Land zoned and used for detached, single-family houses currently covers a majority of Eagle Rock. Single-family housing has significantly shaped the neighborhood’s history, local politics, real estate, demography, image and patterns of living. Having evolved from agricultural settlements to an independent city to a bedroom community of the City of Los Angeles, Eagle Rock is still figuring out what it is and what it could be. Are we best defined as a unit of a vast metropolitan region—or as a self-contained neighborhood with its own identity? Are we an urban neighborhood? Or are we a suburb? (…

Sometimes budget-cutting proposals coming out of Washington border on the ludicrous. Take the federal transportation proposal released by the Republican chair of the House of Representative’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee this past week. The cover on the proposal shows a freeway interchange without any cars or people visible, like the ruins of an abandoned civilization—or maybe the anticipated view of carmaggedon. This dystopian vision lacks everything that comes to mind when I think of a vibrant, future-oriented transportation system here in Eagle Rock, especially from the …

“To pretend that the world is a garden is … a turning away from the woes that keep it from being one." —Rebecca Solnit. In my New Year’s column on ways to make Eagle Rock greener in 2011, I called for three megawatts of solar power to be installed in Eagle Rock: a megawatt at Occidental College, another among area businesses and institutions, plus a megawatt spread among homeowners. Let’s revise that to two megawatts over the next year and extend the geography to include our neighboring communities of Highland Park, Mt. Washington and Glassell Park. Here’s how we can do it: As part of an …

Last year when the architect I am working with came up with a house design based on my goals, he sent me technical plans introduced by poetic text: The house sits like a boat riding the crest of the hill.  The curved walls echo the hull. The roof is divided into three curved elements which float over the walls like three sails. I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of this image. I liked how it described the relationship of the house to its site and highlighted the curved roofs. And a ship suggests a well-built object that uses space efficiently. On the other hand, I’m not a sailor so a …

On sunny Southern California days of the kind we've been having lately, it’s easy to dream of a solar-powered future. But it will take more than dreaming to capture the promise of abundant energy from the sun. Solar currently represents just above 0.1 percent of the almost 95 quadrillion BTUs of energy generated for use as fuel and electricity in the United States annually. (“BTU” stands for British Thermal Unit—roughly the amount of energy needed to heat a pound of water from 39° F to 40° F.) How can we expand solar to be more than a drop in the bucket of the energy mix in this country, …

Since I purchased a rundown house in Northeast L.A. a few months ago and decided to work with professionals to put some of ideas I had for the place into action, I have hired a talented architect—one among several I had talked to—who has worked on interesting residential projects. His name is Jeremy Levine and he is a local. He recently remodeled two houses in Eagle Rock and lives in one of them. Jeremy’s design aesthetic basically matches mine. His two Eagle Rock projects made existing houses greener and more modern. He incorporated solar panels and installed rainwater and grey water systems…

"To pretend that the world is a garden is … a turning away from the woes that keep it from being one."—Rebecca Solnit. Like everyone else, I’m hoping that the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant can be safely resolved so that Japan can focus on recovering from the recent earthquake and tsunami. From a vantage point across the Pacific, however, I’m not much worried about the impacts of radiation plumes. I haven’t stocked up on potassium iodine. Even in Japan, public exposure to radiation has for the most part been comparable to levels we receive from medical procedures or airline …

When I bought a house, my goal of building or remodeling a green home was no longer floating around at the level of abstraction. It was brought down to earth, specifically to a run-down structure on a hill in Northeast Los Angeles. I had framed my goals as a “smallish, greenish, modern house.” Now that I owned a place, these vague aspirations had to be translated into a more specific set of design goals that would work at the specific property, reflect my living needs and environmental interests, and not overwhelm my budget. I’d be working with experts—an architect, contractors, engineers—to …

"To pretend that the world is a garden is … a turning away from the woes that keep it from being one." —Rebecca Solnit. Having recently wrote about the air we breathe, I want to point out upcoming local opportunities to learn more about three equally essential and personal environmental topics: The food we eat, the water we drink, and the information we consume. The following three public events at Occidental College over the next two weeks will explore media reform, the impacts of bottled water, and food justice: Just Media: 4th Annual LA Media Reform Summit, Saturday, Feb. 26, 2011, 10 a.m…

In my previous Jan. 22 article in this house search series, I wrote how I had thought about purchasing a large vacant lot in Glassell Park— the third property I had considered—but abandoned the idea because of certain obstacles to what I had hoped to do on this site, which had the foundations of a house that had burned down a decade or two earlier. The fourth property that I seriously considered buying during my house search was a rundown 1950s house on a hill. Because of the condition of the building and the position of the house —to get to it I had to climb 70 stairs from the street below—…

