Journal of Alta California

“On a Wing and a Prayer,” page 10 Your story about flying cars begs the question: Have you ever dreamed up your own wild invention? An electric snowboard. Envision a snowmobile-style track, inset in the back of a unidirectional snowboard. Imagine the

When it comes to flying cars, The Jetsons got a few things wrong. The latest versions don’t have cool bubble tops, for one thing, and can’t fold up into a briefcase, origami-like, once you reach your office. But today’s electric air taxis, which coul

On the day the first lockdown is put into effect in San Francisco, March 17, 2020, I get a call from my friend Dezső Molnár. COVID-19 has hit California—Governor Gavin Newsom has already declared a state of emergency, and there is a mood of panic in

Leave no trace” is such a familiar command, encouraging us to tread lightly in wild spaces and minimize our ruinous impact on the natural world, that it’s been adopted by everyone from the Sierra Club, an august 128-year-old environmental organizatio

What plants can we incorporate onto this wall to entice local pollinators? How close can we get these fresh herbs to a chef’s kitchen?” Amanda Goldberg spends a lot of time thinking about how people use spaces. The Emeryville-based founder and CEO of

Regina Romero, the mayor of Tucson, Arizona, calls herself an “innate environmentalist.” Romero’s father, whom she describes as a “real boots-and-hat cowboy” from the mountains of Sonora, Mexico, taught her the value of open spaces and conservation.

I’ve always wanted to see a California condor in the wild. It’s on a list I keep in my head of animals I’d like to glimpse in their natural habitats, which includes, in no particular order, a male moose with full antlers, a whale, a ringtailed cat, a

When Gustavo Aguir-re Jr. took a job at the Central California Environmental Justice Network, it wasn’t necessarily a leap into the unknown. His parents had been farmworkers (his father was with United Farm Workers for more than two decades), and his

Their colors are brilliant. Set against a black background that conveys the frozen motion of an M.C. Escher print, 63 plants and creatures populate an improbable jungle of species that have become extinct since the height of colonization of the New W

In the mid-2000s, Audrey Lee was pursuing her PhD in electrical engineering, toiling alone in a dark lab. But she wanted to work on something more tangible. She found her passion in public policy. “I’m interested in infrastructure and the basic needs

There was a time, back in the automobile’s infancy, when cars and pedestrians shared the road equally and equitably—there’s even documentary proof of it. Filmed in San Francisco in 1905, with the great quake a few months away, A Trip Down Market Stre

When Scott Shell moved to Marin County in 2007, his house came with a 48-inch Viking range. The current version of the eight-burner, two-oven, professional-grade appliance, which retails for around $13,000, lets you impress foodie neighbors with how

With wine country ever growing, brew culture thriving, and America’s fruit basket ripe and productive, it’s no surprise that California provides an ideal habitat for the craft distilling industry. Over the past few years, spirits makers across the st

We were all in quarantine, hiding from an airborne virus that attacks the lungs, but that wasn’t the reason George Floyd couldn’t breathe. No, there was a police officer’s knee on Floyd’s neck, out in the street, all of us watching and left guessing

The majestic Klamath River runs through Northern California and parts of Oregon. “You knew you were going to see a lot of fish,” says Amy Cordalis, a member of the Yurok Tribe who grew up fishing there. “You knew you were going to fill up your smokeh

Last year, 20-year-oldNalleli Cobo posted a picture on Instagram of herself as a third grader: wearing a heart monitor and staring down the camera, fists on her hips, with a determined look in her eyes. At the time, she had started having health prob

Artists can develop an entire style around an affinity for an elementary shape. Pablo Picasso loved cubes and circles. Mark Rothko was obsessed with soft-edged rectangles. Josef Albers played endlessly with the colored square. And celebrated High Des

Striding across a golden-brown hillside dotted with live oaks, Kent Reeves scans the ground. After a few minutes, he stops. Crouching down, he selects several short grass stalks, holding them between thumb and forefinger. This native needlegrass pred

