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A mostly-barren strip of dirt along the front entrance of Lexington Primary Center.
This morning I met with Lexington Avenue Primary Center principal Paula Kurilich for a site tour of their campus, with the goal being how the community can help beautify it. I had told her we were looking for prospective Big Sunday projects for this May, and their School Site Council president Maira Montes, who also sits on the EHNC Youth & Education Committee, told me they need help with their garden. So Ms. Kurilich showed me a vacant dirt patch in front, save for two trees, that can use some greening (photo above).
She also showed me some bare dirt lots on their campus, including a little 10×10′ nook which would be perfect for a native garden (above). She also mentioned there’s a bare wall in the back of the campus that would be a great candidate for a mural. I asked if the LAUSD had any strict guidelines regarding mural placement on school campuses, she said there were none, at least none that she was aware of.
The school does have its own (food) garden, which consists of a few rows of raised wooden planters. She said that two teachers are currently speaheading vegetable-growing programs. She pointed out some lettuce being grown. At the end of the tour, my mind was running. That little native plant nook had all sorts of possibilities, and some relatively hardy plants (succulents, perhaps) should stand guard at the front. I also realized that if we were to do a Big Sunday project here, aside from having a much lower overhead than last year’s Cahuenga Library project, this would need less volunteers (probably 60 at most) and shouldn’t plant everything at once; I thought of having the kids plant at the beginning of the school year, and enjoy what they’ve planted when they’re finished in June. Ms. Kurilich also said it would be possible to perform off-track maintenance when school is not in session, one of the concerns the Youth & Education committee had. At the school I also ran into an old friend from the community, Arturo Velasquez, who supervises the kids during their recess and lunch hour. I seemed to have forgotten he worked here, and had been here for quite a while. As we talked, no less than four kids had asked for “Mr. Velasquez” to help them out or point out any minor playtime-related injury to him. Lexington seems to be a great candidate for this year’s Big Sunday project with lots of possibilities, we’ll see what happens. I never thought I’d be someone who starts native plant gardens in the community, but I guess that just comes along with the territory!
Another barren patch of dirt, this one by the cafeteria. Which plants would be best here?
Another barren patch, by the play yard. Places like these need hardy plants to withstand foot traffic.
Another batten area by the play yard. We might keep some areas unplanted for May, so that they can be planted in September when school begins.
The back wall of the school. Can you picture a mural here?
The other back wall. Believe it or not, a train line (Cahuenga Valley Railroad) once ran through here over 100 years ago!
Tonight at the EHNC’s Outreach Committee, I brought up an idea to have “I [heart] East Hollywood” bumper stickers made as a way to stimulate community pride and promote the neighborhood council. After all, today was Valentine’s Day, and what an appropriate way to express one’s love for one’s community (corny, I know, but hey…).
I was inspired by discovering “I [heart] Atwater Village” bumper stickers that were given away at their Centennial street festival last year. Right away, I thought, “Why can’t we have these in our neighborhood?” but then realized that we already have the resources to do this. After all, though I like Atwater Village, I how can I drive around with an “I [heart]” sticker on the back of my car that doesn’t refer to my native community? I mean, gotta represent!
This is what inspired us.
So last week I cooked up the image file in Photoshop and put it on the Outreach Committee agenda. They are similar to the Atwater Village version, save for the EHNC-branded Trebauchet font and naming the geographically-appropriate community and neighborhood council. Also, ours are slightly bigger, at 12 inches across and 3 inches high, I got a quote from Lacey Art Service (our local print shop for Outreach materials), which was $399 for 1,000 stickers, and $499 for 2,500. The committee unanimously voted to go for the 2,500.
This goes to the EHNC Governing Board on the 28th. Can’t wait to see people drive around with these on their cars!
On the set of a James Blunt music video in Downtown L.A.
Walking in Downtown L.A. on Super Bowl Sunday was somewhat appropo this week, after the announcement of the Farmers Field NFL football stadium proposal made headlines this week. But I was here to go to an informal Super Bowl party thrown by my friends Ginny and Alex Brideau at their place in the Pegasus Apartments in the Financial District. On my way there, I passed by a film shoot on Wilshire between Hope and Flower streets. Was this for CSI? Was this for a commercial? Was this for some big-budget movie?
