A guide to the guidebooks that told the world Los Angeles was a paradise (via latimesopinion )
After decades of enthusiastically giving Los Angeles tours to out-of-town friends and family, and even co-authoring a walking guide to the city, I’m all too aware that things have changed. Recent guests have been stunned by the tent encampments, sidewalks piled with debris and shuttered storefronts I see daily. I feel embarrassed and heartbroken for the unhoused, their neighbors, my city.
The 1886 “Southern California Guidebook: A Full and Accurate Description of Climate, Fertility of Soil, Place of Resort, and Objects of Interest, Etc. Etc. Etc.” sends tourists to a 700-acre ostrich farm in Los Feliz and to Pasadena’s Raymond Hotel, where “the careworn capitalist can rest and enjoy the warm sunshine in a quiet and elevated place.
In “The Bear Book, A Guide to California,” published in 1908 by the California Tourist Bureau in Los Angeles, the climate gets its due again and new buildings are praised . “Better come early,” the “Bear Book” smugly advises those interested in relocating, “and avoid disappointment. “ The “Tourists’ Guide Book to Southern California,” published in 1894, warns about Chinatown’s dangers: “Especially at night, it is advisable to go in the company of some friend who understands the heathens’ ways or with a policeman.”
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