LA Eastside

Of course, I’m talking about Santa Monica’s newly adopted rent increase of 1 percent (effective September 2009 through August 2010) for their rent-controlled units, compared to the 4 percent increase the city of Los Angeles will allow in our rent-stabilized units (effective July 2009 through June 2010).  Santa Monica’s Rent Control Board approved the relatively small increase last week in consideration of the hard times that currently afflict even the bourgie classes of renters in that city.  To say the least, it’s thought-provoking to see the contrast between the two cities’ rent policies… to think that those of us lucky enough to live in rent-stabilized units in LA could see our rents go up 4 percent after July 1—even while housing market rates actually drop in the face of rising unemployment.  

How the hell can that be, you ask?

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This is a reminder that Plaza Community Services FREE clothing event is on schedule and will occur RAIN OR SHINE! A big tent will be in place to make sure everyone is comfortable. The event will take place at 4018 City Terrace Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90063 from 9am to noon. We recommend individuals be in line before 9am. Call Cecilia Mercado at (323) 267-9749 or e-mail her at cmercado@plazacs.org for questions.

Good news! A donor was kind enough to provide FREE donuts; coffee and milk to every person in line. 5,000 clothing items have been collected and we’re excited about giving it all away! We want to make sure everyone that needs clothing knows of the event.

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You can take that title two different ways.  As in either poor quality food or just food of the poor. Sometimes it can mean both things. Which did you assume?

This was my lunch today. (Well, only half of it was, the rest went into the trash bin.) I was down on N. Broadway, thought I’d have some hot and sour soup from the new Chinese food place, as everyone knows that’s my favorite soup ever. Or now they do. Yes, even over menudo or sopa de zanahoria. Hmm, for only $2 more I can get the “combo”, seems like a good deal.

And that’s how it starts.

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The other day Felcia Montes a homegirl of mine posted on her FB that we got kids marching to keep their sub par education funded, college students on hunger strikes, yet we all are just tweeting and IMing each other. Where is the anger?

It reminded me of my students who got two jobs to pay for school and how it will cost more next semester; about the ones that dropped out to work and help save their family home; about the bank VP who worked 25 years at the same bank who one morning got a phone call telling her she was fired, her 401k was worthless and that there would be no severance check; about the fathers who killed their families and themselves when their economic stability crumbled; about the empty stores; empty promises and on and on…
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The United States has the highest incarceration rates in the world. We’re a country that in some parts uses the test scores of third graders to figure out how many future prison beds we should be building.

So I guess that means if you’re not scoring high on test, you’re not going to get a job, since you live in America you have two choices: homelessness or crime.

Pull yourself up by your boot straps or we’ll lock you up.

In America that seems perfectly reasonable.

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You will have to excuse me for posting this here, as I usually put my HR reviews over on my personal site. (And you’ll also have to excuse the multiple colons and the terrible title!) But I thought this special offer was too good to keep to myself, especially in these times of La Crisis.  And I’m not talking about the 50 cent tacos either, I’m here for the Mexican breakfast dish known as Huevos Rancheros!

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Uh Oh! If Mexico is on the shit list of the paranoid conspiracy theorists can the LA Eastside, which is considered the capital of all things Mexican in the USA, be on the shit-list too?

I don’t know about youse guys but mañana all my bacon, Jimmy Dean sausage, chorizo de puerco, carnitas, chicharrones, and even the head cheese and morcilla that I got from the matanza this last winter, is going to be fed to the dogs or given away to the winito’s down on the corner.

It’s starting to look like a holy jihad or a fatwa against anything resembling or having to do with Mexican. Shit it’s bad enough that Gloria Molina has got the anti Mexican forces all in a foam about the “Edward Roybal, Linea de Oro” , last thing we on the Eastside would want is the Rush Limbaugh shock troops campaigning for a total quarantine on the LA Eastside over this Marano flu.
Those culero’s might think we’re part of the “reconquista plot” to take back the southwest. Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!
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I was driving by the park on Spring when I saw this long line, might as well check it out. It turns out all these poor souls are waiting for a chance to get some cheese and bread. La Crisis deepens.

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Forget the hat tip, I fully take my sombrero off to thank regular LA Eastside commenter and sometimes post submitter Urbanista who has insisted that we try Chago’s Tortas Ahogadas. Yup, he was right, they make some crazy good tortas! Click ahead para ver!

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AIG man gets all the eggs (click to enlarge)

(h/t Wooster Collective)

EASTER AIG HUNT from ABOVE on Vimeo.

Happy Easter, Passover and Springtime to all the LA Eastside readers!

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