Results tagged “tomlabonge”

With a big smile on her face, North Hollywood resident Marta Duron has spent the last two evenings at North Hollywood Park. It's a first for her to be there after dark, but with newly installed solar lighting poles along the jogging path, she plans on taking advantage more often. "It makes it safer and more people are out at nighttime, even late at night" she said. "It's a major difference."

You can always count on Councilmember Tom LaBonge for his quarterly hikes that mark the change in season. Tomorrow's Autumnal equinox will be celebrated with a public hike to the peak of Mount Hollywood. “It’s all about enjoying a hike in the middle of the city with friends and neighbors,” said Councilmember LaBonge. “It’s a great way to celebrate nature and the change of seasons.”

With two major water main breaks over the last week (plus about three more notable ones), the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power is in the hot seat, so to speak. The City Council looked into the issue yesterday and in a statement Councilman Tom LaBonge says he does not want any more surprises.

The popular lunch truck row in Mid-Wilshire has the scores of office workers in the area thrilled. Echoing the sentiments of Michael Schneider who calls the area a "vast wasteland of lunchtime eateries," the lack of diverse choices has workers bored or worse yet, some places just seem like horrid choices to them. But since the food truck craze has hit Los Angeles, the lunch time options have changed.

The brutal drenching Southern California took back in 2005 shut down a good deal of recreational space around Los Angeles. An LAist favorite included the trail Henniger Flats in Altadena, but more locally was the loss of the Lake Hollywood Reservoir

On Saturday night, Councilman Tom LaBonge showed off prototype neighborhood sign for the maybe-future Little Italy neighborhood in the downtown area. "The borders of what would make up a Little Italy would certainly take debate," noted Ed Fuentes of blogdowntown. "The Italian community in Los Angeles was originally centered in land that is today occupied by Chinatown." Last weekend's 1st Annual Taste of Italy was held at Italian Hall where in 2010, a museum is slated to open with exhibits intended to educate the public about Italian-American Angelenos.

Is it Griffith Park if it's not with the spastic Councilman Tom LaBonge? Tonight, as per usual with solstice time (it was officially yesterday), he organizes a community hike to Mount Hollywood. And because LaBonge is the President of the Sister Cities of Los Angeles, Inc., there will be a potluck of world cuisines to snack on, too. “This hike has become a tradition in Council District 4, for avid hikers and the international community as well,” he said. “There’s an unparalleled view of Los Angeles from the peak at sunset, which is really inspiring.” If you go, it starts at 6 p.m. Meet at the Griffith Observatory parking lot.

It was back in 1992 when the Mulholland Scenic Parkway Specific Plan went into effect, setting course for the city of Los Angeles to preserve the historic 1924 drive through a set of land use regulations and improvements. Among those was the Core Trail, some 22 miles in length, roughly from near the Hollywood Bowl to Topanga Canyon Boulevard. Approaching 20 years since it became law, some are wondering why nothing has been done.

Tomorrow marks the second anniversary of the Griffith Park fire, which burned through 817 of the park's 4,210 acres in two days. So Councilman Tom LaBonge and other city officials dedicated the 750,000-gallon water Travel Town Tank that will be used to help fight fires in the park and irrigate areas in the Western portion of the park. "It's a tragedy when fires roar, as we see today in Santa Barbara," said LaBonge this morning. “This tank will help us protect Griffith Park long into the future.”

             

If the economy was bad, a broken stove used for baking their famous pumpkin bread didn't help one bit (as posted a couple years ago on LAist, the recipe is below). So earlier this month the nuns at the Monastery of the Angels let the neighborhood know that if they couldn't afford to be there anymore, just under the Hollywood Sign, that their four-acre property might be sliced up and developed into condos.

As part of a city-wide, Mayor-back, and City Council-approved plan that went into effect more than a month ago, parking meter rates in San Pedro got a significant hike--in fact, the rates quadrupled, and the applicable time extended into evening hours. This left not only motorists flustered, but merchants as well, who are already facing a decline in revenue thanks to the economy.

Sick of the constant graffiti tagging along Hoover Walk, a cement staircase at the north end of Hoover St., just below Prospect Ave., residents of Franklin Hills took action. It took years to do, but with the help of the city and the will of the community, Muralist Ricardo Mendoza's colorful artwork will be officially dedicated tomorrow at 11 a.m. with the neighborhood, Councilman Tom LaBonge and Mendoza.

It's been a long process, but Griffith Park, the nation's largest city park, tomorrow will be ceremonially dedicated as Los Angeles' newest and largest historic cultural monument. Councilmember Tom LaBonge will stand beside the bronze statue of Col. Griffith J. Griffith tomorrow, with the colonel’s grandson at his side, and dedicate at the dedication. On January 27th, the park officially became a monument when it got its procedural blessing from City Council and the Mayor, but tomorrow morning will be a time for community that sought to protect the park to gather and celebrate it's heritage.