Actually, it was a shoot for a music video – UK singer/songwriter James Blunt‘s upcoming single, “If Time Is All I Have.” It looked pretty involved, since when I left for home, the filming was still going on. I even think I passed by the singer on the sidewalk, though I didn’t even know what the shoot was for at the time. If any of you see the video, you saw it here first.
After I left the Brideau’s place, I went up to the roof to sneak a peek at the view and saw this:
View from the roof of the Pegasus Apartments in Downtown L.A.
Up there there’s a gym, a garden an atrium and even a swimming pool(!). Sorry, didn’t get to have pics of those. Pretty cool for a building that was once the General Petroleum offices. The funniest thing was that the Standard Hotel was right across the street and you can see (and hear) the clubgoers there.
On Sunday night, I did get to talk on the phone to Trisha Gossett, who organized the Arroyo Seco Branch Library cleanup and native gardening event yesterday. She said that the event was a success and ha garnered about 60 volunteers. She also said that she even read part of my email to her to inspire the volunteers there! She told me the origins of the event and how it was borne out of frustration with dealing with some of their library branch staff and their regional branch manager. She did hee dmy suggestion to sustain the effort with a smaller group, and said that in the near future she plans to organize a picnic in their adjoining park with some of the gardening volunteers, so that they get to know each other, and also get some gardening maintenance done in the process. Sounds like community building to me!
Almost ready to bloom - The Cleveland Sage out in front.
We had a small but loyal group of four people clean up the Cahuenga Library today – all of us veterans: Damon and Guia Wood, Amanda and myself, now branding ourselves as the “CahuenGardeners.” The amount of trash was moderately low, save for the discarded plastic hamper in the bushes by the alley and the bunches of dirty blankets near it (Again, I called 3-1-1 from my cellphone to get it picked up). There was also a homeless person’s belongings stashed away behind the bushes on the west side of the building. It was too much for us to discard, so we left it alone. I’m trying to get the homeless service organization PATH to outreach to the person, who wasn’t there.
We found this in the bushes, along with a bunch of blankets. We put the blankets inside and called 3-1-1 for a bulky item pickup.
A homeless person's belongings left here behind the bushes.
Garden-wise, I raked the dead leaves from the back of the Library. Looks a lot neater now. I also raked them from this small section in the rear facing the alley side, thinking about planting a future addition to the garden next Fall.
Thanks to the recent Fall and Winter rainstorms, I didn’t have to water the gardens for several months. In fact, today was the first watering I had to do in a long time.
Some of the plants are blooming, others are about to, like this Hummingbird Sage – the last surviving one from the Big Sunday planting last May:
The last surviving Hummingbird Sage from Big Sunday is about to bloom as well!
I’m also happy to report that Cahuenga wasn’t the only LAPL branch to have a cleanup and gardening event today. I found out yesterday via Facebook that the Arroyo Seco branch in Highland Park had its own cleanup and gardening event today, mainly to address graffiti and trash. I emailed their organizer, Trisha Gossett (a member of the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council) to offer them the best of success and some words of encouragement on their event, and also recommended they sustain their efforts through a regular cleanup/gardening maintenance activity with a small group just like we do here at Cahuenga. She replied, thanking me and thought the follow-up was a good idea. Looks like we’re gonna have a revolution in terms of community care for libraries in Los Angeles!
Our next CahuenGardeners mini-cleanup/gardening event will be on Saturday, March 5.
We had our first proper EHNC Youth & Education Committee meeting tonight, with all four members in attendance. Our committee unanimously voted to recommend the endorsement of the March 8 City election’s ballot Measure L to the EHNC to help our City’s troubled library system by raising the amount allocated to the LAPL from 1.75 cents from every $100 of City property tax revenue to a whopping 3 cents. No big surprise – after all we were meeting in the Cahuenga Library.
John Harris, one of the EHNC’s Governing Board members and member of the Y&E committee, also shared with us his plans for a “A Clean Community is a Healthy Community” essay contest for the local schools. We also had Cathie Ehle, the Cahuenga Library’s Young Adult Section Librarian, join us to give us an update on what’s been going on at the Librarym, such as:
– Valentine Stories and Craft, Tuesday, February 8, 4-5 p.m.
– Free tutoring for high school and younger grades by Marshall High School students, every Saturday starting February 12, 12-2 p.m.
