Wednesday-a day of weather and nature

Mari and I walk three days a week and bike ride three days a week.  Mari usually likes to go on trails and to be in nature. I like to be in nature, but I am more into walking on concrete sidewalks. We choose our walk from "Map My Walk"   On our walk on Tuesday, Mari took me on a walk through O'Neill Regional Park.  O'Neill is a multi use park that is located in the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains.

On July 23, 1769, Gaspar de Portola led an expedition through what is now Orange County and camped a few miles east of the San Juan Capistrano area.  On July 24, 1769, the expedition headed inland to avoid the streams and swamps in the area.  They found a large plateau area and camped that night on its western edge by a canyon which the Franciscans named San Francisco Solano.  This was on the eastern side of Trabuco Creek about three miles downstream from the present Trabuco Oaks.  Legend says that while the Portola party camped here on July 24-25, one of the soldiers lost his musket or "Trabuco".  To mark this loss, the stream was named Trabuco.  The name has been associated with the mesa, the canyon and the entire area ever since.  Most of O'Neill Park was part of the old Rancho Trabuco.  The first two square leagues were granted to Santiago Arguello in 1841 by Mexican Governor Alvarado.  Arguello sold these lands to Juan Forester in 1843.  Forester received an additional grant of three square leagues in 1846.  Forester sold the Rancho to F.L.S. Pioche before 1880.  Many others held title, but the ranch eventually became the property of James L. Flood and Richard O'Neill Sr.  The two were owners of one of Forester's other ranchos, Santa Margarita y las Flores.  Thus it became part of the great O'Neil Ranch.  Under the O'Neill family leadership, the ranch flourished.  The agricultural operations were greatly expanded and the ranch became home to Orange County's largest wheat field.  The ranching operations were also greatly expanded and the cowherd grew to over 15,000 head.

In 1948, the O'Neill's donated 278 acres of canyon bottom land to the County of Orange for park purposes.  The O'Neill family donated an additional 120 acres in 1963.  In March of 1974, the county purchased 232 acres of land along the park's northern boundary.  This acquisition prompted the purchase in 1975 of 30 acres along Live Oak Canyon Road for access onto the new property.  On October 5, 1982, 935 acres, known as the Arroyo Trabuco were dedicated to the County by the Rancho Mission Viejo Company.  The Arroyo Trabuco area is n ow open to public use.  The Ramakrishna Monaster wishing to preserve native habitat, also gave property to the park.

The park today encompasses 3800 acres.  The topography and appearance varies greatly with canyon bottom land, oak woodlands, grassy meadows and coastal sage covered hillsides and slopes.

These are some pictures taken during our walk:

Some pictures taken during our walk in Lake Forest today:

Pictures taken of the clouds a couple of days ago, as well as sunset:

If you are interested in purchasing my pictures on canvas or as note cards, let me know.

Secret Stairs #4-Glassell Park South-Taylor Yard

This walk starts at Rio de Los Angeles State Park; which is also known as Taylor Yard.  Taylor Yard is uniquely connected to the early history of Los Angeles and was home for centuries to the Tongva Indians.  This site, by many accounts, is where Los Angeles was dubbed "Los Angeles."  It is the site described in the first recorded written words about Los Angeles, where  the Portola expedition spent the night on August 2, 1769, after crossing the Arroyo Seco.  Father Crespi, who kept a diary of this expedition, wrote more than a thousand words that day about this "green, lush valley", its "very full flowing, wide river" and the "riot of color" in the hills.  The place defined abundance with native grapevines, wild roses and sage growing in rich soils, grizzly, antelope, quail and steelhead trout for the taking.  The first two days of August marked the annual feast of Our Lady of the Angels of Porciuncula-so they renamed the river and the valley through which it flowed in its honor:  :  El Rio y Valle de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Angeles de la Porciuncula, later shortened to Rio de Los Angeles.

San Fernando Road, which is the street the park is located on, provided the major access route between the Pueblo of Los Angeles and the Mission San Fernando.  The area was part of one of the first and largest original land grants made to the Mexican and Spanish settlers to establish the pueblo of Los Angeles.  It was known as Rancho San Raphael and was a 36,000 land grant that was made to Jose Maria Verdugo on October 20, 1784 by Governor Gages.  In 1871, the US Land Commission confirmed the Rancho of San Rafael to the Verdugo family.  In 1881, the land was subdivided  and sold to Andrew Glassell, Alexis Jeffries, Harriet Atwater Paramour and others.  Early development consisted of agriculture, a few homes along Figueroa Street and summer cottages in the hills overlong the Arroyo Seco.  Mount Washington began attracting artists in the 1890's.

In the late 1890's, the site was owned by J. Hartley Taylor, who was an entrepreneur who owned the Taylor Grocery and the Taylor Milling Company; which was a commercial feed manufacturer on San Fernando Road.  Taylor raised oats, barley, hogs and pigeons on the riverfront land.  Most of the homes in the Taylor Yard area were not constructed until the housing boom of the 1920's and the banks of the Los Angeles River were encased in concrete in the late 1930's.

