The E-Newsletter of the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council · January 2010 In This Issue EHNC's Next Meeting, January 25! Candidates File to Appear on Ballot of EHNC Election EHNC Board Member Injured in Hit-And Run Bicycle Accident Drive-By Shooting Rocks Hel-Mel Corner In Memoriam, Ben Bradley (1950-2010) Local Census 2010 Office Opens EHNC's Next Meeting, January 25! First Neighborhood Council Meeting of 2010, at LACC The next monthly meeting of the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council will be on Monday, January 25, 7 p.m. at Los Angeles City College, 855 N. Vermont Avenue (Click here for map of location). The meeting will be at the Faculty and Staff Center, located towards the southern end of the campus, by Monroe Street. We will have reports from our LAPD Senior Lead Officers, as well as our representative from Council President Eric Garcetti's district office, plus a meeting of the EHNC's Governing Board, where important decisions regarding our neighborhood will be made. Community stakeholders will also have the chance to make announcements on upcoming events or voice their opinions on important issues in the neighborhood. The EHNC meets on the third Monday of each month, but due to the Martin Luther King, Jr. and Presidents Day holidays, the first two meetings in 2010 are be on January 25 and February 22, respectively. Visit our EHNC Monthly Meeting Website to download the meeting agenda and to get more information on the meeting. Candidates File to Appear on Ballot of EHNC Election Twenty names register by Jan 19 deadline for the March 20 vote Twenty people have filed as a ballot candidates by the January 19 deadline for the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council's Governing Board for the upcoming March 20, 2010 election. There will be 18 seats up for grabs - 11 of them representing neighborhood districts in our community, six seats representing stakeholder categories (tenant, property owner, business, student, community services and youth) and one at-large seat. According to the Office of the Los Angeles City Clerk, the names are as follows: Neighborhood District 1: Thai Town North Jennifer Tell Gary S. Slossberg Neighborhood District 2: Thai Town South None Neighborhood District 3: Little Armenia West Douglas A. Haines Edgar Makhshikyan Neighborhood District 4: Kingsley Vista None Neighborhood District 5: Barnsdall Maria F. Drews Neighborhood District 6: Little Armenia East Kristean Dragon Shahan Suzmeyan   Neighborhood District 7: College Eric J. Moore Lucy Varpetian Neighborhood District 8: Northeast John P. Harris Neighborhood District 9: Virgil Village North Noel R. Lingad Neighborhood District 10: Virgil Village South None Neighborhood District 11: Four Streets/Dayton Heights Alfredo A. Hernandez At-Large Representative David L. Bell Business Representative Sam Kbushyan Community Services Representative Brian M. Curran Caleb M. Larson Property Owner Representative Jennifer E. Moran Student Representative Frank Elaridi Tenant Representative Arthur C. Basa Julia E. Griswold Youth Representative None The seats for Neighborhood Districts 2, 4, 10 and the Youth Representative seats have no ballot candidates. However, anyone who wishes to file for those seats, or any other seats, has until Thursday, February 18 to file as a registered Write-In candidate for the election. Write-In candidates names will not appear on the ballot, but will appear on a list in the voting booth. To file, download and fill out the Candidate Filing Packet on the Los Angeles City Clerk's Neighborhood Council Election website or on the EHNC's Election website (www.easthollywood.net/vote). The EHNC election will take place on Saturday, March 20 at the Facutly and Staff Center at Los Angeles City College between 2:00 and 8:00 p.m. Anyone 16 years or older who is a stakeholder of East Hollywood (lives, works, owns property, attends school, is a member of a faith-based organization (church, synagogue, temple, ministry group), is a staff or board member of a non-profit organization serving East Hollywood or has a vested interest in the community) is eligible to vote in the election. For more information on the EHNC election, please attend the EHNC January meeting at L.A. City College on January 25 or call the Los Angeles City Clerk's office at 213.978.0444. EHNC Board Member Injured in Hit-And Run Bicycle Accident Eduardo Magos suffers minor injuries after being hit by car Jan 6 EHNC Governing Board member Eduardo Magos, was injured in a hit-and-run bicycle accident on the morning of January 6 in Downtown Los Angeles.   Magos, who was commuting by bicycle from his East Hollywood home to his job at the City of Los Angeles' Information Technology Agency in City Hall, was struck in the rear just before 8:30 a.m. by a motorist on 2nd Street, just east of Figueroa Street. He was thrown yards from the impact site, landed on his back and was sent to Good Samaritan Hospital in Downtown. An MRI scan proved negative, with no broken bones or internal injuries, but Magos did suffer bruises and external bleeding in his back. He was released from the hospital later that day and has been recuperating at home. The motorist briefly stopped but later left the scene, although eyewitnesses took down the motorist's license plate number. Magos represents Neighborhood District 9 (Virgil Village North) on the EHNC Governing Board and is also the co-chair of the neighborhood council's Health & Public Safety Committee. This accident is another sobering reminder that motorists should be more alert, aware and watch and share the road!   