The effort to finally memorialize the victims of the 1871 Chinese Massacre in Los Angeles has gotten a big infusion of cash.
View north toward trunks for Wah Sin Quai, Ah Long, Leong Quai, Ah Cut, Johnny Burrow, and Ah Wing. Remembering Circle, information stump, and Silvery Tree are in the distance. Root benches with engraved text surround existing California/Peruvian pepper trees schinus molle (immigrated from South America).Sze Tsung Nicolás Leong / Judy Chui-Hua Chung
This week, the Department of Cultural Affairs announced that the Mellon Foundation has awarded $3.6 million to support construction of the memorial, which is designed by artist Sze Tsung Nicolás Leong and writer Judy Chui-Hua Chung. Plans call for as a series of ghostly, headless trees, stumps, and benches at the various locations throughout Downtown where the massacre occurred.
“This generous grant from the Mellon Foundation will support the City's efforts to tell the story of the little-known largest mass killing in Los Angeles history and to convey a broader, more universal message,” said DCA general manager Daniel Tarica. "The new memorial seeks to simultaneously raise public awareness of the 1871 Chinese massacre – in which at least 18 residents of Los Angeles, or roughly ten percent of the city’s Chinese population at the time, were murdered – and to address contemporary concerns about race, intolerance, and violence.”
The award comes from the Mellon Foundation's Monuments Project, which has pledged to give $250 million by 2025 to "transform the nation’s commemorative landscape through public projects that more completely and accurately represent the multiplicity and complexity of American stories."
A Metrolink train approaches Burbank Station (Image: Wikimedia Commons)
Effective today, Metrolink is expanding service on its Ventura County Line, adding two new weekend trains, adjusting the schedule of train 162, and adding new Sunday service.
“As a Ventura County resident and frequent Metrolink rider, I am excited that we are now offering more weekend service along the Ventura County Line,” Metrolink CEO Darren Kettle said in a news release. “Thank you to our freight partners at Union Pacific Railroad and the Ventura County Transportation Commission for working with us to deliver more convenient and flexible train service for Southern Californians. With the two new trains and expanded Sunday service, more people can easily explore the region between Ventura and Los Angeles.”
The schedule change is as follows:
- VC Line train 163 will depart Los Angeles Union Station at 10:31 a.m. and reach the Ventura-East Station at 12:22 p.m.
- VC Line train 164 will depart the Ventura-East Station at 4:14 p.m. and reach Los Angeles Union Station at 6 p.m.
- Schedule change for VC Line train 162:
- VC Line train 162 will depart the Ventura-East Station one hour and 37 minutes later at 1:10 p.m. to offer more rail passenger service options throughout each weekend.
Of course, Metrolink service to another part of Southern California remains disrupted by the environment itself, but more on that in the links below.
Here's what we're reading this week:
Homelessness continues to soar, jumping 9% in L.A. County, 10% in the city "The count, conducted by thousands of volunteers during three days in January, projected that 75,518 people were living in interim housing or a tent, car, van, RV, tent or makeshift shelter in Los Angeles County, compared with 69,144 the previous year." (LA Times)
626 Golden Streets: ArroyoFest Is Shutting Down the 110 Freeway to Walk, Skate, and Bike In "A long-dormant community festival wants to open up the iconic three-lane-freeway to walk, run, bike and skate in." (LA Taco)
Developer With China-Based Investors To Sell Downtown Los Angeles Multifamily Site City Century wants to sell its Grand Avenue tower site to fund Olympia (CoStar)
Rendering of the project's podiumCity Century
California has tried to boost its housing stock. See which states have done better "In raw numbers, Florida and Texas added more units than California did. Texas added almost 550,000 units in the two-year span, while Florida added almost 400,000. California’s 235,000 additional units amount to less than half of what Texas added in the same time period." (LA Times)
Amid crumbling cliffs, Orange County considers moving its famously scenic rail line inland "A growing chorus of Orange County elected officials and transportation leaders are asking whether it’s time to abandon portions of the coastal route for good, moving the tracks inland to areas that are less scenic but far more reliable. San Diego County is already pursuing a similar course in Del Mar, where the Lossan tracks snake atop eroding sandstone cliffs." (LA Times)
LA Churches Want To Build Housing That Ends Homelessness. What’s Stopping Them? "Half a million low-income households in L.A. County don’t have affordable housing, according to the nonprofit California Housing Partnership. And more than 69,000 people across L.A. County are unhoused on any given night, according to the region’s latest homeless count....Many churches in L.A. want to help address that housing shortage. Some have dwindling congregations, but plenty of land. They have the will to develop housing, but lack the permission they need from cities to build." (LAist)
Aerial view of the expanded Convention Center and Downtown Los AngelesPopulous
LA’s Chief Tourism Officer Doane Liu on Tourism's Trajectory in the City LA's Chief Tourism Officer on the status of the Convention Center revamp: "On the infrastructure side? I would say this is where it gets back to what we do need, and what I have direct responsibility for: and that's the expansion of the Convention Center. On March 17, 2020, we were scheduled to go to the City Council with a proposal to do a public-private partnership with AEG to do a $1 billion expansion of the Convention Center, and a $1 billion expansion of the JW Marriott. The Mayor and the Council said “Hey, can you wait till this pandemic is over? Maybe a couple of weeks, couple of months at the most, and we'll get right back on it....And here we are three years later when construction costs are 15 to 25% higher. We are planning on, very shortly, on going back to the Council and asking for a green light to continue our negotiations with AEG and the Plenary group to restart that full DBFOM--Design, Build, Finance, Operate, and Maintain--contract with AEG and Plenary, which will essentially keep us married for at least 30 to 40 years, but would deliver a spectacular new convention center, and add to the hotel count, which is desperately needed downtown." (The Planning Report)
Follow us on social media:
