Corralitas Drive: Ghosts of Halloween Past

Photo: Diane Edwardson, 1995, Corralitas Drive.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, 1997, Corralitas Drive.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, 2015, Corralitas Drive.

Rose Scharlin Nursery School: Hullabaloo Saturday October 28, 2017

Rose Scharlin Co-op Nursery School is a Red Car Property neighbor since 1946.  They're hosting their annual children's Halloween Party Saturday, October 28, 2017, 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM. 

According to the flyer and their outreach to the neighborhood, the school will secure a "no parking/loading zone" directly in front of the school for the day of the party.  There is NO PARKING on the Red Car Property.  The school did the same thing for the past couple of years.  According to neighbors, it is a better system than the mayhem that used to ensue from the parking situation on Lake View and the Red Car Property.  (The Red Car Property is not a park, nor a public roadway.  It is private property.)

Please remember to SLOW DOWN while driving the neighborhood as there will be many more children than usual on the neighborhood streets.

If you live within walking distance of Rose Scharlin and have children in heading for preschool in the coming years, we strongly encourage you to consider sending your kids to Rose Scharlin. Until the 2000's, it was a true neighborhood nursery school, with only a few parents dropping off kids by car.  We'd like to see a majority of neighbors join the Rose Scharlin Family again.

After a lapse of 28 years, the school secured their Conditional Use Permit for Rose Scharlin.  It was issued by City Planning February 1, 2017.

Red Car Property: Undead, Undead, Undead, Undead

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 8, 2016.  Happy Halloween.  The Former most beautiful California Black Walnut Tree on the Red Car Property at the Adelbert cut-thru is not dead yet.

Corralitas Drive: Practicing For Halloween

Photo: Corralitas Neighbor, October 24, 2016.   Just a reminder, slow down while driving our hillside streets.  There are children, animals and people who may not be able to move quickly in the roadway.  Keep your kids and animals inside and, or on a leash this weekend.  Expect lots of revelry for the holidays.

Please show some respect for your neighbors if you are hosting a party.  Turn the noise down after 10PM, not everyone shares your taste in music.  The hills are notorious for the "canyon effect" of sound bouncing around and being louder across a canyon than right next door.  

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 11, 2016.  Parking is limited to one side of the street on most of our area streets.  Encourage your guests to use a ride sharing or taxi service and ensure they park legally (not on the Red Car Property, red curb, wrong side of the street nor blocking your neighbors' driveways).

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 7, 2016.  Not a pretty opossum: mangy, lumpy and limpy.  

Don't encourage unwanted guests at your party.  If your party is outdoors, be sure to clean up all food trash the same night, or the rats, skunks, opossum, raccoons and coyotes will make a bigger mess of your yard than you left it the night before.  And they will keep returning, looking for more.

Have a safe and sane Halloween and Dia de los Muertos.

Silver Ridge: Trick or Treat?!

Photo: Joan Stevenson, October 30, 2015.  Slow down while driving the neighborhood.  Little ones are enjoying the holiday.  

This week, we've been celebrating Halloween in our Red Car Neighborhood way.

Corralitas Drive: Happy Halloween

Photo: Diane Edwardson, September 23, 2015.  Don't get stuck.

If you're hosting a party, be considerate of your neighbors.  The "canyon effect" amplifies sound as it bounces around the hills in quirky ways.  Turn the volume down.  If your guests have to shout over the music to converse, your neighbors are likely none too happy about the party.

This week we've been celebrating Halloween in our Red Car Neighborhood way.

Corralitas Drive: No, A Graveyard Is Not Allowed Under R2 Zoning

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 10, 2015.  Mixing residential and cemetery land uses is not allowed in the Low-Medium I, R2 zone, yet.  With all the new "creative zoning" coming out of City Planning, you might want to keep an eye on those Citywide Planning Commission agendas.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

All week long, we've been celebrating Halloween in our Red Car Property Neighborhood way.

Red Car Property: Lot C, Graveyard Of Dead Appliances

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, October 27, 2015.  It's as if Dr. Franken-washer is experimenting on dead washing machines on Lot C, next to the squatter's lot on Riverside Drive.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Lets hope the washing machines don't migrate en masse down to the south end of the Red Car Property.

This week, we're celebrating Halloween in our Red Car Property Neighborhood way.

Red Car Property: Spooky Mornings, Native Trees

Photo: Diane Edwardson, September 12, 2015.  This fall has given us no shortage of dramatic sunrises.  Worth noting, both trees are protected native trees in the City of Los Angeles: on the left, Western Sycamore; right, California Black Walnut.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Four years of drought has been tough on even the native trees.  Before you cut down or remove protected native trees, even if you think they are they are dead, be aware you need a permit from the City of Los Angeles  Board of Public Works.  Native tree roots are extremely deep.  They help hold hillsides together in the rain, even if the tree has been cut down.  So leave the roots in the ground.  They often regenerate new growth from the trunk the following spring.  

Learn more: City of LA Department of Urban Forestry 

We're celebrating Halloween all week long in our own Red Car Neighborhood way.

