SILVER LAKE—More than two-dozen neighborhood residents say they have recently developed respiratory issues and claim a nearby Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power (LADWP) construction site and its contractor, Steve P. Rados Inc., are to blame.

Residents have also complained of severe noise and local businesses are reporting staggering decreases in business, all surrounding the work site located along Glendale Boulevard from Riverside Drive to where Rokeby Street and Waverly Drive intersect in north Silver Lake.

Martha Mattieu, 72, who lives off Waverly Drive, has a pre-condition of asthma but was ordered onto oxygen by her doctor after construction began.

Another neighbor Lillian Groag started waking up choking in the middle of the night. She has visited several ear, nose and throat doctors and allergists but none could determine the cause. According to Groag, when she leaves town for work, she feels better.

According to another resident, Michael Newsom his two dogs and a cat died within a few weeks of each other. None were old or unhealthy, he said, and with each he noticed respiratory issues prior to their deaths.

Ana Calderon has also been experiencing allergy-type conditions and wheezing, worse than she’s had before.

“I couldn’t understand why I was always getting this asthma,” she said. As a deejay, Calderon works nights and is rarely home before 3:30 a.m. She said when the construction starts at 7 a.m. it’s so loud she can’t sleep causing stress and anxiety. As a newlywed, she said, it seems that every argument with her husband can be traced back to the construction.

“Everything is more difficult than it needs to be,” she said.

The construction is part of a water quality project replacing the current two-mile river supply conduit that runs through the neighborhood. This portion of the project began in October and is now expected to be finished in April. The construction will then move down Rokeby Street for another month and a half.

For residents, the end can’t come soon enough.

Jerome Courshon, who works from home as a film producer, started taking pictures of what looked like improper practices at the construction site.

Promised in the project’s environmental impact report is that the site would be watered at least twice daily. According to Courshon, that has not happened. He has dozens of videos photographs of the unwatered dry site, uncovered dirt trucks and piles, and other infractions taken almost daily through January.

He has also taken several readings of the construction site’s noise from his apartment, approximately 95 feet away. According to Courshon, the levels have been as high as 94db.

According to city code, equipment and machinery cannot exceed 75 dB at a distance of 50 feet.

In mid-January, Courshon hosted a community meeting at nearby Silverlake Presbyterian Church. In attendance were 22 residents, five DWP staff members and four representatives of the contractor. Throughout the two-hour meeting, as the neighbors listed off complaints, their moods grew heated.

“I feel like we’ve put up with it for a reasonable amount of time but we’re frustrated because we haven’t seen reasonable progress,” said Jeff Kaufman who’s lived in the same property on Rokeby Street for 10 years.

For some the construction has been so unbearable, they’ve moved away. “I am not off the site, I’m in the site. I hear everything… I welcome you to stay at my home for a night. We can’t breath, we can’t sleep and we’re [angry],” said Keith Ruggiero, a sound engineer who eventually moved away because he could no longer work from his home.

“We need to be more visible,” said Glenn Singley, Director of Water Engineering and Technical Services at LADWP, of his department’s oversight after hearing complaints. “Let’s come back and see what we can do because there’s a lot more work coming as well. The neighborhood’s complaints are being looked into. There were some things that we had to tighten up,” he said, including regular watering onsite and covering dirt piles overnight.

Singley said an industrial hygienist will also monitor the site and take air quality samples to see if there are any concerning constituents in the soil.

“We are pretty much in bedrock in this particular area,” he said, “so we don’t expect there to be anything that has been dumped on the site or penetrated but we’ll see if there’s anything that raises a red flag.”

The project manager from Steve P. Rados Inc., Derek Rados, said his company and crew are trying to take resident’s complaints in consideration and they’re working as fast as possible. However, he said, the site has harder rocks than initial reports showed and that has made things difficult.

“You can only go as fast as your excavating and especially with this hard rock it’s really hard to excavate. . . .You run into things in underground construction you don’t expect,” he said.

According to Rados, since the meeting, a sound engineer has explored methods of sound mitigation and work crew have been more diligent about consistent watering and sweepings of the work area, as well as covering dirt stalk piles.

To his knowledge, he said, none of the crew has experienced respiratory problems since working on this site.

The construction has hurt local businesses as well.

On Riverside Drive, down the hill where it intersects with Glendale Boulevard, Armen Yeghikyan, 47, who works at Valero gas station, walked along the gas pumps one recent afternoon. He ran his finger along the top of one pump, showing a clear line in the dust. Pumps are wiped down every morning, he said, but by 11 p.m. the dust is twice as bad.

Business, he added, is also down about 30% which he attributes to the construction because of a lack of commuter access to the gas station.

Rafi Abramyan, 54, owns the Dyno Smog test center behind the gas station. Though he has been coughing more recently, he’s more concerned about his business.

Since construction started, Abramyan said he’s seen a nearly 90% dip in sales. On a recent day, he said he only had one customer in 10 hours. He said he might be forced to move or close his business all together.

“Right now I’m stuck in the middle of something and I don’t know what to do,” he said.

Abramyan said he has filed a claim with the city to compensate for his losses. “They told me it’s being investigated,” he said.

ECHO PARK—Common Grains, a natural food grocery story, will host a rice exhibition at Cookbook, featuring more than 50 kinds of rare and artisanal Japanese rice.

Guest can both taste and purchase the uncooked rice as well as pre-prepared rice dishes. The cooking demonstration will showcase recipes and techniques used in traditional Donabe rice pot cooking.

1549 Echo Park Ave., Sat., Feb. 4, 1 p.m.-3 p.m. Free.

Always a challenge, restoring a neglected older property is almost always also a labor of love. Furniture designer Ryan Trowbridge of Los Feliz and his partner interior designer Tracy Beckmann recently completed an extraordinary restoration and thoughtful renovation on a hillside street in Desert Hot Springs.

In 2008, the pair purchased the four-room, 1947-built hotel designed by architect John Lautner—of Silver Lake’s Silver Top.  Originally the hotel was to be at the gateway to a 600-acre development. In 1947, Lautner was fresh off his fellowship at Taliesin West under the tutelage of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The hotel’s design echoes Taliesin’s primitive tents where light, the desert sky and the rugged environment are embraced.

Constructed of redwood, glass, concrete and steel, the building’s steel framing cantilevers out, creating a wing-shaped overhang that shades each room. Although the rooms are compact in size, there’s an incredible feeling of expansiveness due to the 180-degree view through a glass wall.  Each room opens to a private patio and cactus garden.  Lautner was known for his sympathetic way of incorporating the natural world into his buildings.

Purchasing the property took some time due to its uniqueness and its location in a tract home neighborhood. When Trowbridge and Beckmann first saw it, the entire building—including all the redwood—was painted solid white.

“It was a crazy adventure because nothing was standard,” saidTrowbridge of the restoration, but most visitors have been “blown away,” by seeing the building returned to its original look.

There have been some additions: bathrooms have been redone in Heath Ceramic tile, three units have restored kitchenettes, one has a full kitchen and furniture is now of-the-period vintage finds.

Among Beckmann’s projects is the hotel at the LA Athletic Club and Mas Malo restaurant downtown. Trowbridge, in addition to his furniture and light constructions, is a partner at Bar 107 in downtown Los Angeles.

Hotel Lautner is open for overnight stays via hotellautner.com. During Palm Springs Modernism Week, an open house on Sun. Feb. 19th will benefit the Lautner Foundation.

Eastside Eye Pick for February

Pacific Standard Time: Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, Backyard Oasis: The Swimming Pool in Southern California Photography, 1945-1982, now through May 27. For mid-century modern fans heading out to Palm Springs for modernism week, the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time sponsors this first major exhibition that dives into swimming pool photographs.

90026 Single Family Residences

1654 N DILLON ST $795,000
1654 N DILLON ST 795,000
1735 GOLDEN GATE AVE 613,000
1735 GOLDEN GATE AVE 613,000
1439 N CORONADO ST 580,000
1439 N CORONADO ST 580,000
2000 BAXTER ST 515,000
1597 ALTIVO WAY 415,000
1597 ALTIVO WAY 415,000
2127 OAK GLEN PL 375,000
2463 ECHO PARK AVE 375,000
2463 ECHO PARK AVE 375,000
1450 LAVETA TER 372,000
1450 LAVETA TER 372,000
2130 PRINCETON AVE 340,000
2130 PRINCETON AVE 340,000
2728 GLASSELL ST 330,000
2728 GLASSELL ST 330,000
1159 CORONADO TER 182,000
1159 CORONADO TER 182,000
138 DOUGLAS ST 180,000

90027 Condominiums

4411 LOS FELIZ BLVD 608 $502,000
4455 LOS FELIZ BLVD 1208 495,000
4353 CLAYTON AVE 2 485,000
4411 LOS FELIZ BLVD 1004 390,000
4440 FINLEY AVE 106 390,000
3320 GRIFFITH PARK BLVD 3 255,000
4507 FINLEY AVE 9 230,000

90027 Single Family Residences

2220 N BERENDO ST $2,820,000
2024 CUMMINGS DR 2,300,000
2616 GLENDOWER AVE 2,075,000
4525 COCKERHAM DR 1,565,000
3648 SHANNON RD 1,510,000
4941 AMBROSE AVE 1,400,000
2263 RONDA VISTA DR 1,100,000
2317 ST GEORGE ST 1,060,000
3711 MONON ST 661,500
2461 CLAREMONT AVE 580,000
3740 ARBOLADA RD 575,000

90039 Condominiums

2018 GRIFFITH PARK BLVD 314 $370,000
2018 GRIFFITH PARK BLVD 102 339,000
2354 FLETCHER DR 112 225,000

90039 Single Family Homes

2086 BALMER DR $1,040,000
2400 MORENO DR 990,000
2300 BAXTER ST 807,000
2300 BAXTER ST 807,000
2051 KENILWORTH AVE 680,000
2428 MEADOW VALLEY TER 645,000
3251 GARDEN AVE 535,000
3337 LA CLEDE AVE 530,000
2000 BAXTER ST 515,000
3155 LA CLEDE AVE 490,000
2127 OAK GLEN PL 375,000
2363 PERU ST 250,000

90068 Single Family Residences

3215 BONNIE HILL DR $975,000
6836 CAHUENGA PARK TRL 867,000
7792 SKYHILL DR 865,090
7342 PACIFIC VIEW DR 795,000
7185 WOODROW WILSON DR 577,000
7254 SYCAMORE TRL 410,000
2700 CAHUENGA BLVD E 1206 410000
3206 CANYON LAKE DR 1754500
3401 BARHAM BLVD 6 250000
3374 FLOYD TER 600000
3284 BARHAM BLVD 102 235000
3076 CAHUENGA BLVD E 400000
6240 ROCKCLIFF DR 660000
6218 ROCKCLIFF DR 700000
2769 WESTSHIRE DR 980000
2145 BEACHWOOD TER 610000

Sales are from the previous month.  Source: Great American Real Estate Solutions

Current Los Angeles City Council District 13 candidates are (left to right from top): Josh Post, Rueben Martinez, Mitch O’Farrell and Scott Crawford.

