The Official Great Los Angeles Walk 2012 Press Release

THE SEVENTH ANNUAL GREAT LOS ANGELES WALK

IS HITTING MELROSE – AND MORE – ON NOV. 17

LOS ANGELES (Nov. 5, 2012) -- Hundreds of Angelenos will hit the sidewalks this November 17 for The Great Los Angeles Walk 2012 – the annual event that dispels the myth that “nobody walks in L.A.”

The LA Weekly just recognized The Great Los Angeles Walk in this year's "Best of L.A." issue. For the seventh annual event, participants of the Great Los Angeles Walk (http://www.greatlawalk.com) will once again hike from downtown Los Angeles to the ocean – but this time via Melrose Avenue. Participants will meet on the steps of the Walt Disney Concert Hall (at Grand and 1^st in Downtown Los Angeles) at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 17, and proceed to walk approximately 17 miles (at a casual, all-day pace).

The Walk will run down 1^st, which turns into Beverly Blvd., up Virgil Ave., across Melrose Ave. and down Santa Monica Boulevard to the ocean. Along the way, walkers will encounter sites such as Dorothy Chandler Pavilion; the original Tommy's; the epicenter of LA's bike culture at Heliotrope; Paramount Studios; Raleigh Studios; the Melrose shopping district; the Pacific Design Center; and much more.

As part of the Walk, East Hollywood's famed SCOOPS ice cream shop will create a special flavor on Nov. 17 and open early for Great LA Walk participants to sample it.

Walkers will pass through a diverse cross-section of the region, including Downtown Los Angeles, Hollywood, the Melrose/Fairfax District, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. The Great Los Angeles Walk will conclude with an afterparty in Santa Monica at a location to be determined.

L.A. journalist and blogger Michael Schneider launched the Great Los Angeles Walk in 2006 as a way to celebrate his tenth year in Los Angeles. Inspired by the book “Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles,” by Kevin Roderick (with research by J. Eric Lynxwiler), he decided to walk the street’s entire length.

In 2007, for an encore, he chose another downtown-to-the-ocean route: Pico Boulevard. The 2008 Walk took on Santa Monica Blvd. (via Sunset). In 2009, the event kicked off in the historic West Adams district and walked to Venice Beach via Adams and Washington. In 2010, for its fifth edition, the Great Los Angeles Walk reprised its original Wilshire journey. And in 2011, more than 250 Walk participants marched to the ocean via Hollywood Boulevard.

The Great Los Angeles Walk grew from dozens of participants to hundreds, and continues to expand each year as more Angelenos join in to explore their city on foot.

As always, the Walk is completely free. It is up to the participants to decide how much or how little of the walk they want to do. The Great Los Angeles Walk has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, the L.A. Weekly, KABC-Channel 7, LAist.com and KNBC.com.