UPDATES>>

UPdates & Events are at Latino Urban Forum

HEYA-Forward Thinking (?) Mobility Options

HEYA, Toyota’s online community of inspiring, innovative young adults, is proud to announce that four of its members’ visions for the future of transportation have been selected to be brought to life at Quiksilver’s siteLA for a two week residency entitled: “From Here to There: A HEYA Project.” Opening with a kickoff celebration on August 22nd, “From Here to There: A HEYA Project” will be anchored by multimedia artworks that showcase the four HEYA members’ visions, created in collaboration with the Quiksilver siteLA community. The two-week exhibition will also feature a series of workshops, speakers and film screenings as well as transportation-related art and design projects by siteLA’s “Visionaries in Residence.”

Over the last few weeks, HEYA invited its members to describe and illustrate their future visions in HEYA’s online forum. From human power to hydrogen, bicycles to rails, the ideas ranged from common sense to fantastical. The diversity of ideas and the overwhelming optimism from the HEYA community leaves no doubt that there will be many ways to get from here to there in the world of tomorrow. Following are the four winning visions that will be unveiled during the exhibition at siteLA:



Location: SideLA

2522 Sunset blvd.

LA, CA.

The Golden Necklace Continues

The design project initiated by Cal Poly Pomona's Graduate 641 + 642 Design Studio continues with another crop of students. Save the date for this results oriented endeavor.

PanAmerican Urban Redux

If you missed the fab presentation/discussion on Wednesday at the MAK Institute...you're in for a treat. We will be bringing it to Gallery 727 on Thursday, August 21th. This one will have some more offerings, and a different set up. Don't miss it.

Salsa Salsa at the Farmlab

Met this cool cat two months ago during our LA2TJ Conference. He's throwing this event at the Farmlab



SALSA SALSA




What: Salsa Salsa, a Celebration of Love Apples
Type: Public Art Event in which we make salsa while dancing to salsa music together and
enjoying a free salsa concert and dance class
When: Sun August 17th, 3 to 7 p.m.
Where: Farmlab, 1745 N. Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Free to the public

Come to SALSA SALSA, a harvest festival for the citizens of Los Angeles – come make and taste tomato salsas while listening and dancing to salsa music. SALSA SALSA is a celebration of public space and the culmination of the LOVE APPLES project in which 72 tomato plants were installed on 12 traffic islands in LA.

LOVE APPLES is an experiment in public space in the city of Los Angeles, imagining new ways in which such spaces could be utilized to make our communities more livable and engaged. It is a collaboration with Fallen Fruit that promotes community awareness, sharing, food safety, public resources, organic gardening and the use and exploration of available public space.

As part of the event there will be a free Salsa dance class from 3:30 - 4:30 taught by Miguel Candela. This will be followed by a free Salsa concert by recording artists Mestizo L.A.

PLEASE JOIN US from 3 to 7 p.m. on Sunday August 17th at Farmlab (1745 N. Spring Street, 90012) to make salsa and dance together. Meet new people and talk about the future shape and texture of life in this city. Bring your homegrown or street-picked tomatoes and collaborate with your neighbors on new and remarkable salsas. Bring a friend – this event is free to the public.

Hermanos Herrera in San Fernando (FREE)

August 17, 6:30 p.m.
César E. Chávez Park
208 Park Ave., San Fernando

Pistolera at McArthur Park (FREE)

Wednesday Night, August 13, 2008 7pm.
McArthur Park

Glassell Park Transit Pavilion Public Performance & Installation

Friday, August 22 from 7:00am to 9:00am and Saturday, August 23 from 9:00 a.m to11:00 a.m

This public performance is designed to bring our future structure to life for the many public transit users who wait at this transit stop every day. We'll be setting up tarps and chairs to approximate the setting and design of the structure. We will discuss elements of comfort and safety with the riders and receive their feedback through a short survey we've prepared. Renderings of the Transit Pavilion will be on view. For more information contact Helene Schpak

323-422-1330 or email at hschpk@sbcglobal.net



Location: The intersections San Fernando Road, Eagle Rock Blvd., and Verdugo Road intersect.

PanAmerican Urbanism

THE MAK URBAN FUTURE INITIATIVE PUBLIC FORUM SERIES
Presents PanAmerican Urbanism: From Caracas to
East Los Angeles



Reservations are recommended. Please RSVP for this event by calling 323-651-1510, or by email at office@makcenter.org.