– Computer classes, every 2nd and 4th Thursdays, from 5-6 p.m.
Also, 20 students from Marshall High School and Immaculate Heart of Mary School come in on Tuesday and Thursdays to volunteer at the Library, doing everything from stacking to sorting to helping clean up the Library grounds.
There will also be the first-in-a-long-time Book Sale organized by the newly-resurrected Friends of the Cahuenga Library, planned in the near future.
Quite a lot of activity here at the Cahuenga Library!
Here's damage on the front bumper of my car: Note paint scratch, bent license plate frame and indentation on upper right hand corner of license plate frame.
A funny thing happened to me while I was posting agendas for the upcoming EHNC Youth & Education Committee Meeting.
Having biked to Atwater Village and back for a meeting at The Robert Group earlier in the day, I decided to use my car to go around the neighborhood and post my agendas. So driving south on Heliotrope Drive, right alongside L.A. City College, I followed behind a silver Toyota Highlander who was stopping repeatedly, obviously looking for parking along the street, and obviously someone taking classes at the college. Happens all the time.
Not being in a total rush, I waited for the Highlander in front of me to make the turn and find a spot. Eventually, right after Monroe Street, there was an empty curb space (although in hindsight, this is a permit parking area, so a student probably shouldn’t be parking there in the first place). But I stopped, about six feet behind the SUV, waiting for the driver to maneuver into the curb.
So, at about 10mph, the driver backed up. And backed up. And backed up. And…BOOM.
Hit me right in the front bumper.
Agitated, I instantaneously hit my horn and got out. “Did you not see me?” I said to the other driver, who was an older woman.
The vehicle that backed up into me.
We inspected the respective damage to our cars. Mine had a large paint scratch on the driver’s side of the front bumper, a bent license plate and frame, and an indentation on the bumper behind the upper-right hand corner of the license plate frame. Her car had three barely-visible paint scratches on the rear bumper.
She said something to the extent of “I didn’t see you” and motioned that we should get off the road. She made a U-turn and I followed her. But she kept going. Fearing a hit-and-run, I got down her license plate number and ran after the car. Finally it found a diagonal parking spot over a block away. She asked me where my car was, I mentioned it was parked next to where the accident happened. She asked me to bring up my car, and said she would wait for me. So that I did.
We took pictures of our respective damage.
“What do you want?” she asked me, Me fearing that she had no insurance and simply wanted to pay me out-of pocket for any damages, which I didn’t know would cost.
“I just want your insurance information,” I replied. Fortunately, she produced her insurance info; she was a Mercury policyholder, so we exchanged information. Having gone through this sort of thing before (me being the hit victim always), I did this calmly and professionally; as long as she had insurance, I was cool with it. She mentioned that she was already late for class.
When all that needed to be done was done, as I was ready to pull away and continue with my business, she tapped on my window and asked me to pull my car right behind hers, which I didn’t really understand why, but I complied. Her car remained diagonally parked, and I pulled up slightly behind her vehicle. It looked like she wanted to match the points of impact somehow. After that we went on our separate ways.
Not wasting any time, once I got back home, I called her insurance company to file a claim.
I’ve been asked by The Robert Group to help them do community outreach and canvassing on a sewer rehabilitation project along Vernon Avenue in South Los Angeles (which I just happened to visit not too long ago). If you recall, last year, I helped them do outreach for a community meeting they organized for proposed improvements to the Imperial/Wilmington Metro Rail station.
Today I met with Arcelia Arce from TRG, who gave me information on my assignment; I would be talking to residents and businesses along Vernon Avenue and making sure they knew about the City of Los Angeles’ MAZE 5 sewer rehab project, anticipated to start in March, which would involve major construction along that thoroughfare, particularly on the corner of Vernon and 4th avenues (where the “Junction Structure” is labeled on the map at left). I would also list any concerns the locals had with the project. I would be able to do this any time, as long as it’s done a couple weeks prior to the start of construction. She gave me a City orange vest to help me look official. Actually, the green light to go out would be dependent on her follow-up meeting with the City. But being somewhat familiar with the area, this would be an interesting opportunity to see how people respond to the effects of a large utilities project in their front yard.
