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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 1d

Chinampas, Aztec island farms, were some of the world’s most distinctive and productive urban agricultural landscapes and waterscapes. Now women are trying to restore them in Xochimilco, preserving a remnant of Tenochtitlan and habitat for the endangered Axolotl.

www.latimes.com/environment/...

Women in Mexico step up to protect ancient Aztec farms and save a vanishing ecosystem

In Mexico, traditionally women did not inherit chinampas, island farms first built by the Aztecs thousands of years ago

www.latimes.com

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 1d

These included the African American beach once derisively known as the “Ink Well,” the original Muscle Beach before it was exiled to Venice, and Tongva Park, opened in 2013 and commemorating the long history of the Tongva in the region that is now Santa Monica and LA.

The road down to the so-called “ink well” beach

"THE INK WELL'
A Place of Celebration and Pain
The beach near this site between Bay and Bicknell Streets, known by some as
"the Ink Well, " was an important gethering place for African Americans long after racial restrictions on pablic beaches were abandoned in 1927.
African-American groups from Santa Monies, Venice and Los Angeles, es early as the 1920s to the end of the Jim Crow era in the 1950s, preferred to enjoy the sun and amf here becanse they encoutered less racial barassment than at other Southland besches.
In the 1940s, Nick Gabaldon, a Santa Monica High School stadena and the first documested black surfer, taught himself how to surf here.

Sign for the original muscle beach in Santa Monica

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 1d

We saw places and historic markers for African American spaces of community and leisure, LGBTQ+ spaces, and reminders of the Indigenous Tongva people’s deep history in the region.

THE SITE WHERE YOU ARE STANDING WAS ONCE A NEIGHBORHOOD CALLED THE BELMAR TRIANGLE.
For more than fifty years, African Americans lived here and in other multiethnic areas of South Santa Monica.
They built homes and businesses, attended school and church, rented and owned property-all in pursuit of justice, equality, and happiness. Some of these neighborhoods no longer exist, but their stories survive.
The stories told in this exhibition reveal a search for self-discovery and equal opportunity during a time of anti-Black racism, from the 1900s to the 1960s. They describe the places where African Americans lived, worked, and prayed and what they valued.
For over half a century, these stories remained hidden. Telling them breathes new life into our understanding of the historical African American experience in Santa Monica and what it means to be an American. Making them public renews our sense of community pride and our broader collective identity as Californians and Americans.

A NEIGHBORHOOD ERASED
Burning Down Homes
City planners watch as a shotgun home burns to the ground in July 1953. They sent photographs like this to the local newspapers to build support for tearing down the Belmar Triangle.
anta Monica Civic Auditorium lests arrive at the Santa Monica ic Auditorium for the 1961 Academy ards. Since it opened in 1958, the itorium at 1855 Main Street has been le to numerous events, including with Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1964.

BY THE 1950s MANY RESIDENTS OF THE BELMAR TRIANGLE WERE AFRICAN AMERICANS.
At that time, city leaders decided to Under the laws of eminent domain, the city forced modernize South Santa Monica through
Belmar residents to leave their homes and close
urban renewal projects. They chose to their businesses in order to build a new civic replace neighborhoods whose resi-
auditorium and courthouse grounds. To further
dents were mostly lower income African
justify their actions, officials took pictures of
Americans other people of color, and some of Belmar's old and worn buildings and
Whites. Targeted neighborhoods in claimed they were no longer safe. Then they
the city's redevelopment plan were
burned the neighborhood down. Before
torn down in their entirety, including the decade ended, the Belmar Triangle
the Belmar Triangle.
had completely disappeared.

Historically African American Phillips Chapel Christian Methodist Episcopal Church

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 1d

I just wanted to share some more photos from the great beach history tour led by @elsadevienne.bsky.social and
alisonrosejefferson.com in Santa Monica today as part of the Urban History Association’s conference!
#UHA2025LA

AFRICAN AMERICANS HAVE LIVED IN SANTA MONICA LONGER THAN ANY OTHER BEACH CITY IN THE REGION.

They first arrived in the late nineteenth century. joining other ethnic groups that left their homes for better lives. African Americans also came for equal opportunities and freedom.

