Eastsiders

How did a Croatian woman with a Japanese last name end up spending 30 years in support of Latino youth?

Community to honor Maryanne Hayashi on her 30th anniversary as head of Central City Action Committee.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Photo by Susan Borden

Friends and supporters of Maryanne Hayashi are scheduled to gather this afternoon to celebrate her 30th anniversary as head of Central City Action Committee, the Angeleno Heights-based social service agency and graffiti clean-up contractor. Echo Park resident Susan Borden wrote the following story that appeared in the most recent newsletter published by the Echo Park Improvement Assn.

By Susan Borden

She’s been described as the Croatian woman with the Japanese name who lives in Chinatown and works with Latino youth. Even in multi-cultural Echo Park, few people can claim such an impressive catalog of diversity. When you hear that the lady’s also reached ‘senior citizen’ status, you’ll know that I can only be referring to Maryanne Hayashi of Central City Action Committee.

The well-respected great-grandmother with the old-fashioned first name has been at the helm of the non-profit Echo Park youth program for the past thirty years.

Central City Action Committee had its beginnings in the 1970s when there was little recognition of Echo Park’s youth gang problems. Concerned mothers, mostly Latino, incorporated the group under the direction of Mrs. Adele Valle. Mrs. Valle’s retirement prompted the arrival of Maryanne on April 16, 1981 as Central City’s new director. She has been there ever since, guiding the organization through ups and downs.

[Read More…]

{ 2 comments }

Angeleno Heights, Echo Park

Making room for history in Angeleno Heights

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Danny Muñoz often accompanied his father on visits to Los Angeles bookstores, where Muñoz fell in love with old books and the history of Los Angeles. As an adult, he started collecting books on Los Angeles architecture and stashed away newspaper clippings in the Angeleno Heights home he shares with his partner, David Hiovich. His passion for Los Angeles history and collecting soon filled the front parlor of their Victorian home with everything from 1889 business directories to century old photos of city maintenance crews and a copy of the 1930 Garfield High year book. Space might have been tight but Muñoz’ collection has drawn the attention of amateur and professional historians over the years. When the central library downtown was closed during the 1980s following a fire and lengthy renovation, many researchers came to Muñoz’ home to browse through his archives for hard-to-find information. But after years of being crammed into that downtstairs parlor, Muñoz’ archive has been moved upstairs under the soaring ceilings of a renovated attic at the top of a gleaming wood staircase. Here, the 61-year-old who grew up in Echo Park spends many Sundays – his only day off from work as a restaurant waiter- organizing his archive and jotting down the title and information about each item on index cards. No computers here.

How many items does he have? Muñoz said he has never bothered to count. He continues to buy books and other items, hauling them upstairs to the approximately 1,000-square-foot archive. “I can already see that I’m going to run out of space eventually.”

Photos by The Eastsider

{ 0 comments }

Glassell Park

Glassell Park teen who fought cancer heads to the parade

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Daniel Udave of Glassell Park seems like a pretty typical 14-year old boy. He loves rooting for the Dodgers, watching horror movies and playing water polo. But, two years ago Udave was diagnosed with a form of leukemia, forcing him to undergo chemotherapy to treat the disease. During these years, Udave, an Eagle Rock High ninth grader, has impressed his doctors, family and friends with his spirit and energy. Udave not only played on his school’s varsity water polo team and served as a junior lifeguard, but he also organized a fundraiser to buy a video game set for his fellow cancer patients. On New Year’s Day, Udave will once again serve as an inspiration for others as he rides on a float in the Rose Parade.

Udave will ride on the Kaiser Permanente float along with seven other Kaiser patients “chosen to ride due to their heroic and inspiring fight against significant diseases,” according to a company press release. Here is more information on Udave provided by Kaiser:

“Something was wrong in the summer of 2007 when Daniel had to make several visits to the hospital because he had trouble breathing, high fevers, itchy skin, and swollen neck nodes. An emergency room visit led to tests confirming that he had acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a cancer of the white blood cells, the cells in the body that normally fight infections. The cancer is no longer detectable in his body, although he continues chemotherapy with grace.

One of his care providers says, “He always comes to clinic in a good mood and takes care of all the other children having treatment.” In September of 2008, Daniel took the lead role in organizing a car wash in his community that raised over $800 to purchase a Nintendo Wii video game set, which he donated to his clinic to bring joy to his fellow cancer patients during their hospitalization.

He continues to excel at aquatics, a family love. Daniel, 14, plays on his high school’s varsity water polo team. He regularly rides his bike with his dad and enjoys watching Dodger baseball games and horror movies. Daniel was trained as a junior lifeguard through Operation Splash, an annual summer aquatics partnership between Kaiser Permanente and the City of Los Angeles.

He has been a junior lifeguard for three summers and would like to work full-time as a lifeguard after he finishes high school.”

Photos courtesy Kaiser Permanente

{ 0 comments }

Highland Park

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Love Letters & Hate Mail: Eastside resident Linda Gamboa will join fellow female poets Frankie Salinas and Pat Viera at a La Palabra Poetry Reading this afternoon at Avenue 50 Studio in Highland Park. Read more about the show and her work in Eastsider on the Go.

{ 0 comments }

Mount Washington

Mt. Washington delivers a thank you note to a beloved mailman

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Delivering mail on Mt. Washington would seem to be a thankless job. The streets are steep, sidewalks are few but dogs are plentiful. What mail carrier wouldn’t be happy to give up this challenging route? Not John Ayala. For 23 years, Ayala has trekked up and down the streets of Mt. Washington, delivering letters and packages to more than 500 addresses on his route, which included such streets San Rafael, Avenue 37 and Rosewood. Over the years he got to know the residents, watched children grow up and became part of the community. “I have never seen anything like it,” he said.