In between work on Sunday I was able to attend the swearing-in ceremony of freshman Congresswoman Karen Bass at Robert F. Kennedy Community School in Wilshire Center. Attended by over 600 dignitaries, community activists, friends and constituents alike, it was a massive outpouring of love and a celebration of one woman with a long-standing track record of community involvement, now entering the next phase in her career: U.S. Congress.
Over 600 people packed the RFK Schools' undersized auditorium to watch Bass' swearing-in.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who worked with her in the California State Assembly, spoke, as well as her predecessor, Diane Watson. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was also there to swear her in, accompanied by Karen’s stepdaughter. Many of the speeches lauded Bass and her over three decades of community and public service, from working in the health care field, to starting the nonprofit Community Coalition, to her service in the Assembly. Pelosi said of Bass, “When she first arrived in Washington, many in Congress knew they were looking at someone special.”
Bass also got to speak after her public inauguration (she was already sworn-in in Washington) and spoke about her district’s unique cultural diversity and the power struggles on Capitol Hill, especially with regards to the health care issue. She also mentioned her recent membership in the House’s Budget and Foreign Affairs committees. She also intends to duplicate her “People’s Council” that she started in her Assembly District to her Congressional work.
Inside the RFK Community School campus.
Afterward there was a reception in the center courtyard of the immensely-sized school campus, where constituents, community leaders and public officials chatted and ate amongst each other. It was a great opportunity for Bass’ successor in the State Assembly – Holly Mitchell – to outreach to constituents on an upcoming state budget meeting. It was also the perfect opportunity to peruse the $578 million campus – the most expensive school campus in the country.
The original doors of the Ambassador Hotel's Cocoanut Grove welcome visitors to the auditorium.
The auditorium, which was undersized for such a large campus, contained decor inspired by the Ambassador Hotel’s legendary Cocoanut Grove, which stood on the site. In fact, the original doors of the Coacoanut Grove formed the portals to the auditorium. There was also a multimedia, interactive historical display of Los Angeles history, including videos and mementos from the old hotel, also famous for being the place where the school’s namesake was assassinated.
A historical display on the Ambassador Hotel.
I couldn’t help but wonder about that — since the LAUSD lacks any sort of local history curriculum, whether that was the only local history lesson these kids would ever get. Not to mention the fact that the hotel itself was closed years before any of them were even born. I wonder if any of the historical value of the site is lost among most of the students there, much more for any future students who will attend there.
The thing with having friends and contacts in your City Council office means that it’s going to be difficult to ignore an event from them. Such as the case on Saturday, where it was hard for me to avoid attending L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti’s District 13 Hollywood LAND (Los Angeles Neighborhood Dreams Initiative) visioning workshop at Selma Avenue Elementary School.
I joined an estimated 100 other community leaders, activists and interested stakeholders on a sunny Winter morning to share our visions of Hollywood in the foreseeable future. LAND, a 13th District project which Garcetti hopes would be a model for other council districts to replicate, involves input from community members, actively sustaining their participation through a volunteer steering committee and providing a blueprint by which the council office would steer towards in the remaining two years of Garcetti’s term.
The actual process was rather straightforward, and not unlike many community input-driven workshops I’ve attended: We were broken up into eight groups, each with a facilitator who would note our input and write it down on large Post-In sheets.
I was assigned to Group #6, facilitated by CD13 Senior Advisor Mitch O’Farrell, and I was joined by such folks as Selma Ave. Elementary School principal Dr. Michelle Windmueller, Blessed Sacrament Church pastor Fr. Michael Mandala and Hollywood History Museum director Donelle Dadigan, among others. Mitch asked each of us to list three of Hollywood’s best assets on Post-It Notes, which he put up on the board. We named examples from The Walk of Fame to Runyon Canyon to the Metro Red Line to the Hollywood Farmer’s Market.
Eventually they were grouped into common themes and we named various needs for the Hollywood community – everything from more park/recreation space to jobs to affordable housing, to increased collaboration between the nonprofit, business and government sectors. I personally mentioned the need for large entertainment and media companies such as Paramount, CNN and the various studios (i,e. Hollywood The Industry) to invest in Hollywood The Community, as I’ve long seen a tremendous disconnect between the two. Dr, Windmueller, the school principal talked about the role of schools and other educational institutions, and I added my suggestion that Hollywood The Industry should actively engage and eventually train the children of Hollywood The Community to become their workforce of tomorrow. It was a creative brainstorming discussion, and everyone seemed to be on the same general page in our group – although I heard other groups got a little contentious. And perhaps it was due to our own amicability that we got to wrap up our business well ahead of schedule.
