The US is vast, so big that choosing between coast or mountains, islands or quaint small towns can get downright overwhelming.
16.05.2024 - 14:25 / cntraveler.com
Los Angeles is brighter once the sun goes down. Downtown, Koreatown, WeHo, Venice—the city’s neighborhoods sharpen into blades of colorful, electric lights come nightfall. Cycling down Venice Boulevard after dark, my field of vision feels more focused: I see car lights, bright billboards and illuminated gas stations, and then, from a distance, bikes flashing with lights, en masse in a car park on the corner of Centinela Avenue. It’s The Mixed Race, a high-speed, women-led public cycling group that meets here every Thursday night—and this evening, I’m joining them for a ride.
“The Mixed Race is not a race, it’s a chase,” says Alison Chai, one of its members. The group was founded in 2017 by Los Angeles natives Jane Ashley, a digital marketer, and Rachel Horn, a safety professional, both of whom identify as “Chinese-white hapa”—a heritage that lies at the root of the group's name. Hapa is an abbreviation of the Hawaiian term hapa haole, referring to multiracial people of Asian and/or Pacific Islander descent. Horn learnt its meaning in a Japanese-American youth basketball league as a kid, while Ashley’s affinity with the word grew while living in Hong Kong amongst other Chinese-white locals. Back in LA, they made friends at a local bike co-op over their love for speedy cycling, and a desire to create an inclusive space to do so within the predominantly white cis-male cycling scene.
“At some point, two guys were like, ‘oh, you should make a chill ride instead,’” says Ashley. “That’s when we said, okay, our mission is to make a fast ride, and we want women to lead it, and to not have to answer to dudes and their suggestions.”
The Mixed Race isn’t competitive, riders like to say with a wink, but its drop-ride policy means you’ll be left behind if you can’t keep up—a provision established so the group can maintain momentum, with speed the focus. According to Horn, Los Angeles has always had a strong night-riding scene: It’s more comfortable to cycle when the sun’s not beating down, and the post-rush hour dwindle of cars makes it easier to command space in the otherwise dominating car culture. But cycling has been statistically well-documented for global gender disparity on urban-commuter and recreational levels, a gap that stems from “safety concerns, inadequate infrastructure, societal expectations, and women’s diverse responsibilities,” according to the United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe (UNRIC).
Even today, it’s not unusual to be among the only women present in a cycling group in LA, according to Ashley, Horn, and Chai. They all recall experiences of feeling patronized in predominantly male groups, and The Mixed Race hasn’t been impervious to stereotyping itself. “People would
The US is vast, so big that choosing between coast or mountains, islands or quaint small towns can get downright overwhelming.
Earlier this year, I took a 6 ½-hour JetBlue flight from Boston to Los Angeles for work.
This is part of a collection of stories celebrating lesbian bars across the US and other parts of the world. Read more here.
A man died after entering a plane's engine at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on Wednesday.
Hollywood is not just a place, it’s a location in the mind of people all over the world. Some years ago, when a British airport clerk glanced at the address on my passport, she said, “Encino! That’s where Clark Gable lived!” Or as the Kinks sang in “Celluloid Heroes,” I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show, A fantasy world of celluloid villains and heroes, Because celluloid heroes never feel any pain, And celluloid heroes never really die.’
Hubby launches eSIM in the UK, On The Beach is its first UK partner.
Hotel Internet Services deployed a high-performance WiFi network at Kasa Sunset Los Angeles, enhancing guest experience with reliable, fast internet access across the property.
There are so many great reasons to visit Denmark this summer, including the fact that 1) It’s number two on the official 2024 list of the happiest countries in the world 2) It’s, literally, a cool alternative to the extreme heat of the Mediterranean and 3) Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), with its excellent business class option, is adding more nonstop flights from the US to Copenhagen.
Flights to Australia are as cheap as they have been in a long time. Fiji Airways, Hawaiian Airlines and United all have round-trip fares from Los Angeles to Sydney for as low as $629. This route typically sells for at least $1,250.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I decided to sell my travel business and become a full-time writer.
For most of her life, toggling between New York and Los Angeles was the extent of bicoastal Honey Balenciaga's travels. That changed when the 22-year-old ballroom princess danced with Beyoncé on last year's blockbuster Renaissance World Tour and was swept up in a whirlwind trek across Europe and North America in the process—all told, there were 56 shows in 39 cities between May and October of 2023. Hamburg, unexpectedly, was a favorite stop.
On a dark night in February, east of the 5 Freeway, south of the 134, down the street from the so-called Gentlemen’s Club, glows the blue neon sign: Moonlight Rollerway. These are the industrial hinterlands of Glendale, a tidy enclave in the rambling city-state that is Los Angeles, and here, among plumbing supply warehouses and an Amazon delivery van lot, sits a squat cinder-block building, an unexpected portal.