Although Los Angeles is by most standards a young city, it is a city full of history, regardless. In LAist's past we've looked at the mysterious Spider Pool ruins, the life of James M. Wood, and Campo de Cahuenga, but have barely scratched the surface. Today we're introducing a new feature on the site, LAistory, which will take us on a journey to what came before to help us understand where we are today. We......

Celebrate your weekend. | Photo by ronnie44052 via Flickr Not everyone is going to Coachella this weekend. For those who choose to stay put in Los Angeles, the city is literally filled with events this weekend: AltBuild Expo at SaMo Civic Auditorium: an eco-friendy building & design expo LA Times Festival of Books at UCLA: a must see & do Fiesta Broadway at Downtown: party!......

Newhall isn't even a mini-mini Santa Monica farmers market. / Photo by pink_fish13 via LAist's flickr pool. The answer to the above question, apparently, is when it's held in Old Town Newhall. We heart farmers markets because it allows us to buy our foods directly from the growers. We get fruits and veggies without that waxy residue found at most grocery stores while feeling good about supporting our local economy. And oh yeah, it......

The City of Santa Clarita (that's Valencia/Magic Mountain area and environs) opened its one and only dog park -- Central Bark -- late last year. The 1.3 acre, off-leash doggie park is located in Central Park (27150 Bouquet Canyon Road) and has designated gated areas for small dogs (25 lbs. and under) and larger dogs. It's open from dawn to dusk and is a great place for friendly dogs and their owners to hang......

CSC's Juan José Haedo and High Road's Mark Cavendish stretch for position. Cavendish took 6th and Haedo 7th. | Photo by Matt Cohen San Francisco based photographer Matt Cohen reports from yesterday's Tour of California with photos and explanations of what happened: On its seventh and final stage yesterday at the 2008 AMGEN Tour of California, riders raced from Santa Clarita to Pasadena, often in very heavy rain. The 93-mile Stage 7 was the......

All photos by Scott Groller This weekend, the AMGEN Tour of California hit two Los Angeles area cities, Santa Clarita, yesterday, and Pasadena, today. Photographer Scott Groller was kind enough to share some photos from the finish line of Stage 6 in the Valencia neighborhood of Santa Clarita. The cyclists traveled 105.4 miles from Santa Barbara for a ride that lasted over four hours.......

photo by swanksalot via Flickr Tomorrow is the finish up the AMGEN Tour of California in Pasadena. But before hitting the old money city, they're headed towards Santa Clarita this afternoon (where Six Flags Magic Mountain has decided to stay put). From 4 to 10 p.m. tonight “Rock the Bike,” a free outdoor cycling expo and music festival, will bring together an array of people following the stage 6 finish. Various bands will be......

Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist Remember when there was that big freak out in the Santa Clarita Valley? Six Flags Magic Mountain was going to close and quite possibly become torn down for more housing. Not good. The "extreme" roller coaster theme park is the single largest employer in the area, it fills up the hotels with tourists, adding green to the local economy and hey, it's an institution of the little Valley that could......

The AMGEN Tour of California has returned and it started a couple days ago with a time trial in Palo Alto. The tour makes its way to Sacramento today and then starts heading south towards Los Angeles. The race concludes on Sunday, February 24th with Stage 7 which starts in Santa Clarita and finishes in Pasadena. You can watch the Tour nightly on VERSUS at their 8:00pm slot. The professional commentators that bring you the......

The Santa Clarita Valley region has always been rumoured to have been inhabited by Bigfoot, but what was encountered in the Fall of 1974 was bizarre to say the least, and unlike any typical Bigfoot sighting. Several teenage boys had experiences they would never forget. In October two teenagers in the area observed a tall, muscular creature covered in hair which was carrying a dead pig through the undergrowth. Although they were naturally shocked to......

Yellow = City of Santa Clarita, Blue = Las Lomas Project, Purple = Los Angeles | Source: City of Santa Clarita [pdf] We don't understand why no one wants the Las Lomas project, a proposed 5,500 unit/555-acre development, to be built between the 5 and 14 freeways just north of Los Angeles' border. Come on, how cool would it be to live between two freeways so close together! Not to mention two other freeways......

There's something similar about Weeds on Showtime and today's marijuana bust in the Santa Clarita Valley. If you watch the TV show and know the SCV, you know that it is filmed there (opening credits are very much the neighborhood of unincorporated Stevenson Ranch). And now today, via the Santa Clarita Sheriff's Station's Blog/RSS feed (see, SCV can be hip too), we find that "detectives discovered a substantial indoor marijuana grow estimated to contain more......

Dear Daily News, you bury your excellent stories, columnists and blogs on your website, you let The Signal kick your ass in Santa Clarita and you think a few drops of rain is breaking news. Whisky Tango Foxtrot, dudes. Government offices being closed today is not breaking news; it happens every year, as planned. Drizzle is news of the hour or a weather update, not breaking. Unless the Oscars are canceled, you announcing that......

And maybe some rain boots too. The weather that might have ruined the Rose Parade should strike Los Angeles tomorrow. The LA Times reports that the next four days of rain will most likely bring the most rain in "Southern California since 2005, and possibly even since the 1990s..." The storm will be the strongest on Saturday where up to 10 inches could fall in the mountain areas, 3 inches in the valleys and 8......