Lot C: Dozens of Women's Shoes Abandoned

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, October 26, 2015.   A couple dozen pairs of mostly lightly worn, women's shoes were found tragically dumped on the Red Car Property's Lot C, near the Red Car Property-adjacent squatters' camp and behind a truck that had, until recently, been parking elsewhere for the past year. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, October 26, 2015.  From the photo, these look mostly like size 8 and 9 women's summer shoes. Most of the abandoned shoes are not exactly appropriate walking shoes for the homeless, nor for walking the Red Car Property.  The once loved shoes, now left to fend for themselves, will die a long slow death, exposed to the elements on Lawless Lot C.

Don't throw your shoes in wearable condition in the trash.  Some of these shoes look brand new.  Out of The Closet Thrift Stores in Atwater and Glassell Park have easy drop-offs, and are very close by.

Corralitas Drive: Crow, Palm Tree

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 8, 2015. It's more dramatic in black and white.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)  

We're celebrating Halloween in our Red Car Neighborhood way this week.

Corralitas Drive: Neighbors Warding Off Zombies The Natural Way

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 4, 2015.  We got a late start publishing Halloween photos from around the neighborhood this month, so it's only a week of fun this year.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Lake View Ave: No Parking For A Loading Zone, Saturday October 24, 2015, Rose Scharlin's Halloween Hullaballoo

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, October 22, 2015.  The City Dept of Transportation (DOT) posted No Parking 12 PM to 9 PM, Saturday Only, along the entire street frontage of Rose Scharlin Co-Op Nursery School, a total of 7 parking spaces on Lake View Ave.  (Click on photos to enlarge.) 

The school obtained a temporary no parking permit from the DOT for the street in front of their property, as any property owner can do.  

There is no parking allowed on the Red Car Property.  The Red Car Property is not a park, nor is it a public roadway.  It is private property. 

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, October 22, 2015.  Parking is only allowed on the east side of Lake View Ave, a designated Hillside Steet. Rose Scharlin is on the east side of the street.  Many homes in our neighborhood, built in the 1920s and 1930s, were built with just one off-street parking space.

Joy Pae, current board president of Rose Scharlin, explained in an email, setting aside the street adjacent the school's property was the best way to alleviate truck traffic during deliveries and, "During the event, that area will be used for drop off and pick up to encourage people to use services like Uber and to drop off their families then park farther away such as on Allesandro and Riverside."  

Pae will don a witch's hat and monitor the front of the school during the event to help keep things moving on Lake View. 

Red Car Property: Schools & Hillside Streets, Special Events, Parking, Noise, Canyon Effects

Photo: Red Car Property Neighbor, October 31, 2014. Allesandro Elementary School parents filled the school parking lots, Riverside Drive, India & the Red Car Property Friday for some special event. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 31, 2014.  Apparently the special event at Allesandro Elementary School involved mobile dental trucks, funnel cakes & sugary drinks on Halloween.  Go figure. 

Neighbors on the school side of  Corralitas Drive  also complained of very loud music coming from the elementary school's playground (which happens on more than just special events.)  Their PA system is also extraordinarily loud.  You have to wonder if the administrators have hearing loss after working next to the 5 Freeway for so many years.

Photo: Diane Edwardson, November 1, 2014.  Cars were parked from Rose Scharlin Nursery School to at least the Silver Lake Ave Public Staircase for their annual fundraiser,  Halloween Hullabaloo, Saturday evening. 

A neighbor who's child went to Rose Scharlin many years ago, told me they had to hold their fundraisers off-site due to neighborhood concerns & parking.  But then, they also had a lot more neighbors who walked their kids to school then.

Several neighbors on Corralitas Drive asked me about the loud music coming from the Rose Scharlin party.  Perhaps parents, teachers & administrators just play the music really loud to drown out the screaming children.  The canyon effect in hillside neighborhoods amplifies the sound depending on where you live.  Some neighbors get more noise than those who may live closer to the source because sound bounces around the hills.

Both schools need to be better neighbors.

IT Came From The LA River, Happy Halloween!

Photo: Diane Edwardson, September 30, 2014.  Perhaps that water isn't as clean as they would have you believe. (Click on photo to enlarge.) 

Have a safe Halloween.  Slow down while driving our neighborhood tonight, there are a lot of young kids in the neighborhood.

Riverside Place: Spider Problems?

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 20, 2014.  When the spiders are catching cats, it's time to call an exterminator.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Lot C: Beware. Haunted Houses In The Hood

Photo: Diane Edwardson.  Lot C can be a scarier place to walk.  (Click on photo to enlarge.) 

Happy Halloween!  There are more young children in the neighborhood than ever before.  SO SLOW DOWN & PAY ATTENTION WHILE DRIVINNG !!

Corralitas Drive: Neighbors Taking Advantage Of Mayor's "Creative Zoning Solution"

Photo: Diane Edwardson, 2013.  Neighbors are making the most of what small amount of open space they have under Mayor Garcetti's new plan* to rezone R2 residential areas for mixed use with cemeteries if they want to downzone to R1.  Sounds like a great way to retain open space in your own backyard!  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

*This is NOT a real initiative, but you never know what new radical way to abuse residential neighborhoods Garcetti will come up with next. 

Corralitas Drive: Zoning For Zombies

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 8, 2013.  No, a graveyard is not an allowable use under residential zoning.  Perhaps it's one of those "creative zoning solutions" for open space our former City Councilmember, now Mayor, Eric Garcetti is exploring.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)

Riverside Drive: New Salsa Bar At Rick's

Photo: Diane Edwardson, October 31, 2012.  Good thing there's a sneeze guard!  (Click on photo to enlarge.)