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Serving LAPD's 77th Street and Southwest Divisions ... and vice
versa
Both LAPD and LAFD will participate
by Valerie Shaw
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VERMONT-HARBOR NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL
HOSTS FIRST EVENT
Click
here for event flyer
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Vermont
and 53rd Street will be the scene of the first Slauson Harbor Neighborhood
Council all-day Street Conference being held on Saturday, September
28th.
The 77th Street Division at LAPD serves most of the Vermont-Harbor
Neighborhood Council geographic area which is bound on the east
by the 110 Harbor Freeway, the north by ML King Blvd., on the west
by Normandie Avenue and on the south by Gage Avenue. The organization
seeks to create both a platform and a voice for the stakeholders.
"This event is a coming out party for the area's 40,000 stakeholders,"
says life-long resident and community activist, Beverly Blake. "This
is a forum for the revitalization of our community."
Blake is atypical of the neighborhood she proudly represents, for
she grew up in the tidy craftsman home on 53rd Street and returned
to it in 1985 to take care of her ailing mother. Now, following
her mother's passing, Blake has consumed herself with the business
of reclaiming the once prospering section of South Central Los Angeles.
"The Street Conference will be the first of many steps we must take
let people know about the resources at hand," she says, "and how
we can work together for the good of all people."
Working with a core group of fewer than 60 volunteers, colorful
pavilions will be erected for the day, hosting business forums,
community awareness activities, city and county services, arts and
crafts and, for teens and young people, carnival games and music.
The event promises to be the first time African Americans, Latinos
and Asians come together to improve the area that is currently suffering
from economic blight.
Now with a median income near the poverty level, boarded-up stores
and rampant unemployment, the area-bounded by the Harbor Freeway
and Normandie (east-west) and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Gage
(north-south)-was once a busy, thriving community when Blake was
a child, growing up on West 53rd.
"In the 50s, when we moved here from Kansas," says Blake, "my
father fell in love with the beautiful craftsmen homes and manicured
lawns." In the tone of a soft-spoken griot, Beverly Blake recalls
the Kress and Newberry dime stores, the banks and all forms of commerce
along South Vermont. "Kids could easily get summer jobs without
leaving the neighborhood and the streets were safe day or night,
for young and old," she remembers fondly.
Blake and her husband, Harold Clifford Blake, bought their first
home in the area. She only moved away when, in 1967, Harold died
in a tragic plane accident and she was left widowed with three children,
ages one, two and three. During the ensuing years Beverly Blake
went to work for Lockheed in Burbank, learning computer programming
in its early stages. Three years later she became a highly respected
business consultant.
Returning to the neighborhood in the 80s, Blake was in shock. "In
traveling time we were only 10-minutes from downtown, the hub business
and commerce," she says. "But in terms of our technology we were
10 years behind. We weren't even wired for cable television. Back
then," she continues, "people were complaining about the lack of
services, but there was no organized effort to change things." That
observation led her to recommit her life to community activism.
Today it is Blake's dream, as with the other 50 or so organizers
who are spearheading the formation of the Slauson Harbor Neighborhood
Council, that the upcoming Street Conference will inspire the rebuilding
their community.
To date, since they were first authorized by an amendment to the
Los Angeles City Charter in June 2001, there are over 70 chartered
Neighborhood Councils, from Wilmington to West Hollywood, from Venice
to Van Nuys. "We're tired of being left behind," says Beverly Blake,
as she pours over a mound of papers, phone books and notepads.
"Since the first meeting in November last year," she adds,
"we've been building up to this event with smaller gatherings. But
now it's time to bring all of our constituents together in the spirit
of unity and cooperation."
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STREET CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS
AREA SPECIALISTS AND LOCAL TALENT
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Of
special note: the panel discussion at 4pm on "probable cause"
The September 28, all-day Street Conference, sponsored by the Slauson
Harbor Neighborhood Council, will begin with a business breakfast
panel, where Sonya Blake, the Governor's Small Business Advocate
will keynote, and Mike Pfeiffer of the downtown business community,
will moderate.
FDG Zimart Galleries, Michael Massenberg, Overton Lloyd and Reuven
Harris are hosting a fine arts gallery representing art from the
African, Korean, Hispanic and European American traditions.
LAUSD Board member, Genethia Hayes, will host an Education Pavilion,
where parents can learn what skills their children are expected
to have at their grade level and where they can meet members of
their school's administration and PTA. Parents will also have the
opportunity to discuss some of the major issues confronting our
school district today.
At lunch, Councilwoman Jan Perry and Greg Nelson, General Manager
of the City Department of Neighborhood Empowerment have been invited
to keynote, while we enjoy an excellent lunch sponsored by Lawry's
foods.
At four, there will be a panel discussion on "probable cause" moderated
by Commissioner Bobbie Andersen.
In between attendees will enjoy live music, multi-cultural entertainment,
art and much more.
The two-square-mile community is home to 45,000 residents, 400 businesses
and 14 public and parochial schools. For information on booth space
or the event schedule call (323) 971-1277 or e-mail bb3343@aol.com
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For other works by Valerie Shaw please see:
Valerie
Shaw
offerings of an urban woman
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