CicLAvia 120415

Today was CicLAvia, a closed-streets ride through parts of downtown Los Angeles. I actually drove to the Metro Green Line station in Norwalk, rather than riding, and I'm glad I did. The hills weren't that high, but they were long! I transferred to the Blue Line for the ride to the Washington Blvd station, and rode the three blocks or so to the Central Av hub.

 My first stop was the African American Firefighters Museum, one of two all-Black fire stations in LA. It's beautifully restored and obviously lovingly maintained.

 An old fire wagon.

 One of the two poles from the living quarters to the truck bay.

 Another shot of the fire wagon.

 The front.

A bad shot of Steamship Coca-Cola, a Streamline Moderne bottling plant that's been there since the first time Streamline Moderne was popular.

 Old sign.

 One of the oldest buildings downtown.

 This building was once home to the Pacific Electric.

 City Hall.

 The LA River, looking seaward from the 4th St bridge.

 I rode right past it the first time, and finally found someone who knew where to look. The little red thing on the street sign is the Rising Sun flag (I've actually seen a rosy-fingered dawn like that which the Japanese flag was based on!).

The Challenger Memorial in Little Tokyo, with the Black Pearl in front and City Hall behind.

 It's hard to see in this shot, but this is just one of the many old buildings in LA with interesting facades.

 MacArthur Park.

 Another interesting building in LA.

 A Korean Presbyterian synagogue. No, really! The Jewish congregation which built this outgrew it, built another sanctuary, and sold this one to a Korean Presbyterian congregation. I didn't get any good shots of the facade, but there are quite a few distinctly Jewish elements still there. One example is the 10 Commandments tablet, the light-colored element above the blue Korean sign.

End of the ride. This is the Black Pearl at Steamship Coca-Cola. This is the opposite end of the building from where I started my ride.