Becky Nicolaides
@beckynic7.bsky.social
Suburban historian, latest book The New Suburbia (2024), co-founder History Studio, proud Angeleno, Dodgers 4ever. Dreaming of opening a bakery/bookstore.
Join us this Friday 10:30 for LA History Group, at new San Gabriel Valley Humanities Center! Presenter is Oscar Gutierrez, LMU, "The Debt of Guilt: National Lead Industries and Exide 1970-2015." RSVP here, email us to get Oscar's paper - LA.History.Group@gmail.com. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
LA History & Metro Studies Group | November 14, 2025
Thank you for your RSVP to the Nov 14 session.
This session will take place at 10:30 am at the San Gabriel Valley Humanities Center, 2nd floor conference room.
The San Gabriel Valley Humanities Ce...
docs.google.com
November 11, 2025 at 1:41 AM
Join us this Friday 10:30 for LA History Group, at new San Gabriel Valley Humanities Center! Presenter is Oscar Gutierrez, LMU, "The Debt of Guilt: National Lead Industries and Exide 1970-2015." RSVP here, email us to get Oscar's paper - LA.History.Group@gmail.com. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Join us at the Autry on Sept 7 for a community archiving event -- we'll be discussing grassroots approaches to building local archives, memory, historical resources. Hope to see you there!
theautry.org/events/conve...
theautry.org/events/conve...
Saving Our Stories: Community Archives and Why We Need Them
theautry.org
August 13, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Join us at the Autry on Sept 7 for a community archiving event -- we'll be discussing grassroots approaches to building local archives, memory, historical resources. Hope to see you there!
theautry.org/events/conve...
theautry.org/events/conve...
A belated shout-out to a piece by Andrew VanDam of WaPo, on the nuances of cities, small towns, suburbs - I chimed in for this piece, and a nice mention of The New Suburbia! www.washingtonpost.com/business/202... @oupacademic.bsky.social
Column | Wait, is America a nation of small towns?
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver dropped a bizarre but beguiling statistic about city sizes. Is it true?
www.washingtonpost.com
July 14, 2025 at 1:06 AM
A belated shout-out to a piece by Andrew VanDam of WaPo, on the nuances of cities, small towns, suburbs - I chimed in for this piece, and a nice mention of The New Suburbia! www.washingtonpost.com/business/202... @oupacademic.bsky.social
In midst of one of LA's most intense, challenging summers, we're busy planning for UHA2025LA in Oct. I'm esp excited to announce this panel on Literary LA. It's open to public and all conference attendees. LA's writer community is warmly invited to attend!
www.urbanhistory.org/Literary-LA
www.urbanhistory.org/Literary-LA
Urban History Association - Literary LA
www.urbanhistory.org
July 2, 2025 at 9:03 PM
In midst of one of LA's most intense, challenging summers, we're busy planning for UHA2025LA in Oct. I'm esp excited to announce this panel on Literary LA. It's open to public and all conference attendees. LA's writer community is warmly invited to attend!
www.urbanhistory.org/Literary-LA
www.urbanhistory.org/Literary-LA
Happy to announce the publication of Metropolitan Latinidad, hot off the presses at Chicago! I wrote a piece for this on ethnic suburbia. It's an excellent volume, timely as ever.
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
Metropolitan Latinidad
A wide-ranging collection of essays that centers Latinos in the history of American cities and suburbs. Latino urban history has been underappreciated not only in its own right but for the centralit...
press.uchicago.edu
May 2, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Happy to announce the publication of Metropolitan Latinidad, hot off the presses at Chicago! I wrote a piece for this on ethnic suburbia. It's an excellent volume, timely as ever.
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
Join us at the Huntington this Friday 10:30 for LA History & Metro Studies Group - Eileen Luhr will be discussing her new book Golden States: How California Religion Went from Cautionary Tale to Global Brand. RSVP here docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
LA History & Metro Studies Group | April 11, 2025
Thank you for your RSVP to the April 11 Clark Davis Memorial lecture with Eileen Luhr.
This session will take place at 10:30 am in Seaver Classroom 3 at the Huntington Library.