Please join us on Wednesday, August 13 for PanAmerican Urbanism: From Caracas to East Los Angeles, the second event in an ongoing series, the MAK Urban Future Initiative (UFI) Public Forum. PanAmerican Urbanism will feature Efrén Santana, a MAK UFI fellow and architect with Urban Think Tank in Caracas, Venezuela; and James Rojas, an urban planner and co-founder of the Los Angeles-based Latino Urban Forum, an organization dedicated to understanding and improving the built environment of Latino communities.

Santana and Rojas will present a comparative study of the built environments of their respective cities, and discuss their evolving hypothesis of a PanAmerican Urbanism, which explores how the urban fabric of cities throughout the Americas has been shaped by Hispanic and Latino culture. Santana and Rojas will give special attention to the home as a manifestation of transnational common values, such the importance of extended family and the notion of the front yard as a public space.

More about Efrén Santana
Efrén Santana is in Los Angeles as part of the MAK Urban Future Initiative (UFI), a new international fellowship program dedicated to creating meaningful cross-cultural exchange about the challenges confronting cities worldwide. As the second UFI fellow-in-residence, Santana is researching the urban practices of Los Angeles' Latino immigrants- how they have changed the city's urban fabric, and how the city has changed them.

Santana is an architect with Urban Think Tank (U-TT), a multi-disciplinary design practice based in Caracas, Venezuela, that is dedicated to high-level research and design. U-TT's design practice places the social reality of a site at the forefront of political discussion. Their work is aimed at reversing the top-down hierarchy of governance in the public sphere in favor of bottom-up, locally driven action.

More about James Rojas
James Rojas is an urban planner who lectures widely at universities, planning conferences and grassroots community meetings on the impact of Latino populations on land use and transportation. Rojas is also the founder of the Latino Urban Forum in Los Angeles, dedicated to understanding and improving the built environment of Los Angeles' underserved Latino communities. To date, more than 300 volunteer architects, urban planners, public administrators, and lawyers have helped LUF to develop strategies and to provide technical expertise on critical infrastructure and land-use issues in the Latino community.

More about the MAK Urban Future Initiative
Funded by a major grant from the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the MAK Urban Future Initiative (UFI) is a fellowship program in which cultural researchers from diverse nations come to Los Angeles for two months, live in the exemplary L.A. modern Fitzpatrick-Leland House (R. M. Schindler, 1936) and pursue a research topic related to urban phenomena. Fellows come from nations that are under-represented in the Los Angeles discourse; the MAK Center works closely with them to create a meaningful cross-cultural exchange. The goal is to generate concepts for the urban future by stimulating dialogue and mining both Los Angeles and international resources. At the end their fellowship sessions, UFI fellows present their research at a MAK UFI Public Forum event. For more information about the UFI program, please visit www.makcenterufi.org.

---
MAK Center for Art and Architecture
at the Schindler House
835 North Kings Road
West Hollywood, CA 90069
323 651 1510 phone
323 651 2340 fax
visit: www.makcenter.org
contact: office@makcenter.org

ICAN Film Festival (San Fernando) Over the Years

Every year great films are put together to document the stories and narratives of the communities of the Northeast San Fernando Valley. This year will be no different, but with a focus on the environment and issues of sustainability. Below are some Clips of ICAN 4 - 8 clips.


Great ICAN Festival Films Through the Years:

Sushi in San Fernando

Anti-Immigrant Laws


One Man Mariachi from La Bufadora in Ensenada

Air Jesse: boy pilot from Pacoima


Storytelling through Puppetry and Film


Multidimensional Mariachi Teenager

San Fernando Swapmeet


Water Issues and the Pacoima Dam


Saturday, August 2, 2008 from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
The San Fernando Education Technology Team, better know as SFETT, is an exceptional team of creative and talented individuals who continuously strive to engage and captivate students while providing them an avenue of expression through the use of digital media. SFETT started with one teacher, a handful of students and the desire to create positive change. Over the years, however, this small team based out of San Fernando, California has exceeded expectations and gone on to impact the whole world.

The Art of City Building through Civic Engagement

James is installing an interactive public project inviting participants to develop and envision public and civic amenities in a 3-dimensional model form. Participants will be provided with a medley of recycled materials and invited to create their ideal urban form on an oversized urban plot of streets, parcels and parks. This City-building installation allows participants to think of planning goals in physical terms, creating a platform for diverse voices. Playing and visualizing with the 3-dimensional forms engages children and adults of all ages. This model will be constantly changing as participants' work builds upon the contributions of everyone. Participants will be able to understand the city as not only a place but as a comprehensive urban art form. The purpose of City-building is to use interactive arts to help people think about urban design and planning. It shows participants the challenges and excitement of building through a multidisciplinary process involving everyone.






