Has anyone noticed...

...a sure indicator of economic uncertainty: along with no-money-down real estate scams, there are, once again, men going through the recycling on trash day as there were in the late 'eighties/early 'nineties. The difference now is the added spector of identitiy theft. I'll be talking to the SLO about this tomorrow though I don't know if it's really a law-enforcement problem. Personally, I don't begrudge the trashpickers whatever recycling they can find to sell, though it's a little creepy, but I really don't want them reading my mail, or getting my bank info. I shred - what do you do?

Hit the roads

Here's a link to the Daily News' story about councilman Smith's (our council rep) plan to get streets repaired sooner, and, presumably, better. Estimates are that it would cost about $100/year for every homeowner.

I'd pay twice that amount.

Who's Out There?

Back from a short road trip, the encinoblogger got one suportive email. We'd like to see more of those, not for the strokes (though those are nice) but just to know that someone's reading this. More than that, we'd like to see others on this site. You can - you should - email me for the deets as to how to do this. It's not hard to do; you don't have to be a super geek, and it's fun. And, as Arthur said, isn't fun the best thing to have? (I love this film.)

Get the mailer from the Encino Neighborhood Council? I did. It seems that there's an election approaching for seats on said council. Seems like someone from Encino Village should be part of this, though the seats are structured (I think) oddly - represenatives from various interest groups, not residential districts. I've added a link to their site in the links table below, or simply go here: www.encinocouncil.org.

I hope to have progress report tomorrow re: the parking situation on Louise. Meanwhile, the car alarm from hell appears to have stopped. Props to SLO Trulick for this one. The encinoblogger requires his sleep and his quiet Sunday mornings for MTP.

Update

The last I heard (last week) was that the parking petition was on the way from the council office. There are volunteers to take it around, but we could always use more. Email me or use the "comments" tab below to speak up.

I haven't heard the truck alarm in several days. It would be great if that was over for good.

Please speak up if you're reading this.

From Councilman Smith's office...

I got this email from John Bwarie...

I hope this email finds you well. I just wanted to let you know that
there are 2 big projects that I'm working on that are coming up next
week in the 12th District; both are unique to the City of Los Angeles.

Councilman Smith is working with community groups and individuals to
host these events in order to improve the quality of life in for the
people of not just the 12th District, but all of Los Angeles.

I hope you'll be able to participate in one or both, regardless of
where you live or work. I think this is especially true for the
Instrument Drive (1A below)

1. MusicLA! Day
No matter where you live, you can make a difference with this event.
Councilman Smith, in conjunction with the Department Cultural Affairs,
is hosting MusicLA! Day in the northwest Valley on Saturday, April 8th
from 11am to 3pm in Northridge. This FREE event has two components:
A. Musical Instrument Drive: if you have an old guitar, flute, violin,
keyboards, Cellos, etc. (no pianos, though!), drop them off at the event
as a tax deductible donation. (Please contact me if you'd like to donate
an instrument but cannot make the event.)
B. Music Education Festival: Musicals, Workshops, Festival Drums by
Remo, performances, food, free giveaways & prizes, and more! This
family festival is not to miss!

For more information, exact location, & other details, click or paste
into your browser the following link:
http://cd12.org/cd12homepage/cd12cd12homepage256536459_03212006.pdf

Who we are

After looking over the sign-in sheets from the meeting at Emeilita St. School, some conclusions about who we are:

• A lot of us live on Lasaine; maybe "Encino Village" is too specific a term for this blog.
  
• Of twenty people that signed in, eight did not leave, or do not have, an email address.
• Nine people didn't leave a phone number.
• Two people came from Louise Ave on the 4200 and 4300 blocks. Welcome.

There were certainly more, a lot more, than twenty people (even allowing for couples) at the meeting. Presumably, some didn't see the sheet; some didn't have time in the rush to be seated; some forgot on the way out; and some probably don't care or realize that they don't have the time in their lives to get involved in community action. It's OK not to care, of course, but we're trying to build a community of people who do care. If you're reading this, you probably care. I'm just saying...

I've emailed all who left their email address. Let's see some comments, at least, and especially let's see someone else posting. Just email me and I'll tell you how.

Could it be?

I was out of town most of yesterday, but I didn't hear the alarm in the morning, and not so far this morning. This is the first time in months that it's been silent for a whole day. Could it be that our long nightmare is over? If so, I thanks to everyone who has called the SLO and the WV Division about this.
See what happens when we get together?

