Esotouric's California Culture tours roll in February

[Kim Cooper]

Discover secret histories of urban Los Angeles with Esotouric's California Culture tour series

WHAT: Esotouric's twice-annual California Culture bus tour series 

WHERE/WHEN: "Boyle Heights & the San Gabriel Valley: The Hidden Histories of L.A.'s Melting Pot" tour Saturday, February 7, 12-4pm. "Route 66 Road Trip: Roadside Architecture, Citrus, Drive-Ins & Cemeteries" tour Saturday, February 14, 11:30am-3:30pm. "The Lowdown on Downtown" tour Saturday, February 21, 12pm-4pm. All three tours leave from The Daily Dose, 1820 Industrial St., Los Angeles, CA 90021. 

COST: $58/person for individual bus tours.

LINKS: California Culture tour series http://esotouric.com/californiaculture  

TOURS REPEAT: California Culture tours happen every February and August.

PODCAST: Esotouric's weekly L.A. history podcast You Can't Eat the Sunshine is at http://esotouric.com/canteatsunshine

LOS ANGELES- Los Angeles defies easy understanding or description. Love it or hate it, everyone has a strong opinion about the place. But what is Los Angeles, really? Even natives are sometimes baffled.

Join the Los Angeles natives of Esotouric, the offbeat bus adventure company whose tours reveal the secret heart of the southland, as they host a series of informative, educational and provocative excursions going deep into the region's most fascinating crannies. Take one CALIFORNIA CULTURE tour, or the whole series, for a richer understanding of the layers that make up this fascinating place.

Upcoming CALIFORNIA CULTURE tours head for the foothills for ROUTE 66 ROAD TRIP: ROADSIDE ARCHITECTURE, CITRUS, DRIVE-INS & CEMETERIES, roll due east to explore the cultural narratives of BOYLE HEIGHTS & THE SAN GABRIEL VALLEY: THE HIDDEN HISTORIES OF L.A.'S MELTING POT and into the heart of the urban core for THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN. Each upcoming tour is described below. 

ABOUT THE BOYLE HEIGHTS & SAN GABRIEL VALLEY TOUR (February 7)

On the east side the Los Angeles River, some of the most fascinating Southern California stories are waiting to be told. Come take a century’s social history tour through the transformation of neighborhoods, punctuated with immersive stops to sample the sites, smells and cultures that make our changing city so beguiling. Voter registration, citizenship classes, walkouts, blow-outs, anti-Semitism, adult education, racial covenants, boycotts, The City Beautiful, Exclusion Acts and Immigration Acts, property values, xenophobia, and delicious dumplings—all are themes which will be addressed on this lively bus and walking tour. Tour stops include The Vladeck Center, Hollenbeck Park, Evergreen Cemetery, The Venice Room, El Encanto & Cascades Park, Divine’s Furniture, the endangered Wyvernwood Garden Apartments and Wing Hop Fung for a complementary tea tasting. 

THE BOYLE HEIGHTS SECTION: In the 1890s, Rev. Dana Bartlett ministered to and taught the Russian Molokons in the cramped riverside neighborhood known then and now as "The Flats." Today, the area contains public housing projects--a belated mid-century solution to the social problems that worried Bartlett, and an ongoing challenge for residents and city planners. In the 1960s, the Chicano Moratorium emerged from the same streets where in the 1920s and 1930s Jewish activists helped change the face of labor in California and the nation. Using the organizing tools first honed by their Jewish neighbors, young Chicanos stood up and rejected the military machine that sent so many of their peers to die in Vietnam, and developed an empowered social identity that lead all the way to the Mayor’s office. 

THE SAN GABRIEL VALLEY SECTION: In the mid-1920s, Monterey Park was poised on the brink of becoming the Beverly Hills of the east. The Wall Street crash put an end to opulent residential development, but left some beautiful remnants of what might have been. In the 1950s, a thriving Italian-American community settled in the hills, and established some of the area’s most beloved landmark businesses. Since the 1980s, the communities of Alhambra, San Gabriel and Monterey Park have transformed themselves from sleepy suburban bedroom communities (bursting at the seams from a 1950s housing explosion) to the nexus of a pan-Asian megalopolis. Fueled by immigration and investment from Taiwan, Hong Kong and South-East Asia, these communities have found their 21st Century identity, and their economic base—but at the expense of aging long-time residents, who have seen familiar neighborhoods and retail zones become unrecognizable. 

ABOUT THE ROUTE 66 ROAD TRIP (February 14)

A special Valentine's Day edition of this popular tour that's back from hiatus. Join Esotouric on an afternoon's exploration of California's Mother Road and the building of its dream in the foothills of the San Gabriel Valley. From the real estate boosterism of the 1880s to the citrus industry, health farms, TB hospitals and daffy roadside architecture, from its earliest days Southern California branded itself as something new under the sun.

