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Found LA neighborhood tours offer you the chance to be a tourist in your own backyard
With the recent addition of Laemmle's NOHO 7, the North Hollywood Arts District has been solidified as a world-class arts district. Tour guide Mary Garcia will talk about what helped to cultivate this area into what it is now.
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COURTESY OF LA COMMONS
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Visitors can hike behind the namesake of the Los Angeles neighborhood, Eagle Rock, during the Second Annual Found LA Festival of Neighborhoods on Sunday.
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Long time resident and artist Patricia Perez will discuss Frogtown, an artistic community of the Elysian Valley. Walk along the L.A. River down memory lane with Patricia as she discusses her memories while you visit with the community of artists that thrive there.
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Found LA neighborhood tours offer you the chance to be a tourist in your own backyard
The nonprofit LA Commons is offering free tours around Los Angeles on Sunday as part of its second annual Found LA Festival of Neighborhoods.
The goal is to take people to cultural enclaves they may not have visited before.
“I feel like Los Angeles is a difficult city to get to know despite being so wonderful in terms of the experiences you can have,” said Karen Mack, executive director of LA Commons. “Almost any community you want to participate in is here, but it’s hard to get over the fear or trepidation that people might have about going to a new place.”
Mack said one neighborhood the tour goes through is the Byzantine-Latino Quarter at Pico Boulevard and Normandie Avenue.
“It’s like a little Greek hub in the middle of the city and they have this huge cathedral, St. Sophia’s, which is a Greek-Orthodox Church and right across the street is Papa Cristo’s which is probably the most famous Greek restaurant in Los Angeles," she said. "In addition to all this Greek culture, you’ve got people from all over Latin America so in terms of food, it’s just incredible.”
Other tour activities include hiking trails in Eagle Rock, visiting art galleries in Elysian Valley’s “Frogtown” and participating in a coffee ceremony in Little Ethiopia.
Other tour locations include:
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Filipinotown
Highland Park Route 66
Koreatown
Little Tokyo/Arts District
North Hollywood/Arts District
Silver Lake
South Central Avenue
South L.A. Southern California Library
Venice
Watts House Project
All Found LA tours are free and open to the public. You must register for the tours in advance. Each tour caps at 30 people. For more information, visit lacommons.org
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