by Kim Cooper | Feb 1, 2021 | The Esotouric Blog
Yesterday we lost Big John, our dear friend who was the most extraordinary portal to the weird, creative, anything-goes Los Angeles that used to be. John was a master craftsman, a builder of car washes, a teetotaler nightclub owner, designer of crooked gambling...
by Kim Cooper | Jan 20, 2021 | The Esotouric Blog
(photo by architectural historian Michael R. Corbett, from SAFER’s appeal) Update after the hearing: read all about it here. In November 2018, the FBI raided the City Hall offices of Councilmember Jose Huizar. He has been charged with 34 counts of racketeering,...
by Kim Cooper | Dec 30, 2020 | The Esotouric Blog
A disturbing rumor is circulating on social media that El Pino Famoso—the towering Bunya Pine (Araucaria bidwillii) at Folsom and Indiana on the East Los Angeles / Los Angeles border that was prominently featured in the film Blood In Blood Out—has been deliberately...
by Kim Cooper | Nov 23, 2020 | The Esotouric Blog
In the late 1920s, as Los Angeles was becoming one of the world centers for tire manufacturing, architects Aleck Curlett and Claud Beelman were hired to design a sprawling Renaissance Revival factory complex for Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in South Gate. The...
by Kim Cooper | Nov 6, 2020 | The Esotouric Blog
Our newest special newsletter edition for subscribers is out now, featuring a virtual visit to the non-public spaces of the Baltimore Hotel in old Skid Row. (We also have a free newsletter packed with local historic preservation news and musings.) The hotel has been...
