LA Daily

New York Times Gentrifies Highland Park

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:30:48 -0800

There's nothing purer than the anger of someone whose neighborhood has been praised by the wrong people, for the wrong reason. A case in point is blogger Chimatli, who relates a story in L.A. Eastside in response to that Sunday New York Times piece on Highland Park ("few would ever confuse Highland Park for a cultural district") that continues to draw fire from locals. That the NYT article appeared in the paper's Travel section was a hint of its safari-view of the Northeast L.A. hood. It featured a big photo of the York bar/grill that may have made New Yorkers pine for the B Bar or any other nouveau Bowery watering hole.

"What was once a sleepy strip of garish 99-cent stores and auto parts shops is turning into a thriving neighborhood of cool restaurants and boutiques . . ." begins the piece -- words that have probably become familiar to many people from Brooklyn to Highland Park. Which is where Chimatli comes in. She has no problem with HP getting praised, it's just the implication that she and longtime residents are part of the "sleepy" people getting pushed aside by moneyed urban explorers. She recalls a moment some years ago when she was volunteering at HP's Flor y Canto community center, and two yuppies walked in:

ACLU Tries to Block Jail Closure

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:39:16 -0800

Los Angeles County's recent budget woes are about to collide with a long-festering jail system that is run by the Sheriff's Department. When Sheriff Lee Baca proposed a September 1 closure of the North County Jail Facility at the Pitchess Detention Center, he was not implying that the jail's 1,600 inmates would be sent home. Instead, they would leave their relatively modern facility near Castaic Lake for the grim, already-overcrowded Men's Central Jail in downtown L.A.

That's when the American Civil Liberties Union stepped in by asking a federal judge to head off the closure by issuing a preliminary injunction. The group essentially said that Baca is closing the wrong jail. If it had its way, the ACLU would rather have the MCJ shuttered.

The ACLU, in fact, recently encouraged the sheriff to shut down the MCJ on grounds that it is injurious to its many inmates who suffer from mental health problems. A 2008 report found that in MCJ's medical facililty "men in wheelchairs, on crutches, and otherwise disabled were stuffed like sardines into long interconnecting, dark rooms with far too many bunk beds for them to be able to walk around."

Murder Was the Case: L.A. Homicide No. 157, Man Beaten With Bottle in Highland Park

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:18:44 -0800

An unidentified Hispanic male was beaten to death with a bottle in the afternoon of July 13 in Highland Park.

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An animal regulations officer witnessed the fatal attack and saw the culprit bash a glass bottle over the victim's head. The assailant, described as a Hispanic male in his 40s or 50s, was seen leaving the scene in a pickup truck. The 1:30 p.m. attack, which occurred on the corner of Lacy Street and Avenue 26, doesn't appear to be gang-related. The victim died of his injuries at a nearby hospital.

Sign-tology: The Big Blue HQ Gets a Huge Name Plate

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:35:18 -0800

No, the big blue Scientology headquarters on Fountain near Vermont didn't get smaller -- its sign

Dakota/Curbed LA

just got bigger. So huge, in fact, as to move Curbed L.A.'s Dakota to exclaim, "Holy frickin' thetan. Behold the new LED Scientology sign, now atop the church's building . . ." According to Dakota, each letter is 16 feet tall and San Diego ad designers Signtech Electrical Advertising needed two days to install the sign.

There are some nice/scary photos on Curbed's site, showing the sign casting shadows on the HQ (once Cedars of Lebanon Hospital), along with night shots of the lettering and the organization's giant cross. Dakota reports the signage ballparks for half a million dollars and quotes a Signtech spokeswoman describing the sign as "monstrous." But, you know, in the good sense of the word.

See the Xenu Directory for a list of other Scientology-related addresses in L.A. and elsewhere, along with a 1977 Hollywood Independent sketch envisioning what Cedars of Lebanon will look like under its new owners.

New Football Stadium Still Blocked by Walnut

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:09:48 -0800

Walnut is proving a tough nut to crack, as far as Majestic Realty is concerned. Majestic is the company owned by super-developer Ed Roski, who is trying to plunk a professional football stadium down at the crossroads of the 55 and 60 freeways, in the city of Industry. The city council of that fair town has been dancing in lock step to Roski's tune from the start, seeing in an NFL franchise revenue streams glittering in the future.