Three more candidates have entered the race for the Los Angeles City Council District 13 seat opening in 2013.

They are Mitch O’Farrell of Glassell Park and a senior advisor to Los Angeles City Councilmember Eric Garcetti; Echo Park activist and California Dept. of Justice Deputy Attorney General Josh Post, and Atwater Village Neighborhood Councilmember and real estate agent Rueben Martinez.

The three join the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council’s Scott Crawford in vying for Garcetti’s seat. Garcetti will be termed-out in 2013 and has entered the city’s mayoral race.

O’Farrell career of public service began in 2002 when he began working for Garcetti’s Council District 13 office. Previously he was in the restaurant business and has was a dancer and gymnast.

O’Farrell, 51, said he will leave his position as Garcetti’s senior advisor this month to pursue his candidacy.

In O’Farrell’s tenure with Garcetti’s office, the Ohio-native helped establish a community and senior center in Glassell Park, managed the Echo Park Lake and boathouse project and removed transient encampments from the Los Angeles River basin.

Most recently he has been working on projects such as bringing a farmers market to Glassell Park and plans for a footbridge over the Los Angeles River from Silver Lake to Atwater Village.

“No one knows the district like I do,” said O’Farrell. “And over the last year it really became clear to me I wanted to stay in the 13th District. There’s so much to do, there’s so much more potential that hasn’t even been tapped.”

Echo Park activist Post, 33, is a newcomer to politics and boasts that fact.

“I’m the first to admit that I’m an outsider,” he said, adding the city’s political scene is “becoming this club of cronyism.”

Raised in rural Missouri, Post moved to Los Angeles a little more than a decade ago. His credentials include managing communications for the city’s BEST After School Program and working as a staff attorney for a federal judge on human rights and government cases.

He also assisted in the prosecution of government corruption for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and as acted as a visiting U.S. constitutional law professor at the Universidad de Guanajuato in Guanajuato, Mexico. He also has a list of community service and volunteer work around Echo Park and other areas in Los Angeles.

“I’m trying to bring together communities, work harder than the next candidate on the street level and change the way things are done,” said Post.

Martinez, who has lived in Atwater Village for 26 years, is the only Los Angeles native of the current candidates.

“This is my city,” he said. “This is where I grew up. This is the only city I call my home.”

Raised in what’s now considered Korea Town, Martinez recalls his first jobs working at a Carl’s Jr. on Sixth Street and Western Avenue, and then at Rampage Hardware on Bronson Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard.

It was a rough area, he said. He credits his mother and stepfather for keeping him from “becoming a gang member or going the wrong way.”

Martinez is a father of three; a real estate agent for Keller Williams/Los Feliz; a small business owner of Cecilia’s Custom Lamp Shades; and a South Atwater Representative on the Atwater Village Neighborhood Council since 2010.

“I’m a very simple guy,” he said. “I love my community. This is the only community I know, the only city that I know, and I want to do the best I can… I’m not a politician. I speak from my heart, and my heart is in my city.”

Several more candidates are expected to enter the race in the months to come once the city’s redistricting process has been completed.

Among them are Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council President Jose Sigala, medical marijuana activist Richard Eastman, and State Senator Kevin DeLeon of the 22nd District.

This school year something very exciting happened: the kindergartners and 1st graders got a grant for iPads. A technical grant is when someone gives funding for technology to someone or some place.

Enough iPads were given so that every student in one class can use one. After one class uses the iPads they go to the other class. The kindergartners and 1st graders use the iPads as a resource for learning. They also play fun but educational games.

Students are still very young and not quite ready to bring them home to use, so they leave them at school. Ms. Morris, one of Ivanhoe’s kindergarten teachers said: “The kindergarteners use the iPads to learn their letters, new words, grammatical symbols, and numbers.”

Ivanhoe has had a very wonderful technology program for 2nd-5th grade students for the past few years. It is really great the program now extends to the kinder and 1st grades! Computers have been a great resource to our school learning in the past, therefore all of us at Ivanhoe really hope this iPad technology program will be successful in the future.

During my decision making process, there was a lot of fear and misinformation coming at me from all directions. I heard that there would be a huge decrease in the number of school days, which doesn’t seem to be happening. I heard about enormous class sizes of 50 or 60 students. But my largest class is 40.

Overall Marshall seems to be running fairly smooth, even though it has just changed from year round to the traditional school year. There are a lot of unknowns like pending budget cuts that could hit the school system.

Change is always stressful, but the strong teachers and true spirit of Marshall are keeping the school afloat, making the experience an adventure, not a catastrophe.

LOS FELIZ

A vote was taken at the GGPNC’s Jan. 17^th board member  after hearing from the community about the value of practice of beekeeping.

Chelsea McFarland of HoneyLove, spoke about the benefits of raising bees and said their future lies with individual beekeepers.

“According to Simon Buxton as quoted in the new documentary, The Vanishing of the Bees, the future of beekeeping is not in one beekeeper with 60,000 hives, but rather 60,000 people with one hive,” Mcfarland said.

McFarland and husband Rob founded HoneyLove as a nonprofit conservation organization to protect the honeybees and inspire and educate new urban beekeepers. She informed the board that bees pollinate 80% of the world’s plants and one out of every three or four bites of food eaten is thanks to bees.

“The best science tells us that the future of the honeybee lie within the urban environment. Despite the irony, cities actually provide safer habitat than the farms and rural areas traditionally associated with beekeeping. Our home gardens are free of pesticides, and in cities like Los Angeles, there is year-round availability of pollen and nectar,” she said.

Atlanta, New York, Seattle, Portland, Denver, Spokane, Chicago, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver and most recently Santa Monica have all taken decisive action and legalized beekeeping.

GGPNC board member Barbara Ferris, who supported the measure said,

“The backyard beekeepers initiative is the most delightful issue I’ve ever heard presented to the GGPNC board.”

Franklin Hills resident Joe Andrews, who attended the meeting to show his support, has been raising bees for more than 20 years.

“I like watching them and they are calming to me for some reason. It is also a quality of life issue,” he said.

Nancy Stanford, seated, with Josine Ianco-Starrels

LOS FELIZ—Artists with major reputations gathered at the Municipal Art Gallery Jan. 15th: men and women whose careers began at the MUNI during the 1970s and 1980s.

Don Bachardy, Betye Saar, Peter Alexander and Kent Twitchell were among artists and panelists before a large crowd, all gathered to hear the outspoken curator, Josine Ianco-Starrels, who launched the artists.

“The County Museum was much too fancy for local artists,” the Romanian born curator explained recalling her arrival to Barnsdall Park in 1975.  “I wanted the MUNI to represent local people paying local taxes.  I sought people who had work ready to show.  Anytime I saw good work, I became very greedy.  Many artists left hating my guts because,” she said, she painfully honest about their output.

The afternoon was a roast-love fest of Ianco-Starrels and her relationship with the city department that oversaw the MUNI, the then Municipal Arts Department.

Back then, Ianco-Starrels called City Hall “Civic Virtue headquarters,” and that is the name of the exhibit currently at the MUNI until Feb. 12th.

“I wanted to fill all 10,000 square feet with crashing wave paintings, the kind of art Laguna Beach produces,” she said.  “All the crashing waves, all the barns, all the sunsets—when you see them all together you would realize how awful they were, what the Germans call ‘kitsch.’”

Once, she said, a politician told her to ensemble a tribute to Martin Luther King with a show of black artists.

“The black artists were tired of shows by black artists, so I let them ask artist friends from the community to participate as well,” and Ianco-Starrels. The result pleased both City Hall and the art community.

“At the County Museum, the establishment was scared,” Ianco-Starrels said near the end of the two-hour program.

She recalled a show at the MUNI called ‘Portraits 1979,’ including a portrait of the then well-known County Museum curator of modern art, who came to see his portrait.

“He asked me what I was doing next,” Ianco-Starrels recalled. Her answer was: “A show on Xeroxophy.” Perplexed, the man asked if Ianco-Starrels had a contract with Xerox.

The answer was, of course, that so many artists at that time were experimenting with the Xerox machine.

Ianco-Starrels recalled the man said, “So it is still about art and beauty for you isn’t it?  When will you see that it is about money?” To that she replied: “I will go to my grave poor before I make money the reason for putting together an art show.’”

When she left the MUNI in 1984, Ianco-Starrels worked at a Long Beach museum.  Now an independent curator, her MUNI papers have been given to the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.

The City of Los Angeles Dept. of Cultural Affairs’ “Civic Virtue: The Impact of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and the Watts Towers Arts Center” at Barnsdall Park, 4800 Hollywood Blvd. until Feb. 12th.  A closing reception takes place on the 12th from 2 to 5 p.m.

SILVER LAKE

The book consists of 36 stories and illustrations by Gold.

Stories portray the experience of a young, Jewish, first generation American girl, growing up in old New York in the 1930s and 1940s.

Some of the work has already been exhibited in 2009 and 2010 through the Silver Lake Art Collective.

