Design
Celebrating L.A.'s Hidden Walkability
A two-day urban hike called the Big Parade reminds Angelinos that their city has a pedestrian culture after all.
Los Angeles is home to a few hundred public stairways, whose presence throughout the city is largely forgotten. Officially defined as streets made of stairs, these passages were built during the streetcar era of the early 20th century so commuters who got off in the valley could reach their homes in the hills. The writer Dan Koeppel started to walk them himself about a decade ago, and he hasn't really stopped.
"As I walked I started uncovering more," he says. "I got really obsessed with the idea of finding stairways."