Incredible stories are behind bland facades: What this departing LA Times columnist loves about her city

Nita Lelyveld has long been the City Beat columnist at the LA Times, writing stories that reveal a lot about the City of Angels and its character. She created an online community through #MyDayInLA to “make a big city feel like a small town,” as she writes in her Twitter profile.

After 20 years with the paper, she recently announced that she is moving to Maine to join the Portland Press Herald.

She tells KCRW, “What I loved about LA was that hidden behind facades that might seem bland, like our mini malls for instance, were these incredible stories and journeys. And I just loved discovering them.”

Even though Lelyveld is originally from the east coast, she says, “LA feels absolutely like home to me. I’m going to miss it so much, I love it so much, and I have lived here now so much longer than I lived anywhere else in my life.”