Photo by Martha Benedict
The main classroom at La Casita Verde preschool at the base of Mount Washington is so noisy that sound levels exceed federal standards, preventing the school from qualifying for Head Start funds. The school, as The Eastsider reported back in September, raised funds to conduct a $5,000 acoustical analysis to study the problem. With that done, the school now needs to raise as much as$30,000 to make structural changes to cut down on the noise reverberating across the high-ceiling room, said Pat Griffith, chair of the Mount Washington Preschools, which operates La Casita Verde. “We do know we will not be able to reduce the noise sufficiently with a simple fix,” Griffith said in an email. “We think it will be a false ceiling to meet the Head Start criteria.”
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If the automated weather station on Mount Washington is to be believed, a wind gust of 101 miles per hour was recorded around midnight on Dec. 1. It’s not clear when and if the information is verified but let’s just say it was plenty windy on Mount Washington.
Photo courtesy Erin Crist
While the winds have died down and electrical power is being restored, many Mount Washington residents like Erin Crist are only just beginning to deal with the windstorm’s aftermath. A giant eucalyptus tree fell on her home near Frontac Avenue and Mavis Drive and destroyed the roof. The tree is still there but Crist has moved in with family in Highland Park. Said Crist by email:
We weren’t there when it fell, but our corgi puppy was. No damage inside the house and he was OK.
Photo by Martha Benedict
La Casita Verde preschool sits at the base of Mount Washington between the rumble of Gold Line trains and the roar of traffic on Figueroa Street. But those passing trains and cars are apparently no where nearly as loud as the 24 kids who fill a high-ceiling, classroom at the school. How noisy can it get? After officials from Head Start, the federal preschool program, visited La Casita Verde, the school was asked to test the room to make sure the sound did not exceed mandated decibel levels, said Executive Director Darlene Cabrera. La Casita needs to conduct and pass that sound test it wants to receive federal aid to expand its programs for low-income students, Cabrera said. Now, the school is trying to raise $5,000 to pay for those sound test and an acoustical analysis.
“We knew the noise was loud but we didn’t know it would prevent us from getting funding,” Cabrera said.
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Volunteers and clean up crews equipped with shovels, rakes, brooms and wheel barrows were busy today picking up trash along Marmion Way between Mount Washington and Highland Park. The clean up was organized after Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council board member Ann Walnum complained about the trash and litter lining the winding road, which serves as a popular dumping ground. Photographer and neighborhood council member Martha Bennedict was there to snap photos and also staff the drink and snack table. When the work was done, a long line of bulging trash bags lined the road ready to be picked up.
Photos by Martha Benedict
How hot is it today? At noon, the Mount Washington weather station reported a temperature of 102 degrees. That was one degree higher than Tuesday’s peak. Click here for hourly, online temperature and weather stats from Mount Washington.
* Update: Temperature went up another notch to 103 degrees at 1 p.m. Will we see 104?
Photo courtesy Council District 14
Southwest Museum
A recent city decision to permit the expansion of the Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Griffith Park violates environmental impact laws and endangers the future of the Southwest Museum on Mount Washington, according to a lawsuit filed by Northeast L.A. groups. The lawsuit brought by the Highland Park Heritage Trust and the Mount Washington Homeowners Alliance claims the city violated state laws that “require proper public disclosure and consideration of negative impacts before project approval.” The litigation also claims that city officials ignored zoning laws that prohibit city agencies from taking any action that “will not maintain the Southwest Museum land use on Mount Washington.”
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2010 Mt Washington murals/Matthew Smith
It’s been several years since Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has called Mount Washington home. But another Villaraigosa, Antonio Villaraigosa, Jr., the son of the mayor, has found himself in the middle of a Mount Washington debate over a proposed mural. Villaraigosa is part of a group of artists and friends who are seeking to paint a mural in honor of Jack Rohman, a 21-year-old Mount Washington resident who committed suicide earlier this year. It was Rohman and his friends who last year painted a series of Mount Washington murals (pictured) that amused as well as annoyed many residents. On Monday, Villaraigosa, Jr., who caused in a stir over a 2007 Facebook posting, and others in his group appeared before the Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council, which includes Mount Washington, to seek a letter of support for the mural, according to a story in Patch. The artists said the tribute to Rohman would look nothing like last year’ s murals but some members of the audience were not pleased:
“The Mount Washington community offers a sense of peace and quiet, and a retreat from the sights and sounds that assault our senses,” said Mount Washington resident Ruth Mehringer. “It’s a visual intrusion; it’s in your face no matter what.”
After an “hour long debate about policy and procedure,” the council narrowly voted to approve a letter in support of the Rohman mural. But one of the council members said she would hold off sending the letter to the city’s Cultural Affairs Department, which reviews public art proposals, until Mount Washington residents had more time to review the proposal. The debate and delay did not bother Villaraigosa Jr., who told Patch:
“This was not a huge blow to us. The planning is going to continue. We’re still crafting the creative vision for the art,” he said. “What we saw tonight was some procedural wrangling.”
Parks committee meeting draws a crowd. Photo by Martha Benedict
The City Council’s Arts, Parks & Recreation Committee failed this morning to take a position on a proposed expansion of the Autry Museum in Griffith Park after the only two committee members who showed up – councilmen Tom LaBonge and Ed Reyes – disagreed about what to do. LaBonge indicated that he wanted to support and forward the proposal to the full City Council for a vote but Reyes voiced his opposition, said Nicole Possert* with the Friends of the Southwest Museum. The friends group and its allies have opposed allowing the Autry National Center, which owns both the Autry and the Southwest Museum on Mount Washington, to expand the Griffith Park museum unless it agrees to reopen the Mount Washington facility as a full-fledged museum. The Autry has refused. What’s going to happen now?
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Southwest Museum
Prodded by Northeast L.A. residents and groups, the City Council today voted unanimously to review a city parks commission decision to allow the Autry National Center to expand and renovate its Griffith Park museum. The vote is part of the most recent skirmish between the Autry, which owns the Griffith Park museum and the Southwest Museum on Mount Washington, and groups that say the Autry is only interested in expanding its Griffith Park complex at the expense of the Southwest.
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Photo by Matthew Smith
Last summer The Eastsider posted photos of several murals featuring playful images and strange characters that began appearing on the retaining wall below winding Mt. Washington Drive. No one came forward to take credit for the Mount Washington murals, which vanished in mid August. It turns out the guerrilla artwork was the work of a band of young Mount Washington friends and artists, one of whom, 21-year-old Jack Rohman, committed suicide in late January after struggling for years with schizophrenia. Now, one of Rohman’s fellow artists and friends, Zach Christensen, wants to create another Mount Washington mural in memory of his late friend. On Monday, he appeared before this Arroyo Seco Neighborhood Council to seek their support to create a permanent artwork, according to Patch. Christensen is still trying to determine what form that memorial mural will take:
“I’m just trying to rally community support,” Christensen said. “Jack was very passionate about the mural, and it’s something we really want to see happen.”The mural would most likely replicate the one that the young artists created last summer, which consisted of distinct surreal images pasted on each section of the 500-yard hill reinforcement. A graduate of the University of South California’s School of Fine Art, Christensen said he’s still playing with what the mural might become should he receive the permission of the city. He may paint it directly on the wall this time, or return to the canvas method.
Either way, he said, mural will be a tribute to Rohman’s last great artistic endeavor.
Christensen is scheduled to propose the idea in June before the neighborhood council’s Mt. Washington local issues subcommittee.
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