The Brief

Tucked away in Bixby Knolls, a neighborhood in Long Beach, you’ll find the iconic parks service sign, a trail and native plants.

The fact that the trail takes 15 seconds to walk and you can also find fairies and bigfoot’s footprint gives a clue to what this 0.05 acre park actually is — an injection of whimsy, if technically fake.

The bridge hovers about an inch off the ground.

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Cato Hernández

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LAist

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The "woowoo" bear at Bixby Knolls National Park on April 6.

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Cato Hernández

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LAist

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Why the ‘national’ park started

I was given a guided tour by Blair Cohn, executive director of the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association, who’s the mastermind behind this make-believe spot.

He said the National Park Service hasn’t reached out about their tongue-in-cheek name, but it’s a tribute to them that takes inspiration from Portland.

Shhhh, don't disturb the fairies

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Cato Hernandez

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LAist

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“Somebody in their backyard had a tiny little sign and they made it their own little national park,” Cohn recalled. “We said, OK, well let’s take it up.”

The origin of the park started before it opened in 2021. Businesses were struggling because of the pandemic. The association cut programs and was doing what it could to help local shops. But it was facing an uncertain future.

Planning for the worst, Cohn said they wanted to go out with a bang, so they looked at landscaping they could do to help people get back outside. They picked an abandoned lot at Roosevelt Road and Long Beach Boulevard, right near a business corridor.

“ We said we’ll do one last thing for the neighborhood and let’s create something fun in this corner,” he said.

They got the city on board and some funding. But they wanted to do it in a fun and cheeky way, which is when they came up with the tiny, fake National Park idea.

Cohn said the comical take is about giving people a welcome distraction.

From left to right: Rusty B. and Blair Cohn explain what creatures are in the Bixby Knolls park on April 6.

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“ There’s so much bad news,” he said. “But our combat daily is to do things like this, always sprinkle in a little bit of sarcasm, a little bit of BS into the mix because we all could use a laugh and be lighthearted.”

The association maintains the park now, keeping it clean and ready for visitors.

The tiny but mighty sights

During my visit, there was an unexpected visitor: The officially-unofficial park ranger of Bixby Knolls “National” Park, Rusty B. (He said the “B” is because he’s “ like a bear with no ears.”)

As with all the foolery here, he’s not a real park ranger but played the role quite well with an Australian accent (crikey!). Rusty gave me a tour of all the sites you can see in the tiny park, which include Matilija poppies and other native plants.

He pointed out how the park’s largest inhabitants, a wolf and “ woowoo” bear, sit still to hunt for prey. These totally aren’t statues (wink, wink). We also crossed a bridge over a “raging river” of dry gravel.

Near the park’s mountain range mural, you’ll catch some other surprises. “ We’ve got some mushrooms and we’ve got a couple of leprechauns hanging out there,” Rusty said. “It’s completely native.”

 And watch out as you walk. A fake trap is on the ground that’s there to capture big rodents that come from Anaheim, according to Rusty. Bigfoot’s footprints are also immortalized on the grounds, who was supposedly spotted in the neighborhood around 1918.

Donut Rock, aka Angel Food Donuts, is directly across the street from Bixby Knolls "National" Park.

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Before you leave, make sure to pay a visit to the other places of interest around this tiny spot.

Donut Rock (aka Angel Food Donuts across the street) sells “Bixby Bear Claws” and donut rocks (donut holes). There’s also the big blue “Finger Pointe” within eye-shot of the park, which is where they get their  printing done, and the Bixby Knolls “National” Park shuttle (aka a standard bus stop wrapped in wood covering).

You could explore this area for a while and likely find something new each time, like a light pole giraffe or moose head, but don’t worry about getting lost. The park has a map sign with information about all of the tiniest “national” park’s best features.

Lifesize cutouts of Deputy Ringo Starr next to the defunct bathroom, Freddy Krueger standing over the entrance, delicate china guarded by the Incredible Hulk‚ and 150 tons of books and magazines.

It is moving day at Planet Books, the 4,000-square-foot warehouse of used tomes, toys, life-size posters and delicate antiquities, and all of it must leave.

Store owner James Rappaport and manager Argyl Houser have spent the first half of the month packing, consolidating and bidding goodbye to the warehouse they have worked in since 2020. They must have it all out by the end of the month.

Around them, boxes line the narrow aisles, taped tight and labeled by genre. Some glass cases are emptied of their knick-knacks, some walls naked of their posters. Public radio, KJazz 88.1, remains on as usual, though Rappaport said the queue has been nonstop rock and blues.

“We had like three solid days of Eric Clapton,” he said with a smile.

It’s a swift change from months ago, when the two were told they needed to vacate by the end of April, risking either closure or confining their goods to storage as they struggled to find a new home.

“I couldn’t find anything within a thirty-mile radius that was under two dollars [per square foot],” Rappaport said.

