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For the past couple months, I’ve been observing the vacant storefront in the shopping plaza on the northeast corner of Santa Monica and Vermont. It’s the westernmost storefront, on 1134 N. Vermont, which for years – every since I could remember – was a Los Burritos restaurant. But it was cleared out some time […] 
Here I am giving a tour of East Hollywood during LA Commons' Found LA Festival, October 2011. I wear many hats, and one of them is tour guide. Or rather, neighborhood docent. I’ve been involved with the nonprofit organization LA Commons for the past 5 or so years. They do wonderful […] The apartment complex at 822 N. Mariposa Ave, where Dodger Stadium beating suspect Giovanni Ramirez was arrested on Sunday morning. I heard the Big News Story Of The Week on Sunday morning while driving. So went the radio: “There’s been a breaking development in the beating of Giants fan Bryan Stow. The LAPD […] All my life, while driving, biking or walking along Fountain Avenue, I’ve always seen it: The image of a mustachioed old man on a wall with wavy, spaghetti-like white hair staring in a gaze towards the east. Many people have (understandably) mistaken the man for 20th century scientist Albert Einstein. But somehow I’ve always known […] Today wasn’t only another Cahuenga Library Mini Clean-Up, but the one-year anniversary of the native plant garden at the Library. So I went out to European Baking Co. on the way to the Library on Santa Monica Blvd and got a small red velvet cake for the volunteers. I got to water the plants as […] One year ago today, we did our successful Big Sunday event at the Cahuenga Branch Library, and now we’re heading toward another. Just a block away from the Library is Lexington Ave. Primary Center, where I took the U-Haul cargo van onto the school campus and got to unload the mulch, water and t-shirts (and […] Santa Monica Blvd, east of Vermont, circa 1954. The Cahuenga Branch Library can be seen right of center (From USC Digital Archives) I’ve never thought of myself as a historian. I’ve always been interested in history, particularly local history, and I’ve always been an active writer…but never a historian. But oftentimes, you grow […] Appropo for Earth Day today, I was able to make a little addition to the garden thanks to Friends of Cahuenga Library president Sylvia Gutierrez, who donated three bags of mulch to our library garden! I met with her in Pico-Union where she signed off on the contribution form for our CD13 Clean & Connected […] I have three pairs of shoes that are in bad shape, but not in that band enough shape that they couldn’t be saved. Fortunately there’s a place in the neighborhood just a few blocks away that’s able to help. Inside the massive indoor bazaar known as “Uni Discounts” (4632 Santa Monica Blvd) carries a veritable […] |