Rainy days and Tuesdays

It's spring, and a young man's fancy turns to flooded streets: why does even the slightest bit of rain cause our Encino Village streets to totally flood?
You'd think we were living in Wyoming, or Louisiana; there's a river in front of my house; the water is six inches deep.

We were in car alarm hell this morning. Does anyone know where to buy spike strips?

I start every day with a look at LA Observed. The same blogger, author and former LA Times-man Kevin Roderick, writes The Valley Observed. Interesting history and current events here.

Welcome new readers

Glad to see we're getting some readers...now it's time to get involved and post. The SLO is on the job: cars were cited and, I believe, towed, yesterday (Sunday) and we had another conversation about the car alarm from hell. Things are moving.

Tell your neighbors about the blog and get them in the loop with all of this stuff. We can change our neighborhood.

The Sign 

March alarm madness; new links

The alarm on the truck parked on Louise continues to go off with astounding regularity at all times of the day and night. At his request, I have called (SLO) officer Trulik each time to document the occurrence. Last night (Wednesday) he called me to say he was going to deal with it. He sounded convincing.

Still waiting to see someone else posting here...

encinowatch.com

This useful site (thanks to Barbara Hand) contains a lot of useful community and LAPD info. Much of it needs to be updated, but it's still a great service.

Citrus Sunday

Here's info from John Bearie in the city council office re: Citrus Sunday. Seems like a good cause.


Councilman Greig Smith
& the Valley Interfaith Council
Invite You to Join...

CITRUS SUNDAY!
A fresh fruit drive to help the more than
130,000 San Fernando Valley residents living
without adequate, nutritious food.

It's as easy as 1-2-3!
1. Pick the extra citrus fruit from trees in your yard
2. Put it in plastic bags
3. Drop it off at your local fire station (listed below)
The Valley Interfaith Council will then collect the fruit and
distribute it to the needy at local food banks.

Sunday
April 9, 2006
8 am - 6pm

Deliver your freshly picked (or purchased) Citrus Fruit to the following Fire
Stations in the Northwest Valley:
Encino: Station 83
Northridge: Stations 70 or 103
West Hills: Station 106
Sherman Oaks: Station 88
North Hills: Station 87
Winnetka: Station 104
Granada Hills: Station 18
Chatsworth: Stations 96 or 107
Porter Ranch: Stations 8 or 28
West Van Nuys/Lake Balboa: Station 100
* For locations & directions, go to: http://lafd.org/fsloc.htm

Brought to you by
Councilman Greig Smith, The Valley Interfaith Council, & The Los Angeles Fire Department

Here's the email address for correspondance about this blog: encinoblogger@gmail.com. If you want to post, email me at this address and I'll get the user name and password to you. Please contribute, either by posting or commenting.

I have heard today from John Bwarie in concilman Smith's office about the proper forms to petition the city for parking regs on Louise Ave.. He's looking into it, as is Maritza, so we're already making progress. We need to reach a consensus on exactly what we want to do, though, so let's start a dialog on this before we go in too many directions.

First Post

Welcome to Electric Encino, the blog for Encino Village. This isn't my blog; it's for all of us who attended tonight's meeting, and anyone else in the neighborhood who wants to post info, ask or answer a question, vent (politely; no flaming please, or I'll take down the blog), and otherwise get the word out - whatever the word is. I'm hoping this will also be a vehicle for Councilman Smith's office and our SLO to keep us informed and alert.

Feel free to leave your thoughts in the "comments" section below; that's the most immediate way to participate. Posting is easy: anyone who wants to post is welcome to do so. When I get a minute, I'll set up an email address for correspondance about the blog. Meanwhile, anyone who wants to post should contact me (here's a link to my email) for the password and go to it. (Update: the link now points to the email address I set up: encinoblogger@gmail.com.)

Since it's my soapbox right now, I'm just gonna say this: I hope that the energy that we all had tonight at the meeting can go forward and create a lasting neighborhood bond. In my time in Encino Village, I've seen other efforts to build a community here fail: other SLOs have come and gone; other bright young city council reps have drifted off to the service of more unified and vocal neighborhood associations. Let's keep this going, and try to do one small thing first; parking regulation on Louise is a good place to start. If we can see that through, then we'll do one more thing, and then another. After a while, we'll have built a neighborhood.

Good evening.