Eagle Rock Elementary School Kids First to Enjoy Free Metro Field Trip Pass Through a new program supported by Councilmember Huizar as a Metro Board Director, students from Los Angeles County schools can now use Metro buses and trains free of … Continue reading
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Grand Opening of the Centro Cultural Eek’ Mayab Mayan Art to Highlight at Cultural Expo Highland Park Culture will get quite a bit richer this month, when the Centro Cultural Eek’ Mayab cultural center holds their Grand Opening on Sunday … Continue reading
Big Business Reigns Again … as it crushes the tittle guy Last year, Galco’s Soda Pop Stop sold 60,000 bottles of Dublin Dr. Pepper. Next year, they will not sell a single bottle. On January 12, 2012 Dr. Pepper / … Continue reading
Los Angeles–She may not look or sound like Jimmy Stewart, but Jessica Maria Alicea-Covarrubias is going to Washington. Alicea-Covarrubias, Executive Director for Heritage Square Museum, and board member for the Association of Living History, Farm and Agricultural Museums, will travel … Continue reading
NELA Art Walk Saturday, February 11th 7:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. The next NELA Art Second Saturday Gallery Night is coming up. Art gallery owners across Northeast Los Angeles will open their doors to showcase their work to the public. … Continue reading
Police in the northern California city of Vallejo have arrested a suspect wanted in connection with the senseless and brutal attack on a jogger at Yosemite Park last February. This is welcome news as our Yosemite Park Task Force continues … Continue reading
From a Whisper to a Roar
Women Artists Charting Their Own Course
Co-sponsored by the Women’s Caucus for Art, an affiliate of the College Art Association
Curated by Avinger Nelson
Margaret “Quica” Alarcon
Opening Night Reception, Saturday, February 11, 2012 from 7-10 pm
Margaret ‘Quica” Alarcon, Nao Bustamante, Kathy Mas-Gallegos, Suzanne Jackson, Alma Lopez, Felicia “Fe” Montes, Amitis Motevelli, Noni Olabisi, Patricia Rodriguez, Linda Vallejo, Diana Wong, Seeroon Yeretzian, Nancy Uyemura
No two women artists follow the same path through an art career. These remarkable artists have found unique ways to break through the layers of obstacles that laid before them.
This exhibition is part of the Women’s Caucus for Art’s 40th Anniversary celebration and the 2012 National Conference in Los Angeles
A catalog will accompany this exhibition
Avenue 50 Studio, Inc.
a 501(c)(3) non-profit art gallery
131 North Avenue 50
Highland Park, CA 90042
323-258-1435
http://www.avenue50studio.com
Posted in Arts and Entertainment, Events
Community 2 to 1 in Favor of Unifying in One CD
by Tom Topping
On February, 6, 2012, Northeast Los Angeles residents had a chance to tell the Los Angeles City Council Redistricting Commission how they felt about the recently re-drawn districts. The forum, held at Thorne Hall in Occidental College looked pretty empty as only about 100 seats were taken by community members wanting to have their say.
The evening got off to a stressful start for me as the Occidental Campus Security officer who manned the main gate gave no consideration to my need to let off my handicapped mother near the theater entrance, as her emphysema would have made her walk to get in a very long and difficult one. (Hmmm… That may have been an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) violation come to think of it.) I just drove in from the other side and had no problem getting her to a comfortable bench there while I parked my car. (Thankyou CD14 staffer Zenay Loera for looking after her for a couple of minutes) I called Oxy Security to offer them a chance to respond, but they hung up on me. I am still waiting for Occidental Communications to call me back as well.
However, back at the hearing, many staffers of Councilman Jose Huizar were there in attendance, presumably to see who was there and to hear what they said. The chair of the commission started off the meeting by explaining how Northeast L.A. Council Districts would be affected by the proposed maps as currently drawn. He mentioned particularly about that changes to CD14 where Highland Park and Mt. Washington would be removed from the district, and most of Downtown L.A. would be added. He then explained the criteria the commission used to draw the districts.
Number one was that there should be equal potions of population in each district. Secondly, because of the equal protection clause of the U.S. constitution, race cannot be used as criteria. However, the third criteria seemingly is in direct conflict with the second, being that because of the voting rights act, they cannot deprive minority voters, either.
The final criteria was to comply with city, state and federal law to achieve contiguity, compactness, respect existing boundaries and communities of interest.
CD 14 Councilman Jose Huizar was the first to speak, thanking Occidental College for the venue and the Redistricting Commissioners for their work. One, by one, community activists from the Northeast and some from the rest of the city got up to have their say.
