Tag: “Griffith Observatory”

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Down on the streets, LA is a mess, a tent city of encampments, trash, shopping carts, RVs and civic disorder.

But on the way up the trail to Griffith Observatory, the city assumes its old panorama of possibilities.

Filtered out of these photographs are the humans and their rulers who make this city so perplexing.

Here is the white cloud sky, the one lone palm on the hill, the pine tree, the arid and rocky slope descent, the dome of an Art Deco landmark, the white buildings in the distance, the hiking trails, the Hollywood sign, the graceful Grecian frieze on the cylindrical tower of the observatory.

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Here is Los Angeles aspiring to a vision of grace, aesthetics, science and civic ennoblement. 

Here is where the young visit vowing to move to start their adulthood. They’ll stand along these vistas and dream of tomorrow. 

“Just wait, you’ll see, I’m going to make it!”

Griffith Park, Griffith Observatory,“Rebel Without a Cause,” James Dean and Natalie Wood, Hollywood Stars; and the stars in the sky: Sirius, Canopus, Arcturus, Alpha Centauri. 

Look back, look down, look up, look out. 

Griffith Observatory was finished in 1935, in the midst of the Great Depression.

Think of that year, 1935: thin in resources, rich in imagination, practical in execution.

That’s why this was all built, not only Griffith Observatory, but the entire project called the City of Los Angeles.

Down on the streets, LA is without leaders, a tent city of encampments, trash, shopping carts, RVs and civic disorder.

But up here are found the better angels of the City of Angels.