"Eagle Rock: Where land use and planning is
a contact sport"
THE EAGLE ROCK ASSOCIATION
August 15, 2002
In this issue:
1. WALGREENS UPDATE --
DESIGN REVIEW BOARD (DRB) HEARING -- AUGUST 22
2. SUPPORT FOR SAVING THE SHOPPING BAG BUILDING
3. ANNUAL "STATE OF THE TOWN" ADDRESS -- SEPTEMBER 17
4. CAMILO'S CALIFORNIA BISTRO IS HERE!
5. DOGS NEED HELP!
6. EAGLE ROCK NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL UPDATE
7. THE COLLABORATIVE EAGLE ROCK BEAUTIFUL RETURNS! -- SEPTEMBER 21
8. MAN IS LOSING HIS HOME -- PLEASE HELP
9. EAGLE ROCK SCULPTOR GETS GREAT REVIEW IN THE L.A. TIMES
10. CONCERTS IN THE PARK -- THIS WEEKEND -- AUGUST 18
11. ECLECTIC CONCERT AT YOSEMITE PARK AMPHITHEATER -- SEPTEMBER 8
12. SAVE THE ARROYO SECO
13. HOUSE AVAILABLE FOR SUBLET
14. LETTERS AND E.MAILS
15. QUOTE OF THE WEEK
1.
WALGREENS UPDATE -- DESIGN REVIEW BOARD (DRB) HEARING -- AUGUST 22
The Colorado Boulevard Specific Plan's next Design Review Board (DRB) hearing
will take place on Thursday, August 22, at 6:00 p.m., at the Eagle Rock Branch
Library, 5027 Caspar Avenue, in Eagle Rock. The only item on the
agenda is the latest Walgreens proposal. It is very unfortunate that
the plans don't seem to have changed much. The agenda item regarding
Walgreens reads as follows:
Public Hearing
DIR-2001-3476-SPP-MOD-DRB: 2222 Colorado Boulevard & 5041-5051 Eagle Rock
Boulevard. Design review of the modified plans, which shifts and
enlarges Building "A" [the actual proposed Walgreens store], shifts,
reconfigures, and reduces Building "B", and extends
Building "C" from the previously submitted plans identified as
Schematic Site Plan in Exhibit A from the previous determination in
DIR-2002-3476-SPP. (This item is continued from the Board's July 11, 2002
Public Hearing.)
There is a new developer on this project, the Rich Co., and we hope to be able
to work with them to make this a far better project than has been proposed up
to this point. If for some reason the hearing is continued, we will
let you know as soon as we can. It is vitally important that, whenever
the hearing occurs, we show up in great numbers to let the DRB, the city and
the developer that Eagle Rock deserves a high-quality project.
2.
SUPPORT FOR SAVING THE SHOPPING BAG BUILDING
We'd like to thank LAUSD Board member and Eagle Rock resident David Tokofsky
for writing the following letter in support of saving the Shopping Bag
building:
Board of Directors
Walgreens
200 Wilmot Road, MS #2200
Deerfield, IL 60015-4616
Re: Walgreens Proposal in Eagle Rock, CA 90041
Dear Board of Directors:
As an elected representative and long-time resident of Eagle Rock, I support
the residents' position on the issue of preserving the Shopping Bag building.
The imminent arrival of a Walgreens into Eagle Rock has been met with
strong opposition from local residents and rightfully so. The plan to
tear down the old Shopping Bag building that is unique to this community, and
replace it wit the standard Walgreens found in every town, is not acceptable
for this community. I oppose your plans as I understand them.
I strongly encourage Walgreens to utilize the historic Shopping Bag building.
Restoration of the building is an ideal solution. The destruction
of the Shopping Bag building should not be considered. If Eagle Rock
residents are to welcome this new business into their area, then efforts must
be made to minimize any negative impact on the community, and above all, to
preserve the area's historical heritage.
I look forward to meeting with your representatives to further discuss this
issue.
