Skip to main content
Donate

D.J. Waldie

D. J. Waldie (2017)

D. J. Waldie is the author of "Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir" and "Where We Are Now: Notes from Los Angeles," among other books about the social history of Southern California. He is a contributing editor for the Los Angeles Times.

D. J. Waldie (2017)
Support Provided By
Bit of England at the Cross Roads
Hollywood's Future at the Cross Roads
A good example of Los Angeles being itself is the proposed redevelopment of seven acres of retail and residential property fronting on Sunset Boulevard around the 79-year-old Cross Roads of the World.
Which-Way
In Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, Aspects of Gentrification
Brooklyn in May, like Los Angeles in other seasons, is pearl gray light, but there it falls into narrow streets edged closely by four and five story buildings so that, as the day ages, the shadows that gather everywhere deepen. It might have been late ...
Wars, Squirrels, and the Making of Suburban Los Angeles
Residents of southeast Los Angeles County have become used to this unexpected wilding. The fox squirrel shares with raccoons, possums, and skunks a tolerance for human-managed landscapes, an eclectic diet, and a certain wanderlust.
Every Girl Plays: Dave Rodda and Recreation Equality
In the 1990s, it became common for critics of suburban places to see something unhealthy, almost perverse, in the recreational history of which Dave Rodda was so much a part.
In Long Beach, a Walk Along the Shore
Business comes and goes on 2nd Street, mostly at a walking pace, and trends seem to lag a few years behind beach towns that are mainly for tourists. Some trends just seem parochial to the street and quirky, like all those Lebanese restaurants.
Parker Center, Long Beach City Hall: Preservation or Demolition?
City council members in Los Angeles and Long Beach have choices to make about two iconic buildings, architecturally representative of their times, that neither city council likes very much.
Re-Reading LA: 'Billion Dollar Blackjack' from 1954
The reason for the "otherness" of Los Angeles has been named differently in different seasons, but all the interpreters of our re-read city have actually been trying to identify its original sin.
Re-Reading L.A.: 'Señor Plummer' from 1942
Nearly everything about "Señor Plummer" and the way its author presents Eugene Plummer is meant to evoke a false nostalgia for a past hardly any Anglo reader in 1942 could remember.
Biltmore Hotel and Pershing Square
Re-reading L.A.: '7 Days in Los Angeles' from 1932
The history of Los Angeles may be shallow by comparison with other cities, but it's crowded with incidents that amuse, stir, puzzle, and sadden in "Los Angeles in 7 Days" from 1932.
Re-reading LA: 'A Tenderfoot in Southern California' from 1918
Sunshine, geraniums, and fleas. Also potholed streets, eccentric residents, and a culture of aggressive salesmen. In the popular literature of Los Angeles at the turn of the 20th century, it's already the city we almost know.
Another Roundup: 'Musical Chairs' Among the Electeds. Stadium Bait-and Switch. Transit and Consequences. L.A. Is Slipping Away.
It's time for another updating of stories and issues that have recently occupied these pages.
the-future1
The Stories We'll Tell: A Short History of the Future
For more than 150 years, the builders of Southern Californians depended on climate and a sales pitch to lure new buyers of whatever El Dorado was currently on offer, be it orange groves or suburban house lots. But that kind of selling to that kind of b...
Show more
Active loading indicator