Lake View: Happy Bears Brought Friends

Photo: Russell. Artist Philip Lumbang paints a mural on Lake View Ave. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Red Car Property neighbors, Amy and Russell invited artist Philip Lumbang to paint their retaining wall on Lake View Ave. It is Lumbang's first color mural. He also painted a mural on Corralitas Drive earlier this month.

Amy and Russell have received mostly positive feedback from their neighbors. Russell, who shot the video below, states in an email, "It's Silver Lake. There are reasons we live here instead of Encino."

Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract Campsite

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 17, 2009. One of two homeless encampments on the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract Lots. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

The developer was notified of the homeless encampments several times since last summer. He has allowed them to continue to this day. Perhaps the developer is just attempting to give the site historic value. Camping was one of the original uses outlined in the 1905, Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Association Articles of Incorporation.

The land was outside the City limits in 1905. Today, I'm pretty sure camping is not an approved land use in R1 zoned neighborhoods and definitely not without a Conditional Use Permit. Allowing these campsites to continue would seem a liability for the property owner, in the event of a campfire getting out of control and damaging adjacent hillside property.

City Council's Planning & Land Use Management Committee (PLUM) will revisit the plan to subdivide the 3 large lots into 16 lots in the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract on Tuesday, May 5, 2009.

California Black Walnuts Bearing Fruit

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 22, 2009. California Black Walnuts (Juglans californica) are starting to bear fruit on the Red Car Property. On March 3rd, they were just sprouting flowers. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

THEM!

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 22, 2009. Red ant on the Red Car Property near Adelbert. They are huge and might be fire ants.

UPDATE April 28, 2009: Thanks to Breadteam for pointing out these ants might just as well be native California Harvester Ants (Pogonomyrmex californicus), which have been competing with invasive black Argentine Ants (Linepithema humile).

Red Imported Fire Ants (Solenopsis invicta) are really nasty and you should not attempt to eradicate them yourself. California Dept. of Food & Agriculture has information on their website. Red Imported Fire Ants will aggressively defend their nest, if disturbed, with hundreds of ants swarming out of the colony and stinging the offender repeatedly, injecting venom with each sting.

Considering I inadvertently kicked the nest while walking, the week before I shot these photos, I am inclined to agree with the reader who corrected me that these are more likely to be native California Harvester Ants.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 22, 2009. Even after a few extremely dry days, the ants still had a lichen farm growing on the "north slope" of their nest. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

If you can help identify any plant, animal or bug we highlight here, please email us: redcarproperty@gmail.com.

Riverside & Fletcher: What's With The Blank Billboards?

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 24, 2009. The billboard above, used to be owned by CBS Media, it's ownership sign disappeared last summer. It's been blank for much of the past year. It's in City Council District 4. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 24, 2009. Similarly, the Clear Channel billboard is blank more often than it has advertising on it. A few weeks ago, they put up a black panel on the board. It's in City Council District 13. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 18, 2009. Riverside Drive is a Designated Scenic Highway in the Silver Lake - Echo Park - Elysian Valley Community Plan. Fletcher is not. Both billboards are on Fletcher. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Voracious Caterpillars Invading Red Car Neighborhood

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 24, 2009. A 4-inch long woolly caterpillar caught my eye from 30-feet away on the Red Car Property, "Lot C." (Click on photo to enlarge.)

These pink flowers are in bloom all over the Adelbert end of the Red Car Property. If you can help identify any plant or bug we highlight here, please email us: redcarproperty@gmail.com.

Red Car Property: Mystery Plant No More

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 24, 2009. Definitely a thistle above the Viaduct Footings. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Earlier this month, a mystery plant sprouted above the Viaduct Footings. A bunch of them also sprouted around the Heritage Coast Live Oak in the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract. Mystery solved: it appears to be a non-native and invasive, Milk Thistle (Silybum marianum). It is much larger than the Italian Thistle on the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' lower lot.

Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract: PLUM Hearing Postponed Again

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 17, 2009. This appears to be Italian Thistle at the entrance to the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract Lots from the lower portion of El Moran. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

City Council's Planning & Land Use Management Committee (PLUM) will revisit the plan to subdivide the 3 large lots into 16 lots in the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract on Tuesday May 5. It was originally scheduled for a hearing on April 28. The meeting was cancelled.

In February, the City Council sent the item back to City Planning for further review the environmental concerns. City Planning issued revisions to the environmental review of 2400 Allesandro, Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract: ENV-2005-9337.

