In down economy, Leimert Park urges residents to ‘Buy Black’

May 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment


By Laura J. Nelson

imageObinne Onyeador remembers when the streets of Leimert Park were jumping all night.

Until 4 a.m. and later, the gallery owner would hear saxophones wail from inside Fifth Street Dick’s, where men and women from all over the world played chess, drank coffee and soaked in the culture of one of Los Angeles’s most dynamic arts neighborhoods.

Leimert Park Village still seems a black bohemia, where shopkeepers vend batik earrings, photos of the Obama family and books by black authors, where residents linger over rich coffee and sweet potato pie at the local jazz club. But business has changed.

Red, green, yellow and black, often associated with Africa, adorn the streets of Leimert Park, including this streetlight pole on Degnan Boulevard.

In the last 10 years, rents have skyrocketed from $700 to $2,000 and above a month, Onyeador said. Many businesses have left. And in 2000, when Fifth Street Dick’s owner Richard Fulton died of throat cancer, much of the area’s culture died with him.

The strip of small, specialty businesses on Degnan Boulevard that vend to a limited clientele is now struggling in the wake of an economy that was particularly hard on African-American disposable income.

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City Council offers $75,000 reward for information on shooting of South LA toddler

May 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment


The Los Angeles City Council unanimously approved a motion authored by Council President Pro Tempore Jan Perry that authorized the issuance of a $75,000 reward for information leading to the identification and apprehension of the person or persons responsible for a shooting that killed 22-month old, Joshua Montes, and left his uncle, Josefat Canchola, in critical condition.

On May 23, 2011, at approximately 8:30 p.m., Josefat Canchola was holding his 22-month old nephew, Joshua Montes, on their front porch at 1278 East 55th Street when gunfire broke out and both were struck in the head. Joshua Montes died as a result of his injuries that evening and his uncle remains in critical condition.

“It is my hope that this reward will help us find the person or persons responsible for this unimaginable crime,” said Council President Pro Tempore Jan Perry in a press release. “These people obviously have no regard for human life and we need to do everything in our power to find them before they hurt anyone else.”

If you have any information regarding this shooting, please contact Newton Area Detectives at (323) 846-6556. On the weekends and during off-hours, please contact the 24-hour toll free number at the detective Information desk, at 1-888-LAPD-24-7. Anonymous tips can also be left at the 24-hour hotline number.

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United Teachers Los Angeles protest proposed layoffs

May 25, 2011 By 1 Comment


Photographs by David Lyell, Secretary-Elect of United Teachers Los Angeles

imageSeveral hundred educators gathered outside the Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters Tuesday to encourage the district to rescind the more than 5,000 layoff notices sent to Los Angeles teachers.

The protest comes in light of Superintendent John Deasy’s proposal of six furlough days in an attempt to salvage some of the lost positions. United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) rejected this proposal, claiming the district has the money to prevent the furlough days and save the lost jobs after California Governor Jerry Brown’s $3 billion increase to the state education budget.

“The district needs to justify why we need these furloughs,” fourth-grade teacher Diana Cervantes, who received a layoff notice this year, told the Daily News. “Up until this point they haven’t been able to do that yet.”

UTLA’s protest, which they referred to as the “Pull the RIFs” rally, took place outside the Los Angeles Board of Education meeting.

Watch a slideshow of photographs from the protest:

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Crucial vote on Crenshaw-LAX Light Rail Line

May 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment


On Thursday, May 26, 2011 the MTA board is scheduled to meet and vote on several motions by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas regarding the Crenshaw-LAX Light Rail Line.

The South Los Angeles Neighborhood Councils Joint Committee requested an engineering memo that was released today (May 25). To read the report, “Synopsis of Findings for the Review of Documents Related to the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor, Park Mesa Heights Area,” written by Southstar Enginering and Consulting Firm, click here

Below is a news release from the Citizens’ Campaign to Fix the Expo Rail Line & Crenshaw Line Subway Coalition

At Thursday morning’s MTA meeting, the board members will vote on a motion by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas to underground the entirety of the Crenshaw Blvd portion of the Crenshaw-LAX Light Rail Line and return the Leimert Park Village station to the project. In addition to Supervisor Ridley-Thomas, Supervisor Mike Antonovich openly supports the motion, and a third board member has expressed their support privately. With 7 votes needed for passage, all eyes are on L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who controls 4 votes on the 13-member MTA Board. The $1.7 billion light rail line is scheduled to begin construction in 2012.

