THE EAGLE ROCK ASSOCIATION
September 11, 2002
NEVER FORGET
In this issue:
1. PANEL DISCUSSION TO MEMORIALIZE 9/11 -- TONIGHT --
SEPTEMBER 11
2. ANNUAL "STATE OF THE TOWN" ADDRESS -- SEPTEMBER 17
3. YOUR BUNGALOW HOME COULD BE FEATURED IN UPCOMING BOOKS!
4. SPOTLIGHT ON BOOKS -- FAST FOOD NATION
5. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT TERA AND OUR COMMUNITY
6. LETTERS AND E.MAILS
7. QUOTE OF THE WEEK
1. PANEL DISCUSSION TO MEMORIALIZE 9/11 --
TONIGHT -- SEPTEMBER 11
The Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council in partnership
with The Eagle Rock Community Cultural Center will sponsor:
A Conversation with the Community:
Reflecting on September 11th
Hosted by Occidental College
Wednesday, September 11, 2002
6:30 p.m.
Keck Theatre, Occidental College Campus
Special Guest: Warren Olney, veteran broadcast journalist and
Host/Executive Producer of radio's "To The Point" and "Which
Way, LA?" will moderate a panel discussion reflecting the events of
September 11th, how it has impacted the Eagle Rock community and how Eagle Rock
can memorialize the events as a community.
Welcome by: Councilman Nick Pacheco, LA 14th District, Battalion
Chief Buschman, LA Fire Department, and Captain Kyle Jackson, LAPD, Northeast
Division.
Panel discussion with: Dr. Ted Mitchell, President of Occidental
College; Jervey Tervalon, an award winning novelist, playwright, screenwriter
and California Arts Fellow; Carol Baker Tharp, Ph.D. Candidate at Claremont
Graduate University; George Shapiro, President of the Eagle Rock Chamber of
Commerce; Joanne Turner, President of The Eagle Rock Association (TERA); and
Eric Warren, President of the Eagle Rock Historical Society.
Performances by: The Eagle Rock High School Choir and the Optimist's
Youth Choir
Westfield Shoppingtown Eagle Rock has sponsored a "Wall of
Remembrance" and will be transporting the Wall to Occidental College
for viewing the day of the event. The event will be followed by a candle
light vigil lead by the students.
PLEASE JOIN US AT THIS IMPORTANT COMMUNITY-BUILDING
EVENT.
Parking is located at KECK THEATRE on the Occidental College Campus.
Directions to Keck Theatre, Occidental College:
From Eagle Rock Boulevard, turn (right - if heading north) or (left - if
heading south) onto Westdale Avenue. Follow Westdale Avenue until it ends
at Campus Road. You are now at the Western side of the campus. At Campus
Road, turn left and follow the signs to Keck Theatre. There is ample
parking next to the Theatre.
There will also be volunteers at all the entrances providing directions
to Keck Theatre
For further information, call the ERNC at (323) 257-6381.
2. 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!
Please attend! This particular meeting was the favorite among TERA
members when surveyed earlier this year. We ask only that you donate $2
to help offset our costs. All monies collected go to the Cultural Center.
Thank you.
3. YOUR BUNGALOW HOME COULD BE FEATURED IN
UPCOMING BOOKS!
Bungalow Home Owners!
Three new books are being published on bungalows, and your beloved house could
be in them!
Make your house famous!
Get your house professionally photographed!
Call Suzanne Prieur at 323 257-7042 for details before October 1, 2002.
4. SPOTLIGHT ON BOOKS -- FAST FOOD NATION
Fast Food Nation, The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, is a New
York Times bestseller by Eric Schlosser, awarding-winning journalist for The
Atlantic Monthly. His book should be required reading for everyone.
Not only does Schlosser reveal the true nature of the fast food industry here
in our country, how it began, how it has grown tremendously, how it is too much
a part of too many everyday lives, and how it has spread to global proportions,
he investigates the current sorry state of the meat processing industry, a
subject Upton Sinclair took on in his book The Jungle in 1906.
Even though President Teddy Roosevelt actively saw through major and
positive legislative change in the meat processing industry in the early part
of the 20th century as a result of Sinclair's work, it seems we have just about
come full circle.
Fast Food Nation reveals much about the inner workings of our government,
its relationship with big business, and the enormous concentration of economic
wealth and power among just a few at the great expense of the rest of us.
The rise of the fast food industry over the past few decades has set the
example for and led to the current predatory "chain store" mentality
so prevalent in commercial development throughout the nation, and the world.
(Gee, what does THAT remind you of??) Even with all the corporate
corruption occurring in our country right now, the pure nonsense of how things
really work, and the amazingly insensitive attitudes on the part of those in
power as described by Mr. Schlosser, are still shocking.
Schlosser's book contains thoroughly documented fact-finding over a three-year
research period, combined with great storytelling. Much is ironic and
humorous, but far more than should be is so sad and disgusting it's difficult
to even imagine. His book has been hailed by critics as being as
important to social progress as Sinclair's book was almost a century ago, as
well as the book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, warning of the dangers
to ourselves and our environment of the unchecked use of pesticides.
I want to thank Eileen Hatrick, principal of Dahlia Heights Elementary School,
who told me about the book and who believed in it so much that she bought me a
copy and dropped it off on my doorstep. It is truly one of the best and
most compelling books I have ever read -- I couldn't put it down -- and it
definitely will stir the activist within you, and it will most certainly make
you think twice before deciding what to put in your mouth.
5. QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS ABOUT TERA AND OUR COMMUNITY
TERA, The Eagle Rock Association, is an inclusive membership
organization that is there for the residents and businesses of the Eagle Rock
community. We are your neighbors. We are the people
who live here, work here, shop here, own businesses here, send our children to
school here, and attend religious services here.
Our members hail from all income levels, age levels, ethnic backgrounds, and
geographic areas of our town, and membership is open to all residents and
businesses. Like you, we want a good life in Eagle Rock for our families
and ourselves.
The broad mission of TERA is to work for improvement of the quality of
life in the Eagle Rock community. We provide research and
education about issues that affect Eagle Rock, participate in land-use and
planning activities, promote positive community growth and business
development, support preservation of historic resources, and participate in
public-area beautification projects, among other beneficial things.
We encourage our members to participate in the important civic life of our City
by enabling them to take an active role in Eagle Rock's future.
TERA is definitely FOR a diverse and thriving business district
because it will enrich our lives as residents and, in turn, further enrich the
business community. TERA foresees a business district that offers
a selection of products, services, and an overall shopping experience that is
so appealing it will KEEP EAGLE ROCK DOLLARS IN EAGLE ROCK, which is something
we all want. This goal benefits everyone, residents and businesses alike.
The Colorado Boulevard Specific Plan envisions a higher-quality, more
varied business district that places a priority on a wide selection of products
and services, and physical attractiveness. The Plan foresees the
creation of a pedestrian-oriented business district that people will want
to come to, which will further attract new and better businesses to the
district. It establishes certain restrictions on types of businesses that
are overly abundant in Eagle Rock and/or are well known to lead to a
community's decline, which are conditions that work against the development of
a successful business district.
In fact, Eagle Rock is just one of many communities throughout Los Angeles and
other cities that have adopted specific plans for very similar reasons. The
Specific Plan exists because the people of Eagle Rock want and need a better
business district, and that's why TERA supports the spirit and intent
of the Specific Plan.
All of these businesses that were in existence when the Specific Plan
was enacted in 1992 have been "grandfathered in" and are known as
"legal nonconforming uses." This means that they can
continue to do business as they always have. What they cannot do is
expand their business without going through a discretionary action such as a
Specific Plan Exception according to the provisions of the Specific Plan, which
is the law.
The Specific Plan committee comprised a group of concerned local
citizens representing all factions of the community who submitted resumes to,
and were appointed by, the Council office in 1988. The Eagle
Rock Sentinel (our wonderful long-time local newspaper we unfortunately no
longer have) widely advertised the call for the formation of this committee,
and those willing to commit tremendous amounts of personal time and effort came
forward and applied.
The Specific Plan committee consisted of 11 business owners, commercial
property owners, and residents combined, a group who dedicated five years of
volunteer effort to formulate the Plan. Perhaps two, maybe three, were
TERA members at the time (contrary to what some might think, TERA alone did not
write the Specific Plan).
The business and commercial property interests were heavily represented.
The committee members were as follows: David Baird, Kaye Beckham,
Richard Conley, Ute de Lara, Robert de Pietro, Linda Melson, Cynthia Place
Reiners, Jeff Samudio, Katie Smith, Eldie Snyder, and Eric Warren.
The Colorado Boulevard Specific Plan, Ordinance No. 168046, was adopted by the
full City Council on June 23, 1992, and became law effective August 9 of that same
year.
Business representatives were directly involved in the process of
drafting the Specific Plan. They were then and continue to be in
the ideal position to distribute factual information about the Plan to those
they represent, but unfortunately they have shown little or no interest in
accurately informing members of the business community about the land-use laws
and related issues that affect them.
In fact, TERA has stepped forward to help fill this void in an effort to avert
preventable land-use difficulties in Eagle Rock by holding public meetings
about the Plan, writing about the Plan in our newsletter, and posting a summary
of the Plan's provisions on our web site, among other things. Further, in
February 2000, TERA organized and helped conduct a seminar with Council member
Nick Pacheco for the distinct purpose of educating area realtors and others
about the Plan and other land-use laws that affect the Eagle Rock and Northeast
areas.
TERA will continue to inform the community about land-use issues because we
recognize that this information is essential to the stability of Eagle Rock's
future.
6. LETTERS AND E.MAILS
"Thanks for your hard work and perseverance in creating a real
community here in Eagle Rock. It's been such a pleasure watching this
miraculous evolution. Here's the book [Fast Food Nation] I told
you about. It's really about much more than fast food. Give it a
try. It's got a lot to do with your hard and successful work here."
-- Eileen Hatrick, Eagle Rock resident, Dahlia Heights Elementary School
principal, and TERA member
"It is obvious that the City's Planning Department has no regard for the
laws and regulations of this city. You have made a mockery of democracy and
community wishes.
I realize that the developers bring money to the city's coffers and
contributions to politicians, but what about the people you are
responsible to serve?
It is obvious that someone at the Planning LA's Planning Department should
start wearing the pants and making the right decisions."
-- Tamara and Alexis Lobaco, Eagle Rock residents and TERA members [in a letter
to Planning Director Con Howe]
7. QUOTE OF THE
WEEK
"When hard times come (which eventually come to every
community no matter what its size or wealth), what makes survival possible and
desirable is not its archeological identity but its ability to continue, and it
continues because some structures, some institutions and facilities represent
continuity. These are the landmarks [and they] stand for continuity,
community identity, for links with the past and the future. In the
contemporary American community these roles are what counteract our mobility
and fragmentation and forgetfulness of history."
-- Donovan Rypkema
Joanne Turner <artburn@earthlink.net>
President, The Eagle Rock Association (TERA)