The Great Los Angeles Walk 2016: Another Successful Journey, This Time Down Pico Boulevard

Another year, another street conquered!

The Great Los Angeles Walk returned to Pico Boulevard for its 11th edition, and hundreds of passionate Angelenos -- fueled by love of city and community and eager to walk across the city -- hiked from downtown's Grand Hope Park to the ocean on Saturday, Nov. 19.

Together, we kicked things off in the morning with quick comments from Carter Rubin, who represented the Mayor's office and its Great Streets LA initiative, as well as author and legendary endurance swimmer Diana Nyad, who gave the crowd a pep talk and shared information about her new organization, EverWalk.

From there, the crowd experienced many different cross sections of Los Angeles on foot, including the Convention Center (currently home to the Auto Show); the city's shortest street (Powers Place); the beautiful old homes of Alvarado Terrace; the amazing St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral; the Central American-dominated Byzantine-Latino Quarter; a slice of Koreatown; the diverse restaurants and shops of Mid-City (tacos, soul food, California cuisine, even a Swedish deli); the closed (for the Sabbath) Jewish shops and restaurants west of Fairfax; the Fox lot; the Rancho Park golf course; a collection of murals in Santa Monica; the cool breeze as we marched toward the ocean; a celebratory drink at Chez Jay's; and much more.

Here are some highlights from the day:


Congregating at Grand Hope Park


With some of the crowd


More of the crowd


Carter Rubin addresses the crowd

.@CarterRubin thanks everyone on behalf of @MayorOfLA for taking time to explore LA's streets and neighborhoods on foot! #glaw pic.twitter.com/3VlKnsg2Xw

— Great Streets (@LAGreatStreets) November 19, 2016

Diana Nyad speaks


Crowded sidewalk


Heading down Hope, on to Pico


On our way


Heading to Pico


Downtown mural


Truly not sure what's happening here


Muhammad Ali mural


Convention Center


El Parian


Powers Place, LA's shortest street


Alvarado Terrace


City of LA time switch


Pico street crew


Christmastime is here


St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral


Entering the cathedral


Inside the cathedral


Details inside the cathedral


Now that is quite a throne

More inside the cathedral


Byzantine-Latino Quarter


Frida


View inside one of the many, many bakeries on Pico


Have a seat!


Street art on Pico


The most disturbing art on Pico: A horrifying pizza murder in progress.


Paletas! I got a delicious cucumber chile bar!

Popsicle stop at Mateo's on Pico @greatlawalk #glaw 5 miles down, 10 to go! pic.twitter.com/LQ895YFtdX

— Jill Smolinski (@JillSmolinski) November 19, 2016

Passing by Pico murals


Boxing on Pico


The chairs of Pico


L.A. treasure Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles!


Members of the Pico Great Streets LA initiative


Surprise music performance on the route by Taliesin Day

#glaw Taliesin Day pic.twitter.com/zHm6Pgkczk

— pfinck (@pfinck) November 19, 2016

Lunch break at 2 Cents (where I enjoyed ox tail tacos!)


Definitely need to return to Olson's Scandinavian Deli -- for their candy selection alone! (Below)




Taking you up on this, Metro!


Uh oh, did someone lose this?


The ghost of Charles Bukowski can be found up and down Pico


Half way point at La Cienega


Ghost business sign


Cat tag


Keeping an eye out


There were a surprising number of vacuum shops up and down Pico. Anyone else notice?


Someone needs to translate this for me


The Church of Type: a letterpress enthusiast's dream


Cookies and goodies at Caprice Bakery


"Love" by Allison Kunath: One of many Beautify Earth murals found in Santa Monica.