PLUM Hearing
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
2PM
City Hall, Room 350
200 N. Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Council File #: CF 09-0082

Blackened Hillside Off Waverly & Fletcher

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 22, 2009. The entire neighborhood was lucky the winds were down for Tuesday's fire. If the Santa Anas had been up, as they were for the two previous days, it could have been a disaster for Silver Lake. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Happy Earth Day

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 17, 2009. The Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Lots were still green last Friday. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

A reader identified this grass as a form of Barley (Hordeum). Thank you for your guidance! I think it's Common Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)

If you can help identify any plant we highlight here, please email us: redcarproperty@gmail.com.

Grass Fire Between Fletcher & Waverly

Photo: Diane Edwardson, 11:34 AM, April 21, 2009. Between Waverly and Fletcher. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

In case you need another reminder to do your brush clearance. I was driving by before the LAFD got there. LAFD knocked it down in about 10 minutes. Ten minutes must have seemed like an eternity for the homeowners on Waverly.

Brush Clearance Info: http://www.lafd.org/brush/
Sign up for Red Flag Days notification: http://www.lafd.org/redflag/

Non-Native Beauty

Photo: Diane Edwardson, March 25, 2009. Nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus) are blooming all over the hills right now. They are non-native and highly invasive. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Leash = Freedom

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 11, 2009. Dogs love the Corralitas Red Car Property. Be a good neighbor. Always pick up after your dogs. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Stuff That Gets Stuck Up Your Dog's Nose

Photo: Diane Edwardson. April 7, 2009. The grass was just starting to dry out eleven days ago on the Corralitas Staircase. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 18, 2009. Today, the hills have completely dried and the seeds are everywhere, waiting to be snorted up your dog's nose, stuck in their ears or between their toes. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

UPDATE 4-22-09: Thanks to a reader for identifying this as Common Wild Oats (Avena fatua), a non-native invasive species.

Red Car Property Trail Marker

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 13, 2009. An 8-ft. tall bush of blue-purple flowers marks the pathway from Adelbert to the Red Car Property. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

UPDATE: April 28, 2009: A reader identifies this beautiful plant as another species of Deadly Nightshade, a highly toxic plant.

If you can help identify any plant we highlight here, please email us: redcarproperty@gmail.com.

More Flowers Above Viaduct Footings

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 10, 2009. If you look closely, there is quite a diversity of tiny wildflowers above the Viaduct Footings. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

If you can help identify any plant we highlight here, please email us: redcarproperty@gmail.com.

California Poppies Above Viaduct Footings

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 8, 2009. California Poppies are starting to bloom near Adelbert, above the Viaduct Footings. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Taxes Due? Take A Walk.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 8, 2009. The Meadow, Corralitas Red Car Property. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Another Mystery Plant Above Red Car Viaduct Footings

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 10, 2009. This plant says, "Don't touch." (Click on photo to enlarge.)

If you can help identify any plant we highlight here, please email us: redcarproperty@gmail.com.

Unique Flowers Above Viaduct Footings

Photo: Diane Edwardson, March 29, 2009. Perhaps this is some type of clover growing above the Viaduct Footings. These don't seem to grow elsewhere on the Red Car Property. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 9, 2009. Two weeks later, the clover, like the grass is drying up above the Riverside Fletcher intersection. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

UPDATE April 28, 2009: A reader confirms this is species of clover (Trifolium). Thank you!

If you can help identify any plant we highlight here, please email us: redcarproperty@gmail.com.

Happy Easter

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 10, 2009. Non-native Morning Glories glow in the dappled morning light near Adelbert. The 5 Freeway and Clearwater Street are in the background. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Happy Bears Invade Corralitas Drive

Photo: Diane Edwardson April 11, 2009. Shawnda and Randy have a new mural. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Red Car Property Neighbors Shawnda and Randy contracted with artist Philip Lumbang for his first legal mural. Lumbang's behind the friendly black and white bears popping up on walls all over the neighborhood. When Shawnda and Randy saw Lumbang's work on Allesandro recently, they knew what they wanted to do with their front wall.

A neighbor commented, "You know what this means don't you? Now the climbing fig will finally grow and cover up the happy bears."

Red Car Property: Not a Park. It Just Feels Like One.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 10, 2009. The Red Car Property is a well-used recreational trail. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Hope You've Got A Good Insurance Policy

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 10, 2009. Hope it doesn't rain much this weekend. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

See also: Adelbert Landslide Zone

Deadly Nightshade on Corralitas Staircase

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 8, 2009. Native Nightshade on Corralitas Staircase. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

POISON DO NOT EAT!

