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Fans of the Foot Clinic sign at Sunset Boulevard and Coronado Street spun out of control after learning the rotating Silver Lake sign had broken down, as reported in Curbed LA. Well, now the bipolar foot is back at work, a reader notified The Eastsider by email:
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The staff at the Cypress Park FamilySource Center watched Estephanie Orduna grow up before their very eyes, first as student, later as a volunteer and most recently as an employee at the city-run community center. It was her first job, and her co-workers said the young woman who was also attending a beauty school in Boyle Heights was beginning to come into her own, according to a story in the EGP News. But, earlier this month, Orduna’s grieving parents showed up at the center to let the staff know that she had died the day before in a fatal street race accident in the 3800 block of Griffin Avenue.
This past week, the Cypress Park FamilySource Center organized a fundraiser to help the Orduna family. “She was one of the local residents on a real road to success,” said center director Michael O’Connell.
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Silver Lake residents and urban beekeepers Russell Bates and Amy Seidenwurm returned home last Sunday after meeting with fellow fans of beekeeping and were shocked to discover that two giant eucalyptus tree had collapsed across their backyard, with one of them landing on top of their bee hive. The bees, Bates writes on the Backwards Beekeeper blog, were “pissed off”:
So, Bates and Seidenwurm (the same couple of Hello! bear mural fame) made a beekeeper 911 call to bee expert Kirk Anderson to assess the damage and organize a rescue. The trio carefully used kite string to reattach the honeycombs to the bee hive frames. They plugged the entrance to the hive and moved it to one side of the couple’s hillside lot until work crews chop up and clear out the fallen trees.
Photo from the Backwards Beekeeper
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The LAPD Rampart Division and the DWP warned residents about an increase in reports of elderly minority residents being burglarized and defrauded by criminals posing as utility workers. The LAPD said 10 of these crimes have already been reported this year (compared to 55 for all of 2009), according to figures released at a press conference. Last year’s crimes included an Angelino Heights couple who were in their 80s and a Solano Canyon family that lost $12,000 in cash and other items. Many of the elderly victims have been female and all have either been Korean, Chinese or Latino, said Lt. Wes Buhrmester with the Rampart Division. Buhrmester described another ploy being used by these impostors:
DWP Director of Security Pat Findley offers the following advice:
1. Be aware of these impostors, and also be watchful to ensure your elderly friends, neighbors and family members are not victimized.
2. Never allow anyone into your house that you did not summon. DWP workers rarely, if ever, have the need to enter a residence. All their work is done outside. On several occasions, suspects have said they have to “flush out” water lines. DWP flushes lines from the street. Be suspicious if a utility worker claims the need to enter a house.
3. DWP field personnel DO NOT handle money. They will never engage in cash transactions.
4. DWP field personnel wear work uniforms with DWP logos, and will have an ID card visible on their person. If you have a DWP employee at your door and doubt their legitimacy, obtain the employee number of the ID card and call 1-800-DIAL-DWP. If you think this person is a burglar, phone 9-1-1.
5. DWP and utilities personnel will have a work truck with them. DWP trucks are marked with the city seal on the doors, and have exempt license plates.
Community Alert notices:
* DWP Alert in English
* Alerta de DWP en español
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It was about a year ago when cartoon-like drawings of a happy bear – sometimes waving its paw and greeting passersby with a “Hello!” or a “How do you do?” – began appearing on walls across Echo Park and Silver Lake. Silver Lake residents Amy Seidenwurm and Russell Bates were so charmed by the bears and other critters that they commissioned the artist, Phil Lumbang, to paint a mural on the approximately 30-foot long by 10-foot high wall in front of their home. Most people loved it, stopping to have their photos taken in front of the colorful scene painted last April. More than 35,000 people viewed a YouTube video Bates shot of Lumbang painting the happy forest creatures. But one neighbor objected, complaining that the mural would make their Silver Lake street “seem ghetto” and attract taggers and other street artists, Bates said. Now, under orders from the city’s Building & Safety Department, Bates and Seidenwurm have until March 1 to paint over the illegal mural. “I think the mural is on its way out,” Bates said. “We are not interested in having a big fight with the city.”
But, Bates wonders why the city can crack down on a popular mural on a lightly traveled side street while officials remain unable to force billboard companies to remove thousands of highly visible and illegal signs. “I just would like to see it more evenly handled.”
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Councilman Eric Garcetti earlier this week introduced a City Council motion supporting the creation of a business improvement district to help pay for additional cleaning, security and promotion of Echo Park’s commercial district. The motion comes after the Echo Park Chamber of Commerce last year began to ask local businesses to donate as much as $1,500 each to help pay for the cost to study and start up an Echo Park BID. The creation of BIDs – which are financed by additional payments from either property or business owners – in Highland Park, Lincoln Heights, downtown Los Angeles and other communities have been credited with improving safety and cleanliness, which have been among the major issues facing Echo Park businesses along Sunset and Glendale boulevards.
“The Echo Park BID would serve the local business community by providing increased security, homeless services, beautification, and streetscape maintenance,” said the Garcetti motion “Establishment of the BID is expected to revitalize the local economy and is a positive step towards neighborhood renewal.”
Not everyone, however, has been supportive of an Echo Park BID.
One Echo Park business owner told The Eastsider last year that concerns about panhandling and homeless encampments had been overblown: “To me it’s completely unnecessary and uncharacteristic of Echo Park,” said the business person, who wanted to remain anonymous. “I can’t stand the idea of rent-a-cops harassing our street vendors, our homeless, our cholos and our drunk hipsters. It’s just not needed.”
The Echo Park BID is still far from a sure thing. The chamber (The Eastsider is a member) or other interests must still raise at least $40,000 to help the city (which would chip in another $40,000) to hire a consultant to study and set up an improvement district. Also, depending on the funding, a majority of property owners located within the boundaries of the BID must approve the concept.
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After more than 40 years of serving up giant burritos and bowls of menudo in Atwater Village, Mi Lupita Mexican Restaurant is preparing to open in a former Western apparel and boot shop in the east end of Eagle Rock. Jaime Guzman, who owns the restaurant in partnership with his sister Marcy, said the landlord of their former location at Chevy Chase Drive and Brunswick Avenue decided not to renew their lease, forcing them to close in October and look for a new location. One of their customers mentioned that he had a vacant building – which formerly housed SW Hill Country – at the corner of Colorado Boulevard and Mt. Helena Avenue – that could work for them. “And here we are,” Guzman said.
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Our banner image features the work of Echo Park artist Mary-Austin Klein. This section of "Clouds Over Echo Park" was used with permission.
