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Photo: Gary Vlahakis, May 16, 2013. The 2 Red Tailed Hawk babies in the nest (80 feet above the corner of Allesandro St & Rosebud Ave) in the 2 Freeway parkway are growing fast, have a variety of prey deposited by the adults. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
Photo: Diane Edwardson, March 6, 2013.
Tuesday, voters in chose Mitch O'Farrell, the local candidate with 32 years of experience living & working in the community as their next City Councilmember.
Read More:
The high price of buying your vote: The Eastsider
Mitch O'Farrell beats the candidate from nowhere: LA Weekly
Mitch O'Farrell wins Council District 13 run-off: Silver Lake Echo Park Patch
Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 10, 2013. Gopher, most likely killed by cat on Corralitas Drive. (click on photo to enlarge.)
Don't let the special interests win. Special interests win by spending exorbitant amounts of money on negative campaigns so people get fed up & don't bother voting.
Follow the money: City Ethics Dept website. Pay attention to not just the amount of money City Council candidates raised, but the "independent expenditures," both for & against candidates.
Not sure where your polling place is: LA County Registrar of Voters
If you have an absentee ballot that you have not mailed in, DO NOT MAIL IT IN TODAY. Fill it out and bring it in to any LA City polling place today.
Polls are open 7AM- 8PM
TODAY, Tues: May 21, 2013.
Today's City Election info: Los Angeles City Clerk
Community Residents' Association for Parks is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and cannot endorse political candidates.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 29, 2013. A long City election season left voters feeling like a flat rat on Corralitas Drive. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
Don't let the special interests win. Special interests win by spending exorbitant amounts of money on negative campaigns so people get fed up & don't bother voting. For months, Our neighborhood has been under siege by a barrage of campaign mail flooding our mailboxes in what seems like a never-ending torrent of crap, endless phone calls & precinct walkers (yes, I've been one of them).
In City Council District 13 (CD13), we've gone from 12 City Council candidates to 2. Pick one.
Follow the money: City Ethics Dept website. Pay attention to not just the amount of money City Council candidates for CD13 raised, but the "independent expenditures," both for & against candidates. The "against" candidate expenditures are a sneaky way of hiding even more money spent to benefit the candidate they're actually supporting.
If you live on any of the immediately adjacent streets to the Red Car Property we talk about regularly (Corralitas Drive, Riverside Place, Riverside Terrace, India, Adelbert, Silver Lake Ave, Lake View Ave, Silver Ridge Ave) you vote at Allesandro Elementary School Auditorium.
Not sure where your polling place is: LA County Registrar of Voters
If you have an absentee ballot that you have not mailed in, DO NOT mail it in. Fill it out and bring it in to any LA City polling place TUESDAY MAY 21. See the County Registrar of Voters for more information.
Polls are open 7AM- 8PM.
City Election info: Los Angeles City Clerk
Community Residents' Association for Parks is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and cannot endorse candidates for public office.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 13, 2013. The secret to walking big public staircases is to not look up. If you look up it's all over. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
The Big Parade is May 18-19, 2013. More info: http://bigparadela.tumblr.com/
Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 7, 2013. Despite their poor condition, public staircases still serve as vital pedestrian connections within hillside communities, 100 years or so after their original construction. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
The Corralitas Public Staircase is #16 in most need of repairs on the 2003, Citywide list of 222 public staircases. The list was spearheaded by City Council candidate Mitch O'Farrell while working as deputy for City Councilmember Eric Garcetti in CD13.
Unfortunately, even during the real estate boom years, when the City was flush with money, there was no money allocated within the City budget for public staircase repair & maintenance. The City places responsibility for maintenance on the adjacent property owners, as they do with sidewalks. It seems a bit onerous since there are larger grading & structural issues with public staircases, than with ordinary sidewalks in front of people's homes.
The Big Parade is May 18-19, 2013.
Click here for all our Big Parade related posts.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 13, 2013. Gigantic eyes, spiky legs, muscular shoulders, it's almost a MOTHRA! (Click on photos to enlarge.)
It's a White Lined Sphinx Moth, a common species in the Los Angeles Basin according to the LA County Natural History Museum (NHM). NHM is inviting the public to submit photos of wildlife, birds, reptiles & insects they find in their backyards & neighborhoods for an ongoing survey of Los Angeles urban wildlife & exhibit opening June 8 at NHM in Exposition Park.
Submit your photos to the NHM "LA Nature Map:" iNaturalist.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 13, 2013. A neighbor called me to shoot photos when the 3" Mothra paid a visit yesterday morning.
We've written about White Lined Sphinx Moths in the past. Read more.
See Also:
What's That Bug?
BugGuide
iNaturalist
Photo: Diane Edwardson, September 9, 2012. The Cove Public Staircase was cut off by construction of the 2 Freeway in 1960. There used to be a bridge crossing the "Allesandro Cut" for the Red Car Trolley connecting Silver Lake with Echo Park. (Click on photos to enlarge.)
The Big Parade is a FREE, 2 day, 100+ public staircase hike from Downtown to the Hollywood Sign - next weekend - May 18 & 19, 2013, with a warm-up Mt Washington hike on Friday May 17. More routes, timetables, more info: http://bigparadela.tumblr.com/
Photo: Diane Edwardson, September 9, 2012. Of course the signage on the Silver Lake side of the Cove Public Staircase is really confusing, only indicating "Cove Way" as the staircase.
Click here for all our Big Parade related posts.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 9, 2013. Do you see the last 5 inches of a pencil thin baby Gopher Snake speeding into the dry brush? (Clicking on photo won't make it much better)
This evening, while walking the dog, we spotted a tiny little gopher snake sitting on the curb. When my dog approached it sped off into the grass just as I got one quick shot with my phone. I'd never seen such a tiny foot-long snake.
This is the same section of the hill where another neighbor found a Ring-Necked Snake.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, 2004. Since the shopping center housing Ralph's started kicking out their tenants last year, there's been a lot more room in their parking lot. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
After much speculation, The Eastsider broke the news today, Whole Foods is moving into the Ralph's space on Glendale Blvd.
Photo: Diane Edwardson, May 5, 2013. A nearby homeowner took drastic steps to protect the defensive landscaping planted on the Red Car Property from agave vandals. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
Vandals have been cutting off the "leaves" of the spiky agaves for about a year. They've cut off so many that they are killing the plants. A nearby homeowner even does the weeding by hand around the dangerous plants so overzealous City crews won't bulldoze the specimen plants, planted to cut down on the illicit nighttime activity on that part of the Red Car Property.
How bad is it when you have to defend the defensive landscaping?
Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 7, 2013. "Foxtail" is the generic label attached to all the weed seeds easily snorted up dogs noses, that usually have to be removed under anesthesia. Several species evolved seeds, camouflaged as bugs, encouraging birds to eat them and propagate the species elsewhere, after passing through the birds digestive tract. (Click on photo to enlarge.)
We're tracking rainfall totals collected in the Corralitas Drive rain gauge...
*UPDATED
May 6 - 7, 2013: 0.7" 1.1"
Season to Date: 7.45" 7.85"
