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SoCal Focus

SoCal Focus is a blog about the people, places, and issues in and around Southern California.

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School pencils.
LAUSD School Board Race: The George McKenna Story Continues
George McKenna is the most reluctant candidate for public office that I've ever met. I think he's also the most qualified.
2 Words to Put Local Government Decisions in the Shadows
A new bill would make the state's "open meeting" law just two words shorter and a lot easier to get around.
With No Pro Football, L.A. City Hall Needs a Winning Play Downtown
Downtown L.A. was used to being kicked around. But like a wimpy kid who grows up to be an All American, downtown has beefed up. What downtown doesn't have is enough hotel rooms to justify a bigger and better convention center.
Buddhist and Christian ministers say prayers and chants during the interfaith service at the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage.
Remembrance and Ritual: The Manzanar Pilgrimage Experience
They came from miles around. From San Diego, from the San Gabriel Valley, from Sacramento, even Seattle. They came here like they have every last weekend of April, to convene in this special, even sacred, spot in the desert.
A bike ride in Ventura, CA.
Bike to Work Week, Ventura County Style
There are few places where you see dolphin and deer on the same bike ride.
San Pedro's Ports O'Call: The Theme Ends, Then What?
I used to go to Ports O'Call when I was in college in the 1960s. It's always kind of fun to be a tourist in your own town and to see how we want visitors to remember Los Angeles.
Mansionization Returns: The Too Big House and the Image of L.A.
A house in some parts of Los Angeles is an unstable dynamic of big aspirations, small lot sizes, and the economics of speculative construction.
Amgen Tour of California riders race through the town of Piru in Ventura County. | Photo: Courtesy Doug Penisinger
Why Watching the Tour of California is Exhilarating
I asked him what it took to reach the top of his chosen sport. "Eat or be eaten," he said.
Deltopia in Isla Vista, Santa Barbara County. | Photo: Courtesy Mike Eliason / Santa Barbara County Fire Dept.
Can the Problems at Deltopia Actually Be Solved?
The annual party in Santa Barbara County did not end well last month. UCSB's Chancellor wants students to help think up solutions, but isn't that precisely the point? People do not always think through their actions when drugs and alcohol are involved.
Downtown L.A. Life and PacMutual's 'Gift to the Street'
Nelson and Christopher Rising have made a "gift to the street" because they're businessmen and bright guys.
The Man Who Moved
Hard Ball: Why the Dodgers Left Brooklyn and Came to L.A.
The slow departure of Toyota from the company's Torrance headquarters should be a reminder that once Los Angeles was a dream destination.
Manhattan Place Elementary School class photo in 1964. | Photo: Courtesy Kris Aubry
The Watts Riots: School Photos Before and After
Memories of grade school are usually warm and fuzzy. Except when they also tell a story of integration that never had a chance.
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