Bob Aranaga, who some of you may recognize for his work on the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council Land Use Committee only had one thing to say, and that was that Eagle Rock should remain in the 14th District of Jose Huizar so that the many projects he is working on, namely the Take Back the Boulevard Initiative, would continue under the supervision of Mr. Huizar. Bob Gotham, president of TERA echoed those sentiments when he had his turn to speak, also vouching in favor of both the new and the old boundaries which place Eagle Rock in CD14.
Cathy Milligan of Highland Park, a York Blvd. business owner, had a similar desire, the difference being that she thought the York Boulevard improvement effort, started under Jose Huizar, would best be served by continuing under his jurisdiction. She wanted York Boulevard to remain in CD14 like the current districts are, which would require that the proposed Highland Park boundaries be redrawn into the 14th district, or simply reverted back to the current one which splits that community between two councilmen.
Tina Gulotta Miller of Garvanza also expressed her desire for the Garvanza Area to remain in CD14.
These and others from CD14 and Northeast L.A. basically ignored what might be best for the area in the long run and said they liked the job Jose Huizar was doing and that they wanted him to continue to be their councilman. Others, however had a different idea.
Nancy Wyatt of Highland Park fretted that having Highland Park split between two districts as it has been for the last ten years was something that should be changed, and that because Eagle Rock and Highland Park shared so much, they should be together in the same council district.
Kaye Beckham of Eagle Rock read a letter on behalf of the Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce that also asked for Eagle Rock and Highland Park to be united under the same councilman. Many others echoed this view and added that Northeast L.A. in its entirety should be under the same district.
As there were conflicting voices over whether the majority of Northeast L.A. should be split between two councilmembers or unified under one, there was no argument when it came to the folks from Glassell Park. “Glassell Park, Cypress Park and Mt. Washington should be in the same one,” said Tony Scudalleri of Glassell Park. His partner Doug Dawson said, “All Northeast should be in one district.”
Laura Guiterrez, a major player in the Van de Kamps coalition said, “We need to be whole.” Mitch O’Farrell, a Glassell Park stalwart was in favor of Glassell Park being entirely in CD13, where he has announced he will be running for that council seat next year. Ruby de Vera, a Glassell Park activist who has worked for both CD1 Councilman Ed Reyes and former CD14 Richard Alatorre said, “create a unified Northeast L.A.”
Tony Butka of Glassell Park was one of the few who spoke openly and critically about the proposed districts when he said, “They’re just as gerrymandered as last time,” and indeed, the tell-tale “Dragon” shape of a gerrymandered district fairly describes all three of the council districts in the Northeast area, 1, 13 and 14.
As the map shows here, (also available at http://redistricting2011.lacity.org/LACITY/draftMap.html), Northeast L.A. is broken up into three districts, pretty much as it is now. Although we share the same churches and roads and restaurants we must be split into three separate council districts.
Commissioners were interested in hearing about how the Northeast Community Plan that was created by volunteers some ten or more years ago, combined the communities of Northeast L.A. as they questioned Laura Guitterrez at length about it.
The next commission hearing is downtown at L.A. City Hall on Wednesday, February 8th at 6:30 p.m.
Posted in NEWS
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
Participate in Mayors Villaraigosa’s budget survey by clicking here:
Mayor’s Budget Survey, City of Los Angeles.
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.
Urban Rancho II Saturday, January 21, 2012 HSSC Hosts the day-long Urban Rancho II, a multifaceted event featuring local gardeners, artists, craftsmen, bee-keepers, cooks, and lovers of the home made. Location: Lummis Home, 200 E. Ave. 43, Highland Park, 90031 … Continue reading
Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! On behalf of Councilmember Huizar and the entire Council District 14 staff, we want to wish you all a happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Please note that in observance of this great American, … Continue reading
The investigation will be held on Saturday, February 4, from 7:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. The night will begin with a brief orientation and welcome by the staff of Heritage Square and Haunted Orange County. Guests will then be divided … Continue reading
Please join North East Trees for a memorial to celebrate Scott Wilson’s life and legacy. The event has been scheduled for Sunday, January 29th, 2012 at 1:00 pm at the Herrick Memorial Chapel and Interfaith Center at Occidental College, 1600 Campus Road, Los Angeles, CA 90041. Please join us and other North East Trees supporters who make Scott’s vision possible.
Posted in CD14, Eagle Rock, Education, Events, PEOPLE
Northeast Community Newsletter: Friday, January 6th, 2012 UPCOMING EVENTS Christmas Tree Recycling Program The City of LA Bureau of Sanitation has expanded curbside collection for Christmas trees. All trees will be recycled into compost … Continue reading