“The Mayor has an important decision to make and it’s about his legacy,” said Jackie Ryan, past president of the Leimert Park Village Merchants Association. “Does he want to be forever known as the Mayor who voted to put the nail in the coffin of the last African-American business corridor in Los Angeles, or the Mayor who provided for Crenshaw the greatest economic revitalization opportunity ever.”

2 of the 3 miles of the line that travels on Crenshaw Blvd is to be built underground. But “the final mile” in Park Mesa Heights from 48th to 59th Street is currently designed at street-level right next to View Park Prep School and a block away from Crenshaw H.S.

MTA’s street-level plan in Park Mesa Heights would also have severe impacts to future development and current businesses, the majority of which are African-American operated. The street-level plan would require: the removal of nearly half the parking on Crenshaw Blvd, the prohibition of left turns at streets like 54th, trains to cross every 2 ½ minutes across busy intersections like Slauson Avenue, which is currently operating at the worst possible level of congestion (LOS F), and 4-5 long years of disruptive street-level construction. During street-level construction on 3rd Street on the recently completed Gold Line Eastside Extension 90% of the businesses were put in the red, and multiple businesses were forced to close their doors.

“The Mayor needs to get on board and bring his block of votes with him,” said Damien Goodmon, Chair of Crenshaw Subway Coalition. “It is what we as a community group have been requesting and organizing towards for 4 years. Every other politician who represents South L.A. has stepped up in full support of the Ridley-Thomas motion.”

“South L.A.’s political versions of the Hatfields and the McCoys are united on this issue,” said Winnifred Jackson of the Hyde Park Organization Partnership for Empowerment (HOPE), a community-based group in the Hyde Park community that would be impacted by the street-level plan. “It’s a level of political unity not seen in generations. If Antonio Villaraigosa turns his back on us now, when the money has been identified, and as a consequence MTA builds their business-killing street-level plan through Park Mesa Heights, he can look forward to his name being mentioned right next to other despised officials like former LAPD Chief William Parker. We won’t ever forget it.”

A report released last Thursday by the MTA staff identified $2 billion dollars in resources that can be used to fund the Ridley-Thomas motion without compromising the delivery of any Measure R project. The cost of the changes to the Crenshaw-LAX Line project are projected between $339-400 million.

“We’ve been door knocking, phone banking, holding community meetings, getting petitions signed and writing letters,” said Goodmon. “We’ll be at Thursday’s board meeting by the hundreds to support the Ridley-Thomas motion. We applaud the Supervisor for stepping up to the plate to represent the Crenshaw community’s interest and the interest of transit users throughout the region who value safe and fast rail transportation. Mayor Villaraigosa needs to do the same.”

The Citizens’ Campaign to Fix the Expo Rail Line (Fix Expo Campaign) is a collaboration between over a dozen South LA community groups, neighborhood councils and homeowners association, civil rights leaders and rail safety advocates.

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas’ motion is near the top of the MTA board agenda on Thursday, May 26th – MTA Headquarters (1 Gateway Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90012). The text of the full motion can be viewed online at: www.fixexpo.org

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Tip helps police get suspect in Dodger Stadium assault

May 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment


According to media reports a tip from a parole agent led police to arrest a suspect in the much publicized assault of a San Francisco Giants fan in the Dodger Stadium parking lot on opening day.

Officer Lyle Knight of the Los Angeles Police Department said he has not received confirmation that the tip was from a parole officer. But the arrested suspect matches the description of the assailant with a mole on his face.

The suspect is identified as Giovanni Ramirez, 31. He is a Hispanic man from Los Angeles, police said. He was taken into custody in the 800 block of North Mariposa Avenue recently. He has been booked for assault with a deadly weapon and is being held on $1 million bail.

The two suspects in the attack were last seen leaving Parking Lot 2 of Dodger stadium. They were driven in a light or white four-door sedan by a woman. Both the woman and the other suspect involved in the attack are still at large, police said.

The LAPD has had 20 detectives assigned to the case, and has expended more than 6000 hours in the investigation. A $250,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects.

According to a LAPD news release, Northeast Area detectives got the break they needed when, late last week, information from a law enforcement source allowed detectives to accelerate their investigation and focus on the suspect taken into custody early Sunday morning.image

Police said since the March 31 attack on 42-year old Bryan Stow, the LAPD has received more than 630 leads from law enforcement and the community. The number of leads increased substantially after hundreds of WANTED billboards went up across the city recently.

Police say the case began when Stow was leaving Dodger Stadium along with several of his friends, following the end of the Los Angeles Dodgers vs. San Francisco Giants baseball game. Then, two men who were wearing Dodger attire began taunting the victim and his friends because of their affiliation with the Giants. But as the victim and his friends tried to walk away, Stow was hit from behind. Once on the ground, the two suspects continued to kick Stow repeatedly to the head, police said. As a result of the beating Stow suffered a severe skull fracture.

