The City E-Zine

Daylight Savings is killer to anybody working on a graveyard shift.

I am not looking forward to losing an hour of sleep. I am also dreading more sunlight shining at my bedtime. Last Spring, I remember smelling BBQ wafting over the neighbors, kids screaming and everyone enjoying their non-Vampire lifestyles. I’m grateful for investments in blackout curtains, earplugs and cocktails.

Still, I’m happy to welcome back warmer weather, flowers blooming and other signs of Spring.

One way to celebrate the season: exploring fresh veggies and tasty products at a farm. Today – Capay Organic Farms is holding an Open House. According to Edible Sacramento – folks are hiking around the farm, making lemonade and enjoying live music. It’s also free

I’m also looking forward to seeing Spring bloom at the U.C. Davis Arboretum.

Venice has always had a history of being the shady part of the west side. This isn’t news to anyone who lives there and honestly it’s that grit that attracted many of them there in the first place. But there’s a difference between a neighborhood that is a little rougher around the edges and one where you don’t feel safe in your own home. Due to an extremely cut back police force covering the area and a growing homeless population, increasingly, the latter is exactly how Venice residents are describing the situation.

You may think I’m over hyping things but if anything I’m playing them down. For four weeks now residents have been organizing a letter writing campaign where they are literally begging the Mayor, Councilman Rosendhal and many at the LAPD to please protect them. On Friday local site Yo Venice posted an open letter from a resident named Steve who was threatened by a homeless man at his own house:

…This man was trying to sleep behind our gate at our front door. I heard him trying to no open our front door to get inside our home. I was holding my baby. I confronted him to get off my properly and he then threatened to kill me… looked at my baby and told me he would kill her too. He claimed that the house was his. He took a swing at me as I stepped back away from my properly. He kicked our gate over and over as hard as he could…

Steve called 911 and after 45 minutes the police eventually showed up – which is actually an improvement. You might recall Tara posted on Metblogs in December about coming home and finding a homeless person blocking her entrance to her house. Her call to the police for help resulted in no officers ever coming by – even though this was only a few weeks after a Venice resident, pregnant with twins, was raped and murdered in her own home by a transient who just happened to pick her out.

With no one to protect them and a situation that is seemingly getting worse, if the LAPD and local politicians don’t do something to help soon they shouldn’t act surprised when residents are forced to take protecting their own and their family’s safety into their own hands. This situation can only get worse or better, which is it going to be?

Sorry for the last minute post, but I just found out about this. Pinkberry is giving away free small yogurts tonight from 5pm-9pm to celebrate their new Mango flavor!!

More info can be found here.

I’m not so much a fan typically, but maybe I’ll give this new flavor a shot since its FREE. Enjoy! Have a great weekend.

Los Angeles is only the 27th Craziest City in America.

L.A. – Where people plaster the sides of historic buildings with pictures of the Mad Hatter, and chase Twittering food through city streets.

The Daily Beast ranked the nation’s 57 largest metropolitan areas based on “psychiatrists per capita, stress, eccentricity and drinking levels.”

#27, Los Angeles

Psychiatrists per capita: 28
Stress: 22
Eccentricity: 5
Drinking: 53

Colorful Character: Candace Frazee and Steve Lubanski have transformed their home into a Bunny Museum, a shrine to over 23,000 bunny collectibles that include bunny-themed furniture, light fixtures, kitchenware, toiletries, books, and games.

Apparently, Cincinnati is #1 when it comes to crazy.

This proves my theory that all of those people that I see mumbling and stumbling on the streets of L.A. are actors from Ohio.

Photo from jek in the box’s photostream

Just what we need in the land of uber water using St Augustine lawns, a homeowner that rips it out and puts in native and Mediterranean type plants that thrive in our wet winter dry summer climate.  Good thing they don’t live in Orange or Glendale where those sorts of actions are frowned upon and a homeowner could be sued by the city.  (In fairness the dude in Glendale put in fake astroturf but the intent was the same…no lawn watering in a drought).

I like this yard, socially responsible yet has the look and feel of a cottage garden.

Long live individuality and the space free of an HOA!

Pic by me and get’s bigger with a click.