The Taylor property became a rail yard in the 1920's, when Southern Pacific Railroad outgrew its Midway Yard facility.  Major development on the Taylor Yard site occurred in the early 1930's with construction of the south turntable, machine shops and other related buildings.  The primary purpose of the Taylor yard was a freight-switching facility, where freight cars were combined and re-routed to different destinations.  In 1960's, things started to change, as Southern Pacific  re-routed its north-south trains through the Cajon Pass instead of through downtown Los Angeles.  In 1985, Taylor Yard closed its long standing purpose as a freight switching facility, which also caused a loss of several hundred jobs to residents of the local communities.

Over time, the Southern Pacific Railroad sold 3/4 of the site.  They relocated the rail line away from San Fernando Road and towards the LA River.  The Southern Pacific Railroad worked with the Dept. of Toxic Substance Control and undertook an extensive analysis of the contaminated soils and developed an action plan for remediation.  Clean up was completed on the initial sale parcels in 1997.   A Metrolink Maintenance Facility was the first new use developed on 29 acres at the southernmost end of Taylor Yard without public review.  The community voiced their outrage and a lawsuit was filed , which resulted in the Los Angeles County Transportation Authority agreeing to fund several mitigations to the project; which consists of a large mural on the side of the building, plantings along San Fernando Road and a public art project located along an access road.  An agreement was also reached for the agency to fund a pedestrian bridge over the river.

The communities surrounding Taylor Yard began to demand a master planning process for Taylor Yard that would balance open space and jobs, community services and retail.  Federal Express built a building in the middle of the street side of the site in 1997, which severely compromised the opportunity to master plan the site in the community's best interest.

In 1999, the City of Los Angeles adopted the Northeast CommunityPlan, in order to prevent continued piecemeal development at the site.  A master plan should be prepared for the Taylor Yard area to include protection for public open space/recreational activity near the Los Angeles River.  

Finally after many lawsuits, the first phase of Rio de Los Angeles State Park was developed with funding from State park bonds and opened on Earth Day, 2007.  In 2010, Sonia Sotomayor Learning Academies opened, which consisted of 2 Independent Charter schools and3 LAUSD Pilot Schools, including the LA River School.    Proponents of Rio de Los Angeles State Park would like to eventually extend the park to the river.  There is still much debate on how the rest of the land will be used.

Now, onto the walk.  After leaving the Park, you walk across the street and up Macon Street, which is a narrow alley like street.  There is this wall art on the corner.

The walk continues uphill until you reach the Tillie Street stairs, which is one of the few true walk streets and the houses can only be accessed by the stairways, which consists of 135 steps.  The stairs were courtesy of the builders MacDonald and Kahn and inspector W.E. Moyle from 1928

At the top of the staircase, we turned right and headed downhill, to the next staircase, which goes up 133 stairs and provides great views.

When we got to the top of the stairs, we were told to walk straight ahead and turn left.  This street took us on the back side of Mt. Washington,  after which we crest the hill and then come down and turn right.  At the corner house, this is the scarecrow we saw.

The paved road becomes a dirt road and we were in Elyria Canyon, which is a parkland controlled by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

We walk for awhile up and down on this dirt path, until we see a red barn like house.

I love the way the author describes this area, "Beyond it you'll find a shady glen outfitted with benches, a drinking fountain and trailheads leading up and around the edges of the canyon."

When you have fed and watered the horses, go back past the red house and bear right onto the dirt road."

We head back onto a paved road and head downhill.

The houses in this area vary in age and size.  This is the front of one of the houses.

At the bottom of the hill turn left and go up a bit and then turn left and another climb and turn right and another climb and view the freestone stairway.

There is also an interesting colored house to view.

Turn left and head back to Tillie Street.  This time we got to go downhill.

  When we got to the bottom of the stairs we walked straight ahead and found more wall art.  

After this we head back to the park and the car.  It was an interesting walk, even with all of the hills and stairs.   This is a picture of a sign for a business that is no longer there, which appears to be typical for the area.  

Until the next walk!  "Secret Stairs"  is a book by Charles Fleming.  It is a walking guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles. 

A trip to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art during the last two years.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is located on Wilshire Blvd. in the Miracle Mile area.  The museum is next to the Page Museum and the La Brea Tar Pits.  LACMA is the largest art museum in the Western United States and was established as a museum in 1961.  Prior to 1961, the museum was part of the Los Angeles Museum of Science, History and Art that was founded in 1910 in Expostion Park near USC.  Howard F. Ahmanson, Sr. made the first donation of $2M and convinced the museum board that enough funds could be raised to establish the new museum.  In 1965, the museum moved to a new location on Wilshire Blvd., as an independent, art-focused institution.  It was the largest new museum to be built in the United States after the National Gallery of Art.  The museum was built in a style similar to the Lincoln Center and the Los Angeles Music Center.  There were three buildings-the Ahmanson building, the Bing Center and the Lytton Gallery, which was renamed the Frances and Armand Hammer Building in 1968.  The board selected a Los Angeles architect whose name was William Pereira.

