Photo by Clinton Steeds/Flickr
Origami Vinyl today said it will be able to offer a full refund – including service fees – on the tickets the Echo Park store sold it in advance for the cancelled Sunset Junction festival in Silver Lake. Those refunds will apply only to the 106 tickets purchased through Origami – not other sources.
“Sunset Junction just brought all the money we paid out for tickets back about an hour ago,” said Neil Schield of Origami Vinyl in an email. “We are now honoring refunds to those who purchased tickets via Origami.” Click here for more details.
The skeletons of 36 unfinished Echo Park townhouses – framed in blue-tinted wood – will soon be reduced to a pile of blue firewood. Workers this morning who were cleaning up the site of the failed Durbin project at Echo Park and Delta avenues said the wood framing that has been left exposed for about two years will soon be demolished as the new property owner prepares to start construction. “The blue wood is going to come down, said Jonathan R. Smith, a regional vice president with D.R. Horton, the Texas home builder that bought the project earlier this year. Construction of the new framing is scheduled to begin in mid-November but Smith could not say when the homes will be completed.
D.R. Horton plans to purse the same plans and architectural style of the previous owner, he said. Sales will begin early next year but information about prices was not available.
There are countless wood-sided and shingled bungalows across the Eastside that have been slathered in stucco to present a vaguely Spanish style or gutted to create loft-like interiors. It turns out this kind of radical makeover – which often draws the ire of historic preservationists – is nothing new. Take for example two Silver Lake homes from 1936 designed by R.M. Schindler, one of Los Angeles’ most highly regarded Modernists architects.
When he was hired by Victoria McAlmon, an educator and political activist, Schindler proposed a contemporary, International-style house for the top of a lot on the 2700 block of Waverly Drive where an old bungalow had been built sometime between 1911 and 1923. Instead of demolishing the old house, however, Schindler proposed moving it to another part of the lot and giving it an International-style makeover. McAlmon, who hosted such high-profile guests as Eleanor Roosevelt and Anais Nin, followed Shindler’s advice on remodeling the old house (pictured above). On Thursday, an application to declare the two Waverly houses a Los Angeles cultural historic landmark will be reviewed by the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission.
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Elysian Valley
Signs on Elysian Valley's "Main Street" remind cyclists to slow down & share
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Courtesy Elysian Valley River Neighborhood Council
The extension of the Los Angeles River bike path into Elysian Valley last year has proven popular with cyclists. The once bumpy and uneven strip along the Los Angeles River was replaced with smooth asphalt, lane stripes, landscaping and lighting. But the not everyone has welcomed the new path and the bike riders. Many longtime residents of Elysian Valley, also known as Frogtown, who once leisurely strolled along the riverside now complain about aggressive cyclists who race down the asphalt without regards to pedestrians. There have been some near misses and a few collisions between cyclists and walkers, including one involving the elderly father of a member of the neighborhood council. As a result, bright blue “Share the Path” signs commissioned by the Elysian Valley River Neighborhood Council will soon be installed along the river to remind cyclists as well as pedestrians that both groups have to be aware of each other.
“There were a lot of close calls and a couple of injuries,” said neighborhood council President Steve Appleton. “To be fair, some walkers were less than aware of the need to share. That’s because no one was used to cyclists speeding down the new smooth path. The river path in its prior bumpy form was the ‘Main Street’ of Elysian Valley before anyone else cared.”
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Wednesday, August 31, 2011
View From Victor Heights | Photo by Shawn Park/Flickr
- Less service, higher rates await DWP customers. Daily News
- What it takes to get a Sunset Junction refund. Patch
- Boyle Heights bookshop opens a temporary Westside outpost. L.A. Weekly
- Judge to consider retrial of Eagle Rock murder case involving former L.A. firefighter. Patch
- Chinese Flame trees burst into bloom on Echo Park Avenue. Echo Elysian Forum
- Happening Today: Electronic waste recycling, Atwater; Johnny Moezzi show, Silver Lake. Save the Date
Chicano Batman logo
An Echo Park Kia owner named Veronica certainly hopes so. A green and white sticker for the “pan-Latin” band called Chicano Batman was located on the rear window of Veronica’s 2002, burgundy-colored Kia sedan, which was stolen Monday from her parking space near Waterloo and Reservoir streets. While her car is kind of conventional looking, perhaps that Chicano Batman sticker will help it stand out. She asks for residents to keep an eye out for the car and sticker and to be aware of recent car thefts and break-ins in her part Echo Park west of Alvarado Street:
My car was stolen yesterday morning assuming around 3 or 4am. There have been several car burglaries in my area – particularly on my street of Waterloo. My roommate had her car broken into twice in the past 6 months as well as my former boss. My neighbor next door found 2 or 3 people trying to break into her apt. as they were also looming in our carport area. I filled out a police report but they were rather pessimistic that I will see it again, which I understand.
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Shooting suspect Jose Beltran
While driving through the darkened streets of Silver Lake earlier this month, restaurant worker Juan David Vasquez Loma motioned the driver of the car behind him to pass. But the driver of that car, 18-year-old Jose Beltran, who is involved in the La Mirada Locos gang, may have misinterpreted Loma’s hand gesture as a rival gang sign shortly before he fired a handgun that mortally wounded Loma, police said. A homicide detective said today that those mistaken hand signals may have played a role in the August 7 road rage killing of Loma, a 20-year-old Mexican immigrant who was driving coworkers home. Loma was not a gang member. Beltran, who grew up in the Silver Lake area, was charged on Monday with one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder.
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Real estate agent Courtney Poulos invites you to her pre-MLS twilight preview open house this Thursday from 6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
This dazzling hideaway, 3210 Weldon Avenue, is the newest creation from bettershelter featuring Blu Dot. Nestled in the hills between Atwater Village and Glassell Park this 1,638 square-foot, charismatic three-bedroom, two-bathroom modern home offers breathtaking views and a finished lower level with a two-room studio. Listed at $499,000.
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Street Bike Art, Silver Lake | Photo by Orrin Anderson/Flickr
- Charges filed against Jose Beltran in Silver Lake road rage killing. CBS2
- The woman who shut down Sunset Junction. L.A. Times
- Early morning brush fire scorches one-quarter acre in Solano Canyon. LAFD
- First year of L.A. Unified’s School Choice reform program yields mixed results. Daily News
- How to get to the top of the Eagle Rock. Patch
- Happening Today: Fiction Family show, Historic Filipinotown. Save the Date
- Note: Why are some customers at the Echo Park McDonald’s standing on chairs and tables? Answer: To plug their laptops into the electrical outlets located in the ceiling.
Well, that is at least the goal of the house flippers who recently put up a nearly century-old Echo Park cottage up for sale at $425,000 – $125,000 more than what it sold for only 35 days earlier. The flippers undertook a fast-track renovation of the three-bedroom Echo Park Avenue home, repainting the interior and exterior, updating the electrical system and plumbing and install new sod, according to the listing. Meanwhile, the historic character and features of the home – including the old metal mail box out front – seemed to have been left intact. Perhaps the owners will throw in a new mail box as part of the deal.
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