Gold said she is “thrilled” to finally have her book published and hopes to have a signing party in the near future.

Available at amazon.com and bn.com

FRANKLIN HIILLS—After finishing 1st place in league play last season, the Marshall basketball Barristers are looking to repeat.

The preseason started off slowly for the Barristers, with just one win in their first four games, but things turned around once league play was under way.

“We needed to execute the offense and defense. We have to play as a team on both ends,” said head coach Rod Tange.

Victories over rivals Eagle Rock (56-46) and Lincoln (51-34) allowed the Barristers to reach a 3-0 record in the young season and show the coach they are headed in the right direction.

The schedule from this point only gets tougher. Division rival, Franklin, is also off to an impressive 4-0 start and key matchups later on in the season will determine who will walk away as Northern Division champions.

Key Games

Feb. 6^th @ Franklin 4:00 p.m. (important matchup)

Feb. 10 @ Wilson 4:00 p.m.

Allison Cohen Ferraro

One of my favorite stories in this month’s edition was submitted by Thomas Starr King Middle School student William Suy about getting local restaurants to stop offering plastic straws. Good luck William on your request. It’s a good one.

We also take a look back at the old Los Feliz Drive-In that was (along with baseball fields) demolished in Griffith Park for the 5 Freeway. Coincidentally, on our front page this month, we have a story that the Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council has unanimously adopted a resolution to support the construction of two youth ball fields in Griffith Park (whether or not this is a good idea or not is our online poll this month. Visit losfelizledger.com to have your opinion counted.)

It was also a bit shocking to see what the Los Angeles Redistricting Commission has come up with for new boundaries for Los Angeles City Council District 4 (LaBonge’s) district, see our story on page 9 and our website for the proposed map; changes proposed to Council District 13 (Eric Garcetti’s) district as well as proposed new districts for the city.

Also important this month: with the prospect of more budget cuts to the Los Angeles Unified School District, please read local principals thoughts on this, in their own words, on page 6.

The New Year began for me with the shocking message news that I was at risk for osteoporosis. This condition is common for those in their 70s and 80s as bones become less dense, making it easier for them to break. Throughout our life old bone tissue is constantly replaced by new bone. But after the age of about 30, the rate of turnover changes with more bone dissolving than being produced. For women, in particular, bone is lost more quickly after menopause.

But with this chronic condition as with others, such as diabetes and heart disease, I am told that if I do something, the likelihood of severe consequences from these conditions could be reduced or prevented. For example, if the diet is changed, calcium and vitamin D supplements are added, smoking and alcohol are eliminated, movement is increased, exposure to sunlight is increased and there is avoidance of long-term use of corticosteroids, bone health may be maintained in spite of the normal aging process.  So now I have to be serious about my New Year Resolutions, which often fade away during the course of the year.

Our heart is another part of our body that needs attention without waiting for the inevitable to happen.  I remember when my father, in 1961, was diagnosed with heart disease. He was told to go to bed to rest—nothing more. He died nine months later at 54.  Today the story is quite different. Not only have medical advances changed the way of treating heart disease but now there is a great deal of knowledge about what we can do to keep our heart healthy.  We now know that high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, and secondhand smoke are all risk factors associated with heart disease, and a change in our behavior can reverse the course of the disease.

One such heart condition common in older people is arrhythmias. The heart rate (pulse) is either too fast (tachycardia) or too slow (bradycardia) or irregular. Normally your heart is able to pump blood throughout your system without working any harder than needed. It is seen as an electrical system that contracts and expands in an orderly way. Symptoms may be very mild or severe or even life threatening, and treatments vary from medications to different types of pacemakers depending upon the kind of arrhythmia.

On Feb. 15th, 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Friendship Auditorium, 3201 Riverside Dr., will be a  physician-led presentation about arrhythmias. Since February is Heart Month, this presentation is part of a national heart-health awareness campaign sponsored by the National Council on Aging and Medtronic.  In addition to the presentation, Debbie Allen, actress and dancer, will make a personal appearance. Music and dancing will round out the afternoon. Lunch served at noon. Doors open at 11:30 a.m. For information: www.JointhePaceMakers.com

In this election year when the economy and jobs are the main focus of our politicians, it seems hard for President Obama and lawmakers to prioritize the environment.

I cheered when I heard the recent news that Obama had rejected the Keystone XL pipeline. Yet such strong pro-environmental action by Obama has been rare. Like other recent presidents such as Bill Clinton—even with Al Gore as his VP—he hasn’t been able to turn the White House as green as some of us hoped.

How does he compare with earlier presidents?

A century ago, Theodore Roosevelt was a great pioneer of environmental stewardship, lobbying Congress for wilderness protection, setting aside 150 million acres of timberland as public domains, overseeing the creation of 50 wildlife refuges and five national parks, and establishing the U.S. Forest Service.

Richard Nixon was surprisingly green, signing the bills that established the Environmental Protection Agency, the Clean Air Act, the Coastal Zone Management Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Under him, the Endangered Species Act and Clean Drinking Water Act also passed.

Jimmy Carter was perhaps the most recent champion of the environment, creating the Dept. of Energy in 1977—to promote clean energy and alternative fuels— and mandating fuel-efficient cars.

With more encouragement, Obama might strengthen his stance in favor of energy efficiency, conservation and green jobs and go down in history not only as the country’s first black president, but the greenest too.

The bill enables businesses to buy parking credits instead of building underground lots to fulfill the city’s requirements for parking space. Many smaller businesses cannot afford to build underground parking, so the credits make it easier for small businesses to open and operate.

Atwater Village Chamber of Commerce member Luis Lopez has followed the ordinance since 2007, when it was a land use study for the local neighborhood council.

He said he is shocked the ordinance has taken so long to pass because the proposed system replicates parking programs in Eagle Rock and Pasadena.

According to Lopez, the Atwater Village Neighborhood Council did all the research necessary for the bill’s passage, worked with a legal team to draft a proposed ordinance and gave the materials to Garcetti.

The former Atwater Village Neighborhood councilmember blamed the delay on Garcetti’s office. He alleges they didn’t include a deadline for the City Attorney to return the bill, which consequently made it low-priority.

“Seems like CD13 didn’t know. They dropped the ball,” he said.

Garcetti’s office denies Lopez’s account.

“We sometimes ask [the City Attorney] to get us the bill in two days and it takes two months,” said Garcetti spokesperson Julie Wong.

Potential business owners looking to open shops in the village’s Glendale Boulevard pedestrian shopping district aren’t pleased.

Andy Hasroun said he wouldn’t have tried to open a gastro-pub next door to his wine shop, 55 Degrees, if he knew the bill would take this long to pass. Now he pays rent for a space he’s unable to use, along with interest on loans he took out to finance the restaurant.

“We can’t wait any longer. It’s as simple as that,” Hasroun said.

However, when the bill is passed remains to be seen.

“We’ve got to get this passed before we all go bankrupt,” said Hasroun.

Caption: The local indie band, Milo Greene, performs three nights at the Satellite this month.

ART

‘Soft Candy’
The Shanghai-born, L.A.-based artist Danni Shinya Luo marks the release of her new book of art, Soft Candy, with a signing and an exhibition of her sensual, whimsical explorations of the female form. Also showing their work this month are West Coast artists Matthew Bone, Soey Milk, Christine Wu and Bonni Reid.

La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Tues., Feb. 14th-Sun., Feb. 26th.
4633 Hollywood Blvd., Los Feliz. Information: (323) 666-7667; www.laluzdejesus.com

BOOKS

Book Club
The Los Feliz Library’s monthly book club meets to discuss its latest selection, Helen Simonson’s Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand. Simonson’s debut novel tells the story of a retired British officer and widower who is trying to hold onto a family heirloom and his old-fashioned values. Also at the library this month are an installment of the Architecture & Beyond series (Thurs., Feb. 16th, 6:45 p.m.) and a used-book sale (Sat., Feb. 25th, 10 a.m.)

Los Feliz Branch Library, Sat., Feb. 4th, 11 a.m.
1874 Hillhurst Ave., Los Feliz. Information: (323) 913-4710; www.lapl.org

Daniel Pyne
Screenwriter and novelist Daniel Pyne (Fracture, The Sum of All Fears, Twentynine Palms) will read from and sign his new book, A Hole in the Ground Owned by a Liar. His latest novel is about a divorced high-school shop teacher who buys a gold mine off the Internet. Also reading this month will be Ben Marcus (Thurs., Feb. 2nd, 7:30 p.m.), Ramona Ausubel (Fri., Feb. 10th, 7:30 p.m.) and Steve Erickson (Wed., Feb. 22nd, 7:30 p.m.).

Skylight Books, Tues., Feb. 7th, 7:30 p.m.
1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Feliz. Information: (323) 660-1175; www.skylightbooks.com

CLASSES

‘Backyard Chickens and Bees’ & ‘Redirecting Rainwater’
Aspiring urban farmers and eco-conscious gardeners, take note: In their respective classes, John Lyons will teach the basics of beekeeping and raising chickens, and Rachel Young will discuss and demonstrate how to make the most of natural rainwater. Classes are $15 each.

Descanso Gardens, Sat., Feb. 11th, 11 a.m. (Lyons), and Sat., Feb. 18th, 10:30 a.m. (Young)
1418 Descanso Drive, La Cañada Flintridge. Information: (818) 790-3663; www.descansogardens.org.

Safety Safari
Now in its second year, this annual event teaches families about such topics as home safety and how to build an emergency kit. Participating guests include safety experts, LAPD and CHP officers, and Smokey Bear.

Los Angeles Zoo, Sat., Feb. 25th, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.
5333 Zoo Drive, Griffith Park. Information: (323) 644-4200; www.lazoo.org

CLUBS

Los Angeles Breakfast Club
For more than 85 years, the club has gathered folks from all walks of life to enjoy a meal and each other’s company. Breakfast is $7 per person and free for first-time visitors. Annual club membership is $100.

Friendship Auditorium, Wed., Feb. 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th, 7 a.m.
3201 Riverside Drive, Los Feliz. Information: (213) 665-1154; www.labreakfastclub.com.

