Kristopher Fortin

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.

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.

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.

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.

Developers and Metro representatives came to the Boyle Heights Technology and Youth Center on Tuesday for an open house 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 the 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.

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.

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.

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

The first of Los Angeles's four parklets opened up Saturday on York Boulevard in Highland Park. While its the second of its kind in Greater Los Angeles, it may be one of the few parklets across the nation that isn't tied to any one business as it sits adjacent to a crosswalk, and is in front of a bank and a hardware store.

Inactive city services in Boyle Heights was a general theme in a recent Boyle Heights business assessment study. Business owners described roads and sidewalks having been in disarray, and trash is regularly dumped on the street.