February – BoulevardSentinel.com

By T.A. Hendrickson

Occidental College President Harry J. Elam, Jr. will make another attempt on Monday to address the uproar over the College’s handling of a racist anti-Asian text exchange between two students that came to light on
Feb. 1.
The text exchange at the heart of the matter began with one student texting her friend: “all asian people need to die.”

The Chifa Restaurant offered a New Years party last week: Some of the owners and their family are pictured here from left to right: Back row: Cristovo Liu, John Liu, Humberto Leon, Jarod Wang, Coltrane Liu Front Row: Rica Leon, Wendy Leon, Emi Leon-Wilson, Mazzy Leon-Wilson | Photo courtesy of Chifa Restaurant.

Eagle Rock’s Chifa Restaurant rings in the Chinese New Year – A TBS Video

02/14/202203/03/2022 Alexandra Epstein1360

When it comes to cannabis shops in Eagle Rock, how many is too many?

02/07/202202/16/2022 Bill Hendrickson18927 Comments

By Bill Hendrickson Eagle Rock is about to get a third cannabis store – and that has ticked off the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council. At a meeting on Feb. 1, the ERNC was upset that they had only found out about the new shop from billboards in Eagle Rock and word of mouth. That would […]

Foot-for-foot, this fun-size Mt. Washington bungalow was the most expensive home sold in NELA in December 2021 | Photo MLS

Really big money for really little homes in NELA

02/01/202202/14/2022 Jeffery Marino18961 Comment

By Jeffery Marino

In the real estate market of Northeast Los Angeles, where a price tag of $1.1 million is the norm, you might be surprised to see what a mil actually gets you.

The following two homes, one in Mt. Washington and one in Highland Park, sold in December for a tad under $1 million but at well over $1,000/square foot. Details here. Read more.

This 2-bed, 2-bath in Highland Park sold for $1,100,000 in December 2021.

NELA home prices keep surging upward

02/03/202202/10/2022 Jeffery Marino1524

By Jeffery Marino

The residential real estate market in Northeast Los Angeles boils down to this: On one side, you have a hoard of buyers. On the other side, you have a dearth of homes for sale. The result is more competition for fewer homes – and rapidly rising prices.

The median sale price for a home in NELA reached $1.1 million in December, the latest month with comprehensive data. That million-dollar-plus price tag marks a 20% increase over December of 2021, the largest annual price gain since June 2014. It’s also the 11th straight month of double-digit, year-over-year price increases. For our take on why this continues, read on;

Click photo above for more.

Dominique Derouen owner of “Soft Humans Vintage” in Highland Park, wearing the T-shirt of an English neo-psychedelia band from the ’80s and holding an original Ellie Levy ceramic bowl. | Photo by Christopher Nyerges

If you’re looking to buy-nothing-new, look to Soft Humans Vintage, Dominique Derouen’s shop and flea market in Highland Park

02/01/202202/12/2022 Christopher Nyerges17731 Comment

By Christopher Nyerges

Since opening “Soft Humans” in Highland Park three years ago, Dominique Derouen has gained a near cult following for the shop’s vintage clothing and kitchen wares, vinyl records and music memorabilia, as well as its twice monthly flea market. It might work for you! Check out why here.

Senior citizens age 65 and older are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in L.A. but the vaccine rollout has been dogged by fear, misinformation and practical obstacles, like difficulty navigating the appointment system. | Photo by Al Seib for the L.A. Times via Getty Images

‘A dose of truth’ to fight vaccine unease in NELA

02/10/202107/26/2021 Zach Goodwin4981

By Zach Goodwin

Artists' sketch of the mural "Earth Mother" by Ernesto de la Loza and his sister, Sandra de la Loza

Artists selected to create new mural in Highland Park

02/21/202107/25/2021 Angela Guglielmino5804

By Angela Guglielmino Winners were announced on Monday in the competition to paint Highland Park’s next major mural: Ernesto de la Loza, an esteemed Chicano muralist, and Sandra de la Loza, an artist, mural expert and Ernesto’s sister, will work together to bring Ernesto’s design, Earth Mother, to the side wall of the new Planned […]

