Los Angeles & Southern California - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [23]
* * *
LA is one of only four cities to have hosted the summer Olympic Games twice, in 1932 and 1984. The others are Athens, London and Paris.
* * *
SoCal has two National Hockey League (NHL) teams: the LA Kings and the Anaheim Ducks. The latter won the 2007 Stanley Cup.
LA’s Major League Soccer (MLS) team, the Galaxy, got a boost with the 2007 arrival of soccer – er…football – icon David Beckham and his $250 million price tag. The Galaxy had a spirited Latino following BB (Before Beckham) but AB the team’s games are selling out and making the league a household name. A ‘Becks’ jersey is the hottest ticket out there. Despite the arrival of Beckham, LA’s other team, Chivas USA, provides strong competition.
Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in northern San Diego County is the ritziest of SoCal’s horse-racing tracks, alongside Hollywood Park and Santa Anita Racetrack in LA County. The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, a Formula 1 race, takes place every April, and California Speedway in Fontana is a mecca for NASCAR fans. In September San Diego hosts the Thunderboat Regatta, in which superfast speed boats race on Mission Bay.
Surfing first hit the US mainland in 1929, when Hawaiian surf legend Duke Kahanamoku gave a demonstration in Huntington Beach (Orange County). It’s been Surf City ever since, with numerous competitions every year including the US Open of Surfing each July. Other surf competitions take place in Carlsbad and Oceanside (northern San Diego County) and at San Onofre State Beach in southern Orange County.
* * *
See www.avp.com for beach volleyball tournament schedules and locations.
* * *
Extreme sports in SoCal go back to the 1970s when the Santa Monica–Venice border neighborhood was nicknamed ‘Dogtown’ for the proliferation of skateboarders (chiefly the Z-boys – the 2005 film Lords of Dogtown chronicles their rise). Things have developed rapidly since then, and extreme sports deities Tony Hawk and Shawn White are both from the San Diego area. The Summer X-Games are held in and around Los Angeles in midsummer, at least until 2009; look for daredevil BMX, motocross, skateboarding and surfing competitions.
* * *
READ ALL ABOUT IT!
For much of the last century, the Los Angeles Times was known as the finest newspaper in the west – a perennial winner of Pulitzer Prizes – but that reputation has been tarnished by ownership changes and in-house scandals.
In 1999 an inexperienced publisher made a revenue-sharing arrangement with the developer of Staples Center, unbeknown to staff who had compiled a special issue about the arena’s opening. Staff revolted en masse over the breaking of the ‘Chinese wall’ between editorial and advertising. Not long after, the Times’ parent company was purchased by Tribune Media of Chicago, and the paper was out of the hands of the Chandler family for the first time since it was founded in the 1880s. Under Tribune management, circulation continued to decline, and staff defections and firings increased.
In 2007 Tribune was put up for sale and, although several LA bigwigs bid, it went to Sam Zell, a Chicago real estate developer and financial engineer. Staffers expressed confusion and dismay all over again. The paper may yet be spun off to a local buyer if Zell parcels out the company. Stay tuned.
In Santa Barbara, meanwhile, the News-Press went through a shake-up of its own. In 2006 reporters at SoCal’s oldest newspaper (founded in 1855) went into turmoil, accusing publisher Wendy McCaw of pressuring staff to change reporting. McCaw, for her part, accused staff of bias in reporting. Only two reporters from before the turmoil have not resigned or been fired.
* * *
Return to beginning of chapter
MEDIA
LA is the city that popularized the high-speed car chase, the spectacular show trial and Paris Hilton, but its roots in the media are much deeper