I can’t read Korean, but I’m pretty sure that this is neither Karaoke, nor chicken wings. What say you?
Los Angeles
25
Jan 12
Chicken Wings?
25
Jan 12
Bringing Parks to Koreatown
Today, I decided to head over to K-Town to take some photos. I did not expect to bump into a press conference, let alone one regarding something I find important: parks. Though we have many beautiful large and pocket parks in Los Angeles, the fact is, we have the lowest number of parks per capita, in the entire country and rank low on the park acreage per person scale. It’s not that difficult to see that if people and families have well-kept, safe parks within walking distance of their homes, they’d have a local destination to visit where they can not only get some exercise, but enjoy their community. Getting people out and about is a wonderful way to bring residents together.
The Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA) held a press conference this morning, hoping to share the news that Koreatown may be in danger of not getting a new park. The backstory is that after many years of residents lobbying for a park at Hobart Blvd. and 7th Street, they won $5M from the state of California via the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA). The problem is that Governor Jerry Brown disbanded the Community Redevelopment Agency before the sale of the property could go through. The last day of existence for the CRA is January 31st. All of the money the CRA/LA had is to go back to the state to fund other projects. Now, the CRA, in order to avoid giving much money back to the state, wound up giving the LA City Council about $1B. So, that’s the good news. The money is there.
Alexandra Suh, Executive Director of KIWA speaks to press
Alexandra Suh spoke today about why the Koreatown community would like to have a park. Ms. Suh said that Koreatown is the most park-poor neighborhood in all of Los Angeles. I was stunned to hear that, but a look at Google Maps bears that out. I counted one park. In an enclave so population-rich (120K people in 3 square miles!), one park doesn’t seem like much. Now, if you live in the suburbs or the Westside, this may not seem like a big deal. You probably have never visited one of your local parks, perhaps preferring a more popular park far away or meeting friends in a commercial district. I visit these areas a lot and it’s the same; the exurbs of Riverside County and parts of Orange County, too. One thing always stands out: The bigger the homes, the less use the parks ge during day-time hours. When I go to parks in these areas, I’m usually the only mother there with my kids. The other women are usually nannies. Very unlike my neighborhood, where if you drive by Lincoln Park on the corner of Main St. and Mission Ave. around noon, you’ll see several men fishing in the lake, people exercising, performing instruments or practicing sports and families with small children taking in a nice day.
I think the people of Koreatown should able to enjoy such quality of life activities. The Mayor’s office has brought forth a plan for 50 pocket parks in the city. That’s wonderful if Koreatown is in that plan. From the above map, it’s pretty clear that some of the vacant lots can be used as such. The bonus for KIWA and Koreatown is that the LA Parks Department is ready to take on the project. Darryl Ford, an Analyst with the Department said as much today. They would love to see a park there and want to work with the community and the city to make it happen. Missing from this discussion are Councilmembers. Koreatown is represented by Councilman Herb Wesson and Councilman Tom LaBonge. Neither were on hand for today’s event.
Korean, Spanish and English hopes written on balloons
Community members spoke about how they would love to be able to walk their kids to the park. Mr. Morales spoke of how he raised his children in Koreatown, always wanting a park since he lived in an apartment with no yard. Now that he has grandchildren, he would really be happy to be able to take them to a park. More and more residents came forth with the same aspirations. They wanted to let their children or grandchildren run and swing and play. In English, Spanish and Korean they wrote their hopes on balloons.
The balloons were released to show the City of Los Angeles that they have “sky-high hopes” for a park in Koreatown.
Sky-high hopes
25
Jan 12
It’s the little things
I love Koreatown. There are so many fun little gadgets to be found in that neighborhood. My husband likes it because he thinks it’s the closest he can get to Blade Runner within the city’s confines. We both agree there is a lot of forward-thinking going on in many places there.
In many restaurants in Koreatown, you’ll find a button to alert your server to your table. Most are pretty old, but that never mattered because it’s not something you see in Santa Monica or Pasadena. This button, oh how I love this action-specific button. I found it at Haus Dessert Boutique on 6th Street. It actually can be useful in those places where a language barrier may occur, which happens a lot for us when visit. I hope to see this in more places, soon.
