The Great Los Angeles Walk 2018 Press Release

THE 13th ANNUAL GREAT LOS ANGELES WALK HITS 6TH STREET AND KOREATOWN, IN TRIBUTE TO JONATHAN GOLD, FROM DOWNTOWN TO THE OCEAN ON NOV. 17

LOS ANGELES (Nov. 1, 2018) -- Hundreds of Angelenos will hit the sidewalks on Saturday, November 17, for The Great Los Angeles Walk 2018 – the annual event that dispels the myth that “nobody walks in L.A.”

This year, for the 13th edition, The Great Los Angeles Walk (http://www.greatlawalk.com) is paying tribute to the late Jonathan Gold by hiking down 6th Street. It's one of the key arteries through Los Angeles' Koreatown neighborhood, and according to Gold's assessment of Koreatown's restaurants, it also boasts some of the neighborhood's best food. 

Participants will meet at Pershing Square, in downtown Los Angeles, at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 17.

From downtown, we'll start off at Pershing Square, and head west -- along the way seeing sites such as the Standard Hotel, the Jonathan Club, the Pacific Dining Car restaurant, MacArthur Park, the Park Plaza (now known as the MacArthur), Lafayette Park, Chapman Market, Koreatown, Hancock Park, Park La Brea, the La Brea Tar Pits, LACMA, and more. When 6th ends, we'll stroll up San Vicente to Burton Way, and walk through a strip of Beverly Hills, past the Courthouse and city center, and down Little Santa Monica, eventually making our way onto Santa Monica Blvd. for the rest of the walk to the ocean.

The Great Los Angeles Walk will conclude with a group photo and informal celebration in Santa Monica at a location to be announced later. Walkers will be encouraged to utilize Metro buses and its Expo Line, which offers public transportation at the finish of the walk back to downtown.

Like many Angelenos, we were heartbroken to learn of Jonathan Gold's death earlier this summer. If you loved Los Angeles, you loved J-Gold — one of the most important L.A. boosters ever. When the Great Los Angeles Walk first tackled Pico Boulevard in 2007, he gave us a list of restaurants to visit during our all-day hike — something we used again when we returned to Pico in 2016. 

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. 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. In 2011, participants marched to the ocean via Hollywood Boulevard. In 2012, the Walk traveled across Melrose Avenue; in 2013, Sunset Boulevard; in 2014, the Walk traveled across the San Fernando Valley via Ventura Boulevard; in 2015, the Walk took on Olympic Boulevard; in 2016, it returned to Pico; and in 2017, the Walk tackled Beverly 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 Los Angeles magazine, the Los Angeles Times, the L.A. Weekly, KCAL-Channel 9, KABC-Channel 7, LAist.com and KNBC.com. In 2012, the LA Weekly recognized The Great Los Angeles Walk in its "Best of L.A." issue. More recently, the Walk was included in the book "The Best Things to Do In Los Angeles: 1001 Ideas" by Joy Yoon.

The official hashtag of The Great Los Angeles Walk is #glaw. Social media users can follow along all day on the walk's official Twitter feed, @greatlawalk, as we continually post our location.

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