A reader correctly identified this plant from an earlier post. Nightshade (Solanum americanum) is listed as having major toxicity. It's an attractive, yet deadly native plant.

If you can help identify any plant we highlight here, please email us: redcarproperty@gmail.com.

Red Car Property: Adelbert Landslide Zone

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 9, 2009. Here we go again. There's always something happening on Lot C of the Red Car Property. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

This morning, I was surprised to discover significant grading of the most unstable slope on the Red Car Property. Since this is the infamous Lot C, where neighbors feel free to dig out the hillside at will, I snapped photos and made a few phone calls, after checking addresses of the homes above on Adelbert.

The crane operator said they were putting in caissons to stabilize the slope. According to the Building & Safety website, permits were granted to an Adelbert address, as well as 2129 W. Silver Lake Ave. (Lot C of the Red Car Property), for "proposed remedial repair of the surficial slope failure."

Photo; Diane Edwardson, May 2005. The same slope made homeowners nervous during record rainfall in 2005. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

This section of the Red Car Property is within the USGS identified Adelbert Landslide Zone. Photographic evidence of the crumbling slope dates back to 1904.

1959: Riverside Drive Red Car Viaduct

Photo: Mack, Herald Examiner, June 16, 1959. Two huge cranes dismantling the Red Car Trolley viaduct on Riverside Drive at Glendale Blvd. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

If you look closely at the above photo, you can see the Hyperion Bridge crossing the Los Angeles River in the background. The Red Car Trolleys had a separate bridge over the river. Today, the bridge footings are still in the river, just this side of the Hyperion Bridge. The rubble piles and trees to the right are where the 5 Freeway is today. The pile of rubble in the foreground is where the River Glen Apartments (owned by Sam Menlo) stand today.

The Riverside Viaduct, like the Fletcher Viaduct, was rebuilt in 1928 with steel to accommodate the paving of the area streets and increase in vehicle traffic. The previous viaducts were constructed of wood beams. The Pacific Electric Red Car Trolley Glendale Line was removed from service 1955. Both viaducts were dismantled in 1959 just prior to the start of area freeway construction.

There has been talk in LA River revitalization circles about possibly using the old Red Car Trolley bridge footings in the river as a base for a new bridge for non-motorized use (pedestrian, equestrian, bicycle).

Menlo Property: Former Red Car Trolley Right-of-Way

Photo: Donald Duke. Red Car Trolley pulling away from the Monte Sano stop heading to Los Angeles. Griffith Park is the hill in the background. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Last night's Silver Lake Neighborhood Council's Urban Design & Preservation Advisory Committee (SLNC UD&PAC) heard from Sam Menlo's representatives and community members regarding the proposed 120 unit condo development.

Significant issues regarding grading were brought up, including discussion regarding toxins associated with former railways. This issue came up with earlier Corralitas Red Car Property (south of Fletcher) development applications. There had been discussion some 17 years ago, about a Pacific Electric maintenance track near Monte Sano. Further research is necessary and will be the subject of a future post.

In the meantime, it's a good excuse to run this great photo (above) by Donald Duke. The Monte Sano stop was the last stop at Glendale Blvd. and Riverside Drive before the Glendale-Burbank Line crossed Riverside Drive on the Glendale Viaduct and continued across the LA River. Monte Sano was an osteopathic hospital and sanitarium at the corner of Waverly and Glendale Blvd, directly above the Red Car Tracks.

The Menlo Property was a private right of way for Pacific Electric.

SLNC UD&PAC will revisit the Menlo Property with suggested mitigations for the 120 unit condo development at their next meeting on Wednesday, May 13, 2009.

UPDATE May 8, 2009: SLNC UD&PAC will not have Menlo Property on the agenda on May 13. The committee will instead attend the Hillside Code Amendment Meeting in Glassell Park.

Menlo Property: Political No Man's Land

Photo: Tom LaBonge, undated, but between 1962 and 1987. Menlo Property is on Riverside Drive, between Fletcher Dr. and Glendale Blvd. (Click on photo to enlarge.)


Since removal of the Red Car Trolley tracks in the late 1950's, it seems no politician wants to be too closely associated with the stretch of Riverside Drive between Glendale Blvd and Fletcher Drive. It's been 22 years and 5 City Councilmembers since the River Glen Apartments were first approved in 1987. The Menlo Property and River Glen Apartments have a front row seat for the 5 Freeway.


