White House Place Primary Center Developments

12/4/2008
FOR ALL WHO HAVE FOLLOWED OUR STRUGGLE TO PRESERVE THE LA ECOVILLAGE NEIGHBORHOOD…THANK YOU. YOUR EFFORTS HAVE SAVED AFFORDABLE HOUSING HERE. BUT OUR STRUGGLE IS NOT YET OVER, LAUSD CONSTRUCTION MANAGERS WANT TO PUT 137 CAR PARKING LOT IN THE MIDDLE OF OUR NEIGHBORHOOD!

This is a neighborhood where we have been working with the city to create a car-light, Shared Street- that is safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, and especially the children- who walk to school or to the Bresee youth center each day. The city has just completed a $300,000 project here on Bimini, built bulbouts, planted macadamia trees, and put in permeable pavement for sidewalks. A 137 car parking lot runs counter to the SB375 and LAUSD’s own efforts to create small learning communities.

Please send a message to LAUSD: instead of bulldozing what was once the original LAEV organic gardens and outdoor classroom, preserve the hill on the southwest corner of the proposed parking lot for open space or horticultural projects with the participation of local schools.

See these links for sample letters, and write your own. Or you may sign a petition here.

Thank you!

Michelle
LA Ecovillager
Bresee Career Counselor
Beverly Vermont Community Land Trust

*

FOR UPDATES ON THE FEBRUARY 28, 2008 LAUSD COMMUNITY MEETING,

PLEASE GO TO: http://www.laecovillage.org/LAUSD2008.html

Please continue to participate in our struggle to save the LAEV neighborhood from bulldozers.

To sign the electronic petition, go to: http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/la-eco-village

For points to use in writing our school board member and addresses, go to:
http://www.laecovillage.org/LAUSD2008addresses.html

And please come to the LAUSD Community meeting on Wednesday, March 19, 2008 at 6:00 pm at:

Virgil Middle School Auditorium
152 N. Vermont Ave.
Los Angeles 90004 (note: the auditorium is on Vermont Ave. at First St.)

LAUSD will announce its “preferred” site at this meeting. We need your support at this meeting to ensure that LAUSD selects the alternative site, Site #11.

LAUSD Community Meeting: Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 6:00 pm
at
Virgil Middle School Auditorium
152 N. Vermont Ave.
Los Angeles 90004 (note: the auditorium is on Vermont Ave. at First St.)

The LAUSD will present two site possibilities for their Central Region Elementary School #20 for 950 children:

OPTION 1:
The L.A. Eco-Village neighborhood consisting of all of White House Place and the adjacent No.Madison Ave. neighborhood. This option would destroy approximately 40 units of affordable housing, a stable neighborhood, and about one-third of the L.A. Eco-Village neighborhood which is part of an internationally renowned demonstration of a sustainable community in process.

and

OPTION 2:
The Virgil Middle School alternative consisting of building on the Virgil Middle School playing field, closing Council Street between Juanita and Madison, acquiring a Midway Ford auto repair shop and utilizing about a 1.5 acre site between Juanita and Madison just north of the auto repair already owned by LAUSD. This option destroys zero housing!

We need you to show up on Thursday, February 28, 2008 at 6:00 pm to tell LAUSD that if a school is necessary, you respectfully request them to select Option 2, and please give your reasons that you think the Eco-Village neighborhood should be spared.

The number of people that show up count!
The number of people who speak up for the more viable alternative site count!
The number of people who write to the school board members count (see addresses and fax numbers below).

And please keep your letters flowing to our school board member and councilperson, and others as you are able (see below).

2/13/08 Update on LAEV Struggle with LAUSD

On February 8th, CRSP Board President and architect Ian McIlvaine?? (Tierra Sol y Mar), Eco-Villagers Lara Morrison and Michelle Wong met with key LAUSD Facilities staff at the invitation of the LAUSD staff to share our recommendation for an alternative site. Ian’s power point, with input from architect Susan Sherod, was presented, showing use of a portion of the Virgil Middle School playing field, an adjacent auto repair shop and a substantial parking lot north of the school. This land assemblage, mostly property owned by LAUSD was comparable in size to the land LAUSD has targeted in LAEV and its adjacent No. Madison Ave. block. And no housing would be taken! Although LAUSD seems to be open to this idea, and the State Department of Education has indicated that the site would be acceptable to them, there are no guarantees that LAUSD will select the “no housing” site over the LAEV targeted site. Therefore, come February 28th at 6 pm at Virgil Middle School:

Help Save the L.A. Eco-Village and No. Madison Ave. Neighborhoods from LAUSD Bulldozers!