"To pretend that the world is a garden is … a turning away from the woes that keep it from being one." —Rebecca Solnit. Environmental justice organizations in Los Angeles recently launched a Clean up, Green up campaign to reduce existing toxic pollution in neighborhood suffering from heavy toxic burden and to encourage investments in new green businesses.  The campaign draws upon the findings of community members who conducted “ground truthings” of pollution sources in Boyle Heights, the Fugueroa Corridor, Wilmington, Pacoima, Commerce and Maywood. By “truthing,” they mean walking the streets…

Armed with some basic information on what it would take to build or remodel a green home, I began not long ago to look at houses and vacant lots that were for sale. I didn’t know for sure whether I wanted to build a new home, remodel an existing one—or, if the perfect opportunity arose, buy an existing green house. One of the architects I met for an informational interview recommended a real estate agent who had trained as an architect. Experience with how structures could be remodeled—and what it would take to build on vacant lots—seemed like useful qualities in an agent, so I met the agent …

"To pretend that the world is a garden is … a turning away from the woes that keep it from being one." —Rebecca Solnit. Improving the environment is a balancing act between individual awareness and political change. It’s important to motivate people and institutions and businesses to act sustainably. But we also have to understand that our choices are often influenced and constrained by the policy and economic circumstances of our society. I don’t want to be naïve and think that the world will be saved if I make a change in my life and—for example—recycle more. Nor do I want to feel …

"To pretend that the world is a garden is … a turning away from the woes that keep it from being one." —Rebecca Solnit. In my first column for Eagle Rock Patch, I wrote that Eagle Rock was a very nice place—with potential to become even more of a unique and livable area if we can embrace an "environmentalism of change." This past week I suggested 11 green consumer resolutions for making our economic footprint more sustainable. With the New Year here, today's column will consider 11 collective environmental resolutions for Eagle Rock in 2011. These are goals, policies or programs that could …

To pretend that the world is a garden is … a turning away from the woes that keep it from being one.—Rebecca Solnit. It is the time of year for giving gifts. A season when selling and buying—consuming—is measured and breathlessly reported as if the fate of our economy were buoyed by each sales transaction. As a lifelong practitioner of secular Christmas, I enjoy last-minute shopping. It's fun to try to find presents for family and friends, to walk amid crowds of holiday shoppers who seem happier than crowds in stores and malls usually are. But as an environmental advocate, I sometimes feel …

I recently saw some analysis that made me hopeful about the future of cities. For Generation Y, dream neighborhoods are apparently more important than "dream homes." If true, this bodes well for neighborhoods like Eagle Rock, which are nice places but could benefit from the energy of committed young residents.  Maybe because I'm a member of Gen X, I have a fascination with making a home—while at the same time also hoping to contribute to improving the community. I have certain personal goals for a living space, opinions about what makes a good dwelling, and I have done quite a bit of reading …

To pretend that the world is a garden is … a turning away from the woes that keep it from being one.  —Rebecca Solnit. In 1897, Pasadena mayor Horace Dobbins incorporated the California Cycleway Company to build a 10-mile elevated cycle-way between Pasadena and downtown Los Angeles. According to a contemporary account of the road, cyclists could ride four abreast on "the long track that winds like a great green snake through the hills between the two towns … built almost entirely of wood … . Throughout the entire distance from the center of one city to the center of the other it has an …

About two years ago I began to think seriously about building or remodeling a house within walking or biking distance of Occidental College, where I work. I hoped the process would give me a more hands-on appreciation of the possibilities and challenges of green buildings. The twists and turns of this project have taken me to the point of being about to start remodeling a small house and constructing a small addition to it. I plan to write a series of columns on green building/remodeling, using this personal project as a case study of what it takes to remodel/build green in and around Eagle …

To pretend that the world is a garden is … a turning away from the woes that keep it from being one.  —Rebecca Solnit. Eagle Rock Patch writer Robert Gavarro's informative article "Caring for Colorado Boulevard" has me thinking: What are Eagle Rock's streets for? Streets are like the DNA of a city or neighborhood. The ways that streets are designed, regulated, maintained and used impact more than traffic patterns. Streets exert influence over the buildings that line them. They affect how it "feels" to spend time in a community—whether people want to be out and about in a neighborhood, …

To pretend that the world is a garden is … a turning away from the woes that keep it from being one.  — Rebecca Solnit.  In my inaugural column, I wrote about an environmentalism that welcomes the right kind of change. To many people, however, being an environmentalist means identifying and avoiding risks, such as toxins and harmful development projects. This raises the question: What are the risks of living, working, and spending time in Eagle Rock? We probably all have some personal theories (emissions from bordering freeways or auto body shops? crime?) but let's start with some facts. The …