The City Expands

Many of the losers w/ whom this reporter used to boogie down in the Hollywood & Silver Lake areas moved their quitter asses to Highland Park & environs, at which time they were, of course, dead to us.

So if you gave a shit you could click, look & listen.Stuff we did not know:

Faced with difficulty accessing water and an increased need for police presence in a rowdy red light district, Highland Park was annexed to the city of Los Angeles in 1895, creating one of the first suburbs. Situated along the Arroyo Seco below the San Gabriel Mountains, the area provided a respite from downtown city life that combined easy access to natural amenities, open space, and the center of the city.

Situated between what were then the county's two largest population centers - Los Angeles and Pasadena - Highland Park provided commuters with convenient transportation options. With the establishment of colleges and art communities, soon the rustic community along the Arroyo became a hub for intellectual life.

Although older bedroom communities had been established in the region prior to Highland Park - Lincoln Heights, Boyle Heights, and Angelino Heights to name a few - its annexation created what was the first true expansion of the city, Los Angeles absorbing the unincorporated town to expand from its original 28 square miles.

The urban grittiness that some see in Highland Park may not conjure up images of a "suburb," the word usually evoking the sprawling rows of identical homes found farther from the city's center than the few miles that separate it and Highland Park. A closer look, however, reveals that many of the original structures from Highland Park's small-town past still stand.

A photo we snapped in H.P. recently:

All of our close personal acquaintances are, of course, much too old to be confused w/ hipsters, 'though they dress about as well.