Drive-By Shooting Rocks Hel-Mel Corner No one hurt, motive unexplained in Jan 18 incident On Monday, January 18, at around 4:30 p.m., a van  stopped in front of The Smoking Gun smoke shop on Heliotrope Drive at Melrose Avenue. A gunman got out and fired about 10 rounds into the shop and the adjoining UTG tattoo parlor, then sped away. Though the shooting damaged the windows of the smoke shop and tattoo parlor, no one was hurt. Over the past year and a half, though things have been largely safe at the corner, there was a random stabbing in front of the Bicycle Kitchen just months ago, and Orange 20 Bikes was broken into twice since moving into the old Han's Furniture Store space. On January 21, about two dozen business owners, residents and other stakeholders of the Hel-Mel corner (a.k.a. The Bicycle District)  got together Scoops ice cream shop to discuss ways to deal with the drive-by shooting that shook up the corner on Monday afternoon. The managers of the smoke shop and UTG tattoos told the group that they could find no explanation for being targeted, as they denied any reason for retaliation or gang affiliation. UTG's manager, known as "Tattoo Louie,"  responded to accusations that his shop was introducing a violent element. "We do not do any gang tattoos," he said. "From day one, we've refused to any gang tattoos here." The incident is currently under investigation by LAPD detectives. In Memoriam, Ben Bradley (1950-2010) Fountain Theatre Director Murdered January 1 The East Hollywood and Los Angeles theatre communities suffered a tragic loss earlier this month when The Fountain Theatre's Bennett "Ben" Bradley was stabbed to death on January 1 in his Koreatown apartment. The 59-year old Director of Audience Development for the theatre was missing for a rehearsal of his production, The Ballad of Emmett Till, planned to debut in February, when a concerned cast member went to his home and discovered his body. Police arrested a 25-year old man who knew Bradley and later confessed to the murder days later. Bradley had been at the Fountain Theatre, located at Fountain Avenue near Normandie, for 16 years, receiving various awards and honors for his stage work. Fellow cast- and audience- members most fondly remember him for his cooking, recalling his home-made dishes served at parties, receptions and other events. Bradley was buried in his hometown of Baltimore, MD on January 15 and a public memorial, attended by numerous friends and live theatre peers, was held locally on January 23 at Barnsdall Art Park. The theatre has created a memorial web site for Bradley and also plans to move forward with the production of The Ballad of Emmett Till in his honor. At the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council's meeting in July, 2007, which took place at the Fountain Theatre, Bradley delivered the welcome address as a representative of the host venue.   Local Census 2010 Office Opens   Office located at Hollywood and Western to provide jobs, operations  A Local Census 2010 Office serving the Hollywood area opened last week at the intersection of Hollywood and Western. Located at 5500 Hollywood Blvd on the 3rd Floor of the historic Mayer Building, the office will serve to conduct Census operation and provide jobs within the local community. The building also houses the field office of Council President Eric Garcetti (4th Floor) and a CVS Pharmacy on the ground floor. Census Day is April 1, 2010. The U.S. Census is held every 10 years to help determine our representation in government, as well as how federal funds are spent in our community on things like roads, parks, housing, schools and public safety. For more information on the Hollywood office, contact 323.301.1493. For more information on available jobs for the 2010 U.S. Census, please visit http://2010.census.gov/2010censusjobs/   East Hollywood Neighborhood News is the monthly E-Newsletter of the East Hollywood Neighborhood Council and is distributed to the EHNC's community stakeholders, neighbors and other interested parties. We do not give out your email address to commercial or outside parties. To contribute or comment, contact: Elson Trinidad, Editor ehnc@easthollywood.net Unsubscribe if you do not wish to receive this newsletter. Our Postal Address: P.O. Box 292359 Los Angeles, CA 90029 Our telephone: 323.717.6112 Our websites: Official Site: www.easthollywood.net MySpace: www.myspace.com/easthollywood YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/easthollywoodnc Facebook: Facebook Page Twitter: www.twitter.com/easthollywoodnc Copyright (C) 2010 East Hollywood Neighborhood Council. All rights reserved.