Forward Motion in Eagle Rock for a Major Development, Liquor Licenses and Historic Preservation
By Bill Hendrickson
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Keeping Hunger at Bay, NELA Food Pantries Face New Challenges
By Emily Jo Wharry
The surge in unemployment amid the coronavirus pandemic has led to longer lines at food pantries in Northeast Los Angeles and, at the same time, new distributions methods to maintain social distance.
The dual need – for food and for distance – poses a logistical and spiritual challenge: At the twice-monthly pantry run by Iglesia de la Comunidad Presbyterian Church in Highland Park, what used to be a two-hour shift for volunteers now takes a full day of work, said Pastor Roberto Ramierez.
The story is similar at Iglesia Pentecostal Esmirna, also in Highland Park, which runs a food pantry once a week. A third local pantry, at Hathaway-Sycamores Child and Family Services in Highland Park, recently switched to distribution by appointment.
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Home Prices in NELA Stay High, At Least For Now
By Jeffery Marino
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Homeless in Eagle Rock: Life in the Encampments
Encampments Expose Harsh Realities for People on the Street and Those Trying to Help. Read about it in this report by Joel Sappell for the Boulevard Sentinel.
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Crime and Punishment in Northeast L.A.
This month focuses on a conviction for burglary in Eagle Rock, a sexual preditor also in Eagle Rock, a hearing for a a person know for harassing and threatening women and the bomb threat at Franklin High School.
Continue ReadingClosing Time
What next? Here how an up-coming High School senior is coming to deal with the existential of life.
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Editor’s Notebook: June is Pride Month
The annual L.A Pride Parade, under the theme #JUSTUNITE, returns to Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood on Sunday, June 9. The parade draws thousands of people – LGBTQ+ and straight – in a spirit of unity and togetherness. For more information, visit: lalgbtcenter.org
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Kudos
A four-member team of math, science and engineering whizzes from Luther Burbank Middle School in Highland Park took second place at the state level of the National Engineering Design Challenge at UC Irvine on May 12. Team members Julissa Merino, Kimberly Rizo, Sherla Chen and Won Joo Joswick, will all move on to high school […]
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Wanted: Your Opinion
As part of the Los Angeles River revitalization, a ranger corps is being developed to ensure the public’s safe and enjoyable access to recreation along the river. A survey asks for you to rank your safety concerns on the river – lighting? pollution? crime? etc. – and help define the role of a river ranger. […]
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Calling All Artists
Building on its successful year-long collaboration with Avenue 50 Studio in Highland Park, the Arroyo Arts Collective is calling on artists to submit their work, either individually or with fellow artists, for possible display at the studio. The Collective will also review submissions from curators who wish to put on exhibits of artists’ work. This […]
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Help for Veterans
Wellness Works, an organization in Glendale that helps veterans self-heal through training, education and treatment, is holding a weekend workshop from Friday evening, June 8 through Sunday, June 10. Led by Fr. Michael Lapsley, founder of the Institute for the Healing of Memories, the workshop’s focus is on emotional healing by exploring and acknowledging veterans’ […]
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June is Gay Pride Month
The Dodgers will host LGBT night at the home game against the Atlanta Braves on Friday, June 8. Pre game festivities start at 5:30 p.m. with the 2018 L.A. Pride Kickoff Party in the Right Field Plaza Pavilion Bar, lasting until the first pitch at 7:10 p.m. The event will also include an LGBT Dodger […]
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Activists in NELA Continue to Take On the NRA
Drain the NRA, the anti-gun violence group co-founded by Laura Mannino of Highland Park, has notched another success: On May 9, the $225 billion California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) adopted a gun-control policy developed by John Chiang, the California state treasurer, and promoted by Drain the NRA. Under the new policy, CalSTRS will pressure […]
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Shootings Rattle Highland Park
NELA Councilmember Gil Cedillo and the Los Angeles Police Department will hold a community meeting on Tuesday, June 5 to discuss concerns and issues in Highland Park. The meeting will be at St. Ignatius Catholic Church at 322 N. Avenue 61 from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. There will be a lot to talk about, […]
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Trash Pickup Fight Lands in Court
Universal Waste Systems (UWS), the designated garbage collector for businesses and apartment buildings in Northeast Los Angeles, has been named in a new lawsuit to overturn the trash-collection system imposed by the City of L.A last July. Four other trash haulers, each of which has a city contract to collect garbage in other parts of […]
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The Ref Rodriguez Chronicles
The Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council (ERNC) has added its voice to the chorus calling for Ref Rodriguez to resign his position as NELA’s representative on the Los Angeles school board. In a letter sent to Mayor Garcetti on May 14, the ERNC said it had lost confidence in Mr. Rodriguez to fulfill his duties and […]
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Eagle Rock 2nd Grader Wins Music Composition Contest