Recently, Stow was moved to a Northern California hospital to be closer to his family. Stow is a paramedic and the father of two children.
Tips on the case can be referred to Crimestoppers at 1-800-222 (TIPS) 8477.

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Face lift intended to do more than refurbish Baldwin Hills mall

May 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment


By Samantha Hermann

When Vince St. Thomas showed up at the food court of the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza mall to do a crossword puzzle he was taken aback by what he found. The center of the food court had been blocked off leaving only the seats around the perimeter available for patrons.

“I have no idea what they are doing.” said St. Thomas, who shopped at the mall on a recent Sunday. “I see all this stuff going on and every time I come by for the last two or three months or so I have been surprised.”

What they are doing is completing an extensive renovation of the mall, which first opened as the Broadway-Crenshaw Center in 1947, and is among the oldest regional shopping centers in the country. The mall saw its last major overhaul in the late 1980’s and has long been considered an economic and cultural hub in South Los Angeles.

But, without any significant renovation in more than 20 years, it was sorely in need of a facelift.

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Can a transit line transform South Los Angeles?

May 20, 2011 By Leave a Comment


imageBy Anita Little

In the opening scene of the film Crash, one of the characters laments on how there is “no sense of touch” in Los Angeles. “In L.A. nobody touches you, we’re always behind this metal and this glass.”

The prevalence of driving in Los Angeles is one of its most identifying characteristics. Everyone here drives and in order to survive in the City of Angels, you need wheels to be your wings.

However, some low-income and minority segments of Los Angeles do not own cars. For decades, this has denied them access to goods and employment in other parts of the city. City planners and urban advocates have pushed for the development of more viable mass transit in Los Angeles and with the building of the Crenshaw Light Rail, disenfranchised communities are now on the verge of greater mobility and, perhaps, an enhanced quality of life.

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‘Tell Me Something Good’ artist gets star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

May 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment


Ten-time Grammy winner Chaka Khan received the 2,240th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the category of recording artist recently.

Khan has won ten Grammy Awards since being introduced as the front woman for the funk band Rufus in the early 1970s. Chaka Khan’s real name is Yvette Marie Stevens. She is 58 years old.
Superstar singer and song writer Stevie Wonder, who penned Chaka Khan’s first hit with the group, Rufus was on hand at the Walk-of-Fame ceremony. Wonder wrote the award winning song “Tell Me Something Good,” for Khan’s band.image

Rufus had other hit songs including “Once You Get Started,” “Everlasting Love,” and “Ain’t Nobody.”

Later, Chaka Khan broke with the band and launched a solo career with songs such as “I’m Every Woman,” written by Ashford & Simpson. Other solo songs include “Clouds,” “What’Cha Gonna Do For Me?” and the hit song “I Feel For You,” written by Prince.

In 1999, Chaka Khan established the Chaka Khan Foundation. In a partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District, the organization supports mentoring middle school students who are college bound.

John Muir Middle School Principal Miranda Ra’off and student Tempest Brown attended the Walk-of-Fame ceremony.

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OPINION: Remembering Corey Nicholson

May 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment


By Patrick White, brother of Corey Nicholson

“I have to get this thorn out of my side,” my elderly grandmother said once. She was referring to the death of her grandson 15-year-old Corey Nicholson.

Without a doubt, death isn’t a new story amongst residents of South Los Angeles. It’s constantly accepted. But from that point, I knew it was a call to action. All I could think was there has to be a better way.

After Corey’s death, there were no visits from detectives or responses from police. The services were carried on without question.

I could not look at my mother. My mother lost her one-bedroom apartment after 16 years, and subsequently was unable to properly care for her son. The youngest of six, he was placed under the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles children’s welfare system.

Struggling to overcome her own personal battles with drug addiction and various levels of abuse, she went to the only safe place she knew. She had to rent out a room in her mother’s apartment. A few months later, the entire family was struck with the news: Corey was found dead on the steps of an apartment complex on Vermont Ave. and 83rd Street in South Los Angeles.

According to the autopsy, his death was due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The bullet went straight through. He died at 2 a.m. The events leading up to his death have yet to be formally disclosed to his family.

If you ask any one of his siblings who Corey was, you would be bombarded with an array of answers. He was funny, big-hearted, bright-eyed, and intelligent…anything and everything a kid is supposed to be. He was also saddened, hardened and put off by what he had to endure to just fit in and to search for what so many people in their adult lives struggle to find: love.

