Streetsblog Los Angeles

A "Save Wyvernwood" banner was lowered two nights ago above a northbound 101 Freeway overpass. Isabel Avila/isabelavila.com

Last week, the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council’s executive committee struck from tomorrow’s general board meeting agenda the action item to support the Wyvernwood redevelopment project. After issues were brought up ranging from securing a proper location, to whether or not their decision would make a difference on the project, the neighborhood council doesn’t appear likely to revisit the motion in the future, said Edward Padilla, president of the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council.

“This is probably one of the most prominent issues we’re going to deal with,” said Padilla in an interview. “And it’s not that we don’t want to address important issues . . . (but board members) are being attacked about it and it’s causing division.”

The $2 billion mixed-use redevelopment was originally voted for by the Boyle Heights neighborhood council at its January meeting and was approved with a 9-3 vote, the Boyle Heights Beat reported. Since the neighborhood council didn’t give 24-hours notice of a location change, the vote was nullified and was expected to be voted on this month.

The $2 billion Wyvernwood redevelopment project’s contentiousness has reached as high as city advisory meetings, and as low as town halls. 15 Group, the Wyvernwood developer, expects the project to be an economic stimulus by replacing the rent controlled housing with multiple affordable housing units. Opponents including El Comité de la Esperanza and Frente de Apoyo del Comité de la Esperanza (FACE) argue that the project would displace its residents.

Members of el Comité felt the neighborhood council’s decision to abandon the vote was a victory, said Roberto Mojica, El Comité’s public relations officer and 25-year wyvernwood resident. Yet when the executive committee decided to strike the motion, 15 Group Principal Steven Fink didn’t object the decision.(15 Group representatives did not respond to our request for comment in time for publication.)

When the neighborhood council  discussed changing the location of the meeting from the Boyle Heights Senior Center to Lou Costello Junior Youth Center, the developer and some board members Read more…

The Eighth Street Bike Lane begins/ends at the Olympic Boulevard. While the sign is on Olympic Boulevard, the lane breaks off onto Eight Street. Other than this sign, and the bike lane symbol on the upper corner, there isn't any visual queue earlier on Olympic Boulevard. Kris Fortin/LA Streetsblog

Before the Eight Street bike lane was painted, Evelyn Martinez, a 21-year-old Wyvernwood resident and cyclist, said she would ride down Olympic Boulevard instead of Eighth Street. Since Olympic Boulevard was flatter than the hilly Eighth Street, she braced daily against freight trucks and heavier traffic.

“The huge trucks would freak me out,” said Martinez.

The Eighth Street bike lane opened sometime in December, and has provided cyclists an alternative east-west route through South Boyle Heights. The bike lane passes through one of the busiest intersections at Soto Street, Lorena Street, and Olympic Boulevard, and the Wyvernwood Apartments and Estrada Courts.

Heading east or west on Eighth Street the bike lanes pavement makes for a smooth ride. And there are five-six zebra-stripped crosswalks at different points of the street for pedestrians.

While Eighth Street has alleviated some worries about the nearby congestion, automobiles and trucks are still a big presence. On Eighth and Soto Streets, freight trucks and Metro buses are still turn onto the two-lane street. There is an I-5 freeway entrance  on Eighth Street.

Martinez said she has started to use the bike lane more frequently coming from work. Often riding from Boyle Avenue, the east route through Eighth Street gives her more momentum down hills because they start from higher peaks. Read more…

A recently painted alleway two blocks from Soto Street and Whittier Boulevard. Since its difficult for families to get to the coast, the floor was painted blue to represent the beach, said Alma Salcido, community organizer for Union de Vecinos. Kris Fortin/LAStreetsblog

Teresa Alfaro, 45, waters the plants in an alley between Mathews Street and Penrith Drive, just two blocks from Whittier Boulevard and Soto Street. Alfaro, whose home is at the entrance of the alley, said her husband and three sons helped  give the alley a facelift. The alley across the street is usually littered with trash and unkept in comparison.

“The people they are getting more united here. With a lot of communication we are uniting and keep everything pretty,” said Alfaro.

Neighbors and their families last month helped give the alley a facelift, by putting paint to concrete and planting vegetation. It is a collective project between neighbors and organizers of Union de Vecinos, an advocacy group in Boyle Heights.