Three home sales that prove NELA buyers have not gone mad

02/02/202102/02/2021 Jeffery Marino5072

Pandemic. Economic uncertainty. Political turmoil. Through it all, the housing market in Northeast Los Angeles continues to break records. Have NELA homebuyers lost their minds? The answer, in a word, is “No.” The main drivers of today’s prices are limited supply and healthy demand, as explained here. Against that backdrop, the price of a house […]

Sources: Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, Pasadena Public Health Department, City of Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Census Bureau | The New York Times

The unequal toll of the pandemic in NELA’s neighborhoods

02/03/202107/26/2021 T.A. Hendrickson4731

By T.A. Hendrickson

“Frankly horrifying.” That’s how Barbara Ferrer, the head of public health in Los Angeles County has described the evidence showing that low-income communities of color have been hit much harder by the pandemic than richer, whiter communities. Check the evidence here.

"Buy Local" raffle winner Monica Alcaraz (right), said the $150 gift certificate is the 'first time I've ever won anything." At left is Ace Aguilera, owner of Comics VS Toys, where Alcaraz chose to spend the money. | Photo by Bill Hendrickson / Boulevard Sentinel

Winner is chosen in “Buy Local” raffle

02/02/202102/02/2021 T.A. Hendrickson3534

By T. A. Hendrickson
Monica Alcaraz, a resident of Highland Park, is the winner in the Boulevard Sentinel’s latest “Buy Local” raffle. The Sentinel awarded Alcaraz a $150 gift certificate to use at the local merchant of her choosing. For Monica: “This is the first time I ever won something!” Ace Aguilera, proprietor of Comics vs. Toys, got the $150 and immediately took out his first ad in the Boulevard Sentinel! There’s more here.

Kevin de León pushes for prefab housing for the unhoused in NELA as part of broad agenda on homelessness

02/17/202102/26/2021 509012 Comments

By Justin Martinez

NELA’s State Senator Maria Elena Durazo shown in a video explaining her bill to include elderly, undocumented residents in Medi-Cal.

NELA’s state senator Durazo champions Medi-Cal coverage for elderly, undocumented residents

02/03/202107/26/2021 Bill Hendrickson3715

By Bill Hendrickson

Rendering of the 3-story proposed building spreading out from the corner of Ave 64 and Garvanza Street in the Garvanza section of Highland Park. Rendering supplied by the SKYA Ventures.

Garvanza development faces heated opposition as builder seeks to move the project forward

02/10/202102/22/2021 Bill Hendrickson46666 Comments

By Bill Hendrickson

Artwork by Boulevard Sentinel

Recent real estate sales in NELA

02/01/202102/02/2021 Jeffery Marino12237

Here is the latest sales data for single family home sales in NELA. See what sales have been doing near you.

Jimmy Gomez navigates national politics and local issues

02/02/202102/03/2021 Bill Hendrickson25352 Comments

By Bill Hendrickson

A park for the soul

01/31/202102/03/2021 18165

By Christopher Nyerges

Lani Tunzi checks out her vegetarian options. | Photo by Leslie Tunzi

Lani Says: Vegetable Man

02/02/202102/03/2021 Lani Tunzi14561

By Lani Tunzi

The mural by Joerael Numina at One Down Dog yoga in Eagle Rock. - Photo by Bill Hendrickson

The Wider World Takes Notice of NELA

02/03/202002/20/2020 admin19822

This month’s Picks from the people who bring you the Boulevard Sentinel highlights NELA entities in the news from elsewhere. Check out the standouts here.

Photo | Boulevard Sentinel

Crime Watch in NELA – January 2020

02/03/202002/03/2020 Laura Brady-Allen16730

This month Laura Brady-Allen reports LAPD arresting man in shooting death of 15 year-old, a stand-off, and a push for more cops on the beat.

You can get a flu shot from your regular health care provider or at a local pharmacy.

Health Alert: The Flu Season Is Not Over

02/03/202007/26/2021 T.A. Hendrickson18288

Health officials recommend a flu shot for everyone 6 months of age and older.

