Great LA Walk takes Olympic this year

Mural at Guelagetza restaurant in Koreatown

I missed this last weekend. Michael Schneider's Great Los Angeles Walk celebrated its tenth year by taking on 16 miles of Olympic Boulevard west from downtown Los Angeles. The day began for a few hundred walkers at Clifton's Cafeteria with a pep talk from Christopher Hawthorne, the Los Angeles Times architecture critic. (I happened to pay a visit to Clifton's later that morning and talked to the manager: he said they would do about 4,000 meals that day.) From there the walkers headed west past LA Live, through Koreatown and on to lunch at Tom Bergin's on Fairfax Avenue, then it was westward to the ocean and a picture at Muscle Beach for those who could make the entire trek.

Schneider's photo gallery at his blog, Franklin Avenue, includes a photo of the Expo Line construction in Santa Monica and the exhortation that "as of next year, Great LA Walkers will easily take Metro light rail back to downtown!"

This from the invitation to walkers:

Olympic was chosen for a variety reasons: Not only is it one of the few major Los Angeles streets that the Great Los Angeles Walk hasn't yet hiked, but for our 10th anniversary, it makes sense to celebrate on the boulevard once known as 10th Street. Olympic Boulevard was renamed in honor of the 1932 Olympics – and now, as Los Angeles harbors dreams to once again host the Games in 2024, the Walk will also recognize that bid....

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.

Much appreciated.