Saturday, August 16, 2008 from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Location: Galeria Tufino Galeria Tufino

Santiago Lofts Arts District.

949 E. Santa Ana Blvd.

Santa Ana, CA. 92701

Across the street from the Santa Ana Train Station

Pan American Urbanism: From Caracas to East Los Angeles

Wednesday, August 13, 2008 Reception at 6:30 p.m.

Panel discussion at 7:30 p.m.

The MAK Center for Art and Architecture is pleased the second event in its new series, the Urban Future Initiative (UFI) Public Forum. PanAmerican Urbanism will feature Efrén Santana, a UFI fellow and architect with Urban Think Tank in Caracas, Venezuela; and James Rojas, an urban planner and co-founder of the Los Angeles-based Latino Urban Forum. Santana and Rojas will present a comparative study of the built environments of their respective cities, and discuss their evolving hypothesis of a PanAmerican Urbanism, which explores how the urban fabric of cities throughout the Americas has been shaped by Hispanic and Latino culture. Santana and Rojas will give special attention to the home as a manifestation of transnational common values, such the importance of extended family and the notion of the front yard as a public space.

Admission: $7, $6 students; Free for Friends of the Schindler House



Location: MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House

835 North Kings Road

West Hollywood, CA 90069

Public info: 323-651-1510

San Fernando iCAN 9 Festival de Cine

Saturday, August 2, 2008 from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
The San Fernando Education Technology Team, better know as SFETT, is an exceptional team of creative and talented individuals who continuously strive to engage and captivate students while providing them an avenue of expression through the use of digital media. SFETT started with one teacher, a handful of students and the desire to create positive change. Over the years, however, this small team based out of San Fernando, California has exceeded expectations and gone on to impact the whole world.



Location: 231 N. Maclay

San Fernando, CA 91340



Free admission visit www.sfett.com for more info.

iCAN 9 Trailer

MAK Fellows Blog

Different perspectives on the built environment get me goin'! Particularly by those researching the LA city-region. Visit the blog of an architect from Venezuela visiting L.A. via the MAK Institute's Urban Initiatives Fellowship.
Very little narration, just good design and images. James from LUF took him around town visiting significant places in Southeast Los Angeles, and other areas on the Eastside.
next week he"ll be rollin' with me to the San Fernando Valley.

Blog

Downtown News Article on LUF's James Rojas

News Link

LUFites hangin’ with MAK Insitute Fellow

Here are some images taken on Wednesday evening at an intimate dinner for visiting MAK Institute Fellow Efrén Santana. Santana who hails from Venezuela will be in Los Angeles for the next two months researching (and contrasting) how Latinos shape Los Angeles through the physical and social interactions with the city-region.


On hand were various colleagues from the MAK Institute, and other notable activists, researchers, architects, and artists whose work focuses on the built environment. The dinner took place at the beautiful Leland House (designed by R.M. Schindler) situated atop the Hollywood Hills. Guests were treated to an excellent dinner, wine, kick ass coffee, great conversations on the city-region, and just a plain ole’ good vibe. Nobody jumped in the pool though. Various LUFites will be showing Santana around the city over the next two months...including the quintessential trip to the criminalized taco trucks in East L.A.



For full gallery of images see:

MAKin out Gallery!

LA 2 TiJ Slideshow 2: San Ysidro

The slideshow will be modified later as more images are available to us. Audio is kinda bad...hard to photoshoot, record, etc etc all at the same time.

Voyeuristic Landscapes: LA 2 TJ Mobile Conference Audio Slideshow

One of the first audio/slideshow narratives of more to come. Check LA Times often for the article by reported Hector Becerra.

For better sound and visuals visit:

LUF Direct Link

or settle for the youtube version:

LA 2 TJ links

Check Latino Urban Forum website for images,sound byes, etc. from LA 2 TJ Mobile Conference.

FYI, LA Times Reporter Hector Becerra made the trip with us from Union Station to La Casa del Tunel in Tijuana.

LA River Via Music Video

A good friend of mine asked me to give a multimedia savvy lecture on my Graduate Work to a small group of students at CSUN's Department of Chicana/o Studies last April. Before dabbling into my focus/research, I took them on a visual and audio tour of the LA Built Environment (e.g. LA River, Powerlines, streetscapes). Embedded is a small sample of what I used as a medium to build the context on the social (and physical) construction of space:

5 Days Til 1st Annual LA-2-Tijuana Mobile Conference

Almost 60 people have signed up for the 1st Annual LA to TJ mobile conference! More details as the week progresses.! Train departs at 8:30 am.