Sincerely,
David Tokofsky
Board Member, District 5
3. ANNUAL
"STATE OF THE TOWN" ADDRESS -- SEPTEMBER 17
Please join TERA at our next public meeting to hear Council member Pacheco
give his annual "State of the Town" address. It will take
place on Tuesday, September 17, at 7:00 p.m., at the Eagle Rock Community
Cultural Center, 2225 Colorado Boulevard in Eagle Rock. Refreshments will
be served.
Come hear what's been happening around Eagle Rock over the last year, and what
will be happening in the future. Public safety, parking problems,
commercial development, and other issues will be discussed. There will be
a question-and-answer period, so bring your questions!
4. CAMILO'S
CALIFORNIA BISTRO IS HERE!
Eagle Rock now has another terrific eatery, Camilo's California Bistro!
Located on the southeast corner of Colorado Boulevard and Caspar Avenue
at 2128 Colorado, Camilo's is open for breakfast and lunch from 8:00 a.m. to
3:00 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday, and for dinner from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Tuesday through Saturday. Reservations may be made at 323/478-2644.
Camilo's menu is attached.
5. DOGS NEED HELP!
IF YOU CAN HELP, PLEASE CALL THE BURBANK SHELTER DIRECTLY. Also, please forward
this to anyone you think might be able to help. THANK YOU!!
On Friday, July 26, 86 dogs were seized from a collector's home in Burbank. The
dogs were crated in the house which according to animal control, was at least
100 degrees. The animals have been in the custody of the shelter and became
available for adoption this past Saturday. Normally, the Burbank Shelter will
hold onto animals as long as they have space but with this amount of extra
dogs, they are going to have to start euthanizing.
A lot of these dogs are really wonderful and deserve a second chance. The
shelter is waiving the normal $45 adoption fee and is only asking for $15 to
adopt a dog which includes the spay/neuter. Please pass the word to anyone you
know about these poor animals. They have had a rough time for the majority of
their lives and deserve a shot at a real home.
Burbank Animal Shelter
1150 N. Victory Pl.
Burbank, CA 91502
818-238-3340
M-F 8:00 am to 7:00 p.m.
Sat 8:00 am to 5 p.m.
closed Sunday
dogs rule!
http://www.devildogranch.com
6. EAGLE ROCK
NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL UPDATE
Target's grand opening on Sunday, July 28, gave the Eagle Rock Neighborhood
Council (ERNC) a great opportunity to outreach and canvas shoppers as they came
and went on Saturday, July 27, and Sunday, July 28, in the Westfield Eagle Rock
Shoppingtown space next to the Target store.
On Tuesday, July 30, the ERNC hosted a Business Summit in that same location
for which Vons, Albertsons, and Target generously donated refreshments. This
was not an official ERNC meeting, but an outreach event that was focused on
business, shoppers, and community issues.
The business forum featured guest speaker Laura Chick, a former LA City
Councilwoman, now the eloquent City Controller. Other speakers included Mario
Marin, Director of Opportunities for Procurement and Services, LA City
Office of Economic Development, James Hickey, LA Chief of Finance, Tax and
Permit Division, David Mora, LA City Economic Development Representative,
George Shapiro, Eagle Rock Chamber of Commerce President, Linda Allen, ER
Community Preservation and Revitalization group (ERCPR) and Andrew Barrera,
Program Manager for Northeast LA Business Assistance Center.
Laura Chick explained that she chaired the Ad Hoc Committee for Neighborhood
Councils and therefore encouraged more people to get involved with neighborhood
councils to get community needs addressed. She also reminded those in
attendance that spending your shopping dollars in the City of LA supports the
LA Police and Fire and other service departments.
Her job, she stated, is to eliminate waste and fraud and improve city services.
She added that she saved the city $11,000,000 during her first year as
controller by auditing city books, and implementing more revenue generating
techniques, such as, contracting out bill collections and charging for
frivolous city services, thus exercising new powers created by the voters in
the new city charter.