The Hammer Museum and the Huntington are collaborating on Made in L.A. 2020.

NELA Artists to Participate in Major Exhibition

02/02/202007/26/2021 T.A. Hendrickson188211 Comment

Five artists who live or work in Northeast Los Angeles have been selected to participate in the fifth Made in L.A. biennial exhibition, which will take place at the Hammer Museum in Westwood and the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino from June 7 through August 30.

Photo courtesy of the San Joaquin Valley Sun

Teeing Up Another Vote to Keep Bars Open Later

02/01/202002/01/2020 T.A. Hendrickson17372

Another effort to keep bars open later is taking shape in the California state Assembly.

Rendering of proposed mixed-use development at 1332 Colorado Blvd.

Real Estate News: Eagle Rock’s Pillarhenge Is Up for Sale, Again

02/01/202007/26/2021 Bill Hendrickson203592 Comments

Owner says he is keeping his options open as to whether to build or sell Pillarhenge. Things like that can “make you go, hmmm.”

On Gentrification: Renewed Clash Over Gentrification

01/31/202002/18/2020 19020

Who Speaks for Highland Park? Here’s our update.

Photo from Youtube.com

Lani says: Walk a Mile in My Shoes

02/12/2020 Lani Tunzi4403

Being thrifty, it turns out, is environmentally sustainable. There’s a mini-economy in resold goods – mostly clothing. Read Lani’s report here.

Kaya McLean - Actor, 3rd Grader at Dahlia Heights Elementary, making debut with LA's Kentwood Players.

Editor’s Notebook: February, 2020 – fun things to do, important things to know, ways to get involved and events to put on your calendar

02/17/2020 admin7767

This Editor’s Notebook contains fun things to do, important things to know, ways to get involved and events to put on your calendar.

L.A. River Park: City Solicits Big Ideas for Big Project

02/08/201803/31/2018 Bill Hendrickson2578

Eighty years ago this month, on Sunday night, Feb. 27, 1938, a light rain began to fall in Los Angeles, a welcome shower in a long dry stretch. But relief turned to shock over the next few days, as two monster storms hit the area, causing the Los Angeles River to overflow its banks in […]

Community Input Is Sought on Improvement Plan for Eagle Rock Blvd.

02/07/201803/31/2018 T.A. Hendrickson3291

The future of Eagle Rock Boulevard will be like the present, only more of it, as taller and larger residential construction replaces the corridor’s low slung commercial buildings. To believe otherwise is to not believe your own eyes. But in one way, the future need not be like the present. Eagle Rock Blvd. can be […]

Storage Facility in Eagle Rock Gets a Thumbs Down

02/08/201803/31/2018 Bill Hendrickson1862

Forty-five residents of Eagle Rock turned out on Tuesday evening, Jan. 24 to say “NO” to the proposal to build an 85,000 square foot storage facility on the Ernie Jr’s site at the west entrance to Eagle Rock. The occasion was a meeting of the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council (ERNC) that had to be specially […]

Armed Robberies in NELA: New Details Emerge

02/07/201803/31/2018 T.A. Hendrickson2581

A preliminary hearing in criminal court on Jan. 19 determined that there is enough evidence to proceed in the case against Sean Thomas King, 36, the man accused of several armed robberies in NELA in November, and Sabrina Casillas, 44, who has been charged with driving the getaway car. The pair is due back in […]

Trash Complaints Pile Up in NELA

02/06/201803/31/2018 Mary Lynch2639

First, the good news. Garbage is now being picked on schedule at apartment buildings in NELA managed by Mission Properties and at Galco’s Soda Pop Shop on York Blvd. in Highland Park. That’s an improvement from last November, when the Boulevard Sentinel first spoke with those companies about L.A.’s new trash collection system for commercial […]