The property started out in Councilmember John Ferraro's district. By 1991, court-ordered redistricting put the land in CD13. Mike Woo was CD13's City Councilmember running for mayor. By 1991, the developer, Hal Klein, Hartwood Development, Inc., abandoned the project and it fell into foreclosure.


In an LA Times column, July 25, 1991, Doug Smith reported on the blight at the Riverside Drive project that had been worsening for 18 months. Mike Woo's office failed to do more than pass residents' complaints on to Building & Safety. Since the area had been downzoned since the original approval, Smith called on Woo to use leverage "to demand the wall come down and that a new plan use imagination in place of brute engineering to fit the development onto the hillside." Photo: Maryann Kuk, April 25, 2000. Deteriorating black plastic covered the slope behind the Menlo Wall. (Click on photo to enlarge.)


Menlo acquired the property in 1992 from First Interstate Bank. By 1993, Jackie Goldberg was CD13's City Councilmember. According to an October 20, 1993 Los Angeles Independent story by Lee Condon, the City Planning Commission failed to recognize Goldberg's request for a continuance of Menlo's request for an extension of the approvals for 93 units. Goldberg's deputy made the request in person at the hearing, not in writing. Goldberg wanted time to renegotiate design issues to make a more community friendly development. Goldberg was the first politician to recognize the earlier proposed prison-like walls would continue to attract graffiti and blight.


By 1998, Building & Safety issued another Order to Comply to restore the hillside since the approvals for grading had expired. Two years later, Goldberg asked the City Attorney to investigate filing a criminal complaint against Menlo for the derelict and deteriorating site (see: Menlo Property: The Pattern of Neglect). Unfortunately, for the better part of a year, CD13 had no representation at City Council, as Goldberg went to the State Assembly.


In 2001, Eric Garcetti took over CD13 as City Councilmember. A year later, redistricting put the Menlo Property back in CD4, now represented by Tom LaBonge. By then, the slope restoration ordered by the Building & Safety Commission was under way.Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 1, 2007. A restored and landscaped slope on the Menlo Property still attracted graffiti, dumping and homeless. (Click on photo to enlarge.)


When the slope restoration was completed, this stretch of Riverside was now besieged by meth-addicted homeless, transients living in motor homes and even more frequent dumping of trash and furniture. While this was nothing new, the highest concentration was on Riverside between Glendale Blvd & Fletcher Dr.


Throughout the 1980's and 1990's the "motor homeless had been pushed off of Los Feliz Blvd. and Riverside north of Glendale Blvd. by "No Overnight Parking" districts. So by 2007, when CD4 asked the SLNC UD&PAC to support a similar district in front of the Menlo Property, it was a sign another development application from Menlo was coming. (The SLNC UD&PAC requested all of Riverside Drive between Los Feliz and the confluence of the LA River at Oros Street be included in the parking district so it didn't just push the problem onto the Red Car Property neighborhood, south of Fletcher.)


Tues April 7, 2009: Menlo's Representatives will present plans for 120 condo units on the Menlo Property to Silver Lake Neighborhood Council.


See also: Legacy of Failed Development.

Menlo Property: The Pattern of Neglect

Photo: Maryann Kuk, April 25, 2000. Menlo Property on Riverside Drive adjacent to the River Glen Apartments: sidewalk closed for more than 12 years. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

The Menlo Property was the ultimate "broken window" in the Silver Lake Community for over decade. In 1991, Building & Safety and the LA Times reported conditions of the abandoned site as unsafe and unsecured; a half finished retaining wall looming over the sidewalk with steel rebar poking out of the hillside; eroding black plastic covering piles of earth. Building & Safety reports dated from 1996 to 2001, state conditions remained unchanged since 1990.

Sam Menlo purchased the property and the River Glen Apartments in 1992. He allowed the site to remain in it's abandoned and deteriorating condition for a decade.

The sidewalk was closed to the public in a half-assed manner (see above photo). Homeless took up residence behind the barricades. Dumping was routine. Graffiti vandals constantly tagged the concrete and plywood barriers as well as the degrading black plastic. Plastic freeway barricades became festering cesspools of mosquito larvae.
Photo: Maryann Kuk, April 25, 2000. Freeway-type barricades allowed to fill with rainwater and became mosquito breeding grounds. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Silver Lake Residents' Association (SLRA) as well as residents of Waverly (directly above the property) held a meeting in September 1993 to review Menlo's development plans. They did not vary from the earlier proposed 900-foot long by 30-foot high retaining wall, topped with a 35-foot high stucco box of apartments.

