Category: Uncategorized

My friend Art Yanez has kindly sent me some corrections for my poorly translated Spanish that appeared on this site earlier today. It was my hasty “Alta Vista” attempt to plead for help from Mayor Villaraigosa on behalf of the Spanish speaking residents of the neglected Kester district:

“Hey Andrew,

Per your request, the following:

Mr. Mayor Villaraigosa, your people need you!

¡Señor Alcalde Villaraigosa, su gente lo necesita!

Mr. Mayor Villaraigosa, your people are crying out for help!

¡Señor Alcalde Villaraigosa, su gente clama por su ayuda!

The word for day laborer is “jornalero” or, more simply, “trabajador por dia” (laborer by the day).

At your service,

Arturo”

Any future Spanish translations will have to be approved by Art before they appear on this blog.

In order to prevent or at least record the continuing car-bus crashes along the Valley Orange Line, the MTA has decided to install cameras at 12 intersections.

Yet one accident prone street will not be included, according to today’s LA Times: “But the list of selected crossings in the San Fernando Valley did not include Kester Avenue in Van Nuys, where two of the seven crashes — including the most recent one — occurred.”

Kester is uniquely dangerous. It is one of the narrowest “Main” streets in the Valley. The Busway on this dilapidated road is hemmed in on four sides by warehouses and industrial buildings, thus obscuring the visibility of automobiles to see oncoming buses. Just south of the Busway are three businesses (auto repair, a liquor store and a recording studio) with front entrance parking lots and cars that continually pull out in reverse–creating a traffic risk for cars proceeding northbound on Kester.

Socially, the street is one of the largest gathering spots for the “trabajador por día” who cross back and forth along Kester, as trucks stop to pull them up for $10 an hour gigs. At night, the street is poorly lit, and north of Erwin, there are pedestrians (who often jaywalk) pushing baby strollers and grocery carts.

This is a poor street in both maintenance and social status. No wonder Kester is forgotten.

Joel Kotkin, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation in Irvine, asserts that Los Angeles should continue to be a city of primarily single family homes and that Mayor Villaraigosa’s attempt to create denser residential development along public transport routes is wrong.

In a LA Times opinion piece, he writes, “But what sets L.A. apart from other great cities — and what makes it so attractive — has traditionally been exactly the opposite: its pattern of dispersion and its strong attachment to the single-family home. Assault that basic form and you will turn L.A. not into Paris but something more like an unruly, congested, dense Third World city. A Tehran, if you will, or a Mexico City.”

Isn’t most of LA already like Mexico City or Tehran? You can’t walk down Westwood Boulevard or stop into a Tarz-ino Starbucks without hearing Farsi… and Mexico City has already transplanted itself here. Denser building hasn’t done anything that immigration hasn’t done already.

He also claims: “Virtually everywhere in the advanced industrial world — from Tokyo to Toronto and Paris to Buenos Aires — the bulk of metropolitan job and population growth is occurring in places that look more like Manhattan Beach than Manhattan. Meanwhile, many celebrated older cities, including Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Paris, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Tokyo, are losing population.” Rather than comparing population statistics, he might ask about the civic health of the inhabitants. Do Tokyo, Hamburg, Paris and Frankfurt have nightly drive-by shootings, uninsured and illiterate residents and more guns than people?

He also asks: “Do we really want to be like Chicago, New York or San Francisco? These are all expensive cities with economies that have been creating fewer jobs and opportunities than Los Angeles. They also have fewer children per capita.” Yes, yes, yes! I want to live in a city with less children, because Mexico City , Tehran and any other underdeveloped city has a higher percentage of young people because poorer people have more children. New York, San Francisco and Chicago are attracting young professionals who have invigorated once decrepit industrial neighborhoods and revitalized older ethnic ones. Where in Los Angeles do you find a neighborhood like Soho in New York or Pacific Heights in San Francisco?

As far as building a denser city, Mr. Kotkin should look at the unplanned and car centered, gilded skyscrapers along Wilshire Boulevard in Westwood. Here is development gone awry without any regard for the pedestrian or public transportation. It is a freeway of speeding SUV’s amidst a cacophony of architectural mediocrity and pretentious grandiosity. There are no parks, stores or benches—only a speedway of steel bouncing off marble facades.

Density is here to stay, the single family house is for multi-millionaires. We have to find a way to house LA, and Mayor Villaraigosa is right to explore new options and ways of building.

Since the NBA instituted its more formal dress policy for players, the grumbling has stopped and it seems that the athletes, many of whom earn millions a year, are now investing in fine suits, custom shoes and elegant haberdashery.

One of the beneficiaries of the boom is Elevee, a local Van Nuys retailer housed in a 20,000 square foot facility at 6930 Valjean Ave, Van Nuys, 91406 – (818) 909-0468.

According to an article in the New York Times, Elevee outfits 75% of the NBA. Owner Mike O’Brien stocks suits that range in price from $1,600-$6,000 or higher. Clients include Vince Carter of the Nets and Carmelo Anthony of the Denver Nuggets. O’Brien says the NBA code, “has converted the whole league into dressers.”

Now they just need to institute a dress code in the DGA and WGA and Los Angeles will really see a boom in custom made men’s clothing.

“Fire Monkey Fish”
has some fantastic photos of Van Nuys and other areas of Los Angeles. Her work often focuses on color in hidden places, such as the brightly painted trash container above.

Her images make one look again at the city of Angels as seen by a devilish photographer with an divine sense of humor and aesthetics.