Heated Silver Lake Traffic Safety Meeting Monday

It included word that construction on the sidewalk between West Silver Lake Drive and Armstrong Avenue along Tesla Avenue will begin June 4.

The traffic at the north end of Silver Lake is tangled, with public and private construction projects making any global solution difficult. That, of course, isn't stopping citizens and officials from trying, especially after a car recently killed a young woman crossing Rowena. Council member Tom LaBonge led efforts at an over two-hour meeting at Ivanhoe Elementary School in Silver Lake on Monday. Titled "Silver Lake Traffic Safety Community Meeting," it featured speakers from the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the city Planning Department and the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council. The community too turned out in good numbers, and many spoke their minds. Congestion along Rowena Drive caused by …

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Tom LaBonge, Community to Discuss Traffic Flow April 30

Ivanhoe School in SIlver Lake will host the meeting April 30 at 4:30 p.m.

Two recent traffic incidents involving pedestrians--including one death--had Silver Lake residents calling for action. Last week's death in Echo Park on Echo Park Avenue again has locals again asking for change. As one step in that direction, Council District 4 representative Tom LaBonge will meet with residents and others on Monday, April 30 at Ivanhoe School at 4:30 p.m. The Public Safety, Transportation and Urban Design Committees of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council (SLNC) will also be represented. Charles Herman-Wurmfeld, who chairs SLNC's Public Safety committee, said in an email: It's our SLNC goal to take this sober moment to champion better organization for our public space known as "streets" in order to keep people moving, and…

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Anthea Raymond

2:43 pm on Monday, April 30, 2012

@Ronald -- Good one. Tax the traffic!   more ›

Rubber Will Top Elysian Reservoir

LADWP commissioners voted for a low-cost option to cover the existing reservoir instead of building new underground storage.

The vote came after years of advocacy. Many hoped it would end with a new underground reservoir topped by a park. Commissioners effectively voted down that possibility Tuesday when they instead approved a so-called "rubberized mat" to lay atop the existing structure. Critics have argued it is unfair to simply cover over the Elysian Reservoir, while the DWP built new tanks for the Silver Lake Reservoir. About $3.5 million will be spent to improve the park around the seven-acre reservoir, located near the 110 Freeway. Related: DWP Board Votes to Cover Up Elysian Reservoir (EastsiderLA)

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Silver Lake Pipeline Project Raises Traffic and Health Issues

A section of Glendale Boulevard in Silver Lake that had been closed to through traffic for six months will open up by Friday. Construction now shifts to another another stretch in Silver Lake, prompting health concerns for some and traffic headaches for o

A stretch of Glendale Boulevard—between Riverside Drive and Waverly Drive—which has been under construction for roughly the past six months, will be reopened to through traffic by Friday, March 23, according to an email communiqué from CD 14 Area Director Zenay Loera. The road’s closure had been the bane of many commuters going to the 5 Freeway or across it to Atwater and Glendale. We reported about it back in October, explaining that the City was installing a large-diameter water pipeline within the Silver Lake and Los Feliz communities. Dust from the project has also prompted complaints from nearby residents about respiratory ailments caused by the dust.  Now, the same contractor whose crews had been busy digging up Glendale Boulevard …

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Flying High Above the Silver Lake

Gary Leonard sent us this aerial photo of the Silver Lake Reservoir.

There are many ways to come to know the Silver Lake Reservoir. You can jog or walk around the well-used pathway. You can sit with your pooch pal in one of the two dogparks. Or you can picnic or do yoga in the newly-minted Meadow. You can even cross the street, climb up upstairs in the Neutra VDL House and simply gaze out. Gary Leonard took things a step further and shot this image from a helicopter on Christmas Eve. We like it. Do you have a picture of the Silver Lake Reservoir you'd like to share?  Upload it here.

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Opinion: Occupy L.A. Has Roots in Edendale Utopia

Former Echo Park resident Ruben Martinez points to anarchist Ricardo Flores Magon and the commune he established just north of the Silver Lake Reservoir in the early 20th century.

Shortly before Occupy L.A. was evicted from the City Hall grounds, I noticed a sign at the corner of Spring and Temple. It was a large white cloth with big block letters stenciled in black that read: "TIERRA Y LIBERTAD," or "Land and Liberty." The slogan had traveled a long way through time to arrive at what the Occupiers called Solidarity Park. The words are most often associated with Emiliano Zapata, the great revolutionary leader from Morelos, Mexico, whose radical vision of land reform ended with his assassination. But the slogan also has deep roots in Los Angeles history. There are many similarities between the Los Angeles of today and the city as it was in the second decade of the 20th century. The progressive era was at its peak, …

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Should SHEEP Weed Silver Lake Reservoir Path?

The Silver Lake Neighborhood Council voted to explore that option Wednesday night at its monthly board meeting.

The motion originated in the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council's Green Committee. It asked the SLNC to "investigate the use of sheep for maintaining the [Silver Lake Reservoir] path free weed free." The council has been asked to help fund clean up efforts by LA Conservation Corp along the 2.2-mile path, which winds around the Silver Lake Reservoir. Members of the Green Committee thought animals--intially goats, then sheep-- might be another option to explore. The path around the lake features a number of plants and also attracts weeds.  Funding a long-term solution to its maintenance is an issue. According to the council agenda, sheep have been used in other settings for weed control. Advocates say they are low cost, cute and eco-friendly--…

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Anthea Raymond

10:42 pm on Wednesday, February 1, 2012

@Ronald -- Thanks for picking up this thread again. I agree with you: an enclosure around the meadow makes the possibiity of industrious Silvie a possibility. I'll be following up with the Neighborhood Council on where this stands. And thanks for your great pictures from the workshop the other night too. So many good ideas and big dreams for the neighborhood. AR   more ›

From the Editor

Echo Park Celebrates National Running Day

Runners, what are your plans?

If you follow Twitter trends, you know that it’s National Running Day.  And the weather couldn’t be better to take a lap around the 'hood. Later, I’ll be hitting my favorite stretch of unpaved pathway, the loop around the Silver Lake Reservoir, which I’ve measured (several times) to be 2.2 miles.  I’ll be wearing my old beat-up Nikes.  But Christopher McDougall's book Born to Run will be on my mind.  I had a long discussion this weekend about it with two cyclists who’d returned to running recently. They had worried about sore hips and knees.  But they’d been running for several months without pain wearing the highly touted by pricey“barefoot shoe." I'd consider that too. The cyclists also told me Born to Run argues that man was not made to…

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VIDEO: Poppa's Kitchen Sings About Silver Lake Life. How About You?

The duo has crafted a folksy ode to the neighborhood. Do you have one too? Share it here.

I got the accompanying video a few days ago by email. It comes from Steve Feldman, who moved to Silver Lake from Santa Monica a year ago. With Bob Romanus (who you may know as the actor who played Damon in Fast Times at Ridgemont High) he records as Poppa's Kitchen. The song's called "Silver Lake. It's off their sixth CD "Play Play Play." Says Feldman:  The video was shot with a digital camera in one day (sometime last month)  and edited by bob.  It was a beautiful day and I think we captured the spirit of the area visually and musically. Let us know what you think. And let us know how you think it compares to other Silver Lake classics like 2010's "At the Reservoir."

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