the best in town. Well, their website certainly boasts it and Yelpers seem to agree.

                    

Walking through the Broadway Arcade mall near the Jewelry District, Charles Phoenix rued the changing face of Downtown. The mall, built in 1922 and billed as Los Angeles's oldest shopping center, was the fourth stop on what could be Phoenix's last tour of some of the oldest and grandest sites in a city long accused of lacking history. But it was in the mall, where naked upper floors could continue the loftization of Downtown, that Phoenix revealed his love/hate relationship with L.A.'s true city center.

                 

While the feathers were flying in Pershing Square, just a few miles north, feathers of a different kind were being blessed at Olvera Street. A tradition since 1930, it has to be seen to be believed. The crowd is an interesting mix of religious folk and what looks like extras from a John Waters film.

Legend says that Echo Park got its name from workers building the original reservoir said their voices echoed off the canyon walls. However...

The Los Angeles Fire Department is reporting a five-car pileup on the 101 north freeway at Barham over the Cahuenga Pass. Luckily, the three injuries are minor, but that means three blocked lanes and a Sigalert.

There is a common misconception that we don't have seasons in Los Angeles. We know when the seasons are changing. There are two distinct events that herald the coming winter: the Christmas displays replace the Halloween merchandise, and the lunch trucks start selling champurrado.

Many people think of Olvera street as nothing more than a tourist trap. There are touristy elements, such as roaming mariachis and margaritas bigger than your head. But Olvera street is more than that. Not only does Olvera street host a number of cultural events throughout the year, it also has its own church with a close-knit congregation, and a community that is centered around the old square.

TOYS FOR TOTS Everyone has that one special moment when it really starts to feel like Christmas. It might be shopping Thanksgiving weekend, baking cookies or buying the tree. For me, it is that magical moment while stuck in traffic when I am taken unawares by a phalanx of motorcycles zooming by carrying giant stuffed bears on the back. That is truly the spirit of Christmas. The bikers are part of an annual Toys for...

There I was, minding my own on the Red Line, screeching along toward Hollywood and Western, reading the ad copy on the walls. I'd seen the cross-promotional Metro-Wicked ads before, but I noticed something different this time: the witch is reading a copy of the Los Angeles Tribune. (Hed: "Metro Named America's Best Transportation Agency.") Two questions: First, why isn't she reading the Times? It's probably because Metro's marketing department wanted badly to include...

Olvera Street's Novenario has all of the pageantry and all of the colorful calaveras characters as similar Dia de los Muertos events, but there is something more. Something sacred. The rituals honoring the dead combine Catholic and indigenous blessings, bringing a solemnity to the occasion. The traditional pre-Columbian Novenaria (nine-night) procession is a traditional ceremony to remember deceased loved ones. It is a moving experience, even more poignant this year because the merchants lost two of their own. As participants lift pots of burning copal incense to the sky, we all remember someone, and even those who do not pray send a silent message to those we have lost.

8th Annual Festival de los Gente Saturday the 27th 11am - 10pm and Sunday the 28th 11am - 8pm On the streets of LA at the historic 6th street bridge Festival de la Gente is a community-based Event in a Historic Venue featuring Live Entertainment, Arts and Crafts altars, in a carnivale-like atmosphere for families with children. The event will feature live music, art exhibits, teatro performances, storytelling, arts and crafts demonstrations and traditional latin-American...

See the 1995 60 Minutes segment about the horrendous Red Line subway construction. Apparently, in democracy you cannot run against your boss' political allies without getting fired. That's what happened when city councilman Ed Reyes fired his office manager after she lost the 2005 election to Jose Huizar. She sued. She won. All the Wilshire Blvd. bus lane info you could want. The Zaca wildfire has been going for a month and now Governor...

Yes, like Ventura's split from its original name (San Buenaventura) or San Diego's true Spanish meaning (a whale's vagina), Los Angeles comes from a much larger city name - El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula (The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels on the River Porciúncula). And like other rare departments in the landscape of city government (Port of Los Angeles or Neighborhood...

While we were driving around the country we noticed that people rarely take tours of their own city. When we were in Chicago we had a hard time finding a local who had been up the Sears Tower, when we were in NYC we didn't meet anyone who had been up the Statue of Liberty, however when we were in Memphis we couldn't find anyone who hadn't been in Graceland. If one were to...

The week began on 9/11 and we remembered Howard Stern's 2001 broadcast of that day. There were many choices of visual stimuli. Among those were Loose Change, Dateline in Long Beach, Path to 9/11 or Football. While we watched Castaic burn, we felt the need to be a little more green and looked into Griffith Park planning, e-waste, coastal cleaning and Eastside reservoirs. Speaking of e-waste, one of our writers got his computer stolen...

UPDATE: LAObserved links, and the one-and-only Jonathan Gold responds! Olvera Street is known as the birthplace of Los Angeles. Located near the corner of Cesar Chavez and Alameda streets downtown, it’s kind of like a Latin version of the Farmer's Market on Fairfax with a lot more trinkets and a lot less fruit. LAist likes to walk Olvera every now and then for the pure kitsch factor (Lucha Libre masks abound, and are usually...

La America Tropical, the once-controversial, then painted over mural is coming back to Olvera Street thanks to the city and The Getty: The mural, one of three done during Siquieros' six-month stay in Los Angeles, depicts an Indian being crucified on a double cross topped by an American eagle. The piece, depicting the struggle against imperialism, was considered so controversial at the time that it was painted over shortly after it was finished. Here...

Don't be alarmed if women are walking around downtown with tiaras and sashes over the next few weeks. They're probably with the 55th Annual Miss Universe pageant, which is making the Wilshire Grand downtown its official headquarters until the contest airs from the Shrine Auditorium on July 23. (Does anyone still watch this stuff anyway?)

Franklin Avenue noticed that 2006 is LA's 225th year. They asked City Council President Eric Garcetti "where's the party?" — and he answered:

Mayor V: A Q&A with Mayor Villaraigosa on immigration. He's definitely politic when speaking with the LA Times: My role, you know, my focus, is on the city that I was elected to serve, but I will continue to advocate for a sensible, bipartisan immigration reform.

For 76 years, Los Angeles has held a Blessing of the Animals on Olvera Street at the north end of downtown Los Angeles. Back in the 1930s it was mostly about donkeys and chickens, but now people show up with their household pets. From mice to snakes, parrots to kitties, chihuahuas to iguanas, llamas to labradors, all animals are welcome — but a cow still gets to lead the procession. Cardinal Mahoney will officiate.