Pico Piggy


Darth Skater


Mural by Chris Saunders


Santa Monica muralist Clinton Bopp in action


Red rooster


Pico mural


Selfie with some of the Walkers at the beach


Sunset at the ocean

Even the LA Rams tweeted their support yesterday:

Our @LARamsCheer out enjoying the @greatlawalk today! #GLAW #WeLoveLA pic.twitter.com/HmxpPUo58E

— Los Angeles Rams (@RamsNFL) November 19, 2016

@greatlawalk #glaw thanks for an amazing experience...until next year pic.twitter.com/ISsCjRhyBI

— Henz (@MeGustaHank) November 20, 2016

#glaw @greatlawalk pic.twitter.com/J104aSrfTG

— Dallas Testa (@DallasTesta) November 19, 2016

#EverWalkNation representing at the #GreatLAWalk today! 15 Miles, Pico Blvd from #DTLA to the #Beach! #EverWalk with @diananyad #diananyad pic.twitter.com/gSBPr9b1El

— EverWalk (@everwalkusa) November 20, 2016

Send us links to your photos! And we'll add some roundups below.

The Geat Los Angeles Walk 2016 Press Release

THE 11th ANNUAL GREAT LOS ANGELES WALK RETURNS TO HIKE PICO BOULEVARD FROM DOWNTOWN TO THE OCEAN ON NOV. 19

LOS ANGELES (Nov. 10, 2016) -- Hundreds of Angelenos will hit the sidewalks on Saturday, November 19 for The Great Los Angeles Walk 2016 – the annual event that dispels the myth that “nobody walks in L.A.”

This year, for the eleventh edition, the Great Los Angeles Walk (http://www.greatlawalk.com) is returning to once again eat its way down one of the city's iconic boulevards: Pico!

The Great LA Walk last hiked down Pico in 2007 (the Walk's second year). Pico is a favorite for many reasons, including the fact that Pulitzer Prize-winning Los Angeles Times food critic Jonathan Gold once famously ate his way down the street. (Now, Great LA Walkers will have the opportunity to do the same thing – or at least, some of it.)

Participants will meet at downtown Los Angeles' Grand Hope Park (next to FIDM, at the corner of 9th Street and Hope Street) at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 19.

From there, Walkers will pass through downtown, the Convention Center (home to the Auto Show); the Central American-dominated Byzantine-Latino Quarter; the city's shortest street (Powers Place); the beautiful old homes of Alvarado Terrace; a slice of Koreatown; gut-busting food spots like Oki-Dog and Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles; Mid-City; Jewish shops and restaurants west of Fairfax; the Fox lot; the Rancho Park golf course; and Santa Monica.

The Great Los Angeles Walk will conclude with an after party in Santa Monica at a location to be announced later. Walkers will be encouraged to utilize Metro's Expo Line, which offers public transportation at the start and finish of the walk.

L.A. journalist and blogger Michael Schneider launched the Great Los Angeles Walk in 2006 as a way to celebrate his tenth year in Los Angeles. Inspired by the book “Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles,” by Kevin Roderick (with research by J. Eric Lynxwiler), he decided to walk the street’s entire length.

In 2007, for an encore, he chose another downtown-to-the-ocean route: Pico Boulevard. The 2008 Walk took on Santa Monica Blvd. In 2009, the event kicked off in the historic West Adams district and walked to Venice Beach via Adams and Washington. In 2010, for its fifth edition, the Great Los Angeles Walk reprised its original Wilshire journey. In 2011, participants marched to the ocean via Hollywood Boulevard. In 2012, the Walk traveled across Melrose Avenue; in 2013, Sunset Boulevard; in 2014, the Walk traveled across the San Fernando Valley via Ventura Boulevard; and in 2015, the Walk took on Olympic Boulevard.

The Great Los Angeles Walk grew from dozens of participants to hundreds, and continues to expand each year as more Angelenos join in to explore their city on foot. The Los Angeles Times is a media marketing partner.

As always, the Walk is completely free. It is up to the participants to decide how much or how little of the walk they want to do. The Great Los Angeles Walk has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, the L.A. Weekly, KABC-Channel 7, LAist.com and KNBC.com. In 2012, the LA Weekly recognized The Great Los Angeles Walk in its "Best of L.A." issue.

The official hashtag of The Great Los Angeles Walk is #glaw. Social media users can follow along all day on the walk's official Twitter feed, @greatlawalk, as we continually post our location.

