East Los Angeles

There was a time in East Los Angeles when el maestro's el maestro's gruff voice bounced off his classroom walls. He roamed the aisles, he juggled oranges, he dressed in costumes, he punched the air; he called you names, he called your mom, he kicked you out, he lured you in; he danced, he boxed, he screamed, he whispered. He would do anything to get your attention. " Ganas ," he would say. "That's all you need. The desire to learn." Nearly three decades later, Jaime Escalante finds himself far from Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, the place that made him internationally famous for turning a generation of low-income students into calculus whizzes.

Heather Bleemers had never spent much time on Los Angeles' Eastside, despite being an urban planning graduate student at USC. But on Sunday, Bleemers ventured from her usual stamping grounds. She and about 50 others toured the area's Nativity scenes, known as nacimientos, taking advantage of the new Gold Line extension. Unlike previous tours by car or bike, this year's event depended entirely on public transportation. "We live in Silver Lake and . . . don't go outside that area much," said Bleemers, who took the tour with her husband.

It's been a long-joked-about phenomenon that many Angelenos consider East Los Angeles any area east of La Brea Avenue and that some Westsiders seldom wander east of the 405. Poet and photographer Kevin McCollister has journeyed through most of those streets and captured the images in his book "East of West L.A." A few of the 55 photos include shots of Venice and the Santa Monica Pier, but "in my mind," said McCollister, "they qualify as East in spirit and are not the epitome of glam that is attached to the Westside."

I walked into the penthouse reception prepared to skewer Donald Sterling. But I had barely gotten through the door when I wound up in a group hug with the Clippers' owner and the NBA's top draft pick, heartthrob Blake Griffin. Sterling might be a tight-fisted egomaniac, but he's also smart enough to know that it's hard to savage a man in print when he introduces you to the crowd as the "beautiful, fabulous writer for the Los Angeles Times. Here to make life better for underprivileged kids."

Over the last few weeks, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck twice has reaffirmed the department's commitment to Special Order 40, the 30-year-old policy that forbids officers from making routine inquiries about the immigration status of people they encounter or detain. The contexts and manner of Beck's affirmation suggest a couple of interesting -- and significant -- differences between the new chief's approach and that of his predecessor, William Bratton. Even after three decades, Special Order 40 remains the most controversial of LAPD's policing policies, as well as one of its most vital.

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday unanimously urged the California High Speed Rail Authority to consider two proposed alternatives for the bullet train stop at Union Station downtown. Councilman Ed Reyes said the alternatives were crucial to protecting residents in East L.A. as planners determine the route for the 800-mile bullet train between Northern California and San Diego. Proponents say the train would carry passengers from L.A. to San Francisco in about 2 1/2 hours.

The sun had not yet risen when the first commuter train in nearly half a century set off from downtown to East Los Angeles, extending a new line of public transportation to some of the city's most underserved neighborhoods. At 3:40 a.m. Sunday the first passengers were train enthusiasts, students and workers for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which built the six-mile Gold Line extension. A few hours later, the neighborhood showed up. More than 50,000 people were estimated to have taken part in a festive day of celebration and free rides.

Martin Perez has two reasons to celebrate today. First, it's his 50th birthday, and, second, he plans to join the crowd of passengers expected to ride the new Gold Line Eastside extension for free on its first day of service. "My friend already called me, 'Hey, let's check it out to go downtown,' " said Perez, an Eastside resident who works for a demolition company. Los Angeles County's latest light-rail line, the $898-million Gold Line Eastside extension opens to the public today after being formally dedicated Saturday morning.

It would be tough to overstate the level of cynicism that exists in certain corners of the Los Angeles establishment about the future of mass transit in Southern California. For many power brokers and longtime observers of the political scene, disparaging the chances of the region ever putting together a comprehensive transit system is some combination of rhetorical tic and parlor game. In fact, the progress we've already made on a subway and light-rail network -- full of delays and misjudgments as it has been -- is remaking the physical and psychological terrain of Los Angeles in some profound ways.

Call it the sushi-torta torta express. Set to start running on Sunday, the Gold Line Eastside Extension is a direct, six-mile shot from Little Tokyo to East Los Angeles. It's also a light-rail lifeline to the incredible variety of restaurants that surrounds each of the eight new stations: izakaya , bakeries, marketplaces, taquerías, burrito stands, sukiyaki joints, sandwich shops, roast goat specialists and seafood emporiums. Once the train pulls out of the Little Tokyo depot and leaves behind downtown's sushi bars and ramen- ya , it crosses the 1st Street bridge, dips underground for a couple of stops and comes up again after Soto Street, passing the burritos, cemitas and mariscos of Boyle Heights.