PLEASE SIGN THE ELECTRONIC PETITION TO SAVE THE LOS ANGELES ECO-VILLAGE BLOCK OF WHITE HOUSE PLACE AND THE HOMES OF OUR NEIGHBORS ON SO. MADISON AVE. GO HERE AND SCROLL DOWN TO THE BOTTOM TO CLICK ON TO “SIGN THE PETITION”
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/la-eco-village

For an update on the January 30, 2008 LAUSD Community Meeting at Frank del Olmo school, please go to: http://www.laecovillage.org/LAUSD2008.html

Note that as of 1/30/08, LAUSD officials have not made a decision, and there will be several more LAUSD community meetings before making a decison. Watch for future dates here. We continue to need your support with letters, faxes, phone calls and your appearance at future LAUSD Community meetings. Most of all right now, please sign the electronic petition and spread it as far and wide as you think people are supportive of our struggle.

Please write letters to Monica Garcia, expressing your opinion about the need to preserve affordable housing in the LA Eco-Village neighborhood, the importance of White House Place as housing for families with school age children, Eco-Village’s role in the LEED Neighborhood Development pilot project and the Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust. See more writing points below. See link to slide show with facts and figures below, sample letters and other important news developments. Also check www.laecovillage.org for current developments.

Address your letters as follows. Please remember to copy your letter via fax to all school board members. They will be making the ultimate decision.

Please be sure to let us know or send copies of any correspondence to us at crsp@igc.org.

Address all letters to:
Ms. Monica Garcia, District 2
LAUSD School Board Member and President
Los Angeles Unified School District
333 South Beaudry Avenue, 24th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90017
Phone 213-241-6180
Fax: 213-241-8459

Send copy to all board members who have the same street address as above. Here are FAX numbers:
Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte??, LAUSD District #1, Phone 213-241-6382, Fax: 213-241-6382
Tamar Galatzan, LAUSD District #3, Phone 213-241-6386, Fax: 213-241-8979
Marlene Canter, LAUSD District #4, Phone 213-241-6387, Fax: 213-241-8453
Yolie Flores Aguilar, LAUSD District #5, Phone 213-241-6383, Fax: 213-241-8467
Julie Korenstein, LAUSD District #6, Phone 213-241-6388, Fax: 213-241-8451
Dr. Richard Vladovic, LAUSD District #7, Phone 213-241-6385, Fax: 213-241-8452

If you are unable to get through via fax on any of the above numbers, then fax to:
213-241-8953 or 213-481-9023

Also, please EMAIL copies of your letters to:
Alejandra Marroquin, CD13 Field Deputy, Alejandra.Marroquin@lacity.org
Caroline Sim, CRA Wilshire Center/Koreatown Redevelopment Area, csim@cra.lacity.org
Councilman Eric Garcetti, CD13, c/o lamerian@council.lacity.org
Heather Repenning, CD13 Community Development, Heather.Repenning@lacity.org
Jenny Aquas, LAUSD, Board Member, Dist. 2, jenny.aguas@lausd.net
Kelli Bernard, CD13 Planning Director, Kelli.Bernard@lacity.org
Lara Morrison, Los Angeles Eco-Village LEED-ND Project, laraeco@hotmail.com
Luis Sanchez, LAUSD, Board Member, Dist. 2, l.sanchez@lausd.net
Robyn Morningstar, rmorning@Sidley.com
Susan Cline, LAUSD, Central Region Development Team Manager, susan.cline@lausd.net

Writing Points for Letters to LAUSD Board Members:

Here are important points to make. Select a few of them that resonate best with you personally, or simply write about your experience with the LAEV neighborhood and why you think it important to save.

- There are more appropriate close-by sites, especially parking lots and auto related businesses.
- The LAEV neighborhood is already dense with schools: two large schools just a block away.
- LAEV is within walking distance of 10,000 school children
- Research on WHP/Madison properties suggest that they are not appropriate environmentally,.
- School demographics seem to be declining
- Some of the schools ES#20 is supposed to relieve currently have empty classrooms.
- There are sufficient empty seats within the Central Region that kids can be locally bussed
- Elementary schools should be smaller, not larger
- Neighborhoods should not have to choose between schools and housing
- Old people often die when they have to move after spending half their lives in one place.
- LAEV is a learning neighborhood.
- LAEV is the only on-the-ground LEED-Neighborhood Development pilot project in LA
- The Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust in the LAEV is committed to permanently affordable housing in balance with nature in our neighborhoods..
- LAEV is part of a global movement for more sustainable and healthy neighborhoods. See www.ecovillage.org

See slide show here .
http://inspirationteas.com/uploads/Why_we_live_at_White_House_Place3.pdf

http://www.inspirationteas.com/

See video snippets of the LAUSD Community meeting on January 9th, 2008: neighbors speaking up to save the neighborhood: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihiwtsVKum8

BREAKING NEWS
CALIFORNIA’S? GRIM BUDGET PICTURE STALLS ‘YEAR OF EDUCATION’
by Juliet Williams Associated Press Writer | from the San Jose Mercury News

January 6, 2008—SACRAMENTO—The mood was buoyant just a few months ago as some of the state’s best minds in education gathered to debate what school reforms to make in 2008, a year Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had anointed California’s “Year of Education.” Since then, much of the enthusiasm has fizzled as the state’s fiscal outlook has deteriorated…

December 22, 2007 - Gov. considers major cuts in services Schwarzenegger will declare a fiscal emergency Jan. 10th. Schools could lose $1.4 billion and thousands of inmate could be freed early. LAUSD weighing loss of $100 million to current budget.

