May 12, 2009

City of LA Holds Atwater Village Hostage Next 2 Days

Street Closure NoticeTHE NEXT COUPLE of days are going to be a pain in the asphalt. Many Atwater Village streets are closed, in part or in full, Wednesday or Thursday, all day, 6:00am to 6:00pm.

Why? The city's Bureau of Street Services (BOSS) is applying a slurry coat seal that "prolongs the life of the pavement by stopping asphalt erosion caused by water and oxidation from the sun."

Great. Does it also absorb stray bullets? Here's the original City notice, left without fanfare (or postage) in neighborhood mailboxes. And here's the City-to-Newbie translation:
  • If you want to pull your car out of your driveway after 6:00am, too bad for you
  • If you want to street-park your car within sight of your home, too bad for you
  • If you want to sleep past sunrise, too bad for you (garbage trucks come first, at 6:00am)
  • If you're disabled and need to be picked up or dropped off at your door, too bad for you
  • If you're working on your house or yard and need a vehicle nearby, too bad for you
  • If you want to water your yard in the next 3 days, too bad for you (the City says runoff would harm the "integrity" of the slurry)
And if your block seems to be in reasonably good condition and you wish Street Services would go do something more useful, like repair potholes and cracks in other parts of the neighborhood, well that's really too bad for you. Take it up with the BOSS office at (213) 485-5667.

6 comments:

AVN said...

Even better, the only spots left (4 blocks away) were under street sweeping signs prohibiting parking between 8am and 11am on Wednesday. Probably wake up to a pair of $50 parking tickets.

Miles said...

Uhm, good luck with taking it up with the city if you want them to focus elsewhere. We live on one of the concrete - not asphalt - streets in Atwater and though dozens of asphalt streets have been resurfaced or recoated in the 10 years we've lived here, the concrete streets have never been touched.

Furthermore, street cleaning abruptly stops after about the second block east of Glendale, even though the cleaners continue down the middle of the street. All it would take to continue the cleaning through the entire stretch of straight blocks is the adding of street signs to those blocks, but the city department doesn't feel it necessary. So, instead of getting once-weekly cleaned streets in our little area, the dirt is spread toward the curbs.

Thanks for the love, L.A.

Jrzedevl said...

I remember a time when this blog celebrated the uniquely village-esque feel of Atwater; when it proudly boasted of the boutiques, restaurants, goings-on, and citizens of this small portion of Los Angeles. Lately, however, it seems that the "Newbie" finds surprise in anything having to do with Atwater that doesn't deal with guns, murders, gangs, or helicopters. I used to really enjoy this site because, despite the negative criminal aspects which exist here, we learned about a new store owner, or a few of our neighbors, or a parade, or a yard sale, or a river walk, etc. Now I feel as if I am watching the trashy local news, with the "Newbie's" hyperbolic, exploitative, tabloid-ridden commentary such as "Does it also absorb stray bullets?", "It's a Gang Gang Gang Gang World," "...mere steps from where Joey Romo was murdered," etc. I'm glad that the "Newbie" is so involved with the community, and there have still lately been some useful entries about new businesses, but come on! Enough with the fear-mongering!

AVN said...

Fair point, Jrzedevl, but which changed first, the neighborhood or the blog?

Miles said...

Actually, the neighborhood hasn't changed all that much and I think you are fairly representing the ebb and flow of both good and bad news. There's been crime in the area, off and on, for decades, but that hasn't really stopped the area from changing and growing.

Keep up the good work on reporting what you see - both good and bad.

If you ignore it, it doesn't go away.

Miles said...

Eh, when i mentioned that it hadn't changed that much, that was in reference to the on again, off again crime. Other than that, the neighborhood has changed significantly.