For the wildlife of the Santa Monica Mountains, the freeways in Los Angeles pose a manifestly deadly threat. The groan of engines, the whine of brakes, the sight of so much steel and rubber hurtling by at unimaginable speeds—the survival instinct scr

As a designer, Alvin Huang has created near-zero-waste dining tables. As a professor and the director of graduate architecture programs at USC, he’s lectured on topics such as the interplay of coincidence, incidence, and interference in the creative

When the pandemic erupted last year, many California theater companies and music organizations responded initially with shock, followed by a headfirst plunge into the virtual. “I’ll never forget the week of March 9th,” recalls Jennifer Bielstein, exe

Stuzo Clothing was created out of necessity. When Stoney Michelli shopped at department stores, merchandise wassplit into men’s and women’s sections. “There wasn’t a section for me,” Michelli says. And when she found clothing she liked—a pair of men’

He may be known for his visually extravagant interiors, but designer Ken Fulk starts every project with a portrait in words. “I begin to reflect on odd, often cultural references, places, people, things,” says Fulk, who oversees teams in San Francisc

California surfing has always been a technology sport. The first surfboard light enough for the average person to carry to the beach was the ribbed, hollow Water Sled, patented in 1932 by Santa Monica lifeguard Tom Blake. After consulting an aerospac

There’s a lot to miss (spontaneous conversations, lunches with colleagues) and to not miss (awkward holiday parties in the conference room, dry cleaning bills) about being in an office. By making remote work a norm, the pandemic has not only upended

Artist: Martine Syms In cybersecurity parlance, a “threat model” maps a digital system’s vulnerabilities to anticipate possible threats from hacking. But in the hands of Martine Syms, Threat Model (hanging until June as part of the Uncanny Valley exh

When Chuck Taggart arrived in Los Angeles in 1982, as a graduate film student from New Orleans, his new address was just minutes from Los Angeles International Airport. The very location seemed to imply a contingency plan: no matter what happens, eas

In 2004, when Nick Lum was a college senior, he had an idea for improving on-screen reading. “We made screens as a way of mimicking paper,” he says. “And that makes a lot of sense.” Paper, after all, works great for readability. But Lum wondered whet

Think of the cars that define particular eras and places in California. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Hummer and Elon Musk’s Tesla. The Kustom Kulture streamlined babies famously written about by Tom Wolfe and the lowriders of East Los Angeles and San Fran

When you live in a big city, you are a sound designer, whether you know it or not. You alter your sonic landscape each day to fit your changing needs. But while a city’s din can be measured in decibels, at heart it’s an imaginary construct as varying

I just want to make things that are functional and feel good,” says Portland, Oregon–based ceramicist Kati von Lehman. Her work tends toward unfussy forms, like a rounded vase with large white polka dots, or her latest take on a mug, which has a “squ

WHY I WRITE It was New Year’s Eve in Guadalajara and we were celebrating the march of time with my abuelitos. Their home moldered in a neighborhood called Mezquitan Country, and because a hamburger stand operated across the street, the house often sm

My new book, a collection of essays called The Hard Crowd, begins with a quote from Clarice Lispector: “What others get from me is then reflected back onto me, and forms the atmosphere called ‘I.’” As I assembled my observations about the world, the

I write because I would like to live forever. The fact of my future death offends me.” This is the opening to the late Reginald Shepherd’s essay “Why I Write.” It is an essay with which, if I am being completely vulnerable, I am mildly obsessed—a lon

EFLEDA SLIPPED FROM HER MOTHER IN A TWILIGHT FOG, hair dark and a squall to rival the waves. The ease of her birth became a frequent story, a boast for parents to tell at parties. “We were driving,” her mother would say, eyes glittering, bouncing Efl

Ada Limón is the author of five books of poetry, including The Carrying, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award. She’s originally from Sonoma, California, and lives in Lexington, Kentucky. It seemed a furtive magic—sun ricocheting off crestin