Menlo ignored SLRA's and neighbors' pleas to at least clean up the site until he was ready to build. In 1996, Menlo submitted another soils report and nothing seems to have come of it. In 1998, Building & Safety's Grading Division notified Menlo that his grading permits had expired, issued an Order to Comply to restore the slope to its original condition.
Photo; Maryann Kuk, April 25, 2000. Homeless encampment using the steel rebar for support next to the giant retaining wall. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

The Building & Safety file reads like a broken record. Orders to Comply and deadlines set by Building & Safety were ignored by Menlo; letters from neighbors and SLRA asking Building & Safety and the City Attorney to take action. Menlo appealed Orders to Comply but then never followed up with new grading plans as required by Building & Safety.

After years of dedicated phone calls from SLRA boardmembers getting nowhere with Building & Safety, City Councilmember Jackie Goldberg asked the City Attorney to take action. One SLRA boardmember threw her hands up in disgust with the bureaucracy and walked away after logging 40 hours of phone calls to the powers-that-be on the Menlo Property.
Photo: Maryann Kuk, April 25, 2000. Plastic covered slopes were a magnet for graffiti vandals. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

After two more years of phone calls, meetings and hearings and the threat of criminal prosecution by the City Attorney, September 13, 2000, the Building & Safety Commission denied Menlo's last appeal "with prejudice," and ordered him to restore the slope. Judging by letters in the SLRA file, Menlo appears to have finally begun work on the slope restoration in 2001.

Tues April 7, 2009: Menlo's Representatives will present plans for 120 condo units on the Menlo Property to Silver Lake Neighborhood Council.

See also: Legacy of Failed Development.

Coming Tomorrow: "Menlo Property: Political No-Man's Land."

120 Units Proposed for Menlo Property, But The Wall Will Not Come Down

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 1, 2007. The Menlo Property, Riverside Drive north of Fletcher. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Sam Menlo, convicted slumlord, submitted an application to build 120 condo units on his Riverside Drive property north of Fletcher. It's being handled by City Planning's Expedited Case Unit. Representatives of Menlo's Century Quality Management will present plans to Silver Lake Neighborhood Council's Urban Design & Preservation Advisory Committee (SLNC UD&PAC) at their next meeting:

Tuesday April 7, 2009
6:30PM
SLNC Office
2898 Rowena Ave. #101
Los Angeles, 90039

Remarkably, Menlo has no intention of removing the giant retaining wall towering above pedestrians on Riverside Drive. Instead, the wall will remain as is, along with the compacted slope behind it as "open space."
Photo: Maryann Kuk, April 25, 2000. Menlo Property on Riverside Drive north of Fletcher, note the steel rebar sticking out of the ground on the far end of the half-finished retaining wall. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Since the mid-1980's, what's become known as the Menlo Property on Riverside Drive north of Fletcher has been controversial. The history is almost as long as the Red Car Property's (south of Fletcher). Over the next week, we'll look at the highlights of the past 20+ years.

According to the City's Department of Building & Safety files on the property, in 1987, Hartwood Development Inc. secured grading and building permits to build 288 apartment units in three buildings on Riverside Drive between Fletcher and Glendale Blvd. Construction began on the River Glen Apartments closer to Glendale Blvd soon thereafter.

The second phase was closer to Fletcher, and was to include a 900-foot long, approximately 30-foot high retaining wall, built right up against the sidewalk. Atop the retaining wall would sit a 35-foot high apartment building. Letters from neighbors and Silver Lake Residents Association meeting notes describe the proposed wall and structure as prison-like.

Work soon began on the wall which remained half finished for more than a decade. A Building & Safety report dated July 20, 2000, talks about exposed rebar, mountains of plastic-covered uncompacted fill dirt and an unsecured site remaining unchanged from a report dated February 21, 1991.

Menlo acquired the property in 1992. Throughout the 1990's, Menlo kept saying he would build the approved plan, even though the approvals had expired. For years, Menlo ignored the Orders to Comply issued by Building & Safety to restore the slope to its original condition.

Coming tomorrow: graffiti-covered black plastic slopes and neighborhood activism.
See also: Legacy of Failed Development

Where Does Your Gardener Toss Your Tree Clippings?

Photo: Diane Edwardson, March 22, 2009. Lake View Ave. house backs up into Red Car Canyon. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

For years, either the homeowners or their gardener tossed yard waste and tree trimmings over the back fence of this Lake View Ave. house, onto the Red Car Property.