Based on input from community meetings, the floor was painted blue in the center with a tan outline to represent a beach to children, said Alma Salcido, community organizer for Union de Vecinos. For adults, the area maps out a section of the alley as a gathering area, or una placita, to host movie nights, or potlucks, added Salcido. Read more…

The bike lane on Mission Road north of Cesar Chavez Avenue pass through multiple auto repair yards, and is heavily used by freight trucks. Kris Fortin/LAStreetsblog

About a month ago as I was passing Mission Road on the 7o Metro bus, and I had to do a double take when I saw the bike lane painted on the road. Mission Road between Cesar Chavez Avenue and Marengo Street is one of the busiest corridors because of its proximities to multiple freeways and its a heavily used route by freight trucks. It is also a route that gives the smoothest connection between Boyle Heights and the North East Los Angeles neighborhoods since it has a gradual incline and a wide road, as opposed to roads like Soto Street that are tight, windy and have multiple hills.

The Mission Road bike lane stretches north past Marengo Street, but I wasn’t able to see where it ends. I’ll be revisiting this bike lane and another one on Eighth Street, parallel to Wyvernwood and Estrada Courts, in the coming weeks for a fuller report.

Read more…

Double exposed photo of the First Street Bridge and brush at the San Gabriel Valley Mountains taken by 16-year-old Raquel. Courtesy of Las Fotos Project

By Raquel, 16-year-old participant of Las Fotos Project

When the young women of Las Fotos Project were asked where the San Gabriel Mountains were, only 1 of 9 raised their hand. So when asked to take photos of the mountains and create a double exposure image–where film is exposed twice to create a multilayered image– “Nature: Double Exposed” would create a lot of “firsts” for the teenage participants.

“Nature: Double Exposed; Boyle Heights Meets The San Gabriel Mountains,” a project between Girls Today Women Tomorrow, San Gabriel Mountains Forever, and Las Fotos Project,  was created into a book last year, showcasing the double-exposed photos of nature and images from the girls lives. Accompanied by poetry, the girls relate their lives to nature by reflecting on their family members, and the neighborhood they live in.

The 10 girls involved with Las Fotos Project grew up on the Eastside, which has a limited amount of nature nearby. In Boyle Heights alone, there is only 0.72 acres of park per 1,000 residents.

Lizbeth Rojas developed Nature: Double Exposed as a part of the San Gabriel Mountains Forever Leadership Academy, which give youth leadership roles to bring awareness to the San Gabriel Mountains. Partnering with Las Fotos Project, a photography program that reaches out to students ages 11-17 from low income latino communities, Lizbeth created a program that would expose teenage girls to the mountains and help them tell a story through photography. Read more…

Kris Fortin/LAStreetsblog

Martha Garcia legs wouldn’t stop shaking when she saw the tamales and gelatins she made the night before being thrown in the trash by police officers, and her equipment being taken away by the city.

The tension stayed with her for a month, but she knew she had to recover from this setback.

“We’re always day by day. But it’s like too bad, we have to keep risking it.”

Last week’s Policy con Pan Dulce brought together city officials, activists, scholars and street vendors to discuss the hurdles that stand in front of legalizing street vending. It also gave people a chance to see the human face of those affected by the ordinance, which criminalizes street vending.

The event was organized by East Los Angeles Community Corporation (ELACC), which also hosted four street vending town halls in Boyle Heights, Westlake/MacArthur Park, South Los Angeles, and Pacoima. ELACC has been working with street vendors and various community organizations to craft a street vendor ordinance.

“We didn’t just arrive at this focus of the code overnight,” said Maria Cabildo, president of East Los Angeles Community Corporation. “It’s been a multi-year journey. But we feel like this is the solution that our community needs, and something that warrants all of us to think together and make this happen.”

Scholars estimate there are more than 10,000 street vendors in Los Angeles, many of which are undocumented. Of those, many street vendors chose to enter street vending’s informal economy because they’ve been pushed out of formal means, mostly because of their undocumented status.

Street vending also trickles down to the children of vendors. Children of street vendors help prepare the merchandise at home, babysit their siblings while their parents are away, or help sell goods with their parents or separately, said Emir Estrada, adjunct professor of sociology at University of Southern California. Read more…

Unidentified man browses presentations at Metro's open house of its properties in Boyle Heights. Kris Fortin/LAStreetsblog

Developers and Metro representatives came to the  the Boyle Heights Technology and Youth Center on Tuesday for an open house at to update the community on Metro-owned lots in Boyle Heights. This is the first time developers McCormack Baron Salazar,for lots at Cesar Chavez Avenue/Fickett Street and Southwest Corner of First Street/Boyle Avenue;  and A Community of Friends on First Street/Lorena Street, were available to answer questions and receive comments from community members.