Highlights of the Route 66 tour include:

E. Wald Ward Farm, purveyors of fine preservatives and other delicacies. We will visit the barn store of this venerable Sierra Madre citrus family which has been in business of producing and selling the highest quality preserves from their orchards since 1918. Come tour the canning facility and mini museum, and hear all about the history of this uniquely California family from 4th generation proprietor Jeff Ward.

Aztec Hotel. Designed in the Mayan style by architect Robert Stacy Judd, this 1924 National Register landmark is being restored by its new owners and is again becoming the place again to get your kicks. Judd's buildings in Southern California were an important influence on Frank Lloyd Wright's Mayan houses, and are among the most lyrical and inventive architectural spaces in the region.

The McNeil & Vosberg Residences (The Feuding Slauson Sisters of Azusa). A hidden gem of Azusa lore, and family dynamics. These historic residences, set in a growing new suburb, also serve as a reminder of the fragility of ecologies to the incessant crush of progress.

Fairmount Cemetery, a remote and fascinating Civil War-era hillside burial ground.

ABOUT THE LOWDOWN ON DOWNTOWN TOUR (February 21)

This is NOT a tour about beautiful buildings -- although beautiful buildings will be all around you. This is NOT a tour about brilliant architects -- although we will gaze upon their works and marvel. The Lowdown on Downtown IS a tour about urban redevelopment, public policy, protest, power and the police. It is a revealing history of how the New Downtown became an "overnight sensation" after decades of quiet work behind the scenes by public agencies and private developers. This tour is about what really happened in the heart of Los Angeles, a complicated story that will fascinate and infuriate, break your heart and thrill your spirit. So join Richard Schave, the founding director of the Downtown LA Art Walk non-profit, on a tour that reveals the secret history, and the fascinating future, of this most beguiling LA neighborhood. "The Lowdown on Downtown" is a guided social history of the mysterious, complex and rapidly evolving center of L.A., a thriving neighborhood that was intentionally depopulated in the 1950s and is currently experiencing an extraordinary rebirth. Everyone complains L.A. lacks a center -- this tour explains why. Passengers will visit exquisite architectural gems, including some seldom seen by the general public, but they'll also enjoy a sophisticated analysis of the economic and social tools used to rebuild downtown, learn how gentrification sprung up on the city's meanest streets with all the conflicts that go along with a community's socio-economic shift, meet creative residents and explore unique destinations.  Featured locations include the intentionally depopulated Bunker Hill and its Angels Flight funicular railway, Grand Central Market, the concrete design disaster Pershing Square (with its tribute to novelist John Fante), the recently-depopulated European-style dining alley St. Vincent's Court and the lyrical glass-topped Mercantile Arcade Building (an exact replica of a London landmark), and important spaces in the Arts District.

LOS ANGELES HISTORY – OFF THE BUS

And if you're looking for offbeat L.A. history but can't wait to ride the Esotouric tour bus, there's plenty of good stuff online. Esotouric's weekly podcast "You Can't Eat The Sunshine" launched in January 2013 and can be found at http://esotouric.com/canteatsunshine and also on iTunes, Spreaker, YouTube, Blubrry, PlayerFM and Stitcher. The Esotouric folks also created the 1947project "time travel blog" series of alternate history websites, including In SRO Land ("lost lore of the historic core" at www.insroland.org), On Bunker Hill (www.onbunkerhill.org) and the original 1947project ("a crime a day" from 1947, 1927 and 1907 at www.1947project.com and 1947project.blogspot.com). 

Upcoming Esotouric bus tour and special event schedule (free events starred)

Saturday, February 7 - Boyle Heights & The San Gabriel Valley: The Hidden Histories of L.A.'s Melting Pot 

Saturday February 14 - Route 66 Road Trip: Roadside Architecture, Citrus, Drive-Ins & Cemeteries 

Saturday, February 21 - The Lowdown on Downtown 

*Sunday, February 22 - LAVA Sunday Salon with Dr. Paul Koudounaris on Demonic Cats  (info at lavatransforms.org)

Saturday, February 28 - Wild Wild Westside crime bus tour

Saturday, March 7 - Weird West Adams crime bus tour

Saturday, March 21 - Pasadena Confidential crime bus tour

Saturday, March 28 - New: Hollywood! crime bus tour

*Sunday, March 29 - LAVA Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)

Saturday, April 11 - Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice crime bus tour

Saturday, April 18 - The Real Black Dahlia crime bus tour  

Saturday, April 25 - Echo Park Book of the Dead crime bus tour  

*Sunday, April 26 - LAVA Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)

Saturday, May 2 - Haunts of A Dirty Old Man: Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles  

Saturday, May 9 - Raymond Chandler's Los Angeles  

Saturday, May 16 - Special event: Crawling Down Cahuenga: Tom Waits' L.A. 

Saturday, May 30 - Eastside Babylon crime bus tour

*Sunday, May 31 - LAVA Sunday Salon (info at lavatransforms.org)

Esotouric's Richard Schave and Kim Cooper are proud members of LAVA - The Los Angeles Visionaries Association. http://www.lavatransforms.org