FILM

Alternative Projections

The Echo Park Film Center and L.A. Film Forum continue this screening series focusing on experimental film in Los Angeles between 1945 and 1980. The first program is Outsiders Observe Los Angeles, with works by David Lamelas and Robert Nelson. (Details of the second screening were not available at press time.) Tickets are $10 general admission, $6 for students and seniors.

Echo Park Film Center, Sat., Feb. 4th, and Fri., Feb. 24th, 8 p.m.
1200 N. Alvarado St., Echo Park. Information: (213) 484-8846; www.echoparkfilmcenter.org

‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ & ‘My Neighbor Totoro’
As part of its screening series Castles in the Sky, the American Cinematheque presents two fantastical films by the Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli. Howl’s Moving Castle tells the story of a teenage girl swept up in an adventure with a mysterious wizard, while My Neighbor Totoro follows two young sisters who discover wondrous creatures in the forest near the house. (Totoro screens in Japanese with English subtitles.) Also playing this month are double features by Orson Welles (Fri., Feb. 10th, 7:30 p.m.) and Charlie Chaplin (Thurs., Feb. 16th, 7:30 p.m.). Tickets are $11 per screening.

Egyptian Theatre, Sun., Feb. 12th, 4 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Information: (323) 466-3456; www.americancinemathequecalendar.com

FOOD & DRINK

Thursday Night Flights
Oenophiles and novices alike can sip and sample at these weekly tastings. Flights of three wines are arranged, each with a common theme: a grape, a winemaker, a region, etc. The Let’s Be Frank gourmet hot dog truck will be parked out front. Flights are $12 per person. Different tasting events are also held Mondays and Sundays.

Silverlake Wine, Thurs., Feb. 2nd, 9th, 16th and 23rd,5 p.m.-9 p.m.
2395 Glendale Blvd., Silver Lake. Information: (323) 662-9024; www.silverlakewine.com

MUSIC

Lana Del Rey
On the heels of a controversial performance on Saturday Night Live and the release of her major-label debut, Born to Die (Jan. 31st), singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey comes to Hollywood for a free in-store concert at Amoeba.

Amoeba Music, Tues., Feb. 7th, 6 p.m.
6400 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. Information: (323) 245-6400; www.amoeba.com

Milo Greene
The local five-piece indie-pop band Milo Greene will perform three free shows this month at the Satellite. Their first full-length is due in spring. Supporting acts include Handshakes, Lesands and A House for Lions. Also playing this month are Spindrift (Fri. Feb. 10th, 9 p.m., $8) and Buck 65 (Wed., Feb. 22nd, 9 p.m. $15). Shows are 21 and over.

The Satellite, Mon., Feb. 13th, 20th and 27th, 9 p.m.
1717 Silver Lake Blvd., Silver Lake. Information: www.thesatellitela.com

SCIENCE

Public Star Party
At this family-friendly monthly astronomy event, attendees can try out a variety of telescopes; view the sun, moon, planets and other celestial objects; and talk to astronomers about the sky and their equipment. Admission is free. Also this month is All Space Considered, a public program held in the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater that explores astronomy, space science and space exploration (Fri., Feb. 3rd, 7:30 p.m.-9 p.m., free).

Griffith Observatory, Sat., Feb. 25th, 2 p.m.-9:45 p.m.
2800 E. Observatory Road, Griffith Park. Information: (213) 473-0800; www.griffithobservatory.org

THEATER

‘Buddha’
The distinguished actor John C. Reilly (Magnolia, Step Brothers) directs the West Coast premiere of writer-performer Evan Brenner’s one-man show tracing the life of Buddha. Tickets are $30.

Bootleg Theater, Fri.-Sat., Feb. 3rd-25th, 7:30 p.m.
2220 Beverly Blvd., Westlake. Information: (800) 838-3006; www.thebuddhaplay.com

‘Fiesta’
Master puppeteer Bob Baker presents a south-of-the-border-themed extravaganza. The show was first performed in 1964. Tickets are $15.

Bob Baker Marionette Theater, weekdays, 10:30 a.m., Sat.-Sun., 2:30 p.m.
1345 W. 1st St., Echo Park. Information: (213) 250-9995; www.bobbakermarionettes.com

‘Hunka’
The Native Voices First Look series presents a staged reading of playwright Larissa Fasthorse’s Hunka. The play explores themes of family, pregnancy, adoption and responsibility. A Q&A with Fasthorse will follow.

Autry National Center, Sun., Feb. 12th, 2:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m.
4700 Western Heritage Way, Griffith Park. Information: (323) 667-2000; www.theautry.org

Valentine’s Day has always been a girly holiday. Think about it. Stuffed animals, cutesy cards, balloons, flowers … Want to get more men onboard? Just add beer.

Seriously, Cupid even stacks the beverage aspect against guys. In a word-association game based on “Valentine’s Day” and “drink of choice,” chances are “Champagne” wins every time. Followed closely by “wine.” The truth is beer can be a suitably sexy alternative to bubbly. It may not sparkle, but it’s certainly suds-y.

Besides, beer no longer means mass-produced lagers and “lite” knock-offs. The rise of specialty, craft-brewed beers has softened its appeal to women, and each of ones mentioned below might make for a fun at-home holiday. Or any given Friday night.

Local to Southern California, Hangar 24 is based at the Redlands Municipal Airport. The chocolate porter is a big, bold, almost-dessert like beer, thanks in part to the addition of vanilla beans. Pair it barbecued meat or even chocolate itself.

Schmaltz Brewing Company produces pomegranate strong ale called Origin. Brewed with actual pom juice, it reportedly boasts all the benefits of the fruit, not to mention a taste unique to most beers—in fact, it may still well be the only one of its kind.

The Lagunitas IPA has the distinctly bitter taste characteristic of its style, but also enough sweetness to offset it a bit. A bit much for sensitive palates on its own—much like a tannic Cabernet Sauvignon isn’t much of a “porch sipper,” it pairs well with a number of cheeses, even some blues.

Belgian blonde ale La Caracole Saxo is mostly sold in 750ml bottles—like most wines—and it’s high carbonation level recreates the celebratory spirit of Champagne for a fraction of the price. The spiciness is also quite unexpected, but it’s still very approachable.

Tara de Lis is a freelance writer who lives in Hollywood.

In January, our 8th graders had High School Placement Tests. We are applying to schools like Immaculate Heart, Loyola and Notre Dame. Also, our Academic Decathlon Team went to the Cathedral Bowl and did well. And finally, we had our Open House and Art Fair. There were very beautiful pieces of art and class work there.

In February, we will continue celebrating Catholic Schools Week through Feb. 3rd and on Feb. 10th, we will be having our annual Father-Daughter Dance. I am planning to go with my father. Last year we had a blast and this year we know it will be fun being with one another.

LOS FELIZ

Marketing Chair Melissa Tornay said it is far more difficult to keep track of the data than many imagine.

“Sometimes we have an e-mail address for a store manager for a national company and they may have left and we have no way of knowing,” she said.

Chris Serrano, LFVBID president, said simply walking into the stores and collecting information is not always productive.

“Not every employee is anxious to provide… information, so we cannot always get the desired result from that method,” she said.

Additionally Tornay said she has created a new board calendar to organize events and activities in advance.

“This will give us a timeline of how to prepare for events like elections that need a lot of advance preparation,” she said.

Currently the board meets the second Wednesday of each month at 9:30 a.m. at the Citibank community room on Hillhurst Avenue. Vice President Ermanno Neiviller suggested the board consider a few evening meetings a year as well.

“The board also discussed a lack of cash flow, which has led to the its inability to have area trees trimmed.

“We have just a little over $11,000 currently in our account,” she said.

According to Serraro, assessments for all business owners should be mailed by April by the city. Serrano suggested the trees might be trimmed in stages until funding from the received assessments arrives.

LOS FELIZ—Marking 40 years of Soap Plant/Wacko—the famed sprawling store of pop culture design, books, toys and kitsch—owner Billy Shire laughingly credits “not being afraid of bad taste,” for much of his success.

A self-studied artist from Echo Park, Shire was 20 when he and his mother opened Soap Plant in 1971 near the hippy culture intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Sanborn Avenue. Their shop sold high-quality lotions and soaps— still supplied by a family from Berkeley—as gifts.

“We’ve always been visually oriented and pan cultural and I started getting into more ethnic type baskets which led into masks,” said Shire.

Back then, Shire picked up work as a leather and studs artist costuming rock bands. He also liked to travel to Mexico where he became fascinated with Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) art.

By 1980, Shire set up shop on Melrose Avenue, an area cultivating creative retail and trendy eateries.

The Soap Plant thrived in the urban setting and Shire expanded next door with Wacko—a natural extension of Shire’s artistic interests—where he popularized ethno-graphic items such as Japanese toys, Godzilla and cultural folk arts. His clothing store, Zulu, opened soon after.

Finally, when his collection of Dia De Los Muertos art was brimming over in Wacko, Shire led the trend of showing and selling these artifacts as merchandise in La Luz De Jesus Art Gallery, which he created upstairs.

Twenty-five years later, La Luz de Jesus still rotates so-called low-brow art shows monthly, now in its current location at 4633 Hollywood Blvd. where Shire combined his stores in 1994. The site was a former U.S. Post Office.

“The gallery is based on Southern California pop culture. . . surfing, hot-rodding, skateboarding, pin-up art, tattooing,” said Shire.

“The store is the best of a lot of different categories—toys, soaps, skull stuff, lunchboxes,” said Shire.  “It’s all about my eyes, doing it fast and knowing what to order.”

Shire is admired by gift vendors for finding the next best thing, as he did with Tiki culture, prominently displayed at Wacko.

“I wouldn’t call it nostalgia, but I definitely cater to different generations,” said Shire pondering his philosophy to Soap Plant/Wacko.  “I’m mining my own history for things that really strike a chord with me and trying to show people their roots.”