While the majority of the information was the same from Metro’s December presentation to the Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council, there have been tweaks to proposals. Here are some highlights:

• Southwest First/Boyle: 80 units of affordable housing apartments, 3000-4000 square feet of retail space, decreased from 98 affordable housing units and 5000 square feet of retail as reported in Metro’s December report.
• First/Lorena: proposed 10 more affordable units totaling 53 affordable apartments (half permanent housing, half supportive housing for special needs), and 5000 square feet of retail space, a decrease from the 6000 square feet proposed in Metro’s December report.
• MBS is looking to put a 23,000 square foot grocery store on the Chavez and Fickett lot.

The Metro Board of Directors approved design guidelines last month for lots at Mariachi Plaza/Pennsylvania and Bailey, First and Soto Streets, and Cesar Chavez Avenue and Soto Streets. Those lots will be sent out for requests for proposals, but the date was not specified in the presentation.

Martha Cisneros, 58-year-old Boyle Heights resident, said that she was concerned the proposed affordable housing would add to the overpopulation in the neighborhood. “We want oversight (on applicants), and hard working families,” said Cisneros. Read more…

More than 100 people ate and danced at a potluck styled party to protest the Wyvernwood redevelopment project. Kris Fortin/LAStreetsblog

Advocates for the preservation of Wyvernwood Apartments used the simplest of ideas Sunday to oppose the proposed $2 billion redevelopment project: throw a backyard/frontyard party at the complex. Families brought homemade food, silverware was used instead of disposable, and music and dance brought the more than 100 people center stage.

“For me, I’ve always seen this,” said Wyvernwood tenant Evelyn Martinez in an interview. But the frequency and flexibility to have these types of celebrations in the open changed when owners 15 Group, a Florida-based real estate investment firm, took over.

Members from El Comité de la Esperanza, a Wyverwood-based community advocacy group and Sunday party’s host, are fighting the proposed $2 billion mixed-use redevelopment project and trying to preserve and rehabilitate the current complex. Preservationists argue that the new redevelopment would displace current residents, and would destroy the community that has development at the apartment complex.

15 Group, the real-estate firm that owns Wyvernwood, has stated publicly that residents will have priority to move into the new redevelopment project through their resident retention plan. The plan would give current residents priority to buy or rent from the 660 affordable housing units, or keep the rent they paid from the apartments.

Yet, doubts remain.

“Now what makes you trust this same developer?” said Elena Popp, El Comité’s lawyer. “The very developer that was not responsible and didn’t maintain it and allowed rats and roaches to breed in this development, and doesn’t fix the plumbing, and allows the mold to grow in your apartment. That’s the same developer that proposes to do this (redevelopment).”

Read more…

Photo from Save Wyvernwood Facebook Page

In between working on videos on the recently opened parklets in Los Angeles, the upcoming Streetsblog mayoral candidates interviews, and catching three colds over the past month and a half I haven’t been giving Boyle Heights and the Eastside as much attention as I should.

But to catch up on what’s been happening on the Eastside, here are a few links to some stories:

Northeast Los Angeles River Collaborative awarded $2.25 million federal community challenge planning grant.

Community discusses LAC+USC Medical Center Master Plan 

Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council Planning and Land Use Committee voted to support the proposed Wyvernwood Redevelopment project

A look at weekend events:

El Sereno parklet opens Saturday on Huntington Drive.

Ovarian-Psycos Bicycle Brigade/Corazón del Pueblo host this Sunday Todos Somos Wyvernwood co-ed Bike Ride.

Save Wyvernwood potluck at the Wyvernwood Apartments on Sunday.

While a majority of my posts will be about Boyle Heights, keep on the lookout as I start expanding to other Eastside neighborhoods, including El Sereno, Lincoln Heights, and unincorporated East Los Angeles. 

Planners and Boyle Heights community leaders attended a crash course in the community plan process on January 30 at the Boyle Heights Technology and Youth Center. Kris Fortin/LAStreetsblog

After a four year hiatus, the City of Los Angeles held its first public meeting on the stalled Boyle Heights Community Plan last week.

“If they feel their voice wasn’t heard earlier in the process, they can come back,” said Valentina Knox, one of the two city planners assigned to the Boyle Heights Community Plan update.

This past Wednesday, planners had a small focus group that reviewed the housing situation and stock in the neighborhood. The next focus groups are as follows:

• Feb 20: Small Focus Group  on Mobility
• Feb 26: Small Focus Group on Cultural/Historic Preservation
• March tentative topics: Environmental Justice/Health and Economic Development Read more…