Highland Park Townhall Update
Ξ August 5th, 2008 | → | ∇ 90042, Coming Soon, Highland Park |
After bottling our first attempt at homebrew, the YorkBlvd duo had a bit of time to kill so we fell on our civic swords and attended Thursday’s Townhall meeting hoping for word on the proposed Highland Park Transit Village. I wouldn’t dream of dragging any of you through the tedium that is essentially a political tapdance but here were the highlights:
1. Las Cazuelas catered the event with free tortas and pupusas. This unfortunately was the peak of the action.
2. There will be a community garden in the vacant lot behind the Highland Theater.
3. Hayes and Avenue 59 will be receiving a new roundabout. Councilman Reyes thinks this will achieve a slowdown in traffic (probably accurate) and an increase in spending in our neighborhood (dubious).
4. The empty building at 5601 N. Figueroa will become a community building within approximately 18 months. Councilman Reyes plans to open a field office there as well as other space for community activities.
5. Finally, in the biggest news of the night, a lot of concerns were assuaged regarding the proposed Highland Park Transit Village. First, all parking places will be replaced including enough to accommodate residents and the proposed extension of East Los Angeles City College. The aesthetics issue wasn’t really addressed but Reyes promised the current drawings are far from final. As for the low income housing, the cheapest units will rent out a $450/month (to those who qualify for low income housing). The funniest bit of pandering during the evening came with promises from the councilman that the units were intended to help lower density in Highland Park by giving preference to local residents instead of promoting an influx of renters/owners from other neighborhoods. This sounds nice but is about as plausible and legal as saying “don’t worry, we’re not renting to [insert ethnic group here]. There are plenty of reasons to support this development but lowering density isn’t one of them.
Crime was also a preeminent topic of the evening and Reyes and the LAPD talked up their recent successes in Glassell Park as well as a trend down in violent crime. Still, care to guess how many patrol cars are on duty at any given time for the 30 square miles and over 300,000 residents of the Northeast Division? 12. For those of you not good at math, that’s about one car per 25,000 residents. We may receive a few more once the LAPD completes it’s current hiring spree of 1,000 new officers but those are scary statistics. The reason we’re so under-policed? Money.
Quick note to Councilman Reyes: This is not the fault of other members of the council, the economy, or the LAPD. It’s your job to secure funding for your neighborhood. I don’t care who you’re caught in bed with or how many babies you kiss as long as you bring home the cash. Why do you think Duke Cunningham was and Ted Stevens is so popular in San Diego and Alaska? They are crooked slimeballs, but they’re their constituents’ crooked slimeballs.
on August 5th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Thanks for the update. Glad to hear the news about the community garden, that has been an inexplicable missing aspect of Highland Park.
on August 5th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
More police please. Thanks for the updates York.
on August 6th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Recent successes in Glassell Park ? What about its neighbor, Cypress Park, which has seen increased gang violence (killing of sheriff deputy, shooting by Irving Middle Schooo?)
on August 6th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Irving Middle School isn’t in Cypress Park that’s in Glassell Park, CP. Yes, more needs to be done to stop the violence in Cypress Park. I’m tired of reading that I live in a gang infested neighborhood where everyone is a thug with no future. I grew up in Cypress Park. I have two Masters. I still live in the neighborhood, but seriously the LA TIMES loves to scream gangs, gangs, gangs when it talks about Northeast LA.
on August 8th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Hmmm. I just watched a shooting across the street from my house a few weeks back. Two days later the sweeps. Was in contact with the gang unit. Interestingly enough, they had no freaking idea about the shooting, although pd showed up. Two weeks earlier, a little girl was murdered at the Riteaid. I don’t call this success. I don’t call sweeps success. I call it sweeping the problems under the rug. And while I love NELA, we need to get real about these socio-economic issues. By the way, I agree with another commenter… cops? WHAT cops?
on August 8th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Seriously, I’ll hear gun shots late at night and the police won’t show up until 3 hrs later. Booom booom booom. Police copter at the scene 5 hrs later….it is ridiculous. I like it out here in Cypress Park but we need some help.
on August 11th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
I am a teacher in this neighborhood and a resident. I am all for peace in the northeast but does anyone else feel like all the police do is harass our neighbors and abuse and humiliate our youth? We need to open up a dialogue with the police about how we want to be protected and differentiate what is acceptable policing and what is an abuse of power. Having more police on the streets harassing my students and my neighbors does not make me feel safer.
on August 13th, 2008 at 9:41 am
To Ms H: I know what you mean. A while back, we had a copter and like 3 or 4 squad cars right down the block…. fearing the worst, I looked outside, and they had maybe 5 or 6 young teenagers lined up, girls and boys looking like they were just sorta hanging out on a summer day. The cops harassed them for a while, cuffed and threw some of them in the back of their cars, and then let them all go. Im thinking that it might have been related to one of the gang injunctions in some way, but the show of force seemed very disproportionate…. some of the kids even seemed to be friends with some of the other kids who live on the block, who I know for a fact are good kids (better than I was at that age). My neighbors were freaking out.
I guess the idea is to scare some of these kids straight, but on the other hand there’s that whole thing where if you treat someone like a hardcore criminal, they’re more likely to start acting like a hardcore criminal. The real criminals are the older guys who never get out of the lifestyle and prey on these younger folks.
Anyway, I have the utmost respect for your average law enforcement worker, but there are times when the LAPD does seem to get out of control. I think the key is to have some people who are actually familiar with the neighborhood and can police in other ways than just showing how badass they are… after all, thats part of the same mentality that’s causing all the problems in the first place.