Violet Rivers, a second grader at Eagle Rock Elementary, has won a national Award of Excellence in Music Composition for a song she wrote, arranged and recorded, entitled Transformation, about a caterpillar and butterfly who long to be friends. The award was granted in May by the National Parent Teacher Association, which holds an annual […]
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New Mural Is a Magical Ode to Highland Park
Highland Park has a new mural. It is Crea mementos Majicos (Create Magical Moments), on the side of the Tinfoil Liquor and Grocery Store on Figueroa Street – a brightly painted mural with the community’s landmarks under a flying alebrije, a fantastical mystical creature that came to artist Soledad “Sol” Luongo in a dream. “I […]
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New Mural Is a Magical Ode to Highland Park
Highland Park has a new mural. It is Crea mementos Majicos (Create Magical Moments), on the side of the Tinfoil Liquor and Grocery Store on Figueroa Street – a brightly painted mural with the community’s landmarks under a flying alebrije, a fantastical mystical creature that came to artist Soledad “Sol” Luongo in a dream. “I […]
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A Tally of NELA’s College Bound Seniors
For the first time in its long history, Benjamin Franklin High School in Highland Park will have two valedictorians in a graduating class. Henry Gomez and Raymond Hernandez have tied for the honor this year, based on their grade point averages and the rigor of their coursework. Mr. Gomez will attend UC, San Diego in […]
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Remembering: Charlotte Belle Gornto (1922- 2018)
Cherished wife, mother and friend, Charlotte Belle Gornto passed away peacefully on May 12 at her home in Palm Desert. She was 95. The older of two children of Clara and Jerry Morris, Charlotte was three years old when her family moved from Portland, Oregon to Northeast Los Angeles. She attended Aragon Avenue Elementary School […]
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St. Barnabas Is at the End of an Era
The congregation at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Eagle Rock will hold its last service on Sunday, June 10 at 2:30 p.m. The congregation, now at about 15 members, is being disbanded because it is too small to shoulder the church’s rising expenses, said Karen Morgan, the senior warden and parish administrator at St. Barnabas. […]
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Business Openings, Anniversaries and Closings in NELA
Opening Eagle Rock Poke Shack, a new family run restaurant, features the super-fresh fish and vegetables that make poke so popular and delicious, plus creative twists on the Hawaiian classic that will keep you coming back. Owners Jason Novak and Kelly Britton, who moved to L.A. from Chicago in 2016, are poke connoisseurs who have […]
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Q&A: Josh Shaw Is Staging a Once-in-a-Lifetime Opera in Highland Park
Josh Shaw is the founder and artistic director of Pacific Opera Project (POP), which has staged over 10 operas in Highland Park since 2012. His latest project is La gazzetta, a rarely performed Rossini opera that will open on June 28 for a five-night run at the Ebell Club on S. Avenue 57. This will […]
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Environmental Mural Is Being Restored
A huge mural of classic cars and people at a Highland Park car show, painted in 2004 on a wall facing the parking lot of Pep Boys (now the Auto Zone) on Figueroa St, is being restored by Rich Raya, the artist who first painted it 14 years ago. Entitled “Used Oil Recycling Mural,” it […]
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Get to Know: Max Arias
In 1980, when Max Arias was five years old, his family – father and stepmother, mother and two sisters — fled the civil war in El Salvador, where his father, an economist, was active in politics and labor organizing with the then-outlawed leftist FMLN party. For young Arias, it was the second time he had […]
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NELA Real Estate in 2018: Big Money and Big Issues at Stake in Regulating Short-Term Rentals
Los Angeles is awash in short-term rentals (STRs) and neighborhoods in Northeast L.A. are no exception. A recent glance at Airbnb and other STR sites turned up 251 offerings in Highland Park at an average rate of $98 per night, 159 in Eagle Rock at an average rate of $159 per night and 118 in […]
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Lani Says: In the Summer Time
by Lani Tunzi Summer in Eagle Rock has always been a time of fun, ease and possibility. School is finally out and students can spend the time that had been taken up studying for finals on seeing their family and friends. They can sleep into the afternoon, procrastinate on starting their summer reading lists and […]
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A Voice in the NELA Wilderness:Grow Your Own Oyster Mushrooms
Matt Heidrich of Highland Park loves oyster mushrooms – so much, in fact, that he has mastered the intricate art and science of home cultivation. I visited him recently and learned a lot. Oyster mushrooms grow on the sides of old and dying trees; in the Arroyo Seco, they commonly grow on willows and cottonwoods. […]
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Letter from the Publisher
I am so proud of this issue of the Boulevard Sentinel. Bill Hendrickson’s reporting on the impending eviction of two senior citizens in Eagle Rock is advocacy journalism at its best. The achievement of local high school graduates in the Class of 2019 is something the entire community can feel good about. The front page […]
Continue ReadingLetter from the Publisher
Welcome to Summer, 2018. It’s cliché to say that time flies, but it’s a cliché because it’s true! I don’t know about you, but I can’t hear “Pomp and Circumstance” without tears coming to my eyes. Everyone in NELA has cause to be proud of the Class of 2018, from Franklin High and Eagle Rock […]
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