By Michael Rothfeld, LA Times, 12/22/07 Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-arnold22dec22,0,3407799.story?coll=la-home-center

10/23/07- L.A. board shifts $1 billion from early education and maintenance to new school construction… expect to see more eminent domain evictions and neighborhoods disrupted as 76 projects go up throught the region.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lausd23oct23,1,7966618.story?coll=la-headlines-california**

As the Los Angeles Ecovillage expands its purpose and scope through the Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust and the LEED Neighborhood Development Project, this is an important opportunity to communicate with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) who operate a kindergarten school within the LAEV neighborhood. Note that LAEV started at the LAUSD fourplex on the northeast corner of White House and Bimini Place. The LAUSD required that the fourplex be vacated several years ago, allowing the affordable housing complex to rot. Here are some links to the history & status of the kindergarten school, White House Place Primary Center, as well as other relevant information on LAUSD and its projects.

History of LAEV & WHPPC

Ecovillager Esfandiar aka “Mr. Plant” receives the Golden Aphid award from White House Place Primary Center children, in front of the White House Place 4 plex, 1994. LAUSD recently (Dec 2007) demolished the historically significant building where the Eco-Village activities began in 1993. Eco-Villagers had created and staffed an outdoor environmental classroom and the school library. Unfortunately, after LAUSD mandated that the building be vacated in 2003, they allowed it to deteriorate to the point that it was an on-going blight in the neighborhood

LAUSD in other neighborhoods

From the Echo Park Historical Society …9A residents served with vacate notices Coalition, Garcetti step up efforts to save homes, businesses…
http://www.historicechopark.org/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/winter2006.pdf

The continuing struggle in Echo Park:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/web/la-oew-welch7aug07,1,6804468.story

Enrollment trends & joint usage trends in Los Angeles

http://paa2006.princeton.edu/download.aspx?submissionId=61492.

http://www.housingfinance.com/ahf/articles/2006/nov/FAMILYPROJECT1106.htm

Letter to School Board Member Monica Garcia from Lois Arkin, co-founder of Los Angeles Eco-Village:

January 7, 2008

Lois Arkin
117 Bimini Pl #221
Los Angeles CA 90004
213-738-1254
crsp@igc.org

Ms. Monica Garcia, District 2

 LAUSD School Board Member 
 Los Angeles Unified School District 
 333 South Beaudry Avenue, 24th Floor 
 Los Angeles, CA 90017 
 213-241-6180 
 Fax: 213-241-8459 
 monica.garcia@lausd.netRe: Central Region Elementary School #20; request to consider alternative site

Dear Monica,

I love children. When I learned that the children of Los Angeles grow up with reduced lung capacity from breathing polluted air, I asked myself what I could do to change that. First, I decided to stop driving. Fortunately for me, I lived in a neighborhood where I could walk to the store and had easy access to many buses.

Next, a group of people joined me to address the wide range of environmental problems in an integrated manner. We designed a high-tech development to be built on vacant city property. Before we broke ground, my neighborhood was engulfed in the unrest of 1992. I remember riding my bicycle past the burning buildings on Vermont. Our planning group realized that there were social problems just as important as the environmental problems. We abandoned our new construction plans and committed to retrofitting the neighborhood where we had been meeting in my apartment.

Our efforts began with community meetings. Crime was a major concern. People were very fearful, children were not allowed to play outside and neighbors did not know each other. Today, things are completely different thanks to the hours of effort by volunteers and neighbors. We have become friends through helping children plant fruit trees and learning how to care for the neighborhood. Now, everyone feels safe walking on White House Place and Bimini Place. We have become a valuable example for people around the world, an example that gives people hope for a better future.

Almost every week, I take groups on a walking tour of our neighborhood. They appreciate what has already been accomplished: fruit trees, gardens, the Bimini Slough Ecology Park. Equally important is the picture painted in the imagination of a time when future visitors to our two-blocks will have an “ahah” experience - “So this is what it is like to live in a healthy neighborhood.”

