Community Walk September 22

This week we walked through the neighborhood known for some as 'Eastwood' and for others 'Hollywood Square'. Hollywood Square is made up of the streets that run North and South from Wilton Ave. to Western Ave. between Hollywood Blvd and Franklin Ave. At the corner of Hollywood and Garfield sits a large vacant lot dark and fenced-in. Unfortunately competing interests in the community have never come to an agreement on what should be built here and so it sits empty and dark known only as an unsafe corner of the neighborhood. As neighbors along the walk described this conundrum it made me wonder, what process of listening do we have here? How have we let relationships reach a point of tension that we're willing to let a valuable piece of our community on so many levels sit as a dirt lot unused?

I won't claim to understand fully the complexities and history of this debate but I want to challenge us to think about how we can have a deeper level of understanding for the 'other' perspective.

Perhaps... take a walk together?

Community Walk August 26th

Here we are at our start point on Hollywood and Cherokee. We made a new friend also carrying a sign.

She was passionately cheerful and held a sign that read, "The Best Day Ever". Her philosophy is that every day can be the best day ever. She believes that we have the capacity to make every day the best for ourselves and help make it true for others. Her book similarly titled should be coming out soon and be available at stores along the Blvd.

Here we are turning west onto Selma.

Here we are at Boardners to end the night. What a GREAT little spot that has a surprising courtyard and tons of character. A big thanks to Tricia for inviting us and giving all the walkers a nice little discount. ;)

Last but not least we want to thank Blessed Sacrament Church for letting us use their parking lot. It saved us some change and worry about how much time was left on the meter.