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LFIA Beautification Committee Shepherds Los Feliz Deodars

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree

And you won’t be seeing this one for long. On April 2, 2008, the Board of Public Works approved a permit to remove five protected native oak trees on the lot at 3662 Cadman Drive adjacent to Griffith Park. The Board stated that the property owner had the right to reasonably develop his property. Since this 100-year-old oak covers almost the entire property, he is allowed to remove it and the others.

LFIA spoke in favor of saving the tree. It was noted that planting four small trees will hardly mitigate the loss of this beautiful specimen tree. There are many other difficulties involved in the development of this particular lot. The realtor should have disclosed all of these issues to the buyer. The street is substandard so the owner must donate three feet to the city to widen the street. To provide access for emergency vehicles the owner will have to build several retaining walls to create a “hammerhead” turn around stub driveway between his property and the next. He also has to sink 15 concrete piles 46 feet into the ground at the back of the lot to stabilize the steep slope below the house on Shannon.

CD 4 supported Urban Forestry’s recommendation to allow removal of the trees. The owner will be required to plant four 36-inch-box oaks for each tree removed for a total of twenty trees. Since only a few of the trees will fit on the lot after the home is built, the rest will be planted in Griffith Park. That is some compensation for the loss of the oaks.

Saturday morning, April 5, the owner began clearing the lot.

LFIA Supports Upcoming Film Festival

When the LFIA Schools Committee envisioned creating the Thomas Starr King Middle School Gifted/High Ability Technology Arts Magnet there was no way that we could have imagined the wonderful ways that the teachers and students would utilize their talents to make this program thrive.  This will be all the more obvious at the upcoming 5th edition of the school's Annual Animation & Film Festival which is scheduled for Sunday June 22nd at the Vista Theatre from 9:45 am to 12 noon.  The LFIA has provided some financial support for this endeavour.

For me, the best part about the film festival is that it is not only open to every magnet student but also every 8th grade student at King that takes History/Journalism from Mr. Brandon Cabezas, Expressive Poetry Films from Ms. Connie Martin, or the Computer Animation Class from Mr. Kirk Palayan.

In addition to that it is held at the beautiful Vista Theater in our community.  I encourage everyone to visit the festival's website at www.animationandfilmfestival.com and click on the stars for more information. Bring your school age children to the Vista Theater in June to see for yourself the great ways that King students are expressing themselves.  

                                               Mary Rodriguez, LFIA Schools Committee Member

Here are some impressions from a participant in the DWP Light Festival walking nights, a pilot program that took place November 21st-25th in Griffith Park.

People really loved it. Our community hit the nail on the head in terms of the environment and traffic, but the obvious increase in family enjoyment and social interaction was a huge and unexpected dividend. Subtracting cars turned the Festival into a big, friendly public outdoor space where people could experience each other, take pictures of each other, and move at their own pace. Children were dance-walking to the more rhythmic holiday music being played, some people were even singing along to the classics. ... [continued here]

On Wednesday, November 7, the LFIA held their 2007 Fall General Meeting. The topic of the evening was "Colonel Griffith's Vision of Griffith Park As An Urban Wilderness" and featured a distinguished panel of speakers including John Gray, President and CEO of the Autry National Center; Tom LaBonge, Councilmember of the Los Angeles City Council, District Four; John Lewis, Director of the Los Angeles Zoo; Jon Kirk Mukri, General Manager of the Los Angeles City Department of Recreation and Parks; Mark Pine, Deputy Director of the Griffith Observatory and Valerie Vanaman, Board of Directors Member of the LFIA and member of the Griffith Park Master Plan Working Group. Chris Laib was our MC for the evening's panel discussion and following Q&A session. ... [continued here]

Puck Withdraws Application

by LFIA President Marian Dodge

This is a great victory for Griffith J. Griffith’s “plain people.” I received word from the Planning Department on October 18 that Wolfgang Puck has withdrawn his zoning variance application to serve alcohol at the Griffith Observatory! If the variance had been granted, it would have turned the wonderful scientific and educational institution into a private rental facility. The requested zoning variance would have set a precedent for the privatization of public land in Griffith Park.

This was truly a collaborative community effort led by the Los Feliz Improvement Association. LFIA was supported by many groups including the Greater Griffith Park Neighborhood Council, the Vermont Neighborhood Association, the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Hillside Federation, and the Griffith Family Trust. Many, many thanks to all of you who attended the hearing on September 25.

Thanks also go to attorney Doug Carstens, of Chatten-Brown & Carstens representing the Vermont Neighborhood Association, who wrote a letter to the Planning Commissioners to point out the fact that Puck's application did not meet CEQA and EIR requirements. [Read Puck’s letter to the Planning Commission here.]

The following is a preview of the upcoming issue of our newsletter, the Observer

Cleanup Queen to Retire Her Gardening Gloves

For the past 18 years, LFIA board member and chair of the Beautification Committee, Margret Lohfeld has tirelessly led the cleanup charge in our community. She is a human dynamo with more energy than the Energizer Bunny. In addition to leading cleanup crews half a dozen times a year, she goes out with one or two people weekly on “trashy dates” to do spot cleanups throughout the neighborhood. She has zealously protected the deodar canopy on Los Feliz Blvd. and has been responsible for planting new trees. Her citizenship is unparalleled. ... [continued here]

The following is a preview of the upcoming issue of our newsletter, the Observer

The City of Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation (BOS) is developing plans to address the issue of too much garbage and no place to dump it. The city is currently able to divert 62% of its solid waste to recycling, which is very good progress (12% above the state average), but they are under state mandate to divert 70%. What to do with your trash comes under the name Solid Waste Integrated Resource Plan (SWIRP) and is part of the Mayor’s and City Council’s RENEW LA Plan. This plan includes not only recycling but also how to convert that yucky stuff in your black can into an energy source. Their ultimate goal is zero waste within the next twenty years. ... [continued here]

LOS FELIZ 1920 and 1930 U.S.A. Census Data

Have you ever been curious about who used to live in your house or who your neighbors were in 1920 and 1930? The Los Feliz Improvement Association is very pleased to include the 1920 and the 1930 U.S. Census information about Los Feliz homes in its website. This data was compiled for the LFIA History Committee by Donald A. Seligman in 2004.

The detailed United States census data is kept confidential for 70 years, and it was only in 2002 that the 1930 data was finally released into the public domain. This material is rich in detail and organized by each individual property. It gives a remarkable picture of the times 70 years ago and earlier and includes a wealth of specific information about the individuals living in the United States at the time of each census. ... [continued here]

LFIA Continues Support of Marshall High Decathlon Team

The Academic Decathlon team from John Marshall High School held a fundraiser and honored its Hall of Fame members on August 13 at Taix Restaurant. The Decathlon is a nation-wide competition in ten academic areas. Marshall has been one of the top five Los Angeles teams for the last eleven years, a City record! In fact the competition in LAUSD is so competitive that the State started inviting "wild cards" to the state finals. Marshall has gone to nine state finals and won the national championship twice, in 1987 and in 1995. The Hall of Fame honors team members who score more than 8,000 points, a nearly impossible achievement. In the last twenty years 34 students have qualified for the Hall of Fame.

LFIA has been supporting our local schools since the 1920s when we lobbied the school district to build a high school for our community and Marshall was constructed. This year LFIA is pleased to support the 2007-2008 Academic Decathlon team with a check for $1,000.

Previous front page stories are available in the News Archive.

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