Explore DTLA’s Pedways

Transportation & Mobility

These sky bridges went unfinished

Cato Hernández scours through tons of archives to understand how our region became the way it is today.

Published December 7, 2023 5:00 AM

A wide view of a pedestrian bridge above a street with skyscrapers behind the bridge.

A pedway in downtown Los Angeles.

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Samanta Helou Hernandez

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LAist

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Topline:

In downtown Los Angeles, there’s a group of "pedways" with an interesting past. These pedestrian walkways were part of an ambitious and futuristic city planning idea that fell apart in the ‘80s. We dig into the history.

What are the pedways? Elevated, concrete bridges that connect you from the streets to some high-rises in Bunker Hill. They were intended as a way to separate pedestrians from vehicle traffic as part of a larger city overhaul.

Where can I find them? The 10 bridges can still be accessed today. Just be prepared for the trip to be a little lonely since not many people use them now. We have a map to guide you.

What happened? The plans fell apart after the city planning director was investigated for conflict of interest concerns. He stepped down under pressure and his general plan for the city was eventually abandoned.

If you’re in downtown Los Angeles, near Figueroa and Flower Street, look up — and you may find yourself near a futuristic sky bridge.

No, this isn’t science fiction, but it may have been inspired by that. The downtown pedways — a more enticing way to say pedestrian walkway — are one of L.A.’s unfinished dreams.

They’re a bit out of place: elevated, concrete routes that connect only a few high-rises in downtown to each other. It’s the remnants of a lofty but failed idea of what pedestrian travel could have become.

A brief history of the pedways

A feminine presenting person wearing a brown sweater and green bag walks on a concrete and metal pedestrian bridge while looking at their phone.

Think of the pedways as a shortcut for the yuppies and finance bros, a “glorified park-and-ride,” or a bit of Blade Runner futurism.

You can get around from above, without crossing traffic, and they're probably only useful if you have business in one of those high-rises or the Westin Bonaventure.

The pedways were designed by Calvin Hamilton, a former L.A. city planning director who served between 1964 and 1985. They were expensive, but federal funding covered a large portion of the costs.

A black and white view of three men with light skin tones wearing in dark suits, standing in front of a table with two business building models on it.

Hamilton’s “ambitious” plan was first presented in the 1970 report “Concept Los Angeles.” Among his ideas, Hamilton believed that L.A. should be divided into self-sufficient centers, full of rooftop plazas and rapid transit options where people of any income could live. It was a controversial plan that called for an overhaul of city zoning, but the city council did adopt it in 1974.

The pedways were Hamilton’s way of separating pedestrians from traffic to “enhance the convenience, safety and pleasantness” of the centers. They were part of a larger plan that would’ve put an LAX-esque people mover train in downtown.

“We planned for the rapid transit in each center going all the way around the city, and it would have made a big difference, because it meant that everybody didn’t have to have two or three cars,” Hamilton said in an oral history interview for UCLA. “That would have made a big difference in Los Angeles in terms of pollution.”

A black and white drawing of a city spawl, with hundreds of buildings, tall and short. The drawing is largely outlines of a bird's eye view of what the city could have been. There are a few street routes, with small dotted vehicles.

A concept drawing of part of Los Angeles with centers and suburbs.

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Courtesy Metro Transportation Research Library & Archive

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A black and white drawing of a transit area, which is filled with at least three different levels, parts for people to walk up, and an elevated monorail. Plants and people are dotted around the scene.

A concept drawing of a secondary transit area where people could connect to city centers.

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Courtesy Metro Transportation Research Library & Archive

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Hamilton, ever into aesthetic visuals, dreamed of these bridges being full of sculptures, food and kiosks — and importantly, people. He envisioned hundreds of pedestrian bridges at different building levels, but today there are only about 10 pedways in the Bunker Hill neighborhood. And if you walk on any of these paths now, you’ll likely be alone. The paths don’t get used much compared to the streets below.

The silhouette of a masculine presenting person walking on a concrete walkway.

That may be for good reason. Pedways were popular in the 1970s as a way to separate people from cars, but that’s since fallen out of favor with designers.

