Pancakes at Mt. Washington Elementary

This past weekend, my family and I enjoyed a really great pancake breakfast fundraiser that the Mt. Washington elementary school PTA hosted. The school had a really great turn out and raised a good amount of money for school. Congratulations!

State of Eagle Rock Solid at TERA Meeting

On Wednesday, I delivered my “State of the Town Address” to The Eagle Rock Association (TERA). TERA has been advocating on behalf of Eagle Rock for more than 20 years and it’s always an honor for me to spend some time with them. I want to thank them for hosting for this event. We had a nice turnout as I updated folks on some of the issues I’ve been working on, such as pushing forward on hearing medical marijuana hardship exemption cases throughout my district. At my urging, the City has heard more hardship exemptions in Council District 14 than any other Council office and I thanked Eagle Rock residents for their help in leading me to move to strike the hardship exemption clause from the Interim Control Ordinance. We also talked about LAPD’s Northeast Division ranking 1st in crime reduction City-wide with homicides down 56 percent and violent crime down 10 percent. And after Wednesday mornings multi-agency law enforcement sweep throughout the Northeast led to the arrests of 78 alleged gang members, some alleged to be responsible in the killing of L.A. Sheriff’s Deputy Juan Escalante, we are hopeful crime will drop even more. Thanks again to TERA, my staff and the community members who came out.

Come Out to the Mendez Learning Center's Ribbon-Cutting Tomorrow!

Please join me tomorrow morning at the official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez Learning Center, the first high school built in the eastside in more than 80 years. During my time as president of the school board I fought to get a much-need high school built in Boyle Heights to relieve overcrowding at Roosevelt High School, which at one time was the most overcrowded school west of the Mississippi. I also wanted a school with a math-science focus to prepare kids for high-paying tech jobs that are going to be available in the future. The Mendez Learning Center, which is named after a Mexican American couple who fought school segregation in the 1940s, will have a math-science school and an engineering-technology school. This is an accomplishment the whole community can feel proud about, so please join me, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, LAUSD School Board President Monica Garcia and hundreds of students and community members for this great celebration.

When: 9 a.m., Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009

Where: Mendez Learning Center
1200 Plaza de Sol
Los Angeles, CA 90033

Info: Councilmember Huizar’s
Boyle Heights Office
(323) 526-3059

Join me this Saturday at Grand Opening for New Hollenbeck Police Station

This Saturday at 6 p.m., please join me, LAPD Chief William Bratton, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Councilmember Ed Reyes, Capt. Anita Ortega and others at the official Grand Opening for the new Hollenbeck Police Station, a stunning 54,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility that will house more than 282 patrol officers, detectives and support staff. The new police station is just one of a number of improvements we’re working on in Boyle Heights – (Next up, The East Side Gold Line Extension!) Please bring friends and family Saturday as we celebrate this great new community police station, which includes an outside area where people can gather or sit and read a book. It’s really an awesome addition to our community.

When: 6 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009
Where: Hollenbeck Area Community Police Station
2111 East First Street (at Chicago)
Info: Councilmember Huizar’s Boyle Heights Office (323) 526-3059

Photo courtesy of Martha Benedict for lacp.org