Urban Agenda Los Angeles: Real Locals Sharing City Secrets

Every city has its boring guide with information about restaurants, malls, and museums. Finding low-key advice from a real local, however, is hard to come by. With Urban Agenda we find actual locals who are passionate about their city and ask them to recommend their favorite watering holes, inspiring landscapes, secret hot-spots, and off-the-grid restaurants. After all, everybody hates a tourist.

For our inaugural installment we take a tour of Los Angeles with blogger/curator @haremrenaissance, whose excellent Instagram account collects weird, wild, and sexy imagery from the cocaine 80s and DayGlo 90s. (Think Night Rider, Hard Ticket To Hawaii, and vintage Playboy.) Take a trip to her must-have coffee stop, hippy palace, indoor swap meet, and more in this first-person ride through her own private Los Angeles. If you would like to be featured on Urban Agenda, email [email protected].

RELATED: The Coolest Free Things to Do in NYC This Weekend
RELATED: The Best Cities for Street Art
RELATED: 10 Killer Karaoke Spots in New York City

Neighborhood: Silver Lake
Address: 3900 Sunset Blvd.

This is where I get my coffee on the weekends. It has a Moroccan/French cafe vibe, and everything in there makes me forget I'm in Silver Lake (except for the patrons, who are mostly writing manuscripts on their laptops or searching for a new bandmate). The aesthetics speak to the Arab in me—Moroccan sandals and clothing for sale, figs and sesame cookies in wooden baskets, and good, strong coffee. The morning light and the hand-painted windows inspire me to explore other treasures in L.A.

Neighborhood: Harvard Park
Address: 1600 W Slauson Ave.

This is the closest thing to Brooklyn's Fulton Mall that we have in L.A. This is where I get my nameplates, my airbrushing, my sneaker shopping, and my people-watching on. It's one of my favorite sides of L.A.—men selling pitbull puppies in the parking lot, girls bargaining for doorknockers, and shop owners on their grind. Nothing makes me more hungry to get my hustle on so I can come back and get just ONE more customized necklace.

Neighborhood: West Hollywood
Address: 7961 Melrose Ave.

If you’re anything like me, you might accidentally spend an entire paycheck on the most beautiful lingerie you’ve ever seen here. If you’re exactly like me, you’ll probably do this twice a month. Everything about AP feels overtly sexy while perfectly tasteful, and I find that refreshing. I love browsing vintage lingerie catalogs for style inspiration, and one of my favorite things about shopping at Agent Provocateur is that it feels the way I imagine a lingerie store would have felt decades ago. The girls who work there are dressed in sexy lingerie themselves; plus they’ll serve your man a drink while he waits for you to try on your new goodies. Nothing here is cheap. But then again, nothing looks cheap either.

Neighborhood: Everywhere
Address: Everywhere

L.A.'s car culture is part of what makes it so incredible to live here. Our desert climate means a lot of classic cars have survived winter after winter unharmed. Every weekend, proud owners bring cars old and new, rare and less rare, to share over coffee in Irvine. I love the 70s and 80s, and there's no better way to appreciate them in my opinion, than through cars. Seeing a Buick GNX next to a Masarati import that isn't street legal next to tracked out Porsche 911 on a Saturday morning reminds me of why I'm so lucky to live in L.A. Plus, I can't help but imagine what these cars would look like with an '80s babe behind the wheel (or across the hood).

Neighborhood: Griffith Park
Address: 2800 E Observatory Ave.

If I had been asked about my 10 most inspiring places in L.A. 15 years ago, I probably would’ve mentioned Griffith Park and the Observatory back then, too. The difference is, then it would’ve been because I was “under the influence” of the Pink Floyd Laser Light show. Now, it’s because of the hiking trails, the city views, and the people watching. Nothing more perfect than meeting friends at Trails Cafe on a Saturday morning or making out with your date at the top of the mountain on a Sunday afternoon.

Neighborhood: Downtown
Address: 317 Broadway

I know recently there has been a lot of hype over all of the new businesses in GCM such as Egg Slut and DTLA Cheese. While it's nice to know of a place to get a decent breakfast sandwich, I'm most interested in the older vendors, the ones that have been there for generations. I'm afraid these are the stalls that are getting pushed out by the newer, hipper businesses. These are the vendors that sell spicy mole by the pound, dried chilies, used gold, ripe fruit and Mexican street food. The signs are hand painted, the products are colorful and imperfect, and it's a mistake to pass by these stalls on your way to a $9 fresh-pressed juice.

Neighborhood: Hollywood
Address: 1947 N Cahuenga Blvd.

This is my favorite studio to get my barre workout on. Not only does it speak to the 80s workout maniac that lies within me, but it keeps me selfie-ready year round. They play good music in class, the teachers are down to Earth and most importantly, their tag line is “Butt School.” If I could get a PhD there, I would.

Neighborhood: Silver Lake
Address: 1033 Myra Ave.

Being an L.A. native, I can't deny my inner hippie. And neither can Spellbound Sky, my go-to rock shop. I'm driven and goal oriented, and as soon as I know I want something, I go after it. Spellbound Sky has not only the most carefully curated offering of gem stones, crystals and minerals, but they are also very knowledgeable about the powers theses stones hold. Time after time they've helped me find a stone that could help me manifest something I envisioned. Plus they have tons of treats to cleanse your home of bad energy such as sage and palo santo (a wood that brings good luck and cleanses energy when burned).

Neighborhood: Downtown
Address: 125 Paseo de la Plaza

In addition to being the oldest part of downtown Los Angeles, this Mexican marketplace is also home to Avila Adobe, the oldest standing residence in the city. While that’s a draw, I come to buy custom leather embossed belts, embroidered Guatemalan blouses, serapes for the beach, hand-painted pottery and horchata for the road. No doubt, it takes some patience to wade through the elementary school field trips and the tourist souvenirs, but it’s well worth it if you want a little piece of Mexico without crossing the border.

Neighborhood: Venice Beach
Address: Venice Beach

It's no secret that I love 80s babes, rollerskates and So-Cal skate and BMX culture. All of these things are alive and kicking on any given Saturday along the Venice Beach Boardwalk. Sure, it's sketchy and crowded, but behind the layer of grime, there are glimpses of perfectly preserved 80s L.A. In fact, you can still find dead-stock vintage shades, postcards and shirtless, long-hair-don't-care skater dudes and bikini clad beach bunnies on wheels.