The New York Times recently ran a story about a backlash against ice cream carts and trucks, with parents complaining about the endless jingles and ringing bells that send kids into a sugar-crazed frenzy. Lincoln Heights resident Melle Belle Karakawa can sympathize since she and her neighbors are subjected to the sounds of dueling ice cream trucks seeking to attract the attention of neighborhood kids:
“The hilly canyon affords me the cacophony of eight ice cream trucks in an hour! Every day! Velez has two trucks it operates with the ‘music box’ song. It is the worst offender, with repeat trips around and around the block. Alarcon operates the truck with the Christmas carols. When I come home from work Friday, while driving up 28th, I encountered THREE trucks on ONE BLOCK! What I wonder is, is my neighborhood the ONLY one that Ice Cream trucks can drive in?”
New Yorkers have heard enough of that “music box” song, too. In response to complaints, the city banned ice cream trucks from playing music while stopped. Vendors in Las Vegas, meanwhile, must sell ice cream sandwiches and chocolate covered drum sticks in silence after 8 p.m. Now what about those bells on the ice cream carts?
Photo by Melle Belle Karakawa
Police to hold press conference on assaults against Echo Park girls. LAPD
Van de Kamps coalition demonstrates against college district over Glassell Park school site. NELA List
Boyle Heights going BoHo. LA Times
Echo Park bug hunt. LA Times
Boyle Heights gets its first peak at new high school. LA Times
Pot dispensaries preparing to fight city in court. Daily News
You can once again park under the Silver Lake Happy Foot. Curbed LA
What’s next for the Mt. Washington Museum? NELA List
Occidental College and Eagle Rock prepare for the school’s largest freshman class ever. Oxy
Louis C. Lopez tended the grounds and worked other jobs at East Los Angeles College for more than 20 years. When he died in 1985, Lopez left behind some photos of the school to his son, David, who made copies available to The Eastsider. The top photo, which looks to the west, shows the new campus in the midst of equally new post-war housing tracts and shopping centers. That’s Atlantic Boulevard in the foreground and the college football stadium sits near the top. The 1967 image below shows a much more heavily developed community and campus, which was eventually annexed into neighboring Monterey Park.
David Lopez, who grew up in East Los Angeles, has fond memories of the college:
“My father worked for over twenty years at the school. He maintained the ball fields and worked special events at the stadium, like the Garfield Roosevelt game. I remember being at the stadium before I could walk. I watched it go through all the changes and have very happy thoughts of my father there. I learned to catch, swim and ride a skateboard [at] the school. Even worked there during summers when i was 13. I earned my first check for over $100 working at the school. Tons of stories.”
Photos provided by David G. Lopez
Growing up in Silver Lake, Bob Inman frequently climbed up and down the public stairways near his Waverly Drive neighborhood. But, outside the stairs leading down to Fletcher and Riverside drives, Inman was never aware of the many other stairways that crossed the hills of Silver Lake, Echo Park and other older neighborhoods. As an adult, however, Inman has joined the growing ranks of L.A. stairway fans who huff-and-puff up and down these stairs on their own or as part of a group. Inman’s interest in stairways has lead him to explore neighborhoods across the city and even help reopen a stairway blocked by residents. Now, the 59-year-old Eagle Rock resident has poured his passion into a book, A Guide to the Public Stairways of Los Angeles. The book – filled with maps, routes, photos and facts – has lead another stairway aficionado to hail Inman as a “Stairway God.”
Read more about the Stairway God in Home & History.
Photo by Bob Inman
Many residents have spent recent nights mesmerized by the glow of wild fires burning in the mountains. Photographer Paul Antico was up last night to take the photo above of the La Cañada fire from Moon Canyon in Mt. Washington.
“I live in the neighborhood and was struck by the view at night of the fires. These were taken at about 1:30 am”
The man is suspected of grabbing and possibly trying to kidnap three young girls in recent months as they walked on or near bridges crossing the 101 Freeway in Echo Park, LAPD Detective Jon Hurd said today. In two cases the girls were alone and walking to school.
The attacks have taken place in March, July and, most recently, about a week ago when the suspect grabbed the arm of a 12 year-old girl as she and her mother walked near the Bonne Brae Street bridge over the 101 Freeway. More details in Eastside 911.
LAPD Notices:
Community Alert
Alerta a la communidad
* UPDATE: LAPD press conference scheduled for Tuesday morning. LAPD
What new Echo Park shop will be selling wood postcards and other gifts? Looking for a new brunch spot in Silver Lake? Who is serving $5 brews in Eagle Rock? The answers in Eastsider on the Go.
Image from SpitFireGirl.com
A different beat: Indian drum, tabla, lessons at Machine Project/photo from MachineProject.org
Friday, August 28
* Lincoln Heights Sidewalk Sale on North Broadway through Sunday.
* Birdwalk and film screening, The Education of Little Tree, at Debs Park Audubon Center.
* Noches de Trova, classic and contemporary Latin music and poetry, at the Center for the Arts in Eagle Rock.
Saturday, August 29
* Get dirty: L.A. River clean up in Cypress Park.
* Girls on skates: LA Derby Dolls roll around Echo Park.
* Midnight cabaret, Carolina Cerisola & the Walter Davis, at Eastside Luv in Boyle Heights.
Sunday, August 30
* A different beat: Indian drum, tabla, lessons at Machine Project in Echo Park.
* Hecklers wanted: Interactive comedy show featuring Adam Shenkman at the Echo Park Film Center.
Monday, August 31
* A Machine Project lecture on Bollywood filmmakers AR Rahman and RD Burman.
Thursday, September 3
* Echo Park Night at Dodger Stadium.
You can find an updated version of the Save the Date calendar at Eastsider on the Go
Crews working for the Los Angeles Unified School District didn’t waste anytime scraping away a block-long section of Marathon Street in Echo Park. After a lengthy legal battle with residents and opposition from Councilman Eric Garcetti, the school district blocked off Marathon west of Alvarado Street in early June for a new elementary school. But that public school will most likely end up in a pool of new campuses that will become available for privately-run charter school under a plan endorsed by the school board earlier this week.
Jesus Villanueva, 37, lived around the corner from Marathon Street in a house he and his family had lived in for 26 years. When district employees came calling to buy their home, the Villanuevas were told the property they were being forced to sell under the threat of eminent domain would be used for a public school. Not only did his family have to buy a new home at the peak of the real estate market, Villanueva says his family now face the prospect of paying higher property taxes to pay for the bonds the district used to build the new public schools.
“We are angry, of course, but we are not surprised,” said Villanueva said of the district plan to allow 50 new schools to be operated by charters and other groups. “We are worse off.”
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