The Community Blog

I attended a very important Neighborhood Council meeting tonight. I will try to explain some of the issues going on in our neighborhood. Los Angeles is attempting to be very conducive to developers and in doing so, is trying to kill our Grid with bad decision-making.

I met a lot of neighbors. I spoke very briefly about some of the issues that concern us. A developer is building a 40 unit apartment complex and due to complete incompetence with the Department of Transportation, they are having all the traffic come down our small streets, streets so small that only one car can pass at a time on two streets. There are also 5 dead ends in the Grid.

This traffic should be going out onto Sherman Way, an 8-lane street instead. The complex HAD an address on this 8-lane street initially. The developers have now switched the address to ... not even a street. The dead end street they are trying to destroy is no bigger than a path. So of course it makes sense to divert traffic down our very limited streets.

As someone who has run a business in Los Angeles, I like the idea of a more business-friendly LA. But bad decision-making on a case by case basis is not "friendly" at all. Why has no one come into the neighborhood and driven around? Does a satellite photo show how much this alters our "grid"? This neighborhood is called a "pocket neighborhood," and was built in the 1950's with dead end streets and limited access. It helps make the place enclosed. So many people write about not knowing their neighbors. Well, I've known mine. They walk their dogs by my house. They say hi. Sure, sometimes they play the music too loud (and my one neighbor can't control his dogs, but that's a whole 'nuther blog) but we are close. We are the middle class of LA, and being made to feel like this city doesn't want us. They never let it be known this complex was going to be built. There were no public meetings about the impact this will have. They want the "empty" space to be filled with tax revenue-generating apartments. They wish to make it more difficult to live in this area by polluting our streets with un-necessary traffic.

Wendy Greuel is our representative, and she sent some woman from her office to the meeting. Several people addressed the young lady directly and it was not in friendly tones. We are not trying to stop the apartment building. We are trying to stop the traffic from making our neighborhood even more difficult with cars speeding through it. But our rep, Wendy, has not shown any desire to help us.

The Valley Glen Neighborhood Council passed a resolution to not support this ruling by the Dept. of Transportation. But we need our city representative to stand up and support us. Let's hope it happens.

The Cooking Blog

I decided in the last month that I had to expand my repertoire of dishes and meals I can make. The diet I've been on (and off) is very limited. Mostly I've been making the same things my dietitian recommended eleven years ago. That's all well and good, but it's been boring.

So I asked a friend of mine to share some ingredients and recipes on some things he makes. He's a good chef. We were roommates years back, and we came to an agreement: split costs, he cooked, and I cleaned. It worked out well, but that was ... over fifteen years ago.

The last few weeks I've been trying out the recipes. I must say, I'm doing quite well, if I do say so myself. Made a variation of pasta carbonara tonight. Good stuff.

With spring and summer coming up, I shall be doing more grilling. Chicken, hot links, grilled onions, etc. Any suggestions? Have a twist on a recipe that you wish to share? Please do.