An Afternoon with Pharrell, Talking Entertainment, Inclusion and -- Of Course -- Trump

Variety's first-ever Inclusion Summit brought together some heavy industry hitters to talk diversity and more in entertainment. I moderated the final panel of the day, a chat with Pharrell Williams. And although Pharrell is fairly soft spoken, he's got a lot to say. Most of the chat was about "Hidden Figures," the movie he produced about three African-American women who were instrumental in working on the early U.S. space program. (Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae star).

Variety's Dan Holloway wrote up the highlights:

“If all the women in this nation decided to vote and support the first female candidate, there’d be nothing to worry about,” Williams said in a conversation with Indiewire executive editor and Variety editor-at-large Michael Schneider. “It’s that easy.”

Of Clinton, he added, “Has she been dishonest about things? Sure. Have you?” Accusing Clinton’s opponents and Trump of “gender bias,” he said, “She don’t lie no more than any other politician does.”

At the end of a conversation that focused on Williams’ wide-ranging career in film, television, and music — including as a producer of the upcoming feature “Hidden Figures,” Schneider asked Williams how the social and political polarization of the day has impacted him and his work. Williams responded with a long period of quiet.

“That silence in this room right now is often what I feel when you see some of the things that are being said, not just about my culture, but about women,” Williams said. He spoke of the need for women to wrest control of society from men. “I’m praying that women come together and save this nation,” he said. “You think about the destructive things that have come from mankind, it’s mostly men.”

Watch the video in this Variety tweet:

.@Pharrell Williams says he's praying for our nation #ElectionDay (Watch) pic.twitter.com/lswxZSKaIz

— Variety (@Variety) November 2, 2016

Meanwhile, Entertainment Tonight was also there, and filed this report:

When taking the stage with Variety's Editor-at-Large, Michael Schneider, Pharrell admitted he's "praying for the human condition." "I'm praying for women, I'm praying that we make better decisions," said the GRAMMY winner. "We're at a place and time where people say things -- and you'll see woman supporting that," adding "It ain't just men on that trail following that guy." Pharrell is of course referring to Trump and the leaked Access Hollywood video from 2005 where he can be heard making lewd comments about women, as well as the sexual assault allegations against the presidential candidate, which he has denied. "If all the woman in this nation decided to vote and support the first female candidate, there would be nothing to worry about," added the "Happy" singer. "It's that easy."

The Great Los Angeles Walk 2016 Has A Meeting Spot: Grand Hope Park

(Photo by Rex/Shutterstock)

We have a starting point for this year's Great Los Angeles Walk! And just like past walks, we're meeting at a scenic location:

Grand Hope Park!

Don't confuse it with the Civic Center's Grand Park. This is GRAND HOPE PARK, located next to FIDM, at the corner of 9th Street and Hope. We'll meet under the clock tower (as seen in the photo above).

Blogdowntown wrote a great primer about Grand Hope Park in 2008; here's an excerpt:

While grand plans for South Park's titular park may not have developed, the neighborhood does have a great little pocket of green space in the 2.5 acre Grand Hope Park, located on the block bounded by 9th, Olympic, Hope and Grand.

The park, which shares its block with FIDM and Renaissance Towers, has quite the interesting development history. Though owned and built by the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), the space is operated by a non-profit and not the city's Department of Recreation and Parks.

Groundbreaking was first held in 1987, and the park officially opened in 1993. Because it's not operated by the city, there is a strict "no pets allowed" policy. Therefore, if you're bringing your dog on the walk, you can still join us under the clock tower -- but on the other side of the fence.

There's street parking nearby, and it's also a quick 10 minute walk from the Pico station of the Metro Expo Line, in case you're using public transportation. Here's the map:

Get there early, and grab breakfast at a nearby shop (there's also a Ralphs grocery store right across the street.) We'll see you there on Saturday, Nov. 19, at 9 a.m.

More to come! And don't forget to buy a T-shirt if you want one!