The next speaker, David Mora, said that he noticed that more shoppers, in
responding to what shoppers wanted most in Eagle Rock, listed
"theaters." He gave the contact of Adriana Martinez at (213)
978-0674, for those interested in theaters in the ER area.
Mario Marin mentioned that Laura Chick is encouraging the city to pay vendor
invoices within 30 days, resulting in saving the city a lot of money for
the 3.9 million LA residents. If anyone is interested in starting a business or
needs help with one in LA, contact Saul Alvarado at (213) 978-0691, he
added.
Jim Hickey related that the city offers a tax reduction for small businesses to
encourage start ups and to help keep smaller businesses afloat.
Through these forums and summits, the ERNC has been able to outreach the ER
community and through the community's voicing of various issues, has been
instrumental in effecting sidewalk repairs by the LA Department of Street Maintenance,
between Toland Way and York, east of Eagle Rock Blvd.
Also in response to transportation issues listed by shoppers at the Business
Summit, the ERNC is planning a future event to cover these issues. More details
will be announced when confirmed.
The ERNC regular board meetings are continuing on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of
each month at the ER Library from 6 to 8 p.m. All are invited to our meetings
and events.
For more information about ERNC, call (323) 257-6381. Look us up on the
web at http://www.EAGLEROCKCOUNCIL.ORG
7. THE COLLABORATIVE
EAGLE ROCK BEAUTIFUL RETURNS! -- SEPTEMBER 21
The Collaborative's Back!!!
After a long hiatus and retrenching, the Collaborative Eagle Rock Beautiful
will host its September meeting at 9:00 a.m., Saturday the 21st at the Cultural
Center, 2225 Colorado Blvd. A complimentary breakfast, free seed packets
and other "goodies" will be distributed to all interested gardeners,
activists and dreamers.
"We have just completed our most recent grant, a joint effort with ROCK
and Northeast Trees," says co-chair John Stillion. "It's that sudden
sprouting of flowering shrubs at the Council Field Office, which looks
wonderful. And we are gearing up for more work in the near future."
Upcoming projects include a square acre transformation of a gravel lot into a
pocket park, with a xeriscapic plant collection, a zen garden, native trees and
an art installation. Also, the median between the Welcome Inn and the 20th
Century Women's Club (and its grounds) will also be planted with bulbs and
native plants. Both are funded by grants from the Neighborhood Matching Fund.
Additional projects include a graffiti abatement effort at the Montessori
School and greenscape improvements for businesses along Eagle Rock Blvd.
"Through the city's new land trust, I'm optimistic that Eagle Rock will
soon have a community garden of its own, fully insured and supported by the LA
Community Garden Council and other environmental groups we have connected
with," adds Mary Tokita, Community Garden Chair."This is a very
exciting time for Eagle Rockers. We're coming back to our agricultural 'roots'
in more ways than one."
All attendees of the Collaborative meeting will be asked to sign up for
workdays on these and other projects throughout the fall season.
"We are looking forward to seeing old friends and newcomers make
meaningful improvements for several areas around town before the
holidays," Stillion adds. "It's a seductive process, allowing
us to get closer to nature and each other, all while we make the town we love
more beautiful."
8. MAN IS LOSING HIS
HOME -- PLEASE HELP
Dear NELA folks -
I want to share with you a very unhappy situation:
A 75-year-old resident of Mt. Washington (he's been here for 25 years) is
losing his home. He sold it to a woman with the understanding that he
could remain in the little basement apartment that is part of the house,
sweeping the sidewalk, taking the trash out, taking care of the garden, etc.
until he no longer needed his home because of death or disability.
Well, the purchaser has decided that she needs the space and is now demanding
that he leave. Although they had a contract, it was not on a separate
document and did not go through escrow. He has been told that it
therefore does not stand up legally.
He is on a limited income (basically, he has the proceeds from the sale to live
on for the rest of his life), but he is hoping to find a place to move to as
close to his neighborhood as possible. He would love a one-bedroom
apartment, although a single would be just fine. Four to five hundred
dollars a month is the absolute maximum he can afford.