Most Black newcomers were from Southern states. where they lived under the White racist laws and practices of Jim Crow. There, for nearly 100 years after the Civil War, this deliberate discrimination made their lives oppressive. Although California passed civil rights laws for all its
citizens in 1893, racist practices limited where African Americans
lived, worked, and went to school, which places they visited, and even which people they socialized with.

EDUCATION FOR ALL
Camelia Hunt, student number 11 in this 1893 photograph, was the only African American in her fourth-grade class. Born in Virginia, her family moved to Santa Monica in the 1880s.
Her father, George W. Hunt, owned a barbershop at 902 Wilshire Boulevard. The Hunts also owned their home at 1548 7th Street.

Black Californians persevered. In Santa Monica, they created opportunities to work, rent and buy property, and gather in public.
Over the years, they fought to keep these rights, win others, and tear down the walls of anti-Black discrimination.

BELMAR HISTORY +ART
www.untamonica.cov/arts/bolmar
Santa Monica

Sculpture representing a shotgun house, a popular form of residential architecture in New Orleans and other parts of the US south.

WELCOME TO THE FUTURE
BENEATH THIS MARKER IS A COLLECTION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY FOR SANTA MONICAS GENERATIONS TO COME
IT IS TO BE OPENED JUNE 19, 2070

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 1d

Honestly I’m still freaked out from finding out about the poor boiled penguins . . .

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 1d

“[T]here remains much more work to be done to decipher and expose how the workscapes and necroscapes borne from the production of artificial light affected people, animals, cities, and environments together, in tandem.”

Charlotte Leib @charlotte-leib.bsky.social · 5d

As #UHA2025LA kicks off, I’m happy to share here my most recent piece on the Metropole, on an understudied topic in #urbanhistory #envhist —how different lighting tech’s have affected birds & humans over the centuries & what we can do about it.

It’s a dual exposé & call to action Check it out here:

Urban History Association (the official account) @urbanhistorya.bsky.social · 5d

"Urban historians have written much about technological and social change in cities and very little about the ways in which historical transformations in lighting technologies have affected environments and ecologies, and the habitats and health of birds." from @charlotte-leib.bsky.social

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Reposted by Lawrence Culver

Charlotte Leib @charlotte-leib.bsky.social · 2d

Echoing that thanks!

A terrific tour + chance to talk more about race, recreation + landscape history not only with @elsadevienne.bsky.social, learning from her new pub * #SandRush *, but also @lawrencecphd.bsky.social, whose first book *The Frontier of Leisure* examines these themes, too! #envhist

Urban History Association (the official account) @urbanhistorya.bsky.social · 2d

The #UHA2025LA conference today included excellent tour of the historically #Black neighborhood of Belmar & LA's iconic #musclebeach with historians Elsa Devienne @elsadevienne.bsky.social & Alison Rose Jefferson. A deeply informative, engaging morning! Thank you Elsa & Alison! #LosAngeles #history

A group of people dressed in athletic and casual clothing flex their (relatively small) "muscles" at Muscle Beach!

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks! It was a great tour!

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 1d

US urban heat deaths are likely woefully undercounted: ”In many developed countries, epidemiologists estimate heat fatalities by calculating excess or unexpected deaths during a severe hot spell. . . .

The US, for some reason, chooses not to know.”

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Americans are dying from extreme heat. Autopsy reports don’t show the full story

Official reports are likely to overlook heat’s role in a death. As US temperatures rise, experts say the true toll needs to be counted

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Lawrence Culver

Urban History Association (the official account) @urbanhistorya.bsky.social · 3d

This morning we're featuring the *Summer in the City: Urban Heat in the Past, Present & Future* panel

Head to the Roman rm from 8-9:30pm to learn about how urban historians are addressing hot topics like— #climatechange —& the interconnected histories of the body, health & leisure & climate control

cover slide with a hot hazy palm tree urban scene and the text at right, on white: "Hidden Histories of Heat in LA's Land of Sunshine

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 6d

I’m delighted to be on the program for the Urban History Association’s first ever conference in Los Angeles! My panel, “Summer in the City: Urban Heat in the Past, Present, and Future,” will be on Saturday. The program listing and abstract are below.

#UHA #urbanhist #envirohist

View of downtown skyline of Los Angeles, with snowy San Gabriel mountains in the distance. Cover of the Urban History Association’s program for their 11th biennial conference in Los Angeles this October 9-12.

