Community Festival In The Village!

Come out and support local businesses! Eat, Shop, Play Crenshaw is hosting a community festival in Leimert Park Village on Saturday, Mar. 21. The free event will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will feature food, live music, art and fun activities for the whole family.

For those hoping to ride the bus to Leimert Park, please note that some buses in the area will be on detour due to construction of the Crenshaw/LAX Line. Metro Rapid 740, 705 and 710 will be on detour via Arlington Avenue.  Metro Bus 40, 105 and 210 will continue to serve the Leimert Park area via 43rd Street. For trip planning, visit metro.net. There is also parking in the area along Leimert Boulevard, 43rd Street and surrounding side streets.

Courtesy of The Source

Neighborhood Meetings, Save The Date!!

SPECIAL MEETING — PLANNING, LAND USE &

BEAUTIFICATION COMMITTEE

TUESDAY January 27, 2015, 6:30 – 8:30 pm

Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza – Community Room

3650 W. Martin Luther King Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008

Join Metro and Walsh-Shea Corridor Constructors
at the Construction Update Community Meeting

Learn about upcoming construction activities

Wednesday, January 28, 2015
6pm to 7:30pm

Crenshaw United Methodist Church
3740 Don Felipe Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90008

Parking is available in the adjacent parking lot.
Signage will direct people to the meeting room (Wesley Hall).

To RSVP or ask questions, please call (213) 922-2736 or emailcrenshawcorridor@metro.net.

For direction and information taking public transit call 323.GO.METRO (323) 466.3876

Street closures are noted on the Neighborhood Council website: http://www.ecwandc.org

EMPOWERMENT CONGRESS WEST TOWN HALL MEETING

Saturday February 7, 2015

Crenshaw United Methodist Church

3740 Don Felipe Drive , Los Angeles 90008

 

More Info on Empowerment Congress West Area Website

Upcoming Neighborhood Meetings, Save The Date!

Empowerment Congress West Area

Neighborhood Development Council

A Certified City of Los Angeles Neighborhood Council

Serving the communities of: Arlington Park, Baldwin Hills Estates,

Baldwin Village, Baldwin Hills Village Garden Homes, Baldwin Vista,

Cameo Woods, Crenshaw Manor, Leimert Park & Village Green

ALL MEETINGS ARE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

SPECIAL MEETING — PLANNING, LAND USE &

BEAUTIFICATION COMMITTEE

TUESDAY January 27, 2015, 6:30 – 8:30 pm

Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza – Community Room

3650 W. Martin Luther King Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90008

Please join Council District 10, the Pacific American Volunteer Association (PAVA),

Community Build, and LAPD

for the MLK Day of Service Community Clean-up

SATURDAY January 17, 2015 / 8:00 am

Meet at the Vision Theater Parking Lot

4304 Degnan Avenue, Los Angeles 90008

30th Annual King Day Parade
11:00 am

*wave to members of the Empowerment Congress West Board!*
Monday January 19, 2015

– also –

Leimert Park Village People Street Urban Farm Lab

It’s A Day of Service!  

Bring your gloves, tools or something for volunteer workers to eat or drink.

More info: www.leimertparkvillage.org

– also –

Council District 8 Kingdom Day Festival

11:00 am – 5:00 pm

Crenshaw Blvd, between Vernon & 48th

(Please see attachment)

—

Assemblymember Sebastian Ridley-Thomas’

California Budget Priorities Forum
Saturday January 24, 2015
8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Dorsey High School Math/Science/Technology Magnet
3537 Farmdale Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90016

Find out what the budget means to you at the forum via thought-provoking discussion

of important local issues and the fiscal impact of Governor Brown’s proposed 2015-2016 State Budget.

Lunch will be provided.

Join Metro and Walsh-Shea Corridor Constructors 
at the Construction Update Community Meeting

Learn about upcoming construction activities

Wednesday, January 28, 2015
6pm to 7:30pm

Crenshaw United Methodist Church
3740 Don Felipe Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90008

Parking is available in the adjacent parking lot.
Signage will direct people to the meeting room (Wesley Hall).

