Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council – Get Involved! The Historic Highland Park NC will host a mini forum in response to the preliminary draft of the new Los Angeles City Council districts. A guest speaker representing the City of Los … Continue reading
Los Angeles–On Sunday, February 5, 2012 Heritage Square Museum and Yale Cabaret Hollywood join forces to share the captivating “Tales of the Old West”. Performed inside the magnificent 1876 Perry Mansion parlor, join fourth-generation storyteller, playwright, and actress Barbara Bragg, … Continue reading
At Range View and 50 by Caroline Aguirre On late Sunday afternoon, 01-29-2012, at approximately 4:20 pm, several of us were having a dinner meal. We observed a Black and White police vehicle traveling north on Avenue 50 at Rangeview … Continue reading
Councilmember Huizar’s proposal to ban all medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles was unanimously approved by the City Planning Commission Thursday. The Councilmember attended the meeting in Van Nuys to speak in support of the proposal. In light of a … Continue reading
So many important community issues were aired at the January 2012 Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce Board meeting, that it may well be a preview of what the new year has in store for the community of Eagle Rock. On … Continue reading
NOTE: TO NOT COMPETE WITH SUPER BOWL SUNDAY-NEW DATE for PERFORMANCE On Sunday, February 12, 2012 Heritage Square Museum and Yale Cabaret Hollywood join forces to share the captivating “Tales of the Old West”. Performed inside the magnificent 1876 Perry … Continue reading
How L.A. City Council Got Those Huge $178,789 Salaries – Page 1 – News – Los Angeles – LA Weekly.
Portantino Introduces Bill to Continue Efforts to Protect Public Safety Measure to Ban Openly Carrying Unloaded Long Guns in Public SACRAMENTO, CA – Assemblymember Anthony Portantino (D-La Canada Flintridge) has introduced AB 1527, a measure that will prohibit individuals from … Continue reading
Gomez gets 59% of vote for Democratic Party endorsement near super-majority of Democrats prefer him for official party candidate On Sunday, nearly 60% of Democratic Party delegates in the 51st district voted to make Jimmy Gomez the official candidate of … Continue reading
Los Angeles–On Sunday, February 5, 2012 Heritage Square Museum and Yale Cabaret Hollywood join forces to share the captivating “Tales of the Old West”. Performed inside the magnificent 1876 Perry Mansion parlor, join fourth-generation storyteller, playwright, and actress Barbara Bragg, … Continue reading
Abode Communities Teams with LAUSD on Landmark Project that Combines Living and Learning WHEN: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 3:00 p.m. WHERE: Rio Vista Apartments 3000 Verdugo Road Glassell Park, CA 90065 WHAT: Abode Communities, LAUSD, Los … Continue reading
Greetings! Thank you for your patience and trust. After deep contemplation with Ellen, I have decided not to run for office during the 2012 election cycle. As many of you know, the last 13 months have been very difficult for … Continue reading
Jan, 17, 2012 – Eagle Rock, CA – Allen Compton tells about the Colorado Boulevard Median Pilot Project at the Eagle Rock Historical Society Meeting
The January 17 meeting of the Eagle Rock Valley Historical Society was an unusual one, as custom of looking at Eagle Rock’s past was foregone for the present, and future of Eagle Rock. The meeting billed as “What Now?” was a play on the “Then and Now” mantra of historians and featured presentations from the leaders of various efforts to improve the community, and “…continue our history of innovation and activism,” as the pre-meeting announcement read.
First up was Allen Compton, who is working on the Median Planting Committee sponsored by Councilman Huizar. They are working on a pilot project on Colorado Blvd. The Historical Society members got to hear and see what types of plants and landscaping design the committee has recommended for the Median between Hermosa Avenue and Argus Drive. They have suggested drought resistant plants and a oak and sycamore trees as well as well as special drainage strategies to make use of stormwater.
Bob Keith of Occidental College talked about the desire of Occidental College to develop relationships with the local Historical Societies, and talked about a couple of projects that they are working on. The preservation and digitization of the collection of old community newspapers from Eagle Rock and Highland Park is in progress. They had accepted the offer of Kirken Alanakian of the big ugly orange senior housing development to store these old newspapers and to work on converting them into an electronic format.
Another interesting effort already underway related to the “WayBack” machine, the Internet archive project that saves and provides access to everything that has been on the world wide web. They purchased a subscription that will search out and specifically archive everything relating to the local communities history on the internet and Occidental College’s as well. He also talked about a Google “History Pin,” which is a virtual place where people come together to share their historical pictures and stories and allows visitors to explore Google Maps through an extra dimension which is time. Locations show up on a google map going back into time. Fascinating. I need to look into that a bit more.
Next we heard from Bob Gotham, President of TERA, the Eagle Rock Association. He told about the progress of the Take Back the Boulevard effort, and invited all to come to the formal meeting on the subject this Thursday at 7:00 p.m., also at the Center for the Arts.
