Every since my jury duty service last June, I’ve been thinking a lot about gangs in Los Angeles. Prevention. Intervention. Detention. Suppression. I’ve read some interesting articles in the last few weeks that have spurned my thinking.

This one from LA Weekly focused on the city’s council’s $100 million gang prevention/intervention program - LA Bridges. They mostly focus on some of the major failings & shortcomings of the program - some serious needs that need to be addressed.

There was an interesting response to that article in a later LA Weekly (read here). One thing I hadn’t thought about regarding gangs was this:

“Psychologists and professionals will tell you these days that the gang lifestyle is a learned antisocial behavior that our youth can quickly become obsessed with, especially when family and community members all too often turn a blind eye to it. This “behavior,” which has a whole different set of morals, can also in many ways parallel the disease concept of many popular addictions, such as alcohol, drugs and gambling.”

I had no idea about the parallels with chemical or behavioral addictions.

Then the LA Times has published several recent articles on gang-activity & law enforcement in Los Angles, including this one that cites a recent report calling for a new gang czar to coordinate a comprehensive plan to battle the gang issues in LA. “After a quarter century of a multibillion-dollar war on gangs, there are six times as many gangs and at least double the number of gang members in the region,” the report states. And this one that talk about the challenges facing that plan.

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Because according to new reports, by mid-2008 the majority of the world will live in the city. Worth noting:

Of the 3 billion people who live in cities today, about 1 billion are in slums without clean water, adequate toilet facilities, or durable housing. Some 1.6 million urban dwellers - many if not most of them children - die each year due to causes associated with the lack of clean water and sanitation.

“For a child living in a slum, disease and violence are daily threats, while education and healthcare are often a distant hope,” says Molly O’Meara Sheehan, project director of Worldwatch’s 2007 report, a collection of articles and graphics produced annually since 1984.

Read more here

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Thanks to Ensie - a new Boyle Heights resident - found out about a new place to check out here in East LA - a bakery/coffee shop called Cakewalk on 1st (between Mission & Boyle). Their open from 8am-2pm, so I’m going to check them out today.

What was disappointing was reading this review of Cakewalk from the Downtown LA News. The bulk of the review is average enough - describing the menu, highlighting the desserts, persuading the reader to check it out. What is frustrating is the subtle or not so subtle dig at life in East LA. Or life on the other side of the river, as the article’s intro points out.

As a rule, Downtowners are loathe to go east of the Los Angeles River. There are exceptions: the biannual trip to La Serenata de Garibaldi for example, the fine Mexican restaurant just over the First Street bridge. But the psychological barrier is strong.

For one, it has nothing to do with the review of Cakewalk. Besides this cheap jab, there is nothing else in the article related to the store being in East LA.  Especially remarkable because that section of East LA is on the up & up.

But mostly, it bothers me hearing comments like that about East LA.  Not because there aren’t things about this neighborhood to be concerned by, but because most of the people that I read or hear making the comments haven’t personally experienced any of the negative things of which they speak.

In that way, it really is just a psychological barrio, I mean, barrier.  Without any Polyanna naivete, I’ve lived here for over 7 years without any more problems than a foul-mouthed tirade of a drunken neighbor. Maybe it is just easier to separate life into “the good” and “the bad” - the right side of the tracks and the other side.  But the world that I see & live in & work & play in, the good & the bad usually live next door to each other, if not in the same house.

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Via Vivirlatino.com - Scholarship opportunities for Latino college students: documented & otherwise.

Printed copies will be distributed through the Sallie Mae Fund’s national “paying for college” bus tour, which launches its California tour today. Additional scholarship directories will be distributed by the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute, and by the Hispanic Scholarship Fund at their programs throughout Southern California.

Download a copy of the directory at LatinoCollegeDollars.org. FYI - looks like this is just for California Latinos. Don’t know if that means going to school in California, graduated from H.S. in California, or just California dreaming.

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While I had hoped to spend some time during the holidays updating my blog & making some design changes… that didn’t happen.  But I’m back blogging again, so look for the changes in the next few weeks.  As I come to the end of my sabbatical and return to campus in February, look to see this blog continue to morph.  Not anything drastic, but you can expect a lot of the content to center around the following (but not always related) themes: following Jesus, the Bible, etc.; Los Angeles, life in Boyle Heights, ghetto birds, etc.; college students and campus life; sports; and my beautiful daughter, Isabel and the joys & sorrows of raising a daughter with cerebral palsy.  More on all of that to come….

