The former Linda Vista Hospital in Boyle Heights closed more than 20 years ago but it has been far from vacant. The hospital overlooking Hollenbeck Park has proven to be a popular spot for TV and movie shoots as well as believers in the paranormal, who have promoted the nearly century-old hospital as one of L.A.’s most haunted places. But the hospital’s days of hosting movie shoots and paranormal investigations is quickly coming to and end after the entire hospital property on the 600 block of St. Louis Street has been purchased by an affordable housing developer, which plans to build about 100 units of senior housing and medical offices within the landmark structure. Construction work on the first phase of the approximately $37 million project is scheduled to begin early next year, said Maurice Ramirez, executive vice president for AMCAL, an affordable housing developer.
“With the shortage of housing and affordable housing, this is a good fit with what can be done with the building,” Ramirez said.
City officials will gather on the First Street Bridge – one of the Los Angeles River spans linking Boyle Heights to downtown Los Angeles – on Tuesday morning to celebrate the reopening of the structure following a widening project that took longer and cost more than expected. Portions of the 82-year-old bridge have been closed to traffic since 2007 to allow the bridge to be widened by 26-feet to accommodate the Metro Gold Line tracks that run down the middle of the structure. While the Gold Line trains started running across the bridge in 2008, work on widening the span ran into unexpected trouble and delays, ranging from the unexpected discovery of large boulders and unknown utility lines that complicated foundation construction to restricted work hours near a Metro rail yard. Officials had estimated last year that cost overruns could reach as high as $12 million.
As a result of delays, the project, which was to have been completed in May 2010, dragged on, leaving the bridge closed to westbound traffic until last Thursday. Now, traffic, trains and pedestrians flow in both directions.
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A group of students will take to a Boyle Heights stage this afternoon to present performances they created dealing with diabetes, obesity and other health problems. The performances by the students ages 11 to 17 are the culmination of a program that teaches acting and writing skills along with information on healthy lifestyles. “This program engages the students in acting and writing, giving them skills they can use to educate their families and their community about healthy living,” said Tony Plana, Executive Artistic Director of East Los Angeles Classic Theatre, which teamed up with White Memorial Medical Center on the program. Under the program,the students attended 30 sessions on writing, production and the performance before taking to the stage to share their stories with the public.
The above video was supposed to have shown off Boyle Heights’ newly painted green bike lane. Instead, a man riding a customized bike while listening to ranchera music steals the show. City bike coordinator Nate Baird shot the video and other photos this weekend after city crews sprayed sections of the First Street bike lane a bright green to help the lane and riders stand out in traffic. But what also stood out and caught Baird’s attention was a bicyclist with a dark hat riding a customized bike equipped with a boom box on the handlebars. “I thought it was really cool,” Baird said of the man’s bike.
A new Boyle Heights charter school that is the most recent venture of former Hollywood power agent Tom Strickler will hold a grand opening celebration on Thursday. Strickler, who is also known as a world traveler and adventurer, serves as chairman of Extera Public School, which operates out of several classrooms at Breed Street Elementary. After stepping down from the Endeavor talent agency in 2009 as it merged with William Morris, Strickler said he was planning to scale the highest peaks of Peru and also start what he described as “a non-profit organization in the field of education,” according to Media Decoder.
Extera opened its doors this fall with 264 students in kindergarten through the third grade and shares the campus with Breed Street Elementary, which is operated by L.A. Unified. The charter will add students each year for a total enrollment of 450 in K-6th.
This 1908 Boyle Heights bungalow is pretty spartan on the outside, and it does not look like the owners have done much work on the exterior since they purchased the Pennsylvania Avenue home for $125,000 last year . Inside, however, what appear to be some original features – including a fireplace, built-in book shelves and wood floors – have been preserved amid new walls, electrical systems and kitchen cabinets. The $234,000 asking price – nearly double what the owners paid in August 2010 – might be a bargain in Echo Park or Highland Park but is it low enough to attract many buyers to an 864-square-foot home in Boyle Heights?
A new mural overlooking Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights features a black and white portrait of 60-year-old mariachi Rafael Rubio. Steve Saldivar created the above video of artist Robert Vargas painting Rubio’s image on the wall of Eastide Luv, a bar on the east side of the plaza. Vargas spent about three hours painting the portrait of Rubio, who was selected at random as the subject of the mural, according to Saldivar’s Vimeo page. KPCC blogger Leslie Berestein Rojas said the video reflects the changes underway in this section of Boyle Heights”
The video subtly captures the generational and cultural divide taking place on a gentrifying E. 1st Street, where the mariachis who have worked there for decades now find themselves elbow to elbow with upwardly mobile second- and third-generation young Latinos who frequent nightspots like Eastside Luv and the M-Bar.
The victim, described as a 17 or 18 year-old male, was shot three times near the corner of Chicago Street and Michigan Avenue at about 1:45 a.m. today, police told L.A. Now. The suspect, who walked up to the victim and started firing, is still at large in what police believe is a gang-related crime.
The old General Hospital in Boyle Heights boasts a commanding hilltop home with about a million-square feet of space, a central location near freeways and an iconic Moderne-style facade instantly recognizable to millions of “General Hospital” soap opera fans. But the 19-floor hospital built in 1933 has remained virtually empty since a new, 600-bed replacement hospital opened next door in late 2008. Some have suggested that the Depression-era complex could be turned into everything from housing to an indoor mall to a cultural center. However, Los Angeles County, which owns the building, has faced a few setbacks to fill up the building and adjacent grounds – even with offers of free rent.
The red brick walls of the Boyle Hotel – known to many in Boyle Heights as the Mariachi Hotel – have been shrouded under scaffolding and a black veil for several months now. Under that black screen, designed to keep down dust, construction workers are transforming the interior of the 1889 Boyle Heights landmark into 31 affordable apartments that will overlook Mariachi Plaza at First Street and Boyle Avenue.
What does the old hotel, built by George Cummings, look like under the veil? Ernesto Espinoza, Director of Real Estate Development for The East Los Angeles Community Corp., the nonprofit developer in charge of the $24.6 million project, gave The Eastsider a tour of the Victorian Italianate-style building, which is scheduled to once again house residents by May 2012.
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City officials will gather on the 
The old General Hospital in Boyle Heights boasts a commanding hilltop home with about a million-square feet of space, a central location near freeways and an iconic Moderne-style facade instantly recognizable to millions of “General Hospital” soap opera fans. But the 19-floor hospital built in 1933 has remained virtually empty since a new,
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The Eastsider publishes stories and news from the northeast corner of the City of Los Angeles and neighboring East Los Angeles. Who is the Eastsider? Where does the Eastsider roam? 