Moving Goods, People and Ideas


Date: Saturday, June 21, 2008
Time: 8:30 am to 11:05 pm


Discussions on Track will focus on four topic areas: transportation, social issues, the natural and built environment impacting the region. Projects visited include: the LA River, Hobart Rail Yards, 710 Expansion, Great Park, San Gabriel River, Casa Familiar, Tijuana River and many others.

Itineray*;

Train Ride from LA-San Diego 8:30 am to 11:20 am
Trolley Ride from San Diego to San Ysidero 11:30 am to 12:30 pm
Walk over the Border/Lunch 12:30 pm to 2:30 pm
Walking tour of Tijuana 2:30 pm to 5:00 pm
Border Crossing 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm
Trolley Ride from San Ysidero to San Diego 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm
Train Ride from San Diego to LA 8:20 pm to 11:05 pm
*All times subject to change

Charro Article in NY Times.

Excellent little article in the NY Times on charreria in the U.S. The slideshow is also pretty hot. Maybe the LA times will one day catch up with the level of attention the NY times puts on cultural practices by mexicanos in CA/Southwest.


NY TIMES ARTICLE

Cal Poly Pomona Golden Necklace Master Plan--Digital Component

These two vignettes were created to compliment the Graduate Studio's design proposals, policy-guidelines, and research for the creation of a multi-trail system for Los Angeles. I, metrovaquero, was part of this multimedia collaboration. check it!

Residents Unidos de Wyvernwood

Check it out at: http://ruw90023.blogspot.com

I hear that there's more to come shortly.

Chuppy Latinos!

One of the homies throws this word around loosely: Chuppies. Chicano...Latino Yuppies. Now the LA Times is up on it. Peep it:
Upscale Latinos Find A Home I suppose these folks couldn't live anywhere else, but Whittier.

L.A. River Visual + Audio Documentation

Three Cal Poly Pomona Graduate Students (myself included) set out to document the LA River for their Graduate Capstone Studio Class. Instead of opting for the typical (and bland) powerpoint presentation consisting of maps, numbers, dull pictures etc etc ... they decided to engage all the human senses by deciphering the very unique experience of the Los Angeles River through music, sounds, and imagery. This team is only focusing on researching the river’s leg consisting of the SFV to the near the Vernon area. Another team is leading research from Vernon to Long Beach.

This presentation & research is an on-going project and an entity of the Graduate Capstone’s class endeavor to create a potential Master Plan and/or the data & design schemes needed for a system of multi-use trails in Los Angeles County. Over the the length of two quarters, 5 teams will be working and researching throughout the county to continue advancing a non-motorized mobility agenda. This plan has been dubbed the Golden Necklace.

Two Options below for viewing:

Original/Higher-Res Slideshow at:

Quicktime Option (T1 recommended)

Fresh N' Easy Comes to the CPT

Just caught wind a New Fresh N' Easy just opened in Compton. "Now we won't have to drive to get to Whole Foods," said Jalom Raney of Compton, adding that it was about a 20-minute drive." ..or another 20 to Trader Joes, depending on where you live.




Article Link
Compton Article

Rent Control Under Threat!

In the midst of a housing crisis that is already squeezing the poor out of the city of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Times reported a couple of days ago that a June 3 ballot measure would abolish all rent control laws in California (see http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rent28jan28,0,7822882.story). While this undoing of tenant protections would be gradual (since protected units would only join the unregulated market after their current occupants move out) it could deal a fatal blow to efforts at maintaining income diversity in the city, particularly in poor- and Latino-heavy, gentrifying districts like Echo Park, Koreatown, Lincoln Heights, Boyle Heights.

Four of the most popular arguments against rent control blame such regulations for actually reducing the amount of affordable rentals in the city in the following ways: 1) by discouraging developers from creating new rental units since their ability to make a profit is reduced; 2) by keeping units occupied much longer than they would be without rent control since tenants, who would otherwise like to move, often remain in a unit to continue to pay below-market rents; 3) by encouraging landlords to leave the “low-profit” business of renting and convert their properties into condos; 4) and by encouraging landlords to jack up rents as much as possible the moment a longtime (and below-market paying) tenant moves out.

All four arguments are flawed, however.