UPDATE 5-5-09: The pile of clippings was removed. Unfortunately, the graffiti has not yet been painted over.

This is not only an eyesore, it is a FIRE HAZARD! It is not an acceptable way to dispose of yard waste. That's what the green trash bins are for. It also attracted graffiti vandals, further enhancing the "broken window effect."

LAPD Chief Bratton encourages neighborhoods to fix the "broken windows," like graffiti and dumping that attract further unwelcome uses.

Last year, when the City contracted for massive tree trimming in the overgrown Red Car Canyon, they hauled the pile behind the above house away. The pile has been growing recently, as it looks like the homeowner had the trees trimmed. With the current City budget crisis, I would not expect the City to remove the pile again.

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, March 30, 2009. Even while neatly stacked, the piles of dry brush in Red Car Canyon are a fire hazard.(Click on photo to enlarge.)

Considering the canyon is a prime party spot, every homeowner should take a look over their fence to see how they can make the neighborhood safer. Paint over graffiti and dispose of yard waste properly. Have some respect for your neighbors.

LAFD sent out their guide for brush clearance in hillside neighborhoods. You can also access info on http://www.lafd.org/brush/.

Look Behind Your Back Fence

Photo: Diane Edwardson, March 21, 2009. Graffiti vandals hit this fence of a Riverside Place house a few weeks ago, and the tagging is still there. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

If your property backs up to the Red Car Property, take a look behind your back fence. The stretch between India and Rose Scharlin Preschool has been hit by graffiti vandals. The area has also been attracting more late night parties than usual. LAPD recommends painting over graffiti quickly so you don't become a "attractive nuisance." You are responsible for painting over graffiti on your property.

Party Remnants Behind Rose Scharlin Preschool

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, March 30, 2009. For late night party-goers, it was just to far to walk to the trash can, 50-feet away, behind Rose Scharlin Preschool. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Just as we finally got the couch picked up, neighbors report a party raging on the Red Car Property from 1 to 6 AM, Sunday. A Riverside Place neighbor called the LAPD around 5 AM. But LAPD Dispatch lost interest when the neighbor said it was on private property and tried to give the police directions to get here.

For many years, LAPD Senior Lead Officer (SLO) Al Polehonki has attempted to persuade a series of Red Car Property owners to install parking gates on the property. The majority of problems stem from people driving onto the property. Instead, the current owner threatens to fence off the entire property.

Officer Polehonki believes fencing the entire site off would only prevent people from using the property as they use it now, like a park. So many people use the property as a recreational trail, it helps prevent illicit uses and homeless encampments. Fences don't keep bad guys out. Fences just keep people who respect fences out.

Photo: Jonathan Vandiveer, March 30, 2009. Neighbors often clean up the condoms and other party remnants just to keep from attracting more problems to the Red Car Property. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

When you call the police for parties on the Red Car Property, give them directions on how to get there. Rampart often covers Northeast police calls, and Rampart officers do not know the neighborhood. The property is over a mile long, so get to know your directions.

As the weather dries out, it also helps to mention this is a hillside neighborhood and (as is often the case) the brush has not yet been cleared on the property. And, always say your SLO told you to call it in. LAPD budgets their resources by the number of calls they get in the area. The LAPD won't know something is happening here, unless you call it in.

No April Fool's Joke: Blue Fiesta Flowers Discovered on Red Car Property

Photo: Diane Edwardson, March 29, 2009. Blue Fiesta Flowers on Red Car Property near Adelbert. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

In nearly twenty years of hiking the neighborhood, I noticed the native Blue Fiesta Flowers (Pholistoma auritum) only seemed to grow in the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract; not on the Red Car Property. Last weekend, I noticed a small patch of the distinctive blue-purple flower near the foot-path cut up to Adelbert from the Red Car Property.

The Adelbert end of the Red Car Property is damp and shady for half the year, similar to areas in the Semi Tropic Tract where Blue Fiesta Flowers thrive. perhaps those Velcro-like seeds hitched a ride on a coyote from the Semi Tropic Spiritualists' Tract and gained a foothold near Adelbert.
Photo: Diane Edwardson March 21, 2009. Not a Blue Fiesta Flower, near Adelbert on the Red Car Property. (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Blue Fiesta Flowers should not be confused with the above purple pinwheel-shaped flower growing all over the Adelbert end of the Red Car Property. This is a groundcover, non-native plant you can buy at any nursery. It is a likely escapee from a nearby yard that enjoys the same shady, damp conditions the Blue Fiesta Flower prefers.