LASA Learns Law Enforcement On Saturday, November 14th, LASA pursued our annual exploration of law enforcement in the City of Angels.  Our morning began with Police Commissioner Robert Saltzman.  Rob, the senior member of the 5-person civilian oversight body, gave us a fascinating view of the work that the Police Commission does, and he helped us all understand how complex …

October 17th For our exploration of business in Los Angeles, LASA was very fortunate to be joined by two speakers, Rick Wartzman and Ivar Chan.  The former business editor of the Los Angeles Times and the head of the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate School, Rick guided LASA students through a big-picture overview of the extensive Los Angeles economy.  With …

LASA, September 19th Our day started with baseball.  We jumped aboard our bus for Dodger Stadium first thing.  Our tour guide was wonderful – lots of nooks and crannies inside the huge spaces of Dodger Stadium, and lots of tidbits of Dodger and L.A. history.  We loved being on the field (and watching it be prepared for a game later …

We just finished a great week of our new LASA year.  On Monday, August 3rd, we welcomed our new class to The Huntington Library, where we got to know one another a bit and talked of the year ahead.  Our annual “make a map of Los Angeles” exercise was fun for all (with the usual creative cartography at work!).  Don’t …

For our final day of the year, LASA traveled to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), one of the world’s great art museums.  The artist Chris Burden, whose work so epitomizes both LA and LACMA, had only recently passed away, and the obituaries and testimonials about his life, work, and influence surrounded our day.  We saw a vernacular …

LASA Learns Baseball On April 25th, we met downtown at the Los Angeles Public Library to start our day.  Maddie Resch, one of our interns from Occidental College, started us off with a superb overview of Chavez Ravine in Los Angeles history.  Neighborhood, controversial site of public housing plans, eventual home to the Los Angeles Dodgers (and, briefly, the Angels) …

On March 21, we met downtown at the Los Angeles Public Library.  We started things off with a wonderful presentation about Food Forward (foodward.org) given by our very own Occidental intern Lillian Krovoza.  It was a terrific introduction to a grassroots organization which harvests fruit and vegetables from across greater Los Angeles and gets them out to the neediest in …

The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank Two cans of vegetables. One can of fruit. A jar of peanut butter. A bag of rice. Cereal, milk, and juice. A foil pack of beef and one of chicken. All placed in two bags, then the bags go into red or blue bins. The bins get stacked six deep, five high, on pallets. …

LASA Learns Transit! On the 10th of January, we started the New Year learning about transit.  How do people get around the vastness of the LA metropolis?  How do decisions about transit, transit systems, and the future get made? How are the huge infrastructural projects, like light rail and the colored lines of Metro’s trains, paid for? As usual, we …

On Saturday, November 15, LASA participants spent a fascinating day talking about law enforcement.   We were incredibly fortunate to begin the day at the Los Angeles Public Library with Robert Saltzman, one of five members of the Los Angeles Police Commission.  Commissioner Saltzman provided LASA participants with a general overview of the LAPD, emphasizing the many changes that have taken …