Eric Brightwell

🇳🇿Happy Waitangi Day! Today's "No Enclave" celebrates New Zealand's national day. Los Angeles is home to the largest community of Kiwis in the US. 🇳🇿

ericbrightwell.com/2026/02/06/n...

Have you dated in Southern California without a car? Have you looked for love on the bus? Have you found love on a bike? Have another story about navigating the dating scene without an auto? We’re desperately seeking car-free dating and relationship stories from you, our listeners

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This is shameful. I voted for my City Council, County Supervisor, State Assembly, and State Senators in part, because I hoped they’d support SB79… and they did. If only Metro riders could vote for Metro’s board.

MaryAnne LoVerme is a teacher and native New Yorker who moved to Los Angeles where she lived, car-free, for 12 years. In LA, she hit the ground running; immersing herself in transit activism, and opening the LA County Store. In 2025, she packed it all up and relocated to a suburb of Paris (France).

Ask Silver Lake – SB 79 and Silver Lake’s Historic Transit-Oriented Mid-Rises This piece was originally written for “Ask Silver Lake.” “Ask Silver Lake” is dedicated to exploring the history and insights of our community. If you have questions or ideas you’d like u…

I just wrote a piece for the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council about SB 79's passage and how, in a lot of ways, it's not a disruption of neighborhood character -- but a return to it. ericbrightwell.com/2026/01/09/a...

Cross-post from Julia Beach's podcast, Friend of the Month, in which Beach and @ericbrightwell.bsky.social talk transit -- specifically in the Silver Lake -- where they both live. Talk turns to the past, when the first train line passed through the neighborhood to convey tourists to an ostrich farm

Happy Kenyan Independence Day! Metro Los Angeles is home to one of the largest communities of Kenyan Americans -- the subject of this edition of "No Enclave"

ericbrightwell.com/2025/12/12/n...

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A reader of “Ask Silver Lake,” Ruta Vaisnys, inquired about another historic Silver Lake Library, the Hyperion Station Library. Read the updated post!

ericbrightwell.com/2025/10/21/a...

Waiting for Chuck Schumer to courageously endorse Zohran Mamdani now that he's been elected.

#wewon'trest

Of course!!

Nobody Drives in LA at LA Comic-Con: LA Transit in Pop Culture On 28 September, Nobody Drives in LA’s co-hosts and friends-of-show — Eric Brightwell, Ivy Kwok, Kyle Rebar, and Rogelio Pardo — hosted a panel at LA Comic-Con called LA Transit i…

Nobody Drives in LA's co-hosts and hall-of-famers—Eric Brightwell, Ivy Kwok, Kyle Rebar, and Rogelio Pardo—upzoned LA Comic-Con with our panel LA Transit in Pop Culture.

ericbrightwell.com/2025/10/27/n...

In August 2024, Mayor Bass announced the the Los Angeles Olympics would be a "no-car Games." Three days later, she "walked" that back to "transit-first games." There's not reason, though, that it can't still be the former. There's already transit to every venue.

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Next month's "Ask Silver Lake" will be this post, about Silver Lake's _original_ libraries... one of which still stands and is seeking a tenant... maybe you!

ericbrightwell.com/2025/10/21/a...

I doubt it but don’t really have any idea since we’re operating on group consensus

E Line group ride this Saturday? Train curious? Train veteran? Somewhere in between? Come aboard, we're execting you!

ericbrightwell.com/2025/10/15/n...

Ask Silver Lake — Live Music Venues of Silver Lake, Present and Past This piece was originally written for “Ask Silver Lake.” “Ask Silver Lake” is dedicated to exploring the history and insights of our community. If you have questions or ideas you’d like us to consi…

This month's "Ask Silver Lake" is about Silver Lake's live music venues, my definition of which is pretty broad. What _isn't_broad is a selection of great images of venues or musicians performing in them. If you've got some for me to consider, let me have them.

ericbrightwell.com/2025/10/09/a...

