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Over two hundred Silver Lakers recently attended the Silver Lake Improvement Association's (SLIA) annual meeting which featured a special presentation by City Councilmember Eric Garcetti, Council District 13. The evening was hosted by SLIA President Eric Chinchilla and SLIA Founder Barbara Dakin. It featured a review of the many accomplishments by SLIA in the past year and marked the fourteenth anniversary of the organization.
As part of the program, Chinchilla and Dakin recognized many individual SLIA contributors and presented certificates of appreciation to them for their work in making Silver Lake a clean and safe place to live.
 |  | | SLIA President Eric Chinchilla receives certification of appreciation for SLIA from Councilmember Eric Garcetti | |
LAPD Senior Lead Officer Dawn Lewis from Rampart Division and Officer Sam Salzar from the Northeast Division each gave brief sets of statistics to show that crime is down in both of those areas. LA City Councilmember Garcetti awarded special certificates of recognition to Lewis and to Northeast Division SLO Al Polehonki for their strong and effective efforts to work with the community in reducing crime in the neighborhood. Salazar accepted the certificate for Polehonki who was spending time with the family of a friend and fellow officer who was recently slain. Both Lewis and Salazar received long rounds of appreciative applause from the audience.
In 2003-2004, SLIA hosted Neighborhood Watch meetings, conducted a seven-week class to train Certified Emergency Response Team participants, and hosted two major clean-up events. The SLIA sponsors the annual Music Box Steps Day, which is now held in conjunction with the Silver Lake Film Festival. This year members of the SLIA also worked to help form the new Silver Lake Neighborhood Council.
Seeking Higher Ground
|  | | Recent Silver Lake Cleanup Statistics | |
Councilmember Eric Garcetti spoke to the audience about moments in Los Angeles history that foretold the strengths of the city and that also speak to challenges we live with today.
The pueblo of Los Angeles was first established in 1781 along the Los Angeles River at the convergence of the Arroyo Seco. In 1805 a flood washed away most of the village, and it was resettled on higher ground. In 1811 an even bigger flood washed away most of the new pueblo. Resolving to stay here, the pobladores [villagers] rebuilt the settlement on even higher ground, in the area that is now occupied by the Los Angeles Mall downtown.
"Not only did the pobladores survive, they prospered in what I believe is the most incredible experiment in human living in our entire history. Today in this District alone over 100 languages are spoken, and there is more diversity and a concentration of people with different backgrounds, religions and languages than anywhere that's ever existed."
 | | | Councilmember Eric Garcetti | |
"Today when we talk about seeking higher ground we're talking about doing the right thing. But we also seek higher ground because, as it was back then, it's the very basis of survival."
To further his point Garcetti quoted Dostoevsky. "It's easy to love humanity; the difficult part is learning to embrace your neighbor."
"We have to translate that into dealing with the noisy next door neighbor, or with someone who speaks a language we don't understand, or with someone who has done something against us in the past. That's really where our work is. That's what Silver Lake and all of you do. You translate those abstract good things into day-to-day relationships and into working hard — sometimes through discord, sometimes through distrust — to get to a place where there is truly community."
"We all come here seeking the same thing. We want to wake up in a safe neighborhood and have a clean and serene place to seek our dreams."
Police, Graffiti, Schools and Parks
Garcetti went on to talk about accomplishments that have been made since he took office two and a half years ago and about on-going efforts to enhance the quality of life in Silver Lake and Los Angeles.
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Garcetti came out in support of a proposed ½ cent sales tax that will be spent to hire more police officers in Los Angeles. Los Angeles, he said, has half the number of police officers per person as New York City, and it is eight times bigger geographically.
He talked about efforts to reduce graffiti and told the audience that 385,000 square feet of graffiti have been painted over in the last two and a half years years. LAPD has set up sting operations to apprehend offenders and is working to implement a program where kids performing community service have to clean up graffiti painted by their peers thereby creating peer-pressure to reduce the problem. Garcetti committed to a goal of reducing graffiti by 50% in the next two years.
 | | | Honoring Community Memebers | |
In discussing urban planning, Garcetti said that for most of the Twentieth Century "the city forgot to build schools and parks, and forgot to put down transportation infrastructures." Two and a half years ago CD13 had fifteen parks, and in the course of his elected term Garcetti wants to double that number.
Nine new school projects are now under way in CD13, he said, including the newly opened Belmont Primary Center. Two new light rails are being considered — the Yellow Line from Downtown to Burbank and the Silver Line from El Monte to Silver Lake.
The Perils & Promise of the Future
Garcetti talked about the priority of maintaining human rights for everyone in LA with its diversity of sexual orientation, race and religion. He pointed to the City Council's recent resolution to oppose President Bush's proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage as a stance by the City to protect human rights.
"The biggest challenge that we face," Garcetti reiterated, "is having to find that higher ground. I believe that this area is a snapshot of what the city will look like in twenty years. If we're unsuccessful the perils that we face will lead to worse and worse conditions and a less livable city. If we do it successfully the promise of Los Angeles is great."
SLIA Annual Meeting PowerPoint Presentation
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