I probably will never understand the impact his death had on my grandmother. The strongest member of the family, Gramma, pronounced “Gruam-ma,” was not only the backbone of this family, but the spirit as well. “Go to school, boy,” she often encouraged us to do. A woman of few words, Gramma’s lack of knowledge of our legal system was taken advantage of.

Labeled with the typical “…well, it-is-what-it-is” of the black community, some overlooked Corey’s death as a “minor tragedy.” But it has become clear that the process of healing is difficult, lengthy and different for everyone.

After finding out that Corey Nicholson had passed away, it was discovered that hidden cameras were placed in the family’s residence. Onlookers watched what was supposed to be a time of healing for my family, and our grief became a commodity. When the landlord was notified of the hidden cameras, he said that if that were true, he would remove them. On a latter occasion, the landlord retracted on his statement, indirectly acknowledging that hidden cameras were in fact in the resident’s home, who had occupied the space for approximately 25 years.

Looking at the autopsy report, the family had no choice but to accept what fate had dealt. But that was and will not be a part of our closure.

Closure came in my decision to fight, not only for Corey, but for everything I had been chosen to believe in and what this land is undeniably built on: a relentless pursuit of defining moments and the intangible notion of endless possibilities.

Project L.A. South, an organization that was started in 2010, is designed to help combat some of the very elements which were direct causes of Corey’s death. It launches campaigns such as the Breakfast program, Canvas L.A, Adopt-A-block, I Am L.A., and other initiatives.

Sharing one of their “Defining Moments,” celebrities and Hollywood stars such as Oprah, Celebrity Hair stylist Ken Paves, Radio Host Big Boy, Ricky Martin, Beverly Johnson, and others have already supported the efforts.

After more than three years, the family plans to move forward, first by having a benefit for Project: L.A. South. Through the benefit, the family hopes to find healing and a sense of closure while still reaching out. It is their hopes that the benefit will help build a foundation in South Los Angeles in the memory of Corey.

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Reward doubled leading to arrest and conviction of suspects in beating at Dodger Stadium

May 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment


The Los Angeles Police Department is seeking a woman in connection with the assault on San Francisco Giants fan who was beaten in a Dodger Stadium parking lot on opening day in late March.

At a recent press conference, police said they are looking for a female Hispanic about 5 feet 2 inches to 5 feet 3 inches tall, approximately 20 years of age with brown or dyed hair in a ponytail. She was wearing a jersey with the name “Andre Ethier” on it. Ethier is an outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers. At the time of the beating, the woman was accompanied by a boy about 10 years old.

The two suspects in the beating were apparently driven away from Dodgers Stadium by the woman in a white or off-white four-door, newer luxury vehicle; possibly a Mitsubishi or Acura with tan interior, according to the LAPD.

The Dodgers have doubled the initial reward to more than $200,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects in the attack. Bryan Stow, a 42-year-old father of two and a paramedic, was knocked to the ground and kicked in the head. Stow has suffered brain damage.

Hundreds of billboards have been posted throughout Los Angeles with an artist’s composite of the two male suspects.

Police said they are looking at hundreds of leads in the beating on March 31 of Stow, who was beaten nearly to death in a Dodger Stadium parking lot after a Giants game.image

Recently, he was taken from the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center to the Bob Hope Airport for a trip to San Francisco General Hospital, so he can be treated closer to his Northern California home in Santa Cruz. Stow remains in critical condition.

Detective Pjai Morris said the search for the suspects is a statewide canvas that has included areas of San Francisco and San Diego.

“The family deserves (justice) and so do the Dodgers and the city of Los Angeles,” Morris said. “We have a lot of good leads and I’d like to think we’re getting closer.”

Morris said there is no reason to believe that the suspects have fled the country.

Suspect one is described as a Hispanic male with a bald head, approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall to 5 feet 10 inches, 160-170 pounds and a stocky build. He’s about 20 to 25 years old. He has a mustache and goatee. He was wearing a Dodger jersey, dark shorts, and a blue hat with “LA” in white. He possibly has a tattoo on his neck and possibly has a mole or mark on the left side of his face.

Suspect two is a white or Hispanic male with short hair and hazel eyes. He is about 6 feet 1 inches tall, and about 28 to 35 years old. He was wearing dark clothing, possibly jeans and a black tank top. He may have tattoos on his shoulder.

For additional information contact Northeast Homicide Detectives at (213) 847-4261 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (213) 847-4261 end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (213) 847-4261 end_of_the_skype_highlighting. You may text TIPLA plus your tip to 274637 (CRIMES) or call 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

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