At the end of the session, everyone re-gathered and Garcetti got each group’s facilitators to name off the five priority areas of each group. The councilman and former college professor listed down and synthesized the various topics envisioned from the groups: As mentioned, the process is expected to continue with a volunteer steering committee made up of attendees who filled out a commitment form, and will meet over the next few months. In addition, the council office plans about seven more meetings in different communities around the district, including Echo Park, Silver Lake, Historic Filipinotown and others. These workshops are expected to unfold through Marh-April, and the Hollywood event was planned as a testbed for future workshops. So look out for one in your neighborhood!
A district-wide LAND summit is planned for Saturday, May 7 (location TBD) where community leaders and activists from all over Council District 13 will convene.
Garcetti also plans to take the process into the social media realm through Facebook, Twitter (He recommends the #HollywoodForward hashtag) and blogs.
Though I saw a lot of familiar faces at the workshop, I also met some new ones there as well. Ultimately, with about 100 in attendance, it suddenly dawned on me that Hollywood really was a pretty well-organized and engaged community after all. Either I had taken it for granted, or we have truly grown as a community.Although I signed on for the Hollywood steering committee, I also plan on attending other community workshops, especially the East Hollywood one and the one planned for Historic Filipinotown, so I might actively get involved in those instead.
Overall, people’s visions were optimistic; Those of us who have lived or worked in Hollywood The Community for over 25 years have seen a definite improvement, so we know things can happen. But we also want to take things to the next level. We have dreams. Big dreams. After all, it is Hollywood.
Some of the estimated 100 people who showed up for the Hollywood LAND visioning workshop.
CD13 Field Deputy Ryan Carpio facilitates one of the other groups.
A list of some of CD13's accomplishments and "coming attractions" in Hollywood.
Community members mix, mingle and network. This is Hollywood, after all.
The Compton HS Marching Band marches down Vernon Ave at the end of the Kingdom Day Parade.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Everyone can be great, because anyone can serve.” Many people nationwide commemorated his birthday holiday by spending some time doing service to their community.
Of course, I spend several hours a week doing service to my community in various forms, so I just wanted to enjoy MLK Day by heading down to Leimert Park to enjoy the annual Kingdom Day Parade, which runs from Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and Western Avenue to Crenshaw, and down Crenshaw to Vernon Avenue in Leimert Park.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris rides by in the Kingdom Day Parade.
I only got to catch the last half of the parade, but it was filled with floats, marching bands, local community groups, local businesses and public officials, including newly-elected California Attorney General Kamala Harris, the state’s first African American (and Asian American, too!) attorney general.
Although it was mid-January, the weather felt like the Fourth of July; it was in the lower-mid 80s and ice cream and popsicles were the most popular items found in the crowd.
After the parade there was a street fair at Leimert Park, featuring info/outreach booths, food, a bazaar at the park and entertainment courtesy of KJLH-FM (my favorite station!), with one stage featuring gospel music and another featuring local funk and R&B bands and artists like Michel’le and El DeBarge, who had to contend with several power outages, but nonetheless wowed the crowd with his trademark falsetto vocals. Here’s a video of him singing the DeBarge hit, “Time Will Reveal”:
A great time on a great day. Best of all, us Angelenos didn’t even have to wait until Summer for this kind of atmosphere!
The crowd enjoying the parade from Leimert Park.
Yes, it was that hot that people sought relief from the heat from a fire hydrant mist.
This senior citizen simply got DOWN, to the delight of the crowd!
Michael Jackson impersonators are the new Elvis impersonators.
El DeBarge threw down his falsetto.
These dancers provided their own entertainment by the park!
She also showed me some bare dirt lots on their campus, including a little 10×10′ nook which would be perfect for a native garden (above). She also mentioned there’s a bare wall in the back of the campus that would be a great candidate for a mural. I asked if the LAUSD had any strict guidelines regarding mural placement on school campuses, she said there were none, at least none that she was aware of.
I’ve been asked by 
Today I met with Arcelia Arce from TRG, who gave me information on my assignment; I would be talking to residents and businesses along Vernon Avenue and making sure they knew about the City of Los Angeles’ 