He is a delight of a person and has been a fixture in my area for all these
years, and he came to me asking for advice. I am hoping that someone on
the list will have or know of a place available, on or near Mt. Washington.
He likes to walk, so it would be nice if it were in an area that is
comfortable for a slightly fragile older person to take walks.
If you have any suggestions to offer, please feel free to e-mail me. He
does not have a computer, so I'm doing this for him, and can contact him and
have him call you.
Thanks for any help, ideas, suggestions, etc. - they will really be
appreciated.
Nancy Lilly nlilly@sbcglobal.net
9.
EAGLE ROCK SCULPTOR GETS GREAT REVIEW IN THE L.A. TIMES
Eagle Rocker, TERA member, dog lover, and sculptor Rebecca Niederlander got
this great review of her artwork in the L.A. Times. Unfortunately,
the show has already closed:
Sculptor Finds the Mystery in
Reality
By LEAH OLLMAN, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES, 08/02/02
Dorothy closes her eyes on the familiar domesticity of Aunt Em's farm, only to
open them to the
radiance of Oz. Stepping into their grandfather's wardrobe, the children in
C.S. Lewis' classic tales suddenly find themselves in another, more marvelous
world. Is it possible that these characters were transported to alternate
worlds, or did they simply tap into new ways of regarding existing reality,
recognizing its inherent enchantment, drama, intrigue?
Rebecca Niederlander's creepily seductive work at 2211 Solway Jones spurs a
similar train of thought. Her sculptures bridge pedestrian reality and its
wondrous underbelly of fear and fantasy. Working in plastic, porcelain, foam,
cardboard and various forms of lighting, she rubs the magical up against the
mundane. Sparks don't always fly, but the work generates a consistent,
low-level buzz of curiousness.
"Treehouse," for instance, hangs from the ceiling like a
Frisbee-style light fixture, common enough in a modern home or office. But
instead of hosting a bulb that illuminates a given space, the fixture disgorges
a mass of pale roots, thick, gnarly knobs and long, dangling strands shaped of
modeling compound. A spray of fiber optic lights twinkles kitschily within,
while LEDs tucked inside the tangle lend the roots a more evocative, burnished
glow. It's an odd, subterranean vision brought to eye level.
"Nitelite," a group of 10 tabletop sculptures, presents a similar
disjunction. The nightlight's primary task is to eliminate mystery. These
amplify it. Each blue plastic dome houses a miniature landscape of spores and
blossoms, tendrils, tresses and fine, curling cilia. A small aperture atop each
dome allows us to peer into these tableaux (again made of modeling compound),
and the lights within make the shapes visible also as haunting shadows on the
domes' exterior walls. There's a childlike charm to the forms, which look as if
they were shaped from Play-Doh, but that innocence competes with a more threatening,
nightmarish quality. "The wood is full of shining eyes / The wood is full
of creeping feet / The wood is full of tiny cries / You must not go to the wood
at night," reads the Henry Treece poem upon which this work is based.
We can never see things purely, but only as filtered through our hopes and
anxieties. Niederlander reinforces this notion of perception as tempered and
limited by letting us see the microcosmic realms in her work only incompletely,
from a distance, through tiny viewing holes or distorting lenses. Where our
senses leave off, though, our imagination is more than happy to take over.
Gallery 2211 Solway Jones, 2211 N. Broadway, L.A., (323) 276-9662, through Aug.
11. Closed
Monday and Tuesday.
10. CONCERTS IN THE
PARK -- THIS WEEKEND -- AUGUST 18
Don't miss Concerts in the Park at Eagle Rock Park, Sunday, August 18,
6:00 to 8:00 p.m., featuring Jack Lantz and his 17-piece orchestra. Come
early, and bring your blanket and picnic basket. Its FREE!