The plan risked getting sacked as soon as it was announced, however, when the tonier communities of Diamond Bar and Walnut waged a ferocious PR and legal campaign against construction, citing traffic and noise concerns generated by the proposed 600-acre complex, that would also include movie theaters and restaurants. Diamond Bar's opposition magically melted away when Roski offered it a $20 million mitigation package that would supposedly ease the effects of traffic on Diamond Bar -- even though the mitigating also included such non-stadium-related pledges as a donation to the construction of a soccer field for a local middle school.

Walnut, however, has held out for stopping the stadium completely -- or for more money than Majestic is willing to cough up to make this stalemate go away. In fact, it seems that Walnut residents may have given up on their hopes to block construction -- their over-the-top Web site doesn't seem to have changed since March and apparently has been replaced by a list of economic demands that have made even Ed Roski blush. A recent article in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune says that Walnuts terms include "road and intersection improvements to connect winding Meadow Pass Road through a neighborhood, building a pedestrian bridge at Mt. San Antonio College and relocating the Metrolink station on Brea Canyon Road."

Queer Town: GLAAD Hesitant to Criticize Director Todd Holland

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 07:00:00 -0800

On Monday morning, L.A. Weekly broke the story that openly gay, Emmy-winning director Todd Holland told an audience at Outfest on Sunday afternoon that he advises young, gay male actors to "stay in the closet" if they want to succeed in Hollywood. By Monday afternoon, gay bloggers and their readers weighed in. The gay establishment, though, appeared hesitant to say anything critical of the director.

Most notable in its silence has been the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, also known as GLAAD, a gay media watchdog that usually pounces on such things. GLAAD recently jumped on blogger and openly gay man Perez Hilton for calling Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas a "faggot" during an altercation between the two men. Hilton subsequently apologized.

So far, GLAAD hasn't uttered a word about Holland's advice to "stay in the closet," which, if carried out, would have a more long-lasting and negative impact on the lives of gay actors, gay and lesbian youth, and the gay community than anything Perez Hilton has said.

Today in Photographs: July 14, 1947

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:00:21 -0800

Defense attorney Martin McManus tried to win obscenity acquittals for the owners of both Hollywood's Pickwick Books and a Farmers Market book store, but to no avail. A jury, which had listened to McManus read through Edmund Wilson's Memoirs of Hecate County, convicted the owners of selling lewd material. The offending book was banned in Los Angeles County.

LA Daily News/UCLA

Murder was the Case: L.A. Homicide No. 156, Assault Victim Dies of Injuries

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:16:49 -0800

A 34 year-old Granada Hills man who was beaten up at a party on July 3 died from his injuries.

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Bryant Matute was attending a party in the 1100 block of North San Fernando Road in northeast Los Angeles when he got into a argument with a fellow partyer. According to police reports, Edgar Garcia, 21, and Matute began arguing after an "incident" that occurred earlier in the evening. The fight escalated and Garcia punched Matute. The punch landed Matute in the hospital in critical condition. He died on July 11 - the same day Garcia was arrested for his murder. Garcia is being held on $1 million bail.

Anyone with information about the attack should call Northeast homicide detectives at (213) 847-4261.

Jesse James Hollywood: Penalty Deliberations Begin

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:32:22 -0800

Today the same Santa Barbara jurors who last week convicted former West Hills drug dealer

Jesse James Hollywood of kidnapping and murder began deliberations over his sentence. He could be sent to the death house in San Quentin for his part in ordering the abduction and execution of 15-year-old Nicholas Markowitz. The San Fernando Valley youth was reportedly ordered killed by Hollywood, 29, to send a message to Markowitz's half-brother, Ben, who owed Hollywood a drug debt.

Some initial media reports predicted a sentence would be decided by late this afternoon, but that did not happen. Nicholas Markowitz's mother Susan was expected to address the jury earlier in the day, along with members of Hollywood's family.