Advances in reproductive technology have resulted in a multitude of ways to have a baby including gestational surrogacy, where one woman’s embryo is implanted in a surrogate who potentially carries the baby to term in exchange for a fee.

Since the 1980s, surrogacy has been an expensive procedure, and fraught with legal and regulatory challenges in the United States and other western countries.  And much like other labor-intensive (pun intended) work that is heavily regulated, baby carrying can now be outsourced to less expensive workers in countries where there is less oversight and fewer rights for workers in general, and women in particular.

It is a simple matter of geography.  Hiring a woman in Ohio to be a surrogate isn’t physically any different than hiring a woman in India.  There are just longer plane rides for the biological mother who first creates the embryo and then later when she goes to collect the baby.

However, a woman in India will make only a fraction of the fee that an Ohio surrogate and she would have to sign a contract stipulating she won’t abort the pregnancy and will undergo a C-section to control the timing of the baby’s birth. Both of these agreements could potentially endanger the surrogate’s health.

The surrogates are also closely monitored, living in supervised housing where their diets and lifestyle habits are controlled.  I can’t help but think of these facilities as baby farms, which has a uniquely dystopian ring.

These issues have already been covered in the media but the recent attention to outsourcing in this country makes foreign surrogacy arrangements newly relevant.

Federal legislation might be in order to ensure that women who purchase surrogate services abroad uphold the same human and labor rights that would be enforced if they were to enter into similar arrangements at home.

Kristen Taylor lives in Silver Lake with her family.  She is the owner of Juvie, a store for older boys and girls.

SILVER LAKE

The receiving parties were The Wildwoods Foundation’s Full Circle Program; Hilltop Nursery School; and the Literacy, Arts, Culture, Education & Recreation (L.A.C.E.R.) after school program at Thomas Starr King Middle School.

The Wildwoods Foundation’s Full Circle program is a nature-based academic program dedicated to building community through a combination of outdoor activities for 5th grade classes, spanning eight weeks, once a week for an entire day, serving schools throughout the surrounding neighborhoods and across the city.

The Hilltop Nursury is a parent-participation cooperative preschool that was founded in 1951, which will put the money towards student scholarships.

The funds received by the L.A.C.E.R. will be applied to its drama program at Thomas Starr King Middle School.

Both Wildwoods and Hilltop’s initial grant applications were for $2,000, while L.A.C.E.R. requested $1,700. The SLNC’s grant funding guidelines state that no educational grant application may exceed $2,000 each. This was the first time this grant-funding protocol was put into practice.

Each program made a presentation at the SLNC governing board meeting on Jan. 4th, and then after hurried deliberation the council voted the on grants’ division.

Formerly, funding such grants would be decided one at a time, as they were proposed to the council, but with a budget that has been decreasing every year, the organizations that stepped forward earlier had an advantage.

Council member Sarah Dale, said she felt the division of funds could have been done more systematically.

“I don’t like the idea that we just divide things by three. What if there were five educational grants that came before us, would we have divided them by five?… I think it sets a bad precedent for anyone coming in asking for money.… If all we’re going to do is divide stuff by the number of people asking, then that’s not even a process.”

“Community Improvement Grants” will be award at the SLNC’s meeting on March 7th.

GRIFFITH PARK

Huizar has long advocated for clarification from the state on creating clear guidelines on the sale of medical marijuana.

“I personally believe in the use of and the value of medical marijuana for patients who actually need it,” Huizar said in an interview. “But if we are put in a situation like we are today, where we have no tools at our disposal to control for the ill-effects of medical marijuana dispensaries on local communities, we have no other option but to repeal our ordinance, ban dispensaries and wait to see what happens in the California Supreme Court case.”

Recently the California State Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments if cities can ban medical marijuana dispensaries. California Proposition 215 allows their existence while current federal law does not.

There are three relatively new dispensaries in the Los Feliz area: at 4614 Hollywood Blvd.; 4511 Sunset Blvd. and another next to the Vista Theater on Sunset Boulevard. There are three additional dispensaries in Los Feliz but outside of the GGPNC’s boundaries.

Laderosa is now seeking the support of Los Angeles City Councilmember Tom LaBonge on the proposed ban.

“Right now, he is not supporting it, and I’m not sure why that is,” she said.

In a subsequent interview, LaBonge said he has spoken to physicians and would like the American Medical Assoc. (AMA) to weigh in on the issue.

“I voiced my concerns over the impact of these dispensaries in the area and want the AMA to take a stand on the treatment component. Then we can ask it be sold at established pharmacies like CVS,” LaBonge said. “This could be a valuable tool and that bridge needs to be crossed as soon as possible.”

West Hollywood and Beverly Hills already have strict regulations for dispensaries in place, but Los Angeles has been unable to curtail the growth and is battling numerous lawsuits.

Los Angeles Police Dept. Cpt. Bill Murphy also told the GGPNC dispensaries offer criminals what they seek most: drugs and money, creating great temptation for robbers.

The ability to pay huge rents was also discussed by others that spoke at the meeting.

“Landlords that had tenants moving out because they couldn’t afford to pay $12,000 a month are now getting rents of $75,000 from these dispensaries,” said guest speaker East Hollywood Neighborhood Councilman Craig Cox.

The neighborhood councils of East Hollywood, Eagle Rock and Hollywood Studio District have all gone on record as supporting the proposed ban.

But GGPNC council member Nelson Bae said he disagreed with the proposed ban.

“We are facing an economic recession the likes we haven’t seen in 80 years and we’re trying shut down one of the few industries that is booming?” he said. “Banning profitable businesses while we sit around, procrastinate and create more bureaucracy is nothing short of asinine,” he said.

I understand the percentage of returned ballots [in the LFVBID’s recent election] was incredibly minimal and something must be done to fix that. But I don’t believe it was through lack of effort by certain members of the LFVBID.

I’ve also seen the tremendous amount of work done by a very limited number of active LFVBID members.

Rob Menz, Los Feliz

Students recently survived semester exams and now are back on campus ready for a new term after a much-needed break!

January is always a blur of intense studying as students brace themselves for finals. This year, as a treat in the midst of all our finals preparations, we enjoyed a performance by the men’s a capella singing group from Point Loma Nazarene University, which offered a rousing performance of contemporary and classical songs.

The spring semester now launches with the time-honored tradition known as Ring Day. Immaculate Heart will formally recognize the juniors as upper class members and present them with their school rings. The ceremonies include a special liturgy, as well as a warm welcome from the senior class.

Copper wire theft is an ongoing problem in Los Angeles and the nation as a whole.  Challenging economic times make the theft of copper wire and heavy metals very lucrative.

Thieves are taking the copper wire from streetlights, in some cases, leaving whole blocks in the dark.  My office is receiving a few complaints from the Los Feliz area of the 4th District about streetlights going dark, but the problem is not as prevalent in Los Feliz as in other areas of the city.

There are two dedicated crews from the Bureau of Street Lighting who are responding to all of these outages.  But they can only move so fast; and with the city’s budget challenges, replacing stolen copper-wire is an extra cost that we can ill-afford.

Here’s what you can do to help prevent copper wire theft. Call 911 immediately if you see a wire theft in progress or see any suspicious activity around streetlights.

Anybody working on the streetlights should have a yellow City of Los Angeles Bureau of Street Lighting nearby with a city seal, the words “street lighting” on the driver and passenger doors and the word “Exempt” on its license plate. Workers should be wearing an orange vest, hard-hat and carry city identification.

If something seems amiss, take photos or video, get a license-plate number of the vehicle, but do not confront these people.

Having well lit streets is a public safety issue and a core service of the city. Since 2007, Bureau of Street Lighting crews have responded to 1,800 copper wire thefts and have restored function to some 12,000 streetlights.

The Bureau, along with a private manufacturer, has built a special lockable lid for existing concrete electrical vaults to protect them from repeated thefts. This new lid is placed on all locations where theft has occurred, protecting them from further plunder.

But opportunistic thieves will move to another unprotected location, so it’s important that we all be vigilant to suspicious activity around our street lights.

Venus and Jupiter are in the southwest sky shortly after sunset and until after 9:00 p.m. They start the month separated by 40 degrees and are 12 degrees apart by month’s end. Telescope users should see the faint planet Uranus slightly more than a third of a degree south of blazing Venus on the 9th.

At dawn, two objects with stellar appearance are side-by-side high in the south. The object on the right is the blue-hued star Spica, of “Virgo the Maiden,” while the golden object on the left is the planet Saturn. A telescope shows a view of Saturn’s rings, tilted at 15 degrees.

While not spectacular like comet Lovejoy—which briefly graced southern hemisphere skies last Christmas—comet Garradd continues its period of visibility in binoculars and small telescopes this month moving into the far northen consellations of “Draco the Dragon” and “Ursa Minor, the Little Bear” (also known as the “Little Dipper”).

After the 18th, the comet will be close enough to the North Star that it is above the horizon all night.

Detailed viewing information available at www.griffithobservatory.org.

O(h)’s Liz Casebolt and Joel Smith. Photo credit: Jeff Larson.

In the wake of the holidays a number of new shows are opening in the Hollywood area. I attend two vastly different productions that are running into February.

Dance aficionados won’t want to miss O(h) at The Actors Company Theatre in West Hollywood in which dancers Liz Casebolt and Joel Smith deconstruct the creative process offering a  fast paced glimpse into the minds and personalities of the two principals.

The show melds dance and theater into an interesting whole. As the two performers dance and sing, they also directly involve the audience. In 2010 O(h) was a hit at the Minnesota Fringe Festival and in New York City.  Producers hope to expand their audience in Los Angeles.

Liz Casebolt and Joel Smith have a long-standing partnership.  Both received degrees in experimental choreography at UC Riverside and now are college teachers: Casebolt at Los Angeles Valley College and Smith at UC Riverside, UCLA and Scripps College. Together they have a great chemistry.

In the one-hour production the duo dances together and alone.  I particularly enjoyed Smith’s athleticism and elegance. His allusions to being gay are sensitive and subtle.

Casebolt is incredibly agile and is also a good singer. Her performance in “I Feel Pretty” from “West Side Story” is a hilarious showstopper.