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HT: Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council email

The Olvera Street Merchants
invite you to
Las Posadas
         A Candlelight Procession

December 16 -24, 2006, 7:30 pm nightly
Entertainment begins at 6:00 pm

     Champurrado  *  Pan Dulce  *  Piñata

For information call:
(213) 625-7074 or (213) 485-8372

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Check this out this weekend, if you can:

Josefina Lopez, author of Real Women Have Curves, and Courage Productions invite you to celebrate the voices and visions of Latina filmmakers in the second annual Boyle Heights Latina Independent Film Extravaganza (BHLIFE).

(more…)

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This is one of the frustrations of being a neighbor in the ‘hood - loud weekend parties.  One of our neighbors is starting to major in them.  Unfortunately, their back yard siets right underneath my daughter’s window.  To add to the tension, we’ve tried - unsuccessfully - to talk with them directly about being quieter.

So should I just make noise complaints to the police?  Are there any other options?

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My friend & former student Luz Cardenas has been working as the Job Development Manager for Our Savior Center, a multi-service assistance agency in El Monte. She basically has started their job development program from scratch in just the last year and a half.

Anyway, I just got this email from her about a training program for domestic help:

“Holidays are great: Parties, time with family and friends, great tasting food and of course presents! This year instead of wearing yourself thin in preparation, save yourself time and energy by hiring a Rescate Su Casa housekeeper. Allow the days to feel like holidays and less like work
The Job center at Our Saviour Center in El Monte has just graduated a new group of hard working women ready to make your life easier this holiday season. The Rescate Su Casa program is a housecleaning service designed to train and employ women who are seeking domestic work.

After our workers complete a three-day training, we match their skills and experience with housecleaning assignments offered by individuals in the San Gabriel Valley area and beyond. They have been trained with the same training materials as Molly Maids, and have completed our very own hands-on training curriculum.

If you would like to consider giving the gift of a clean home to a friend or loved one, to yourself or would enjoy having an extra hand around the house for the set up, tear down and/or hosting of a party, please give Our Saviour Center a call. Happy Holidays!”

If you might be interested, give them a call - whether for the holidays or not.

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Cine Sin Fin ~ 12th Annual East L.A. CHICANO Film Festival
Go to: www.alabrava. com <http://www.alabrava .com/> for more information. Presented by: A La Brava Producciones Revolucionarias, Inc and the following locations:

(more…)

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It doesn’t seem to matter if here in Boyle Heights, just like in Beverly Hills, we have palm tree lined streets (like my street), or new BMW’s and Lexus’ SUV’s driving down every street. It doesn’t matter that we’ll have 2 state-of-the-art hospitals or a local winery or a gorgeous view of downtown. It doesn’t matter that home prices have doubled or tripled in the last 6 years (I even saw a million dollar home listing last year), or that in the “location, location, location” game, I can be in downtown - door-to-door - in less than 12 minutes.

All of the other things that make up life in Boyle Heights doesn’t seem to matter when a journalist throws down a two word summary of my neighborhood:

(more…)

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For those of you familiar with my 2nd office practices (and some silly controversy), I was thrilled to hear that efforts are underway to bring a major coffee-shop chain to Boyle Heights.

Could Starbucks give Boyle Heights a needed jolt?
By Steve Hymon, Times Staff Writer - October 23, 2006

You can read the whole article below for the details. I just hope it happens soon.

(more…)

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My daughter’s babysitter manages an apartment that is on the corner of two midly busy streets.  Today when we went to pick her up I saw something that I believe only happens in (East) L.A.  Looking half a block down one street was sometype of movie/TV production taking place - complete with gaffes, cameras, those big light reflection screens, a crowd of extras and what not.  At the end of the other street, however, were over 10 police cars, investigating what I can only assume was a gang-related incident, considering the area and past activity.  And unless you stood on that corner, you wouldn’t have known the one was happening next to the other.

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Before.

P.S. Despite the visual effect of these two photos, the “job” isn’t yet done.  Still got to paint all of the rest of the security bars, the trim on the edge of the roof, and then the porch steps.  But this sure feels nice.