Rock ‘n Egg to Be Managed by Local Boxer

02/05/201803/31/2018 Reina Esparza36581 Comment

In September, 2016, when the Boulevard Sentinel first wrote about Carlos Morales, he had just become the North American Boxing Association Super Featherweight Champion. Since then, the 28-year old Mr. Morales, who lives in Highland Park, has won three of four more fights in some of boxing’s premier locations, including the MGM Grand in Las […]

Eagles Finish Second in Football Academic Challenge

02/04/201803/31/2018 Mary Lynch2455

The Eagle Rock High boys’ football team came in second in the 2017 Football Academic Challenge, a competition held by the Los Angeles Rams and L.A. Unified School District to see which of four boys’ football teams would end the season with the highest grade point average. The winners, with an average G.P.A of 2.85 […]

Pillarhenge Project Moves Forward

02/03/201803/31/2018 Bill Hendrickson1937

The proposed housing/commercial development at the Pillarhenge site in Eagle Rock was approved on Jan. 11 at a meeting of the City Planning Commission. At the meeting, the developer accepted additional conditions asked for by José Huizar, Eagle Rock’s City Councilmember for metered parking and additional lighting along Colorado Blvd. and a U-turn going west […]

Camilo’s Bistro in Eagle Rock Closes

02/02/201803/31/2018 T.A. Hendrickson2817

Camilo and Amelia Gonzalez, the owners of Camilo’s Bistro in Eagle Rock, announced in an email on Jan. 19 that they had closed the restaurant. The email said that rising operating costs, personal illness and complications and the decline in business income had forced the closure after 18 years in business.

Fire Updates for NELA

02/01/201803/31/2018 T.A. Hendrickson19131 Comment

The cause of the fire on Dec. 14 in the hills near Occidental College is “undetermined,” according to the Los Angeles Fire Department. An “undetermined” label means that no specific cause can be established from two or more possible causes, though none of the possibilities indicate a fire intentionally set by someone. The LAFD has […]

Residents at Arthur K. Snyder Apartments Ask for Help

02/08/201803/31/2018 Mary Lynch22081 Comment

When Leonna Patton, a tenant at the Arthur K. Snyder affordable apartments in Eagle Rock, called the Boulevard Sentinel on the morning of Jan. 7, the trash at the complex, uncollected for a week, was overflowing the interior trash chutes and stacked nearly to the ceiling in the collection closet on the ground floor. I […]

NELA Real Estate in 2018: No Slowdown in Sight

02/08/201803/31/2018 Jeffery Marino3356

It’s cliché at this point to say that the real estate market is “hot” in Northeast Los Angeles. It has been five years since Redfin, a real estate firm, ranked Highland Park as the nation’s hottest neighborhood and four years since Eagle Rock came in second in that same ranking. 2017 was yet another blockbuster […]

Remembering: Sister Dolores O’Dwyer

02/22/201803/31/2018 Mary Lynch43001 Comment

Sister Dolores O’Dwyer, the principal of St. Bernard Catholic School in Glassell Park for 36 years – from 1968 to 2004 – passed away peacefully on Dec. 16, 2017, age 94. Sister Dolores, who entered the religious order of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) in 1941, grew up in San […]

Remembering: Aileen Albrecht

02/19/201803/31/2018 admin4139

Aileen Albrecht, who passed away in Newport, Wash., on Dec. 6, 2017, just shy of her 92nd birthday, spent the longest stretch of her long life in Eagle Rock, where she lived from 1957 to 1999. Eagle Rock was a long way from the Midwestern dairy farm where Aileen grew up, but shortly after […]

Remembering: Bill Westbrook

02/19/201803/31/2018 admin36741 Comment

When William G. Westbrook, III moved from Tampa to Eagle Rock in 2013 to be closer to family, it wasn’t just his family but his new community that benefitted from his relocation. “Bill,” who passed away on January 6 at age 74, brought with him his irrepressible creative spirit expressed in a love of […]

Get to Know: Angelina Sáenz

02/07/201810/27/2018 Reina Esparza4242

When the mic opens this month at La Palabra, the long running poetry reading series at Avenue 50 Studio in Highland Park, the new host will be Angelina Sáenz, an award-winning teacher at Aldama Elementary in Highland Park, a published poet and children’s author, an L.A. Eastsider who overcame obstacles to become a master of […]

A Voice in the NELA Wilderness: Camping on Zero Dollars a Day

02/20/201803/31/2018 3567

Camping in the hills of NELA was a big deal when I was a boy and looking back, I realize it was a no-budget activity. Today, I don’t mind spending money on an item if I know it’s the best and if my life may depend on it. But I still like to go as […]

Lani Says: Who Are You? Who? Who?