Session 80 • Sat. 8:00-9:30 am

Summer in the City: Urban Heat in the Past, Present, and Future

Chair & Commentator:
Mars Plater University of Connecticut

Lawrence Culver Utah State University
Hidden Histories of Heat in LA's Land of Sunshine

Alison Rose Jefferson
Independent Historian and Heritage Conservation Consultant Black California Dreamin': Claiming Space at
America's Leisure Frontier

Elsa Devienne Northumbria University
History Tells Us LA's Beaches are Man-Made.
But How Long until They're Gone Forever?

Kara Schlichting Queens College, CUNY
Rethinking New York City's "Long Hot
Summers"

How can the history of heat inform our understanding of planning, parks, policing, incarceration, inequality, public recreation, and public health in cities?

This panel session considers how city people have survived sweaty summers in the past, and how authorities have reacted to civilians searching for relief from the heat.

Los Angeles-a city born in no small part through promotion of climate for recreation and health-is an apt place to ask these questions about the past while confronting a present and future threatened by climate catastrophe. Angelenos are grappling with devastating fires, sweltering heat, and other consequences of a changing and more chaotic climate.

Our panelists will look at examples from this and other cities to consider how the history of urban heat might inform planning for climate change's impacts.

Alison Rose Jefferson considers how climate and heat played a role in the histories of recreational and resort destinations for African American Southern Californians.

Lawrence Culver examines histories of heat concealed within LA's supposed climate paradise.

Elsa Devienne explores how the beaches of LA-climate refuges on hot days-are threatened by climate change and rising seas.

Across the continent, New York City's history is also shaped by urban heat. Mars Plater demonstrates that late nineteenth century New Yorkers were so eager to beat the heat that steamboat excursionists rioted rather than returning to the sweltering city.

Kara Schlichting illuminates how the urban heat island effect led to conflict, political concern, and police brutality in predominantly Black NYC neighborhoods in the summers of 1967 and 1968.

Together, these panelists and this session will examine heat as a historical issue in cities, and its importance for understanding our urban climatic past and future.

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 7d

Genevieve Carpio’s work is a great example of how insurance data can be an illuminating means to understand the past, from urban planning to historical discrimination, and all the different ways insurers assess and imagine “risk.”

Urban History Association (the official account) @urbanhistorya.bsky.social · 7d

The road has long been tumultuous for Latinos in places like California, as a site where the private space of the automobile and the public space of the street meet. @drgenacarpio.bsky.social on CA car insurance and the cultural history of race, redlining, and risk assessment.

California’s Invisible Infrastructure: What Auto Insurance Tells Us about Race, Risk, and Responsibility

By Genevieve Carpio Being a historian often means living with the contradictions of the present. As an Angeleno, I see my city in pain. There is resilience and courage too, but the suffering caused…

themetropole.blog

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 7d

Politicians can erase data and defund research, but we are still careening towards a climate disaster-triggered economic, insurance, and housing crisis nevertheless.

Climate Risk Economics @climateeconomics.bsky.social · 7d

From Realtor's 2025 Housing and Climate Risk Report:

US homes at "severe or extreme" #climaterisk:

Flood: 6% of homes ($3.4 tr in value, inc. $1 tr outside FEMA flood zones so mostly uninsured)

Wind: 18% of homes ($8 tr)

Wildfire: 5.6% ($3 tr)

www.realtor.com/research/cli...

2025 Realtor.com Housing and Climate Risk Report

Understanding climate risk in the housing market is essential, as these challenges not only affect residential safety but also influence property values, insurance costs, and overall market stability....

www.realtor.com

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 7d

Lack of progress—particularly the inability to develop clear policies and protocol—points to what some experts describe as a larger failure to learn from major fire disasters. “We have to work really hard to continue ignoring the patterns here.”

www.latimes.com/california/s...

Fire after fire, L.A. County keeps promising to fix failures but doesn't deliver

The seeming lack of progress after the Woolsey fire — particularly in developing clear policies and protocol — indicates a failure to learn from such disasters.

www.latimes.com

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 8d

The volume, which includes contributions by a variety of great scholars, offers diverse perspectives and approaches to disaster history in the US, and I’m pleased to be included.