Daily News has a report on what Valley state representatives are planning to bring to the table in 2008, many of them green such as Glendale Democrat Paul Krekorian's push to have the state use more renewable energy while giving grants to local municipalities and school districts for that and reusable water. He also is looking into "permeable concrete," which lets water seep into the ground versus into a storm drain to the ocean.......

Preparations for the Tournament of Roses Parade According to the LA Times, the National Weather Service is reporting that a windy a New Years Day Tuesday could have sustained winds of 25 mph and gusts of winds that could blow small children away at 50 mph. Luckily, though, "Pasadena itself will probably be sheltered from the worst of the wind." Rain is likely to come next, however, it's expected later in the week, letting......

Anyone who travels north via The 5 during holidays knows once you start hitting the northern part of the Santa Clarita Valley (a few minutes past Magic Mountain), traffic backs up, making it a slow hump over the Grapevine. Caltrans warns of why traffic will be additionally heavy these next thirteen holiday days:The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) advises motorists planning to travel on the Golden State Freeway (Interstate 5) in north Los Angeles County......

The Geminid Meteor showers are set to peak this week, especially on Thursday and Friday. Um, great date night, anybody? Astronomers studying the phenomenon, David Levy and Stephen Edberg, are terribly enthused: "If you have not seen a mighty Geminid fireball arcing gracefully across an expanse of sky, then you have not seen a meteor.' Those guys are serious!!! "The Geminid Meteors are usually the most satisfying of all the annual showers, even surpassing......

How's this for a lede? "If you get in a car crash in the San Fernando Valley, there's about a 50-50 chance you'll flee the scene - and get away with it." Ha! That's almost instructional. In a comprehensive report on hit-and-runs by the Daily News, it is found there is a lot of hitting, running and general douchebaggery in Los Angeles. Yes, we all knew that after day one, but here are some......

Last week with the Holiday, we said it was slim pickings. This week, classical music in Los Angeles is bountiful and what has piqued our interest is Alternative Opera Theater's three performances this upcoming weekend at the intimate NoHo Arts District space, the Raven Playhouse. The performance will feature two chamber operas, the first being "The Telephone" by Gian Carlo Menotti where a man attempts to propose to the woman she loves. But there's......

ExperienceLA.com and Lonely Planet are running a community based Downtown photo contest. If you win, you're photo will be on the cover of the free guide that will distributed around LA and all over the world. And while you're Downtown shooting photos, drop by Pershing Square to go ice skating through the holidays. The tunnel on the 5 Freeway where a fiery crash killed three, shutting down the tunnel for over a month, reopened......

Despite the risk of building a home, selling a home and moving into a home in a high risk fire zone, companies, homeowners and governments still find it acceptable finds the LA Times today. "This is a land rush into danger," said Roger Kennedy, former director of the National Park Service and author of a recent book on wildfires. "A land rush by people who do not understand what they are doing and who......

Last week's devastating Agua Dulce/Santa Clarita Valley wildfire was started accidentally by a "male juvenile" playing with matches, the L.A. County Sheriff's Department announced Tuesday. The Buckweed Fire blackened over 38,000 acres, destroyed more than 60 structures, and led to an estimated $7.4 million in damages. On October 22, one day after the blaze began, a detective questioned a "boy" who "admitted to playing with matches and accidentally starting the fire," according to the Sheriff's......

By Henry David for LAist.com......

These photos were taken by amateur photographer Chris Mesaros of Santa Clarita, who submitted them to us. We think they're brilliant! Their local government has also posted a neat google map of all the fire incidents. Donation to the rescue efforts can be made here. More great photos after the jump! (photos have been posted with permission from artist)......

What would you save out of your home if you had 15 minutes to get out? I can guarantee that it won’t be what you’re thinking right now. Yesterday, as a resident of the SCV -- that’s the Santa Clarita Valley/Valencia/Magic Mountain area to you city folk – I had the opportunity to play the “What Would You Take to a Deserted Island – Wildfire Edition” game. Some of the items I “saved” make......

Silly Jack Weiss! He thinks the Valley is different from the City. Tsk tsk! The Daily News takes the Councilman to task (lovingly) for his slip of the tongue. Halloween events abound in the city this time of year, and LAist is your best source for the hottest spooky spots: check out our continuing Halloween coverage here. OMGZZZ Kitten Cops! I can has ratburgerz?? The LAPD is recruiting feral cats to root out rodents......

The LA County Fair comes to end tonight, and if you can't make it or county fairs just aren't your thing, there's plenty of festival happenings today around Los Angeles:Swerve Festival @ Barnsdall Park National Geographic's All Roads Film Festival Feast of San Genaro Italian Festival Abbot Kinney Festival Grand Avenue Festival West Hollywood Book Fair Just Lives Festival Santa Clarita Street Arts Festival Polska Parafia Bazaar SGV Greek Festival Nigerian Independence Day Celebration......

If you picked "11 days" in your How Long Will that Crazy House on the 101 Freeway Stay There office pool, then you win. Hell we all win, cuz the home that was supposed to move from Santa Monica to Santa Clarita but got stuck in Hollywood thanks to taking the long way home, is now back on the road, and heading out of LA. At 10:30 pm last night the now-tagged house was......

It's starting to feel a little like Fall: an "unseasonably strong and cold storm system" is headed our way. Bundle up! How green was Burning Man this year? Elsa Wenzel from CNet's News.com explains her perspective: "As a first-time Burner, I've finally shaken the playa dust from my shoes and mind to conclude that it was perhaps the most and the least eco-friendly mega-event I've attended." With a name like Inland Empire, you deserve......