02/08/201803/31/2018 admin4204

Naima Corea,16, a student artist and musician who is my classmate at Eagle Rock High, has an exhibit on Feb. 3 at the Cactus Gallery L.A. in Elysian Valley. The exhibit will showcase the results of a project of Naima’s on self-image, in which she encouraged her peers to portray their self-image in poems, paintings, […]

Ask Lionel: Fearlessness in a Time of Fear

02/07/201807/26/2021 37231 Comment

My 11-year old son’s school hosted a day of service on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January. Current events cast a shadow on the event. President Trump had just tweeted that the Dreamers program was “probably dead.” Immigration agents had launched new raids. I read a news story about a Latino father of three […]

Elysian Valley: A Riverside Community in Flux

02/08/201803/15/2018 120324 Comments

Elysian Valley, a neighborhood in Northeast Los Angeles between the Los Angeles River and 5 Freeway, is being transformed by the prospect of river redevelopment. The once isolated enclave, a.k.a. Frogtown, has been home to generations of generally lower-income Latino families, living in small bungalows on small lots (photo at upper left). Parts of the […]

Kudos

02/08/201803/31/2018 admin3196

Kudos to Amy Inouye, the artist and community activist based in Highland Park, who has been selected to receive the 2018 “Noisemaker Award” by the organizers of NELA’s acclaimed Lummis Day Festival. The award is presented annually to an individual whose work and contributions to the community reflect the mission of the Lummis Day Community […]

Restore Nature

02/08/201803/31/2018 admin3086

The first native plant nursery in NELA, the Los Nogales Nursery, was established in 2014 as a joint effort of the Audubon Center at Debs Park in Montecito Heights and the National Park Service. Today, the nursery grows more than 30 different native plant species from seed collected in Debs Park and then uses the […]

Ride for a Reason

02/08/201803/31/2018 admin2943

The Cody Waters Foundation, established by the parents of a nine-year old who died of brain cancer in 2009, will hold the annual Cody Waters Off-Road Ride to Survive fundraiser on March 10. The ride, which is open to motorcycles, quads, side by sides, buggies, trucks and any other type of off-road vehicle, begins in […]

Create a Digital Archive for Your Family Photos

02/08/201803/31/2018 admin3133

If you have photographs in a photo album or slides in a slide reel, you can learn how to digitize them at an upcoming meeting of the Eagle Rock Valley Historical Society (ERVHS). The presentation, by David Dellinger, the new president of ERVHS, and Ann Mar, Assistant College Archivist/Metadata Specialist at Occidental College, will cover […]

Trim Your Property Tax Bill

02/20/201803/31/2018 admin3077

Los Angeles County has just wrapped up an initiative to make homeowners more aware of a property tax breaks that go unclaimed each year. The figures are stunning. For example, some 435,000 families across the county could trim their tax bills by $70 a year by claiming the Homeowner’s Exemption. The largest number of unclaimed […]

Cute Enough for You?

02/20/201803/31/2018 admin32531 Comment

Four hospitals near NELA – Glendale Memorial, Huntington, USC Verdugo Hills and White Memorial – are participating this month in Little Hat, Big Hearts, in which every baby born in February will receive a red hat knitted by volunteers. The program, by the American Heart Association, is intended to bring awareness to heart disease and […]

February 2018

02/08/201804/01/2018 admin2197

NELA seems to be looking to the future these days, with the launch of plans to revitalize the Los Angeles River and to refurbish Eagle Rock Blvd. rising to the top of our news coverage this month. In an era when public improvements, large and small, seem impossible to get off the ground, it is […]