Now, we just need them to get touchscreen ordering in more restaurants. Save the trees, right?
11
Apr 11
Taking in CicLAvia
There are times when an idea is good. There are times when the implementation of that idea is excellent. CicLAvia falls into the latter category. To make it even better, the weather in Los Angeles was perfect for a bike ride through the city.
On Sunday, I packed up the kids and we went over to Hollenbeck Park to see one of the end-points of CicLAvia. We’ve visited the park before and enjoy it immensely. There is rarely more than 50 or so people around the park, so it was even more amazing to see hundreds of Angelenos congregating at the northern end of the park with their bikes, scooters, skateboards and feet.
According to their site:
Ciclovías started in Bogotá, Colombia, over thirty years ago as a response to the congestion and pollution of city streets. Now they happen throughout Latin America and the United States, connecting communities and giving people a break from the stress of car traffic. The health benefits are immense. Ciclovías bring families outside of their homes to enjoy the streets, our largest public space.
7
Apr 11
Stopping to smell the roses…
I have a habit of being nosy. I also have a habit of putting off somethings. Everyday, I drive by a building with a scarecrow painted on the wall. I love the look of it, and sometimes hope for a little back up in traffic, so I can look at it longer. For the past 4 years, every time I drive past the wall I think, “I really should take some photos of that.” One day…
This morning, I was going to drive over near Chinatown to take pictures of graffiti under a bridge. I’ve been meaning to shoot that one almost 6 years. On my way, I decided to go past my scarecrow. Then decided to get out of the car and snap off a few pictures. I stood there, looking at this building, and saw something I had never noticed from the car: the entire building was covered in graffiti. Not only that, but the one building was actually two buildings.
I’m nosy…remember.
I did a u-turn to find the entrance to the compound. I knew that sometimes these places are locked up tight and often, even when I’m shooting them for work, I get hassled. Today, I got doubly lucky. The people inside the business were more than happy to allow me to shoot the art on the walls. They told me that the artists come in and ask if they can grab a spot. The building owner is aware of the artwork on the walls. This makes for a very wonderful relationship between all three groups.
The work inside the compound is amazing, even more impressive than just the scarecrow. If you visit El Sereno and have a chance to see these in person, I highly suggest you do so. Otherwise, you can look at what I shot, today. There are a lot more pieces on the wall, but I think this is a nice sample.
And no…I never did make it over to Chinatown. One day…
31
Jul 10
So you want to grow your own food (Part 2)
Your soil is prepped and you have a rough sketch of your water needs, as mentioned in Part 1, but now it’s time for the best part: picking your plants.
Choosing Your Plants
Find Your Zone
I love growing vegetables, even the ones I won’t particularly eat. I often grow extra produce so that I can trade with neighbors or use in my compost pile. Most people start off with tomatoes. Tomatoes are easy to grow and aren’t too tempermental. Best of all, they only need minimum watering. If you live in Southern California, you can actually grow some tomatoes year round if you let them go to seed. Ideally though, they need warm weather to get sweet and ripe.
Depending on your growing zone, you may be able to grow many different kinds of plants. For example, I’m in Sunset Zones 19, 20, 21. I would love to grow apples or pears for eating, but it will be a toss up as to if I’d get fruit at all. Sunset Zone 22 can grow edible pomes.
You’ll notice that I listed 3 zones above. That’s because my tiny backyard ans 3 different microclimates. In fact, even the temperature will vary 3 -5 degrees depending on location. Some areas are in full sun year round. Others get only 3 – 5 hours of sun during the summer months and are in shade the rest of the year. I highly suggest checking out Sunset’s Western Garden book for Southern California gardeners.
Continue reading →
31
Jul 10
So you want to grow your own food (Part 1)
Recently, I’ve been asked about how to grow food at home. This is something I get rather excited about, not only because I love gardening, but I love seeing people talk about how they use the food they grow in their meals. Let’s face it, this economy has us all re-evaluating out food choices. When you go to a large grocers and see sad produce at exorbitant prices, it gives you pause.