Approaching the store’s 30th anniversary, the two are set to celebrate in a new location, a former furniture store turned sound studio at 1819 Redondo Ave. — the second time the bookstore has moved since it opened in 1998.

The new place is larger — by about 600 square feet — and twice the cost to rent. It’ll also be a year-long sublease before they can lease it on their own. But it’s a needed move, one that offers the opportunity to organize, consolidate and rebuild their vision of a bookstore that the two have talked about for years but never had the momentum to act on.

“It’s a huge amount of work, but it’s also an opportunity to make the store just the way we wanted … an opportunity to really make the store shine,” Houser said.

The two plan to downsize a tenth of their stock through donations to nearby schools, shelters and prisons. They’re giving away half of their hardcover mysteries, at least half of their small paperbacks and looking to downsize their knick-knacks. Rappaport is also selling his treasured vinyl collection.

“It’s been in the back for years, and I’ve finally decided I’ve got to start selling my things, getting too old to save everything,” Rappaport said.

The new store, they envision, will have art books in the front; specialty vintage will rest in the back left and leatherbound classics will have the windowed area to the right. Their rarest tomes, currently spread across five locations in the store, will be consolidated and put in a glass display.

They want better seating and wider aisles, envisioning a trendy establishment where customers can sit at tables and couches and sip cappuccinos or listen to live music — preferably jazz or blues — and enjoy poetry readings or book signings.

It’s a bittersweet move and a goodbye to a long chapter of the bookstore’s history. But with change comes the relief of certainty, a fresh start and finally, two new toilets that actually work.

On the steep, brush-covered slopes of the Arroyo Seco, home to the Rose Bowl, a new kind of wildfire defense has arrived — on cloven hooves.

Starting this morning, more than 600 goats are being deployed across roughly 100 acres to help kick off Earth Day celebrations in the city.

Over the next six to eight weeks, they’ll reduce fire risk by munching through invasive vegetation like mustard that can quickly turn into dangerous fuel.

The pilot program, led by One Arroyo Foundation with city backing, combines an ancient technique with urgency around climate change, which the Eaton Fire that devastated parts of Pasadena bordering Altadena has only heightened.

“It’s become more evident that we need to do everything that we can to make sure that we’re adding wildfire resiliency to the way we manage this place,” said Daniel Rossman, executive director of the foundation.

The Arroyo sits within a high-severity fire zone, according to state maps, and acts as a natural corridor for wind, meaning a fire could spread rapidly if conditions align, Rossman said.

The G.O.A.T.'s

Pasadena is the latest Southern California city where goats are eating the fuel load, joining Arcadia, Glendale and Santa Clarita.

Unlike traditional brush clearance methods, which often rely on gas-powered equipment, goats offer a low-emissions alternative.

“You don’t need fossil fuels to run goats,” Rossman said. “They run on their own fuel, which is the brush that they eat.”

The grazers also shine where humans and machinery struggle on the Arroyo’s steep, uneven terrain.

“The goats can go to places that are very difficult for humans to get to with heavy equipment,” Rossman said. “Also, as they go up those hills, they're not degrading them as an adult [human] would by stepping on them with just two feet.”

Other cities like Arcadia have also hired goats to graze on fuel loads.

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City of Arcadia, CA

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City of Arcadia, CA

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While on assignment, the animals owned by Capra Environmental Services, Corp., will graze day and night in the Arroyo, watched over by a herding dog and a herder who will live in a trailer on-site.

“The goats do not have a strong labor union,” Rossman said, tongue firmly in cheek. “They work 24 hours a day. But on the other hand, they take naps whenever they feel like it.”

One Arroyo is covering the roughly $85,000 cost and has launched a “Goat Fund Me” campaign to invite public support. The nonprofit will be posting about the goats' whereabouts on its Instagram so locals can come watch the animals at work.

Just be aware that there will be temporary electric fencing set up to keep the goats from wandering into nearby homes and businesses. And don’t try to pet the goats.

“These goats are generally grumpy,” Rossman said. The animals that can stand humans will be at a petting zoo in Saturday’s Earth Day event by the Rose Bowl's Aquatic Center.

A test run

The hope is that the goat grazers will demonstrate success so that city officials may adopt the effort long-term.

How to know if it’s working?

Rossman said the first test is to see how well goats clear the invasive species and make room for the native plants.

“We want to get to that sweet spot where they chew things down and that then allows these perennial natives that stay green year-round to come back and compete,” Rossman said.

The timing of the goat deployment close to the last of the winter rains was intentional. Rossman said rain spurs rapid plant growth, especially invasive species that then dry out and turn into “flash fuels” by summer.

Removing that growth before peak fire season, he said, is key to protecting an “environmental treasure” that even more locals have turned to since the Eaton Fire.

“Many people who maybe used to hike Eaton Canyon are coming to the Arroyo and enjoying this place to connect with nature and to connect with themselves and restore,” Rossman said.