They're Heeerrre! Wildfires Strike Angeles National Forest

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:09:27 -0800

[Tuesday Update: City News Service reports this morning that the Osito Fire, near Pyramid Lake, is 65 percent contained and only burned 280 acres of brush, less than originally feared.]

Four days after the National Forest Service raised its fire-danger alert status to Very High, a wildfire has broken out near Pyramid Lake. The blaze, situated in the northern part of L.A. County, near Interstate 5, was spotted around noon today and has quickly spread to 400 acres, though very light winds are helping firefighters. A couple of northbound I-5 lanes have been shut down, creating a monumental traffic jam in temperatures that have hovered around the century mark. Meanwhile, a 15-acre brusher has just been reported in Lancaster, near 245th Street West and West Avenue D.

Thursday's NFS alert for Angeles National Forest came one month earlier than a similar alarm in 2008, indicating that the county is in for a longer, hotter summer than last year's. Wednesday, firefighters beat down an 80-acre brusher that erupted near the Getty Center and Mount St. Mary's College, apparently sparked by brush-clearance equipment. But other lesser fires have flared up around Dodger Stadium and elsewhere over the past week.

Murder Was the Case: L.A. Homicide No. 155, Man Shot in Hollywood Burger King Lot

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:11:55 -0800

A man gunned down in a Hollywood Burger King parking lot on July 12 has been identified as Gerson Rodriguez.

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Rodriguez, 33, of Panorama City, was shot about 2:30 a.m. at 1030 N. Western Avenue, near Santa Monica Boulevard, according to police reports. Rodriguez was pronounced dead at the scene. Police don't know a motive or whether the incident was gang-related.

Baseball's Biggest Mash Note. Ever.

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:09:45 -0800

You've got to sympathize with the lot of the modern baseball announcer, who must fill nearly twice the amount of air time as he did 30 years ago. That's because television and Major League Baseball entered into an unholy alliance to drag out game times to pack in as many ads as possible. This comes, unfortunately, when the American attention span has been reduced to 140 characters, or the length of a ringtone.

And so co-announcers embarrassingly kill time by playing straightmen to each other's jokes (imagine a comedy duo where both men are Ed McMahon), while filling the considerable downtime of games with meaningless statistics. ("Joe hits lead-off doubles in only five percent of second innings that are played on the road.")

This can lead to some perilous narrative detours, thanks to another pitfall of sports announcing -- it fairly brims with unintentional sexual innuendo. I could be wrong, but I believe it was the late George Carlin who did a classic bit filled with gay baseball innuendo -- you know, "Jack swings both ways," "Looks like they're gonna come from behind again" -- that kind of stuff. (Carlin also performed the much revered reflection on two American pastimes, "Baseball Versus Football.")

Murder Was the Case: L.A. Homicide No. 154, Man Bludgeoned With Hammer

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:55:51 -0800

A 54-year-old man suspected of attacking and killing another with a hammer in South Los Angeles was arrested on July 11 on suspicion of murder.

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Brian Wright was arrested at his girlfriend's home in the 1900 block of West 22nd Street. Wright is accused of using a hammer to kill 28-year-old Lindval Baptist. According to preliminary police reports, a relative of Baptist found him lying face down in a pool of blood at a home in the 3100 block of Sixth Avenue. The police didn't provide a motive as to why Wright would bludgeon Baptist to death. Wright was booked on suspicion of murder and held on $1 million bail. Anyone with information on the death is asked to call Southwest Division detectives at (213) 485-1383.

Murder Was the Case: L.A. Homicide No. 153, Man Shot in Robbery Gone Bad

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:46:11 -0800

A store employee was shot to death July 10 in an attempted robbery gone awry.

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Jose Jimenez, 36, was shot in the upper chest, then ran outside the store and collapsed before he was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died. The shooting occurred in the 1200 block of West Eighth Street.

Murder Was the Case: L.A. Homicide No. 152, Man Found Dead on Pico Boulevard

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:24:46 -0800

A 27-year-old male was found dead on the corner of Pico Boulevard and South Concord Street on July 9.

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At first, officers, who discovered Jacob Jacobo on the street at 5:30 a.m., were not certain whether he shot himself or was gunned down. His death was later ruled a homicide by the coroner's office.