1) While it is true that landlords whose regulated rental properties stand to make smaller profits, the fact that the law exempts all developments built after 1978 (when it was passed in Los Angeles) has meant that developers have continued enjoying considerable returns on rental housing built since then. Even if the law were to be updated so that it applies to all rental units created before February 2008, new housing developed for the next several years would continue to harness profits for both builders and landlords, especially if it took another three decades for the ordinance to be updated again. Given that a provision in the law allows for yearly increases in rent to match inflation, a landlord never sees any decrease in rent revenues throughout a protected occupant’s tenancy from the day she moves in.

2) As for the regulation encouraging the prolongation of a tenant’s stay in a rent-controlled unit, therefore keeping it unavailable to others, while true, the fact is that unless the tenant moves out of the city altogether, becomes homeless, or dies, she would always need to move into another home, meaning that the net number of units that would be made available by her moving would be null. Associated with this same argument is the point that tenants themselves suffer when they feel they cannot move into a new unit of their choice, say, closer to a new job, because they are compelled to stay put where they can pay below-market rents. However, that many people can’t afford market-rate housing is a problem that must be blamed on an unfair distribution of wages among workers, not on rent control, which actually ensures that at least one unit in the city remains affordable to a tenant.

3) Indeed, many landlords in rent-controlled markets have converted their properties into condominiums as a way of cashing in on the skyrocketing real-estate market in recent years. But laissez faire in rental housing would leave low- and moderate-income tenants no better off if they can’t afford the rising home values, be they for rent or sale. (A better protection for tenants would be to curb the condo conversion mania.)

4) Finally, that a landlord starved for profit during years of a renter’s occupancy is more likely to raise rents to the maximum as soon as the unit becomes available is foolish, as it ignores common market sense: a) the provider of any good will always seek to make the biggest profit possible, and b) the price of any good is ultimately set by the market.

Rent control is hardly a silver bullet to our affordable-housing crisis; it does create other problems, the main one being a landlord’s lowered incentive to keep up regulated properties. But in the face of public officials’ paltry efforts to minimize poor people's displacement being brought on by gentrification, rent control is the only thing that can save Los Angeles from becoming exclusively for the rich. Now the question is whether we can save it, as the June 3 election (when no mayoral, gubernatorial or presidential candidate will be elected) will almost surely garner a low voter turnout, which always benefits conservative causes.

You're Invited to an Instant Gathering

you’re invited to an instant gathering...of planners, architects, designers, and other fresh people with a care for the urban environment.

the on going situation at the historical Wyvernwood Apartments in Boyle Heights has prompted several individuals to get together for drinks, discussion, and an opportunity to meet like-minded individuals from our great city. as our neighborhoods continue expanding, its time we extend our networks as well.

join us this Friday at fellow LUFillo Chuy’s place precisely in the Wyvernwood neighborhood.

bring a dish, some bottles (or cans), and a smile.

PLACE : 2676 East 8th Street (cross street is Soto)
DATE & TIME: Friday. Jan 18. 6pm
INFO: JESUS HERMOSILLO

Direct LUF Link

House along the Nacimiento Bike Tour 08 Route

Because of the rain we didn't get a good chance to catch a critical mass (if there was any) riding the Nacimiento Bike Tour. Then again, we were out on the street about 2 hrs. after it began. We did get a chance to visit one of the host residences along Pasadena Ave (I"ll post the address later).
This nativity scene has plenty of history.
According to the elderly mother and daughter duo which resides here, they've been doing this for decades. The mother is 90-years old and has been doing nacimientos for about 80 years (!!). Her nativity scene is an awesome collection of figurines from around the world (Middle East, South America) which came via her grandkids traveling abroad. This nativity scene took about two weeks to assemble (!). The women began arranging the scene since early December and finished just in time for Christmas Eve.

The women invited us to visit them again, but with our nephews and nieces to continue the tradition...which is why they do it year after year. They stated they receive a tremendous joy when people enter their home to witness the nacimiento, and they hope that tradition continues here in the U.S. for future generations. So we promised we'd come back on February 2nd, el Dia de La Candelaria. I will post more information soon enough so that everybody can go to the celebration of the 2nd. My other friend took some amazing shots, I will post them later. In the meantime, Imma eat this orange they gave me and head to class.

LUF Holiday (Dia de Los Reyes Magos) Party

Join us for a Los Reyes Holiday party at the Eastside Luv Café @ 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 6, 2008

1835 E. First Street,
Boyle Heights, CA. 90033

For Further information: 626 437-4446