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Please make a ...
docs.google.com
April 9, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Join us at the Huntington this Friday 10:30 for LA History & Metro Studies Group - Eileen Luhr will be discussing her new book Golden States: How California Religion Went from Cautionary Tale to Global Brand. RSVP here docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Reposted by Becky Nicolaides
Just had a sample of the Eaton Fire ash that is in my driveway run on the department XRF. Is there titanium (new house paint)? Yup. Lead (old house paint)? You betcha. Heavy metals? Check. Treat that ash like it's toxic folks (because it is)
January 17, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Just had a sample of the Eaton Fire ash that is in my driveway run on the department XRF. Is there titanium (new house paint)? Yup. Lead (old house paint)? You betcha. Heavy metals? Check. Treat that ash like it's toxic folks (because it is)
We have been gradually getting on our feet, securing shelter, and calming down. My beloved Altadena is an exemplar of diverse suburbia, it was my perfect home community. Trying to figure out what the future holds for us.
January 13, 2025 at 1:37 PM
We have been gradually getting on our feet, securing shelter, and calming down. My beloved Altadena is an exemplar of diverse suburbia, it was my perfect home community. Trying to figure out what the future holds for us.
Our beautiful 1950 Altadena home has burned, I've been in a state of despair and zen awareness today. Grateful to be alive, with my family, an airbnb sheltering us. This is the home where Brie Larson directed a movie. We lost a lot, fam photos, recipes, my car, pretty much all our earthly stuff.
January 9, 2025 at 2:29 AM
Our beautiful 1950 Altadena home has burned, I've been in a state of despair and zen awareness today. Grateful to be alive, with my family, an airbnb sheltering us. This is the home where Brie Larson directed a movie. We lost a lot, fam photos, recipes, my car, pretty much all our earthly stuff.
Looking forward to my book talk on The New Suburbia at Claremont Heritage on Sun. 1/12 - I'll be focusing on housing and community-building in LA's diverse suburbs. Thank u Denise Spooner for orchestrating!
January 3, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Looking forward to my book talk on The New Suburbia at Claremont Heritage on Sun. 1/12 - I'll be focusing on housing and community-building in LA's diverse suburbs. Thank u Denise Spooner for orchestrating!
New years morning from Colorado Blvd, Pasadena... Rose Parade. Loved this amazing band from Japan, helped spread good vibes for us all.
January 2, 2025 at 2:15 AM
New years morning from Colorado Blvd, Pasadena... Rose Parade. Loved this amazing band from Japan, helped spread good vibes for us all.
I loved seeing this on my walk this morning, gifts for the trash collectors.
December 27, 2024 at 3:30 PM
I loved seeing this on my walk this morning, gifts for the trash collectors.
Hooray - our "LA County Demographic Data Project 1950-2010" is now UP AND LIVE on USC Digital Library. It's all free to use, no paywall. Contains tons of historical data on LA, start with User Guide in 1st folder. Contact me with questions. The dataset is at: digitallibrary.usc.edu/asset-manage...
University of Southern California
digitallibrary.usc.edu
December 20, 2024 at 6:03 PM
Hooray - our "LA County Demographic Data Project 1950-2010" is now UP AND LIVE on USC Digital Library. It's all free to use, no paywall. Contains tons of historical data on LA, start with User Guide in 1st folder. Contact me with questions. The dataset is at: digitallibrary.usc.edu/asset-manage...
Among my husband's many outstanding qualities-he's a member of SAG, which got us into today's screening of Emilia Perez, Q&A with Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez. Incredible talents!
December 15, 2024 at 4:28 AM
Among my husband's many outstanding qualities-he's a member of SAG, which got us into today's screening of Emilia Perez, Q&A with Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez. Incredible talents!
Ellen-Dunham Jones & June Williamson are receiving well-deserved honors by Seaside Institute for their work on suburban retrofitting. It's happening Feb 7-8, I'm thrilled to be a speaker at this 2-day shindig. Come join us! @seasideinstitute.bsky.social seasideinstitute.org/news/seaside...