       

Yesterday evening, cyclist Lance Armstrong rallied friends, the bike-friendly, and local leaders as they took to the streets of Hollywood as part of his Livestrong: Hope Rides Again promotion. Armstrong was joined on two wheels by local civic leaders like Councilmembers Eric Garcetti and Tom LaBonge, and later by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and artist Shepard Fairey all to raise funds and launch a global art exhibition called "Stages, which features the work of 21 artists and will help support the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Fairey's iconic work can be see emblazoned on the buildings of Hollywood; although "Hope" is a key term for Armstrong's exhibit, it's also one that Fairey has used elsewhere--maybe you've seen it? Here he's making do with "Defiance," "Courage," and "Action!"

       

What became clear at Thursday night's packed community meeting about a rash of street robberies in the Silver Lake and Echo Park communities is that police and the community need to work more closely together. The need has always been there, but after residents felt angry when the city was slow to identify and report crime patterns, they took to the streets and internet with the information they had and spread the word themselves.

              

Since December 30th, the Silver Lake and Echo Park communities have experienced ten street robberies where all the victims were males walking alone. Six of them took place in Echo Park around Sunset and Alvarado through the first week of January (only one took place later in the month) and in the last week, four were committed in the Rowena-Hyperion area of Silver Lake. One such incident over the weekend, where the victim later woke up in the hospital, spread like wildfire through e-mails and community-made flyers handed out on the streets.

UPDATE, Feb. 4: More detailed information and the community meeting info can be found on this new article.

   

Five days after the season premiere of "Damages," Glenn Close today fell head over heels when she was honored with the 2,378th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame outside the Roosevelt Hotel.

Now that parking meters are enforced beyond 6 p.m. with a two-hour limit in the NoHo Arts Distrct, the whole experience of going out to dinner and seeing a theatre show doesn't really work unless you want to keep moving your car to a new space.

Councilmember Tom LaBonge, who represents Griffith Park, loves loves loves to hike and be in what he calls the greatest park in the world. Often, he holds hikes with residents and tomorrow is no exception.

It's been an issue for some years now. The LADWP Festival of Lights--a holiday light show where people in cars drive slowly along Crystal Springs Dr. in Griffith Park viewing the displays--has been car-oriented since the beginning.

Councilman Tom LaBonge, who represents the district that has Griffith Park within it, is meeting up with residents and hikers in two meetings tonight to discuss the seven fires that were lit at the park this past weekend. Arson is suspected.

month “Emergency Preparedness Day” in California. It would be a monthly reminder to have schools hold drills and for people to be aware of their emergency plans. The motion will be considered next week by the council.

Today, Councilman Tom LaBonge announced that he has asked City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo for a legal opinion on including cyclists to ride at the Griffith Park holiday light festival that had once been open only to automobile traffic. Public pressure to allow cyclists on all days that cars use the road has been building up for some time now.

Tonight is ride number two for Councilman Tom LaBonge's cutely name "Tour LaBonge" bicycle ride series where constituents are invited to come along. At 6:15 p.m., riders will meet at the Mulholland Fountain (Riverside Dr./Los Feliz Blvd.) and embark on a 10-mile ride along the LA River and in Griffith Park. Half way through, it's ice cream time at Travel Town, which is near where a brush fire ignited on Sunday afternoon, and then back towards the fountain. LaBonge, along with Councilmen Eric Garcetti and Ed Reyes, is a passionate cycling advocate, but some criticize his backpedaling on bicycle rights at the annual Festival of Lights. Nevertheless, the larger bicycling discussion continues as drivers and cyclists learn to share the road. Future LaBonge bicycle rides will be on August 6 (City Hall), August 13 (Toluca Lake) and August 20 (Hollywood).

Last night's 13th Annual Griffith Park Holiday Light Festival community meeting opened with the DWP reps explaining to the public that the Festival is off limits to cyclists because "these aren't public streets." Protests from the audience elicited a response from Councilmember Tom LaBonge to have the lawyers take a look at it.

Last month, Col. Griffith J. Griffith's grandson and the Griffith J. Griffith Charitable Trust put in an application has applied to formally preserve the park by getting it designated as a historic landmark. "We're doing it to stop commercialization," the grandson told the Daily News. "They want to build aerial trams, hotels and build restaurants. "We don't need any of it. I believe my great-grandfather would be turning over in his grave." Lots of people support the idea, but one person, Councilman Tom LaBonge is wary of limiting development under the guise of a possible need for infrastructure for things such as water, power and sewer.

To help balance Los Angeles' massive budget for the next Fiscal Year, parking fines are to be increased $5 across the board. The move begins July and will raise an additional $6.6 million towards filling the $406 million gap in the budget, according to the Daily News. Originally, City Council looked into increasing the fines $10 to $15, raising up to $20 million extra, but had worries it would lead to voter anger and violence against parking enforcement officers.

The DWP has much to be proud of, not the least of which is the prestigious EcoMoron Award it picked up last year in recognition of its commitment to an auto-centric and bike-free Griffith Park Holiday Festival of Lights.

One year ago today, the blaze that ripped through more than 800 acres at Griffith Park began. Seen from all over Los Angeles (see this photo essay), the sight of the fire eating up Los Angeles' gem saddened many in the city. It took three days to knockdown.