If you aren’t affiliated with an institution that has library access, I’d be happy to share a PDF of my chapter. (3/3)

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 8d

My chapter, "Disaster Made Manifest: The Federal Role in US Natural Disasters," examines the dubious federal role in disasters, from wishful thinking about climate, to the emergence of modern fire policy, federal weather forecasting, reclamation, and more. (2/3)

link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

Disaster Made Manifest: The Federal Role in US Natural Disasters

Natural catastrophes occur worldwide, yet the United States suffers a striking number and variety of natural disasters. These environmental phenomena intersect with human society, human environments, and human choices. In the United States, a society and political...

link.springer.com

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 8d

Delighted to be included in this new book, Natural Disasters in the United States: Making Sense of Risks and Vulnerability. It began as a conference at the Center for American Studies at the University of Heidelberg, and I'm happy it’s now in print. (1/3)

link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Natural Disasters in the United States

This volume covers a wide array of historical failures in the USA that hindered improvements in resilience against natural hazards.

link.springer.com

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 9d

Sierra glaciers dwindle, changing environments, threatening water supplies, and erasing cultural history:

“Ultimately, it’s telling us that we’ve left the bounds of so-called normal. We’re crossing the line in the sand from what glaciers have done, for basically all of human recorded history.”

Ian James @ianjames.bsky.social · 13d

"When these glaciers die off, we will be the first humans to see ice-free peaks in Yosemite." www.latimes.com/environment/...

As California glaciers disappear, people will see ice-free peaks exposed for the first time in millennia

The glaciers of California's Sierra Nevada are disappearing as temperatures rise. Scientists recently found that the glaciers probably have never before melted in human history.

www.latimes.com

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 9d

“Climate change is creating more opportunities for a catastrophic fire.”

These “were largely clustered in the western part of North America, southern Europe and southern Australia, and mostly in affluent areas with high property values”—but the tropics & Arctic too.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/c...

Costly and Deadly Wildfires Really Are on the Rise, New Research Finds

www.nytimes.com

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 9d

What’s the value of the only national forest in Ohio, its large outdoor rec visitation, its threatened hellbender salamanders, and it preventing erosion, flooding, and mass release of toxic mining waste next to some timber company making a little money once?

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Ohio’s sole national forest could be wiped out as Trump targets land for logging

Over 80% of Wayne national forest classified as suitable for logging, drawing concern from locals

www.theguardian.com

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 9d

I’ve posted about this great archival collection before for historians or anyone interested in the history of outdoor recreation and gear, but that was before I discovered this video short for their winter sports materials. The 80s vibes are immaculate! 😂

youtube.com/shorts/DK8gq...

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 9d

Coerced into Spanish missions, decimated by disease, their territorial claims ignored and their ancestral land transformed into US real estate, the Amah Mutsun survived, and now will see a small piece of their lands returned. This is an immense step for Native groups never granted reservation lands.

Dustin Mulvaney @dustinmulvaney.bsky.social · 10d

The Amah Mutsun are getting #LandBack within their ancestral territory of Juristac, in the Pajaro watershed, for the first time since dispossessed by mission San Juan Bautista.
baynature.org/2025/09/20/t...

A Land Back Success for the Amah Mutsun Within Its Historical Territory - Bay Nature

The tribe has been without a land base for more than 200 years.

baynature.org

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 10d

This follows big increases by private insurers in California, and portends even bigger rate hikes, insurers exiting markets, and public insurance plans failing as climate-related disasters accelerate across the US.

Los Angeles Times @latimes.com · 10d

California's home insurer of last resort seeks 36% rate hike following January fires

The California FAIR Plan Association, which covers homeowners denied insurance, is seeking a 35.8% rate increase, though some policyholders could pay more or less depending on fire risk.

www.latimes.com

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Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 11d

2025 seems like a good time to be reminded that the only thing crazier is the nation that birthed it.

Lawrence Culver @lawrencecphd.bsky.social · 11d

Drive dark roads!
Bad Coop’s death & resurrection!
The Nine Inch Nails!
Fly into the first atomic bomb explosion and see the birth of new evil!
Fly to the White Lodge! Watch a 50s zombie horror with a blackface Abraham Lincoln asking for a light, crushing skulls, & speaking poetry!
Annnd Frogbug!

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