Architects Hadrian Predock and John Frane have transformed the bare stage into a stylish set using strings of brightly colored lights.  Be sure to arrive early to watch the two dancers warm up.

In a totally different vein, the dark comedy, The Beauty Queen of Leenane currently onstage at the Lex Theatre in Hollywood, is set in small town contemporary County Galway, Ireland.

The action takes place in a dreary kitchen that evokes a mood of entrapment that describes the central figure, Maureen Folar, a 40-year-old spinster who has a history of mental illness. She is the caregiver of Mag, her selfish and manipulative 70-year-old mother.

The play had a successful run in Ireland, England, and New York where it won four Tony Awards and was nominated for best play in 1998.  It was the debut-work of playwright Martin McDonagh who is known for his dark Irish dramas some of which have been at the Taper and the Kirk Douglas Theatre.

As the dysfunctional relationship between mother and daughter emerges, a glimmer of romance arises in the first act when Maureen brings home Pato Dooley, a middle-aged construction worker who is home from his job in England.  He is disillusioned by his life and dreams of moving to America.  His younger brother Ray adds a note of cynical humor and has a glimmer of a bad boy image. The plot unfolds with twists and turns of deception and betrayal and keeps the audience on edge.

I am not a fan of dark comedy with disturbing scenes of sadism and familial violence. The best part of the play for me was the stunning performances given by the four actors. Judy Nazemetz’s facial expressions are evocative as Mag. Ferrell Marshall captures the frustrations and anger that define Maureen’s motivations. Alex Egan’s interpretation of Pato Dooley’s monologue at the beginning of Act II is stunning and Rob Herring’s portrayal of the younger brother Ray provides comic relief. August Viverito is the director.

O(h) through Feb. 19th, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 5 p.m. Sundays at The Actors Company, 916A N. Formosa Ave., West Hollywood.  $30; students and seniors; $22. (800) 838-3006 or www.caseboltandsmith.com.

The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Lex Theatre, 6760 Lexington Ave., Hollywood. Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m.;  Sundays at 3 p.m.  $25 at www.theprodco.com or at Brown Paper Tickets.

Officer Gina Chovan said the city had determined the building’s owner was deceased. Attempts to reach family have failed. Now Building and Safety Inspectors have been tasked with cleaning and boarding up the abandoned property.

“Whenever they do clean up we have someone there,” said Chovan. “At this point this is now a building and safety issue.”

Tania Pulver, a mother of a young child that lives in the neighborhood surrounding the house, felt unsafe because of the transients coming and going. Allegedly some homeless people that were living on the property had broken into another nearby house.

Pulver spoke at a community meeting on another subject because she said the police wouldn’t do anything and she didn’t know whom else to speak to.

“Police said as long as no crime is occurring in the home we can’t kick them off the property if they say they have the owner’s permission to be there,” she said.

Police are barred from evicting alleged squatters that claim the owner allows them to stay on the property or present a fake lease agreement. The latter was not the case in this scenario, according to police.

Squatting has become a growing problem in Los Angeles as the recession has deepened, leaving foreclosed and unoccupied houses easy targets for transients looking for steady shelter.

However, in her seven years of working in the Los Feliz area, Chovan said the abandoned house is only the second squatting incident she knows of.

“We don’t get a lot of that,” she said. “A lot of that has to do with the community.”

We sent four students to Korner Grill across the street. We also went to the restaurants Pho City, Tang’s Donuts and Garage Pizza. They all were super friendly and let us display our posters.

Straws are harmful because many of them end up in the L.A. River, which goes to the Ocean. Also they are made of plastic, which is made by using fossil fuels that pollute the Earth, trapping heat in our atmosphere.

If you are a restaurant owner consider compostable straws, which will biodegrade. Chances are, your customers will appreciate it. Another is to just not hand people straws with their drinks, why not have them ask for one? Help us save the planet, one straw at a time!

THIS STORY HAS BEEN CORRECTED. MOHAWK BEND NO LONGER OFFERS A PIZZA SPECIAL ON MONDAY NIGHTS, AS WAS PREVIOUSLY WRITTEN. WE REGRET THE ERROR.

Since its summer opening, Mohawk Bend has become Echo Park’s all-purpose rec room. At first, getting into the restaurant was nearly impossible as it was always packed. The crowds have evened out now so it’s still hopping during peak hours, but not too hard to get a table earlier on weeknight.

The restaurant’s centerpiece is the long bar with 72 taps of nearly all Californian beers. We tried a Jamaica Red from the extremely remote Mad River Brewing at the top of the state, and a beer flight is a fun way to try several different varieties.

The menu concentrates on pizzas and other simple dishes, many of them vegan-friendly.  On Wednesday nights, diners can get a pound of steamed mussels or vegetables and cous cous and a pint of Golden Road beer for $15.

Not only are the beers Californian, most of the hard liquor is from small California-based producers. Even cocktail ingredients are local, like Miracle Mile Bitters.

The philosophy extends to the menu, where much of the produce comes from farmer’s markets. But except for the Carlsbad mussels, the reasonably priced dishes don’t come with any particular pedigree, just brief descriptions like “natural beef patty.” Nicely fried cod in an IPA beer batter ($14) has a lighter crust than some and the caper aioli makes a zingy topping. The Kennebec potato’s flavor comes through in the fries, which can also be ordered as a side with Japanese togarashi seasoning or rosemary gremolata.

Pizzas are whimsically named: Salad Daze has avocado and lettuce, while Pig Newton ($14) has Serrano ham, fig tapenade and goat cheese. The crust has a good yeasty flavor, so keep the toppings simple for optimum flavor. Vegan toppings include house made seitan sausage and vegan mozzarella.

The menu changes frequently, so the Dork burger that was available at opening—made from duck and pork—has been replaced with a beef burger, while vegetarians might like the quinoa/lentil burger.

Salads include organic quinoa with almonds and oranges and Flash Gordon—grilled lettuce with avocado and an assertively dilled dressing. During weekend brunch hours, try Huevos Divorciados, breakfast quinoa or the Elvis French toast with bananas, peanut butter and bacon ($11).

The attention to local ingredients is appreciated, though the food is fairly basic. But whether you sit on the fireplace-warmed front patio, the back room with soaring ceilings and another fireplace, or the tap-dominated front room, Mohawk Bend is a temple to beer and a versatile spot for festive eaters and drinkers.

Mohawk Bend, 2141 Sunset Blvd., Echo Park, 213-483-2337

Taking care of your dog’s teeth is just as important as taking care of your own oral hygiene.

Just like humans, dogs are faced with a host of problems when it comes to dental care. Food left in between teeth and under the gum line creates bacteria, which can lead to periodontal disease. This plaque can look yellow or brown in the dog’s mouth. It is the stuff that’s responsible for your dog’s bad breath.

In its early stages, periodontal disease causes mild to moderate irritation. If left untreated, it can cause loose teeth, bleeding, receding gum lines and, just as in humans, this plaque buildup in the mouth can eventually lead to heart disease.

Experts say if you take care of your pet’s mouth, you can add two years to your dog’s life.

Start by brushing your dog’s teeth every day. You can use a regular toothbrush, or if your dog has a particularly small mouth, use a rubber pediatric toothbrush that slips over your index finger.  The pastes come in flavors like chicken or beef for your dog’s enjoyment. Vets recommend getting your dog’s teeth professionally cleaned once a year. For this procedure, dogs are often anesthetized in order to avoid discomfort, anxiety or pain during the cleaning.             While there are a host of snacks and treats that claim to “clean” your dog’s teeth and rid its mouth of bacteria, nothing beats dental care better than regularly brushing. And it makes those dog kisses much more enjoyable.

GRIFFITH PARK—The Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council (GGPNC) has unanimously adopted a resolution to support the construction of two youth baseball fields in Griffith Park.

According to Mark Mauceri, GGPNC Sports and Recreation Committee Chair, the fields would be funded by Prop. K “LA FOR Kids,” which earmarks funds for recreation and parks to help “combat the inadequacies and decay of the city’s youth infrastructure,” according to Prop. K wording.

The idea of new Griffith Park baseball fields was initiated Los Angeles City Councilmember Tom LaBonge. Griffith Park is in LaBonge’s city council district 4.

Los Feliz resident and mother of five, Erica Yoder Chapman spoke at the GGPNC’s Jan. 17th meeting—prior to the council’s vote—in favor of the two new ball fields.

“As a past president of the Los Feliz Mom’s club, I can tell you there are so many of us who want this field. We really need more recreation and playgrounds here in the neighborhood, not across town. I can bring you as many people as you want to stand in this room and support the project,” Chapman said.

Joe Young, chairman of the GGPNC’s Parks, Rivers and Open Space (PROS) committee, spoke against the vote saying the GGPNC’s PROS committee didn’t have adequate time to evaluate the city’s proposal.

The construction of the 5 Freeway destroyed the previous Griffith Park ball fields in the late 1950s.

In the Sports and Recreation committee’s resolution, they cited inadequacies of Los Feliz’s youth recreational facilities and the influx of local families with children.

“We have no city-staffed recreation center,” Mauceri said. “There are no public basketball courts in all Los Feliz… and that’s just wrong.  Golf and tennis we have in spades, but we need to do better in the more traditional ‘stick and ball’ sports, and this Prop. K plan is a chance to at least bring little league back, we certainly have the kids for it. I have three.”

Mauceri also stressed Griffith Park’s deficiency of ball fields when compared to other Los Angeles city parks that are only a fraction of the size.

“Why L.A.’s largest public park doesn’t have a little league field is just beyond me.  We have the chance to put back what the 5 Freeway wiped out.  Area parents shouldn’t have to drive to the Valley so their kids can play sports,” he said.

A Los Angeles City Bureau of Engineering exploratory plan, presented at the meeting, showed two adjacent ball fields that could be incorporated into the park’s Crystal Springs area.

“This will be a long process, and I have no doubt there will be staunch opposition to these fields from park advocate groups who would rather have the whole of the park be designated an ‘urban wilderness,’” said Mauceri. “But it’s a big park and there’s room for some kids’ ball fields… Sometimes we all have step back and see the forest through trees. . . if we really do what’s right by the neighborhood.”