But Ayala was recently reassigned off Mt. Washington as part of a budget cutting move by the U.S. Postal Service. Ayala’s fans on Mt. Washington miss the carrier, who on Tuesday was honored at the Mt. Washington Assn. meeting with a certificate of appreciation from Councilman Jose Huizar and a standing ovation from the audience.

Ayala misses Mt. Washington, too. His new route in Cypress Park includes far more stops – 635 – than he served in Mt. Washington, leaving him little time to meet residents. Said Ayalya: “I don’t have time to talk to anyone.”

{ 0 comments }

Echo Park

Who is that woman with the hair bun?

Sunday, August 9, 2009

That question, if asked in Echo Park, is usually in reference to Isa-Kae Meksin, who is known not only for attending nearly every neighborhood meeting and event but for her hair-do. Whether it’s a neighborhood council meeting or an art opening, Meksin is usually there, with a nearly two-foot long coil of hair wrapped tightly into a bun, tilted at a 45-degree angle from the back of her head. It’s been her preferred hair style since about 1965.

If Meksin and her signature hair bun are not present at an Echo Park event it’s probably because the 81-year-old retired school teacher has driven her blue Prius to attend a meeting or gathering in another part of town. For those who think growing old means slowing down, take a look at some of the meetings, events and activities Isa and her bun were seen at during the last week:

Sunday, August 2
* Youth concert at Forest Lawn in Hollywood
* Art exhibit in Glassell Park

Monday, August 3
* Weekly meeting of the Watts Gang Task Force in Watts
*Parks subcommittee meeting of the Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council

Tuesday, August 4
* Weekly volunteer shift at the ACLU
* National Night Out event in Echo Park

Wednesday, August 5
* Meeting of the City of Los Angeles Commission on Disability
* Richard Neutra & R.M. Schindler exhbit at SCI-Arc
*The monthly meeting of the Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park

Thursday, August 6
* The monthly meeting of the Echo Park Improvement Assn

Friday, August 7
* Weekly volunteer shift reading to the blind at the Braille Institute
* Taiko drum concert in downtown Los Angeles

Saturday, August 8
* Meeting of the Echo Park Library support group
* Screening of the film Comme un Juif en France (Being Jewish in France) at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

{ 0 comments }

Silver Lake

Dov Charney might be good for t-shirts but not for magazines

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Who is to blame for the costly failure of Portolio magazine? Was it the bad economy, out-of-control spending or Silver Lake resident and American Apparel CEO Dov Charney? Several stories about the failure of the high-profile magazine mention Portfolio’s decision to put Charney on the cover of its December issue as among its questionable decision making.

“But more daring editorial choices, such as December’s cover subject Dov Charney, the controversial CEO of American Apparel, came across as ill-timed and wrong-footed.”- Time

“Once the magazine was launched, its personality lurched in different directions. At first, only conceptual covers could be used. Then that was scrapped and the majority of the magazine’s cover stars were CEO’s in power poses: Tim Geithner, Sumner Redstone … Dov Charney?” – New York Observer

“The Dov Charney cover is just one example of questionable leadership atop the masthead.” - Politico

Sounds like Charney is an easy target. But if you really want to blame Charney something, how about American Apparel’s ads for maternity clothes.

Image from Portfolio.com

{ 0 comments }

Echo Park

Not exactly a rave review for Shepard Fairey

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

The LA Times has yet to review Shepard Fairey’s first museum retrospective in Boston. But the New York Times did today. However, after reading the review, Fairey, whose studio is located in Echo Park, may have wished that NY Times art critic Ken Johnson had skipped the show:

“What is missing from his work is a deeper, more personal and therefore less predictably formulaic dimension. What might that be? … Maybe if some such psychological dimension were more consciously integrated, Mr. Fairey’s work would be more like art than like canny illustration of what everyone already knows.”

Photo from Boston ICA

{ 0 comments }

Boyle Heights, El Sereno, Lincoln Heights

These Eastsiders rely on bikes – not blogs – to cover the news

Friday, February 20, 2009

Many Eastside residents cannot afford Internet service at home, leaving them to rely on print for news and information. That may explain why The Voice’s circulation has grown to 20,000 from 16,000 and the number of pages from about 8 to 12.

“Sometimes during the first year of our existence I was wondering if anyone was reading the paper. If anyone was getting it,” said Morales during an interview in his paper’s small office, which is dominated by his two bikes. “Then we started receiving more and more phone calls. Now people know to come to us when they don’t get results somewhere else.”

Yet, The Voice generates barely enough money to cover its printing and operating expenses, leaving Morales and Cabrera to live simply. That why in part Morales puts 250 miles a month on his bike – it keeps his expenses low and the paper afloat. Despite the gloomy financial outlook, Morales plans to keep reporting and biking.

“What happens in the community is very important to me,” Morales said. “So maybe that’s why I’m so passionate about what I’m writing about.”

{ 0 comments }

Echo Park

Shepard Fairey's work on newsstands now!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

It was only a few years ago that most of Shepard Fairey’s art appeared as posters and stickers slapped illegally on light poles and dumpsters across Los Angeles. This week, Fairey’s work, crafted in his studio in Echo Park, is plastered across the cover of Time magazine. The now familiar image of President-Elect Barack Obama “might be the defining image of my life,” Fairey said in a video interview of his work.

Photo: High Snobiety

{ 0 comments }