Beautification

It is a battle between convenience and aesthetics, between personal preference and neighborhood consensus, between the will of the majority and the private property claims of the minority. It is an issue as close to the heart of many Angelenos as, well, their front yards. Lawn parking. In neighborhoods as diverse as Venice, Sherman Oaks and San Pedro, many natives disdain garages and the street and park the family sedan in the front yard.

Along Sunset Strip, the 75-year-old pavement could tell some incredible stories about Hollywood through the ages. "There's probably chewing gum spit out by Jim Morrison in front of the Whisky a Go-Go," West Hollywood Councilman John Duran said Wednesday. "Don't tell anybody or they'll want to go pick it up." The Sunset Boulevard "strip" has not been repaved since the 1930s. So it's possible there may be gum deposited there by movie stars who once frequented the Strip, like Humphrey Bogart, Greta Garbo or even regal Shakespearean actor and unlikely gum-smacker, Sir Laurence Olivier.

For as long as many can remember, the section of the Los Angeles River that runs east of downtown has been an open-air gallery for taggers. No more. Members of the self-described "Metro Transit Assassins" used the river's sloping banks for massive tags of their acronym that stretched for blocks and could be seen from passing aircraft. "Buket," who gained notoriety for tagging the Hollywood Freeway overpass, put his black-bordered, mint-green moniker here at its biggest and boldest.

For as long as many can remember, the section of the Los Angeles River that runs east of downtown has been an open-air gallery for taggers. No more. Members of the self-described "Metro Transit Assassins" used the river's sloping banks for massive tags of their acronym that stretched for blocks and could be seen from passing aircraft. "Buket," who gained notoriety for tagging the Hollywood Freeway overpass, put his black-bordered, mint-green moniker here at its biggest and boldest.

A driver chatting breezily on his cell phone as he speeds down the freeway may be a quintessential L.A. scene, but the unsightly antennas sprouting citywide to carry such calls shouldn't be, Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski said Tuesday. Miscikowski introduced two motions calling for regulations on the design and placement of cellular phone antennas and the utility cabinets that house telecommunications equipment.

Memorials to war veterans were decorated with flowers planted by workers of the Boyle Heights Beautification Project last week as part of the program's effort to improve the area. The program, which was started in 1989, has three crew members and a weekend crew of community service workers who pick up litter, empty trash cans, paint over graffiti and steam-clean sidewalks six days a week in commercial sections of Boyle Heights.

The Lawndale City Council was taken aback Friday when it learned that the mother of a teen-ager arrested for defacing businesses with graffiti had been appointed to the local Beautification Committee. "That's where I heard the name before," said Councilman Larry Rudolph of Terri Strohm's appointment. The 39-year-old homemaker's son, Kri, was arrested in April after Gary MacDonald, then chairman of the Planning Commission, spotted Strohm scrawling graffiti on several businesses.

The city's Town Center project will move forward in 1998. Under a seven-year project approved by the council in 1997, the city expects to spend about $2.5 million to improve and beautify Dana Point, Mayor William Ossenmacher said. City officials started in 1997 by planting 300 trees on Del Prado and Pacific Coast Highway. The work will continue in 1998, along with about $1.1 million in improvements for Sea Terrace and Creekside parks.

Massachusetts has budgeted nearly $1.1 million to beautify prisons with art under a little-known law being criticized by lawmakers and corrections officials. The expenditures for anything from lawn sculpture to paintings to art classes stem from a law passed in 1981 under then-Gov. Edward J. King. It requires that 1% of construction costs on public buildings be devoted to art, up to a maximum of $100,000.

Marco Gomez swabbed his paintbrush along the fringes of Abraham Lincoln's sideburns. He paused, stepping back to examine the effect. Perfect. On to Abe's mouth. A shy man in paint-splattered clothes, Gomez had been a portrait artist in his native El Salvador. For the last month, the North Hollywood father has been volunteering his talents to brighten a new canvas--the walls of Victory Boulevard Elementary, where his children are students. "All of this is to beautify the school," he said.

