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The Sears department store in Boyle Heights is gone. The Eastside landmark, with its familiar tower visible for miles around, closed its doors for good last month, after being open for nearly 100 years.
The front door of the now-closed Boyle Heights Sears store.
(Leslie Berestein Rojas LAist)
At one time, the massive, 2-million-square-foot retail complex at Olympic Boulevard and Soto Street was one of several large Sears distribution centers located around the country. It first opened its doors in 1927.
For the generations of Angelenos whose families shopped there climbing that long flight of stairs at the entrance, inhaling the smell of popcorn, gazing up at the tower’s green neon glow the Boyle Heights Sears is more than a piece of history. It s inextricably tied to the experience of growing up on the Eastside. And the memories go back many decades.
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Last Tuesday, L.A. County s COVID-19 case rate went down to 1.9 per 100,000. If that number holds,
we ll be in the yellow reopening tier starting next week. For dining and drinking establishments, the TLDR is that they can increase the number of customers they can serve.
Bars that don t serve food should get the biggest boost. They ll finally be able to reopen for indoor service, something they can t do in the orange tier.
Boyle Heights queer bar Noa Noa Place recently started hosting Sunday drag brunches (reservation only) with queen
Melissa Befierce. When the bar opened in December 2020, patrons could only take pictures of Befierce while they waited for their orders of chorizo pizza and carne asada Tater THOTs.
The 13 Mile Park to Playa Trail Is Complete
The last section of a 13-mile hiking and biking trail that s been 20 years in the making has finally opened in Los Angeles.
The Park to Playa trail connects a network of parks and trails from the Crenshaw District to the ocean at Playa del Rey.
The trail has several sections, each with its own charms and attractions, starting with the urban trail running along the Stocker Corridor, sloping up to the spectacular viewpoints of the Baldwin Hills Overlook, and following the landscaped bike path that runs alongside Ballona Creek to the Pacific.
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Hi, friend. I’m Brian De Los Santos, the new editor of LAist, but L.A. has always been home.
I’ve spent hot summers in the 818, lived in K-Town where a waft of delicious food is constant and grew up in Mid City in the 1990s, at a time when racial tensions were high. When people ask me why I love L.A., my answer is simple: It’s not the beautiful mountains or Hollywood, it’s the communities and their stories that make living here a rich experience.
But we know it isn’t easy living in this metropolis. There’s racial injustice, high rents, food deserts, thousands experiencing homelessness and many more issues. LAist aims to guide residents native Angelenos and newcomers through your everyday-questions so you can live an informed, more connected life.
At a nursing home in Glendale, a certified nursing assistant was charged with raping a mentally ill patient in her room. After the incident, according to investigators, the victim said she felt scared, sad, wanted to kill herself.
At a facility in Simi Valley, the daughter of one elderly resident told LAist that staff didn t adequately care for her mother, who developed a gruesome bedsore. I could stick my pinky in it, she said. It was down to the bone.
At a nursing home in Compton, a schizophrenic patient with one leg was inappropriately discharged. He went missing, only to turn up two weeks later in a park, unconscious, under his wheelchair. Regulators charged that the facility s lapses presented imminent danger or a substantial probability that if the man hadn t been found, he would have suffered grave harm, even death.