April 4, 2006 WatchOurCity.com Dear Watch…. This is a song of joy and praise and disappointment about the community you watch. I’ll try to sing it in under 10,000 words: First, my creds: Grew up in H.P., attending Pacific Blvd School and Gage Ave Jr Hi, graduating from HP High in June ’45. Sister attended Miles Av and grad from the h.s. in maybe ’49. Lived over time at 6020A Oak St, 6010 Oak, 6205 Miles Ave, and, as a married adult, on Plaska at an address I know longer remember. (First of four daughters born while I lived there.) The girl I married grew up at 6916 Cedar. Dad worked at Axelson’s and at Sopp Chevrolet. Mom kept house, except for a brief period during WWII, when she became a riveter at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach. Now, the point of this area: After reading about HP’s hundredth birthday, hauled myself back home from West San Fernando Valley a couple of weeks ago. First visit to H.P. in decades. Was in serious, joyous culture shock for most of my three- or four-hour drive-around. The color and excitement and vitality of the city – especially as manifest on Pacific – were astonishing. Literally astonishing! Talking to myself as I toured the city, noticing the gone and the new, I kept repeating, omigod omigod omigod omigod. Only two buildings on Pacific that were landmarks remain undisguised to me: Eastern Columbia, now a store for kids, and the Warner Theater, which forlornly, but hopefully advertises its availability for lease. Belgrave Ave in my old neighborhood is now what looks like lunch and lounge space for the high school. The old homesteads on Oak St. are replaced by townhouses, as are all the old homes on that and adjacent blocks. Bethlehem Steel on Slauson is replaced by Home Depot, Staples, Bally’s Ultimate Fitness, and – possibly in a humanitarian gesture to those who over-shop or over-fit – a Quiznos or Subway (forget which). The high school seems to have grown by twenty or more buildings. (We moved to Oak St. just after the ’34 earthquake, and the wreckage, rehab, and new grounds and buildings were my playground from 3rd thru 8th grade.) Miles Ave School has become an entire new nation, possibly requiring a passport, as has Pacific Blvd. School. On neighborhood streets and Pacific: lots of families, lots of smiles. The point of all this – points, actually: First, I really have to share my enthusiasm with somebody who might care – as I assume you might. If you’d like to talk, I’ll come see you and be enthusiastic. I promise not to bring the Civil Defense helmet issue to me as an Air Raid Messenger in ’42 and proved to be almost as heavy as my bike. But I could be persuaded to tell about the day in 1942 that the HERE-I-AM-BOMB- ME Alcoa plant in Vernon was replaced by a bucolic agricultural hillside, topped by a ramshackle shed of no apparent military value and thus not worth bombing. We could meet at Starbuck’s, where on the Saturday, I fell deeply in love with a pretty, young barrista who said she loved Huntington Park, has lived there for twenty-four years, and graduated from H.P. High. She was just the right person with whom to share my story and my enthusiasm. I’d first thought I could share my enthusiasm with a city official, and found Juan Noguez’ name on the official H.P. website. Also found, Googling “Huntington Park,” WatchourCity. If your site is accurate – and, with sources such as the L.A. Times, I have to assume it to be so – it appears that the wonderful city I discovered in my tour has some pretty foul innards. I decided not to expose my naiveté to Noguez, but to tell you my story instead. Cordially and respectfully, Rex Malcolm |
More Letters to The Editor Note: The following emails are here printed unedited, save for personal identifying information such as names, telephone numbers and email addresses which have been deleted to maintain anonymity. I'm O.K. with the typos. No one's perfect. Dear comments = Congratulations, great articles, I will continue reading your articles as I am a long time resident of this city, keep up the good work name = ldb comments = God Bless you for the work you're doing. Every city should have a website like this because elected officials, unless forced, will generally not be honest stewards of public funds. comments = Keep up the great work!!!!!!!!!!!!!read the times story, i'am here in los angeles....... comments = WAY TO GO! Having learned of your website through the L.A. Times article, I am very excited to see such exposure. I am currently a resident of Bellflower and only dream of such a site for our city. My only suggestion would be if there was some way you could possibly supply various links to educational articles explaining how the city is run, rules & regulations, etc. so that the common voter could understand better what his elected official jobs are. Perhaps a schedule of current meetings scheduled to encourage voters to attend. Keep up the great work! Kudos to this website. name = LT comments = Read your work in LA Times. Excellent work. You may want to publish what some of your readers write, especially from those living in your community. Links to communicate with community officials may also help. Keep it up. comments = This is a very intresting website you have here. If it wasn't because I read the times I would have not found it. As we Mexicans say "Les estan sacando los trapos sucios a los politicos." Thanks for informing us. name = Yolanda comments = Thank you for your hard work. I sent your website to several friends who live in HP or have