So what happened? Hamilton’s plan came to a halt in 1981 after federal funding was eliminated and he stepped down as director shortly after over conflict of interest concerns. The city council moved away from his ideas toward planning options that it felt were more feasible to implement. Hamilton died in 1997.

Why designers don’t like pedways anymore

Pedways are largely seen as a design failure these days. There are two main reasons for that — some think they ruin the skyline and others think they zap a city’s energy. Some complained that it hurts the economy because people are routed away from shopping spots.

A concrete pedestrian bridge with a spiral staircase,

“The pedway sucked life from the streets below without creating sufficient traffic on its own,” architect Rex Lotery told the Los Angeles Times in 1990. Adding insult to injury, Lotery said the bridges tended to “look like hell from a distance.”

A far cry from the futuristic dream they were supposed to serve, but the Jetsonian idea for designers did catch on in a few places across the country.

The reason? Weather. Heated passageways do well in places like St. Paul and Atlanta, while Houston’s air-conditioned ones have been lauded too.

But in L.A., we’re a sunny haven. Our pedways don’t have those bells and whistles because our weather isn’t as harsh. They’re just a plain walking path, making it less essential for people to use.

Where you can find the pedways

A look from above down to a street full of cars waiting at a stop light. Behind them are various large buildings with a bridge connecting two buildings.

The pedways can still be used downtown.

If you want to visit them, expect little signage, and possibly, some closed-off exit points. These paths connect between buildings, so you’ll likely be going from the escalator to the lobby. People have documented the routes through each path, so be sure to check it out before you go.

Some sections require you to be on certain floors of the buildings or access from particular sides of the streets. Here’s where they are:

And when you’re there, don’t forget to pay homage to Hamilton’s dingy plaque on the northwest bridge, which was once stolen before.

A round metal plaque with etched words that read "Calvin S. Hamilton Pedway/ City of Los Angeles/ In Appreciation Director of Planning/ 1985." Bricks form circles around the rounded plaque.

Climate & Environment

Rain is here

Forecast and more

By Dañiel Andres Martinez and Josie Huang

Published September 6, 2026 9:19 AM

Ocean water flooding a beach parking lot. Cars are parked everywhere.

Flooding in Seal Beach Saturday afternoon. Heavy rains began Sunday.

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Courtesy Rhea Presiado

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Topline:

Up to an inch of rain is expected today across Los Angeles County from the effects of Hurricane Marie hundreds of miles away in the Pacific Ocean, according to the National Weather Service.

Street flooding: Roadway flooding was reported this morning on the westbound 134 at the 5 Freeway, near Glendale and Griffith Park.

Coastal Flooding: All weekend, forecasters have warned of dangerous rip currents and an elevated risk of coastal flooding.

Flooding was reported yesterday in Seal Beach and Long Beach.

"We have quite a few reports already of waves up to 10 feet on some beaches — Zuma Beach especially, where we've gotten reports [of] strong rip currents," said Todd Hall, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

What's next: Hall said to expect more showers across L.A. County today. Tomorrow, he said isolated rain is expected, mostly in the mountains.

Topline:

Up to an inch of rain is expected today (Sunday, Sept. 6) across Los Angeles County from the effects of Hurricane Marie hundreds of miles away in the Pacific Ocean, according to the National Weather Service.

Street flooding: Roadway flooding was reported this morning on the westbound 134 Freeway at the 5, near Glendale and Griffith Park.

Coastal Flooding: All weekend, forecasters have warned of dangerous rip currents and an elevated risk of coastal flooding.

Flooding was reported yesterday in Seal Beach and Long Beach.

"We have quite a few reports already of waves up to 10 feet on some beaches — Zuma Beach especially, where we've gotten reports [of] strong rip currents," said Todd Hall, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

Advisories and closures:

An ocean water quality rain advisory has been issued for all L.A. County beaches until Wednesday, Sept. 9 at 2 p.m. That means to avoid ocean water contact for at least 72 hours after the rain.
A coastal flood advisory and a high surf advisory for L.A. and Ventura county beaches remain in effect until Tuesday, Sept. 8 at 11 p.m.
The City of Seal Beach is closing two beach parking lots due to flooding concerns.

What's next: Hall said to expect more showers across L.A. County throughout Sunday. On Monday, he said isolated rain is expected, mostly in the mountains.

A crash course in bees

There’s a Bee 101 explainer by the front door, which shows the differences between bees and wasps, and fun touches like pop songs containing the word “Honey,” and a list of Noteworthy Beekeepers including Aristotle, Benjamin Franklin, Leo Tolstoy, Emily Dickinson, Angelina Jolie and Sherlock Holmes.

One long-standing myth is that honeybees are stingers. “People always ask me how often I get stung, but I don’t wear gloves, and I don’t use smoke, and it very rarely happens. And honeybees die after they sting, as opposed to wasps, who can sting repeatedly,” she said.

Five bee models sit on a museum display describing bees as pollinators that eat nectar, sting once, and are fuzzy and yellow.

Most arresting is a floor-to-ceiling collage series of framed model fruits, vegetables, nuts and berries, all of which the honeybee has a role in pollinating. Beside that is an exhibit on pesticides, one of the insect's biggest threats. Pieces of dried honeycomb are everywhere.

Diazzz has also been hosting school trips for the Boys & Girls Clubs. “I might be the only beekeeper they will ever meet,” she noted. The point is to give bees the respect they deserve. “Did you know that it takes 12 honeybees their entire lives to make one teaspoon of honey?”

Rescuing hives across Southern California

A window display with jars of honey inside the store. On the outside it says, "More than just honey, Honey."

There are no live bees in the store, but Diazzz has her own hives in Burbank.

“They are from rescues: I cut the hive out from a wall,” she explained. She takes care of hives from San Diego to Bel Air, with many in the San Fernando Valley, and a couple with a view of the Hollywood Sign. Her caretaking quests have taken her on skyscraper roofs, at apartment buildings and in parking lots.

Almost a year ago, she began her studies as a honey sommelier at the American Honey Tasting Society in Connecticut, where she learned about the science and experience of honey. Her future includes going off to Bologna, Italy, the world honey hub, for the final round of studies and tests at the Albo Nazionale degli Esperti in Analisi Sensoriale del Miele or the National Register of Experts in Sensory Analysis of Honey.

Small honey jars in varying shades of gold and amber sit on a table, one labeled 'Raw Multi-Floral Honey' from La Crescenta.

“Nectar and honey are not the same thing,” she explained. “Nectar is the liquid sticky substance that bees collect from flowering plants and take back to the hive. They transform it into honey by dehydrating the moisture out of the nectar, and capping it over with wax.”

Diazzz recently held her first informal tasting experience at The Bee Museum, and has small batches of various local honeys for sale: cactus, sage, and honey from her own hives. “I usually leave the honey alone, and only take any extra they have made to sell,” she said, because bees use the honey as sustenance. Her favorite? “A toss-up between dandelion and sunflower. Orange blossom is delicious too, but very sweet.”

Arts & Entertainment

Stop doomscrolling

Here're 5 games to play instead

By Linda Holmes | NPR

Published September 6, 2026 5:00 AM

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NPR

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Topline:

NPR's Linda Holmes is a daily puzzle devotee. She recommends games that will test your knowledge of geography, history, and even the most obscure corners of Wikipedia.

Keep reading and dive right into her list of recommendations.

Maybe you, like me, are a daily puzzle player. Maybe you like a Wordle, or a crossword, or one of the other entries from the New York Times puzzle empire.

But maybe you're looking for something else.

So, with a tip of the hat to the people on Bluesky who helped me discover a bunch of games I love in the last month or two, I'm sharing a few games that I'm particularly enjoying these days — ones that are not NYT word games. (No disrespect to my original love, Spelling Bee.)

There are more, of course: the spelling bee game Beeswax, the word game Smush, the vexing Anthropeum, the movie games Framed and Cinematrix. Truthfully, I have more games in the "daily games" folder on my phone than I could ever actually play daily. But given a choice between puzzling and doomscrolling, I'll take the puzzles every time.