To RSVP or ask questions, please call (213) 922-2736 or email crenshawcorridor@metro.net.

For direction and information taking public transit call 323.GO.METRO (323) 466.3876

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More on Upcoming Events

Leimert Park Is Getting a Parklet…..?

So If you’ve noticed, the eastern edge of 43rd Place  between Degnan and Leimert Blvd it’s has blocked for the upcoming Leimert Parklet.  From what I have seen from the plans a parklet seems to be a street turned pedestrian plaza, bordered by large potted plants and includes seating spread-out throughout the plaza, however People St describes a parklet as an expansion of the sidewalk into one or more street parking spaces to create people-oriented places.  This project is headed up by a program called People St which is made up of the Los Angeles City Department of Transportation in collaboration with LA City Department of Public Works an City Planning, The Mayors Office, and Metro.  Leimert’s Parklet is supposedly finishing up the design aspect of the project and finalizing construction documentation for their sites, and conducting further community engagement. Tentative installation for these parklets is projected after Summer, 2015

Leimert Park Village Parklet

CicLAvia Visits SouthLA

NO CARS ALLOWED. CicLAvia is the event that shuts down different streets around LA in support of any other transportation other than cars, ideally bikes but open to feet, skateboards, rollerskates, scooters, etc.   December 7’s CicLAvia South LA will mark the furthest southern CiciLAvia.   The LA event, which shuts down streets to cars and opens them up to other forms of transportation allows LA to slow down for and take in the many things so quickly pass in our cars.  The event also allows the community to showcase business along the routes choosen for the event.  The route will travel six miles from a Leimert Park Village hub down Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to a northern and southern hub along Central Ave.

CicLAvia is Coming South!

CicLAvia

National BLACK OUT September 8!

African American life is obviously being expressed as something America can do without or holds no value, lets show America just how valuable we are. We need to continue to bond together and fight in numbers and Monday September 8th, TOMORROW, will be another chance to tell America its time to cut the crap, not only are we here but we belong here!

**KEEP CRENSHAW LUSH** Public Works Meeting Friday!

IF YOU LIVE IN, WORK OR TAKE PRIDE IN CRENSHAW BLVD – IT’S TIME TO SPEAK UP AND PROTECT OUR COMMUNITY!

Board of Public Works Meeting Friday April 11 9:30am

DID YOU KNOW:

·        Crenshaw Blvd is considered a scenic highway from Coliseum to Slauson Avenue!

·        MTA is seeking a permit from the City of Los Angeles Board of Public Works to cut down 98 trees on Crenshaw between Exposition and 48th Street in the upcoming week and an additional 56 trees on Crenshaw between 48th and 67th street later.

·        This represents a loss of more than 30% of the trees on Crenshaw Blvd between Exposition and 67th for the next 5 years

·        The Space Shuttle agreement replaced every tree removed with 4 new 36 inch box trees

·        MTA is only offering 2 trees 24 inch box trees for every tree lost

·        More than 3 miles of landscaped medians will be destroyed and not replaced

·        According to the US Department of Agriculture, South Los Angeles ranks the worst in the City of Los Angeles in terms of tree canopy cover.

·        Council Districts 8 and 9 with 10.7% and 7.5% of tree canopy cover are far below the city’s Council District average of 20.8%.

·        We can’t wait five years for replacement trees to address the environmental and economic impact of losing these trees!

Miracle Mile says they want not-a-one of there trees for the Purple Line Extention, KEEP CRENSHAW LUSH

Joint Task Force:

The Joint Empowerment Congress West Area and Park Mesa Heights Neighborhood Council Task Forces was formed to address the removal of trees to accommodate the transport of the space shuttle endeavor by the California Science Center in 2012.  The task force was successful in entering into an agreement with the California Science Center for the planting of 4 trees for every tree removed along with 1,000 linear feet of sidewalk repair among many other community benefits. The taskforce has been meeting with MTA and the City of Los Angeles in an effort to reach an agreement on possible mitigations.  No agreement has been reached at this time.