I hope to be able to get you started on growing your own food, but this is especially geared toward people who live in the city. I grew up in the suburbs. We also had herbs growing in pots and grew a few vegetables, but most of our plants were indoors. When I moved to Hollywood in ’98, we lived in a courtyard apartment. The courtyard was very shaded and cool. Had I wanted to grow lettuce year round, I could have. Behind our apartment was a 6′ strip of concrete that was sunny year round. Trial and error taught me what I could grow and where. All of my produce and herbs were grown in pots and buckets. In 2006, we moved to El Sereno. I took my back yard from looking barren to a complete jungle in just a couple of years. (Side note: Those pots you see in the second photo are the same ones I used to grow veggies in, back in Hollywood.)
27
Jun 10
Activities That Take Less Time Than Registering for Swim Classes at Richard Alatorre Pool
There’s incompetence and then there’s mind blowing WTFness that makes you worry that the people in charge are capable driving, breeding and/or voting. Today’s experience registering for swim classes definitely fall into the latter. With only 36 families in front of us, what should have taken, at the most 10 minutes, took a little under 3 hours. Two hours and 51 minutes, to be exact.
How is such buffoonery possible? Well, first off, they would not pass out registration papers to us while we were standing on line. Considering some people were registering 3+ children, logic would dictate that making the registration forms available would have been the most efficient way to handle this. When I spoke to the woman handing out the forms, she said that she’s only handing out 10 at time so that she won’t get confused.
*blink*
Her exact words were, “Well, whether you have them now or get them later, you still have to stand in line.” I said, “I get that, I just thought I’d spend my time effectively. I thought this would be…efficient.” She just looked at me.
As we got closer to the front, I overheard her talking to other parents. That’s when I learned that the line wasn’t just for swim classes, but also for people signing up for team sports or the Jr. Lifeguard program. Once again, logic dictates that separating us into 3 separate lines would be the best course of action. Especially since, I also learned that after you filled out the registration papers, you’d have to go stand on one of these lines anyway.
What it came down to was that I got to spend 2 hours in the sun, standing on line to get a piece of paper that I could complete. Once that was done, I was given the opportunity to stand on yet another line, to give that paper to someone else.
I can think of several ways this registration could have gone so much faster. Making the registration forms available online, would be awesome. Even better, would be to allow for online registration in the first place. The multiple line suggestion above would have worked wonders, too.
Then I started thinking about other things I could have done that wouldn’t have taken nearly as long:
- Getting a new license at the DMV. Hell, doing anything at the DMV.
- Standing on line for a ride at Disneyland.
- Getting a DBA.
- Filing for unemployment benefits.
- Going through airport security. Internationally.
- Finding parking in West Hollywood during Pride.
- Getting an outside table at Doughboys.
- Listening to a speech by Bill Clinton.
- Getting inside the Federal Building.
- Visiting an IRS office.
- Driving to San Diego, Palm Springs or Santa Barbara.
- A dinner cruise in Long Beach.
- Watching TWO soccer matches.
I could go on, but what it boils down to is that whoever was the mastermind of today’s events should be fired. Immediately. Or at the very least, someone with half a brain should be in charge of registration from here on out.
4
Mar 10
It’s no secret that I prefer, no, love summer. I like the heat. I adore days that seemingly last forever. There is a reason I’d never move any place where it snows more than one day a winter. Somehow, this winter seems longer than others and I’m not too happy about that. I could blame the weird, cooler weather in fall on the nearby fires. It feels like it’s been raining every week since December. There was that bright spot in the middle of February when it hit 81 degrees for 3 days in a row.
I want that back.
I need the sun kissing my skin.
Now.
22
Nov 09
Great LA Walk ’09
Yesterday was the 4th annual Great LA Walk. Began by Mike to mark his 10th anniversary in LA, it has grown to hundreds of Angelenos showing up to walk this great city. The walk started at the Shrine Auditorium and ended in Venice Beach. We met at Baja Cantina in Marina Del Rey to celebrate the end of the daylong walk. Below is the slideshow of some of the photos I took and the map route.
Map Route: