Sat @ 12pm: “You're invited to join the Silver Lake History Collective as we celebrate 20 years of documenting the people and events that have shaped our community.” Silver Lake Branch Library: www.lapl.org/whats-on/eve... [h/t @ericbrightwell.bsky.social] #SilverLake

I'll probably go around the neighborhood and take some photos to add to this... but I wanted to post it before my live "Ask Silver Lake" so that I could include any additions readers might give. It began as a IG post in 2024, I think, and now it's a 15 minute read ericbrightwell.com/2026/05/10/a...

Long and winding (but transit-focused) chat with Rae Huang, who is running for Los Angeles mayor.

I visited and explored Playa del Rey in my latest California Fool's Gold which somehow is the first in since 2023 (when I did Miracle Mile, Torrance, and Elysian Heights). Where should I go next? Brea has the most votes... followed by Sawtelle - but vote for any ericbrightwell.com/2026/04/23/c...

New @ericbrightwell.bsky.social just dropped! Great line: "The whole region seems like it was named with an exceedingly small set of refrigerator magnets." ericbrightwell.com/2026/04/23/c...

Changing Lanes with Ben Wolf Nobody Drives in LA chat with filmmaker Ben Wolf about his new documentary, Changing Lanes. The film (shot only on equipment carried by bike) captures the intense community battle following efforts to reconfigure a Brooklyn street in the aftermath of a deadly collision.

I visited Taix, which will serve its last meal on on 29 March after having operated in Echo Park in 1962. After it's demolished, it will be replaced with a Geoff Palmer-style mixed-user. Supposedly Taix will then move into the ground floor. I have my doubts. ericbrightwell.com/2026/03/06/a...

Next to the New Beverly. See you there!

Yesterday was Los Angeles County's 176th birthday. Basically an excuse for me to think about what counts as Los Angeles and to ponder what Angelenos want Los Angeles to be. ericbrightwell.com/2026/02/18/h...

I wrote this a couple of days ago, on Lunar New Year (and Mardi Gras). It's basically an essay about Chinatowns and soft power -- and an excuse to compare maps of Chinatowns around the world with American military bases around the world. ericbrightwell.com/2026/02/17/c...

Does anyone else feel like introductions and conclusions are unnecessary and actually detrimental to essays? I've never had an editor who didn't insist on them. They feel to me like asking a filmmaker to incorporate the trailer at the beginning and end of the film.

🇳🇿Happy Waitangi Day! Today's "No Enclave" celebrates New Zealand's national day. Los Angeles is home to the largest community of Kiwis in the US. 🇳🇿 ericbrightwell.com/2026/02/06/n...

Have you dated in Southern California without a car? Have you looked for love on the bus? Have you found love on a bike? Have another story about navigating the dating scene without an auto? We’re desperately seeking car-free dating and relationship stories from you, our listeners Link in comments

MaryAnne LoVerme is a teacher and native New Yorker who moved to Los Angeles where she lived, car-free, for 12 years. In LA, she hit the ground running; immersing herself in transit activism, and opening the LA County Store. In 2025, she packed it all up and relocated to a suburb of Paris (France).

I just wrote a piece for the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council about SB 79's passage and how, in a lot of ways, it's not a disruption of neighborhood character -- but a return to it. ericbrightwell.com/2026/01/09/a...

Cross-post from Julia Beach's podcast, Friend of the Month, in which Beach and @ericbrightwell.bsky.social talk transit -- specifically in the Silver Lake -- where they both live. Talk turns to the past, when the first train line passed through the neighborhood to convey tourists to an ostrich farm

Happy Kenyan Independence Day! Metro Los Angeles is home to one of the largest communities of Kenyan Americans -- the subject of this edition of "No Enclave" ericbrightwell.com/2025/12/12/n...

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A reader of “Ask Silver Lake,” Ruta Vaisnys, inquired about another historic Silver Lake Library, the Hyperion Station Library. Read the updated post! ericbrightwell.com/2025/10/21/a...

Waiting for Chuck Schumer to courageously endorse Zohran Mamdani now that he's been elected. #wewon'trest

Nobody Drives in LA's co-hosts and hall-of-famers—Eric Brightwell, Ivy Kwok, Kyle Rebar, and Rogelio Pardo—upzoned LA Comic-Con with our panel LA Transit in Pop Culture. ericbrightwell.com/2025/10/27/n...

In August 2024, Mayor Bass announced the the Los Angeles Olympics would be a "no-car Games." Three days later, she "walked" that back to "transit-first games." There's not reason, though, that it can't still be the former. There's already transit to every venue. ericbrightwell.com/2025/10/22/n...

Next month's "Ask Silver Lake" will be this post, about Silver Lake's _original_ libraries... one of which still stands and is seeking a tenant... maybe you! ericbrightwell.com/2025/10/21/a...

E Line group ride this Saturday? Train curious? Train veteran? Somewhere in between? Come aboard, we're execting you! ericbrightwell.com/2025/10/15/n...

This month's "Ask Silver Lake" is about Silver Lake's live music venues, my definition of which is pretty broad. What _isn't_broad is a selection of great images of venues or musicians performing in them. If you've got some for me to consider, let me have them. ericbrightwell.com/2025/10/09/a...

@strongtowns.org founder Chuck Marohn with Strong Townish Love Letter to Suburbia author Diane Alisa, @ericbrightwell.bsky.social on the fight for bikes in WeHo, Boston Bikeway Block Party, Bikes, Birds, & BART with @bikingmzstacey.bsky.social, and more. soundcloud.com/biketalk/253...

Happy Spooky Season! Are you curious about Elysian Heights' Semi-Tropic Spiritualists? Bowery dancing rowdies, ghosts, assaults on cops, newsies and more He's an hour-long presentation I gave at the Edendale Library on behalf of the Echo Park Historical Society ericbrightwell.com/2025/10/03/t...

Tomorrow! Get free "tickets" now! But if you can't make it, I'm going to record it with my phone. ericbrightwell.com/2025/10/03/t...

I rode the A Line Extension on opening day, with a small group. We checked out the stations and immediate vicinity along the way (although, spoiler alert, we skipped Glendora Station). ericbrightwell.com/2025/09/25/n...

In June I want to Wales to visit Portmerion, where they filmed the psychedelic and psychological television series, The Prisoner, in 1967 and '68. ericbrightwell.com/2025/09/22/w...

52% of Angelenos were born in California. 35% of Angelenos are immigrants. Only 13% of Angelenos are internal migrants from another state (or, as they're more often known, transplants). Despite comprising the smallest group, their impact is outsized. Let's dive in ericbrightwell.com/2025/09/16/n...

Come along!

On this day (4 September) in 1781, 44 transplants and four cops gentrified DTLA. ¡Feliz cumple, El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula!

For this month's "Ask Silver Lake" we consider the 2014 resolution passed by the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council that declared that Silver Lake was NOT part of the Eastside. The question remained, then, of what region Silver Lake IS part of. ericbrightwell.com/2025/08/20/a...

Episode No. 20 — Kyle’s Multi-Modal Commuting Adventures Kyle’s been getting around: Koreatown, Atwater, Anaheim. Not just via the beloved E Line, mind you. We’re talking bike, bus, Metrolink, and motor scooter.

Today's "No Enclave" is about Welsh Los Angeles -- one of the most invisible minorities in Los Angeles. You've probably heard of Welsh immigrant Griffith J. Griffith, though. And what about Llewellyn Iron Works? The Lloyd Wrights? Tom Jones? Catherine Zeta-Jones? ericbrightwell.com/2025/07/24/n...

This month's "Ask Silver Lake" is about the history of radio in Los Angeles... which is limited, essentially, to Christian radio program "Haven of Rest" and pirate radio station KBLT. ericbrightwell.com/2025/07/16/a...

Episode No. 19 -- Be a Socialist, Share a Bike, Stop Lyft Listen as we get our socialism on with transit advocates Anne Marie & Shelby. Lyft is trying to muscle its way in to Metro's bikeshare program and our guests tell us why that's a terrible idea.

Episode No. 17: Nobody Gondolas in LA With Phyllis Ling and Eric Adams — who talk about why the Aerial Rapid Transit Technology (ARTT) isn’t the mass transit solution it’s being pitched as but, upon examination, an enormously costly gadgetbahn and, frankly, more of a Shelbyville idea.

Alright, against my better judgement, I tackled the requests for an "Ask Silver Lake" about the fence and access to the reservoir. I trust you'll all play nice and politely comment with any corrections before I give it to the SLNC for their newsletter. ericbrightwell.com/2025/06/19/a...

Episode No. 16 — Rogelio Pardo Kyle and Eric sit down with City Council District 13‘s Senior Transportation & Infrastructure Deputy, Rogelio Pardo. The conversation touches upon activism, Al Fresco dining, Access to Hollywood, the Department of Transportation, and much more.

An "Ask Silver Lake" about Silver Lake's only garden apartment complex... the, um, Silver Lake Garden Apartments. There are plans to build residential blocks in their yards which, if nothing else, will make this island in the city a garden apartment no more. ericbrightwell.com/2025/05/21/a...

If California were its own country, it would have the fourth-largest economy in the world!!! but... ...still no universal healthcare ...still no free public universities ...still no high-speed rail

The penultimate Silver Lake Walk is scheduled for May the 4th, 10:00 am, beginning and ending at Glendale / Locksley

I shelved this post after missing Greek Independence Day earlier this month... but then I decided to finish it when I heard about the impending closure of Papa Cristo's. Here it is: No Enclave -- Greek Los Angeles. ericbrightwell.com/2021/04/17/n...

Kyle and Eric sit down in the Koreatown Media with mass transit enthusiast, Ivy Kwok. s a PhD Student in Environmental Engineering and member of the Society of Women Engineers. Their conversation touches upon riding Metrolink to dates, pogo-sticking, and her upcoming trip to Hong Kong and Macau.

The next of the #SilverLakeWalks will take place on 5 April, beginning at 10:00. Schindlers, the smallest community garden, historic gay bars, the birthplace of the oldest Asian American theater company, buried streams, mass transit, the community’s only pedestrian plaza, and more!