For more information, please visit: www.ggpnc.org/go/recreation

“It’s right there in lanes 1, 2, 3 and 4,” he said referring to the 5 Freeway, where the drive-in was torn down in order to build.

Los Feliz was home to a drive-in theater during the 1950s. Called simply the Los Feliz Drive-In, the Dept. of Transportation bought the property as part of the Interstate 5 Highway expansion project in 1957. The two-screen theater’s ad last ran in the Los Angeles Times on Oct. 2nd, 1956.

According to records, the independently owned theater was built in March of 1950 and opened with Nevedan and Pirates of Capri.

LaBonge said he remembers piling into the family station wagon to watch the Southern Pacific trains with his brothers, then heading to the Hyperion Bridge to peer over and sneak a showing of a Disney movie.

Resident of Kingsley Manor, a retirement home near Los Feliz, Suzanne Hollombe regrets not going to the theater in her younger days.

“People liked to go there, put earphones on and listen to movies,” Hollombe said.

She remembers it being popular place for the younger crowd to go on weekends.

“Lovers went there, in convertibles,” she said. “It was nothing out of line.”

The Los Feliz Drive-In entered the courtroom at least once during its six-year life, winning a case against the city.

According to an archived Los Angeles Times article, a judge ruled a nearby baseball field (which also was eventually demolished for freeway construction) had to turn off—or shield its lights—during night games to prevent interference with movie screenings.

The baseball field, owned by the Dept. of Recreation and Parks, was built before the drive-in, but the judge decided in favor of the drive-in.

Fate however, didn’t favor the theater for long. The theater sold its property to the Dept. of Transportation in 1956 for the 5 Freeway.

Hollombe remembers people were upset when the drive-in closed.

“It was a landmark in Los Feliz,” she said. “I used to drive by there,” she said. “I should’ve gone in hindsight.”

Recently we attended an assembly called “The Power of One.”  It taught us about bullying. We learned to tell an adult when someone is getting bullied. You can stop bullying by not being a bystander.

A really crazy thing has happened. On a super windy night a very old California live oak tree was uprooted on the playground. Workers cut the tree into pieces and some of the trunk pieces will be used as seats for our new reading garden.

On Feb. 4th, at 9:00 a.m. we will plant our reading garden. Thanks to Friends of Glenfeliz (FOG) especially Ms. Emiliana Dore, Lowe’s, and Enrich LA, our garden has come to be.

LOS FELIZ—The community is invited to attend “Future Directions for Los Feliz,” the first Los Feliz Improvement Association forum in 2012.

The roundtable discussion will be Monday, Feb. 13th at the Autry National Center in Griffith Park.  The event starts with a mixer at 6:30 p.m. with a light buffet. The formal program begins at 7:15 p.m.

The moderated panel of elected and appointed officials will include Los Angeles City Councilmember Tom LaBonge, California Assemblymember Mike Feuer, Congressman Adam Schiff, County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, Los Angeles Police Dept., Northeast Division Captain Bill Murphy and Dept. of Recreation and Parks General Manager Jon Kirk Mukri.

Topics to be explored will be posed by moderators and LFIA Past Presidents Donna Zenor and Terry Hughes.

With talk of another budget shortfall for the Los Angeles Unified School District in the amount of $543 million for the next academic year and possible remedies of increased taxes or a new parcel tax, we asked local educators and a spokeswoman with Los Angeles Unified School District boardmember Bennett Keyser’s for their thoughts.

Karen L. Sullivan Glenfeliz Elementary principal

Students won’t come home talking about their same teachers at Glenfeliz Boulevard Elementary if the Los Angeles United School District budget isn’t remedied. “They’ll notice if they aren’t here. They’ve been here forever,” she said. The budget shortfall will also force us to cut our intervention group, which helps out underperforming students as well as playground supervisors and the music program. The library may also lose its full-time librarian, who keeps the shelves organized and moderates book selection that would be a great loss to students. The librarian reinforces literacy, and also inspires learning by imparting an appreciation for reading through story time sessions. That’s the magic reading brings to a student. In the long run, the economy will be hurt indefinitely because the next generation of workers won’t have as strong an academic background due to the lesser quality in schooling.

Jumie Sugahara, Ivanhoe Elementary School principal

I think what we’re waiting for right now is how this will play out in Los Angeles Unified as far as what budget cuts will be. We don’t receive much as far as categorical funding. It’s not a title one school but there’s still a need to create programs for kids that need more support…. what would affect us is if they have to increase class size. I think right now. . . we’re holding tight to see what Superintendent Deasy does. . . We’re waiting to see what the budget cuts for art and music, and that we have been able to supplement. I think that it’s a big “what if” right now. And it’s a crazy time because right now I don’t know when the official last day of school is, we haven’t heard.

Kristen Murphy, Thomas Starr King Middle School principal

One of the first impacts of budget cuts is the reduction of office staff. I have to answer the phone sometimes. At this point, we really don’t know what the impact is going to be. King is fortunate in being a Title 1 school that we do receive federal Title 1 dollars. We get a per-pupil allocation for 85% of our students that does help us out, so we’ve still been able to purchase things like a full time nurse, a full time librarian and some additional counseling time, so we’ve been really fortunate. We’re also lucky in that our neighborhood councils have been really good to us: the Greater Griffith park Neighborhood Council; the Los Feliz Improvement Assoc., the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council and Los Angeles City Councilmember Tom LaBonge. I don’t want to say I’m not concerned about budget cuts because obviously it’s not a good situation, the state is in trouble, the district’s funds are being cut, but King is a pretty remarkable place… and our teachers have really rallied and our scores continue to go up despite the fact that we’re doing more with less. Budget cuts are never easy for anyone but I think we will weather the storm.

Susanna Furfari, Micheltorena Street School principal

I’ve heard rumors about how it will probably increase the class size. Every time we have these cuts somehow our school has managed to still maintain a lot of the core programs and initiatives that we think are essential. So I’m optimistic for next year. One of the newest ways that we’ve been working on keeping our core programs sustainable is through community partnership. For example [we have a] partnership with the Silver Lake Conservatory, it’s about bartering and trying to make due with what we have. We want to have a girth of services that we can provide to our students at a high quality, whether or not we have lots of money coming in… I think there are a lot of resources in Silver Lake and it’s just about getting to know people and reaching out to them and trying to find ways to work together.

Sarah Bradshaw, Chief of Staff for LAUSD Board Member Bennett Kayser (District 5)

It’s obscene, we have to sit here and wait for the state. We have to plan based on what they might do. Now part of the state’s planning this year is based on what the voters might do with the governor’s proposed ballot initiative. We have to budget for it passing, we have to budget for it not passing, and we have to live with the consequences regardless. It is criminal. We are 49th in the nation for per pupil funding… 42% of our kids are English language learners. 76% of our kids are in poverty. And then with our precious dollars we have to spend a ridiculous amount on testing and doing all back office or not really hands on productive learning stuff. So that’s kind of where it’s at. So much is being asked from the schools and the kids are so needy. The time to fight is now. But among options there are class size increases, shorter school year and more services cut to students.

This story was reported by Ledger reporters Colin Stuz and Tony Cella.

Pilgrim School has a long history of racial integration so we have a lot to celebrate for African American History in February.

This year, we started out early by celebrating Martin Luther King’s birthday with a special all-school Chapel. The whole school sang “We Shall Overcome.” We listened to Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech while we saw video clips of the speech and pictures from the civil rights movement.

In choir, we are learning protest songs that activists sang during peaceful civil rights protests.  So far we have learned, “We Shall Overcome,” “Lift every Voice and Sing,” “Blowin’ in the Wind,” and “If I Had a Hammer.” All the songs are high-spirited and hopeful.

We are also learning about a group of Civil Rights activists known as the Freedom Riders who protested in a non-violent way.

We are also looking forward to visiting the African American History Museum, and participating in an all school African American History Month pot luck.

While the first pass of proposed Los Angeles City Council district boundary changes were released by the Los Angeles Redistricting Commission Jan. 25th, local activists continue to plead local neighborhoods stay in tact.

Local community leaders called for the commission to solidify Atwater Village into a single City Council district at a meeting earlier in January.

“We shouldn’t have two council districts when there’s one Neighborhood Council,” said Barbara Lass of the Atwater Village Residents’ Assoc.

Alex Ventura of the Atwater Village Neighborhood Council said the opinions of residents and business owners in North Atwater are neglected because they comprise a minute portion of Council District 4.

Los Angeles City councilmember Tom LaBonge, who represents some of the district, did not return requests for comment.

Eric Garcetti, candidate for mayor, represents the majority of Atwater Village, which lies in Council District 13.

His spokesperson, Julie Wong, said some residents expressed concern to Garcetti that if the two councilmembers don’t maintain a working relationship their community won’t be represented at the council, which could cut them off from potential services.

Garcetti has not taken a stance on whether Atwater Village should be unified, but encouraged residents to vocalize their opinions at public hearings.

Atwater Village City Council lines were split in 1992. The neighborhood was in a single district between 1986 and 1992, after being split for 14 years prior.

In Los Feliz, the Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council (GGPNC) has resolved the boundaries of the neighborhood council should remain intact and reside within a single City Council district.

“As the boundaries of Los Feliz and Griffith Park do not appear to be threatened or split—the GGPNC just wanted to be on record as stating its support for the our neighborhood council jurisdiction to remain intact within any reconfigured council district,” said GGPNC Treasurer Nelson Bae.

City Council boundaries are redrawn every 10 years due to population changes.

Public hearings on the proposed boundary changes continue throughout February. The commission hopes to adopt a final plan, for City Council approval, by March 1st. For information: www.redistricting2011.lacity.org

LaBonge’s District 4 is potentially one of the most affected districts. The current proposed new boundaries of District 4 run from Silver Lake to Bel-Air and north to Encino relocating Hancock Park, Windsor Square and the Larchmont area to Council District 5 (Paul Koretz).