More than 14,000 volunteers -- armed with disposable trash bags -- gathered at Los Angeles County beaches, parks and creeks Saturday and removed 150 tons of trash during the region's annual cleanup day. This year's haul marked a 65% increase from last year's total of 181,000 pounds of refuse, organizers said. In addition, the number of volunteers rose by 15% from last year. "Volunteers removed a record amount of trash," said Karin Hall, executive director of Heal the Bay. "But the biggest benefit of the day is raising so much awareness about the everyday steps people can take to reduce marine-bound pollution throughout the year."

Eager to safeguard its image as an upscale tourist resort, Palm Springs is prescribing art therapy as a partial cure for downtown shops caught up in the economic doldrums. The city is expected to adopt a plan requiring vacant stores to hang paintings or photographs of old Hollywood movie stars, or come up with their own picturesque remedies to head off creeping blight in the city center. "We have more vacant storefronts than we did in the past," said City Manager David Ready.

The boy knelt gracefully atop a floating wooden door like a surfer poised to catch a wave. But this was no blue ocean. He was paddling the putrid waters of the Malabon River, which stream through the dank factory lands and heartbroken shantytowns of metropolitan Manila like the discharge from an infected wound. Shirtless, his hands thrusting into the sickish brown ooze, the boy eased past a gnawed ear of corn, a red high-heeled shoe, a blackened banana peel and a bobbing onion.

A trove of trash was plucked from the Los Angeles River on Saturday morning during the 20th annual river cleanup. An estimated 3,000 volunteers spread out over 14 sites from the San Fernando Valley down to Long Beach. Wearing disposable gloves and armed with trash sacks, the garbage-collectors-for-a-day did their part to purge the river of all manner of trash that ends up in its 52-mile stretch.

For years, Daniel Lubiano tended the roses in his front yard while watching the home across 82nd Street in South Los Angeles fall apart. In foreclosure for nearly a year, the house had been neglected by tenants who refused to pay their rent. The stucco was chipped and dirty, and the yard was covered in weeds. The empty carport behind the house became a favorite spot for teenagers trying to hang pairs of tennis shoes from electrical wires overhead. In all, there were 28 pairs dangling there.

The cascade of extraordinary scenes will officially begin Tuesday, with the nation's first inauguration of an African American president on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, in a city south of the Mason-Dixon Line, as the oath of office is sworn on Abraham Lincoln's bible. It will pick up speed with the first family taking up residence in the White House, a home rebuilt by slave labor after being torched in the War of 1812.

Plans for the beautification of Pico Boulevard within city borders will be presented to the City Council tonight. The $4-million Pico Boulevard Streetscape Plan calls for improvements in sidewalk lighting and paving, additional trees, and installation of public art that will mark the entry into Santa Monica from Los Angeles. The area scheduled for improvement stretches from Centinela Avenue on the east to Ocean Avenue on the west, said David Martin, senior planner for the city of Santa Monica.

To improve the appearance of older streets that are cluttered with signs, lack landscaped medians and trees and have outdated lighting, the city is embarking on a program to spruce up its major thoroughfares. "The goal is to create a lasting visual impression of Anaheim as an internationally important visitor destination area and, secondly, to enhance the residents' image of where they live," Community Services Director Chris Jarvi said.

The city of Los Angeles is moving forward with an innovative proposal to transform some of its alleys, long used for dumping, crime and not much good. The City Council this week approved a package of 10 recommendations advancing the proposal. It included provisions for developing design guidelines, determining cost, building a detailed map of alleys and identifying pilot project sites.

Where to start? With the transgender prostitutes who just moved into the cheap hotel down the street? With the taco vendors who are so indifferent to the law that they set up shop on the side of the road like a full-fledged restaurant, with tables and heat lamps? And what about the troubled old lady who stands at the gas station all day, slapping herself in the face, spitting on your shoes if you get too close?