Los Feliz Ledger [greetings from Tom]
Hoover Walk Mural Dedicated By Los Angeles City Coucilmember Tom LaBonge We honored Mary Frances Reynolds-Smith and mural artist Ricardo Mendoza at the March 26th mural dedication of the Hoover Walk mural. Mary Frances and Mary Rodriguez, Council District 4 education deputy, spent years nurturing this mural to completion and the results are spectacular. Mary Frances and Mary wanted to clean up the frequently tagged walk, which is a cement stairway and retaining wall at the north end of Hoover St., just below Prospect St. Students from Franklin Elementary, King Middle and John Marshall High schools use the stairway to walk to school every day. In 2003, they received a $5,000 Community Beautification Grant and quickly realized it wasn’t enough. The following year, they applied for a $10,000 grant through the same program and received it as well. They hired Ricardo Mendoza, who began painting on a huge canvas in his studio. When finished he would
April 2009
prepare the wall and apply the mural on site. But the heavy winter rains of 2005 caused tremendous damage to the cul de sac around the wall. Mud, concrete and building materials washed into the street and an
adjacent retaining wall was destroyed. My office secured a FEMA grant to repair the retaining wall and the city cleaned up the street. Finally, when the FEMA money came through, city workers built a retaining wall, paving the way for the mural to be installed. That’s when Mr. Mendoza noticed that the wall itself had deteriorated and required professional restoration. It was
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cracked and decaying. My office hired Nathan Zakheim Associates to restore the wall. Go by and take a look— it’s beautiful.
Report from the Nation’s Capitol By Eric Garcetti, President, Los Angeles City Council In March, hundreds of Southern California civic and business leaders flooded our nation’s capitol to lobby the White House and Congress on our local priorities. Our goal was to make our representatives in Washington fully aware of the many “shovel ready” projects in Los Angeles that will create jobs and address infrastructure needs. We also wanted to meet with key leaders to advocate for California’s fair share of federal dollars, which are often disproportionately allocated to less populated states. I am convinced that California can lead the way out of this economic crisis. One way, is by creating more “green” jobs. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said he believes Los Angeles is positioned to be a leader on cre-
ating green construction jobs, training workers for this growing field, and promoting new technologies. Even during these tough economic times, we want to make sure our communities continue to see the decrease in crime that they have experienced the last seven years. Mayor Villaraigosa, Chief Bratton and other members of our Los Angeles delegation met with Attorney General Eric Holder to advocate for more federal funding to put police on our streets and in our neighborhoods. We also briefed Attorney General Holder on some of our innovative gang suppression, prevention, and intervention initiatives, such as our “At the Park After Dark” program that keeps certain parks and recreation centers open until the late evening hours in the summer with programs to attract young
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people giving them a supervised place to be. The LA’s BEST program gives more than 28,000 students a supervised place to be between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. Studies show that students in this program not only have higher test scores, they also like school more,. I’m proud that there is now an afterschool program on campus or within walking distance of every school in my district. Never before has the fate of our community been so closely bound to the fate of our nation. All of these initiatives that will bring more opportunity—from job training to job creation to gang intervention to after-school programs—are important components of Los Angeles’s effort to keep our neighborhoods moving forward. I believe they are also how we will keep America moving forward.
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