During the 1980's, money poured into LACMA to the tune of $209 million in private donations.  The collection of modern and contemporary art was growing and to provide more space for exhibitions, the museum hired the architectural firm of Hardy, Holzman, Pfeiffer Associates to design its $35.3 million, 115,000 square foot Robert O. Anderson Building for 20th century art, which opened in 1986 and was renamed the Art of the Americas building in 2007.  The Pavilion for Japanese Art was designed by Bruce Goff and opened in 1988, as did the B. Gerald Cantor Sculpture Garden of Rodin bronzes.    In 1994,  LACMA purchased the adjacent May Department Stores building, which is a good example of streamline moderne architecture designed by Albert C. Martin Sr.  This building increased the museums's size by30% when the building opened in 1998.  There are more changes planned for LACMA planned for the future.

Pictures taken in 2011

Pictures taken in 2012 from a Stanley Kubrick exhibit we went to see.

Boxing day and a trip to the Great Park

Did you know that today is Boxing Day?  What is Boxing Day?

Boxing Day is traditionally the day following Christmas Day, when servants would receive gifts, known as a "Christmas box" from their bosses.  Today, Boxing is the bank holiday that generally takes place on December 26.  It is observed in the United Kingdom, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Kenya, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago and other Commonwealth nations.

In South Africa, Boxing Day was renamed Day of Goodwill in 1994.  In Ireland and Italy, the day ks known as St. Stephen's Day or the Day of the Wren.  In many European countries, December 26 is celebrated as the Second Day of Christmas.

There are several competing theories as to the origin of Boxing Day, none of which are definitive.  The European tradition, which has long included giving money and other gifts to those who were needy and in service positions, dates back to the Middle Ages, but the exact origin is unknown.  It is believed to be in reference to the Alms Box placed in places of worship to collect donations to the poor.  Also it may come from a custom in the late Roman/early Christian era, where metal blokes placed outside churches were used to collect special offerings tied to the Feast of Saint Stephen, which in the western church, falls on the same day.

In Britain, it was a custom for tradesmen to collect "Christmas boxes" of money or presents on the first weekday after Christmas, as thanks for good service throughout the year.  This custom is linked to an older English tradition, since they would have to wait on their masters on Christmas Day, the servants of the wealthy were allowed the next day off to visit with their families.  The employers would give each servant a box to take home containing gifts and bonuses and maybe sometimes leftover food.

THE GREAT PARK IN IRVINE, CA

The Great Park  in Irvine, CA, is the official name of a plan for the public, non-aviation reuse of the decommissioned Marine Corps air Station El Toro.  The county park will comprise 1347 acres of the 4682 acres total that made up the old MCAS El Toro.  It is a $1.1 billion project that was approved by the voters of Orange County in 2002. The park opened its first attraction, which was a balloon ride that takes visitors up 500 feet for a panoramic view on July 14, 2007.  A second attraction, the Kids Rock playground, opened on July 10, 2010.

Initial proposals after the retirement of the Marine Corps air Station included an international airport, possible housing and the great park.  In 2001, Orange County voters passed "Measure W" authorizing the former air station's use as a Central Park/Nature Preserve and multi-use development.  The measure was passed, which led to the designation of the land as the OC Great Park.  In 203, the city of Irvine annexed the air station property and was thus able to determine the Great Park's future by zoning.

Following the annexation of the property, the Department of the Navy held an online auction for the El Toro property and Lennar Corporation for $649,500,000 and entered into a development agreement  with the City of Irvine.  Under the terms of the development agreement, Lennar would build the Great Parks Neighborhoods in return for land and capital that will allow the contraction of the Great Park.

The agreement required Lennar to deed 1347 acres to public ownership and contribute $200 million toward the development of the Great Park.  Future owners will con contribute an additional $200 million toward the park's development.

The Great Park Plan focuses on the 1347 acres public of the property and includes a 2.5 mile canyon, a 26-acre lake, botanical gardens, a cultural terrace, lawns, performing arts venues, a sports park, and a wildlife corridor connecting the Cleveland National Forest to the Laguna coast Wilderness.

When completed, the park will be the largest municipal  park in Orange County and will be larger than New York's Central Park, San Francisco's Golden Gate Park and San Diego's Balboa Park.  The design was modified to include a large section of the runway and conform more to the layout of the original base and a reminder of the the history of the base.  There are plans to restore Agua Chinon Creek, which was channeled underground, when the base was built in the 1940's.  Southern California Edison has committed to contributing 50,000 trees to the park.