One thing we can all agree on. In this edition of the rundown I’m walking 18 miles, 40 years of Chicana/o History and other events that I won’t be attending because I’m pretty sure I won’t be doing much of anything after walking 18 miles. Anyone wanna give me a foot massage later ?
For the second year in a row Self Help Graphics auctioned off some of the most eligible bachelors this side of the river. Can you believe that someone was bought off for $600 !?!?!? Yeah, $600 and I’m not talking about monopoly money here folks. Never in my life have I seen to women out bid each other like that. It was madness I tell ya, but all for a good cause, SHG. Here’s a few pics I took of the day and a quick rundown.
Feliz Año Nuevo de la Luna everyone. I’ve been busy with Taco Tech the last few days and haven’t had time to catch up. I have a long list of things to blog about and post. That’s why I came up with “Random’s Rundown.” Like any great idea, this happened while I was in the bathroom. Last night I was making notes on info that I need to post ASAP for y’all to read and I was thinking to myself if I should do single post or bunch everything together. Chimatli already has that covered with the Botanitas post, so I started thinking and then BAM !! It hit me. I’m basically giving everyone the run down on what’s going…. PRESTO “Random’s Rundown.” All the news that is not fit to print, but still hella important. In this installment, Metro meetings for planning on bikes, Mardi Gras with Ollin, Juarez Documentary screening and more from IMIX.
With the city on the brink of anarchy and devastation, here is your chance to do something about it. By joining your local neighborhood city council. Fellow Boyle Heightian, “Rob” notified me about the elections that are going to be taking place from March through June all over the city. How cool is that ? Neighborhood councils act as the eyes and ears of the the City council and of the council members in keeping up with what’s going on in the streets, but from the looks of things you would think that community blogs, like this one, are the new eyes and ears of the city. Anyway, having covered council meetings at school, I have some grasp and understanding as to how the councils work, the power they have and the positive changes they can make, with the right people in place. That and having utter contempt for Roberts rules of order. I motion to stick it where the sun don’t shine. I digress from my point, which is why you should join your neighborhood council or at the very least, be more active and show up to meetings.
I cannot make this stuff up folks. My girl, Xicanisma pointed me to this most random and ironic scene of what a regular day in Boyle Heights looks like. Think about it ? This is the google car that goes around mapping things with that camera on top of the car, incognito. Yet, it manages to catch something like this, police officers stopping to a person who may or may not be a cholo, you can make that up for yourself. Having him get into pat down position. The address on here is 2030 E. 1st Things like this make the barrio look bad and might scare off potential investors who wanna develop, but that’s just the way things are here in Boyle Heights.
If it’s one thing I’ve learned in life is that you don’t fuck with the Police. When interacting with standered issued street soldiers, you gotta be honest, to the point and most importantly not shoot at them. Ever. As of noon today, LAPD officers involved in a drug bust, possibly at a home on Michigan and Matthews NOT CONFIRMED, were shot at. I CAN’T CONFIRM that officers were hit, just shot at. However, considering that everything is on lock down from Wabash all along Mott all the way through Michigan. Then all along Michigan through Breed st. Then all along Breed up to Cesar Chavez continuing along Chavez to Fairmount, with traffic diverted all along First st. and Wabash. They got everything on lock down son. Now that you know what’s up, here’s some pics and my twitter feed as I made my way to First st. passing by and seeing all the craziness unfold.
It’s no secret that the blog has managed to garner attention in the last year or so that it’s been around. I’m one of the many people covering BH events and that in itself has gotten me attention from others as well, case in point 14th District Council Member Jose Huizar. He reads the blog and through the help of my good friend WC connecting me with Rick Coca, who’s Director of Communication, I got some time in with the councilmen, who’s district also covers Downtown, Eagle Rock, El Sereno, Garvanza, Glassell Park, Hermon, Highland Park and Mount Washington, to talk about what’s going down in the hood. But since I don’t live in those parts of town, so I focused my questions more on BH because that is where I live and it’s where a lot of action is taking place. Continue reading
If I remember correctly, my very first post on this here blog was about a police sobriety check in the heart of Boyle Heights in June of last year. Hmm more than a year later, the economy in Califas is tanking, the city is looking left and right and underneath every couch cushion to save money and bring in more revenue, like raising sales taxes to 9.75 percent and other various measures. It’s getting tight in this city, real tight. The kind of tight that when I was growing up, frijoles, huevos and tortillas were what’s for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with maybe some queso de piez sprinkled on the beans to add a little variety.