MapTap

MapTap is a very simple game. You are shown a 3D globe that you can rotate with your finger, but there are no lines dividing countries or territories. So you are just looking at the unmarked terrain of the world, and you are challenged to tap as close as you can to a particular named location. Maybe "London, England, U.K." You tap. It shows you the distance between where you tapped and where the place really is. You get more points the closer you are. There are five questions in each daily round.

This game can be genuinely humbling, because without those familiar borders showing, it can be difficult to even locate places you are very familiar with. (Without state and national boundaries, it always takes me a minute to precisely find even a place I myself have lived.) But what I love about MapTap is that as I do it, over and over, I actually get better at world geography, which is worthwhile and enriching.

TimeGuessr

In the same family as MapTap is TimeGuessr, where each day's challenge is made up of five puzzles that each start with a photo. Your task is to choose, on a timeline, what year the photo was taken, and to choose, on a map of the world, where it was taken. Sometimes, the photos are of historically meaningful events, like the aftermath of a battle or a natural disaster. Sometimes, they are photographs of ordinary people going about their lives.

The trick with TimeGuessr is detective work. Some hints are straightforward: a sign in the window of a store that might tip off the location (if you can figure out what language it's written in), a license plate, something along those lines. But sometimes, the clues are more subtle. What are the people in the photo wearing? What do the cars look like? How is everybody wearing their hair? It's a fascinating exercise in putting together clues, and again, you can actually increase your knowledge of the world while you play.

The Loop

A screenshot of a game. It has a bowl of pasta in the middle.

The Loop is my favorite early-morning game, perfect for when I'm only partially awake. It offers you 12 simple illustrations that you have to arrange in a circle so that each illustration connects in some way to the ones on either side of it.

So, for instance, in one round I played, a square-root symbol connected on one side to a carpenter's square (because square/square), which then connected to a picture of a toolbox (because a carpenter's square is a tool). On the other side, the square-root symbol connected to a carrot (because it's a root vegetable), and then the carrot to an icicle (because they're the same shape). It can be fun to crack all the different ways that the images connect to each other, but the game design also offers so many chances to get it right that there's a huge amount of grace for making mistakes. That, of course, is why it's perfect for being half-awake.

Clues by Sam

A screenshot of a game made up of many boxes with emojis inside each box.

Clues by Sam is a logic puzzle. It presents you with a grid — four across and five down — of people, each represented by a name, an emoji and an occupation. Your job is to figure out which of those people are innocent and which are criminals. (There is no set number; there could be lots of criminals or only a couple.) Your opening clue might say, "Michael is one of three criminals in row 2." Then you click on Michael and mark him as a criminal, and when you're right, that gets you another clue, and so on.

Like most of these games, this one is enjoyable largely because it's simple, but its diabolical twist is that you can't guess. If you try to label Jane innocent, for instance, and she eventually will be, but the game hasn't given you enough information yet to actually know that, then that answer is wrong and is rejected. You are only allowed to deduce from the clues you have, because it is genuinely the journey and not the destination. Note that Clues by Sam gets harder each day from Monday through Sunday, so if you're a beginner, give it a whirl early in the week to get the hang of it.

Catfishing

Without a doubt, the hardest game I play regularly. In this game, you get a list of at least some of the categories that a particular Wikipedia page belongs to, and you have to try to figure out what page it is. There are ten questions; my average score is about four, and the highest I've ever gotten is eight.

For example, if you know a page is filed under "20th century musicians," and "21st century musicians," and "American folk musicians," and "people born in Minnesota," you might start to zero in on Bob Dylan. But be warned: Many of the answers are far more obscure than that, and it's very common for me to give up and reveal the answer, only to learn that I never stood a chance, because I've never heard of the person (or event, or phenomenon) at all. It doesn't matter how many ways you classify certain medieval rulers or political conflicts of 19th century Iowa; I may never get there.

This piece also appeared in NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter. Sign up for the newsletter so you don't miss the next one, plus get weekly recommendations about what's making us happy.

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The Brief

A brief history of the pedways

Why designers don’t like pedways anymore

Where you can find the pedways

Keep up with LAist.

A crash course in bees

Rescuing hives across Southern California

MapTap

TimeGuessr

The Loop

Clues by Sam

Catfishing