With its active and engaged residents, as well as quaint shops and restaurants, Silver Lake is an ideal neighborhood to launch Los Angeles’s Streets For People (S4P) project.

S4P is an effort between Los Angeles city and county departments that seeks to quickly and inexpensively transform under-used streets into vibrant public spaces.

The first S4P pilot project is expected to open this spring and will convert Griffith Park Boulevard between Sunset Boulevard, Maltman Avenue and Edgecliffe Drive into a pedestrian plaza bordered by potted planters, moveable tables and chairs and a decorated street surface. This site was considered an optimal choice because it already generates a significant amount of bicycle and pedestrian activity because of nearby local businesses and the twice-weekly farmer’s market.

The Silver Lake Improvement Association (SLIA), Silver Lake Neighborhood Council and the Silver Lake Chamber of Commerce played instrumental roles in building consensus for the project.

When construction is complete, SLIA, in partnership with adjacent business owners, will oversee the site’s maintenance and programming. The pilot project will be installed for approximately one year and the street will be closed to automobile traffic during this time.

Angelenos want safer and more welcoming streets for walking, jogging, and bicycling.  And we also seek public spaces where communities can come together for family and neighborhood activities. Streets for People is designed to meet these needs in a cost-effective manner, and I hope that the Silver Lake projects is the first of its many successful efforts.

HILLHURST AVENUE—An opening reception showcasing the works of two artists will be held at Keller Williams/Los Feliz, 1660 Hillhurst Avenue, February 24th from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Daniela Kamp-Taylor’s photo collages and Lori Pond’s photographs will be featured. The exhibit will run through May.

Proceeds from the opening evening will benefit the Birthday Box Project, a volunteer non-profit organization that provides resources to homeless families to create memorable birthday parties for their children.

Information: (323) 300-1000 and www.kwLosFeliz.com

SILVER LAKE—Major developments are on the way to Rowena Avenue, specifically the half-mile stretch between Hyperion Ave. and Glendale Blvd. Currently being planned is a new housing project of 45 townhouses to be built at 2916-2930 Rowena Ave., the former location of The Coffee Table cafe and restaurant. Developer Fifteen Group expects to begin construction in late spring or early summer.

Fifteen Group, a development agency originally from Miami, FL, purchased the site last July from another developer unable to complete the project due to finances.

The Dept. of City Planning had approved the site for a 64-unit condominium project in 2006, but in studying the property and neighborhood, Fifteen Group decided something smaller would be more appropriate, said Principal Justin Barth.

“The 64-unit complex was just kind of this big concrete building,” Barth said.

Now, after community and Silver Lake Neighborhood Council (SLNC) input—which in January approved a motion to support the development property modification—Barth said designs are underway and Fifteen Group is waiting for the Dept. of City Planning to approve its map modifications.

In debating whether to support downsizing the development, the SLNC  specifically discussed parking and the inclusion of a café.

Under the guidelines of the previously planned 64-unit condo project, a large underground parking structure was included but has now been replaced by attached garages in the new plan. The former plans also included a commercial cafe space, which the SLNC said it encouraged but could not demand with the downsize. In so doing, the SLNC supported a variance of parking that would not require Fifteen Group to provide at least five extra on-site parking spaces if it does decide to include a café on the property.

“It is a dead street without any commercial businesses,” said council member Elizabeth Bougart-Sharkov, who heads the Urban Design and Preservation Committee.

Barth said that market conditions, in the end, would dictate if plans would include a café.

Once construction begins, the project is expected take 16 to 18 months to complete. The developer predicts its one-block proximity to the high performing public Ivanhoe Elementary School, should be a major selling point for the townhouses.

“There are families that are priced out of the market and we feel like we can provide a townhouse for a more reasonable price than a single-family house for families wanting to send their kids to [Ivanhoe],” said Barth.

This could all dovetail nicely with the department of transportation consideration of a so-called “road diet” on this thoroughfare that would cut the traffic lanes down from two to one each way, adding bike lanes and street parking instead. The effort would be in coordination with the bike plan the city adopted last year to insert 1,600 miles of bikeways in 30 years.

At the city council’s request, the transportation department is now preparing an environmental identification report that measures the effect this change would have on the neighborhood.

According to Barth Fifteen Group has no stance on the subject but can see pros and cons: a “road diet” would slow traffic but might clog up residential streets with commuters looking for a shortcut around Rowena, he said.

The Los Feliz Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library is looking for volunteers to re-shelve books for one hour per week.

The Los Feliz Library is one of the smallest libraries in all of Los Angeles, but almost a quarter of a million books, DVDs and CDs are checked out annually by an average of 3,700 people visiting the library each week.

There will be an introductory meeting Sat. Feb. 18th at 11 a.m. at the library for interested volunteers.

Ever wonder why California government seems so prone to boom and bust?  Our revenue charts look like seismograph paper.  Our state’s general fund, which pays for things like education and public safety, has gone from over $100 billion dollars to closer to $80 billion dollars in just a few years.  This is because we rely too heavily on volatile sources of income.

Thirty years ago, California income taxes accounted for less than a third of state revenues.  In 2010, individual income taxes accounted for 44% of California’s tax revenue—very high compared to other states. Compounding the issue is state’s heavy reliance also from capital gains tax revenues.

Between 2007 and 2009, during the height of the current recession, capital-gains taxes, as a percentage of the state’s general fund, plummeted from 12% to 3%, as investors left the stock market and could not sell homes for profit. This dependence caused billions of expected tax dollars to disappear, and caused an immediate hole in the state budget.

Relying on these unstable revenue sources is poor policy.  This year’s projections are actually taking into consideration whether Facebook will go public in 2012, creating more Silicon Valley millionaires, who will have to pay considerable capital gains taxes.  Is that any way to govern a state?  Hoping that a dot.com IPO will result in an influx of tax dollars?

I am considering legislation including overhauling the tax code and implementing an enhanced “Rainy Day” savings fund. Ups and downs happen, but they need not be so severe.  That just results in squandering when times are good, and unneeded suffering when times are bad.

Mike Gatto is the Assistant Speaker Pro Tempore of the California State Assembly.  He represents parts of Los Angeles, including Los Feliz, North Hollywood and Silver Lake among other areas.

Now comes the endless days of waiting for that acceptance letter. I’m hoping I get a “yes” from Loyola.

I have to thank OMGC for preparing me for this moment. My nine years in the school with a rigorous academic curriculum has helped me to reach this point in my education.

Until that letter arrives, I’ll continue to prepare for the Academic Decathlon and work hard to finish the year strong.

This semester 6th graders are beginning a project on values. Each student will choose a value to study. I chose the value of saving animals’ lives. Other values my friends chose include artistry, friendship, commitment, individuality and family.

Our first step is to find artwork, which represents our value. My sister has been helping me by drawing pictures for me. We will explore our chosen values also by studying related texts and also finding representations of our values’ influence on our world such as in movies or pieces of art.  We will also be interviewing people we feel cherish our value.

Our class will ultimately be creating a project on Voice-Thread, which is an online slideshow program.

Afraid of color? Here are ten simple ways to infuse color into your home without changing the entire room.

In a neutral room, reupholster a chair in your favorite bright fabric. “Buttercup Yellow” pops but is also neutral enough to blend with almost anything else. Add a few pillows on the sofa in the same hue. Add bold colored lamps to replace the ones you have.  For impact, add a matching shade to add a bolt of energy to your room.

Are you tired of “all white” or “play it safe beige” but don’t want to reupholster?  Buy a bright colored area rug and your neutrals will float on a bed of color.

With neutral walls, paint your ceiling a beautiful color, like blue, tangerine or pale mustard.  The whole room will come alive.  Match that color somewhere in the room, with pillows, artwork or a vase.

Try adding color with some shine to reflect the light in the room by using silk pillows or taffeta draperies. The texture shimmers and adds depth to the color you’ve chosen.

Change your neutral draperies to color. For maximum impact, place the rods near the ceiling for maximum drama. This works for 8 to 9 foot ceilings. If ceilings are very high, place the rod 12 to 18 inches above the window.

Don’t want the expense of new drapes or lamps?  Add colored trim to existing draperies or lampshades. The trim can run vertical on the lead edges of your draperies or at the bottom. Break out the glue gun for your lampshades and add trim.

Paint your cabinetry, bookshelves or paneling. It adds color in an unexpected place.

Tired of your white closet?  Whether your closet is large or small, paint or wallpaper one wall.  It will be so inviting!

Wallpaper is a great way to add multiple colors. “Walnut on Beverly” has some interesting papers. Check out www.casartcoverings.com. These papers are press-on and are not permanent.  Genius!

Bob Herzog, Co-Chair of the Silver Lake History Collective, a committee of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council, died on Nov. 14th, 2011 after a battle with cancer.  He was a Silver Lake native and had a great love for and strong devotion to the community.  He attended Hollywood High School and the Univ. of Southern California, where he earned a degree in Business

He began his professional career at the American Broadcasting Company and worked for various advertising agencies, beginning with J. Walter Thompson.

He lived and worked in Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Juan, Puerto Rico where he met his life partner, Jim Van Wheeldon. The couple moved to London Street in Silver Lake in 1976.

Tiring of the world of advertising, he took several years off to rest and travel.  For a time, he found himself working as a house painter with Van Wheeldon. After Wheeldon’s death from AIDS, he took over the painting business, where he spent 18 years as the owner of Herzog Painting.

Retiring from the painting business in 2005, Herzog became involved in community service.  At the time of his death, he was actively involved on the board for The Silver Lake Improvement Association and the Griffith Park Adult Community Center.  For the past three years he served as Co-Chair for the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council’s History Collective.

In an interview for the Silver Lake History Collective on July 8th, 2008, Herzog recollected his life in Silver Lake, “I love this community, and my home, where I have lived for the past 35 years. It is a great pleasure to work with my neighbors in preserving the culture and history of our neighborhood. We spend our lives working and raising families, then retirement comes and offers an opportunity to share our lives with others and flower into maturity,” he said.