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New York may be known as the walking city, but the Big Apple has nothing on Los Angeles’s “Secret Stairs.”
According to Charles Fleming, author of Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles, many stairways were built in the 1920s when highways and hybrid cars were kooky-future-talk. They made L.A.’s hillsides accessible from transit lines without forcing people to wind around the roads to get home. Fleming states there are hundreds of staircases in L.A., and he highlights 42 of them from Pasadena to Santa Monica.
Fleming gives readers an easy to read map for each route as well as fascinating history, like which steps were used in a Laurel and Hardy film, the old hotel turned home to Paramahansa Yogananda, architectural and fauna and flora information and of course, celebrity digs. He always includes how many steps you’re about to ascend or descend.
Walking 10,000 steps daily (roughly 5 miles) is ideal for maintaining health according to a study by the Department of Exercise and Wellness at Arizona State University.
And let’s not overlook the fact that all those fancy machines at the gym are a manufacturing nightmare. Not exactly organic…and that canned air is no match for fresh outdoor oxygen, even if it’s partially smog-filled.
YDT giveaway: Enter to win a free copy of Secret Stairs by commenting below telling us why you most want to hike L.A.’s hidden staircases by tomorrow, Tuesday Jan. 25th at 5:00 p.m.
Jill Ettinger is a Los Angeles based writer and photographer focused on wellness and world cultures. She is regularly featured on Reality Sandwich, Organic Authority, We Are Goodkin, She Knows, Modern Mystery, The Daily Glow, MTV and The Village Voice. Jill was published in the anthologies “Toward 2012: Perspectives on the Next Age” and “What Do You Believe?” jillettinger.com.
Images via Provider Mag and Los Angeles magazine.
- 15 comments
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joni
being able to explore the lesser-known neighborhoods of LA while avoiding the celebs-and-their-trainers stairs scene in santa monica — AND ending up with buns of steel? sounds like a win-win to me!!
Bari
I would love to explore the hidden areas of LA. Driving around Silverlake and Los Feliz, I would often wonder, where does that random staircase go?
r.lee
Awesome! I totally plan on checking out this book and going on long meandering walking tours. Stairways usually provide amazing views of the neighborhood. Everytime I visit San Francisco I take along a copy of “Stairway Walks of San Francisco” – lovely for discovering gorgeous parts of the city while getting exercise and fresh air!
Kirsten
It’s awesome to know about the stairs. I’m about to give birth to my first child, and walking and stair climbing is just about the best exercise that I can do!
Kezia
This would be a perfect gift to my stepfather, who has a degree in urban planning and is recovering from a leg injury. He’s started to walk for exercise and this would be great inspiration.
nicole
I love to workout outdoors and would greatly enjoy knowing where these secret places might be hidden throughout the LA area.
Jackie
one of the most rewarding things about living in LA is getting OUT of the car and really seeing how beautiful LA is when venture just a little ways off the congested streets and crowded malls…there are SO MANY beautiful hidden treasures that make LA an amazing city to explore, I can’t wait to start traversing these stairways!
Kat
I’ve always heard about the “secret stairs” but for some reason always thought they weren’t the ones I knew about. Little did I know there were so many of them. I love getting lost in LA’s history. What a fun book.
Frank
The only exercise I do is outside
whether it’s Yoga in the park or
Tai Chi on my deck or finding
a beautiful new place to go on
a hike! This book would be a
great tool in finding places I
may not find otherwise!!
Amy
I recently ran into a large group on a walk/hike around LA. They said they were hitting some of the historical staircases on their 6 hour journey! I’d really like to go on my own journeys around LA, but I currently do not know where all these historical staircases are.
taryn
I want to walk LA’s staircases for a new perspective of LA and for the health benefits. I am fit, but stairs always kill me!
I live right next to a huge staircase also which is just between Culver City and Baldwin Hills. That one is really killer!
Phoenix
I love to walk, & really enjoy exploring historical sites & hidden byways.
Melanie
I have been obsessed with LA stairways since moving here eight years ago and discovering a book called “Stairway Walks in Los Angeles”. Just check with the library in MDR and they will prove that I have checked out the book more times than anyone!The book is out of print and rather pricey on Amazon and so I keep checking it out again and again. I am entranced by the sketches in that book and am constantly vowing to make the time to climb all the stairways. So far, have only managed to fit in about four of them but now you have re-ignited my quest so thank you!
Allison
Hiking is one of the best features of LA! I hate “exercising”, but spending a day wandering 5 miles down a trail and exploring all that nature has to offer is heaven. I am not familiar with the stairs of LA, but look forward to checking them out.
SYPEPHOTH
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