friends there. Wish that you could do this for other cities. Integrity is powerful and it is a trait that most people respect more than any other. You may be doing a dangerous high wire act but your protection from falling and hurting yourself is your blanket of truth. Again, I thank you. comments = I just read the article that was printed in the Los Angeles Times (08/21/2004) regarding this website. What an awesone thing your doing in exposing these greedy politicians that take advantage of the immigrant community. If more oversight was given to the communities in southeast los angeles, maybe our people would be better off. I really enjoyed the site, and hopefully one day I can begin to make a difference in my city. Thank You. name = W Arroyo comments = This is great. I applaud you. However, I think this kind of info needs to also be available in Spanish. I also think that watchourcity will have to come out of the closet before too long; this may turn out to be advantageous. Thanks for trying to help the residents in Huntington Park. I happen to live in Sherman Oaks. name = Vero comments = I am impressed by your website. You have really done your homework on how the cities monies are spent. It's a shame how there is money to spend on certain unacessary things when certains things such as education can benefit from this money that is just being wasted. Congratulations, on your website. I will be sure to let my HP friends know of it. name = A. Young comments = I've come upon your website an I'm very impressed with the wealth of information. Keep up the good work, while keeping it clean."Happy Resident" comments = Strict confidence, please! I admire your perseverince and determentation, with your factual information gathering, along with your commitment to uncover the truth.I live in the city of Montebello and there have been some unsetteling events with the politicans, city living conditions,gang murders that are never made public,etc... I work 60 hrs a week and do not find the time to create a Website, or have the knowledge to begin an endevore so breath taking as you have. Is it possible for you to start some type of investigation, into the reasons for the unsetteling events I mentioned. Please email me, with any queationsor comments you might have. Gracias comments = Nice Job. The District Attorney should hear about these abuses. An investigation should be launched. comments = Thank you thank you thank you for a great website. These crooks you report on are nothing more than crooks in suits and pantsuits. THank you for exposing them for what they truly are. Now we need to vote them out. Thank you for your hard work. You should have some way to donate to your website. comments = Great site. You've done a really good job & your work is inspiationa. We're trying to do much the same in West Hollywood where corruption is running rampant. The funny thing is that I grew up in HP. My mom still lives there. Thanks comments = whoever developed this website if you could make one like this for inglewood city council members it would be off the chain comments = You should expand this effort to include more governmental entities. Keep-up the good work comments = dear people what happened to accountability san diego has the same problems keep up the good work name = M. Mena comments = This is a great PUBLIC SERVICE! Why do people run for city council? Laptop computers (plus free technical support$) that can be used for personal business, are just one of the perc's. comments = Hi, Just noticed your site via the GardenGroveResidents Yahoo user group. We have started an Orange County site that focuses on Police and Judicial activities. This format could be expanded to any county in any state. We have also considered inclusion of local government activities too. Any comment regarding our site would be greatly appreciated. Thank you name = C. Zaldivar Motts comments = Nice website! Please add me to your emailing list. Thanks. name = MTA comments = Saw the article in the L. A. Times on Saturday. You're doing great work. Keep it up! My brothers and I are former residents on HP. In fact, I was actually born there in Mission Hospital. We regard HP as our home town and are always saddened to hear about the scandals. We're very glad that someone is working to keep those people honest. Best regards, comments = Keep up the good work! As a former elected official who represented Huntington Park during my 3 terms it pains me to see the good people of that community being taken advantage of. name = Wangsness comments = You perform a very valuable public service in reporting the facts about city affairs. Keep up the good work. comments = I would like to converse with the founder of this web page for the purpose of writing an article to be published in Hoy newspaper, the new spanish language Tribune publication in Los Angeles. We will respect your request for anonymity. Please contact me. Thank you. |
| WatchOurCity is overwhelmed with the numerous kind and encouraging responses received thus far, including constructive critiques, for the public service and public record information provided by WatchOurCity. Most messages are from Huntington Park, others form surrounding communities like South Gate, Cudahy Maywood, Bell, West Hollywood, Ventura, Inglewood and Downey. We've even heard from as far away as Washington D.C. and other parts of the world. ...... We strongly encourage non-partisan civic involvement and a keen monitoring of our City's elected officials and their use of PUBLIC FUNDS |