Los Angeles For Dummies

Los Angeles aqueduct in Sylmar.

When friends visit from out of town, they’ll often ask me to show them the real Los Angeles. I’ll start by taking them north on the 5 Freeway out of the city towards Santa Clarita. I exit at Roxford Street then turn left on Foothill Boulevard and park beside an innocuous hillside covered with chaparral shrubs. I point to the myriad pipes zigzagging down the mountain and tell them this is where Los Angeles begins.