Our children need healthy neighborhoods to grow up in as much as they need schools. I fervently hope you will understand the importance and benefit of this demonstration project we call the Los Angeles Eco-Village. We want to be your allies in finding a site for the new school that preserves our efforts and safeguards our vision for the future. I believe, and I hope you will agree, that there is enough time to find an alternate site if we work together.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Lois Arkin

Letter to School Board Member Monica Garcia from Eco-Home Founder Julia Russell:

Re: Central Region Elementary School #20

Dear Ms. Garcia:

The school population in Los Angeles is declining as shown in a study by the Unified School District, itself.

Schools to accommodate 10,000 school children are already built, in construction or on the drawing boards in and around the Los Angeles Eco-Village neighborhood.

When Los Angeles is in such dire need of affordable housing, what possible justification can there be for obliterating dozens of units of existing affordable housing in order to build un-needed new schools in an area already over-supplied with schools?

By providing an inspiring and duplicable model of smart growth, a walkable. transit-oriented neighborhood, community-based public safety, sustainable rehabilitation and maintenance of affordable housing all with no cost to the city, state or nation, Los Angeles Eco-Village is demonstrating the way to a sustainable and equitable future for urban dwellers.

In 1999 funding was approved to make Bimini Place, the main street in LAEV, a demonstration “shared street”, an example of streets that enhance neighborhood livability.

Los Angeles Eco-Village will soon qualify for certification by the National Green Building Council’s LEEDS Neighborhood Development Program, showcasing exemplary sustainable urban neighborhood projects.

The Los Angeles Eco-Village gives substance to the aim of the City of Los Angeles to be a leader in the greening of U.S. cities. The arbitrary and unnecessary despoliation of the LAEV and its environs will tarnish the reputation of the whole city in the eyes of the nation and the world.

LAEV leaders have offered to work with the LAUSD to find a more appropriate location for a new school if, indeed, it is determined to be truly needed. What more fair and cooperative offer can be made?

Please, give the future a chance to flower in Los Angeles. Preserve and nurture the template of regenerative urban development that is the LA Eco-Village.

Sincerely,

Dr. Julia S. Russell
Founding Director
Eco-Home Network

Letter to City Council President Eric Garcetti from CRSP Board President Ian McIlvaine??:

December 17, 2007

Councilman Eric Garcetti
200 N. Spring Street #470
Los Angeles CA 90004
Email c/o <lamerian@council.lacity.org>
Fax:(213) 613 0819

Subject: Request to save the L.A. Eco-Village neighborhood

Dear Councilman Garcetti,

Lois has informed us that the LAEV neighborhood is at risk again from
the LAUSD. Former Councilwoman Goldberg helped save the LAEV
neighborhood from school expansions four times over the past nearly 30
years. Ten years ago, dozens of city and LAUSD staff hours were spent
hammering out an agreement to transfer the White House Place Primary
Center old four-plex property on the northeast corner of Bimini and
White House Place to the CRA to ultimately be used to further the
Eco-Village demonstration objectives. Unfortunately, the LAUSD reneged
on that agreement, ultimately allowing the old, historically significant
four-plex to deteriorate to the point of being considered a danger, and
recently had it demolished, a very sad day in the life of the
neighborhood, and a disappointment to the hundreds of people and
organizations worldwide that fought to save that corner in 1997.

The CRSP board urges you to move forward to negotiate a land swap
between the LAUSD and the CRA for what the LAUSD indicates is a needed
K-5 or K-8 elementary school in this neighborhood. My understanding is
that the CRA is interested in such a swap.

With sharp decreases in LAUSD enrollment over the past several years,
combined with the significant loss of affordable housing to LAUSD school
construction projects and the growing green neighborhood movement, we
question the need for this school at the sacrifice of the Eco-Village
neighborhood, currently, the only on-the-ground LEED-Neighborhood
Development Pilot Project in Los Angeles. Our long term vision
includes a small school grounded in place-based education for
neighborhood children and their families.

In addition, the recently organized Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust
is posed to receive our donation of the land underneath our 48 units of
affordable housing on Bimini Place later this year. Should the LAUSD
move forward in the Eco-Village neighborhood, this land donation will
have to be reconsidered, since it is unlikely the LAEV could continue
its demonstration in its current location or complete its LEED-ND
certifications. It would also be unlikely that we could move forward
with making Bimini and White House Place car-free or car-light streets
following the current Phase 1 of the street redesign under construction
now (and, of course, we are very appreciative of your efforts to move
the Shared Street project forward).

In closing, we urge you to use the power of your office to prevent the
taking of White House Place for questionable school expansion in the
Eco-Village demonstration neighborhood, including your power to refuse
the issuance of street closure and demolition permits.

Please feel free to contact me to discuss this issue further.

Very truly yours,

Ian McIlvaine??
President, CRSP Board of Directors
Phone: 310/392-2775
Email: ian@tierrasolymar.com