 

Related News Articles:

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-trees-crenshaw-metro-rail-20140402,0,1152063.story#axzz2xlfYAuLL

From today’s LA Times … Tree removal along Crenshaw has residents stumped To clear the way for the Endeavour, 71 mature trees were chopped down. Now more will be removed for the Crenshaw/LAX subway line. http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-crenshaw-trees-20140331,0,2530505.story

Trees to be removed for Crenshaw/LAX Line along Crenshaw Boulevard

 

County Fails To Enforce Federal Hiring Quotas

Words from Damien Goodmon

Folks –

See the article in this week’s Wave Newspaper below highlighting gross non-compliance on county construction projects receiving federal dollars. Black contractors, black workers and women have been cut out of work despite federal laws requiring their participation. I had the opportunity to participate in the meeting with Ms. Pleasant referenced in the article, and first a hat tip to the NAACP, NAEJA and YBCA leaders for being on this issue. The extensiveness of the documentation is impressive and disturbing.

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas has been touting the local hire record at the MLK Hospital, which is to be commended. However, the reality is, the bulk of county money is being spent on hundreds of projects elsewhere – everything from sidewalks to courthouses. And the record outside the MLK Hospital complex based on the information I viewed and Ms. Pleasant reported on is abysmal. There are laws that are being broken, and the advocates on this issue have apparently been unable to get even a meeting with Supervisor, let alone agreement to champion enforcement of said laws.

Just like the Crenshaw Line project is being touted as this major job creator. “Thousands of jobs” is the claim of many politicians. The reality is at most the project will employ 250-300 construction workers at any one point. Do the math: if one out of every 3 of those workers is black that is just 83-100 jobs. Far more than 100 jobs will be lost from the 4-5 year long  street-level and cut-and-cover construction period and even more economic loss will occur long-term from the street-level design in Park Mesa Heights.

These are just the facts and intended to help provide a full perspective so that you can hold your politicians on the LA County and MTA board accountable.

Yours In the Struggle,

Damien Goodmon

Crenshaw Subway Coalition

The Wave’s Article 

Leimert Park Station

There is a Major victory happening in Leimart Park… The Leimert Park Station has been approved  (that I have not yet shed much  light upon)!  Now-  the next step is preserving the community, and keeping its cultural heritage untouched. According to the Crenshaw Subway Coalition’s website, which gives upcoming news and updates regarding the status of the upcoming Crenshaw Line; in a 10-1 vote, the body approved the budget that adds Leimert Park as a station in association with the Crenshaw-LAX Line.  This is a historic moment for the area of Leimert Park and for our cause, (which dates back to 2008), and it was possible because of all of  you.  So we send this message as a special thank you to everyone that signed the petitions being circulated circa fall of 2009, attending the May 2011 board meeting, giving generously when it was needed the most, canvassing, phone banking, and above all marching.  You all had confidence in our leadership and believed us when we said this battle must be fought and could be won. You have helped deliver a station at the center of an African-American cultural region. This is only the beginning of rebuilding of our efficacy.

Subway Thru Leimert Park Village

Crenshaw Subway Coalition Meeting March 4th

Crenshaw Subway Coalition Community Meeting

Tuesday, March 4, 2014 6:30 – 8:30 PM

Christ Temple Church Cathedral

3125 54th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90043

(2 blocks east of Crenshaw)

TOPICS:

Status of Our Lawsuit & Political Efforts to Force MTA to Underground the Line in Park Mesa Heights

Critical Town Hall on Eminent Domain with Noted Property Rights Attorney Robert Silverstein

The first Crenshaw Subway Coalition community meeting of 2014 – it will be an important one. In addition to an update on our progress to underground the line through our lawsuit in the federal courts (the status hearing for Feb 20 was taken off calendar) and by pressuring the Metro Board, we will have a special guest, Robert Silverstein, one of the most respected property rights attorneys in California, to discuss MTA’s eminent domain abuses along the Crenshaw Line.

The link to the meeting and to download the flyer