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Well, this was a really cool thread. Some places look pretty much the same, some drastically different
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Nice, you captured a lot of memories of many of the places I would frequent. As been said some places changed on a little bit, but many others drastically changed.
Just one comment on the smoggy LA photo, I wouldn't exactly say that was smog, especially being that the photo was taken in February. We were still getting smoggy days back then although nothing like the 70's, but usually the smog is mainly during the summer months. LA does get that marine layer coming in from the ocean, especially in the basin and it extends far inland most of the time. The San Fernando Valley gets it sometimes too, especially this time of the year as we have right now, but nothing like in the basin. |
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It's true, back then downtown Santa Monica, Pasadena had a lot of old mom and pop stores that didn't interest the masses it they were quiet. I wouldn't say downtown LA was quiet, as Broadway Avenue was very busy with pedestrians, in fact more back then than now. It wasn't an area visited so much by the middle-class residents, but believe me it was busy and choked full of buses and gridlock traffic, but again most of the clientele was either Latinos, or African Americans. Even the movie theaters were still running the latest shows, although the majority had gone Spanish. At that time none of these area had a busy nightlife. For those who hung out in the city of LA, Westwood was the hangout spot, they even shut down the streets in that area because the crowds were so big during this era. The other areas was the Sunset Set strip, and even Hollywood Blvd drew large crowds, although each catered to different types of people. Westwood drew people from all over, (Whites, Blacks, Latinos) including tourist but it was also a huge draw for the college crowd. Hollywood Blvd on the other hand was for the biker crowd, Sunset Strip was the hard rockers with the long hair and very tight pants. South Bay (Redondo, Manhattan, and Hermosa Beach) was quite busy as well and attracted the beach party crowd. Honestly I didn't even know much about Newport Beach back then, but I think most folks in LA County didn't venture too much into Orange County, even today they still don't. |
These 80's and 90's pics are just fantastic!
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Great photos! Brings me back!
But I will respectfully disagree with Irvine and Newport Beach being centers of energy back then... in fact, I was friends with people who went to UCI in the late 1980s-early 1990s, and Irvine was totally dullsville. The Irvine Spectrum didn't even exist back then, and the only thing open past 9pm was the In-N-Out, and Denny's was the only 24-hour place to go to. And like ChrisLA said, downtown LA was always bustling, but with a different demographic---and I find it unfortunate that "middle-class" people back then weren't exploring DTLA in the 1980s... my friends and I would often go to what was back then referred to as the Garment District, and we'd totally walk up and down Broadway and explore the old buildings and theaters and botanicas and mom 'n' pop taquerias, and the Grand Central Market was far more interesting back then. |
Thanks for the comments.
I’m sure Irvine was pretty boring back then. My reference to Irvine & Newport Beach was more regarding economic & development activity, with lots of development happening in the IBC (Irvine Business Complex), and around the shopping malls of South Coast Plaza & Fashion Island. I knew a few people who worked in Orange County and they typically went to Lido Island & Fashion Island when going out rather than LA. It reminded me of when I lived in New Jersey and lots of the native New Jersey people we met would rarely go into Manhattan. I recall that Broadway had a lot of businesses catering mostly to the Latin American community, but the majority of the older buildings in the historic downtown were largely vacant above the first floor given lack of reinvestment and that they hadn’t been seismically reinforced. I would have enjoyed walking the district with you back in the day to explore the area. I also recall on one of my visits in the late ‘80s how I was shocked at 3rd Street in dt Santa Monica being riddled with empty storefronts. ChrisLA: your comment on Westwood Village reminded me of going bar hopping with friends there sometime in the early ‘90s. My LA-based friends could have picked anyplace to meet and Westwood was THE place back then. |
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as for more energy in the OC than in LA yrs ago, your pics of anaheim reminded me of how that was also not a ready for prime time part of socal. The area around disneyland in the past was a mess...I recall some relatives of mine from the East Coast staying at a motel across from that theme pk in the 1990s & I was embarrassed about what greeted them. however, showing just how shaky things were in the past, even though anaheim itself was hardly a crowd pleaser, it attracted much more convention business & convention tourists than dtla did....which wasn't surprising since dt in the past was in even worse shape than anaheim was. In some ways, the LA area today is both better but also worse than it used to be....for instance, homelessness & litter, graffiti are more extreme today than yrs ago. The pandemic has also created a wasteland of vacant retail space in areas like anaheim. Win some, lose some. |
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I hope dtla, however, never becomes like the city of san francisco, which has become both a dystopia but also sort of an urban-hipster answer to The Truman Show. Or closer to a dtla of the past, when it had the weaknesses of the city and also the weaknesses of the burbs. |
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I was in a 1950's part of the SF valley a few wks ago, and what the heck were cities & developers thinking back then? It's like the areas around disneyland yrs ago, but without the presence of at least a major tourist landmark. |
Re: Newport Beach in the early '90s: my husband lived there with his Dad then, right on the beach near the Wedge. He was a teen then, so his memories are of things like biking to the arcade and miniature amusement park area facing Balboa Island, as well as surfing and sailing. The appeal for local adults, in my Father-in-Law's memories, was surfing, sailing, and big house parties. There was always money there, and the summer crowd always brought the stupid, but according to both of them, it was a more funky and loose scene in the early '90s than today.
One of their most interesting memories is when all the beachfront homes flooded, and they kayaked most of the way to Orange Julius for a soft drink. |
Great thread! Even though these photos are 25 - 30 years old, many look like they could have been 50 - 60 years ago. The late 1980s and early 1990s really do seem like a simpler, innocent, time.
I grew up in Orange County during this time, so I really appreciate these photos. I think Los Angeles has improved dramatically over the past two decades and I am excited to see the progress continue as downtown LA continues to grow and as LA and the surrounding communities build their transit systems. Despite the clear progress of Los Angeles over the last two decades, one thing that is regrettable is the loss of open space in coastal Orange County and elsewhere in Southern California with continued sprawl. With very limited exceptions, I think Camp Pendelton is the last remaining open space between San Diego and Orange County. |
This was great. My first trip to Disneyland was in 1990.
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Great pics. Everything I knew about LA around that time I learned from hood movies, news specials and Hip-Hop. With the riots, it painted a picture of LA being a city you did not want to f**k with. This shows the everyday side.
I can feel the cool “newness” of Horton plaza from the pics. |
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