Finally, Carmen Castillo, who has accepted the responsibility of leading the organization founded by John Stillion, the Collaborative Eagle Rock Beautiful. She talked about their progress and latest plans for the beautification of Eagle Rock, including the median and parkway plantings on Eagle Rock Boulevard. Also given was an update of the 4.5 acres of wilderness that the Eagle Rock Canyon Trail is on. A fun video of the trail including the directions of how to reach it was shown as well.
Carmen finished with a plea for volunteers and donations from community members.
President Eric Warren finished the meeting by announcing the meetings to follow this week, the High Speed Rail presentation organized by the ERCPR group on Wednesday at Eagle Rock City Hall, and the Take Back the Boulevard workshops to be held Thursday right back at the Ce nter for the Arts Eagle Rock.
Posted in Arts and Entertainment, CD14, COMMUNITIES, Eagle Rock, Events, PEOPLE
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January 15, 2012 – Highland Park, CA – AD51 Candidates, Luis Lopez, Arturo Chavez and Jimmy Gomez at the AD51 Northeast L.A. Candidate Forum.
by Tom Topping
The middle of the day on Sunday, January 15th, didn’t seem like the usual time for a candidate forum, but the Northeast area event turned out to be informative and well attended. As it was organized by members of the Stonewall Democratic club, and members of the Democratic Central Committee and the Democratic State Central Committee, the candidates were, of course, all democrats, and just happened to be all latino as well.
It was not easy to differentiate one from the other when it came to their positions on issues like taxation and supporting labor unions, education and healthcare. However, the life experiences of the three candidates, and their individual abilities to communicate are what set them apart most.
The 51st Assembly District is completely new since the redistricting commission finished their work last year, and encompasses all of Northeast L.A., East L.A. Silver Lake and part of Downtown. It is a predominantly Latino district.
The first candidate to speak, Luis Lopez, was appointed by Mayor Villaraigose and has served on the East L.A. Local Planning Commission for the last few years. He came out hard for public workers saying, “Public workers are the pathways to opportunity that I will fight for.” He added that, if elected, he would work to implement the Federal Health Care Reform, to eliminate the 2/3 majority now required to raise taxes and tax the wealthiest of Californians.
Arturo Chavez, who came from his roots as a middle school teacher, was in business for 15 years, until workers comp reform put him out of business. He then worked for CD1 Councilman Ed Reyes for a few years before joining the office of State Senator Gil Cedillo.
He claimed partial credit for his efforts in passing the Dream Act, which pays for the College education of illegal immigrants as well as the latest legislation aimed at preventing the impounding of unlicensed driver’s cars when they are stopped by police.
I have to say I was subtly impressed with Jimmy Gomez, who started out by working at both Subway and Target. He worked his way up to an education at UCLA where he earned a BA in Political Science and a minor in urban planning. He went on to earn a master in public policy degree from Harvard’s School of Government. He went on to work for L.A. City councilman Mike Feuer’s office and Congresswoman Hilda Solis.
He said he had witnessed people trying to make ends meet at $6.20 an hour, and that, as Assemblyman, he wanted to make sure that health care companies put people ahead of profits. He said he was endorsed by Councilmen Garcetti and Reyes and and Congresswoman Judy Chu.
When asked what the candidates thought of the Governor’s tax initiative, they all were in favor of it and Chavez added that we should also vote for the severance tax on every barrel of oil that is removed from California soil. Luis Lopez chimed in with his desire to remove the Proposition 13 protections from commercial properties. Jimmy Gomez added that the oil severance tax should be 25% and that he was in favor of closing loopholes on corporations as well.
On criminal system reforms, they all were opposed to the death penalty because it coast so much due to all the appeals that it brings, eliminating the three strikes law that ties can impose a lifetime sentence on misdemeanor offenders and that more investment in early intervention was needed.
The next issue was how to help the unemployed. Jimmy Gomez vouched for greater tax credits so that film and television production would stay in the state (In favor of a sort of corporate loophole… odd, right after he had just vouched for closing corporate loopholes a few minute earlier.)
Luis Lopez wanted to “grow” health care jobs.
They all were for public transportation and against the 710 freeway extension, with Arturo Chavez taking some of the credit for legislation under Gil Cedillo prohibiting an above ground option for the 710, and for managing the 710 Caltrans properties.
Overall, my impression was that Luis Lopez was well spoken, but came off as a heartless bureaucrat. Arturo Chavez, who by-the-way was not endorsed by his former boss Ed Reyes, was knowledgeable, but his speaking style was hard to hear and hard to follow. I thought I might have picked up a hint of resignation or weariness in his tone, but maybe that was just his gray hairs talking.
Jimmy Gomez was pretty good; smart, energetic and with some life experiences that Sacramento just might need. Of course, it always worries me when I think a politician is good, because it is really a double edged sword. Sometimes, the better they are the worse they are but for the democratic candidates in the newly drawn 51st, it’s about as good as it’s going to get.