SEASIDE Institute™ Announces Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson as the 2025 Seaside Prize Recipients
Seaside Prize / February 7- 9, 2025…
seasideinstitute.org
December 4, 2024 at 5:00 PM
Ellen-Dunham Jones & June Williamson are receiving well-deserved honors by Seaside Institute for their work on suburban retrofitting. It's happening Feb 7-8, I'm thrilled to be a speaker at this 2-day shindig. Come join us! @seasideinstitute.bsky.social seasideinstitute.org/news/seaside...
I gotta get off my computer, and start meal prepping -- we've got 15 people coming, and I'm doing most of the cooking and baking. Of course, this is my chance to go crazy with the baking -- pumpkin pie, mile-high apple pie, pecan bars, and on and on...
November 26, 2024 at 9:07 PM
I gotta get off my computer, and start meal prepping -- we've got 15 people coming, and I'm doing most of the cooking and baking. Of course, this is my chance to go crazy with the baking -- pumpkin pie, mile-high apple pie, pecan bars, and on and on...
Our LA History & Metro Studies Group is excited to host 2 wonderful scholars on Fri Jan 24@10:30amPST, via zoom: Phil Ethington (USC) and Rubén Pallol Trigueros (Univ Complutense de Madrid) on “Disorder at the Border: ... Race-Ethnic Segregation & Diversity in LA County, 1930.” More details to come.
November 26, 2024 at 9:03 PM
Our LA History & Metro Studies Group is excited to host 2 wonderful scholars on Fri Jan 24@10:30amPST, via zoom: Phil Ethington (USC) and Rubén Pallol Trigueros (Univ Complutense de Madrid) on “Disorder at the Border: ... Race-Ethnic Segregation & Diversity in LA County, 1930.” More details to come.
Been reading Al Pacino's memoir, and binge re-watching Godfather I & II, two truly epic films (even tho I usually hate violence in films -- these get a pass). It's all a bit nostalgic, and reading Pacino's backstory on all of it has been fascinating.
November 26, 2024 at 8:57 PM
Been reading Al Pacino's memoir, and binge re-watching Godfather I & II, two truly epic films (even tho I usually hate violence in films -- these get a pass). It's all a bit nostalgic, and reading Pacino's backstory on all of it has been fascinating.
We are getting SO CLOSE to releasing the final version of my historical dataset on all LA County municipalities 1950-2010... on the USC Digital Library. It's happening very soon. I'll keep posting on this. It's all open access, more soon!!
November 22, 2024 at 12:11 AM
We are getting SO CLOSE to releasing the final version of my historical dataset on all LA County municipalities 1950-2010... on the USC Digital Library. It's happening very soon. I'll keep posting on this. It's all open access, more soon!!
Thrilled to see my book The New Suburbia and my friend Naomi Hirahara's book Terminal Island on NPR's Larry Mantle's list of favorite LA books of 2024 - his holiday shopping guide. Larry Mantle is a true champion of everything LA. Very grateful for this shout-out.
laist.com/news/los-ang...
laist.com/news/los-ang...
AirTalk Host Larry Mantle's favorite LA books of 2024 (perfect for gift giving!)
Each book on this list offers insight into Southern California.
laist.com
November 21, 2024 at 12:12 AM
Thrilled to see my book The New Suburbia and my friend Naomi Hirahara's book Terminal Island on NPR's Larry Mantle's list of favorite LA books of 2024 - his holiday shopping guide. Larry Mantle is a true champion of everything LA. Very grateful for this shout-out.
laist.com/news/los-ang...
laist.com/news/los-ang...
Contemplating some kind of piece on 1980s efforts to establish "sanctuary" suburbs in LA, during the anti-immigrant backlash of that era. Feels like we've been taking one step forward, five steps back these days.
November 20, 2024 at 6:23 PM
Contemplating some kind of piece on 1980s efforts to establish "sanctuary" suburbs in LA, during the anti-immigrant backlash of that era. Feels like we've been taking one step forward, five steps back these days.
Finally, getting up and running on BlueSky, very happy and relieved to be here. Shoulda done this awhile ago!
November 20, 2024 at 6:06 PM
Finally, getting up and running on BlueSky, very happy and relieved to be here. Shoulda done this awhile ago!