Back in July, LAist and you, our dear readers, had some fun with Walk Score, a site that lets you punch in your address and spits out a walkability score for your neighborhood. Some Los Angeles neighborhoods earned a very respectable "walkers paradise" rating and some just plain sucked (that's what you get when you live on Quakertown Ave. in the northwest Valley). A recent Brookings Institute study finds that Los Angeles ranks 12th... more ›

Shopping anywhere in LA is going to be extra-special crazy from now until Christmas. So to help keep checkout lines short (and to help tempers from becoming so), LAist would like to offer the following lesson to the uninitiated -- or perhaps to shoppers who simply like to do it old school. This is a checkbook: It contains paper thingys where you write out the amount of your purchase -- twice -- then the cashier... more ›

For something really really different, check out the Santa Clarita Street Art Festival in downtown Newhall this weekend. Formerly known as the Bella Via Street Festival, which was previously held at the Valencia Town Center, this street fest is now operated by the city. And it's a very kid-friendly, family-friendly environment. And what those artists can do with chalk and pavement is amazing. Jimi Hendrix (above) is a photo from last year's fest. more ›

We had a little backstage tour of the City of Santa Clarita fireworks show and one of the visitors asked some pretty technical questions. If you're nerdy, we dare you to press play. If you're not... skip to the end for the grand finale and little kids screaming. more ›