Needless to say, it’s not hard to connect the dots on the current situation out on the streets of L.A. right now, with all these holiday sobriety check points to keep drunk drivers off the streets. This is an invaluable service by the police, however we all know that’s not the case right ? I mean come on !! This is way over the line, even for the L.A.P.D We all expect and know these holiday sobriety checkpoints are around, but as of late, the amount of cars getting pulled over and of these check points is bordering on abuse. Nah, you know what, it is abuse. “Ohh but you’re just exaggerating because you blah, blah, blah” hell no I’m not exaggerating. Sunday of last week me and VD were kicking old school on our way to the barrio when we see a car pulled over on Sheridan. Then we see another car pulled over two blocks further down and then another car pulled over on Chavez and Soto. Not to mention that I average out one text per day informing me of where there are check points taking place. This isn’t the police checking for drunk drivers and keeping the streets safe, this is the police being abused by the shot callers who need to come up with more feria to cover the cost of their business expenses and trips to Mexico to represent L.A. in a book fair. Really !? A book fair !?
This Thursday, residents from Wyvernwood will be giving visual presentations on the importance of the community there. This looks like it’s going to be a great event because as the flier says, this is all from the residents themselves. If you need to catch up with what’s going, read Chuy’s 90023 blog spot about it. Here’s more from their statement:
The Wyvernwood Garden Apartments was developed in 1938-39 and was the first large scale garden apartment complex in Los Angeles. Determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, not only is Wyvernwood architecturally significant, but it also reflects the cultural heritage of the neighborhood, where the residents have created a strong sense of place and belonging. The original design intent has been realized, having fostered a close-knit, multi-generational community among its residents, many of whom have stayed for decades, intermarried and started their own families. As in many parts of the city, the apartments were racially segregated for decades, until the first Latina/o family moved in during the 1960s. Today, Wyvernwood is predominantly Latina/o.
However, residents are in danger of losing their homes. In January 2008, owner Fifteen Group announced plans for a $2 billion development that would replace all 1,100 rental apartments and over twenty acres of open space with four times the density, including new condominiums, rentals, retail and commercial space. Come out to show your support of the Wyvernwood community and participate in a unique event where residents will be sharing their own stories and oral histories through multi-media presentations. Comité de la Esperanza (an active resident group of 25 years) will lead a procession/vigil to the event starting at 6pm, which will begin on-site at Wyvernwood at 2802 Camulos Place (near 8th and Soto). The presentations will follow at 7:30pm inside gymnasium at the Costello Recreation Center (3141 E. Olympic Blvd). At 9pm residents will return to Wyvernwood in procession.
Notice anything out of the ordinary here? Well if you ate here, you would know that a few hundred people eating some of the greatest soul food around are missing. Over the last few weeks, the vendors at the street food oasis have been getting raided by the police. Normally, they would disappear for a while only to come back in full force as if nothing ever happened, but something did happen. Things got out of control and the oasis got burned, big time. First it was the L.A. Times a few years ago, as Chimatli tells me, and fellow bloggers putting it on blast and telling everyone to go check it out. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but because this was an under the table operation, there was a need for a level of discretion that helped the vendors make a living and kept the cops at bay. That harmony is now gone and so are the vendors.
Who here likes to parrrrtaaaayyyy !?!?!? Too much ? Well I can’t help be excited about the Linia de Oro opening this SUNDAY ! The day is finally here and both Metro and local council-member Jose Huizar are going to be throwing parties at different gold line stops. Did I mention that you can ride the train for free all day Sunday on the eastside line ? Well you can !!!
