California declared a state
California is admitted to the United States as a non-slavery “free” state, becoming the 31st state in the Union. The state is divided into 27 counties (now there are 52), including Los Angeles County.
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Parks and Gentrification
During the 80s, Downey Recreation Center — one of the few public parks in Lincoln Heights — was inaccessible and uninviting. Still, as the only park in the area, neighborhood kids like Lazaro Arvizu found themselves there often. Located in between the Swiss Dairy Company Plant (now home to the newly built Albion Riverside Park),…
Yancey’s (Childhood) Instacart Route
Yancey Quinones grew up in Cypress Park adjacent to the LA River. One of his jobs as a boy was to do the food shopping for senior citizens in the neighborhood. Some might even say he was an early pioneer of Instacart! Yancey learned how to navigate a safe route on his bike and how…
Kruegermann Pickles
Carl and Greg Kruegermann are brothers who grew up in Elysian Valley (not Frogtown!) in a East German immigrant family whose livelihood was to make pickles. Their family’s business employed members of the community to make traditional dill pickles in the German style. At the end of 2022, the brothers face the devastating truth that…
Finding the Right Path
Daniel Paredes recalls a childhood typical to Frogtown in the ‘90s — a tight knit community where everybody knew each other and neighborhood kids would hang out in the streets. “I was forbidden to go to the river when I was a kid. That didn’t stop me from going to the river. I used to…