11. ECLECTIC CONCERT
AT YOSEMITE PARK AMPHITHEATER -- SEPTEMBER 8
Art Word Song Dance
An Eclectic Arts Extravaganza
At the
1840 Yosemite Drive, Los
Angeles, CA 90041
4:00 to 8:00pm
Steve Aranda, Councilman Nick Pacheco, and Target Stores are proud to present
an outdoor concert at the long silent amphitheater located on the grounds of
the Yosemite Recreation Center in Eagle Rock. The event will be free to
the public, with guests encouraged to bring along picnics. After years of
dormancy, we felt it would be a good idea to restore this local treasure into
the delightful performing arts venue it once was. We've attempted to draw
from all of the conventional art disciplines for the show, including visual
art, written word, theater/dance, and music.
Performers Include:
The Arohi Ensemble http://www.tanpura.com
Essencia Flamenca http://www.lesencia.com
The Southern California Gregorian Schola Glank http://www.glanktheproduct.com
Nationally Acclaimed Poet B.D. Love http://www.bdlove.org
Singer/Songwriter Mario Zelaya and Michael Gullberg, owner of Gallery Figueroa
will be painting a live action mural throughout the event.
http://www.galleryfigueroa.com
So bring a picnic, a blanket, and be ready for a great time!
Directions http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&addtohistory=&address=1840+yosemite+Dr&city=Los+Angeles&state=CA&zipcode=90041&homesubmit.x=35&homesubmit.y=15
<http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?country=US&addtohistory=&address=1840+yosemite+Dr&city=Los+Angeles&state=CA&zipcode=90041&homesubmit.x=35&homesubmit.y=15>
If you have any questions contact the Recreation Center @ 323 257-1644 or
Steve Aranda at aranda2@earthlink.net
12.
SAVE THE ARROYO SECO
This is in from e.letter reader Stephen Early:
My wife and I walk or jog
the lower Arroyo three or four nights a week and love seeing the flora and
fauna in a near natural setting. For reasons beyond my understanding the city
of Pasadena is making noise about tearing down trees and enlarging and covering
(paving?) trails and putting in a triple-decker parking structure. I'm sure
there are other Eagle Rockers/Northeast Los Angelenos who use the space. If you
do please get a flyer in the arroyo and contact the people named. Thank
you!
13. HOUSE AVAILABLE
FOR SUBLET
A lovely, secluded two-bedroom house in Highland Park is available for sublet
from January 2003 through May 2003. If anyone is interested or knows of
anyone who might be looking, please contact Mady at mschutzm@calarts.edu for
further details. Thank you.
14. LETTERS AND
E.MAILS
"Why do we need another Sav-On when we already have one? We were
hoping for something like a Whole Foods Market or Wild Oats. Thanks for
all the good work and for keeping us informed!"
--Dawn and Michael Roznowski, Eagle Rock residents
"I was just in New York City and I snapped this photo [of a Walgreens
store located in a historic storefront with no visible parking]. It's
amazing how Walgreens adapted to this neighborhood [not so amazing -- it has
restored and adaptively reused older structures in numerous other locales
nationwide]. So, it can also be done in Eagle Rock. Ciao."
-- Netty Carr, Silver Lake resident and fellow activist [Netty was one of the
leaders of the group who saved the Van de Kamp's building]
"Thanks for all your hard work."
-- Mary and Christopher Contreras, Eagle Rock residents
15.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Speak your mind,
even if your voice shakes."
-- a
bumper sticker spotted on Loleta Avenue
We welcome your comments.
Please include your name.
Please encourage interested friends to send their e.mail addresses to us at artburn@earthlink.net
so we can keep them informed, too.
If you have changed your e.mail address or would like to be removed from
this list, please contact artburn@earthlink.net.
TERA -- The Eagle Rock Association -- YOUR COMMUNITY IN ACTION -- http://www.TERA90041.org
--
P. O. Box 41453, Eagle Rock, CA 90041 -- (323) 259-TERA -- a 501(c)(3)
nonprofit public benefit corporation
Joanne Turner
<artburn@earthlink.net>
President, The Eagle Rock Association (TERA)