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I was recently made aware — courtesy of my some - day - to - be - a - judge - but - currently - starting - law - school friend Mark (thanks Mark!) — about an article in U.S. News & Report interviewing Nobel Peace winner (2001) Joseph Stiglitz, author of Globalization and Its Discontents and Making Globalization work, and former chief economist at the World Bank. He talks about the growing global division between the weatlhy and the poor. Here is an excerpt:

“The problem for both is that economic globalization has outpaced political globalization. Governments used to ensure that the capitalism was tempered and that development helped people across society. Now, we are more interdependent and need collective action on a variety of things, yet we have yet to create the political structures that allow that to be done in a democratic way.”

He continues at the end of the interview:

“The world is becoming less flat as inequity grows. One way to think about globalization is simply the lowering of transport and communications costs. As we become more interdependent we need to solve together a whole host of problems. If the world is going to do it, we should do so in a way that reflects our fundamental values: democracy, fairness, respect for the individual, concern for the poor. Unfortunately, the way the United States has been exercising leadership in the area of globalization has not been consistent with those values.”

Last summer I tried to read The World is Flat with my friend Walter. We never finished… at least talking about it. Maybe I’ll have to pick up this book now.

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…that people who live in one side of duplex on the “wrong side of the tracks” drive new luxury cars? There are three new BMWs parked on my street - and all are from residents. I wouldn’t put my money into a BMW anyway, but even less if I was renting in my neighborhood.

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“This is going to take years to correct because it took years to decay.”

This from Robert Taylor, new L.A. County Probation Chief for the Juvenile Detention Deptartment, talking about the state of California’s rehabilitation system, taken from today’s LA Times.   Read the whole article.

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Even though I posted about heading into jury duty two weeks ago, I’ve hesitated about posting a response from my experience, since it turned out to be a very personal experience.

I went in to fulfill my patriotic obligation - to serve jury duty. Like most of you, in the back of my mind I was hoping I could find a reason to get dismissed, or that God would orchestrate something that would get me excused. After hearing the “jury-duty-is-a-huge-honor-and-a-great-service” welcome speech, I began to think maybe it wouldn’t be so bad.

So I was curious in anticipation as my name was called for the first jury selection of the day. “Maybe this could be an interesting experience,” I thought, walking through a 2nd security checkpoint to the courtroom. “I wonder what the charges are?”

Not a full four days later, after returning a guilty verdict for 1st degree murder in a gang-related shooting, my conviction about jury duty had about-faced, and my head was swirling… (more…)

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Here it is. Or at least here is the beginning of my new blog-in-progress: SpanglishGringo.com! Thank you for all of you who voted on my old blog to help me settle this out.

While I won’t reveal the final vote tally - and it was close - over half of the votes included something “gringo” in the URL. “SpanglishGringo.com” was one of my top 2 choices. Let me explain why.

I like “Spanglish Gringo” because it captures the bilingual-ish & cross-cultural nature of my world. Despite my wife’s constant encouragement, I’m more accurately fluent in spanglish than I am in Spanish, though I still hold out my dream & goal of being able to preach in Spanish, as well as our hope & plan to raise our daughter (& and future kids that Jesus gives us) to be - at the very least - bilingual in both Spanish & English. For the past 10 years or so, my world has become increasinlgy Spanglish - at home with my wife, our family, our friends, with our neighbors and church. And while several books have been written - Living in Spanglish, The Future is Mestizo, Hispanic Nation, Latino Inc., - about the Spanglish experience for Latinos, espeically in the U.S., this blog will express the Spanglish experience of a Gringo living in an increasingly multi-ethnic (and particularly Latino) world.

And though in some contexts “gringo” can be understood as a derogatory reference for White Americans, it is not inherently so. It itself is a spanglish-esque word that says many things - outsider, foreigner or white guy, but also can be used con carino to communicate about someone who is entering into Latino culture, who recognizes themselves as an outsider - and the good & the bad they bring - but who also sees enters in authentically, sincerely, genuinely looking to both learn from & invest in this new culture. That, too, will be the perspective that comes on this blog.

I’m proud to be a spanglish gringo and I’m not pretending to be anything more or less. Hope you enjoy the new blog!

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