Biography
As a native of East Hollywood, Hector Tobar grew up reading the Los Angeles Times. He devoured the sports pages, especially, but never ...
Behind student success, an LAUSD librarian
May 20, 2011
Rosemarie Bernier, the librarian at Hamilton High School, sees hundreds of students every day. She knows them by their study habits, the questions they ask and the books they read.
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The disgraceful interrogation of L.A. school librarians
May 13, 2011
In a basement downtown, the librarians are being interrogated.
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Refined words near the crude oil towers
May 9, 2011
You can call it the renaissance by the refineries.
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Leimert Park deserves a light-rail station
May 6, 2011
When I was a kid, I had a map with a dotted line for the Beverly Hills Freeway. It was going to run just south of my East Hollywood neighborhood, plowing through the Fairfax district on its way to the sea, bulldozing a mansion or two along the way.
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Rebels with a cause: education
April 29, 2011
I met with seven unlikely California rebels this week on the campus of Cal State Fullerton.
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Honoring the San Fernando Valley's past — yes, it has one
April 24, 2011
Drive slowly and look closely as you pass through one hilly and rocky corner of the San Fernando Valley, and you'll see reminders of a long-forgotten rural past.
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Mexican American museum a valuable new L.A. asset
April 22, 2011
The oldest gathering place in the city now has the city's newest cultural attraction.
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After Bell scandal, new City Council gives residents hope
April 15, 2011
The Bell City Council was reborn this week after a nine-month scandal that landed all but one of the previous members in jail.
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The Chavira family's train ride west to a new life in L.A.
April 8, 2011
The Chavira family arrived in Los Angeles in style, riding all the way from El Paso in the passenger cars of the Southern Pacific Railroad.
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Supervisor Molina's apology over unearthed remains comes too late
April 1, 2011
Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina dreamed for years of putting a cultural center and museum on the historic old plaza near Olvera Street downtown. If only she and the rest of the project's planners had taken as long to research the site.
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Street art: Some second thoughts
March 25, 2011
I went to Valley Village last week as an act of penance.
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Barbasol and a brew are ingredients for downtown's revival
December 14, 2009
Matt Berman believes that barbershops can change the world.
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Hope endures in a recession-battered area of L.A. County
September 15, 2009
In South Los Angeles' flat plain of humble homes, apartments and palms, there is a community officially (but rarely) called Westmont that has no "mont," not even a hill. It got its name, it seems, from being west of Vermont Avenue.
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Readers share thoughts on immigration
March 16, 2009
When I was a boy growing up in Los Angeles circa 1970, I did something that brought dishonor to my people.
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Villaraigosa cruises to his coronation
March 3, 2009
Jim Hubbard was one of the legions of people who followed the 2008 presidential campaign obsessively. Primaries, polls: He took it all in, from Iowa to election day.
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Winter unveils Southern California's wonders
February 24, 2009
In Southern California, winter is our season of renewal.
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Friendship Park's intended purpose is lost in fog of border war
January 6, 2009
There are just two weeks left in his presidency, but down in San Diego County the heavy machinery is grinding away at one last grand project from the administration of George W. Bush.
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Ties to power win Nuñez's son special treatment
December 23, 2008
I have no idea if Esteban Nuñez is a "gang member," a term that's used and misused so often that I prefer to give it a home inside quotation marks.
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East L.A.: The tragic underside of the census
December 16, 2008
A lot of us Angelenos take East Los Angeles for granted.
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Zoo without elephants would be a loss for the children of L.A.
December 9, 2008
Stand behind the curtain of bamboo just outside the paddock of the last, lone elephant at the Los Angeles Zoo and you'll hear the daylong drumbeat of running feet.