While some people may not get in regards to unemployment numbers how bad it is out there. We have other indicators that are in my opinion better indicators. And to me unemployment numbers are not a good statiscal visual for the average person (at least not in the beginning,)  jobs have been going away since 2007 and some people have just stopped looking, so how do we see how bad it truly is? Continue reading
For the last two years I have seen this automated public toilet and never once thought about using it. It’s a public restroom I’m not going in there who knows what I might see. However I don’t think people know it’s a toilet because looks can be deceiving. So I decided to give everyone a first hand tour of these amazing craping machines.Â
Botanica or iglesia?
For some time, my work commute across the river took me down the stretch of Melrose Ave near Normandie/Western in Central Los Angeles. At first, I seemed to overlook the big red sign proclaiming “Santa Muerte,” I was more aware of the proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries in the area. Eventually though, the Mexican Blackletter font snagged my attention and I began to realize this tiny storefront was more than just a regular neighborhood botanica.
~ Photo taken by Luz Juan ~ Solar panels broke and the way they fix them is by pulling a Mickey Mouse. They tied the beams up with rope for petes sake !!!!
I swear sometimes I just can’t believe the negligence that happens at school sometimes. I’ve been a proud husky for the last two years and this is the school for second chances. Parents and kids who mess up in high school have another chance make things right and get their life together, but how can we improve when we have shitty schools. Seriously I remember having a class in bungalows that have been around since the school was founded in 1945. Come on gimmy a break. I’ve been talking to P3000 and he totally agrees in the crappy conditions ELAC is in. There’s great teachers here and tons of cute chicks all over the place from all walks of life, but what good is it when your in a class that smells of dead rat or the roof tiles are falling on your head while your in class. Now all the construction is making things hard for the students that are gonna have to put up with it, but those are just growing pains. It’ll all pay off in due time.
Here’s another example from last year. The Elevator broke down and all the custodian could do was block it off and put a sign that says outta service. No mamen cabrones. It’s bad enough I get gouged to the max buying books that I’ll only use once, but this stuff goes too far sometimes. ELAC, no mames.
He’s everywhere on the Eastside. On cars, candles, soaps, and even T-shirts. Seems as though that good old-fashioned, pagan-as-it-is, Mexican Catholicism isn’t enough. The introduction of new ‘idols’ need be introduced like Jesús Malverde, who is the saint of a rather shady group of folks.
FREE PANCAKES AT IHOP! TODAYÂ TUESDAY FEBRUARY. 24th UNTIL 10PM!
http://www.ihoppancakeday.com/
photo by Cindylu
Welcome to Part Two of the Taking Over reviews. A couple of reviews are still making their way through the LA Eastside digital transport, so please revisit this post in the next few days. (New review from Pachuco 3000 below!)
Part one can be found here.
Cindylu:
I’ve lived just a few minutes away from Downtown Culver City since 2000 in Palms South Robertson*. Despite living here for 8+ years, I only recently started spending any significant time (and money) in the area. Previously, there was nothing to do after 5 pm and a dearth of any other sorts of entertainment.
That’s all slowly been changing. The Kirk Douglas Theater playbill featured an article about the “revitalization” (aka gentrification) of DCC in recent years. In a small area you can find several architecture firms, art galleries, a couple of theaters, and several restaurants. On Tuesdays, local growers set up a farmer’s market on a 1-block long Main Street. If you go during a weekend night, you’ll find the 5 or so blocks between the Trader Joe’s and Kirk Douglas Theater quite busy. Now, I regularly shop at Trader Joe’s, buy fruit and vegetables at the farmer’s market, watch movies at the Pacific Theater and eat at some of the restaurants. I’d never gone to a production at the Kirk Douglas until last week. And yes, I can see the inherent contradiction of watching a play on gentrification in my neighborhood due to the gentrification in the area.
Top: Slum houses on Mateo St,
The Flats before being torn down for Aliso Village
outhouse and Clover St. 1940’s
Art’s Market, DogTown 1950’s
The question is often asked by people who didn’t grow up on the Eastside, “what’s the big deal about the Eastside? “Why is it that you people are so uptight about changes and gentrification, and all the concern about Echo Park, Silver Lake, or whoever, claiming they are Eastside?
Well the photos (from the archives of the LA County Housing Authority), show some of the reasons why the people of and from the Eastside are so thin skinned and protective. None of these neighborhoods (and many, many, others), as poverty stricken and rough as they were, exist anymore except in memories. Some of the destruction happened because there were people with good intentions who felt that tearing down neighborhoods and building housing projects was a positive step in alleviating poverty.
Some of the destruction was just an easy way to create wealth at the expense of the poor powerless people of the Eastside.
A play about gentrification? Sounds like an outing for LA Eastsiders! We made our way across town to see if the play would live up to the hype. Did it? Read on…
First, a short summary of the play from the Kirk Douglas Theater website:
OBIE Award-winning solo artist Danny Hoch returns to Center Theatre Group with his riveting new work, Taking Over, a show that brings to vivid life the residents of his Brooklyn neighborhood.
In rapidly changing Williamsburg, the melting pot is boiling over with strained ethnic relations and economic tensions—and the threat of gentrification, which threatens to crush the city’s diversity. Hoch masterfully depicts this community in transition with compassionate and hilarious results.
Read more at the Danny Hoch website. Taking Over ends February 22, that’s Sunday! Oh, and don’t bother watching the opening night video clip on the Kirk Douglas website, lame.
Reviews below, more coming tomorrow…
Thank you PATT MORRISON for telling it like it is in your usual style. Your OP-ED:In L.A., East is East was as refreshing and welcomed as an ice-cold Horchata drink on a summer day. I would like to make an open invitation to you to please accept lunch on me, at the Taco Truck of your choice, anytime, anywhere, in the true East side of L.A.
On the LA River, a tear in the fence.
There’s been lots of mention today of the LA Times map, a work in progress that attempts to define the various neighborhoods in this city. Of particular interest to many of us on this blog, and of course, many people East of the river, was their designation of the region known for a long, long, time as the Eastside. I have to hand it to them, they did the smart thing and stuck with a safe approach, with only Lincoln Heights, El Sereno, and Boyle Heights making the list. Mind you, we all know that East Los Angeles (the unincorporated part of the County) is also part of the Eastside, but it’s not part of the city proper so that makes sense. But Eastside it is, through and through. To the map makers, I raise my glass and toast you some light praise.
Even though Highland Park and some other nearby neighborhoods were appropriately placed in the Northeast region it could be open to some interpretation of it sorta being on the Eastside. I don’t really think so, but it’s possible. But the Northeast and Highland Park are not having an identity crisis, so there’s really no need to figure out if it is or isn’t.
But speaking of identity crisis…
Looks like the Eastside debate is heating up once again. Not to add fuel to the fire, but this morning I happened to come across Patt Morrison’s piece on where the Eastside really is and how haters need to stop frontin’, “What lights my fuse is the attempted rebranding of Silver Lake as the “Eastside,” mostly, I think, by people who stand to make a buck by appropriating the name of one part of L.A. and slapping it on another.” What lights my fuse are those sexy hats she likes to wear hahahaha.
Ed also gets into it and talks about the The L.A. Times trying to map the city, but as he points out, the arts district got the shaft. I also noticed that there’s a South Los Angeles and a Historic South Central Los Angeles. I don’t know exactly what they’re smoking over there at the Times, but in my mind there’s only ONE South Central Los Angeles and that’s the one I lived in on and off as a kid. For anyone who feels inclined to voice their two cents about the map, they also allow you to correct them by submitting a geocomment, which lets you define your hood in the little map they provide.