#2537 Validation Listener emails in response to last episode's bike lane hater from Eric Brightwell, host of the Nobody Drives in LA podcast https://ericbrightwell.com/nobody-drives-in-la/ and Ross, a West Hollywood v

@strongtowns.org founder Chuck Marohn with Strong Townish Love Letter to Suburbia author Diane Alisa, @ericbrightwell.bsky.social on the fight for bikes in WeHo, Boston Bikeway Block Party, Bikes, Birds, & BART with @bikingmzstacey.bsky.social, and more. soundcloud.com/biketalk/253...

The Semi-Tropic Spiritualist Association, with historian Eric Brightwell Happy Spooky Season! Join me tomorrow, on 4 October from 13:00-14:00 in a presentation about the Semi-Tropic Spiritualists, their tract, and the Semi-Tropic Park. If you need a brief introduction. …

Happy Spooky Season!

Are you curious about Elysian Heights' Semi-Tropic Spiritualists? Bowery dancing rowdies, ghosts, assaults on cops, newsies and more

He's an hour-long presentation I gave at the Edendale Library on behalf of the Echo Park Historical Society

ericbrightwell.com/2025/10/03/t...

The Semi-Tropic Spiritualist Association, with historian Eric Brightwell Happy Spooky Season! Join me tomorrow, on 4 October from 13:00-14:00 in a presentation about the Semi-Tropic Spiritualists, their tract, and the Semi-Tropic Park. If you need a brief introduction. …

Tomorrow! Get free "tickets" now! But if you can't make it, I'm going to record it with my phone.

ericbrightwell.com/2025/10/03/t...

Nobody Drives in LA — the A Line Extension to Pomona On 19 September 2025, Metro’s A Line Extension to Pomona opened to the public. That day, there was an event called Rock the Rails which offered free music, free rides, and free food at the ne…

I rode the A Line Extension on opening day, with a small group. We checked out the stations and immediate vicinity along the way (although, spoiler alert, we skipped Glendora Station).

ericbrightwell.com/2025/09/25/n...

Where Fools Fear to Tread — Visiting Portmerion Back in June, I visited Wales for the first time. I took the train to Portmerion. For the uninitiated, here’s what Wikipedia has to say: Portmeirion (/pɔːrtˈmɛriən/;[1] Welsh pronunciation: [pɔrtˈm…

In June I want to Wales to visit Portmerion, where they filmed the psychedelic and psychological television series, The Prisoner, in 1967 and '68.

ericbrightwell.com/2025/09/22/w...

No Enclave — Los Angeles Transplants It’s often said that Los Angeles is a city of immigrants. Although the same is almost never said of refugees, it should be. Together, immigrants and refugees account for roughly 35% of Angelenos. A…

52% of Angelenos were born in California. 35% of Angelenos are immigrants. Only 13% of Angelenos are internal migrants from another state (or, as they're more often known, transplants). Despite comprising the smallest group, their impact is outsized. Let's dive in

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Come along!

On this day (4 September) in 1781, 44 transplants and four cops gentrified DTLA.

¡Feliz cumple, El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula!

For this month's "Ask Silver Lake" we consider the 2014 resolution passed by the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council that declared that Silver Lake was NOT part of the Eastside. The question remained, then, of what region Silver Lake IS part of.

ericbrightwell.com/2025/08/20/a...

Episode No. 20 — Kyle’s Multi-Modal Commuting Adventures

Kyle’s been getting around: Koreatown, Atwater, Anaheim. Not just via the beloved E Line, mind you. We’re talking bike, bus, Metrolink, and motor scooter.

Today's "No Enclave" is about Welsh Los Angeles -- one of the most invisible minorities in Los Angeles. You've probably heard of Welsh immigrant Griffith J. Griffith, though. And what about Llewellyn Iron Works? The Lloyd Wrights? Tom Jones? Catherine Zeta-Jones?

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